The Wal-Mart Way-Play The Video and Try To Spot The Blood-Sucking Parisites (Hint-They're The Ones Exploiting Child Labor)

"Labor unions are nothing but blood-sucking parasites . . . ." John Tate as Lee Scott and other Martians laugh and applaud. Hillary Clinton wasn't on the board then, but while she was there, she "never once rose to defend the role of American labor unions." Hillary is a self-serving chameleon. I still may vote for her. I'm not sure anyone can be elected to this office without being one. John McCain changes colors just as often, but the press has given him a pass so far because he's a war hero, never been married to Bill, and is old. As Kim whom I sometimes still think of as a child because that's what she was when I met her but who is grown up and wise told me: "I am not sure we ever get to elect a human being who has been 100% honest, who has never made a mistake and recovered from it, and who has never said something they later regretted. I think we are all human enough to realize these things happen. Either way, Hill is WAY better than what we currently have!"

Margaret Demonstrating The Moves Virg Taught Her. Study

Though Vegetarians Are Commies, They Aren't As Bad As Some

"...Hidden-camera investigation by the Humane Society showed workers at Hallmark Meat Packing tormenting downed cows or hoisting them with forklifts to try to force them to walk to slaughter. That violates federal laws barring downed cows from the food supply.

Hallmark's beef is processed by a sister company, Westland Meat Co., both in Chico, Calif. The U.S. Department of Agriculture quickly yanked Westland from the lunch program and said all uneaten Westland beef will be pulled from the lunch distribution system. Agriculture Secretary Ed Schafer, on his third day in the post, launched a U.S. inspector general investigation of the slaughterhouse. ..."read Supplier's beef pulled from school lunches

Watch, if you can, the: Humane Society Video"

From Patti, Slaughterhouse Lunchbox

Methodists Against Bush- God Love Um.

"Methodists opposed to a George W. Bush Presidential Library, museum and policy institute at Southern Methodist University here are mounting a last-ditch effort to block a nearly completed deal by throwing the decision to a regional church conference in July." Methodists Against Bush Library Lobby for Vote By GRETEL C. KOVACH and RALPH BLUMENTHAL

I wanted to be a Methodist when I was a kid like most of my friends and Atticus Finch. I later became one and married two of um. Good solid folks with social conciences, Methodists.

Jesus Christ To Endorse Huckabee At 4pm Press Conference

"Mike Huckabee truly believes . . . if he says God the most times per sentence per speech, he'll be nominated for President by the Republican Party."
THE HUCKSTER IS ALL FOR GOD TUBE. IN THE NAME OF THE LOVING MERCIFUL GOD IT OFFERS THIS:

Jesus Christ Again! He would have tears in his eyes if he heard this, but not for the reasons the proponents of this infantile theology think.

OBama & Clinton-The Competent Non-Nut Jobs

John Edwards ran a good race. I thank him for the good fight and for getting out when it was time to do so. Hillary & Barack are good, qualified candidates. Either of them would serve this country well. That's not true on the Republican side. McCain is the only one who is not a nut job, and I'm not sure about him. I know, like, and respect Hillary. It's time we had a female president. Barack is bright, charismatic, and is a fresh face without the baggage. It's time we had a President of color. With a name like O'Bama he's apparently Irish too-another attribute I have trouble resisting. I wish they could unite and share the ticket for the good of the country. I'm for flipping a coin to decide who gets the top spot, stopping the blood letting and coming together.


THIS JUST IN-OBAMA SHOULD WAIT HIS TURN & LET HILLARY HAVE HERS. LINDSLEY SAID IT, I BELIEVE IT, AND THAT SETTLES IT.
“All the Democratic candidates for president are qualified individuals who could lead this country infinitely better than has George W. Bush, but I want to share the reasons I have decided to support Hillary Clinton and will be voting for her in the Democratic primary on Feb. 5.
As citizens consider their choices in 2008, we find that there is far too much horse-race journalism and far too little discussion of the platform and policy differences among the candidates. The Democratic nominee will need to be someone who has been through contested campaigns and can stand up to personal attacks, but that candidate must also deliver a message of positive change that can take our country forward again. We must remember, too, that good campaigners and political strategists are not always the best leaders and public officials. It is more important that we choose someone who can govern effectively and deliver once elected.
I support Hillary Clinton because she is competent and has the necessary experience to be our next president. Whoever is elected the next president of the United States will inherit numerous problems - from the tragedies in Iraq to record budget deficits, from neglected domestic needs to dangerous trade deficits. It will take not only vision but competence and experience to address those challenges. Hillary has all three.
I am not among those who would argue that gender is the paramount issue or that women always would govern differently from men, but we have a president who refuses to ask directions when he is lost. When confronting a complex problem and working to reach the best decision, I believe Hillary Clinton will be open to considering all suggestions from anyone with competence and imagination. For me, the issue is not Senator Clinton's gender but her experience, commitment, humanity, intelligence and competence to make America work again.
I support Hillary Clinton because she would be good for Arkansas. Having lived in Fayetteville and Little Rock for 18 years, she understands Arkansas and the challenges that our citizens face. Her experiences here made a difference. Hillary founded the University of Arkansas legal aid clinic for the poor when she was on the faculty here and handled cases of foster care and child abuse. She helped organize Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, a group that continues to inform public policy and lead the fight to improve the lives of the most vulnerable in our state, and she served on the board of the outstanding Arkansas Children's Hospital.
No one can overlook the contribution Hillary Clinton made in leading the taskforce to improve education in Arkansas through higher standards for schools, the grounding for the significant achievements of recent reform legislation, and record funding for our public schools. She made a real difference. I am ready for a president who will fight for the health and education of our children, who will make a long-term investment in their future instead of legislation with catchy phrases and more paperwork.
I support Hillary Clinton because she understands that a vibrant middle class is essential to America's prosperity, and she will implement a broad set of domestic policies to once again restore opportunity for all Americans. As an attorney, I am very aware of the relationship between law and public policy, and so is Hillary Clinton. On the American Bar Association's Commission on Women in the Profession, she played a role in raising awareness of issues such as sexual harassment and equal pay. Clinton has a long and substantial record of leadership fighting on behalf of working Americans and children, and it is this experience and her passion for creating a better country that will serve our nation well.
Hillary has advocated a plan to restore America's middle class, which is struggling to succeed in a precarious economy that is threatening to leave more and more Americans behind. Income inequality has risen, jobs have been shipped overseas, and wages have stagnated. At the same time, the cost of health insurance and college tuition have soared, squeezing middle class families who have often counted on their home equity to make ends meet. The current problems in the credit and housing market further threaten many middle class families. We need sensible solutions.
I support Hillary Clinton because we need a foreign policy that represents the values that we are for and not just the things that we are against, one that can recapture the international respect and friendship that we once had with the community of nations. Hillary Clinton has been an advocate for human rights around the world. As first lady, she traveled to more than 80 countries visiting with foreign leaders and making friends in those nations. Her 1995 speech in Beijing remains a rhetorical landmark of the power of ideas in making a better world, speaking out against the degradation and abuse of women and making the case that women's rights are human rights. As president, she can help restore America's standing in the world, promote our interests, ensure our security and advance our values.
I support Hillary Clinton because I trust that her heart is in the right place. I believe that she is not only a good candidate but a good, decent and honorable person who shares my concern and my passion about protecting the health and prosperity of our nation and her people. I cannot know or even guess what position she will take on every important issue that will arise in the future, but I believe that we share a number of core values and experiences that give me confidence that she will fully examine credible data and always try to do the right thing. We both grew up being active in the Methodist church, and faith was central to her family, as it was to mine. Her mother was a Sunday school teacher at their church, as was my father in our church, and we are both committed to public service that is grounded in understanding the ethical and moral implications of public policy.
All candidates are just human beings with their own strengths and weaknesses and sets of achievements and mistakes. I know that Hillary Clinton is not perfect, for none of us are, and I don't agree with her on every issue. She is, nonetheless, the best choice in 2008 to lead our great nation as president of the United States, and I am proud to support her.”

My choice for president is ... by Lindsley Smith

Quests: Design, Theory, and History in Games and Narratives by Jeffrey Howard

Coming soon. Order now. This book, according to my sources, is excellent. Jeff Howard is a star.

George W. Bush is Lincoln the way Dan Quayle is Jack Kennedy and the way Fox News is News.

"Note to Bret Baier: Lincoln wasn’t 'hated' when he left office. He was assassinated just after being re-elected by an overwhelming margin." Fox News: Bush Is ‘Really Reflecting On His Place In History,’ Trying To ‘Equate Himself’ With Lincoln

Bush Bunch Told At Least 935 Lies To Spend Billions, Kill 4,200 Americans, & Maim a Bunch More.

"A higher percentage of our wounded soldiers in Iraq are surviving their injuries compared with other wars, thanks to the miracles of modern science. But the injuries are more gruesome, thanks to the miracles of modern weaponry. It's hard to think about the quality of these maimed soldiers' lives without feeling sick." War Is Hell by Peking Duck

“‘. . . the Center for Public Integrity's report, Iraq-The War Card: Orchestrated Deception on the Path to War, that lays bare at least 935 lies told to the American public by George Bush, Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, and their hirelings whose deliberate falsehoods have cost us billions of dollars and more than 4,200 American lives, at least 60 of them from Arkansas. . . .It's tragic that nonprofit organizations such as [the Center for Public Integrity], rather than our major newspapers, have assumed the role of aggressive watchdogs.”" Even A Blind Hog by Jonah

Don't Help The Poor Even If It Would Help Us All. Jesus Christ Again! He'd Be Rollin In His Grave If He Hadn't Jumped Out.

"’...A tax rebate that includes low- and moderate-income working families that don't earn enough to owe income tax would be 24 percent more effective as stimulus than a rebate that leaves these families out . . .But, today the House reached a Tentative Deal on Economic Stimulus Plan, that excludes both food stamps and unemployment benefits.
‘Republicans immediately cheered the deal as ‘tilted toward taxpayers’ and avoiding ‘extraneous spending’ on unemployment benefits, food stamps, or infrastructure projects, which some Democrats had said should be included in a stimulus package.’" NEW ZANDI ANALYSIS FINDS REBATES MORE EFFECTIVE AS STIMULUS IF THEY INCLUDE LOWER-INCOME WORKERS from Patti.
I don't know who's in the picture. Probably Ma & Pa Kettle and their brood who would have just squandered their rebate on groceries instead of Chinese stocks if they had been given one.

Happy Birthday Yet Again Bobby. Here's To You & The Mouse.

To A Mouse by Robert Burns 
Wee, sleeket, cowran, tim'rous beastie,
O, what panic's in thy breastie!
Thou need na start awa sae hasty,
Wi' bickering brattle!
I wad be laith to rin an' chase thee,
Wi' murd'ring pattle!

I'm truly sorry Man's dominion
Has broken Nature's social union,
An' justifies that ill opinion,
Which makes thee startle,
At me, thy poor, earth-born companion,
An' fellow-mortal!

I doubt na, whyles, but thou may thieve;
What then? poor beastie, thou maun live!
A daimen-icker in a thrave 'S a sma' request:
I'll get a blessin wi' the lave,
An' never miss't!

Thy wee-bit housie, too, in ruin!
It's silly wa's the win's are strewin!
An' naething, now, to big a new ane,
O' foggage green!
An' bleak December's winds ensuin,
Baith snell an' keen!

Thou saw the fields laid bare an' wast,
An' weary Winter comin fast,
An' cozie here, beneath the blast,
Thou thought to dwell,
Till crash! the cruel coulter past
Out thro' thy cell.

That wee-bit heap o' leaves an' stibble,
Has cost thee monie a weary nibble!
Now thou's turn'd out, for a' thy trouble,
But house or hald.
To thole the Winter's sleety dribble,
An' cranreuch cauld!

But Mousie, thou are no thy-lane,
In proving foresight may be vain:
The best laid schemes o' Mice an' Men,
Gang aft agley,
An' lea'e us nought but grief an' pain,
For promis'd joy!

Still, thou art blest, compar'd wi' me!
The present only toucheth thee:
But Och! I backward cast my e'e,
On prospects drear!
An' forward, tho' I canna see,
I guess an' fear!

Oh God. You Aren't Omnipotent Are You?

A Palestinian girl in Gaza.
See, Gaza under siege: Israel cuts off fuel supplies

"You're Going Straight to Hell" by Betty Bowers

"We can still dream that one day all God's children will live in a community where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, or their gender, or the language they speak, or the rantings of insecure shrews who stigmatize them as deviant because they are different, but by the content of their character." Being and Nothingness by Jonah

Speaking of hate in the name of God, truth can be stranger than fiction.

Dead Man Walking (Or Sitting)

S: How often should I do sitting practice?

T: Every day for the first decade or so.

S: I'll be dead before the first decade or so passes.

T: You're already dead.

Huckabee To Romney & McCain-“If Your Heart Ain’t in Dixie, Keep Your Ass Out.”

HE DON'T COTTON TO THAT DAMN YANKEE CONSTITUTION NEITHER.

See, also, Worlds Biggest Liar Competition.

This Takes Me Back. My Daddy Used To Sing "What'll you have? Pabst Blue Rock Ribbon" When He’d Rock Me To Sleep.

To this day, when Mary and I have the neighbors over to watch the fights, we follow the routine shown here.

Relationships Are Hard Work

Communication & flexibility are the keys. If this poor couple had simply talked it over, they could have sold their vehicles and traveled by shank's mare. The savings would have allowed them to have both beer and make up and probably saved their relationship.
Thanks to Sammy & Judge C.

Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Was Born On This Day In 1929.

He was still in his 30's when he was assassinated, but still made it to the mountain top. He knew his time was short, but died without fear for the greater good. I'm sure there are people of his stature walking among us now, but I'm not sure who they are. This is from Dr. King's last speech.

Get Ready for the Bard Burn's Birthday Next Week With "Ode To A Haggis" & "Scots Wha Hae."

If You Can Afford Health Insurance, You Probably Don't Need It.

"Need health insurance? Please fill out this questionnaire. If your answers show that you are likely to use health insurance, we will send you to the special Impossibly Expensive Health Insurance Pool, that you will not be able to afford." from Health Insurance? U.S. kills 101,000 of "it's own citizens." from Patti


“Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.” Jesus, Mathew 25:45

Though Virgil Sees Neither, Race & Gender Are Still in Political Play

Like Stephen Colbert, I do not see color. I don’t even see gender. The fact that I am currently supporting John Edwards who is, I am told, a white male is pure happenstance. With most of us race and gender are still issues. Erica Jong recently said "The flaying of Hillary Clinton shows us we can take nothing for granted. We need to break that tough, annealed, glass ceiling with the barbed wire over it. And we need to break it now. If this is the politics of gender, so be it. We need a politics of gender in this country. Obama is a good man who will only get better. Youth is on his side. Perhaps Hillary will appoint him to the Supreme Court where he can counter that embarrassing Clarence Thomas. Perhaps he will be President in 2016 or perhaps, even better, Michelle Obama will be. They have nothing but time. Hillary's time has come." Seeing Sexism by Erica Jong.
Erica may be right. I hope Hillary is coming into her own and becoming a relatively honest statesperson. Maybe she will now say and act upon what she believes without an inordinate amount of concern about the political winds. If so, I’d be for her. I would love to see Obama on the Supreme Court. He could counter the embarrassing Thomas, the embarrassing Scalia, the embarrassing Roberts, or the embarrassing Alito. (For those of you who see color, he, at least , could counter Thomas & Roberts. I don’t know whether he has any Italian in him or not) I doubt that Obama wants to be on the Supreme Court right now. He'll be President some day unless he falls hard. I'll support him this time if Edwards continues to fade and Hillary doesn't show some true character. Whoever is nominated could, blindfolded, appoint a better Supreme Court justice than the four mentioned above.

Hillary's Gone. Everest Still Here. Still a Good Show Sir Edmund. Wish They Had Stopped After You.

Sir Edmund Hillary died today at age 88. Mount Everest had changed since his climb. “‘It is hardly mountaineering; more like a conducted tour,’ Sir Edmund Hillary told reporters in Katmandu in 2003, celebrating the anniversary of his and Sherpa Tenzing Norgay's historic 1953 climb of the 29,035-foot summit.
‘Commercial climbing has developed, with many inexperienced enthusiasts, dozens of aluminum ladders, thousands of meters of fixed rope,’ he said. . . .He lived long enough to see the Himalaya, once an impossibly isolated region, become a popular destination for anyone with the tens of thousands of dollars it costs to join a commercial expedition to the highest peaks.
‘I think the whole attitude toward climbing Mount Everest has become rather horrifying. The people just want to get to the top,’ he told a newspaper in New Zealand in 2006, after a young British mountaineer died high on Everest after dozens of climbers passed by him and did nothing to help.” After Hillary: Commercialism, Courage By BINAJ GURUBACHARYA

The Gentry Arkansas Police Department To Impersonate Dead Deer. Indiana Itchin To Follow.

A Wisconsin judge ruled that that a dead deer is still an animal for the purposes of sex because the “primary focus” of the law was “ protecting sexual morality in the community, and not necessarily on animal protection." The ruling is one small step toward stemming the tide of this nation wide problem. Indiana state officials say that sex with dead animals is about to surpass in-person voter fraud as the state's biggest law enforcement concern. Indiana Bureau of Investigation agents are considering preemptive strikes like those planned by the Gentry, Arkansas Police Department.. Gentry officers will pose as dead deer and other dead critters in local parks, on roadsides, and on the internet. A city official said " I certainly hope that having sex with dead animals is against the law in Arkansas too, but if it is not we will form a committee to push legislation to outlaw it in the next session. We have to be proactive to protect the morality of the community. Our civilization depends upon it. If you let one guy get away with poking a dead deer what is to stop the entire state from doing the same thing? This could lead to destruction of the deer population! There is also a discrimination issue here. While males can do dead deer females can't. A clear double standard if men, through the simple expediency of killing the deer first, can enjoy the profound pleasures of screwing a carcass without risk of criminal punishment.”
Angus McGregor, though he continues his crusade for tolerance of consenting cross-species relationships, believes that the the perpetrator should be charged with rape since a dead deer is incapable of consent. He also stated that necrophilia is “against the laws of God and nature.”

Thanks to Dr. Steve & James The Bruce for this hot tip.

Happy Birthday Sammy

On our initial birthday we are born with so much time in the account of life. Each birthday there after we mark the passing of another portion of an ever diminishing but uncertain balance.
Death is the ultimate anesthesia, also effective against depression, alcohol abuse, anxiety and just about anything else that ails a body.
In fact it often can do wonders for a less that stellar reputation. Past social transgressions are often simply stripped away from memory. One can even expect an immediate enhancement in one's likeability and reputation in general. People who have not marked your birthday in decades or ever may well be expected to partake of your memory once you are cured of life, each remembering you as a dear friend, pure of heart, pious, generous, and selfless to a fault.
There are limits in the later regard of course but I suspect that you Sam can anticipate a fairly full recovery in these regards as well.
So just hang in there and let nature take its course. Our society has a habit of looking down on those who resort to self help in employing the ultimate remedy to life's problems. Just keep in mind that death cures life and all its ills and you will find the whole experience of hanging in there more palatable.
Happy Birthday Sam from James The Bruce

Change?

2008 Candidate positions on Health Care & on the Environment from Patti

American College of Physicians has this:
An in-depth analysis of issues important to ACP in evaluating the 2008 candidates’ health care plans.

Interviews from Grist: Interviews and info on the presidential candidates' energy plans and environmental positions

And from Rev. Sandi

Autobiography in Five Short Chapters by Portia Nelson

Chapter 1: I walk down the street. There is a large hole in the sidewalk. I fall in. I am lost. I am helpless. It isn’t my fault. It takes forever to find a way out.

Chapter 2: I walk down the same street. There is a large hole in the sidewalk. I pretend I don’t see it. I fall in again. I can’t believe I’m in the same place, but it isn’t my fault. It still takes a long time to get out.

Chapter 3: I walk down the same street. There is a large hole in the sidewalk. I see it there. I still fall in. It’s a habit. My eyes are open. I know where I am. It is my fault. I get out immediately.

Chapter 4: I walk down the same street. There is a large hole in the sidewalk. I walk around it.

Chapter 5: I walk down another street.

Too bad you died Portia. I'd have voted for you.

Fundamentalism & Mental Illness

"Since World War II, only the fundamentalist portion of the religious spectrum has grown, precisely because of the general ambiguity into which our age has fallen. What might be embraced as the greatest freedom to choose in human history instead stirs anxiety in many. Fundamentalism, be it religious or political or psychological is an anxiety management technique that finesses the nuances of doubt and ambiguity through rigid and simplistic belief systems. If I can persuade myself that the world is perpetually founded on the values of another, culturally limited, less conscious age, then I do not have to address the new subtleties of moral choice, the emergent capacities of women, the ambiguities of gender, sexual identity, and preference, and the horrors of nationalism, factionalism, and other tribal mentalities.
Of course people have a right to affirm any set of values that they have sincerely, experientially tested, but fundamentalism is a form of mental illness that seeks to repress anxiety, ambiguity, and ambivalence. The more mature the personality structure, the greater the capacity of the person, and the culture, to tolerate the anxiety, ambiguity, and ambivalence that are a necessary and unavoidable dimension of our lives. A culture that is immature, and believes its values besieged, will fall back into a siege mentality, a sentimental nostalgia for a simpler time, for simplistic black-and-white value judgments, and will project its own shadow by vilifying others.
The world is not black and white."
James Hollis, in Finding Meaning In The Second Half of Life
"Much of what I would call fundamentalism is really an anxiety disorder—which they try to solve by black-and-white thinking and projecting onto others. It's very unconscious, and it's very poor ego development. You can see how important it is for the ego to be strong enough to tolerate those tensions. When I can't tolerate them, I'll dump them on you. That's all projection. And projection is that which the ego is just not dealing with."
Was ist "das Ich"? An interview with James Hollis on Carl Jung by Amy Edelstein

Virgil Endorses Dwight D. Eisenhower for the Republican Nomination for President.

Hobson's Choice On Immigration

"I have many good liberal friends who, for humanitarian reasons, disagree with me about immigration. Their position is irrational and ultimately inhumane. It will not work. It fails to recognize such realities as: a bloated U.S. population; a disastrous U.S. population growth rate that is fed primarily by immigration; 36 million Americans who went hungry in 2006; the 37 percent of us who cannot afford needed medical care; overburdened schools; sprawling land-use patterns; gluttonous resource consumption; and a sagging transportation system. A nation struggling with such burdens cannot deal with essentially unlimited immigration. . . " Art Hobson, Against Immigration, For Immigrants, via Jonah.
Music provided by Arlo & Emmylou.

Did Bhutto Arrange Her Own Death To Make Musharraf Look Bad?

If so, it was a waste. Bush's buddy and protegee does fine on his own.
"A team of Scotland Yard investigators has arrived in Pakistan to assist authorities in the investigation into the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, who was killed on December 27 in a terrorist attack. Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had initially rejected offers of international assistance with the inquiry, but changed tack mid-week, saying he was "displeased with the investigation," and that "we need more experience, maybe more forensic and technical experience that our people don't have." But given that the crime scene was hosed down within hours of the attack, and Bhutto was buried a week ago without a autopsy, the much vaunted Scotland Yard will be able to lend little more than a veneer of impartial credibility to the investigation into her death, which many Pakistanis attribute to government hands." Was Bhutto to Blame for Her Death? by ARYN BAKER in Time.

Jose Cuervo from Jim, Barbara, Shelly & David.

Esteban: It's ok to flick your hurley over this one, but please enjoy it in moderation. Barbara will hire a wino on you in a second.

It's the War, Stupid.

"I can't tell you how bad I feel for Senator Clinton tonight. I don't believe she was ever really for this war. But she did -- and continued to do -- what she thought was the politically expedient thing to eventually get elected. And she was wrong. And tonight she must go to sleep wondering what would have happened if she had voted her conscience instead of her calculator." "It's the War," Says Iowa to Hillary -- And a "Happy Blue Year" To All! ...from Michael Moore
Thanks to Dr. Steve

The Politics of Fear.

“. . . the Clintons. . . followed the Bush blueprint in Iowa and played the fear card again and again and again. Be afraid of Obama, they warned us. Be afraid of something new, something different. He might meet with our enemies. His middle name is Hussein. He went to a madrassa school. A vote for him would be like rolling the dice, the former president said on Charlie Rose. And the people of Iowa heard him, and chose to roll the dice. . . . for tonight at least . . . we can look at ourselves with pride. This is the kind of country America was meant to be, even if you are for Clinton or Edwards -- or even Huckabee or Giuliani. It's the kind of country we've always imagined ourselves being -- even if in the last seven years we fell horribly short: a young country, an optimistic country, a forward-looking country, a country not afraid to take risks or to dream big. Bill Clinton has privately told friends that if Hillary didn't win, it would be because of the two weeks that followed her shaky performance in the Philadelphia debate. But it wasn't those two weeks. Indeed, if we were to pinpoint one decisive moment, it would be Bill Clinton on Charlie Rose, arrogant and entitled, dismissive and fear-mongering. And then Bill Clinton giving us a refresher course in '90s-style truth-twisting and obfuscation -- making stuff up about always having been against the war, and about Hillary having always been for every good decision during his presidency and against every bad one, from Ireland to Sarajevo to Rwanda. So voters in Iowa remembered the past and decided that they didn't want to go back. They wanted to move ahead. Even if that meant rolling the dice. . . .for tonight, I am going to savor it -- and cross my fingers that it may stand as the day that fear as a winning political tactic died. Killed by an "unlikely" candidate -- as Obama called himself again and again -- who seized the moment, and reminded America of its youth and the optimism it longs to recapture.”
Obama Wins Iowa: Why Everyone Has a Reason to Celebrate Tonight -Ariana Huffington
Cartoon by Mike Thompson of the Detroit Free Press.
I'm for Edwards today, but was moved byAriana's piece. There is a gremlin in me, however, that says "Just because the fear mongers are self-serving, lying bastards doesn't mean that there's nothing to be afraid of out there, possibly including charismatic politicians who support Joe Lieberman and Baptist preachers who don't believe in evolution and think that they know the mind of God.

May You Flick Your Opponent's Hurley? That's One of the Differences Between Camogie & Hurling.

There are very few differences between the two games. The following are the main differences:
Playing gear:
¨ All Camogie players, including the goalkeeper, must wear the same jersey. The goalkeeper in Hurling must wear a distinctive jersey.
¨ Skirt/divided skirt/skort is worn in Camogie
¨ Hurling: Shorts are worn
Sliotair:
¨ Camogie: Weight: 90-110 grams Size: 21cm in circumference
¨ Hurling: Weight: 110-120grams Size: 23-25cm
Scores:
¨ Camogie: Handpassed goal is allowed
¨ Hurling: Handpassed goal is not allowed
Frees:
¨ Camogie: 45 metre is awarded
¨ Hurling: 65 metre is awarded
Dropping the hurley:
¨ Camogie: Hurley may be dropped to handpass the sliotar provided it is not dangerous to do so
¨ Hurling: It is a foul to drop the hurley to handpass
Solo:
¨ Camogie: The sliotar may be taken twice into the hand from the hurley regardless of how the player gained possession
¨ Hurling: The sliotar may only be taken once into the hand from the hurley if it was already caught with the hand
Tackling:
¨ Camogie: Shouldering is not allowed
¨ Hurling: Side–to-side charge is permitted
Flicking of Hurley in the air and on the ground
¨ Camogie: A player may flick an opponent’s hurley from the ground or in the air with her own hurley
¨ Hurling: It is a foul to tip an opponent’s hurley up with a player’s hurley or foot. It is also a foul to tip an opponent’s hurley in the air
Yellow & Red Cards
¨ Camogie: Red cards only are used to send a player off for dangerous play. The player is then dealt with by the Committee in charge of the competition
Players may be sent off for the duration of a game for persistent fouling/dissent. The player’s name is noted by the Committee in charge of the competition and should this player be sent off on a second occassion for the duration of a game, she will have to appear before the Committee in charge.
¨ Hurling: Yellow card for first bookable offence
Red card – to dismiss a player after he receives a second Yellow card
- straight Red Card for dangerous play

Thanks to the Carrigaline Camogie Club.

Hurling Awards for 2007

Score of the year: Henry Shefflin, All-Ireland SHC Final, Kilkenny v Limerick.
Player of the year: Dan Shanahan (Waterford)
Honourable mention: Tommy Walsh (Kilkenny).
Personality of the year: Richie Bennis (Limerick)
Honourable mention: Dan Shanahan (Waterford)
Game of the year: Limerick's Munster SHC three-part saga with Tipperary.
Highlight of the year: Henry Shefflin and the McGarrys lift the Liam MacCarthy Cup.
Lowlight of the year: The Semplegate saga.
(Dis)Honourable mention: The Dublin county board for deliberately flouting the GAA rulebook in an attempt to free Peadar Carton for the All-Ireland under-21 final.
Flop of the year: Ger Loughnane (Galway manager)
One to look out for in 2008: Shane O'Neill (Cork)
Honourable mention: Joe Canning (Galway)
From Setantasports.com 2007 hurling awards by Brian Murphy.