Definiton:

Socialism (noun)-- The sinking suspicion that somewhere, somehow, a business is going unregulated.

The US House of Representatives passed a resolution (416-3) on the 27th that condemned the Ninth Circuit Court's decision to declare the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional. The resolution was introduced by James Sensenbrenner (R-Wisconsin) and Mississippi's own Chip Pickering. Those three whose declared that that pesky God had no bid'ness ("business" to you Yankees out there) in the Pledge were:

Pete Stark (D-CA, 13th)
Mike Honda (D-CA, 15th)
Bobbie Scott (D-VA, 3rd)

Not surprising that 2 out of 3 of them were from California. Just what is wrong with that state? But at least they stood up for what they believed in, unlike these who merely voted "Present":

Gary Ackerman (D-NY)
Earl Blumenauer (D-OR)
Michael Capuano (D-MA)
Barney Frank (D-MA)
Luis Gutierrez (D-IL)
Alcee Hastings (D-FL)
Jim McDermott (D-WA)
Jerrold Nadler (D-NY)
James Oberstar (D-MN)
Nydia Velazquez (D-NY)
Mel Watt (D-NC)

Shameless Flaunting of Knowledge

Robert Bauer, aka HokiePundit, is currently in London with an internship. I'm a bit afraid that he's going native. Actually he admits to it and even names all the British monarches since the Norman Invasion of 1066 while stating that he can't even name all 43 US Presidents. But, your truly is a true red, white, and blue patriot and can list all of our chief executives without the aid of reference material:

1 .George Washington
2. John Adams
3. Thomas Jefferson
4. James Madison
5. James Monroe
6. John Quincy Adams
7. Andrew Jackson
8. Martin Van Buren
9. William Henry Harrison
10. John Tyler
11. James K. Polk
12. Zachary Taylor
13. Millard Fillmore
14. Franklin Pierce
15. James Buchanan
16. Abraham Lincoln
17. Andrew Johnson
18. Ulysses S. Grant
19. Rutherford Hayes
20. James Garfield
21. Chester A. Arthur
22. Grover Cleveland
23. Benjamin Harrison
24. Grover Cleveland
25. William McKinley
26. Theodore Roosevelt
27. William Taft
28. Woodrow Wilson
29. Warren G. Harding
30. Calvin Coolidge
31. Herbert Hoover
32. Franklin Delano Roosevelt
33. Harry S Truman
34. Dwight D. Eisenhower
35. John Fitzgerald Kennedy
36. Lyndon Baines Johnson
37. Richard Milhous Nixon
38. Gerald Ford, Jr.
39. James Earl Carter
40. Ronald Reagan
41. George Herbert Walker Bush
42. William Jefferson Clinton
43. George Walker Bush

I can even name all the Presidents of the Confederacy:

1. Jefferson Davis

It helps that there was only one.

9th Circuit Court declares "Pledge of Allegiance" unconstitutional

The interesting thing about the pledge is that it was originally written by Socialist Party presidential candidate and American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) founder Norman Thomas. President Eisenhower added the "under God" part in the 1950's, and that little phrase is what all the brou-ha-ha is all about. The Court says that the phrase endorses a religion and violates separation of church and state.

Nonsense. Sheer, unmitigated nonsense.

Here's what the First Amendment says concerning religion, "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..." The Founders expressly did not want a "Church of America," a state run church (i.e. establishment of religion) supported by taxpayers even if they weren't members of it.

Tennis phenom Martina Navratilova lambasts US values:

Navratilova, a Czech-born American who won 18 grand slam singles titles when she dominated women's tennis in the late 1970s and 1980s, also wrote in an article for Die Zeit weekly that she believed free speech was being suppressed in the United States.

"Help! Help I'm being suppressed!" or it is "oppressed" or even "repressed"? It's been to long since I've watched Monty Python and the Quest for the Holy Grail

"The most absurd part of my escape from the unjust system is that I have exchanged one system that suppresses free opinion for another," said Navratilova, 45, who fled Czechoslovakia at the age of 18 to go to the United States.

This news will come as quite a shock to the all the income tax protestors here in Tennessee who wave signs and honk their car horns.
Ms. Navratilova's statement proves that one may grow older, but not necessarily less idiotic.

And now the statement du jour:

"The Republicans in the United States manipulate public opinion and sweep any controversial issues under the table," said Navratilova.

Sweetheart, it was because of Republicans, especially ones like President Reagan, who loved human liberty ceaselessly and worked diligently to break the forces of oppression that your homeland is no longer enslaved in the shackles of Communist tyrrany. And if the GOP has a perchant to avoid sticky issues, then why then so many Elephant Party members fiercely oppose abortion, feverishly support school choice and privatizing Social Security? Aren't all of these "controversial issues?" And as for manipulating public opinion, well that's definitely a cynical in tone, but it is correct to a degree. Political parties are always trying to persuade the voting public to elect their candidates, that's what political parties DO. Sheesh,

NPR is possibly reconsidering its deep-linking policy for its website. [via Slashdot via Instapundit]

[FYI: Deep-linking is the practice of linking to a specific page or content on a website instead of just linking to the "front page" of the site]

Currently, NPR declares that "Linking to or framing of any material on this site without the prior written consent of NPR is prohibited. If you would like to link to NPR from your Web site, please fill out the link permission request form." Yep, a policy that's as stupid as it is unenforceable. Of course, this raises an important question: Why would you want to read, let alone deep-link, NPR to begin with?

If you look at the scrollbar to the right, you will notice that its colors are co-ordinated with the rest of the site. Cool, eh?

Linkage, Part II

While I'm at it, I'll add SFSU Conservative to the blogroll, too. (mmmmm.....blogroll...oh, dang it, I did that joke already). It's good to see an island of sanity in the leftist sea that is Frisco.

Testing, 1, 2, 3

Found this test of conservativeness via SFSU Conservative. Yours truly scored a perfect score of 40. I expected nothing less.

Linkage

Out of gentlemanly courtesy, I am adding Andrea Harris' "Ye Olde Blogge" to my blogroll since she added me to hers. (mmmmm.....blogroll). Also in today's induction is the "The Timekeeper" operating from a secret bunker in the Pacific Northwest. Okay, I making up the secret bunker part, but he does reside in the land of Microsoft and Starbucks. So cruise on over to both of 'em post haste.

Oops, I almost forgot to thank Gail Davis for a link to the OMC. Thanks Gail!

Cardinal Law very friendly with a couple of Minors

From the Sun Herald via Magnolia Report:

Law made Dallas trip on Minor's private jet

Instead of taking a scheduled American Airline flight to the recent bishop's conference, Cardinal Bernard Law flew in the private jet plane of Bixoli lawyer Paul Minor. Minor is the son of former New Orleans Times-Picayune political columnist and still an influential writer Bill Minor. According to the story, Minor Senior and Law had been friends since the 1950s when Law moved to Jackson to work in one of his first assignments as a priest. Minor's reason in using the private plane: "I knew there was going to be a lot of media following the cardinal to and from Dallas, and I thought it might make it a little easier on him if he could get there without cameras poking at him at every step." Mighty neighborly of ya, Mr. Minor.

Law and Bill Minor met in the late 1950s when Law moved to Jackson for one of his first assignments as a priest. Both men were advocates of human rights, working to improve race relations, and quickly formed a bond, Paul Minor said.

And what did Law, Boston's ever tireless advocate of human rights, do when he found out about priest molesting innocent children? He reported the abusers to the police? [Buzz sounding] Sorry, but thank you are playing. The correct answer is : He covered in up. That's right. I guess the right of the priests' not to be embarassed outweights the victims' right to justice.

So That's the Reason

Curtis Sliwa, founder of Guardian Angels, had this to say on MSNBC about soccer: (paraphrasing)

"You know why no hands are used in soccer? You see, the French had a major influence in the early days of the development of soccer. They didn't want hands to be used since they had to make sure their arms were well rested so that they could raise them to surrender to the Germans."

Suspect Escapes Jail, Is Eaten by Crocodile

PANAMA CITY (Reuters) - A 28-year-old Panamanian accused of killing a judge was eaten by a crocodile as he swam across a river after escaping from prison, police said on Thursday. Oswaldo Martinez, accused of murdering judge Harmodio Mariscal on June 5 during a failed robbery in Panama City, was captured last week by police after fleeing to neighboring Costa Rica. After being held in custody in Costa Rica, Martinez broke out of jail at the weekend and was aiming to reenter Panama through the dense jungle that divides the two Central American countries. Martinez was eaten alive by the crocodile on Monday as he tried to swim across the River Terraba in southern Costa Rica, according to eyewitness reports confirmed by police on Thursday.

Witnesses also stated that in between screams he kept yelling for them to get "that Australian crocodile guy" to help him. They argued with each other over which Aussie that he was talking about: Crocodile Dundee or that crazy fellow on the Discovery Channel. By the time they thought to ask him which one he wanted, the convict was already safely inside the stomach of the aforementioned croc. "Just has well," remarked witness Jose Martinez, "it would have taken to long to have gotten either one here in time."

A Little History

Thirty-eight years ago today three civil rights workers, Michael Schwerner, Andrew Goodman and James Chaney were murdered in Neshoba County, Mississippi after they had come from Ohio to investigate a black church burning. This event hits pretty come to home, quite literally. My mama grew up in rural Neshoba County and we still have many relatives there. She was just 5 years old when it happened, but she says she remembers the FBI extensively searching through the countryside, trying to find the bodies. Mama's daddy, Papaw, was a friend of Deputy Cecil Price, one among 19 charged by the FBI with conspiring to deprive the constitutional rights of the three civil rights workers. The continuing tradegy of it all is that the state of Mississippi still hasn't prosecuted those accused of the murder, though some are hopeful that a trial might be held.

For a complete timeline, read the one in the Clarion-Ledger.

Islam

For a good analysis of Islam from a Christian perspective, check out Answering Islam and especially this article. I've known about this site for quite some time, but for the life of me, I don't know why I didn't add it to the Great List of Links on the left side of the page.

Yeah, Right

In an interview with NewsMax.com, Mohammed Aldouri, the Iraqi ambassador to the UN,

"We have nothing, and if we permit the U.N. inspectors back into Baghdad, they will find nothing."

Well, that settles that. If you can't trust a minion of one the world's most evil dictators, who can you trust?

WorldNetDaily has a report of a would-be suicide-homicide bomber who just couldn't go through it.

Kudos Award

A special thanks goes to Brian Perry of the Magnolia Report for adding this little blog to the Political Links page.

"We're moving on up..."

A Little Fun

From the Sun Herald of Biloxi, Mississippi: "Secretary of State Eric Clark told the Gulfport Business Club on Tuesday that recent action by the state Legislature should keep dead people off the voting rolls."

Mr. John Busibody, president of the Organization for Preserving the Rights of Deceased-Americans, decried what he called "the outright bigotry against life-impaired individuals in Mississippi." Busibody continued, "They have the same rights as all other American citizens, that they are dead should not be a hinderance in allowing them to vote."

Playing Footsie, er, Soccer

Speaking of the American Prospect, it has an article slamming some conservatives rather strong dislike for soccer. Even fellow blogger Ben Domenech is mentioned:

Fortunately, another National Review writer, Ben Domenech, has exposed the idiocy of Derbyshire's rant, explaining that in most parts of the globe the game is not the polite domain of the minivan-driving soccer moms Moore and Derbyshire so despise. "Soccer is a rough, violent, populist game, with none of the traits liberal elites might find attractive. The games are fast, intense, rough-and-tumble contests of speed, skill, and bravado waged on cracked asphalt," writes Domenech.

Tsk Tsk Tsk. Can we say "aiding and abetting the enemy," boys and girls?

Coming Soon

A parody of TAPPED, the left-wing American Prospect's blog.

Finally

I got my archives to promise that they will behave themselves from here on out. They've been acting pretty screwy since I move to blogspot, but now all is calm. Ah, the powers of a 3rd year undergraduate majoring in MIS (that's Management Information Systems to the uninitiated). So if you are so inclined, just click on the links to dig through posts of ages, well months, past.

Attention all Conservative Geeks

C-SPAN is doing its American Writers thing, highlighting influential authors of the 20th Century. On 30th June at 2 pm Central time and again on 5th July at 7 pm the station will air an episode featuring Russell Kirk and William F. Buckley.

New Thingamagig

Scroll down to the bottom of the page and check out the "Guest Map" button. Just click on it and a map of the world should pop up allowing you to flag a piece of the world where you currently are and to post a message.

Quote of the Day

Mark Byron responds in kind to Scott Galupo's rather condenscending article at NRO about Southern Baptists and Evangelicals in general:

In Galupo eyes, our "exclusive worldview rears its head." Yeah, "I am the Way, the Truth and the Life. No one comes to the Father but by me" isn't going to win points on Oprah, but this isn't the Unitarian Universalist convention.

Watergate and Lincoln

Today's the 30th anniversary of Watergate, in case you have managed to dodge all the major news outlets and MSNBC ("America's News Channel" Don't there have to be actual Americans actually watching it before it can call itself that?). Fortunately, I was at work most of the afternoon and early evening so I didn't have to endure all the media nonsense.

On the other hand, having to be at work did cause me to miss Dr. Walter E. Williams' (filling in for Rush Limbaugh) interview of Thomas DiLorenzo, author of
"The Real Lincoln: A New Look at Abraham Lincoln, His Agenda, and An Unnecessary War." I haven't read (yet) his book, but it does look interesting. And to be perfectly honest, I'm not a huge fan of Lincoln, myself. HEY! HEY! HEY, NOW! Let's calm down a little bit, shall we? No, I haven't lost my mind and joined the Lew Rockwell Society of Cranks That No One Pays Much Attention Too And Affliliated Screwballs. My opposition to Lincoln is based in regional bias and familial respect: my great-great-great grandfather on my mother's side, Henry Jefferson Lundy, fought in the 35th Mississippi Infantry against Honest Abe's forces.

I would go into even more serious reasons why I don't care for Lincoln, but the Great Hand of Tireness has smacked me around too many times this evening.

Hide the Liquor and the Women! Oh Wait, Nevermind.

Apparently the military units entering into MS from AL are there just for training exercises, not for an invasion, Lee Ann assures us. I'm glad, especially since Mississippi now doesn't have to use its considerable tactical nuclear arsenal to repel the 'bama horde, ur, Axis of Weevil.

Okay, okay, I admit it: we don't have any missiles, just water ballons filled with Tabasco sauce. But we can throw them really far, though.

We're in the Money

The financial reports of members of Congress were released today and there are some interesting tidbits. For example, Democrat Senator John Kerry of Taxachusetts has $500,000 to $1 million in stock in many companies. So what's the big deal? One of those companies is [dramatic pause] Exxon-Mobil! That's right, the Great White Liberal Presidential Hope from the Frozen North is apparently a tool of the evil Big Oil companies. Sigh, such a waste.

Mississippi Politickin'

Another race of interest in Mississippi is the 3rd District Congressional race. Since the Magnolia State lost a seat due to slow population growth, two incumbents are pitted against one another: Rep. Charles “Chip” Pickering (R-3rd) and Rep. Ronnie Shows (D-4th).

Pickering, the son of district judge and defeated Bush-nominee for the 5th Circuit Court Charles Pickering, won the office in 1996. He is very conservative both socially and fiscally:

1. The American Conservative Union gave him a 96% in 2001.

2. Voted to permanently repeal the estate tax and reduce income tax rates.

3. Served has a Baptist missionary to Hungary for 2 years.

4. Staunchly pro-life

Shows (rhymes with “chows”) was first elected in 1998 and portraits himself as a conservative Democrat, which to a degree is true:

1. For 2001, Shows maintained a 76 out of 100 rating from the American Conservative Union. This was higher than nearly 46 House Republicans.

2. Whip of the Congressional Pro-Life Caucus in the House.

3. During the 2000 election mess, Shows indicated that if there was a vote in the House to elect the President, he would vote for Bush.

4. Voted for the Bush income tax cuts in 2001 (but not for making them permanent in 2002)

5. Voted to permanently end the death tax.

However, as pointed out here, the very key difference between the two men is the vote they will cast for Speaker of the House. Each will obviously cast the vote for their party’s fellow. Pickering has raised an interesting point in his campaign: though Shows claims to be a conservative and a pro-lifer, he will vote for a liberal and pro-abortion leadership in the House. To those for which the issue of abortion is very important, and there are plenty of them in Mississippi, this tactic could persuade many voters to support Pickering.

A First

According to my web stats, someone visited the OMC using WebTV. Finally, I'm on television, er, sort of.

Thanks to Zonitics for the link to the previous article and to Cathy and Garland for the permanent link.

It's 93 degrees here in Clarksville, so it must mean that global warming is responsible for the heat. How else can you explain the fact that it's hot in June in Tennessee?

Israel captures 10 bombs at Arafat security command

Now, we shouldn't let a little thing like this interfere with the peace process.

From the Greenwood Commonwealth

A section of a short article about the ties between the families of Trent Lott and John McCain:

Lott told a visiting delegation from the Greenwood area last week about some ancient family history from Carroll County, where both he and McCain have deep roots. In 1899, Lott's great-great-great uncle was running for state treasurer. He was endorsed by John S. McCain, then-sheriff of Carroll County and the Arizona senator's great-great-great-uncle.

Lott said he brought the information to the attention of his GOP colleague.

"'You know, John,'" Lott said he joked to his fellow senator, "'the McCains have been supporting the Lotts since 1899. What the hell's your problem?'"

Harold Meyerson in the American Prospect and Joe Conason in Salon, two Very Upset Liberals, read the Greens the Riot Act. Faster, Pussycat! Kill! Kill!

For Your Listening Pleasure...

Audio Adrenaline's "Some Kind of Zombie"

Nordlinger's Take on Soccer

Jay Nordlinger skewers the Left and soccer in his Impromptus column at NRO. He makes the point that the Left always preaches the wonderful bliss of diversity, but when it comes to things like soccer and the metric system these very same Left-wingers lament and gnash their teeth that Americans generally refuse to like both.

A Work of Art

Lead singer for the rock band Everclear, Art Alexakis, will have his own political talk show on Portland, Oregon's KNRK. He paints himself has a moderate, but judging from the content of his songs on Everclear's upcoming album, he seems pretty liberal:

From Launch.com via evernews:

Alexakis tells LAUNCH that "half of the songs are pretty much written"; among them "Black Jack," about the conservative vision of Attorney General John Ashcroft, and "Volvo-Driving Soccer Mom," which suggests that when porn stars retire they move to the suburbs and become Republicans.

Two songs criticizing and satiring Republicans, very moderate indeed.

However, Alexakis tells LAUNCH that one thing the album won't be is "preachy." "This record is definitely much more politically charged, but it's not preachy. I hate preachy rock bands who try to talk about things they don't know about," he says.

I do too, Art.

From RollingStone.com, again via evernews concerning the show:

"I'm going to have my daughter's lizard crawl on the table towards a picture of either the person representing the liberal point of view or the conservative, and wherever he goes, that's the slant I'm taking," he explains. "A good debater can win any debate from any point of view -- it doesn't matter."

So maybe is a moderate, after all. The "good debater" remark reminds me of a character from Ayn Rand's The Fountainhead named Peter Keating. In high school, he was active in the debating society. During one debate he argued for one side of an issue and then turned around and argued for the opposite position just as convincingly as the other. Rand shows Keating to be a very smart individual, but not as bright as everyone thing he is. At least Alexakis doesn't suffer from that problem.

Quote of the Day

From HokiePundit describing the Liberal Democrat Party in Britain:

"The Lib-Dems seem to essentially be like American Libertarians, sometimes being so right that you want to pump your fist, and sometimes being so mind-bogglingly wrong that you want to bang your head against the table a few times."

Clarksville Chase

Last Friday, two police officers here in Clarksville, TN, were killed after they crashed during a high speed chase. The staff at the Fairview Inn reported a robbery and a description of the suspect's vechile was sent to patrol officers. Officers David Scott and Yamil Baez-Santiago, located the car matching the decription and entered pursuit. The chase ended tragically when the officers' car crashed into an oncoming pickup truck.

Today, Clarksville police announced they had found the suspect, Sharfayne L'Nell White, in Memphis where he was planning to attend the Lewis-Tyson match at the Pyramid. "I'm sorry. I'm very, very sorry. That's all I have to say is I'm sorry," said White. You better be. Because of your stupid decision, 2 families are going to spend the rest of their lives without their father, husband, brother, son, nephew, cousin. Such a waste.

In the Land where Socialists Roam Free

The Reactionary (based the in the Green Mountain State) has a great rant on the effects of unions and living wages in Vermont. Not bad for a Yankee.

Googling

I've been getting some pretty interesting searches from people using Google:

"liberal tennessee blog" Sorry, Charlie, no 100% idiot, er, left-wing blog in the Volunteer State

"thomas sowell is an idiot" May Lee Ann have mercy on your soul. On second thought,
may she NOT have mercy on you.

"butty blacks" Does that mean what I think it means?

"making fun of fat obese customers restaurant" Oh, come on now, really. Play nice.

Michael Long wrote a knee-slapper of an article for NRO today poking fun of Left-wing nuts:

Don't confuse these Very Special Democrats with the standard TV variety: Those who see attacks on the elderly in every Republican eye, love taxes almost carnally, and still mumble about butterfly ballots over dinner. The Democratic nuts I'm talking about are the ones who believe, for instance, that George W. Bush is a steely eyed Machiavellian oligarch who, with all the anonymity and success of the assassin on the grassy knoll, manipulated five members of the Supreme Court into committing treason to give him the election — that he's Goldfinger in a cowboy hat.

These are the same nuts who, on other days, paint up President Bush as hapless Fredo to his father's Don Corleone — this, as quickly as they went from worshipping Bill Clinton as a blow-dried concordance of all wonk-knowledge to running interference for him as a helpless hillbilly who's just a-doin' what comes naturally.

(Note to Dems: Stop following up your "Bush is a dummy" stuff with your frustration at how successful he is at beating you these days. If he's really that slow, what does that make you?)

One Thing that I have Learned While Working at the Bagel Shop:

If you slice a dozen onions, your fingertips will smell like onions for the rest of the day (and next day) even if you wash your hand a thousand times.

Paging Dr. Rorshach

If you are in need of a good ink-blot test, click here to see a map of the new districts for the Mississippi House of Representatives.

Books that I'm Reading Now:

A Personal Odyssey by Thomas Sowell

The Vison of the Anointed: Self-Congratulation as a Basis for Social Policy by Thomas Sowell

Why the South Will Survive: Fifteen Southerners Look at Their Region a Half Century after I'll Take My Stand

The Freshman: What Happened to the Republican Revolution? by Linda Killian

Hating Whitey: And Other Progressive Causes by David Horowitz

I wish to proclaim to the world by affection for the Little Debbie Oatmeal Creme Pies. I'm talking about those big ones, not the ones that come in the $1.10 one dozen boxes.

As the WorldCom Turns

Telecommunications company WorldCom, based in Clinton, MS, could lay off 16,000 employees, according to analysts. The poor company has had a hard time lately; it's stock price has sunk so low. How low? Why, if you sold 1000 of those stocks now, you might be able to by a1 ft x 1ft piece of doghouse wallpaper.

Election-rama

Mississippi held primary elections yesterday. Of the four Congressional districts, only the 2nd District, which encompasses the Delta and much of metro Jackson, actually had a race in both parties.

Incumbent Bennie Thompson (elected in 1993 to fill the vacancy left by Mike Espy’s resignation upon becoming President Clinton’s Secretary of Agriculture) defeated George Irvin, former head of the Farmers’ Home Administration in Mississippi and Army National Guard colonel, in the Democratic contest 73% to 27%. Thompson is your typical “Maxine Waters” type of black politician: disagree with him and you’re a racist in his mind. Recall that this is the individual who during Judge Charles Pickering’s Circuit Court nomination declared those blacks who supported the judge to be “Judases.” Irvin, who is also black, is far more centrist in his leanings as evidenced by his support of the permanent repeal of the estate tax and reduction in the capital gains tax; though he pushed for traditional Democratic issues like adding a prescription drug benefit to Medicare and increasing funding to Head Start. During his campaign, Irvin even called Thompson out on his race mongering. A pity that nearly three-fourths of Democratic voters supported a man so committed to racial divisiveness. Irvin was a credible challenger but severely lacked the money ($6,000 on hand in mid-May, compared to Thompson’s $400,000) to combat Thompson very well organized political machine.

In the Republican race, Clinton LeSueur, a former Democrat and is black, won 54% to 46% against Charlotte Reeves, owner of a shipping crate recycling business and has twice loss primaries in Jackson’s mayoral races. LeSueur has received the support of former RNC chairman (and possible candidate in the 2003 MS governor’s race) Haley Barbour and popular former governor Kirk Fordice. While LeSueur has campaigned very hard throughout the district some observers, like Greenwood Commonwealth editor (and conservative) Tim Kalich, believe that he has “paper-thin credentials and is an unpersuasive speaker, even when the black former Democrat is trying to explain his conversion to the Republican Party.” I don’t know if this is true or not, thought at least you can give him an “A” for effort. But Univ. of Southern Miss. political science professor Joseph Parker won’t. He is just flabbergasted that LeSueur is daring to oppose Thompson. "Why bother? Why not just give him a free ride?" he said. "Your chances of getting struck by lightning are about as good as beating an incumbent House member." Apparently Mr. Parker just waves as the concept of there being more that one person in an election goes flying past him.

Soccer

Orrin Judd dislikes soccer and argues that it is a left-wing sport, while Mark Byron retorts: "Just becuase you don't like something doesn't mean it's liberal, sir."

While I share Mr. Judd's antipathy toward the "kick the ball around a field and, oh yeah, you can't use your hands" game, Dr. Byron has a point. During a Crossfire segment about why Americans lack the fevered insanity the rest of the world has for soccer, even Paul Begala made it quite clear that he absolute abhorred the game.

I'm actually agreeing with the Forehead? I believe a feel a cold shiver sprinting down my spine...

E-mail

The techheads at the Office of Information Technology at Ole Miss are performing an upgrade to the e-mail server over the next several days. So if you have sent me e-mail to my Ole Miss e-mail account, I'm will not be able to read them at least until Sunday evening when the upgrade to supposed to be complete. Just drop me a line on my hotmail address.