Hmmm, that's funny; I always thought it was religious fanaticism combined with an immoral hatred and loathing for people who disagree with you.

Apparently Ms. Terror Apologist England thinks otherwise...

Ok, this one's certainly a long shot: Fred Thompson, Republican for President in 2008.

Of course, there's no indication that he's even running, but according to this Missouri family's internal caucus, Thompson would be a great candidate. He could appease the foreign policy hawks, social conservatives, and maybe even the libertarians in the party. Plus he's an actor, so he would also be recognizable to many Americans.

To be honest, I'm not that familiar with his politics, but he's in my favorite movie (The Hunt for Red October) and in one of my favorite TV series (Law & Order). So he'd have my vote! ;-)

Robert Novak has written up a pretty thorough outlook for the 2006 Congressional elections. As things sit now, they look pretty bad for the GOP, according to Novak.

If the election were held today, his conclusion is this: the Democrats pick up 14 seats and the GOP loses 14 in the House. To pick up the majority, however, the Dems need a gain of 15 seats.

What's particularly bad for the GOP, according to the current polling, is that the Republicans have many more seats in play than the Democrats do, and of those seats in play more of them are leaning Democrat than Democratic seats in play leaning GOP.

There are still a couple of months left and both parties have a fair number of districts to fight over. This election will definitely be more interesting than the last several.

But as I mentioned in my Kos post, the Dems are doing their best to alienate the country on foreign policy matters, so when push comes to shove: the GOP retains control of the House. I'll predict they lose no more than 10 seats.

One of my law school buddies and I got into a little debate regarding the impact of Daily Kos. The conversation began when I noted that Joseph Lieberman is up in every poll against opponent Ned Lamont, +15% in one of them.

My friend then offered his opinion that Markos is a political powerhouse, as supported by the fact the Lamont beat out Lieberman in the primary. I agreed that Kos is very influential, but I noted that his influence is negative and destroying the Democratic party.

Through his blog pogroms against Lieberman and other Dems who do not toe the line on U.S. foreign policy and other matters, Kos is succeeding at uniting much of the party behind his agenda, but at the same time he's ensuring that the party will alienate itself from mainstream America. The hard truth for Kos and his comrades is that a vast majority of Americans want the U.S. to succeed in Iraq and to continue to commit itself to make victory happen, even those who argue that we never should have gone to war in Iraq at all.

By no means is Bush's policy of "stay the course" an adequate policy for Iraq and the middle east, but success for Kos means that Democrats will be outside the debate altogether. America needs both of its parties to be working for solutions to the Iraq debacle, and right now one of the parties has left the game with the "get out now" approach which is becoming its public face. This isn't good enough and it's not going to satisfy voters in November.

Remember the Valerie Plame affair? Oh sorry, if you're like me you're probably trying to forget it. Afterall, it appeared that the scandalmongering by members of the press and by the political left amounted to a colossal waste of time.

Well, now we have that exact confirmation. Various news outlets are reporting that Novak's primary source was Richard Armitage, a staunch opponent of regime change in Iraq. This certainly blows a hole in the libs' claim that the "outing" of Valerie Plame was a political hackjob by Karl Rove intended to muzzle opponents of the Iraq war.

Furthermore, it is reported that Armitage probably didn't even know that Plame was technically undercover, and his mention of her was casual. In other words, no law was broken and this was not some evil plot by Karl Rove and/or George W. Bush.

So if there is any real scandal to this whole affair, it is that so many were so willing to publicly vilify Republicans based on speculation and not on any firm evidence. Of course, we've seen this before, haven't we?

On the first anniversary of the impact of Hurricane Katrina, Rush Limbaugh sums it up.

"Can I once again share with you the real lesson of Hurricane Katrina? The real lessons of Hurricane Katrina are these. You had a failure of government at every level -- state, local, and national. But you also had a failure of citizenship, basic citizenship, of people taking care of themselves, assuming responsibility for their own lives and circumstances like this. There's no other way to look at it. You also had this failure. You had a city, which by all right, if the liberals are correct, should have been a utopia.

I mean, there should have been no crime, there should have been no unhappiness, there should have been no racism, there should have been no unemployment, there should have been equal opportunity. People should have been running around New Orleans happy as they could be. What Hurricane Katrina exposed, and this is the truth, is that if liberals get their way, either in government or in running an entire community, they will destroy it. The people in New Orleans who got hung up were unable or unwilling, what have you, more likely unable, to take care of themselves; a liberal state government, a liberal local government had no clue what to do, none whatsoever. "

Back on August 17, I wrote in regards to Sen. George Allen: "Your confederate-style histrionics might pass in Virginia but they'll cost you and the Republican party come '08."

Now it seems that I have underestimated the harm caused him and the GOP by his racial slur. NRO is reporting that Allen is now tied with Democratic opponent James Webb. Apparently Allen's histrionics aren't going to pass in Virginia either.

NRO's John Podhoretz theorizes that it wasn't just the racial aspect of what Allen said that is harming him, but also the fact that the incident projected an image of a stronger guy picking on a weaker guy (who also happens to be a constituent).

According to the creators of South Park, they have it on good information that Saddam Hussein is being forced to watch the South Park movie repeatedly. I can't say that I see any problem with that...

I'm sure Saddam loves this scene (not for my ...ummm... younger readers):

Roncalli won their first game of the season against another 5A school yesterday. The opponent, Franklin Central, was a county school less than a 10 minute drive from Roncalli, so the game is sort of a rivalry. I say "sort of" because Roncalli always win, even if the game is close some years as it was this time.

Oh, and as of the writing of this post (3 p.m.), there's only 149 hours left until kickoff in the Notre Dame v. Georgia Tech game. Notre Dame by at least 2 touchdowns, that's my call.

Red Hot Chili Peppers, "We Believe":

The curtain
Is open
A head to
Put dope in
Now we will
Come clean it
The future
We've seen it
No, no, I know, I said, no, no

It's like a dream
That falls away
Into the night
Where we can play
I'm on a train
One happy day
Two eyes for sight
Three times I pray

Soda pop
We've got to set up shop
And when the weather comes
We've got a pressure drop
We don't know
But everyday I go
To see what I can bring
Into a cameo
Oh oh oh no

We believe
Climb a tree
For monkey business
Write a check out to forgivness
All the world on half an acre
Pushing dirt into a Quaker

The mission
The method
The downfall
Arrested
'Cuz it's not
The first time
Nor is it
The worst time
No no oh no

To see the bird
Without a care
For in a word
It's nice out there
In a tree
My mama bear
Will be all right
With proper care

Hey hey hey do

Boomerang
Into a bigger bang
A little cry of love
Because they cannot sing
Cherokee
What did the pharaoh see
Another time and space
Another place to be

We believe
Climb a tree
For monkey business
Write a check out to forgivness
All the world on half an acre
Pushing dirt into a Quaker

The motive
The measure
The purpose
The pleasure

The risk is
It worth it
The disc is
It perfect

I found you
Amongst them
The flower
With young stem

Disparage
The broken
The marriage
Alopin'

In this video, a gentleman explains to Kirk Cameron (go here to understand why he's in this) why and how he thinks a simple banana disproves evolution and proves God's creation by intelligent design...



Now, this is an occasion for bluntness. It is one thing to not be intelligent, but it is quite another to not be intelligent, to not be aware of your own stupidity, and simultaneously to insult the intelligence of others. This gentleman quite clearly falls into this second category.

He begins by mocking evolution, but later on he shows that he does not understand any of its basic tenets. He argues that a banana is evidence of an intelligent creator, because it easily fits into the human hand, it has a "tab" for removing its peel, it fits into the human mouth, and digests easily. A banana was just as obviously designed, he says, as a pop can is.

There are two fundamental problems with his argument. First, he fails to note that humans select what foods they eat. We have discovered the banana and grown it, precisely because of its qualities. There are numerous fruits that we eat little or none of because they lack any of the qualities of design that he touts. A great example would actually be another variety of bananas. There are many types of bananas and most of them are either too small or poor tasting to be attractive to humans. We have selected one variety and mass produced it, while excluding other varieties from our diet.

Second, and most damning to his argument, evolution can perfectly explain why a certain fruit is physically well-suited to a certain mammal. Intelligent design is not necessary. You see, fruits contain seeds and when a piece of fruit is eaten by a mammal the seeds eventually exit the mammal in its waste. This is a perfect means for the seeds to grow into new plants. Thus, under the principle of natural selection, traits that make a fruit better-suited to be consumed are more likely to be propagated.

So why have I harped on this matter? Well, I realize that most of my readers easily saw those same problems in that guy's argument which I just described. But the lesson here is greater: people like this should provide a stark warning as to what happens when faith and science are convoluted. Intelligent design is just a cheap way of trying to pass off a matter of faith as a matter of science, and some people will be unintelligent enough to see the shortcomings of it. Indeed, evolution is not law, but that does not mean that criticism of it should not be bound by the dictates of logic and the checks of the scientific community.

Absolutely pathetic. This "performance" has harmed music indelibly. Kevin Federline needs to go into a hole somewhere and never say or do anything in public ever again.

In a blessing to tourists gathered in Italy, Pope Benedict warned of the dangers of working too hard. Benedict quoted St. Bernard's writings in the 12th century: "...watch out for the dangers of an excessive activity, whatever ... the job that you hold, because many jobs often lead to the 'hardening of the heart,' as well as 'suffering of the spirit, loss of intelligence.'"

I certainly have witnessed this phenomenon in some people around me, however I have also witnessed the opposite. Not exercising one's faculties in a field best-suited by those faculties tends to dull one's mind and attitude. Just as our bodies need exercise, so does our minds and souls.

Perhaps this is a good lesson for me on the start of this year in law school.

Well, classes have begun for my third and final year of law school. No worries, my blog output will not decrease. In fact, it'll probably increase...

My friend Matt, a fellow 3L at Moritz Law, has a girlfriend who is entering her first year of law school here at Ohio State. Of course, Matt and I are giving her some pointers on how to "survive" what may well be one of the toughest and most trying academic exeperiences around.

A common saying amongst legal scholars is that going to law school is akin to "learning a foreign language." I happen to think this a fairly accurate description of the process of becoming a lawyer, excluding, of course, the inevitable general bitterness and alcoholism that also ingrain themselves during this time.So with an effort to illuminate the arcane language of law school, both for Julie and for all of you, I present an English-Legalese translator for your enlightenment.

Mandatory meeting

English: a meeting at which attendence is required
Legalese: a meeting where absolutely nothing of any practical use will be explained

Penumbra

English: a shadow
Legalese: something only a liberal can see

Brief

English: adj. short in duration or length
Legalese: n. a 25-30 page paper

On-call day

English: a period of time during which one may be asked to do something
Legalese: the last day of reading for that particular course

Case

English: the record of an adjudication between two or more parties in a court of law
Legalese: the record of some weird or incorrect application of law that will not appear on the exam (usage exeception: in constitutional law, the record of some weird or incorrect application of law that will appear on the exam)

Constitutional law

English: a class which explores the nature of the structure, interpretation and jurisprudence of the Constitution of the United States

Legalese: a class about the Commerce Clause

14th Amendment

English: provision of the Constitution guaranteeing citizens, among other things, the right to due process of law
Legalese: a magic wand waved by law professors to create rights out of thin air

Journal

English: a publication of scholarly works
Legalese: an 11th-century Medieval torture device that law students actively compete to join

Depends

English: contingent upon the circumstances; also, an adult diaper brand-name
Legalese: the correct answer to every question

Bar

English: a place to which one goes to get hammered and screwed
Legalese: a place to which one goes to get hammered and screwed

Republican

English: a follower of the conservative political party
Legalese: (archaic) a developmentally-disabled individual who must have gotten a freakishly high LSAT score to get into law school

Class

English: an academic meeting between professors and students
Legalese: a game of "hide-n-seek" between professors and students

Class participation

English: involvement of students engaging the professor as he lectures
Legalese: Yahoo! games and AIM

Well, I'm going to the Colts versus Seahawks preseason game tonight. Preseason games are absolutely meaningless, but maybe it will help take my mind off of Roncalli's loss on Friday.

Regarding the Colts, I have trouble becoming as passionate a fan towards them as I am with Notre Dame and Roncalli. The main reason, I suspect, is that the pro game seems less 'real' in my eyes. College and high school players play because of the game, and most often not because of financial incentive.

With ND's opener against Georgia Tech only 2 weeks and 1 day away, the excitement is so close I can taste it.

Rankings

The coaches' (USAToday) poll is out and it has ND tied for 3rd with USC. ND got 9 votes for #1. Ohio State, who got the #1 ranking, earned 28 votes for it.

ND is also ranked #3 in ESPN's Power16 poll. The AP poll is due out soon.

...

A prediction

Chris has got his ND season prediction up on Musings of a Domer. He's also calling 11-1, but you'll have to follow that link to see who he predicts the Irish will lose to. Chris also writes that the keys to the Irish season are the kicking game and the defense. I couldn't agree more.

...

Etc.

So ESPN ran a stupid feature last week that depicted this season's major college football actors as cartoon superheroes. Pretty stupid, I know. Well, check out Kelly Green and scroll down to see some pretty hilarious spoofs. For example, here's our favorite race-baiting ND-hating columnist, Jason Whitlock:



Word on the grapevine is that the defense is looking really strong. As many of you know, Travis Thomas has been moved to outside linebacker, where his speed will be utilized in a manner that mirrors that of a safety in many aspects. The offense, however, is reportedly looking kindof sloppy, though backup RB, Munir Prince, is said to look blindingly quick. His presence not only frees up TT for defense, but it also adds another dangerous weapon in ND's offensive arsenal.

Tonight is the first regular season game in the universe of the teams I care about, with 8-time State champion Roncalli playing its opener against a strong big class opponent. Thus, in a sense, it's New Years Day for me :-)

So here's an excerpt, which admittedly is out of context, from U2's "New Year's Day":

Under a blood-red sky
A crowd has gathered in black and white
Arms entwined, the chosen few
The newspaper says, says
Say it's true, it's true...
And we can break through
Though torn in two
We can be one.



Rebel Football website...

And here is the IndyStar's preview of Roncalli's team and upcoming season

If you're a current U.S. senator running for election, and you're planning on a run for the presidency, throwing out racial slurs probably isn't the best idea... (even if they are in French)

This is even more true when there have already been allegations of racism in your past.

So I say to George Allen: please stop! Your confederate-style histrionics might pass in Virginia but they'll cost you and the Republican party come '08.

'Do as I say, not as I do...'

Nope, there's no way this photo was Photoshopped at all ;-)



I thank the folks at Tech Central Station for that hilarious photo, and I recommend you read Glenn Reynolds' column on TCSDaily which shows that this isn't the first time that fake news has entered "the news." He also shows how most of the time the fake news paints either Israel or the U.S. in a negative light.

Hey all. I missed last Football Friday because I was on a little vacation of sorts. So here's a little football talk before this Friday... And by "football talk," I mean baseball bashing :-)

According to this Yahoo article, the average baseball game lasts 2 hours and 48 minutes, but the baseball is actually in play only 10 minutes or so during that time.

Draw what conclusion(s) you wish.

1. The civilian death toll from insurgent attacks is frighteningly high. In June, just over 100 civilians died each DAY of the month. I have not seen July's figures yet. Further, the violence seems increasingly to be a matter of Sunnis versus Shiites.

2. The elected government is Shia dominated and is sympathetic to groups such as Hezbollah. Have we created a puppet regime to the clerics of Iran?

3. The Iraqi government is not respecting basic human rights. For example, latest reports show that Iraqi citizens are being executed merely for being gay. As scary as this fact is alone, what makes it worse is who is doing the executions:

"He [the victim] was kidnapped by the Badr Brigade in mid-June. They work with the Ministry of Interior and are the informal armed wing of the Supreme Council of Islamic Revolution in Iraq, who make up the largest Shia bloc in the Iraq parliament."

What the hell!? So the Shia-run party has its own informal armed wing who is instituting its own form of justice across the country. Is it any wonder that some Sunnis are resisting this with their own violence?

The latest Rasmussen poll shows Senator Joseph Lieberman leading opponent Ned Lamont 46% to 41%. The Republican candidate in the 3-way race, Alan Schlesinger, is pulling in just 6%.

Perhaps even more significant is that Lieberman is still attracting 35% of the Democratic vote, while at the same time drawing increasing numbers of Republicans (who presumably do not want to see a Lamont victory).

Not too bad, but there's plenty of time to reach all 50...



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As astonishing at this may be to some people, I can be wrong, though however rare that may be ;-)

Lieberman lost the primary...

Despite the fact that Joe Lieberman's opponent in the primary, Ned Lamont, has a 6 point advantage over him in the latest polls, I predict that Lieberman will prevail for his party's nomination today.

I base this prediction on two factors: first, far leftists (who support Lamont in this race) don't show up at the polls reliably; and second, the polling gap was much larger and has narrowed recently.

The polls in Connecticut close at 8 P.M. Eastern. (Time of this post: 9:03 A.M.)

Prepare to be amazed...



Prepare to be amazed again...

If you watched any form of media last week you could not have escaped the coverage of the incident at Qana, Lebanon. And rightfully so to an extent. The incident was a major Israeli air strike that resulted in the mistaken killing of civilians.

The problem is in how the incident was reported. Many in the press allowed themselves to be used as pawns by the Hezbollah propaganda machine. Think about it. Hezbollah knows that they cannot defeat Israel by arms, so their only hope of scoring a victory is to convince the powers in Europe and the U.S. to tie Israel's hands in a ceasefire. And what better way to do that than to paint Qana as a massacre?

The press reports in the papers and on television universally recorded the death toll as over 50 and perhaps over 60. As it turns out, this number was inflated by two-fold. If any civilians are killed, that's too many, but when Israel claims they are attempting to limit civilian deaths and Hezbollah claims Israel is intentionally targeting civilians, getting the actual number right is imperative.

The media's sloppiness (some of it intentional, I'm sure) extended to the photos they ran. Outlets from the LA Times, to the New York Times, to the Guardian in London, all ran photos that included the same rescue worker carrying the same dead child. However, evidence that these photos were staged is quite convincing.

This is pressterism; there's no better way to describe it.

It's been too long since I've scrutinized examples of pressterism in the media... But this was just too easy: Reuters admits to doctoring a photo to make destruction in Beirut look worse than it was. The distorted photo was so obviously photoshopped that it's comical:



It's not comical, however, because this was a major media organization that allowed this to happen. It also points towards Reuter's liberal and anti-Israeli bias. Their credibility is absolutely shot.

Ah, so it's that glorious time of year again known as football season. And that means that I must rise to the challenge once more with a prediction for the Notre Dame season.

My past predictions, in 2004 and 2005, called the record and postseason (Willingham getting fired and Weis taking the Irish to a BCS game) spot on, but didn't predict all of the individual games correctly. So this year the pressure is on. Though, I must admit that much of that pressure is due to the ample bragging and hyping that I have done in regards to my past predictions :-)

Now without further delay:

- Georgia Tech @ Georgia Tech = ND wins: GT is being hyped up by a lot of people and many are saying this might be a surprise loss for the Irish. I'm not buying it and neither should you. ND's going to come out hungry and put up a lot of points. The question, as it is going to be for the season, is whether we'll see championship caliber defense ND.

- Penn State @ ND = ND wins: Penn State is a big question for me and thus I feel least confident about this game's prediction. Some people are saying they'll fall a bit from last season. Others say they'll be BCS bound again. The game is in the house that Rock built, so I think we'll see a slim Irish victory worth remembering for some years.

- Michigan @ ND = ND loses: Believe me, it pains me greatly to predict a loss to Michigan. I predicted it last year and I was wrong, but I'm still going to call it again. Michigan is due to beat us, and I could see our boys getting a bit cocky after their big victory over Penn State. Oh, and Lloyd Carr's butt is on the line.

- Michigan State @ MSU = ND wins: What can I say? ND's going to be out for revenge and we have more talent and better coaching than they do. I said we'd beat them last year and I was wrong. What are the odds that I'll be wrong 2 years in a row?

- Purdue @ ND = ND wins: I'm going to enjoy beating these suckers for the next decade. Look for PU to have a season not too different from last year's. Oh, and btw, last year several Purdue fans bet me on the game. This year none of them seem to be so eager.

- Stanford @ ND = ND wins: I always worry some about Stanford. If ND lets down this game they could be in for an uncomfortably tight contest. But it's at home and as I said last year, Weis' Irish are not going to lose the games they shouldn't.

- UCLA @ ND = ND wins: It's a PAC-10 team and it's not USC. We'll win. They might be able to put up some points on us, but God help an opponent who tries to beat ND in a shootout. We'll put up 50+ if we have to.

- Navy @ Navy = ND wins: I'll never ever predict otherwise.

- North Carolina @ ND = ND wins: I think we should feel guilty for scheduling these guys. They're worse than BYU and they're not Mormons or convicts so they're not going to be as fun to beat.

- Air Force @ Air Force = ND wins: This is another game that I worry about as a potential upset. The Irish will have been on a 6-game winning streak and they'll be on the road. Plus, Air Force can be tricky some years. But the Irish will be smelling a possible National Championship game opportunity, and they'll stay motivated for a win.

- Army @ ND = ND wins; 3 service academies are too many to play; let's schedule a Big 12 team shall we?

- USC @ USC = ND wins; Payback time! USC has tons of talent again this year, but they don't have the one thing that allowed them to squeak by us last year: Reggie Bush. Odds are that USC will have a loss on their schedule too and both teams will be fighting for a lot. But we're going to be better than we were last year and USC won't be.


Okay, by my count, that's an 11-1 regular season. That'll likely be enough to put ND into the National Championship game this year, but that's as far as my prediction is going.

GO Irish!!

Watching the war unfolding in northern Israel and southern Lebanon, the world’s reaction to it, and the coverage thereof, one aspect in particular stands out above all others: Hizbollah good, Israel bad.

As is often the case in the history of this Mid-East conflict, Israel is always held to one standard, and its Arab (and in this case, Persian) enemies are held to none. Let’s look at some examples.

Today, over 200 rockets landed in Israel, bring the total to 2,000 attacks in the past three weeks. The rockets are not directed at Israeli troop positions, nor are they targeted at military bases. Hizbollah deliberately aims and fires at Israeli cities and towns, with the express intent to murder innocent civilians. Israeli troops, on the other hand, utilize expensive precision-guided weapons to attack only those targets its intelligence can confirm are terrorist-occupied. When a mistake occurs, and civilians are killed, Israel launches an investigation. When Hizbollah kills innocent civilians, it too launches an investigation… on how to kill more innocent civilians.

Whether Israel was militarily exhausted or just enthused at an opportunity for peace, in 2000 it left Lebanon in accordance with U.N. Resolution 1559. So concerned was Israel that it not be left occupying a single inch of Lebanese territory, it asked the United Nations to draw and define the border between the two countries. The other part of 1559, the cookie for the Israeli withdrawal, was the disarming of Hizbollah. It never happened. In fact, Hizbollah only became stronger. Fast forward 6 years, and now Hizbollah is launching wave after wave of rocket attacks against Israel. And for what? There was not one Jew on one inch of Lebanese soil!

Every liberal to moderate talking head worth his weight in hot air is calling the Israeli response “disproportionate.” But I ask, what would a proportionate response look like? Israeli artillery randomly shooting at Beirut? Israeli commandos sneaking across the border and kidnapping Lebanese soldiers? Would this kind of response be less violent? Would it be more likely to solve anything? Name for me the proportionate response to the following: 11 Southern states declaring secession from the Union; Pearl Harbor; the Holocaust; 9/11.

And what is there in way of a solution? Much has been made of a possible multi-national peacekeeping force in southern Lebanon, but I fear this is unworkable. What nations are going to send troops? The U.S.? Even if we weren’t already stretched out, and even if we had forgotten about our last sojourn in Lebanon, we would merely been seen as a proxy Israeli army. Britain? Probably the same as America. France? La Belle France would seem the obvious choice, given her history with Lebanon (Beirut is known as the Paris of the Middle-East. [I think this moniker originated because of the city’s beauty and charm, but nowadays it probably has more to do with the droves of violent unemployed Muslim youth.]) Unfortunately, France has already indicated it’s not thrilled with the idea. Probably because it would involve having a military capability and/or working more than 25 hours per week. Other Europeans? Perhaps, but again, I doubt that any European government would put its own troops at risk for Israel’s sake. Especially considering the irony they would face when they came under attack from the very weapons they have for years supplied the Palestinians with. Russia? Um, next question. China? China considers its occupation of Tibet to be a “peace-keeping” mission.

What is the solution then? Well, to answer that, you must first define the goal. And that is, getting rid of Hizbollah. There is no point in any settlement that doesn’t guarantee that rockets won’t come raining down on Haifa on any given day. This goal can’t happen through diplomacy. It just can’t. If it could’ve happened, it would have after 2000 when Israel left Lebanon. When the deal is “land for peace,” and you give the land part, but your opponent doesn’t supply the peace part, there’s nowhere to negotiate from there. I don’t know how many more Oslo’s or 1559’s or Camp David’s it’s going to take to get it through these peaceniks thick skulls that, when the enemy doesn’t want peace, diplomacy won’t work.

The solution is military force. And Israel is the only country with the means and the will to do it. Lebanon, the real Lebanon, is not at all terrorist sympathizing nation. The majority of its Druze, Christians, and Sunnis do not support Hizbollah and would love to have sovereignty over their whole nation again. But the problem is, after years of civil war and Syrian occupation, their military is simply not able to do it. So, while it is truly sad and unfair that innocent Lebanese are suffering through no fault of their own, there is simply no other option, for them or Israel or us. Not if we all want what we claim to want: a sustainable peace.

I'd like to take this moment to introduce a new feature on DC, and to show that I'm not on some sort of cattle fetish today (see the last 2 posts). The feature is called Football Fridays, and will take place on every Friday starting this week and running through the end of football season.

Myself, EmperorDan (whose idea this was), and some guest bloggers will post purely on football topics on these Fridays. Look for Notre Dame to be a prominent topic as the Irish make a run for the title this season. I'll also be posting on the Indianapolis Colts and on my high school alma mater Roncalli. I imagine that Dan might have a thing or two to say about the Cleveland Browns.

So make sure to check out the blog this Friday for the first round, and if you would like to contribute, shoot me a line.


P.S. This Friday I will post my official 2006 ND Football prediction and I have a bit of news regarding a certain Irish player...

Here's the first half of this article from the Des Moines Register:

Audubon, Ia. — Testicles.

The word itself, a mere three syllables long, is easy to pronounce.

But for RAGBRAI riders who rode into Audubon Monday evening and came upon the town’s crown jewel, Albert the Bull and his impressive bits, the word became nearly impossible to actually say.

“I’ve never seen anything quite like it,” said Betty Shea of Iowa City.

“I’ve seen in the paper that it’s the largest anatomically-correct bull in the world.”

She paused and peered in the general direction of the bull’s bits.

“That seems to be about right,” she said.

“He’s pretty well-endowed,” her husband Mark Shea said.

Indeed, Albert is most definitely that.

At 45 tons – that’s 90,000 pounds – and standing 30 feet tall, Albert is about five times as large as the Hereford bull he’s modeled after. He’s 42-years-old, is visible from two miles away along the highway and is visited by 20,000 people annually.

Ah, gotta love toys from the '70s...