facts? we don't need no stinking facts!

at tufts college, such is the case.

more from card

this time, an article about mitt romney. like everything i've seen from card so far, it is well worth reading. card seems worried that anti-mormon bigotry will sink any chance romney had of winning the whitehouse, and that romney's running could actually hurt the mormon church. there are, of course, a lot of people out there who think mormons are a bit kooky; i'm one of them. but in my experience, mormons also tend to be excellent examples of "good people."

my complaint against romney is not his religious beliefs, but his continued support of "romneycare." that's one step too close to socialized healthcare--probably one of the worst ideas ever, even worse than american cheese--for my taste, so i'll have a very hard time voting for him in the primaries. giuliani lost my vote when he came out in favor of publicly funded abortions, and mccain was a no-go from the start, which pretty much knocks the "big three" in the GOP out of the race as far as i'm concerned. i like what i've heard from fred thompson so far, but i really don't know enough about him to decide to pull for him yet. and unless zell miller decides to run, and the dems actually nominate him, there's no way i'm voting democrat. there is, of course, over a year left before any of this really matters, so all of the candidates have plenty of time to either redeem themselves or dig deeper holes.

what about dads?

"Three-a-day of dairy, for healthy moms and healthy kids." what about dads? don't they need to be healthy too? i realize that the times, they are a changing, but in most families the dad is still the primary breadwinner. if dad isn't healthy, it makes it harder for him to earn said bread, which means mom and kid(s) will have problems affording their dairy products. so let's remember dads too, shall we?

liberal logic, or the lack thereof

from orson scott card:

Brod actually admits precisely what he's doing, when he says: "Fortunately, people finally seem to understand the fallacy of requiring proof."

Think about that. He calls it a fallacy to require proof.

read the whole article (on global warming)... i've always been a fan of card's novels, and he puts that same skill to use in his weekly column.

h/t pw

improbability

i never thought i'd say this, but the yankees got screwed. with two outs in the top of the eighth, willie bloomquist stole second. except for the part where he was out by about a foot. so either the umpire is a huge fan of bloomquist, or he had a really horrible angle on it. willie would go on to score on a single by kenji johjima, tying the game. the yankees were unable to score in the bottom of the eighth, and then with two outs in the top of the ninth, adrian beltre hit a solo shot to put the mariners up by one, and j.j. putz was able to shut down the yankees in the bottom of the ninth to give the mariners the win.

everything changed with "the stolen base that wasn't." if bloomquist was called out and nothing else changed, beltre wouldn't even have batted in the ninth, and the mariners would have lost. i'm glad when the mariners win (and when the yankees lose), but i much prefer it to be a legitimate victory.

Happy Birthday!

To my good friend Kate-Lynne.

huh. who knew?

guess which western country hates the french the most? that would be france.

h/t wizbang

We Win, They Lose

To: Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House
Harry Reid, U.S. Senate Democrat Leader

Congress has passed and President Bush has vetoed H.R. 1591, the Iraq Surrender Act of 2007.

This legislation, which you worked to pass, sets a timetable for surrender. It pulls the rug out from under our troops. That is shameful and wrong.

Your actions have already emboldened the enemy. Violent jihadists now know that the elected leadership of Congress would undermine the troops by holding their funding hostage to demands for surrender.

This Congress would bring us back to the dark days of the 1970s, when the world doubted our staying power. Except only much worse. Withdraw in April 2008, and on May 1, Iraq becomes an unchecked den of terrorism at the heart of the Middle East -- a new base for the same people that struck our homeland on September 11th.

I stand with our troops. I stand for victory. I support the President's veto and will urge my representatives to vote to sustain it.

There can be one and only one outcome in Iraq: We win, they lose.

Sign here.

i bet the wife was a horde character

because let's face it... those horde folk? they're pricks.

... of the day

*unbiased statement [paraphrased] of the day: "you need 3 servings of dairy a day for strong bones, and lots of essential nutrients. this message brought to you by the diary farmers of washington."
*ummm... duh? statement of the day: "enraged wraith becomes enraged!"

i had a lot more of these when i originally planned the post, so i'll probably update it later as i remember them.

--update--

here's another one i remembered:

*statement (of the day) that most pissed me off: from a YWCA radio commercial: "imagine you're walking down the street, and you see a group of mexicans and another group of americans fighting, over something as simple as the color of their skin."
1) "another group of americans"? where was the first one? so far you've identified one group of mexicans, and one of americans.
2) odds are they're not fighting over skin color, but over the fact that the mexicans: a) are probably here illegally, and b) don't speak much english.

'tis mearly a flesh wound!

now, had john kerry come back with an injury like this, he might have actually earned one of his purple hearts.

h/t dave barry

hooray! for political incorrectness

the plank in your own eye, or something like that

so ladies, next time you catch a man checking you out or "ogling" some other attractive female, remember this article.

h/t dave barry

proofreading? we don't need no stinking proofreading!

from the "bizzare duck case" in lynnwood, wa:

The man jumped into the driver's seat of the car as the woman walked out of the store with her duck. Not knowing what was going on, she tried to stop him from driving away and was knocked down by the open car door as it backed up. She dropped the duck.

A Petco employee saw what was happening and "ran to save Peepers from the front of the car" just as Quinlan drove forward, Stern wrote. The car ran over the woman, inflicting serious injuries including broken bones in her foot and ankle, he said.

first off, who worries more about a duck than a woman? that employee definitely has some messed up priorities. but we can worry about those later. for now, back to the the proofreading bit. notice the bit about "serious injuries" in that last paragraph? two paragraphs later, we see this:

The girlfriend and guard were not seriously hurt. Mr. Peepers was OK.

so, we have a few possibilities here:

1) having "serious injuries" is somehow different from being "seriously hurt."
2) this reporter is a really crappy writer, and nobody is proofreading his work.
3) this reporter is a really crappy writer, and his proofreader sucks.

i'm sure there are some other possible explanations, but i can't think of any at the moment.

h/t dave barry

prayer request

for the victims of the shooting at virginia tech, as well as for their families.

i could say "i told you so"

but i'll let the video do it for me:

ummm... duh?

"buy your tickets now, seating is limited!"

maybe it's just because i don't get out much, but i have yet to see any venue where seating is unlimited. you could argue in favor of "the universe," i suppose, although the event would have to be big enough for people in any area of the universe to see. if not, you're probably better off watching it on TV, in which case you really don't need to worry about seating.

Happy Easter!

Thank you Jesus, for dying for my sins, and for continuing to put up with me.

good news, bad news

the good news: some people still have common sense.

ARLINGTON, Texas — Darrell Roberson came home from a card game late one night to find his wife rolling around with another man in a pickup truck in the driveway.

Caught in the act with her lover, Tracy Denise Roberson -- thinking quickly, if not clearly -- cried rape, authorities say. Her husband pulled a gun and killed the other man with a shot to the head.

On Thursday, a grand jury handed up a manslaughter indictment -- against the wife, not the husband.

i have to say, i completely agree with that decision. read the whole article for more context.

h/t protein wisdom

the bad news: unless he changes this position, rudy guiliani just lost my vote for 2008.

"There must be public funding for abortions for poor women," Giuliani says in the speech that is posted on the video sharing site YouTube. "We cannot deny any woman the right to make her own decisions about abortion."

When asked directly Wednesday if he still supported the use of public funding for abortions, Giuliani said "Yes."

........

"Ultimately, it's a constitutional right, and therefore if it's a constitutional right, ultimately, even if you do it on a state by state basis, you have to make sure people are protected," Giuliani said in an interview with CNN's Dana Bash in Florida's capital city.

wrong answer rudy! a woman, poor or not, has no right to use my tax dollars for an abortion. she made the decisions that put her in a position where she "needs" an abortion, she can come up with her own funds for it.

rob at say anything brings up another interesting point: gun ownership is a consitutional right; and unlike abortion, is specifically mentioned in the constitution. does that mean public funds should be used to buy me, and every other american (with the exception of felons, people who can't/don't want to use them for some reason, etc.), a gun?

i'm really hoping now that guiliani loses in the primaries, or 2008 is going to be a really crappy year.

play ball! (updated)

is there anything better than a couple of good bratwursts soaked in guinness on opening night? i submit that there is not.

--update--
except for the part where they wake you up with heartburn at four in the morning.