My favorite part is the bag at the end. My only disappointment is they missed the opportunity to use the line, “Those jobs weren’t even on the table.”
George Tiller did evil things, but so do all of us. His life was precious, and Rober P George pretty much covers it:
For the sake of justice and right, the perpetrator of this evil deed must be prosecuted, convicted, and punished. By word and deed, let us teach that violence against abortionists is not the answer to the violence of abortion. Every human life is precious. George Tiller’s life was precious.
I see no reason to improve on last year’s Memorial Day entry, so I’m repeating it in full below. All of the links have been updated with new information since last year.
In addition to you fun with friends and family, and catching up on your chores, please spend some time this weekend to commemorate Memorial Day.
First, you might want to educate your self a bit. I learned a lot by reading though some of the links below:
Here is a good source of information on Medal of Honor recipients in the War on Terror. Scroll down to read about them all. Next, I would suggest visiting milblogger Blackfive and his Fallen But Never Forgotten Series. While there, you might also read through the Someone You Should Know series.
Then, please do something to help our current service members. This should mean more than thinking “I support the troops,” or supporting politicians who favor some course of action, whether it be supporting the war, ending the war, etc. A good place to start is, of course, the USO. If you want to get beyond the mainstream, Blackfive, again, has some great ideas.
Finally, if you set aside some time this weekend for worship, please pray: for our soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen, for their soldiers, sailors, marines and airmen, for non-combatants, for the innocent, for the not-so-innocent, and for an end to the circumstances that sometimes require war.
Richard Stith has a fantastic short post over at Mirror of Justice, with the best single line about current abortion dialogue I have seen in some time:
Reducing the numbers of those who need protection is no substitute for protecting those who need protection
So we’re in a recession, at least, where one of the biggest problems is that people with money won’t lend it. Then the President stiff-arms secured creditors to pay off his union buddies, overturning basic law to do so. Who will lend money now, without seeking potentially high rewards with higher interest rates?
Scott Grannis at Calafia Beach Pundit predicts:
Rising interest rates are thus likely to be driven by a) an avalanche of Treasury supply and b) rising inflation. These are going to be the critical issues to focus on in coming years. I don’t think they mean that the economy will collapse. Instead, I think it is a good reason to expect that economic growth will be subpar (averaging less than 3%) for many years.
Here is the chart of Obama deficits that’s been making the rounds for a while:
Obama's Budget Deficit Projections
And it’s already out of date, and getting worse:
The White House on Monday projected 2009 and 2010 federal budget deficits far higher than it forecast just two and a half months ago, even as it continued to defy most experts and predict that the economy is headed for a strong comeback starting late this year.
Economists scoffed at the latest administration predictions.
“Deficits soar even with rosy assumptions in new Obama budget” at McClatchey
Heaven help us, but I don’t see how we avoid low growth and high inflation unless we change course soon.
“If you don’t know who the mark is, you are the mark.” Good advice for any poker game. Sometimes you might think somebody else is the mark, but an elaborate ruse has been created to fool you. This mostly happens in movies, like The Sting. Other times your partner might double-cross you, and after you and he previously conned other marks, you become the mark without realizing it. Think White Men Can’t Jump. Current events have me trying to remember if there has ever been a movie in which one player is an insider on one con, while simultaneously being the mark in another con, involving some of the same players. I don’t mean a fake con, but 2 simultaneous real cons happening at the same time.
Instapundit has been asking “who is the rube” a lot lately. Very recently, Shannon Love at Chicago Boyz argued it’s time to play who is the rube on the issue of gay marriage. It’s clear that many gay marriage supporters believe President Obama has been lying about his opposition to gay marriage, and therefore believe that everyone who believed him has been the rube — but since Obama hasn’t tipped his hand on that issue yet, we don’t know. Assuming, for now, that the gay marriage supporters are right, that might explain how they could be “idiots” at the same time regarding another issue. Tigerhawk criticizes wealthy Obama supporters who are horrified to find out he really is a class warrior:
If you are going to be “rich,” be proud of it and only vote against your own pecuniary interests to achieve some collateral objective. You know, because you want to treat our traditional allies more respectfully or some such reason (bwahahaha!). Do not, please, be a moron and claim to be surprised when the dude’s actions in office closely mirror everything he stood for his entire life up until the last five months before the general election.
I think it is pretty clear that many of the rich, and even the working affluent, voted for Obama for just such collateral objectives, including culture war issues like gay marriage. Figuring that they had spotted the rubes in one context, they thought they couldn’t be the rubes on economic issues. But candidate Obama talked from both sides of his mouth on such issues. Somebody had to be the mark, and it turned out to be the folks with the cash.
Wow. This episode had a very big event at the end. Good episode, although in some ways it seemed a bit by-the-numbers. Plus, there was a revelation about “Sam,” with its own fallout. There really is only one story this week, with some interrelated subparts.
Exploding SUV
Jonas, Mack and Bob are chasing Russian terrorists in Los Angeles, and while doing so, they are contacted by Sam, who informs Jonas he is holding Molly hostage. Bob is dealing with an attractive Russian informant, and Kim and Tiffy call the police when they discovery Molly is missing and they do not believe Col. Ryan takes it seriously. Also another week with no Charles.
Read more…
Sometimes I blog something just so I can find it more easily in the future. This is just for me (JFM).
Madrid’s solution to this lack of knowledge is to encourage Catholics to read one chapter of the Gospels and three paragraphs of the Catechism of the Catholic Church daily, noting that within one month people will notice a marked improvement in their understanding of the faith.
A delightful must read.
Conversion Diary: A name for baby Joy - The diary of a former atheist.
I cannot read such things without my faith being strengthened. Thank you Jennifer.
A couple of days ago, I stumbled upon a Facebook group prodding Sean Hannity to keep his promise to undergo waterboarding for charity. They describe themselves as follows:
Sean Hannity recently volunteered on his show to be waterboarded to raise money for the U S Troops and their families. I think this is a laudable cause and I, for one, appreciate his patriotism. Let’s all support Sean in this noble endeavor. I suggest that he make the funds he raises available to Fisher House, a highly rated charity that makes lodging available to 10,000 troop’s families every year. Go to Sean’s contact page and let him know how much you appreciate his volunteerism. And Please: Spread the Word! If Blogoshere [sic] can help Sarah Palin onto the Republican ticket, we can use it for the benefit of the troops as well.
via Facebook | Waterboard Sean Hannity for Charity.
This is why I have stayed away from the torture debate. In brief, I believe we did things that are terribly wrong, in particular by Catholic rules of ethics that I try to live by. But I also think some valid distinctions can and should be made, and have found that discussion of this subject is nearly impossible without being demonized by one side or the other.
This Facebook group is just one symbol of how low this debate has sunk. Among my friends on the left, most believe that we have tortured, that waterboardng is torture, and that George Bush and others in his administration are war criminals. This Facebook group, while somewhat light-hearted, is also clearly of the left, and I suspect its founders and many members also believe waterboarding to be torture.
Yet they urge that Sean Hannity undergo this ordeal. Hannity invited it. He is a blowhard and a self-promoting idiot. He seems to have made this pledge in an off-guard moment and is trying to slink away. I would not be surprised either way, if he decided to quietly back away or to stand up to his pledge. Of course, the more public attention is focused on his pledge and his failure to live up to it, the more pressure he will face to undergo waterboarding.
So this is where we are: the anti-waterboarding faction, the anti-torture partisans, are trying to convince a man to voluntarily experience what they denounce. If he backs off, they win. But if he caves to their pressure, what have they accomplished, and at what cost to themselves, to their souls? I am anti-torture, and of the right. I would welcome a chance to stand with those on the left for a common cause, but I cannot stand with such a group.
