Come and get me!

I just signed the petition to put Referendum 71 on the ballot. For those of you who aren't fortunate enough to live in Washington, that's the referendum to repeal the state's newly-enacted domestic partnership law. I'll probably vote "no" on the referendum, but I signed the petition anyway.

Why? Because of this. I want my name on the petition loud and clear, because when it comes time to harass and intimidate voters for participating in the democratic process, I want these jackbooted crapweasels to know exactly where to find me.

Anyone else who wants to risk the wrath of the brownshirts can sign the petition here.

Jesus is the True and Better...

... everything.

Jesus Is The True And Better . . . Adam who passed the test in the garden & who's obedience is imputed to us.

Jesus Is The True And Better . . . Abel who though innocently slain has blood that cries out, not for condemnation but for acquittal.

Go read the whole thing. Now.

Thank you, Wharf Rat.

I never thought I'd be seeing a silver lining here, but all the crap she put me through in her teenage years have made it possible to cope with her sisters' teenage dramas without panicking. It's like I don't even notice the feeling of impending doom any more.

Well done, daughter!

(And your daddy loves you.)

File under "Sad Ironies"

Blessed Blasted are the peacemakers.

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (CNN) -- A moderate Muslim cleric who denounced suicide attacks as forbidden by Islam was killed Friday in a suicide attack on his mosque in Lahore, authorities said.

Sarfraz Ahmed Naeemi was the first imam in Pakistan to issue a fatwa, or religious edict, against suicide attacks in Pakistan.

On Friday, a suicide bomber approached Naeemi as he left the Jamia Naimia Mosque and religious school. The bomber detonated his explosives, killing Naeemi and two others, police said. Another 10 people were wounded in the attack.

A day in the life of an office drudge

These people must have a lot more time on their hands than I do. Can you imagine how long this had to take?



Akubra tip to A Welsh View.

Do NOT underestimate this woman

The Sarahnator's response to Letterman's assholicism:

"The Palins have no intention of providing a ratings boost for David Letterman by appearing on his show," [Palin spokeswoman Meghan]Stapelton said in an email to ABC News. "Plus, it would be wise to keep Willow away from David Letterman."

Misogynists who hate on this lady (and her family) get more back than they bargained for.

the season 'tis, my lovely lambs

What is it about this month that seems to be bringing out the murderous loons? First the Tiller Killer, then the anti-war activist expressing his disapproval of the military, now this piece of work:

WASHINGTON — An elderly man walked into the Holocaust Museum, one of the capital’s most-visited sites, shortly after 1 p.m. Wednesday and opened fire with a shoulder weapon or pistol, wounding a security guard before being shot himself, officials said.

The gunman was identified by several news agencies as James W. von Brunn, a man in his late 80s. According to a Web site maintained by Mr. von Brunn, he embraces a far-reaching conspiracy theory involving Jews, blacks and other minority groups. Early reports indicated that he lives in eastern Maryland.

It'll be interesting to see how long it takes before the news media start lumping him in with Christian conservatives. See, we're all on the right, aren't we? Never mind that this lulu liked Christians just about as much as he liked Teh Jooz.

So here's a question: if everybody who spoke against abortion shares the guilt for Tiller's murder, but the recruiter-killer acted in a vacuum, where does Von Brunn fall? Is everybody who waved anti-Zionist signs at these rallies going to be held responsible for this tragedy? I'm betting not.

Where is Todd Palin?

It looks like he owes David Letterman a fist in the mouth.

Riffing on Palin’s trip to New York last weekend, Letterman joked Monday night that during the seventh inning of the Yankees game “her daughter [14-year-old Willow] was knocked up by Alex Rodriguez.”

Letterman followed up on the line Tuesday night, joking that “the toughest part of her visit was keeping [former New York Gov.] Eliot Spitzer away from her daughter.”

Talk about my daughters that way, mister, and see how long you keep your teeth.

No.

Please don't.

TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) — The group that tried for years to put slain abortion provider Dr. George Tiller out of business is interested in buying his now-closed clinic in Wichita, its president said.

Operation Rescue president Troy Newman said that his group has discussed the idea of buying the tan, windowless clinic in east Wichita. He made the comment after the Tiller family announced that the clinic would be closed permanently.

"I would love to make an offer on that abortion clinic, and that's some of the discussion that we're having," Newman said in a telephone interview Tuesday from his group's headquarters in Wichita.

If Tiller's abomination had been shut down through honest means, by abolishing the death business legally or (even better) making abortion as unpopular as slave trading, then I'd say it was a great idea. But the man was murdered. We didn't win; he merely lost. I'm pleased that the clinic won't be reopened, but that's purely pragmatic - no more babies will die there. It's nothing to gloat over under the circumstances.

Dancing on Tiller's grave is not only immoral, but it's unbecoming to people who believe in human dignity.

65 years later

This day is call'd the feast of Crispian.
He that outlives this day, and comes safe home,
Will stand a tip-toe when this day is nam'd,
And rouse him at the name of Crispian.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbours,
And say 'To-morrow is Saint Crispian.'
Then will he strip his sleeve and show his scars,
And say 'These wounds I had on Crispian's day.'
Old men forget; yet all shall be forgot,
But he'll remember, with advantages,
What feats he did that day. Then shall our names,
Familiar in his mouth as household words-
Harry the King, Bedford and Exeter,
Warwick and Talbot, Salisbury and Gloucester-
Be in their flowing cups freshly rememb'red.
This story shall the good man teach his son;
And Crispin Crispian shall ne'er go by,
From this day to the ending of the world,
But we in it shall be remembered-
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

Thanks are far, far short of enough for the men who saved our civilization. But it's all we can give.

Thank you, gentlemen.

Mocking my g-g-g-generation

Warning! Set down your beverage and put something absorbent on your chair before you watch this, especially if you're a Breakfast Clubber like me. Some memories are just best recalled with howls of laughter.


Don't just get the gist and then pause. The end is the best part.

A tip o' the Akubra to Mrs Who.

Brutally honest about a brute

Okay, I'm going to be honest.

I don't feel bad about George Tiller's death.

I've been trying to. As a Christian, I know that I deserve death and eternal damnation as much he does. Only God's grace can save either me or him. I know also that no soul is presumed to be in Hell. There's always the possibility that Tiller repented of his crimes at some point just prior to his shooting. It's my duty to pray so and I've been doing that. Honest. I truly don't wish him to be damned, even if I fear the odds point in that direction.

But on a secular level, frankly, I think he really did have this coming. Let's not pussyfoot here: the man made a huge amount of money slaughtering defenseless babies. These were not early-term fetuses (feti?), nor "clumps of cells," as abortionists often say to gloss over the question of whether or not a fetus is human. These were late-term, viable babies. Fully or near-fully formed children. Some of them, by Tiller's own admission, were due to be born the next day.These were human infants, beyond any room for argument, whose parents had decided for one reason or another they wanted them dead. Not adopted. Dead. And George Tiller was more than happy to make that a reality. For a handsome fee, of course.

Nor was this an easy, painless death such as the most despicable criminal gets. These babies were torn to pieces with no anesthetic and vacuumed out bit by grisly, pathetic bit.

Tiller bragged that he had killed more than 60,000 babies in this way. Why should we mourn the loss of a man who treated human life that cavalierly?

In fact, Tiller died in much the same way as his victims: at the hands of a stranger, in a place where he should have been safe. His death was followed by tribute upon tribute and candlelight vigils outside his abattoir. Yet not one candle was lit there for any of the nameless, forgotten infants he snuffed out with no remorse whatsoever. If anyone had been so brazen as to light one, they'd probably have been arrested for arson.

His defenders point to the fact that his actions were permitted under current law. So was the Holocaust. But who defends Eichmann because he was within the law?

I've never mentioned it before, but I had a friend who was convinced to have a late-term abortion at Tiller's "clinic," about twenty years ago. A doctor told her the baby growing inside her wouldn't live very long, and her husband didn't want the work of raising a "defective" child, so they flew to Wichita and had it killed. Not "it," him. She had already named him, and for as long as I knew her after, she wore a bracelet with his name on it, carrying the grief of a child she never got to hold or see. But Tiller didn't lose any sleep over it. He pocketed the money and went on to the next one. It turned out later that the doctor's diagnosis could well have been wrong and my friend's baby might have been perfectly healthy. But we'll never know.

At that, my friend was one of the lucky ones. Stories abound of women whose abortions were handled haphazardly at Tiller's hands. Some of them died. We may never know how many, because abortion clinics operate above the laws on record-keeping and reporting. The only botched abortion is one where the patient dies before the check clears.

George Tiller was a stain on the human race. I wish it weren't so, but he was. There is no personal virtue he could have possessed that I can imagine mitigating his sheer loathesomeness. God loved him. I wish I could, but I just can't. (I hope God will correct that defect in me one day.) I also, as I said, hope that he repented. I wish he had been granted more time, in the hope that he might eventually have turned from his grisly ways.

Mind you, I'm not gloating at his death. I know I'll be accused of that. I also know I should see him as the child of God he was. But all I can see is a monster.

God also loved the children that Tiller tortured and killed. Do any of the people eulogizing him today have hearts soft enough to spare a thought for them?

I didn't think so.

A martyr for Moloch

George Tiller was aborted this morning.

Some stupid son-of-a-bitch shot him while he was sitting in church. In church!

Now, I don't especially mourn Tiller. I know, a better Christian than I am would, but I think he deserved exactly as much legal protection as his victims. Make of that what you will.

But the fact is, he did enjoy greater legal protection, and it plays right into the hands of the pro-aborts who paint all pro-lifers as frothing lunatics. Heck, Homeland Security already declared us domestic terrorists. Never mind that actual pro-life violence is far, far rarer than the violence perpetrated against us. The perception still stands.

And now they have an excuse to come after us. Shut down our March for Life. Prohibit the crisis pregnancy centers. Force every health care provider in the country to take Tiller's place.

No, if he was going to die, it should have been by God's hand, not ours. There was a good chance of his going to jail, which would have served to save many more babies than killing him did.

Murder was his stock in trade; it shouldn't have been allowed to make a martyr of him. This idiot has put all our necks on the block.

Nice going, jackass.

(Thinking about it, I wonder if this was a set-up by a pro-abort? I rather fear it wasn't, though. We have enough homegrown Oswald wannabes that we don't need an agent provocateur.

You want ID?

Here's my [fornicating] ID, [oedipally-inclined person]!

Akubra tip to Wicked Thoughts.

Memorial Day Weekend

The ribs are on the grill, most of the family is here, and I have the weekend off. I posted this two Memorial Days ago, but things haven't changed. I don't think I could say it any better today..
-------------
See that earnest-looking kid on the right? Calvin Samuel Martin III, his name was. You wouldn't know it to look at him, but he was a first-class smart-ass, with an easy charm that made people like him as soon as they met him. That was my dad, in his high-school yearbook, before he went to war.

Unfortunately, I don't know a whole lot about his experiences in the war, because he never talked about it afterward. And I mean never. Even in the 80s, when it became stylish to dredge up buried memories of Vietnam, he had nothing more to say than just that he was proud that he'd gone.

Not that he had much choice. It was 1966, and he had just flunked out of UW, and the government offered him a full scholarship to the University of Pleiku, without a lot of room to decline. This was before Kent State, before Jane Fonda straddled an enemy gun like she was posing for a girlie magazine, before it became really fashionable to cry "peace, peace" where there was no peace. My mom says that he had some misgivings about the war itself. But it didn't matter; he went.

I don't know anything about what-all happened there, either, except little snippets. My mom says he got to be pretty friendly with the Montagnards, and got his heart broken by what happened to them. (I had to look them up; I'd never heard of them.) He ran supply convoys, "delivering socks," as he told his younger brother later. I don't think he ever shot anybody, but he certainly got shot at enough.

Whatever he saw over there, it damaged him pretty badly. He came back with a self-destructive streak that he watered liberally with ethanol. My mom says that he was like a completely different person. I wouldn't know; I was born on the army base just as he was getting out.

The problems he came back with exacted a price on both him and his family, and he eventually left. I spent a lot of my childhood without him, except as an occasional visitor. I started getting close to him again when I was in my teens, but by then it was kind of awkward. I didn't know it when I was little, but the war had taken my daddy away.

When I was 26, it took him away for good. Now, my dad wasn't what you would call an abstemious man. He drank like a fish, he chain-smoked for twenty years (then just up and quit), he ate anything he wanted, and he was entirely too fond of the fairer sex. (And I do mean "entirely"; if I didn't know he'd had a vasectomy I'd be on the lookout for people who looked a lot like me.) But just as he had settled into a career he loved (working in the Orient designing mass transit systems), and a marriage that looked like it was going to last, he started having some health problems. He came back to the States for some tests, and three months later he was dead of a brain tumor.

For all his vices, the one really virtuous thing he had done in his life had exposed him to Agent Orange. My dad died from the war, just as surely as if he had been shot by a sniper.

Even with him gone, the war still casts a shadow. He was cremated, and buried in his home town of Goldendale. He has two headstones: one in the veterans' section, and another in a family plot. The family couldn't agree on whether to be proud or ashamed that he'd gone to war.

Well, I paid as much of a price as any of them, and I'm proud. Proud as hell. Yes, I know it's fashionable to regard Vietnam as a huge blunder forty years later. Yes, I know the aging hippies are getting their kicks pretending that Iraq is Vietnam and their sign-waving actually matters a rat's ass. I know these things. But I also know what happened to the Montagnards after we left, and I know that the army today is all that stands between us and this. And I know what my dad would say about the people who insist the only way to "support the troops" is to cut them off at the knees.

I loved my dad. I miss him. He only lived to see one grandchild, but I think he'd have made a helluva grandpa. And on Memorial Day, I think I'll crack a beer, barbecue some dead cow, and be grateful to him and every other fresh-faced kid who stopped a bullet or breathed poison so I could do it.

Thanks, Dad.

See what happens when you question The One™?

Notre Dame isn't a Christian university anymore. It's now dedicated to the worship of the real messiah. Thus saith Barack.

And old gleeps like this who insist on having gods before Obama are just begging to be hauled away in chains.

IOU

Happy Mother's Day to my own mom and to the woman I'm proud to have for the mother of my children. (And to Wharf Rat, who's having her first one as an actual mother.) I love you all!

Just because

Because I'm a defiant Jesus Freak, and because it's Friday, and because, as much as we bellyache about persecution, us American Christians have nothing on the Poles.

I saw Steve Taylor do this song in concert back in 1985, just a couple of years after the events he's referring to. The lyrics are here. There's not a single banal line, not a wasted syllable. The man was a frimpin' lyrical genius.

You don't have to be a Christian believer to find yourself waving a fist in the air along with the Polish Catholics.



(I seem to remember that Brian posted these lyrics at one point, but I don't have the post handy to link to and I'm too lazy to search it out.)

Go granny go!

Maggie is an ancestress again! Wahoo!

Vengeance is mine...

... sayeth the guy whose dinner hour has been repeatedly interrupted by phone solicitors. (Language alert!)

Snatch the pebble from my hand...

The last couple of days my young co-worker Kaci and I have been taking turns training each other in the esoterica of our respective jobs. She kept looking perplexed when I made mention of things like grasshoppers and pebbles, and it dawned on me this morning that she's actually never heard of Kwai Chang Caine. A whole generation of boys grew up kicking each other and whacking each other with sticks because we all wanted to be Caine, and now he's relegated to history.(Do they even show reruns anymore? I'd love to find them and relive my boyhood.)

I don't know when this intro ceased to be universally familiar, but now she'll see what I was talking about.

A song to lie dreaming by

Not everybody will get this, but I don't care.


Akubra tip to Mark Shea.

Gone to that great buffet table in the sky

Dom DeLuise travels in elephants. Heck, he's probably impersonating one with great success.

He was a comic genius. That's not a phrase I use lightly, but Dom DeLuise was a man who could make anything funny. He just had a presence that inspired laughter.

Eat well at God's table, buddy.

Stay classy, Specter!

Arlen Specter uses the memory of Jack Kemp as a cheap re-election sound bite.

Let's review...

Jack Kemp: Fulfilled minor roles with major distinction and conducted a vice-presidential campaign like a gentleman, on a doomed ticket. Served his country with honor.

Arlen Specter: Bolted his party to make re-election easier, abandoning America to one-party rule that we may never emerge from. Betrayed both country and honor.

Senator Specter, please never, never take Jack Kemp's name into your mouth again. You foul it by speaking it. Jack Kemp was worth a dozen of you.

Everybody make fun of the old guy!

Actually, Pastor Paul is younger then me (though not by much). But it seems to me that ordination ought to confer at least a five-year penalty on a man. Otherwise, I'd be faced with clergymen who were my juniors, and that just can't be right.

So everybody stop over to his place and mock his gray hairs.

Happy birthday, Paul! Geezerhood is powerful!

OMG!

This is, like, so totally low-balled!

A totally grateful H/T to the thoroughly gnarly Miss Cellania.

(Hey, I was a teenager once, too!)

Priceless!

Lifted from Fausta's Blog:

Appreciate me!

It seems Mairin has nominated me for a Cannonball Award as the Best Underappreciated Blog over at The Crescat. Vote early, vote often!

(If I win, does that make me no longer underappreciated? My brain hurts.)

Ignorant Jesus freaks to be re-educated

Oh, goody. Our moral superiors are going to teach us the True Way™.

Before an Albany crowd of about 2,000 gay and lesbian advocates of marriage-equality laws, the governor and other supporters lashed out at opponents of expanding marital laws as they stepped up efforts to have New York join several other states where gays can legally marry...

“Where were these leaders of faith when college students of gay and lesbian orientation were beaten and often brutalized for expressing their feelings to each other?” Paterson said... He then vowed to help in an effort to change the mind-set of New Yorkers on the marriage-equality issue.

“We’re not only going to change the laws of New York, but we’re going to change the culture of how people treat each other,” Paterson told the crowd. [Emphasis mine]

Okay, let's get a few things straight (you should pardon the expression) once and for all.

1. I don't know of anyone who has ever "beaten or brutalized" a gay person as a function of their religion. There is the occasional story in the news about yahoos getting a snootful and beating up on a gay bystander, but that's hardly a result of their faith.

What the governor is trying to pin on us is a very flimsy causation: Person A believes that homosexual practice is wrong. Person B assaults a practicing homosexual. Therefore, Person A must have caused Person B's behavior. Doesn't hold water.

The other undercurrent that the governor is trying to slip past us is the assumption that any negative attitude about homosexuality is tantamount to assault. Which is equivalent to my claiming to be "brutalized" every time someone speaks ill of Christianity. Anyone whose skin is that thin needs to wrap himself in Kevlar and hide under the bed.

2. Beliefs about the nature of marriage are not a personal value judgment. Look, I don't believe that the relationship between a man and his Buick can be a marriage, either. Doesn't mean I hate either Buicks or those who love them. In fact, it has nothing whatever to do with my attitude toward either one. It just means that the word "marriage" means something specific, regardless of who's involved.

3. My opinions are not the result of ignorance, hatred or bigotry. I can't claim to have a lot of gay friends, simply because of where I live and the social circles I usually move in. Nevertheless, those that I've known, I've usually liked. Just like anyone else.

Governor Patterson apparently genuinely believes that if I were as smart as he is, I would naturally see the light and share his beliefs. What's more, if I continue to refuse to see the light, he has every intention of forcing me to see things his way. Which says nothing about my actual opinions, but does mark him as an arrogant buffoon. Dictators and tyrants throughout the ages have broken their teeth trying to force believers to abandon their faiths. Christians have outlasted other brownshirts and bullies; we'll outlast this one too.

This is fair

It looks like there's some common sense in Connecticut after all.

Here's the deal: My church doesn't control the government. Frankly, I wouldn't want it to. There was a time when it had a heavy influence in politics, and we got no end of grief from it.

But at the same time, the government not only shouldn't control my church, but it's expressly forbidden to in the Constitution. My church has always had a definition of marriage that is different from the state's. Up till now it hasn't been an issue, for reasons I got into here. (I'd like to go on record again as believing that if the state recognizes same-sex marriages, it has no reasonable basis for prohibiting polygamous ones. Marriage equality isn't just for social liberals.)

But what happens when a gay couple decides to sign up for a Church-sponsored Marriage Encounter, for instance? Or when they demand the use of Church facilities for a blasphemous ceremony?

Yeah, yeah... it'll never happen, right? Let's be realistic. How long do you think it will take before some activist couple decides to make a test case out of the Church's marriage stance? Long enough for the ink to dry on their state marriage license, if we're lucky.

(Side note: Other churches will probably have to deal with this problem to a lesser extent, but the Catholic Church is apt to be the biggest target, simply by being (a) the biggest church out there and (b) one where people still consider themselves members even when their beliefs no longer fit the Church's teachings. So there are plenty of actively gay people in the Catholic Church where there are probably very few in, say, an Assembly of God congregation.)

The Connecticut clauses eliminate that danger, making it possible for the state to have a definition of marriage that churches (and individuals whose consciences forbid it) are not required to adhere to. I am free to believe that a gay couple is simply a very committed unmarried couple, while they still have all the recognition of the law as married. Win-win.

I hope so, anyway. Here's where the rubber meets the road. Will proponents of same-sex marriage accept a compromise in which everybody wins, or is it essential that the Christians lose? In other words, is the goal equality, or dominance? I'm up for equality if they are. We'll see what happens in Connecticut.

Happy birthday, mom!

How many birthdays does this make? That's a very good question.

Let's just say that she would clearly recall most of the things listed here:

(Go ahead and click the image, then start the video.)

'Twas better to die 'neath an Irish sky

Ninety-three years ago today, a group of patriots (or terrorists, depending on your side) rebelled in Dublin against the most powerful empire in the world. That the Easter Rising actually failed, and due largely to the comedy of errors that passed for a plan among the conspirators, is actually sort of a reflection on Ireland itself. Whatever is chaotic and untamed in the American spirit is perhaps a reflection of the Irish influence on our own culture. We broke free of England's yoke after less than a century of high taxes and lousy government; they took seven centuries of vicious abuse before they finally managed to kick the Saxons out. All the while fighting among themselves as only the Irish can do.

This is also an excuse to post a video of the opening of one of my favorite movies. When she died I waxed on about Deborah Kerr's performance in this film, and now I have a chance to give a glimpse of what she was like. Not the matron of The King and I, not the over-sentimental but underplayed Terry McKay of An Affair to Remember, but a young, vibrant, adorable Irish girleen Bridie Quilty, whom I fell in love with by the end of this little clip. You will too.

Double points to the writers for using the word "unbesmirched." It's a fun word to pronounce, isn't it? Go ahead and say it out loud: "Unbesmirched." The father, W. O'Gorman, doesn't seem to have any other credits at IMDb, but he's the most quintessentially Irish actor I've ever seen. So is the singing of "The Boy from Killane," which marks the hour clearly as closing time at the pub. (See if you can make out a single word of their singing.)

Behind all the humor is the incredible bravery of the rebels, many of whom were executed with the most summary of trials. Ireland may have its troubles today, but the fact that it's a nation to have troubles at all is due to "those fearless men but few." Every nation needs bumbling, passionate rebels, so there will always be a free country for girls like Bridie to love and defend.

Hats off, gentlemen

There are men, and then there are men:

You’re lying there, listening to the enemy machine guns, and you know you’re not getting out. Your family is 1/2 way around the world, 12,000 miles away, and you’ll never see them again. As the world starts to fade in and out, you know this is the day.

Then, over the machine gun noise, you faintly hear that sound of a helicopter, and you look up to see an un-armed Huey, but it doesn’t seem real, because no Medi-Vac markings are on it.

Ed Freeman is coming for you. He’s not Medi-Vac, so it’s not his job, but he’s flying his Huey down into the machine gun fire, after the Medi-Vacs were ordered not to come. He’s coming anyway...

Eternal rest grant unto him, O Lord, and let perpetual light shine upon him.

A little something to tide over my loyal readers

All two and a half of them.

I know I've been a half-assed blogger lately. That darned earning-a-living thing has been sucking up all my blogging time. (I gotta get my priorities straight.) Frustratingly, all the comment-worthy stuff seems to happen when I'm toiling away at the job(s). Hopefully I can resume sounding my barbaric yawp sometime next week.

Meanwhile, just for the heck of it, a video from my childhood featuring Morgan Freeman back before he became a serious actor:



He's still excellent, but I liked him even better this way.

Gay brownshirts on the march!

Nobody may hold a positive position in the public eye, however trivial, unless they first speak the shibboleth of gay marriage. Nobody, do you hear?

There is no honest difference of opinion. There is no excuse for divergent belief. You will approve. Or you will be crushed.

An abomination unto the Lord

... or at least unto the rest of us. Mark Shea's son apparently created this atrocity with some text-to-animation software. One suspects that he also spray-paints his initials on priceless works of art in his spare time.


I don't know whether to weep or set fire to my computer.

Oh, to be a Texan

Just so I could vote for the Kinkstah!

But.. but... this can't be!

These aren't embryonic stem cells! So it wasn't actual, Obama-approved science that produced this breakthrough. Probably a hoax.

I'm sure diabetics who believe in scientific purity will piously refrain from availing themselves of this tainted technology.

Christ is risen!

Easter songs like this are kind of funny - if you're not a believer, they just sound silly. But if you are, they can bring you to tears, and other people won't understand why.

Holy Saturday

They day between Good Friday and Easter is sort of neither fish nor fowl. It's no longer mourning for the Crucifixion, and it's not time yet to rejoice. Fortunately, my Lovely and Brilliant Wife found this poem about what was happening that first Holy Saturday.

All there is to say

And can it be that I should gain

An interest in the Saviour’s blood!

Died he for me who caused his pain!

For me who him to death pursued?

Amazing love! How can it be,

That thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

Amazing love! How can it be,

That thou, my God, shouldst die for me?

If I tried to add anything to Wesley's words or Dali's painting, I'd just ruin the point. Good Friday always renders me speechless.

(Reposted from last year.)

More swingin' goodness

My buddy Ken posted one of the best musical clips out on the web, so I think it's my bounden duty to do the same. Here are the same Andrews Sisters of blessed memory (plus Laverne, who's still alive and kicking at 92), along with Harry James of the Golden Lip, and the brilliant but underappreciated Shemp Howard, being quintessentially hilarious without his Stoogian brethren. I don't know how many people have ever actually seen this classic in film form, but within three notes you'll name that tune.



(I blogged the entire movie here. One of the best musical vehicles in the Internet Archive, and historically interesting as well. Sorry about the autoplay.)

The most nauseating thing I've ever read

And that's saying something. I dislike questioning another's Christianity - being Catholic, I've been on the receiving end - but I do question her humanity. I don't want to share a species with this creature.

Abortion is a blessing the same way that the Holocaust was a blessing to Aryans. Someone innocent still has to die so you can feel blessed.

Friday Film Day: Reefer Madness

The worthy Spider reminded me of this classic. I'm embarrassed to admit I haven't actually seen it yet. I plan to rectify that as soon as the little people who keep pounding on my door either get tired or starve to death and leave me in peace.



Someday I may blog about my single experience with Satan's lawn clippings. It involved three other guys, a badly abused Fiat and a snowy gravel road. Oh, and a lot of teenage stupidity. I can't believe we survived.

My object all sublime

I'm with Ricki. I think this is entirely fitting.

All it would take is once or twice, and parking lot miscreants would be a thing of the past.

Oooh, Mister President!

Okay, I know a lot of women voted for Obama at least partly on hormonal grounds. (Hey, it works both ways; Sarah Palin had more going for her than just domestic policy!) But this puts a whole different spin on the phrase "Lincoln Bedroom":

Artist Justine Lai's new project is a set of oil paintings of her having sex with every president of the USA, in order.

"In Join Or Die, I paint myself having sex with the Presidents of the United States in chronological order. I am interested in humanizing and demythologizing the Presidents by addressing their public legacies and private lives."

This calls up a whole bunch of questions. Who really wants to see her in flagrante delectable with, say, Richard Nixon? Or Honest Abe? How will she handle James Buchanan, in light of his rumored proclivities? When she gets to William Howard Taft, will we even be able to see her? And don't even get me started on the potential for "Millard Fillmore" or "Franklin Pierce" jokes.

Married priesthood? What a priest thinks

Father Joe tackles a discussion of the celibate priesthood. I should mention that he echoes what I've heard from other priests: that they wouldn't change the requirements if it were up to them.

My experience has been that the only people who are really gung-ho for a married priesthood are the ones who simply want to blur the line between clergy and laity in order to make themselves feel semi-clerical. It's a control issue on their part. If you would refuse to consider a priestly vocation as it stands because it requires too much sacrifice, what makes you think you're the sort that God wants in the priesthood to begin with?

This is how a man dies

We may never know this man's name, but be assured God does. Gentlemen, read the story with your hat off.

Private Snafu: Gripes

Someone has been uploading Private Snafu shorts to the Internet Archive in greater numbers recently (thanks, K-otic!), and they're a treasure trove for both animation fans and history buffs. Films like these were invaluable for training a huge number of newly-enlisted civilians. You could teach them to shoot or to march easily enough, but teaching them to think like soldiers was another matter altogether. In this film, Private Snafu has to learn a lesson that goes by several names: Military discipline, teamwork, bread-and-circuses, and "the problems of three little people don't amount to a hill of beans in this crazy world." All part of training the soldier to take orders and not second-guess his superiors, which is vital in a wartime army but totally alien to a civilian.

Notice the similarities between the narration here and If I Ran the Circus, which I just read to the chilluns a few days ago. Same meter, same rhymes, and in some places even identical phrasing. Guess which animator probably wrote this one.

How do you say "duh" in Spanish?

This is the woman who represents us to the rest of the world:

During her recent visit to Mexico, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made an unexpected stop at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and left a bouquet of white flowers “on behalf of the American people,” after asking who painted the famous image. [Emphasis mine]

Yeah, but Bush was dumb!

Following that, Mrs. Clinton went to receive the Margaret Sanger award from Murder, Inc. Next stop will no doubt be a bronzed ax handle from the Ku Klux Klan.

Akubra tip to SondraK.

It's her own fault...

... for running against The One™.

The next election is going to make the last one look like kids in the sandbox, folks. Assuming we actually get to have an election. I've never seriously considered the possibility before that we might not, but now I'm wondering. These people genuinely believe that all political contenders except their own must be destroyed by any means necessary. Ethics and the democratic process be damned.

I don't get it

Am I the only one who thinks today's Day by Day strip reads kind of like a Chick tract?

In any case, I don't get the point of this one.

This is what happens when you separate science....

from "ideology" (whatever that means). Also when you separate it from any whiff of ethics or morality, and indeed from anything except profit motive for campaign donors.

Found at Mock Barack. I don't endorse most of what's there, but when it comes to human life issues, we seem to be on the same page.

Fifteen years ago today

My dad died of a brain tumor. Someday I'll write a lot about my dad, but not now. Not while I have family members who read this blog.

There are more things on Facebook, Horatio

than probably ought to be dream't of.

Horatio thinks he saw a ghost.

Hamlet thinks it's annoying when your uncle marries your mother right after your dad dies.

The king thinks Hamlet's annoying.

Laertes thinks Ophelia can do better.

Hamlet's father is now a zombie.

It only gets better.

The scary part is how well it fits. My Lovely and Brilliant Wife convinced me to sign up for Facebook a couple of weeks ago. I've been getting caught up with childhood friends and classmates I haven't seen in twenty-five years, and a couple of cousins I haven't heard from since the 1979 eclipse. Plus some friends and relatives I haven't lost touch with over the years but who also seem to spend a lot of time there.

St. Patrick's Smartassery

You know, Ireland had its own Lady Godiva. Except she rode through the streets of Dublin in her Erin Go Bra.

I would have liked to do a whole serious post about the vital role Ireland played in the preservation of Christianity. But I simply don't have time between overdue deadlines and an inbox that runneth over. So I'll settle for a cheap shot instead:




Nobody, but nobody, can laugh at themselves like the Irish. It's a grand world that has Ireland in it.

Hoist a jar and [vulgar sentiments toward] the English!

One way to get kids to learn science

The Periodic Table of video game characters. I don't recognize most of them, but my kids undoubtedly will.

Akubra tip to A Welsh View.

The Purina diet

Put down your beverage and make sure your Depends are secure before you read this. You have been warned.

Akubra tip to Her Sondraness.

Oy vey!

You know things are going downhill when the Elders of Zion start retiring.

The best line:

“I always used to complain that Jews ran the world,” said Reginald Weber, author of “Zionists and Zookeepers: The Unholy Alliance.” “But now I’m starting to worry that nobody’s in charge.”

More on the Connecticut church grab

Here's a thought: Suppose the aim of the Connecticut bill isn't actually to take control of the Church, but to force it into property rights battles that it will lose over the hospitals and health care facilities.

The Church has already drawn a line in the sand over abortion. As things stand, the bishops have said that not only will they close hospitals rather than allow abortions, but they will also refuse to sell the facilities to anyone else. Suppose the state intends to place the Church in a position where their hospitals aren't theirs to sell or not sell. There hasn't been any clear precedent yet in cases where the hierarchy of a church and an individual parish are at odds, as far as who gets the parish property. A lay-controlled church would be easier to manipulate, and if the property is under the state's control, the religious tenets become irrelevant as far as the state is concerned.

But the possibilities go farther than just abortion. Currently, the reason the threat of closing hospitals carries weight is that Catholic hospitals and charities tend to serve low-income areas that wouldn't support for-profit hospitals. If those hospitals close, the government will be forced (oh, so reluctantly) to cover the shortfall. This plan would have the twin benefits of (a) encouraging poor districts to vote in favor of socialized health care and (b) putting facilities already positioned in those areas under the control of the government. Convenient, no?

What do you think? Is the state looking this far ahead? Or is it just run-of-the-mill government asininity?

No pope but Caesar!

Let me get this straight. The State of Connecticut wants to pass a law removing all authority over a Catholic parish's affairs (not any other church, mind you, just Catholic) from the bishop and handing it to a lay council.

(a) A corporation may be organized in connection with any Roman Catholic Church or congregation in this state, by filing in the office of the Secretary of the State a certificate signed by the archbishop or bishop and the vicar-general of the archdiocese or of the diocese in which such congregation is located and the pastor and two laymen belonging to such congregation, stating that they have so organized for the purposes hereinafter mentioned.

(b) The corporation shall have a board of directors consisting of not less than seven nor more than thirteen lay members. The archbishop or bishop of the diocese or his designee shall serve as an ex-officio member of the board of directors without the right to vote. [Emphasis mine]

(c) The members of the board of directors shall be elected from among the lay members of the congregation at an annual meeting of the corporation. The members of the board of directors shall serve for staggered terms of not more than three years. The members of the board of directors shall owe a fiduciary duty to the corporation and the members of the congregation...

What in the name of every deity ever postulated makes these neo-Know-Nothing yahoos think they have any authority at all over the internal workings of the Church?

Forget for a moment that it's only the Catholic Church being targeted. (Although think about this, Protestant brethren: would you want the state to replace your board with a bishop?) Let's suppose for a moment that the entire Supreme Court was on crack the day this law came before it and it was upheld. No matter how many government fatbottoms stamp their approval on it, it's still unenforceable.

The moment the authority of the bishop is removed from a congregation, it ceases to be a legitimate part of the Catholic Church. Period. Rome will not recognize it; no other diocese or parish in the world will recognize it. Not just those in communion with Rome, either. No church that believes in apostolic succession will. And should the state-sanctioned council bring in a priest to celebrate Masses and hear confessions, I suspect those will be invalid as well. (I know they'll be illicit; I'll have to ask my Lovely and Brilliant Wife whether transubstantiation can actually occur outside the bishop's authority.)

The Catholic Church is not a government agency. It is not a corporation as such. It is not a democracy. It predates every government on earth (except the Japanese Empire), and it will outlast all of them, too. The state simply has no authority over the Church, and the Church has a long (and infuriating) history of ignoring dictates from caesar.

The very most that the State of Connecticut could manage (with the sound of flapping porcine wings in the background) would be to force the Church to abandon its property in the state to the puppet church, while the actual Church members met without state sanction, much like they do in China.

Naturally, I don't think it's a coincidence that the congressworms proposing this bill are all heavy supporters of same-sex marriage and abortion, two issues on which the Catholic Church has been their biggest and most organized adversary.

This is the same state that pioneered efforts to force Catholic hospitals to dispense abortifacients. Tell me again why the Church continues to operate charities of any kind in Connecticut?

Ed Morrissey gives a good non-Catholic analysis of the bill here.

World War II made simple

It won't fit in the post, so you'll have to click to read it. Well worth it!

Akubra tip to Strange Maps

He's a what? He's a what?

He's a Paragraph Farmer. And he knows the territory.

Just for the heck of it

I posted the whole movie last year, but I just found a clip of my favorite part. Yes, that really is Jimmy Stewart singing.

When Johnny Toots His Horn

Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss

The good doctor would be 105 today.

I sort of knew about his wartime work, but I'd never heard of Private Snafu until I started browsing through that electronic playground called the Internet Archive. The 26 shorts, made for the servicemen, were created by Dr. Seuss and produced by Warner Brothers, with the brilliance of Mel Blanc, Chuck Jones, Fritz Freling and other luminaries of early animation. This one is called "Home Front," and boosts the soldier's morale by showing him that the folks back home are behind him all the way, no matter what Michael Moore Tokyo Rose might be saying. These were educational films, but in the war years, the line between education and propaganda was necessarily blurred.


There's more here, plus some cool background.

Miss Brahms is free, I guess.

The delectable Wendy Richards has gone to that great ladies' wear department in the sky.

I never saw her in EastEnders (who in the States watches a British soap opera?), but as the toothsome tart Miss Brahms, she was a heart-winner. Here's how I remember her in Are You Being Served:

Are you Being Served EP3

Charm God, Wendy.

The End of the Story

Paul Harvey... Good day!

This one's for Drama Queen

She went through a phase last year (or the year before; they all blur together) where she loved this show. This is my revenge.

See more funny videos and funny pictures at CollegeHumor.

H/T to Miss Cellania.

Bring on the stainless steel hanky!

I'm not entirely convinced this trend is an altogether bad thing. Vigorous enforcement of good manners is a welcome change.

Politenessman would be proud:

Centennial!

Grant County, Washington turns 100 today.

On February 24, 1909, Douglas County split into two parts, the southern and eastern parts forming Grant County. You can click on the map to see what it looked like then.

Most of the little towns on the map aren't there any more. Moses Lake, which is now the biggest town for about 80 miles any direction, was just a little village. Notice that the Grand Coulee is dry; the dam wouldn't even be proposed for another nine years.

My great-grandmother, Laura Padgett Peterson, was there when the counties split. Her family came out ere and homesteaded in 1908. She almost made it to a century herself, passing away in 1997 at the age of 98. In the meantime, she lived long enough to get to know Wharf Rat and to hold Long Drink when he was born.
I like Grant County. I didn't grow up here myself, but through Grandma Pete and others of her family, I've put down some deep roots here. My kids will always have a place to come back to, where their name means something and they never have to be newcomers, no matter how long they may live somewhere else. It may look like the bleakest country God ever forgot, but it's home. I'm proud to be a part of it.

I want!

Who needs a better mousetrap? Give me a speedbump like this instead.

This would take care of the yahoos who race down our street like the Dukes of frimpin' Hazzard!

Pub Toom Baumarkt (fun Dos-d'âne)
by _006-serie-TS_

Hope. Change. Intimidation.

The New York Post did exactly what an American newspaper is supposed to do – expressed an editorial opinion on a government action. Had this been any previous administration, that would be all in a day's work.

But this is the age of Hope and Change, and if you don't believe it, there's a mob of brownshirts outside waiting to take set you straight.

The NAACP is calling for a boycott of the paper until the editor and cartoonist are fired. That's their prerogative in a free country. Peurile and petty, but hardly un-American. But now the Reverend Crybaby is crossing the line and demanding government retribution against the paper.

he Rev. Al Sharpton yesterday ramped up his protest against the New York Post's decision to print a cartoon that has been criticized as depicting President Barack Obama as a monkey. His comments came a day after the leader of the NAACP called for the firing of both the paper's cartoonist and editor.

Sharpton, with City Council member Letitia James (D-Brooklyn), spoke to reporters in front of radio station KISS-FM headquarters in lower Manhattan, where they called for the City Council to review the Post's employment records because they questioned whether the newsroom staff represents the city's diversity.

But they shied away from NAACP president Benjamin Todd Jealous' call for the ouster of cartoonist Sean Delonas and editor-in-chief Col Allan. "Yes, the cartoonist ought to be dealt with, and the editor," said Sharpton. But he said "just firing them and not dealing with the overall problems of who's in the newsroom" doesn't address what he termed the "unfair setup" of staffing.

Sharpton also said he was starting an online petition drive to collect signatures in an effort to force the Federal Communications Commission to remove the waiver that allows the Post's parent company, News Corp., to run more than one media outlet in the area. "This is not the first time they have denigrated people of color," said James. "Now is the time to do it."

Jealous, speaking at the NAACP's annual meeting Saturday, said the cartoon was "an invitation of assassination" because the monkey - depicted as shot dead by police with the words "They'll have to find someone else to write the next stimulus bill" - could be construed as being Obama.

Forget for a moment that the cartoon had nothing to do with Obama. Forget that we've been regaled ad nauseum with actual chimp/president juxtapositions for the past eight years. Forget the actual calls for assassination that the NAACP and Reverend Loudmouth were perfectly copacetic with. Let's suppose the chimp really was meant to represent Obama.

Is this going to be the fate of any media outlet that takes a less-than-adoring stance on The One's policies? Their licenses to print (or broadcast, or blog) will be contingent on their unquestioning approval of the current administration? This is (or was) America, where reinforced-recessive mouth-breathers like the Ku Klux Klan and the Southern Poverty Law Center are free to speak their puny little minds. At least for now. Whether that will still extend to both sides of the aisle in a few years is apparently up in the air.

The president Himself, I notice, hasn't actually said anything about the cartoon. (At least not that I've heard.) But that's irrelevant. His followers, the same ones that intimidated white voters and vandalized houses with McCain signs, are rising up to silence any dissenters on his behalf. As much as I respect Godwin's Law, I can't escape the resemblance, especially in light of the attempts to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine and Obama's comments about Rush Limbaugh and Fox News. Combining government retaliation with brownshirt tactics has an ominous ring to it.

Oh, and perhaps it's time for Letitia James to step down, in light of her use of a racially offensive term above. Bigot.

A relief, that!

I was afraid I was losing my touch.

Your result for What is the Measure of a Man? The Gentleman's Test...

The Classic Gentleman

Proper behavior and etiquette are always crucial.

You are a well-rounded gentlemen who focuses perhaps a bit much on courtly manners. Nevertheless, your character is sound, and you make an excellent addition to the decor of any party.

Take What is the Measure of a Man? The Gentleman's Test at HelloQuizzy

Cougar Barbie

And they don't mean she went to Wazzu. Bad, bad, bad.


Find more videos like this on Reviews, News, and How To Geeks


Barbie's friend Mary Kay sold separately.

Post-Valentine's schmaltz

The inimitable Yogi Yorgesson:


Sort of sweet, really goofy. Y'betcha!

An Australian explains the stimulus payment

It seems to work the same way in this hemisphere, too.

Important Information on the Stimulus Payment

This year, taxpayers will receive an Economic Stimulus Payment.

This is a very exciting new program that I will explain using the Q and A format:

Q. What is an Economic Stimulus Payment?
A. It is money that the federal government will send to Taxpayers.

Q. Where will the government get this money?
A. From taxpayers.

Q. So the government is giving me back my own money?
A. Only a smidgen.

Q. What is the purpose of this payment?
A. The plan is that you will use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy.

Q. But isn't that stimulating the economy of China?
A. Shut up.
_____________________________________________

Below is some helpful advice on how to best help the Economy by spending your stimulus check wisely:

If you spend that money at K-Mart, all the money will go to China.

If you spend it on petrol it will go to the Arabs.

If you purchase a computer it will go to India.

If you purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to South East Asia or New Zealand.

If you buy a car it will go to Japan.

If you purchase useless crap it will go to Taiwan.

And none of it will help the economy.

We need to keep that money here. You can keep the money here by spending it at garage sales, going to a football game, or spending it on prostitutes, beer or tattoos, since those are the only businesses still here.

H/T to Mark Shea.

Friday Film Day: Know for Sure

The day before Valentine's and Friday the Thirteenth. An irresistible opportunity to get in touch with my inner cynic. After all, the initials "VD" stand for more than just a holiday.

This little atrocity was originally a WWII propaganda film. It features a pretty well-known cast of character actors, all uncredited, directed by Lewis Milestone and produced by Darryl F. Zanuck. Of particular note is the reliably excellent Ward Bond, who would again prove himself willing to humiliate himself on celluloid for the war effort. Greater love hath no actor...

The version you're about to see is the one that was edited for use in schools, with all the icky graphic stuff cut out. I remember seeing similar films along about the seventh grade, punctuated with some very descriptive side material from my teacher's military days. Those were the classes where they took all the girls off into another room, so he didn't soft-pedal anything for his all-male audience. You never saw a bunch of 12-year-old boys cross their legs and cringe so hard.

So remember, boys and girls... when the romance begins to blossom this Valentine's Day, don't just hope for the best... know for sure!

Midwife at Auschwitz

Two good things came out of that hellish piece of history we call the Holocaust. First, the world was finally willing to allow Jews to have their own country, a place where they need not fear that the country they live in will turn on them.

Second, and far more important from an eternal perspective, it created an anvil on which saints were forged. Not just nice people, but the sort of saints whose mere existence is proof that God has not abandoned us altogether. The forge at Auschwitz broke most of those who were hammered against it, but there were a few who brought the light of God into the darkest place man has managed to devise yet. For them, canonization is only the feeblest gesture. Still, it's the least we owe them.

Here is one of those. Read it with your hat off.

That's torn it!

See if Gary Graham ever gets work in Hollywood again.

WWKSS?

The minute I saw this story, I asked myself, "What would Kathy Shaidle say?" I may have to e-mail it to her attention.

A foster mother has been struck off the register for allowing a Muslim girl in her care to convert to Christianity.

The woman, who has looked after more than 80 children in the past ten years, is considering suing the council over the decision.

Although she is a practising Anglican, she said she had put no pressure on the girl who was baptised last year at the age of 16.

She said social workers had also raised no objections to her own attendance at church.

But officials insist she failed in her duty to preserve the girl's religion and should have tried to stop the baptism.

Last April, they ruled that the girl, now 17, should stay away from church for six months...

The carer is a single mother of two in her 50s who has worked with young children for much of her life. She has had an unblemished record since becoming a foster parent in the North of England in 1999.

Of the Christian convert, she said: 'I did initially try to discourage her. I offered her alternatives.

'I offered to find places for her to practise her own religion. I offered to take her to friends and family.

'But she said to me from the word go, 'I am interested and I want to come.' She sort of burst in.'

The woman said it had never occurred to her that she would be axed from the register.

As Kathy said last week, "Dear Luftwaffe: please come back. All is forgiven."

Ho hum

Another sneering boob tries to pass off "Just enough of me, way too much of you" as "scientific" and "rational."

As I've said before, people who bellyache about overpopulation are by definition hypocrites. If they meant what they said, they'd off themselves first. But they don't; it's always the other chap who's using up too many resources.

By what intrinsic superiority does this dolt think he's more deserving of a patch of earth than someone else?

No words

Besides the time constraints, the reason I haven't posted on this is that it just pisses me off beyond words. Not just at the abortionist and his henchwomen who very intentionally stuck a living baby in a garbage bag and threw it out, but also at anybody who fails to be furious at this. And yet in the long run it won't matter. However much proof is given that a baby is human from the beginning, however much tut-tutting the pro-aborts may do for the next few days, it won't change a damned thing. I just don't know what to say that will make any difference. God help me, I'm part of a country that rates human life lower than trash.

I note Patterico's comment on the political aspects:

Both sides of the political aisle find this story disturbing. Conservatives, because someone apparently felt entitled to take a live human being and throw her in the trash to die. Liberals, because wingnuts might use the story to undermine Roe v. Wade.

Which aspect concerns you more?

Well?

I wish I thought he meant this

I really do.
Unfortunately, his record is emphatically against it, which prompts me to wonder why on earth he would say such a thing. If Obama had his way, this would be perfectly legal. Does he really think he's going to pass himself off as pro-life?

Marginally related: Ewww.

Blossom Dearie travels in elephants

It blows me away that "Blossom Dearie" was more or less her real name. I have a couple of CDs of hers at home, but this is how I remember her:

Not dead yet

Posting has been light due to a heavy workload last week, followed by some kind of bug yesterday and today. I've had several things I wanted to get posted and just haven't had time, including the horrifying story Ken sent me in the comments. (That one leaves me scrambling for words.) Anyway, if I survive being back at work today I'll see if I can't catch up a bit.

You want Benny Bell?

I gotcher Benny Bell right here!


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There's more at the Internet Archive page linked above.

Groundhog Day in Moses Lake

The little rodent sticks his head out of the hole, and if he's not blown to shreds, spring is on its way.

For explanation, see here (part one) and here (part two).

Oh, and the prosecutor who swapped justice for a political career? It worked. Now he's a judge. God help us.