Oh, no

Not again!

Another murdering football player is on the brink of getting away with it. At least in the Rae Carruth trial it's likely to end in a deadlock, instead of an acquittal. That means the prosecution can have another go at it.

Well, President Bill is outta here. I didn't even listen to his lame farewell address. I'm feeling a little bitter towards him. After all, he's had this hugely progressive change of heart ever since Al lost, and has suddenly found his misplaced voice about some major problems he's leaving for us.

The president has clearly decided to spend his final days in office paying homage to all the things he did nothing about when he had the power to do almost anything.

Hey, the comedy writers will miss him. I'm having mixed feelings too about the confirmation fights underway with Ashcroft and Norton. In both cases, one has to weigh the dangers of them being confirmed versus the alternative. For Ashcroft, the key problem is in the direction of prosecutions that are left up to the Federal Authorities. Consider a case like this one where he supported a bill that, in addition to banning the "partial birth abortions" also made it legal to use lethal force against abortion providers when the killer believes their action will save a fetus. The bill is currently in the federal courts, and Ashcroft could conceivably use the power of the US Attorneys to file briefs and otherwise support the bill as it passes through the court systems. One can honestly believe his pledge to enforce the laws of the land, since he did serve as Attorney General of the state of Missouri, but in disputes like this one his past political stances and deeply held personal beliefs will make it difficult to act impartially; which generally means staying out of disputes like this one. I think it's probably best to try to spike him and force Dubya to appoint a less partisan appointee. Unfortunately, his confirmation is a lock despite Ronnie White's powerful testimony, since all 50 Republicans will vote for him and some Democrats will too.

Gale Norton will win, too barring any major scandals coming out. That's too bad; she's a Wise Use disciple, which is the philosophical line of thought justifying some of the most nasty anti-environmentalists in public policy over the last quarter century. That last link is the original source document behind the movement. If you are an environmentalist to them, you fall in to one of these three categories:

1. Establishment Interventionists - acting to hamper property rights and markets sufficiently to centralize control of many transactions for the benefit of environmentalists and their funders in the foundation community, while leaving the market economy itself operational. They tend to emphasize the need for natural diversity and in some cases to own and manage wildlife preserves. Notable organizations in this sector are the Nature Conservancy, National Wildlife Federation, National Audubon Society.
2. Eco-Socialists - acting to dislodge the market system with public ownership of all resources and production, commanded by environmentalists in an ecological welfare state. They tend to emphasize the limits of earthly goods. Greenpeace, Native Forest Council, Maine Audubon Society are representative groups.
3. Deep Ecologists - acting to reduce or eliminate industrial civilization and human population in varying degrees. They tend to emphasize that nature's way is best and environmentalism is radical. Earth First!, Sea Shepherd Conservation Society, Native Forest Network are in this category.

Oh, no. How paranoid can you be? Sure, there are plenty of environmentalists out there that fit into these categories, but you can see the way they use code words to let you know what kind of pinkos they think we are. Norton's been pissing off environmentalists for a long time, now (near the bottom of that link).

Random weirdness

This site takes popular songs and Jesusifies them. This is pretty bizarre, especially "Biblethumping," to the tune of "Tubthumbing" by Chumbawumba (my sister Valerie loves that song). Link via the inestimable PCJM, a first rate blog that apparently I am required to pass along a link from at least once a week or so.

My God got killed, but He rose up again
Death could never never keep Him down!


Do they not realize this is a drinking song by an anarchist band? Are they encouraging kids to learn these songs? Whatever happened to Pop Culture being the enemy?
This is getting too weird. Chumbawumba has a page of pie-ing links. I'll take it as a sign to be done; I'm quitting now.