Boy Scouts mistake unmitigated gall for courage

When it was discovered in 2000 that the Boy Scouts of America were cooking their enrollment books, the major news media, for the most part, ignored it. To my knowledge, only Rolling Stone did an in-depth piece on the scandal. Now, here it is, 2005, and after multiple promises that there would be no more hanky-panky, it turns out the Boy Scouts are at it again, this time in Atlanta. The Atlanta-area group has inflated its number of African American scouts in a program for inner-city youth.

Boy Scouts of America has gotten away with discrimination against gays, despite the fact that the organization is largely funded by churches, especially the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and would fold without their financial support. It has also gotten away with continually lying about its membership in order to receive funding.

A Boy Scout is supposed to be trustworthy, kind, and clean of mind. The leadership certainly isn't doing much by way of example.

Ponchatoula, Louisiana child sex abuser gets beaten up in jail

For those of you who are keeping up with the Louisiana church child sex abuse and animal abuse case, it has a new wrinkle: Over the weekend, one of the suspects, Nicole Bernard, was beaten by several inmates in the parish jail and had to be hospitalized. The sheriff is now talking about moving all of the suspects to other jails for their safety.

Want a crotch shot of Nadal? Don't hold your breath

It's hard to think of a more dignified sportswoman than Mary Pierce, so it was especially disgusting to see what the ESPN camera crew did to her right before the start of her French Open quarterfinal with Lindsay Davenport. Pierce bent down to re-tie her shoes, and when she did, her shirt slipped, exposing the tops of her breasts. The camera went directly to her breasts and stayed there for a very long time.

With Maria Sharapova out of the tournament, ESPN now has to get more creative in finding ways to sell sex instead of women's tennis.

It not only blurs the line between church and state; it's just plain stupid

A judge in Kentucky has been giving some alcohol and drug offenders the choice of attending worship services instead of going to jail or to rehab. Michael Caperton, described as a "devout Christian," says his sentences do not comprise a church-state issue because they are not mandatory and because he is careful to say "worship services" and not "church." Well, I'm glad to hear that; it gives convicted individuals an opportunity to finally worship at their local bowling alley or shopping mall.

The ACLU is stating that Caperton's sentencing clearly strays from government's neutrality toward religion because those who decline to go to "worship services" must go to jail. Of course, the ACLU is correct.

Beyond the church-state issue, however, is the issue of outcome. While jail usually does not rehabilitate alcohol and drug users, it at least provides consequences (granted, not always fair, in the case of marijuana) for illegal and often dangerous acts. Rehab units, in my professional experience, are not much help for drug addicts but are often successful for alcohol-dependent people. But there is no evidence that going to church has any impact on substance addiction recovery. And in the case of highly addictive individuals, compulsive religiosity can develop in churches that encourage that sort of thing.

Caperton's judgment is impaired, and the best outcome for him would be for the ACLU to put a stop to what he is doing.

The May garden

Antique canna 'Liberation'

"Tailors will take the names of any person not wearing underwear"

Only in the U.K would soldiers have to be reminded to wear their undies when they go to be fitted for uniforms. Because "it's always been the macho thing not to wear underpants," the British military speculates that none of the soldiers really meant to provide an unwanted show for the tailors.

Here in the U.S., we have the opposite problem.

If you want to insult a man, the best way to do it is to call him a woman

Which is exactly what Frank Rich does in his May 29 New York Times column, "Ground Zero Is So Over."

Rich calls John Kerry "...a character whose genius for equivocating on just about any issue rendered him a pantywaist..."

Liberals are already jumping all over Rich's attack on Kerry (they would do better to find a non-equivocating candidate), but who is really being attacked is every woman in the country. Every time we attack a man by saying he is a woman, we insult all women.

You can write to the Times at letters@nytimes.com

"They thought they had the kids under control"

Those were the words of a law enforcement officer after a 4-year-old boy was shot dead in Tower, Minnesota over the weekend. The boy's family and friends were shooting paper targets, the child wandered in the way, and he was killed by a bullet.

No charges are being filed because it was an accident.

Can anyone say "child endangerment?"

I guess not.

A good example of why mainstream conservatives make fun of liberals

When Lance Armstrong started wearing that yellow Livestrong wristband to promote his foundation, I knew what was going to happen, and it did. There are now colored wristbands for everything--pink for breast cancer, blue for tolerance, and an assortment that includes everything from a Jesus Loves Me wristband to wristbands for hope, peace, and harmony.

What Do I Know has found the wristband to beat all wristbands, however. It turns out that the anti-poverty wristbands made for the Make Poverty History campaign are made in Chinese factories in conditions that violate both Chinese law and the Ethical Trading Initiative. In other words, sweatshops.

Doubtless, many other wristbands are made in similar conditions.

Memorial Day, 2005

The May garden--in the shade

A view of Holly's Shade Oasis, a small garden adjoining our deck which was planted in honor of our cat Holly, and which now serves as a memorial to her. A glass fishing buoy is visible, and there is a stainless steel sphere on the other end. Hanging above the garden is another fishing buoy, and several hanging baskets surround the area.

Asparagus plant on the wall above Holly's Shade Oasis

Student teacher files suit against Southeastern Louisiana University

A couple of weeks ago, I reported that one of the crazy right-wing teachers in Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana attempted to run out a student teacher who complained that the teacher was violating the Constitution by leading the students in prayers. To say that she succeeded would be to excel in understatement.

Cynthia Thompson, a student at D.C. Reeves Elementary School in Ponchatoula, was uncomfortable when teacher Pamela Sullivan, who conducted Bible studies in the cafeteria, allegedly ordered that prayers be said in class. When Thompson mentioned that the activities were unconstitutional, the teacher ordered her to select a student to lead the prayers. Thompson selected a Lebanese student, who was clearly not at ease saying a Christian prayer.

According to Thompson, she then complained to her advisor at Southeastern Louisiana University, who responded by holding Thompson's hand and praying for guidance.

Please note: I am not making this up.

The Dean of the College of Education at SLU (which, by the way, is a respected university), Diane Allen, has now accused Thompson of "forgery, alteration, unauthorized possession or misuse of university documents." These "documents" amounted to a notebook, purchased by Thompson, in which she documented Sullivan's First Amendment violations.

Thompson gave a copy of her notes to Allen. She then received an F in student teaching, and--with the ACLU's backing--has filed suit against Southeastern Louisiana University, the Tangipahoa Parish School Board, and several university officials, including SLU president Randy Moffett and Sullivan.

New Orleans Times-Picayune columnist James Gills sums it up best: "The Christians of Tangipahoa have maintained in their letters that it can never be tyranny to let the majority have what it wants. The Christians of Iraq, however, take a different view."

I'm sick of Bud Collins

Collins' latest insult is to call all of Lindsay Davenport's French Open opponents prior to Kim Clijsters "no-names." While it is true that Katerina Srebotnik, Shuai Peng, and Virginie Razzano are ranked well below the world number one, calling them no-names not only insults them, it insults Davenport.

So far, all of Davenport's French Open matches have gone to three sets, not what one would expect from a world number one, but not really unexpected in this circumstance: Davenport always struggles on red clay, and she did not play any of the European warm-up tournaments. And to the casual watch-only-the-Grand-Slam-final-matches reader, Srebotnik, Peng, and Razzano are indeed no-names. But to people who follow tennis, they are not. Peng, before entering the WTA tour, earned eight ITF singles titles. Srebotnik has three WTA singles titles.

This isn't the first time Collins has said something nasty. In 2003, he complained that a group of "players who can't play" were competing to be the next Anna Kournikova, that is, the next celebrity fashion plates. Though I, too, find it offensive for WTA players to become cover girls, in this case, Collins was talking out of his ass. At the time, I said that each of the players to whom Collins had to be referring was a proven tennis prodigy.

And I was right. Jelena Dokic won five WTA singles titles and was ranked number 4 in the world before her career was toppled by serious family problems (yet another abusive tennis father). Daniela Hantuchova won one WTA singles title and was ranked number 5 in the world before family problems curtailed her career, also. She is currently trying to regain her former status, and has worked her way up to number 22.

Elena Dementieva, a former world number 4 and currently ranked number 5 in the world, has won four WTA singles titles, and has been a finalist in two Grand Slams. And the other pretty blonde girl who "can't play" is Maria Sharapova, currently ranked number 2 in the world. Sharapova has won nine WTA singles titles, was the 2004 Wimbledon singles champion, and also won the 2004 end-of-season championships.

Please Bud, do us all a favor and shut the hell up.

Elena Dementieva practices before a match at the 2005 Family Circle Cup in Charleston

The May garden--more daylilies

This daylily turned out to be a mistaken shipment by the hypbridizer--name unknown

Passalong daylily--name unknown

Sunday reading

What Do I Know reminds us that--so far--the cost of investigating Whitewater is $70 million greater than the cost of investigating the Downing Street Memo.

arse poetica analyzes the Smithsonian's new film screening, and it's definitely one thumb down.

And still on the subject of evolution v. intelligent design, Jane Crow Journal presents a thoughtful analysis of the topic.

Ripple of Hope discovers that the most sickenly righteous Simon Leis is just another plagiarist.

ms. musings finds an essay in The New Republic that I wish I'd written--about the new film trend of having men be attracted to "quirky, free-spirited women" who are actually psychologically disturbed. This subject has bothered me for a while, and I'm glad someone wrote about it.

And finally, The Goddess asks us to please mind our language--we need some new phrases. Amen.

And you thought nothing was being done about outsourcing

Indian call center workers are being driven from their jobs because of verbal abuse from British and American customers. The insults are sometimes sexual and often racial, as in "You're a Paki, I don't want to talk to you," and "You're from India, you don't know anything."

The only good thing to come of this situation is that the stress is so bad, many Indians, heretofore forbidden by tradition from seeking help, are now in seeing psychotherapists.

Oops, pardon me...I thought I was raping my girlfriend

Yesterday, a court-martial was under way for an Air Force Academy cadet accused of raping a female cadet after a heavy night of drinking in Mexico. The accused, Benjamin Kuster, the alleged victim, and the accused's girlfriend were all sleeping on the floor. Kuster's defense? He mistook the alleged victim for his girlfriend.

In the meantime, an arrest warrant has been issued for Jennifer Bier, the rape counselor who counseled an alleged rape victim at the Academy. Bier is refusing to turn over her records of the counseling sessions.

A 2003 Air Force Academy scandal revealed that dozens of women were either ignored or penalized when they reported sexual assault and rape to Academy officials.

Put down that Guinness and try a Sanctifex No. 3 Red

Such is the shortage of Roman Catholic priests in the U.K. that the Catholic Church has decided to run recruitment ads on beer mats in pubs and on posters on the London Underground.

Picture some poor guy whose girlfriend (or otherwise) has just left him. He's sitting at the bar, nibbling on his crisps, and as he quaff his fourth pint, he looks at the beer mat at sees a way out of his misery. Or maybe he's playing his weekly game of darts, looks down, and realizes he doesn't have to be tossing darts, drinking with his mates, and having a rollicking good time--he could be a priest!

Perhaps I'm missing something, but it appears to me that the term "market research" may have escaped the Brit Catholics. Of course, if they ordained women and let priests marry, they probably wouldn't have to compete with Pimm's and Newcastle. As it is, I don't think I'm going out on a limb to say that Pimm's and Newcastle will get a hell of a lot more takers.

If you want to feel good for at least a moment...

Think about how painful it must be for guys like Frist, Lott, Chambliss, McConnell, Cornyn, Hatch, and Bush to spend so many of their waking hours promoting, praising, idealizing, getting all gushy over, and defending two female authority figures, one of them African American.

You can call it anything, but it's still bigotry

Delegar smacks down Colorado Governor Bill Owens.

French Open: A brief summary of the Mauresmo-Ivanovic match

Amelie, Amelie,
such an anomaly--
what a remarkable shame.
With the slice of a Laver
and the crowd in your favor,
you choke in the very last game.

The May garden

Fragrant jasmine spreads to the edge of the deck

Salvia will bloom throughout the summer

I never forget a face, but in your case I'll be glad to make an exception

The award-winning drama students of El Camino Real High School in Los Angeles need to raise some money, so they decided to perform the satirical play, "The Complete History of America (Abridged)." The original script jacket depicts George Washington with a Groucho Marx mustache and cigar, so the students' poster design showed George W. Bush with a Groucho Marx mustache and cigar.

Enter the form of ignorance that irks me to no end: frame-of-reference deficiency. One student--count 'em!--complained about the poster. In addition to objecting to the makeover of the president, he also complained that the poster made Bush look like an Israeli (Bush should be so lucky). The result? You've already guessed it: The posters are gone.

Aside from the obvious fact that at an institution of learning it would have been more instructive to explain irony and continuity to the offended student, there is another issue at play here: How many times, in the past several months, have we been told over and over by Bush supporters that the Constitution absolutely is not intended to protect the minority?

Have you ever noticed that the really horrible news stories are leaked on Friday evening?

Like this one.

This post made my day

Via Trish Wilson and feministe, I found a most wonderful narrative that made me happy.

Things like this make me cringe

In a medical story today, New York Times reporter Jennifer Bayot refers to Viagra and similar pharmaceuticals as "impotence drugs." I don't expect much of the public at large, but I would think that the Times would know by now that we don't call it "impotence" anymore, and with good reason. To say that a man is impotent is to imply that the total person is ineffectual. It is a terrible term for that reason, and so we have referred to the condition as "erectile dysfunction" for some time now.

Of course, I constantly hear all kinds of people, including people in the news media, say "stewardess" instead of "flight attendant." Not only does the catch-all term "stewardess" exclude the many men who perform the job, but a few decades ago, flight attendants protested the word and ask that we not use it. They found it objectionable because it implied that theie only duty was to serve food and beverage, when they really do a lot more.

Is this so-called political correctness? No, it's good old-fashioned correctness. And if you want to call it political correctness, fine. But whatever you call it, it's the reason we no longer say "crippled" and "colored people" and "harelip." We don't say those things anymore because they were offensive. And as slow as social evolution is, it cannot advance at all if the language doesn't go with it.

Pat Mitchell has a bad memory, but I don't

I just saw Pat Mitchell, President and CEO of PBS, on C-Span, declaring that PBS has always stood fast against pressure for it to change its content and programming.

Not quite, Pat. Though, to this day, PBS denies it, it is common and obvious knowledge that PBS folded like a tiki bar umbrella when right-wing religious nuts protested its airing of the first Tales of the City installment. The producers of the adaptation of Armistead Maupin's hilarious books got the message and produced the rest of the series in Canada.

The May garden

Mophead hydrangea m. 'Nikko Blue'

Kaemphera rotunda ginger leaves shoot up, replacing the beautiful, violet-like flowers that seemed to lay on the ground

Are the Williams sisters yesterday's news? I hope not

Today, in the third round of the French Open, Venus was defeated 6-3,1-6, 6-1 by Sesil Karatantcheva, the 15-year-old who won last year's French Open junior championship. Karantantcheva got back an amazing number of balls, and--despite the rather lopsided score--dominated Venus for most of the match. As always, the Venus forehand was shaky (except in the second set), and Venus made continual unforced errors.

Some of us thought that when Venus defeated Serena for the first time in three and a half years at this year's Nasdaq-100 in Miami, things would turn around for her. Granted, clay is not Venus's best surface, but in the past, she hasn't exactly been poor on it, either. Only last year, she won the green clay Family Circle Cup in Charleston, but she was knocked out in the round of 16 this year by rising star Tatiana Golovin. A week ago, she won the Istambul Cup, which is played on red clay.

Serena withdrew from this year's French Open because of an ankle injury. And "injury" has been the key word in the Williams sisters' tennis career for the past couple of years. They have both suffered multiple injuries, and Serena was not able to play for eight months. They have also gone through the murder of their half-sister, and two subsequent mistrials of the suspect. The toughest person cannot function at her optimal level when she is battling a beaten up body and major bereavement.

So I cut Venus and Serena some slack; they have been through a terrible time.

There is another side to the coin, however: Serena, in particular, is concentrating on a lot more than just tennis. She is a key Hollywood figure, and likes to make the club scene a lot. She also has her own clothing design company, Aneres, and she has publicly stated that she thinks acting and fashion designing are her main callings. This makes sense, when you consider that even the best athlete's years are always numbered.

Venus, for her part, owns and operates V Starr Interiors, an interior design and decorating company. As far as I can tell, Venus never has "ASID" after her name, and in the company bio, does refer to herself as an interior decorator, but apparently, she has designers working for her. Whether she intends to pursue ASID (American Society of Interior Designers) certification is unknown.

Tennis commentators are fond of saying that Venus and Serena raised the bar with their brand of power tennis, but then other players--especially the younger ones--took the challenge seriously, and now they, too, can play power tennis. Some of us, who prefer more strategic and graceful tennis, are not so thrilled about that, but that is the way it is. Maybe the pendulum will swing one day, maybe it won't.

In the meantime, Venus and Serena are vulnerable. Serena won the 2005 Australian Open, though it wasn't a pretty sight, with perfectionist and part-time head case Lindsay Davenport totally melting down (perhaps literally, so intense was the heat during the tournament) in the third set and practically handing the championship to Serena.

As the players gear up for Wimbledon, all eyes will be on the Williams sisters, who I hope will be injury-free and ready to give fans some tough Williams sisters game.

Friday cat blogging--French Open edition

Ready in front of the television, Velma gets her cheering on!

Why, as a Second Wave feminist, I sometimes have to bang my head against the wall

Today I was talking with some people and the man said he was in a serious relationship and would eventually marry his beloved, but there was no timetable. "At some point, I don't know when, I'll ask her to marry me," he said.

"What if she asks you next week?" I asked him.

He cracked up.

I told him it was a serious question. The other woman in the room said "Yes, what if she does?"

He looked at us as if we had just landed from Mars.

If you're feeling soft toward Voinovich

Get over it. On the Senate floor today, while talking against the nomination of John Bolton, he held up John Negroponte as a "fine example" of an appointee.

I appreciate Sen. Voinovich's being against a probable sex criminal (which, by the way, never gets mentioned), but I can't join him in singing the praises of an unindicted political/war criminal.

Oops, I voted again...

A little news from Miami-Dade

Students requied to read Genesis to prepare for American literature class

In two high schools in Boca, Florida.

I agree that reading Genesis is indeed, as the Florida educators are saying, a good way to develop a frame of reference for reading other literature. So is reading Roman, Greek, and Norse mythology. The problem is that the book of Genesis isn't on a list of required summer reading for the students involved: It is the only required summer reading.

Charges dropped against Marine lieutenant accused of killing two Iraqis

After studying an investigative report, Maj. Gen. Richard Huck has dropped the charges against 2nd Lt. Ilario Pantano. Prosecutors had argued that Pantano intended to make an example of the men by shooting them sixty times and hanging a sign over their bodies: No better friend, no worse enemy, a Marine slogan.

Indiana judge tells parents they cannot teach their child about their religion

In a startling move, even for these times and even for Indiana, a judge in Indianapolis has ruled that a man and his former wife cannot expose their child to the couple's Wiccan faith. Thomas E. Jones and Tammy U. Bristol must not expose their child to "non-mainstream religious beliefs and rituals," according to their divorce decree. The judge, Cale J. Bradford, an idiot of the type that boggles the mind, did not define "mainstream religion."

The child, a nine-year-old boy, attends a Catholic school, and the judge stated that the divergent belief systems in his life would confuse him.

Does this mean that the courts in Indiana will now demand that mixed faith marriages cannot exist if there are children involved? Is Islam a mainstream religion? Is Judaism? If the child were attending a Hebrew school, can you imagine the judge telling one of the parents s/he couldn't teach him about Jesus?

Jones has brought the case to the Indiana Court of Appeals with the help of the Indiana Civil Liberties Union.

The May garden

A dragonfly spends some time on top of a bamboo trellis

St. Francis stands alone in the cat cemetary tucked into a wooded area

North Carolina does it again

As though there haven't been enough embarrassing events lately in North Carolina, last night Durham was the scene of three cross-burnings. One was found in front of an Episcopal church, one near an apartment complex construction site, and one at a downtown intersection.

A renewed call to boycott ExxonMobil

Pam's House Blend has the goods--including photos of the eleven board bigots--on ExxonMobil's refusal to include sexual orientation in its anti-discrimination policy. Again.

It's time to update the list of criminals and would-be criminals in the Bush administration

There have been so many criminals, both convicted and otherwise, that Bush has appointed or tried to appoint to top posts that every once in a while, I like to update my list:

George W. Bush--Ersatz President of the United States

He received two dui's (and lied about when he received them).

He failed four times to file share sales declarations to the SEC when Harken Oil hit bottom, and made $1 million during one eight-month lapse. The "investigation" for insider trading was the kind of investigation any insider trader would love to have--no one interviewed anyone on Harken's board. The "investigator" was Bush's Texas Rangers attorney. And Bush's father was President of the United States at the time.

Bush has also never been investigated for his possible role in voter interference and intimidation in Florida in two different presidential campaigns, or his possible role in ballot fraud in both Florida and Ohio.

Though his machinations that led to the invasion of Iraq constitute impeachable actions, no move has been made to impeach him.

Dick Cheney--Alleged Vice President of the United States
He also received two dui's.

His secret oil committee meetings have yet to be invetigated because the court will not allow the investigation. He swore on several occasions that he had severed all ties with Halliburton, but has continued to receive stock options, as well as his deferred compensation.

Thomas White--Former Secretary of the Army
White was accused of lying under oath to a Senate committee.

He sold $3 million worth of Enron stock right before Enron went under, hardly a coincidence.

John Poindexter--Former Information Awareness Office Director
He was charged with and found guilty of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and destruction of evidence in the Iran-Contra affair. His conviction was later overturned, but it is generally accepted that Poindexter committed the crimes. At the very least, he was the co-creator of the illegal Iran-Contra operation.

Thomas Griffith--Nominee for the Federal Appeals Court of Washington
Griffith practiced law without a license for four years.

Cristina Beato--Nominee for Assistant Secretary of Health for DHHS
Beato lied compulsively on her resume.

John Negreponte--National Intelligence Director and Former Ambassador to the United Nations and to Iraq
Negreponte has been repeatedly accused of covering up both the human rights abuses and the drug trafficking of the Honduran military during the 80's.

Elliott Abrams--National Security Committee Director for Democracy, Human Rights, and International Operations
Abrams plead guilty to withholding evidence regarding the Iran-Contra scandal from Congress. He was pardoned by George H.W. Bush

Otto Reich--Assistant Secretary of State for the Western Hemisphere
He was never charged with a crime, but was accused of conducting prohibited covert propaganda activities. He also used his influence to try to get a U.S. visa for convicted terrorist Orlando Bosch.

David Hager--Member, FDA Advisory Committee for Reproductive Health Drugs
Hager has been accused by his former wife of raping her over a period of several years. These events she said, all involved sodomy, and occurred while she was in a narcoleptic state.

John Bolton--Undersecretary of State and Nominee to be Ambassador to the United Nations
Bolton has been accused by his former wife of forcing her to participate in group sex.

Priscilla Owen--Judge, Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals
As a member of the Texas Supreme Court, Owen and her peers on the bench received large amounts of cash from both Enron and Halliburton. Almost all of the cases for these two companies resulted in favorable verdicts for them. At no time did Owen seek to recuse herself from the relevant cases.

But it's not about the oil

Of all of the oils, just Wesson
doesn't yet have the White House's blessin'.
But in time they'll snag the
big bucks from ConAgra.
Is our children learning this lesson?

Quote of the week

"See, in my line of work you got to keep repeating things over and over and over again for the truth to sink in, to kind of catapult the propaganda."

George W. Bush

Sex criminal and potential murderer gets probation

Remember the dentist in North Carolina who squirted semen into the mouths of his female patients? He was found sort of guilty and sentenced to five years probation.

The judge chose probation over a 120-day prison sentence. Why didn't he just make former Dr. Hall write "I will not play pranks on girls" a hundred times?

The sentence is so light because the state charged Hall with misdemeanor assault. Putting aside for a moment that what he did, in and of itself, was sadistic and pathological, he could easily have infected the women with any number of STD's, including AIDS.

Anyone who thinks there isn't a war being waged against women has, as Joe Biden stated so colorfully today, his head in a rain barrel.

The May garden

Society garlic blooms in the miniature rose bed

Gardenia--you will have to imagine the fragrance

Take the DED Space liberal consciousness quiz!

This is not intended to be a promotion of Hillary Clinton, about whom I have mixed feelings; it is more a revelation of so-called liberal thinking.

In my visits to liberal message boards and such, I repeatedly hear that Sen. Clinton would be a poor choice for presidential nominee because she is "ambitious" and "polarizing."

Franklin D. Roosevelt was quite a polarizing figure when he ran for president as a physically disabled man. He then became even more polarizing because of his outrageous partisanism. He was elected four times to the office.

John F. Kennedy was frighteningly ambitious to the point of being dysfunctionally driven, and his Catholicism made him a very polarizing figure in the late 50's and early 60's, but he was elected and is considered an icon by many people.

His brother, Ted Kennedy, became beyond polarizing when he drove a car off a bridge in the middle of the night in the company of a woman who wasn't his wife, and she died, and he "didn't remember" the incident. He, too, was re-elected many times, and is an icon in the Democratic Party.

Few could be considered as ambitious as Bill Clinton, and though he was impeached, he is considered one of the most important living Democrats. Many Democrats say they would gladly vote for him if he were to run again.

And now for the quiz:

FDR, JFK, Ted Kennedy, and Bill Clinton: What do these four have in common?

Tick-tock, tick-tock...

Ding! ding! ding! You answered correctly!

Doesn't it make you kind of sick?

I'm so shocked--Orrin Hatch just lied

He referred to the term "nuclear option" as what the Democrats call the rule-change option. The term was coined by former House Majority Leader Trent Lott, and Hatch knows it.

North Carolina may win after all

In the race to determine which state is the most ignorant and repressive, North Carolina has been gaining, and is now one step closer to victory. That's showing them, North Carolina!

Unlike cat-killer Frist, Santorum is actually working on something progressive

It is always a bit uncomfortable to find someone against whom you are actively working doing something for your side, but such is the case from time to time.

Senator Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania, however much we do not like him, is doing something a lot of non-Republican senators are not doing: working for animal welfare. Santorum is a leader in seeking funding to enforce animal protection laws, such as the Animal Welfare Act and the Humane Slaughter Act. He has also worked to ban dogfighting and cockfighting and to crack down on puppy mills.

What is interesting about animal welfare work is that it is not a Democratic Party issue. An equal number of Democrats and Republicans work on behalf of animals. Just not enough of them.

I have to give Santorum credit where credit is due. Though known among liberals for his concern that animals not have sex with humans once we permit gay marriage, he has also worked hard for real animal welfare.

Why Americans are on so many mood-altering pharmaceuticals

This is a converation I had this morning with a staff member of the Post Office:

"Yes?"

"We didn't get any mail yesterday at _________."

"What did they tell you when you called it in?"

"I'm calling it in now."

"You didn't call yesterday?"

"The Post Office was closed by the time we got home."

"Oh."

"I just thought I should let you know."

"What is the name?"

"____. And ________."

"What?"

"There are two names."

"Two names?"

"Two names."

"What are they?"

"____ and ________ (I spell them)."

"And what did the Post Office person you talked to tell you?"

"I didn't talk with anyone."

"Oh."
" Do you have mail today?"

"The flag is still up."

"And when you called and made the report, what was said to you?"

"I didn't call. I told you that."

"Oh."
"Maybe you just didn't get any mail."

"We always get mail."

"People sometimes don't get mail."

"Not us."

"Well, there's nothing here for you. If it happens again, be sure to call me."

I pledge not to let my daughter think

The large horrors all around us affect us deeply in our waking and sleeping moments. But it is the little horrors close to home that make us feel sick.

A few days ago, I learned that a Girl Scout troop in my city was disbanded because of the Cult of Bush. Several mothers of Scouts learned that the troop leader was a Kerry supporter and they pulled their daughters out of the troop. Eventually, the troop dissolved.

The troop leader said she heard that the mothers were afraid her daughter would tell the ot