Prayers for the Bettinellis.

Going through another trial.

You have ours.

Time to Rudy down...

Jay Anderson has more info about Mayor Giuliani's judicial selections, shooting down any excuses for his failure to appoint the "strict constructionists" he claims to love:

The point Dale makes is one that Ted Olsen tried to make at CPAC. The Politico ran a rebuttal noting that Rudy picked the panel, and actually bucked the panel whenever he thought corruption was involved in a pick. The Politico also noted that Rudy had no problem tangling with other panels over which he had LESS control than the judicial panel.

Politico link here.

Watching Bill Simon, Ted Olson and other rock-ribbed conservatives try to spin the Mayor into something he's not is beginning to give me vertigo. More than a little like watching a barbershop quartet trying to cover Nine Inch Nails, in fact.

["It's not that shocking when you hear it like this:

(Harmonizing) '....from the innnnsiiiiiiiiiiiide....'"]

Got the Rudy Fever?

Nope--not catching it.

Still not (though there's something of a caveat on this, as I noted in the comments [Update: now part of the body of the post, many thanks!]).

If you want an antidote to the swoonfest over the former mayor of New York, I recommend PowersPoint, a moderately liberal blog that doesn't pretend the Left is infallible or immaculate.

Run by Kirsten Powers, it also has other contributors who have jointly managed to compile an interesting set of links on Mr. Giuliani.

Look, I can appreciate his good features, but the GOP is basically asking the SoCons to sell their soul for...what? Judicial appointments that may or may not pan out? That's pretty much all he's hinting at.

And don't get me started on the Catholic angle, either--he threatens to make Kerry look good, for the love of Pete.

Don't sign me up.

It's a boomlet, and it will pass. Because if it doesn't, it looks like I'm leaving the top part of the ballot unmarked in '08.

New blog alert!

So fresh from the oven the Sitemeter read 13 when I got there:

Recapturing Our Catholic Patrimony, by Peter and Sarah Park.

The first post gives you the flavor:

After a hosting a Lenten Discussion Series in 2005, my wife, Sarah, and I, by the grace of God, started a study series that examined the often overlooked Church documents that came before the Second Vatican Council. These documents contained much of the traditional teachings of the Church which seemed to have been lost in my Catholic education throughout high school and college. We named the group "RCP" - Recapturing Our Catholic Patrimony in light of Pope Benedict XVI’s 2005 Christmas message to the Curia. Each week we invite members of the local Catholic community in Houston to our home for a family dinner, fellowship, and a look at the teachings of the Church through the lens of tradition. We have a core group of about 12 regulars each week, growing bit by bit as RCP is made known by word of mouth.

Looks like it will be very worthwhile--and it comes with the imprimatur of EvilSteve and EvilHilary, too. What more could you want?

Courage Man has been blogging up a storm.

Great posts on:

(1) the slow strangulation of religious freedom in Great Britain (coming soon to the U.S. outside of Massachusetts);

(2) Thoughts about gay outreach Masses;

(3) and finally, an Andrew Sullivan aesthetic atrocity.

And, many thanks, CM, for the "born children" reference. Brought tears to our eyes--but in a good way.

The Boy™ and I built our first model.



An Italeri 1/35 scale [Oops--Sudden Onset of Illiteracy--it's a 1/72] mock-up of this little number, the Sd. Kfz. 234/2 Puma armored car:




It was his choice--a birthday present. He was jonesing to go back to the hobby store after getting a monster truck model last year, and the Puma makes perfect sense from his 4 year old perspective: it's a wheeled vehicle that blows things up. I like the Italeri kit because it offers two approaches--detailed and wargamer. The detailed version is just that--more historically accurate. However, the kit advises that this method is much more complicated and fragile. Given that it's been forever since I've assembled a model that involved glue, I picked "wargamer" in a heartbeat. Good call, dad. It's held up pretty well so far. Now all we have to do is add the decals and paint it. We were going to do it today, but since he broke the cannon (I fixed it), I told him he'd have to wait.


Now the only problem is that he wants to take a spin in the real thing. And Maddie wants in on the action--except that she's gunning for a battleship. She overheard me telling Dale that my first model was a BB--the U.S.S. Massachusetts, in fact.


And so it begins.

Well, that's cast a gloom over the evening.

Michigan couple has body parts delivered to house.

"My husband started to unwrap one and said, 'This is strange, it looks like a liver,'" Ludivine Larmande said. "He started the second one, but stopped as soon as we saw the ear.
Something wasn't right."

Um...that's it?

[GALACTICA SPOILER WARNING]














I trust the creators, but that's a pretty bleak and pointless end for Starbuck, for all the buildup. Her "destiny" is to be air pollution?

Anybody got anything?

What does anyone really expect from Coulter, anyway?

About once a year, she says something inexcusable from a high-profile, maximum-publicity pulpit. Coincidence? She cares as much about the impact she has on conservatives as a hurricane does about property values.

The outrage is in large measure appropriate, though part of me thinks it's mighty convenient. Many of the people currently in high dudgeon still think "godbag" is high-larious.

With that in mind, I have the perfect response for GOP candidates, personally approved by John Edwards himself:

The tone and the sentiment of some of Ann Coulter's comments personally offended me. It's not how I talk to people, and it's not how I expect the people who work for me to talk to people. Everyone is entitled to their opinion, but that kind of intolerant language will not be permitted from anyone on my campaign, whether it's intended as satire, humor, or anything else. But I also believe in giving everyone a fair shake. I've talked to Ann; she has assured me that it was never her intention to malign anyone's sexuality, and I take her at her word. We're beginning a great debate about the future of our country, and we can't let it be hijacked. It will take discipline, focus, and courage to build the America we believe in.

Finally: Someone asking hard questions about a cherished myth.

Was the Death Star Attack an Inside Job?

Sure--some speeder-driving farm boy destroys the ultimate power in the universe. Riiiiiiight.

Oh, and more uncomfortable questions about the Death Star attack [do not miss the quotes in the combox, either]. You can't handle the truth.

I haven't been so excited since "Dio 2004."

Christopher Walken in '08.

Just imagine the negotiations with the Iranians:

That smarts, doesn't it? Getting slammed in the nose. F___ you all up. You get that pain shootin' through your brain, your eyes fill up with water.

That ain't any kind of fun, but what I have to offer you, that's as good as it's gonna get. And it won't ever get that good again.

We talked to your neighbors. They saw a reactor. Weapons-grade. Your reactor, and a whole bunch of delivery systems, buried in your desert. Mahmood, you seen your nukes?