"I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate."
--Romans 7:15 (RSV)
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Here's a tip for liberals: If your candidate is going to stage enormous rallies in front of tens of thousands of chanting Germans (with monuments to Prussian military might in the background) in the middle of his Presidential campaign, it isn't the GOP's fault if the footage comes out looking a little like Hitler at Nuremberg.--Ross Douthat (Source)
Hat Tip: The Corner
Golden retriever adopts tiger cubs at Kansas zoo :
A dog at a southeast Kansas zoo has adopted three tiger cubs abandoned by their mother. Safari Zoological Park owner Tom Harvey said the tiger cubs were born Sunday, but the mother had problems with them.
A day later, the mother stopped caring for them. Harvey said the cubs were wandering around, trying to find their birth mother, who wouldn't pay attention to them. That's when the cubs were put in the care of a golden retriever, Harvey said.
The non-waiver trade deadline is today at 4 PM, and it's so nerve-wracking waiting to see what shoes will drop.
Rumored trades include:
* Future Hall of Famer and 600-homer man Ken Griffey Jr to the White Sox
* Future Hall of Famer and 500-homer man Manny Ramirez to the Marlins
* Future Hall of Famer and 350-game winner Greg Maddux to the Dodgers
Meanwhile, nothing apparently brewing in Philly. They need to improve this team. Their window of competitiveness closes soon, especially if Burrell heads elsewhere this coming offseason.
UPDATE (11:52 AM): Griffey to the White Sox is a done deal. As I mentioned before, Griffey's long been one of my favorites and is still the only player jersey I ever bought. It's sad to see him leave one of favorite teams (but the Phils still come first). Especially to go to a team like the ChiSox. They're so blah.
And another note, he was a Mariner, then he was a Red. What is he now? A Sock?
UPDATE (12:40 PM): The Marlins got former Phillie (and Oriole) Arthur Rhodes. I assumed he had retired. Well, maybe he'll finally help the Phils now by returning to his old Phillies self while with the Marlins.
It gives the government an incentive to want you dead:
After her oncologist prescribed a cancer drug that would cost $4,000 a month, the newspaper reported, "Wagner was notified that the Oregon Health Plan wouldn't cover the treatment, but that it would cover palliative, or comfort, care, including, if she chose, doctor-assisted suicide."
It's cheaper to kill people than to keep them alive. Today, it's encouraging people to exercise their "right to die." Tomorrow, it will likely be a "duty to die."
"Here comes the orator! With his flood of words, and his drop of reason." - Benjamin Franklin
"People who make careers out of helping others- sometimes at great sacrifice, often not- usually don't like to hear that those others might get along fine, might even get along better, without their help." - John Holt
"Success is not final, failure is not fatal. It is the courage to continue that counts." - Winston Churchill
"It is essential to the triumph of reform that it should never succeed." - William Hazlitt
"What is amazing this year is how many people have bought the fundamentally childish notion that, if you don't like the way things are going, the answer is to write a blank check for generic 'change,' empowering someone chosen not on the basis of any track record but on the basis of his skill with words." - Thomas Sowell
"So Senator Obama and his campaign decided that it would be inappropriate to visit wounded soldiers in Germany while touring Europe as a candidate for the presidency. Senator McCain hit this one right on the head: it is never inappropriate to visit our wounded men and women in uniform." - Bobby Eberle
"Barack Obama represents an obnoxiously elitist attitude that reeks of paternalistic government..." - Kathryn Lopez
"Sen. Obama owes it to the public to let us know how much of our hard-earned money he, in his wisdom, believes we have a moral obligation to give away to poor people around the world- and how much of our money that he has a moral obligation to extract from our wages forcefully, through federal taxation." - Tony Blankley
"The time may be coming when our lunatic environmental policies are swept away by a rising tide of common sense." - Michael Barone
"Obama is a three-year senator without a single important legislative achievement to his name, a former Illinois state senator who voted 'present' nearly 130 times. As president of the Harvard Law Review, as law professor and as legislator, has he ever produced a single notable piece of scholarship? Written a single memorable article? His most memorable work is a biography of his favorite subject: himself." - Charles Krauthammer
"Obama was in Germany [last week], and 200,000 people showed up. There was so many Germans shouting and screaming that France surrendered just in case." - Craig Ferguson
Jay Leno: Barack Obama is back from his big European tour. Did you see him in Europe? People were cheering him, holding up signs, blowing him kisses. And that was just the American media covering the story. ... Barack Obama was on "Meet the Press" Sunday. John McCain was on a new show called, "I Wish I Could Meet the Press." ... Polls show Obama more popular than McCain in Germany, France, and Great Britain. However, McCain leads in Mesopotamia, Gaul and the Holy Roman Empire. So, it's pretty balanced. ... In world news, I guess you've heard Barack Obama [was] elected Chancellor of Germany. ... You can tell the French are still a little gun shy. After speaking in front of 200,000 Germans, when Obama arrived in France, they said, "You came alone, right?" ... You know, they said on the news earlier [this week] that this political campaign has only 100 days left. Only! Anybody complaining that this thing was dragging out? ... I don't know what's less likely, Barack Obama getting enough experience in 100 days, or John McCain living another 100 days. ... The National Enquirer caught former presidential candidate John Edwards sneaking out of his girlfriend's hotel room at the 2:40 in the morning. See, Edwards got caught 'cause the reporters were there waiting for him...[I]f Edwards didn't want to get caught, he should have met this woman at the hotel where John McCain was staying. There are no reporters. ... If this story turns out to be true, there go his chances at becoming vice president. He could still be governor of New York. ... And in Puerto Rico, it [was] Constitution Day [Friday]. So, that's where the Constitution went. I knew we weren't using it anymore.
Government bailouts are like potato chips: You can't stop with just one.
Anyone who is honest with himself and with others knows that there is not a snow ball's chance in hell to have an honest dialogue about race.I wonder what radical feminists make of the fact that it was men who created the rule of "women and children first" when it came to rescuing people from life-threatening emergencies.
Barack Obama's motto "Change you can believe in" has acquired a new meaning-- changing his positions is the only thing you can believe in. His campaign began with a huge change in the image he projects, compared to what he was doing for 20 years before.
After getting DVDs of old "Perry Mason" TV programs and old "Law & Order" programs, I found myself watching far more of the "Perry Mason" series. The difference is that too many "Law & Order" programs tried to raise my consciousness on social issues, as if that is their role or their competence.
What is amazing this year is how many people have bought the fundamentally childish notion that, if you don't like the way things are going, the answer is to write a blank check for generic "change," empowering someone chosen not on the basis of any track record but on the basis of his skill with words.
When New York Times writer Linda Greenhouse recently declared the 1987 confirmation hearings for Judge Robert Bork "both fair and profound," it was as close to a declaration of moral bankruptcy as possible. Those hearings were a triumph of character assassination by politicians with no character of their own. The country is still paying the price, as potential judicial nominees decline to be nominated and then smeared on nationwide television.
Some of the most emotionally powerful words are undefined, such as "social justice," "a living wage," "price gouging" or a "fragile" environment, for example. Such terms are especially valuable to politicians during an election year, for these terms can attract the votes of people who mean very different-- and even mutually contradictory-- things when they use these words.
How many in the media have expressed half as much outrage about the beheading of innocent people by terrorists in Iraq as they have about the captured terrorists held at Guantanamo not being treated as nicely as they think they should be?
Although most of the mainstream media are still swooning over Barack Obama, a few critics are calling the things he advocates "naive." But that assumes that he is trying to solve the country's problems. If he is trying to solve his own problem of getting elected, then he is telling the voters just what they want to hear. That is not naive but shrewd and cynical.
Hat Tip: The W0RD
"We are firmly convinced, and we act on that conviction, that with nations as with individuals our interests soundly calculated will ever be found inseparable from our moral duties, and history bears witness to the fact that a just nation is trusted on its word when recourse is had to armaments and wars to bridle others." - Thomas Jefferson
"I don't pass the buck, nor do I alibi out of any decision I make." - Harry S. Truman
"Whether we want to own up to it or not, the welfare state has done what Jim Crow, gross discrimination and poverty could not have done. It has contributed to the breakdown of the black family structure and has helped establish a set of values alien to traditional values of high moral standards, hard work and achievement." - Walter Williams
"We don't look to arsonists to help put out fires but we do look to politicians to help solve financial crises that they played a major role in creating. How did the government help create the current financial mess? Let me count the ways... Government laws and policies at federal, state and local levels have had the net effect of putting both borrowers and lenders way out on a limb. Yet, when that limb began to crack, the first reaction in politics and in the media has been to look to government to solve this problem because- as always- it was called the market's fault, the lenders' fault and everybody's fault except those politicians who created this dicey situation in the first place. Markets often get blamed for conveying a reality that was not created by the market. ... Markets were also blamed for the Great Depression of the 1930s and New Deal politicians were credited with getting us out of it. But increasing numbers of economists and historians have concluded that it was government intervention which prolonged the Great Depression beyond that of other depressions where the government did nothing. The stock market crash of 1987 was at least as big as the stock market crash in 1929. But, instead of being followed by a Great Depression, the 1987 crash was followed by 20 years of economic growth, with low inflation and low unemployment. The Reagan administration did nothing in 1987, despite outrage in the media at the government's failure to live up to its responsibility, as seen in liberal quarters. But nothing was apparently what needed to be done, so that markets could adjust. The last thing politicians can do in an election year is nothing. So we can look for all sorts of 'solutions' by politicians of both parties. Like most political solutions, these are likely to make matters worse." - Thomas Sowell
"The Founding Fathers knew a government can't control the economy without controlling people. And they knew when a government sets out to do that, it must use force and coercion to achieve its purpose. So we have come to a time for choosing. Public servants say, always with the best of intentions, 'What greater service we could render if only we had a little more money and a little more power.' But the truth is that outside of its legitimate function, government does nothing as well or as economically as the private sector." - Ronald Reagan
"Every president, every senator, every member of Congress and every Supreme Court justice takes an oath to uphold the Constitution of the United States. The way some of them behave, though, you have to wonder if they've ever read it. The Constitution is clear and understandable. It gives Congress, the legislative branch, the responsibility of passing our laws. It gives the president, head of the executive branch, the responsibility of enforcing those laws. And it gives the courts, headed by the Supreme Court, the responsibility of interpreting them. Yet in recent years, leaders of all three branches have expressed confusing- and incorrect- ideas about the Constitution... Members of all three branches of our government should do some light reading this summer, and refresh themselves on their proper roles. After all, you can't uphold what you don't understand." - Ed Feulner
"If you restrict the supply of energy (gasoline) and demand continues to grow, what will happen to the price of energy (gasoline)? I expect most readers would answer, 'The price will rise.' The only class of Americans who continue to not answer that question correctly is the U.S. Congress. Why do old farmers continue to plant fruit and nut trees, even though they may not be productive in their lifetimes? Why do business people, particularly entrepreneurs, make investments that may not pay off for many years in the future? On the other hand, why do so many politicians promote policies that will cause great harm in future years? Farmers and business people tend to have long time horizons and care about future generations, while too many in the political class are narcissists and care only about the political cycle or maybe even the 24-hour news cycle. As the predictable financial and energy problems have demonstrated, if politicians were to act more like farmers and entrepreneurs, the people would be far better off." - Richard W. Rahn
"The moral precepts delivered in the sacred oracles form a part of the law of nature, are of the same origin and of the same obligation, operating universally and perpetually."
-- James Wilson (Of the Law of Nature, 1804)
Reference: The Works of the Honourable James Wilson, Wilson, ed., vol. 1 (137-138)
Tomorrow (Friday the 25th) is the 40th anniversary of the issuance of Humanae Vitae, which reaffirmed the Catholic Church's long-held denunciation of artificial means of birth control.
While that encyclical was widely reviled at the time (and today, although understanding of its wisdom is growing), it's often forgotten that until 1930, Christian communities were nearly unanimous in rejecting artificial means of contraception. That year, the governing body of the Anglican Communion voted to allow contraception between married couples in limited circumstances. Within just a few decades, that new belief had spread like wildfire among Protestant communities, despite Pope Pius XI responding within less than a year with his encyclical Casti Connubi, rejecting the Lambeth Conference's doctrinal innovation and reminding Christians everywhere of the consistent historic rejection by Christians of artificial contraception. (See here for quotes from early Christians, even as early as a few decades after Christ, rejecting contraception. Also, remember the story of Onan in Genesis 38:6-10, who God punishes for practicing coitus interruptus.)
Pope Paul VI, in Humane Vitae, didn't just deal with theological issues though. Paragraph 17 discusses the likely consequences of popular acceptance of birth control:
Responsible men can become more deeply convinced of the truth of the doctrine laid down by the Church on this issue if they reflect on the consequences of methods and plans for artificial birth control. Let them first consider how easily this course of action could open wide the way for marital infidelity and a general lowering of moral standards. Not much experience is needed to be fully aware of human weakness and to understand that human beings—and especially the young, who are so exposed to temptation—need incentives to keep the moral law, and it is an evil thing to make it easy for them to break that law. Another effect that gives cause for alarm is that a man who grows accustomed to the use of contraceptive methods may forget the reverence due to a woman, and, disregarding her physical and emotional equilibrium, reduce her to being a mere instrument for the satisfaction of his own desires, no longer considering her as his partner whom he should surround with care and affection.
Finally, careful consideration should be given to the danger of this power passing into the hands of those public authorities who care little for the precepts of the moral law. Who will blame a government which in its attempt to resolve the problems affecting an entire country resorts to the same measures as are regarded as lawful by married people in the solution of a particular family difficulty? Who will prevent public authorities from favoring those contraceptive methods which they consider more effective? Should they regard this as necessary, they may even impose their use on everyone. It could well happen, therefore, that when people, either individually or in family or social life, experience the inherent difficulties of the divine law and are determined to avoid them, they may give into the hands of public authorities the power to intervene in the most personal and intimate responsibility of husband and wife.
It's certainly not true that respect for women has increased in our society. Between your typical magazine rack and the increase in violence against women, Pope Paul VI has been sadly prescient. So too has his prediction of government mandates of sterilization and contraception. Look at China with their one-child policy of forced sterilizations and abortions, which many international organizations, especially those related to the UN, hold up as a model to be followed, rather than a crime against humanity to condemned.
Similarly, the spread of abortion is clearly related to the acceptance of contraception. After all, if a child is a by-product we can actively avoid (something we're "punished with"), why not terminate an existing pregnancy if contraception fails? It's a very logical conclusion once pregnancy becomes something to be avoided. If a child can be rejected before conception due to inconvenient timing, why not soon after? This is why we won't change the culture to reject abortion unless we also focus on getting the culture to reject contraception: it's a straight line from contraception to abortion. A contracepting culture will be an abortion culture.
At the core of this issue is one simple question: what is sex for?
Nature provides us with two obvious purposes:
1) Sex makes babies (procreative)
2) Sex draws those involved in it closer to each other emotionally (unitive)
Simple observation has told us that for millennia. In so many ways, Catholic teaching on sexual morality can be drawn from those two points.
Sex is reserved for a marriage between a man and a woman because it provides the stability and environment best suited for raising a child. Children simply respond better to the complementarity of having parents of the opposite sex, and the bond of marriage provides a stability to the relationship that aids in keeping that complementary relationship around. The unitive aspect of sex can draw people who won't make a successful marriage to believe they could. As has been said many times, sex is a great way to make up. Since sex releases the same hormones as love, having premarital sex can lead couples to confuse sex and love, leading to trouble in a marriage when the frequency of sex declines.
Similarly, contracepted sex denies the more obvious biological purpose of sex: reproduction. Sex while contracepting is really nothing more than mutual masturbation. Rather than two people coming together open to creating something greater than themselves, it ultimately becomes about pleasure, and often, their own pleasure. It takes an act that allows human participation in God's act of creation and makes it solely about us, our wants, our pleasure, leaving God out of what is supposed to be a sacred moment. Indeed, under Catholic teaching, especially as expressed in John Paul II's Theology of the Body, sex is a sacrament.
So far from opposing or hating sex, as is often claimed, the Church teaches that is is given to us by God as a symbol of Heaven. The Church doesn't place limits on sexual activity because we're prudish or puritanical, but because it's so wonderful that it must be treated with the respect and dignity it deserves, not just as another bodily function.
Sex is wonderful; treat it that way.
The last abortion clinic left in South Dakota has closed:
Planned Parenthood closed its doors after their abortionists, who are flown in from other states, refused to work under the new law that went into effect last Friday. The law orders abortionists to inform patients of the humanity of their babies and that the procedure could affect their mental health two hours before the abortion is set to be performed. The law also provides that abortionists can be sued if they do not comply.
...but, don't worry, I didn't burn my foot.
"In reality there is perhaps no one of our natural Passions so hard to subdue as Pride." - Benjamin Franklin
"At this point it would take a willing suspension of disbelief to put any trust in the military judgment of... Barack Obama." - Paul Greenberg
"The idea that four months before a presidential election a candidate can run through these countries, meet some world leaders, and claim experience in these matters may impress the liberal media, but to me, it exposes just how unprepared for the presidency this guy is... I have never seen a presidential candidate with less to offer this nation- yet with more arrogance and self-delusion- than Barack Obama." - Rush Limbaugh
"I think that the coverage [Barack Obama] is getting is beyond presidential. It's papal. I mean, a president never has all three anchors on the way with him... If you needed any evidence of how much in the tank the mainstream media are, this is it." - Charles Krauthammer
"Obama's self-deprecation was his most charming bit, but lately he is, well, less charming. He and his wife seem more like a finger-wagging principal and teacher tag team, with Michelle Obama promising that her husband will make us work harder when he becomes president. You get the feeling that should the Obamas take over, we'll all be staying after school. They used to call that detention." - Kathleen Parker
"To say you're going to get out on a certain schedule- regardless of what the Iraqis do, regardless of what our enemies do, regardless of what is happening on the ground- is the height of absurdity." - Michael O'Hanlon, Democrat foreign policy analyst at the liberal Brookings Institute
"The real American dream is not found in having a government that helps you pay for your home, your health care and your retirement. It is found in taking care of those things yourself, as a free and independent person." - Terence Jeffrey
"Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are called government-sponsored enterprises. At times, Congress has seemed a Fannie Mae- and Freddie Mac-sponsored enterprise." - Rich Lowry
"Barack Obama departs for Iraq... with a media entourage as large as some of his rallies. He'll no doubt learn a lot, in addition to getting a good photo op. What we'll be waiting to hear is whether the would-be Commander in Chief absorbs enough to admit he was wrong about the troop surge in Iraq. Mr. Obama has made a central basis of his candidacy the ‘judgment' he showed in opposing the Iraq war in 2002, even if it was a risk-free position to take as an Illinois state senator. The claim helped him win the Democratic primaries. But the 2007 surge debate is the single most important strategic judgment he has had to make on the more serious stage as a Presidential candidate. He vocally opposed the surge, and events have since vindicated President Bush. Without the surge and a new counterinsurgency strategy, the U.S. would have suffered a humiliating defeat in Iraq. Yet Mr. Obama now wants to ignore that judgment, and [recently] his campaign erased from its Web site all traces of his surge opposition. Lest media amnesia set in, here is what the Obama site previously said: 'The problem- the Surge: The goal of the surge was to create space for Iraq's political leaders to reach an agreement to end Iraq's civil war. At great cost, our troops have helped reduce violence in some areas of Iraq, but even those reductions do not get us below the unsustainable levels of violence of mid-2006. Moreover, Iraq's political leaders have made no progress in resolving the political differences at the heart of their civil war.' Mr. Obama's site now puts a considerably brighter gloss on the surge. Yet the candidate himself shows no signs of rethinking." - The Wall Street Journal
"Too many people expect wonders from democracy, when the most wonderful thing of all is just having it." - Walter Winchell
"Vision is the art of seeing things invisible." - Jonathan Swift
"The chief object of education is not to learn things but to unlearn things." - G. K. Chesterton
"Common sense is not so common." - Voltaire
"For the first few months of the campaign, the question about Obama was: Who is he? The question now is: Who does he think he is? We are getting to know. Redeemer of our uninvolved, uninformed lives. Lord of the seas. And more." - Charles Krauthammer
"Obama's record is like floor wax: all shine and no depth." - Cal Thomas
"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi recommended oil drilling in already-explored Alaska leaseholds Tuesday. She won't yield on offshore or wildlife preserves. The Democrats are not opposed to drilling, they are just opposed to drilling in areas that have oil." - Argus Hamilton
Jay Leno: Barack Obama is very popular in the Middle East. I guess a lot of people over there saw the cover of The New Yorker. This is Barack's third day in the Middle East. And President Bush said that he has no timetable for bringing him back home. ... You know, sometimes when President Bush speaks, he does not use the best choice of words. You know? Like, today, he said the financial institutions are basically sound, and you can take that to the bank. ... John McCain called a press conference today. Unfortunately, all the press was out of the country covering Obama. ... Barack Obama is in Afghanistan. Bill Clinton went with him. At least that's what he told Hillary. ... The feds say federal institutions are in trouble for giving money to those already in debt. That's the problem. They gave money to those already in debt. So, why are we paying taxes? Who's more in debt than the government? What, are they $9 trillion in debt? We're giving them more money? We're enablers. We need to stop this.
Yeah, another Scrubs video compliation
"Yeah, Rowdy, hit that!"
"You mean, why is there silverware in the pancake drawer."
Because people are.
Gay Chicken
"That shirt you're wearing is gay."
Greatest Conversation Ever
In Your Endo
"You're China!"
"He can dance if he wants to. He can leave his friends behind."
"A brother's 'bout to have some seeeeex!"
1. Somewhere - The Tymes
2. Delirious Love - Neil Diamond
3. Centerfield - John Fogerty ("The only rock 'n' roll song that should ever be heard in a ballpark was written by John Fogerty." --Rob Neyer, _Feeding the Green Monster_)
4. Linger - The Cranberries
5. Superman: The Movie (Main Title) - John Williams
6. Carmina Burana: O Fortuna - Boston Symphony Orchestra
7 (tie). A Little Respect - Erasure ("It's like a virus." - Chris Turk, Scrubs)
7 (tie). Make Someone Happy - Jimmy Durante
7 (tie). Holy God We Praise Thy Name - Perry Como
10. Forever Young - Alphaville
11. Solsbury Hill - Peter Gabriel
12 (tie). Hey Ya! - OutKast
12 (tie). I Drove All Night - Roy Orbison
14 (tie). Overkill (Acoustic Version) - Colin Hay
14 (tie). The Ballad of the Green Berets - SSgt. Barry Sadler
16. Ain't No Sunshine - Bill Withers
17. Since U Been Gone - Kelly Clarkson
18. Come On Over (All I Want Is You) - Christina Aguilera
19 (tie). Smooth Criminal - Alien Ant Farm
19 (tie). The Great Escape - City of Prague Philharmonic
...but had decided against it on financial grounds. (I didn't feel like spending $70 a month for service.) But then I just read this article about a nice service it provides and I'm back on the fence.
That's an unretouched image from video made available through a Major League Baseball video stream of "just happened highlights." I know I still shouldn't get an iPhone, but I'm not sure I'm strong enough to resist this.
"Men of energy of character must have enemies; because there are two sides to every question, and taking one with decision, and acting on it with effect, those who take the other will ofcourse be hostile in proportion as they feel that effect."
-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to John Adams, 21 December 1817)
Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson (Memorial Edition), Lipscomb and Bergh, eds., 15:109.
But the modern liberal will tell you that if you disagree with them you're corrupt, selfish or a liar. Disagreement with a liberal is taken to be prima facie evidence of poor character.
One of the dangers of seeing a very hyped movie, or any movie that you're looking forward to, is that it won't live up to your expectations. (It's why I didn't see the Get Smart movie earlier this summer; I'm worried about being disappointed.) So, I went to see The Dark Knight last night with a mixture of excitement and trepidation.
I wasn't disappointed at all. I'll have to see it a few more times to be sure, but this might be the best comic book movie I've ever seen. (Not that I've seen all of them.) Heath Ledger is as good as you've heard. (And, it's hard for me to accept him as a skilled actor given that the first thing I ever saw him in was Ten Things I Hate About You, one of those insufferable teen movies.) It's hard to see how anyone else can win the Oscar this year, especially when you add in the drama of his untimely death.
The movie does a good job of keeping the suspense up, always making you wonder what the Joker's next move will be. Ledger's acting aside, the Joker was brilliantly conceived: an amoral "agent of chaos" who seems to live solely to disrupt the status quo. In a different Gotham, where the criminals truly ruled the city, it's conceivable that the Joker might have fought on Batman's side, a point which I think was hinted at in the movie. The point was made that what people want is stability and consistency, which the Joker sought to overturn. (This, perhaps unintentionally, supports the conservative worldview, at least of the Russell Kirk variety.) It was also nice not to have an origin story for once. I think too many comic book movies have wasted time showing how the criminals came to be, wasting time that could have advanced the plot. Having the Joker seemingly come from nowhere not only helped the pacing, but added to the mystery of the character.
It wasn't a perfect movie, but I'll deal with my issues and other random comments after the break, since they're slightly spoilerish.
1) Maggie Gyllenhall beguiles me. From some angles she looks absolutely beautiful, but from straight on it looks like a truck hit a pig in the face.
2) I was confused as to how the Joker knew Batman had a thing for Rachel.
3) I could have lived without the trip to the Orient subplot, especially since it did little to advance the plot in any meaningful sense.
4) It was nice, however that Rachel's death served a purpose beyond just being evidence of insanity and cruelty. It served as a major plot point in driving some of the late action.
5) The Joker making the pencil disappear cool and gruesome at the same time.
6) Random thought: While watching the chase scene while Dent is under arrest, it hit me: "I wonder if insurance companies bother to do business in Gotham at all? And if they do, can anyone afford it anyway?"
But, in summation: it's a great movie. Definitely see it.
"Early last year, when the war was at its peak, [Barack Obama] proposed a timetable for withdrawing all U.S. combat forces in slightly more than a year. [Last week], with bloodshed at its lowest level since the war began, Mr. Obama endorsed the same plan. After hinting earlier this month that he might 'refine' his Iraq strategy after visiting the country and listening to commanders, Mr. Obama appears to have decided that sticking to his arbitrary, 16-month timetable is more important than adjusting to the dramatic changes in Iraq... 'What's missing in our debate,' Mr. Obama said [last week], 'is a discussion of the strategic consequences of Iraq.' Indeed: The message that the Democrat sends is that he is ultimately indifferent to the war's outcome- that Iraq 'distracts us from every threat we face' and thus must be speedily evacuated regardless of the consequences. That's an irrational and ahistorical way to view a country at the strategic center of the Middle East, with some of the world's largest oil reserves. Whether or not the war was a mistake, Iraq's future is a vital U.S. security interest. If he is elected president, Mr. Obama sooner or later will have to tailor his Iraq strategy to that reality." - The Washington Post
"We know that peace is the condition under which mankind was meant to flourish. Yet peace does not exist of its own will. It depends on us, on our courage to build it and guard it and pass it on to future generations. George Washington's words may seem hard and cold today, but history has proven him right again and again. 'To be prepared for war,' he said, 'is one of the most effective means of preserving peace.' Well, to those who think strength provokes conflict, Will Rogers had his own answer. He said of the world heavyweight champion of his day: 'I've never seen anyone insult Jack Dempsey'." - Ronald Reagan
"Americans are beginning to notice Obama's elevated opinion of himself. There's nothing new about narcissism in politics. Every senator looks in the mirror and sees a president. Nonetheless, has there ever been a presidential nominee with a wider gap between his estimation of himself and the sum total of his lifetime achievements? Obama is a three-year senator without a single important legislative achievement to his name, a former Illinois state senator who voted 'present' nearly 130 times. As president of the Harvard Law Review, as law professor and as legislator, has he ever produced a single notable piece of scholarship? Written a single memorable article? His most memorable work is a biography of his favorite subject: himself. It is a subject upon which he can dilate effortlessly. In his victory speech upon winning the nomination, Obama declared it a great turning point in history- 'generations from now we will be able to look back and tell our children that this was the moment' - when, among other wonders, 'the rise of the oceans began to slow.' As economist Irwin Stelzer noted in his London Daily Telegraph column, 'Moses made the waters recede, but he had help.' Obama apparently works alone." - Charles Krauthammer
"House Speaker Pelosi is hinting at reinstating the Fairness Doctrine, and many of her liberal colleagues in Congress are doing the same in both chambers. Alleging the press isn't balanced, they say government should be making sure all viewpoints, meaning the lefts, are fairly represented. I agree the press isn't balanced, but Mrs. Pelosi has it backward; liberalism dominates the press, including the three major networks and most major newspapers. Though originally the Fairness Doctrine did not require opposing time be equal, it came to be the standard. The concern at the time was the prevention of a single viewpoint from dominating the news and biasing the people. By the 1980s, there were many radio and TV stations available. And many believed the Fairness Doctrine was unconstitutional in any event. So in 1987, Ronald Reagan's Federal Communications Commission repealed the Fairness Doctrine, opening every press outlet to freely decide what content to carry. The Democrat-controlled Congress at the time passed legislation to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine, but President Reagan vetoed the bill. This led to the birth of talk radio. The doctrine's reinstatement would kill conservative talk radio. Radio stations that carry Rush Limbaugh, Sean Hannity, and Glenn Beck would have to create liberal shows of equal length. And when those shows fail to make money and the stations take a loss, their only option in canceling those shows would be to cancel the conservative shows as well. Free speech would lose. Americans would lose." - Ken Blackwell
"One of the unappreciated casualties of the War of 1861, erroneously called a Civil War, was its contribution to the erosion of constitutional guarantees of state sovereignty. It settled the issue of secession, making it possible for the federal government to increasingly run roughshod over Ninth and 10th Amendment guarantees. A civil war, by the way, is a struggle where two or more parties try to take over the central government. Confederate President Jefferson Davis no more wanted to take over Washington, D.C., than George Washington wanted to take over London. Both wars are more properly described as wars of independence... Federal usurpation goes beyond anything the Constitution's framers would have imagined. James Madison, explaining the constitution, in Federalist Paper 45, said, 'The powers delegated... to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, [such] as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce... The powers reserved to the several States will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people.' Thomas Jefferson emphasized that the states are not 'subordinate' to the national government, but rather the two are 'coordinate departments of one simple and integral whole.'... One of the more disgusting sights for me to is to watch a president, congressman or federal judge take an oath to uphold and defend the United States Constitution, when in reality they either hold constitutional principles in contempt or they are ignorant of those principles." - Walter Williams
"If an American is to amount to anything he must rely upon himself, and not upon the State; he must take pride in his own work, instead of sitting idle to envy the luck of others. He must face life with resolute courage, win victory if he can, and accept defeat if he must, without seeking to place on his fellow man a responsibility which is not theirs." - Theodore Roosevelt
The Most Rev Katharine Jefferts Schori, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church, said that bishops setting up shop in other dioceses is "totally opposed to a traditional Christian understanding of how bishops relate to each other. That's the biggest difficulty. They're setting up as something else in the same geographical territory." (Link)
But if bishops hadn't setup as something else in the same territory back in the 16th Century, there wouldn't be an Anglican Church to fall apart today. They'd still be Catholic.
Hat Tip: Standing on My Head
"Wish not so much to live long as to live well." - Benjamin Franklin
"You want to make every pundit look bad? Then stand tall for what you believe. Don't be shy. You want to stun the establishment? Then become a mighty force for conservative principles, and tackle the task with confidence and cheer... This may be a time of testing. But it's not our swan song. Not by a long shot. Instead... this is our moment. This is the time to do what we do best- turn adversity into strength." - the late Tony Snow, former White House Press Secretary
"A regrettable by-product of modern media proliferation is its frequent lack of restraint and good humor, especially on the Web. Tony Snow rose above such vituperation as a happy political combatant, which is one reason so many who knew him or watched him in action are now mourning his death from cancer on Saturday at age 53. As a columnist and radio talk show host, Snow was principled but never nasty. As the host of 'Fox News Sunday,' he exuded good will... And as White House press secretary, he cheerfully but forcefully sparred with reporters in making the President's case on policy. No doubt because he was confident in his own convictions, he wasn't defensive about his answers. This has not been universally true during the Bush Presidency. Above all, he took ideas and politics seriously... Tony Snow... set the right example." - The Wall Street Journal
"One of the most naive notions is that politicians are trying to solve the country's problems, just because they say so- or say so loudly or inspiringly. Politicians' top priority is to solve their own problem, which is how to get elected and then re-elected. Barack Obama is a politician through and through, even though pretending that he is not is his special strategy to get elected." - Thomas Sowell
"I don't think our legal system should be that complex. I think that any system that requires that many of the country's best minds, and they are the best minds, is too complex." - Justice Antonin Scalia
"Barack Obama told a town hall meeting in Georgia... that parents need to make sure their kids are able to speak Spanish. So that's his economic policy. He is going to have Americans pose as illegal immigrants so they can get low-paying jobs." - Argus Hamilton
"No matter the peaks we have climbed in life we are all midgets next to his majestic holiness, the Barack of Obama." - Mark Steyn
Jay Leno: The other day the plane that Barack Obama was on had some mechanical difficulties and was forced to land. Well, the National Transportation Safety Board did an inspection on the plane, and you know what they found? The bolts on the plane were fine, but apparently Jesse Jackson had taken some of the nuts off. ... I'm sure you know by now, Jesse Jackson was overheard saying, and I'll put this more delicately, that he wanted to cut Barack Obama's testicles off. And Jesse has been... explaining what he meant by those comments. Do you need to explain that? ... Hillary Clinton commented on the remarks, by saying, "I don't know what the big deal is, I say that to Bill at least once a week." ... Jesse "The Nutcracker" Jackson said he made the comments when he thought the mic was off. Well that makes it so much better, doesn't it? Here's my question, why would Jesse Jackson ever go anywhere unless the mic was on? Right? He's Jesse Jackson!
The hometown fans of Derek Jeter were chanting "overrated" at Jonathan Papelbon?
I turned the game off in the top of the 9th last night, so I missed the last 7 innings which apparently was some of the best All-Star game play in years. It's still a shame the games start so late. Screw California, start the games early over here!
As a closing comment, (no pun intended) let's hope that's the only loss Brad Lidge takes all year.
Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?
- Henry Ward Beecher
"[W]e are confirmed in the opinion, that the present age would be deficient in their duty to God, their posterity and themselves, if they do not establish an American republic. This is the only form of government we wish to see established; for we can never be willingly subject to any other King than He who, being possessed of infinite wisdom, goodness and rectitude, is alone fit to possess unlimited power."
Instructions of Malden, Massachusetts for a Declaration of Independence, 27 May 1776
Reference: Documents of American Histroy, Commager, vol. 1 (97)
"There's a weird irony at work when Sen. Barack Obama, the black presidential candidate who will allegedly scrub the stain of racism from the nation, vows to run afoul of the constitutional amendment that abolished slavery. For those who don't remember, the 13th Amendment says: 'Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime... shall exist within the United States.' In Obama's mind it must be a crime to be born or to attend college. In his speech on national service... at the University of Colorado, Obama promised that as president he would 'set a goal for all American middle and high school students to perform 50 hours of service a year, and for all college students to perform 100 hours of service a year.' He would see that these goals are met by, among other things, attaching strings to federal education dollars. If you don't make kids report for duty, he's essentially telling schools and college kids, you'll lose money you can't afford to lose. In short, he'll make service compulsory by merely compelling schools to make it compulsory. ... This is the problem with national service mania: It seeks to fix what ain't broke. No, national service isn't slavery. But it contributes to a slave mentality, at odds with American tradition. It assumes that work not done for the government isn't really for the 'common good'." - Jonah Goldberg
"Liberals, it has been said, are generous with other peoples' money, except when it comes to questions of national survival when they prefer to be generous with other people's freedom and security." - William F. Buckley Jr.
"Years and years of history books have taught us that America was shaped by the great deeds of great men and women. It was not. America was shaped by the great deeds of ordinary men and women. America always has been better than its government, that its people have always been more decent than their presidents, and that the strength and greatness of this nation lies in them, the men and women who are not great and who never will be." - Roger Simon
"John McCain is trailing Barack Obama by 30 percentage points in support from Hispanic voters, according to this week's polling from Gallup. Even among Hispanics that self-identify as conservatives, McCain and Obama are even. This is a far cry from 2004 when George W. Bush captured 45 percent of the Hispanic vote. At that time, Republicans were optimistic that Hispanics would become a majority voting bloc for the Republican Party. The McCain campaign has two operative questions: Can ground be picked up among Hispanic voters? And if so, how? I hope that the senator sets his sights on Hispanics. If he does it right, he can gain support from them and in so doing, also inject badly needed focus and excitement into his overall campaign... Hispanics should be reminded that they left countries like Mexico, Cuba, and Honduras, where excessive and oppressive governments limit growth and opportunity, to come to a country where opportunity exists. Why would they want to kill the goose laying those eggs of opportunity by supporting the same kinds of ideas about government that they left behind? Individual freedom, limited government, and traditional values combine to create the American recipe for greatness. McCain must tell the story and provide stark contrast with the big government and moral relativism being sold again by Democrats. Hispanics may grasp the truth when they hear it. If not, at least he will have said what needs to be said. After all, everyone's future is at stake." - Star Parker
"Congressional attacks on speculation do not alter the oil market's fundamental demand and supply conditions. What would lower the long-term price of oil is for Congress to permit exploration for the estimated billions upon billions of barrels of oil domestically available, not to mention the estimated trillion-plus barrels of shale oil in Wyoming, Colorado and Utah. Some politicians pooh-pooh calls for drilling, saying it would take five or 10 years to recover the oil. I guarantee you we would begin to see a reduction in today's prices even if it took five to 10 years for us to get the first barrel. Put yourself in the place of an OPEC member knowing there would be a greater supply of U.S. oil five or 10 years, hence maybe driving oil prices lower to say $40 a barrel. What will you want to do now while oil is $130 a barrel? You would want to sell as much oil now and OPEC's collective efforts to do so would put downward pressures on current oil prices. Right now the U.S. Congress is OPEC's staunchest ally." - Walter Williams
"Those who would trade our freedom for the soup kitchen of the welfare state have told us that they have a utopian solution of peace without victory. They call their policy 'accommodation.' And they say if we only avoid any direct confrontation with the enemy, he will forget his evil ways and learn to love us. All who oppose them are indicted as warmongers. They say we offer simple answers to complex problems. Well, perhaps there is a simple answer- not an easy one, but a simple one- if you and I have the courage to tell our elected officials that we want our national policy based upon what we know in our hearts is morally right... [E]very lesson in history tells us that the greater risk lies in appeasement, and this is the specter our well-meaning liberal friends refuse to face." - Ronald Reagan
"I realize that some conservatives have a big problem with America talking to the bad guys. They become very indignant at the idea that we might even converse with anyone who is implicated in terrorism. I don't share this view. I don't have a problem with talking to anyone, as long as you go into the meeting with a lot of loaded guns. In other words, my problem is not with talking with folks like Mahmoud Ahmedinejad. The problem is: who is going to do the talking? Certainly a President McCain has the experience and resolve to sit across the table with the bad guys and not fall for their deceptions or give in to their pressures. With an unseasoned guy like Obama, whose global experience may be confined to an occasional visit to the International House of Pancakes, who knows?" - Dinesh D'Souza
A truly great event happened, one that changed the course of history: Earl Weaver became manager of the Orioles. The American League was never the same and "The Best Damn Team in Baseball" was just a few years away.
I gotta go with Cruise: every time I look at him, I think "Scientologist freak." At least Costner did "Field of Dreams" and "Bull Durham." Cruise doesn't have anything nearly so redeeming on his resume. (With the possible exception of Mimi Rogers. Mmmmmm. Of course, Rogers is herself a Scientologist and apparently recruited Cruise into that cult.)
...if you come dressed in a cow costume.
I do have a cow costume....
Go read it. There's too much good stuff just to excerpt part of it. But here's one sample:
"There were a few minutes when I thought it would never get here," said Phillies catcher Chris Coste, who had to rise from his squatting position to stretch twice during the pitch's journey in order to keep the feeling in his legs.
"People generally have more feeling for canals and roads than education. However, I hope we can advance them with equal pace."
-- Thomas Jefferson (letter to Joel Barlow, 10 December 1807)
Reference: The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Washington, ed., vol. 5 (521)
George F. Will tells us how beer saved humanity.
Reaction continues to the decisions of the 218th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church USA (PCUSA), which took place between June 21 and June 28. The assembly nullified proscriptions against sexual behavior outside of marriage and called for a vote to delete the church’s constitutional standard requiring fidelity in marriage and chastity in singleness. It also initiated a process that could remove mention of the Bible’s prohibition against homosexuality form the Heidelberg Catechism. (Full article)
This won't end any better for them than it did for the Anglican Communion.
A GROUP of glamour lesbians who believe the world was created by an alien civilisation 25,000 years ago have criticised the Catholic Church for being out of touch.
Do you get the sense the reporter was being as objective as possible while making sure to point out the humor of the situation? (Link to full article.)
Hat Tip: Catholic & Enjoying It!
Hat Tip: Inside Catholic
"How could a readiness for war in time of peace be safely prohibited, unless we could prohibit, in like manner, the preparations and establishments of every hostile nation?" - James Madison
"Hear about the 550 metric tons of yellowcake uranium found in Iraq? No? Why should you? It doesn't fit the media's neat story line that Saddam Hussein's Iraq posed no nuclear threat when we invaded in 2003. It's a little known fact that, after invading Iraq in 2003, the U.S. found massive amounts of uranium yellowcake, the stuff that can be refined into nuclear weapons or nuclear fuel, at a facility in Tuwaitha outside of Baghdad. In recent weeks, the U.S. secretly has helped the Iraqi government ship it all to Canada, where it was bought by a Canadian company for further processing into nuclear fuel- thus keeping it from potential use by terrorists or unsavory regimes in the region. This has been virtually ignored by the mainstream media. Yet, as the AP reported, this marks a 'significant step toward closing the books on Saddam's nuclear legacy.' Seems to us this should be big news. After all, much of the early opposition to the war in Iraq involved claims that President Bush 'lied' about weapons of mass destruction and that Saddam posed little if any nuclear threat to the U.S. This more or less proves Saddam in 2003 had a program on hold for building WMD and that he planned to boot it up again soon...Saddam acquired most of his uranium before 1991, but still had it in 2003, when invading U.S. troops found the stuff... That means Saddam held onto it for more than a decade. Why? He hoped to wait out U.N. sanctions on Iraq and start his WMD program anew. This would seem to vindicate Bush's decision to invade." - Investor's Business Daily
"It's one thing to fight a war and lose it. It's quite another to willingly surrender without a struggle." - Cal Thomas
"The Congress should look to increase exploration inside the United States. It is strange to ask what I should produce. It's an issue of sovereignty." - Qatar Deputy Premier and Minister of Energy and Industry H.E. Abdullah bin Hamad Al Attiyah in response to Democrats' plans to sue OPEC
"Obama's seasonally adjusted principles are beginning to pile up: NAFTA, campaign finance reform, warrantless wiretaps, flag pins, gun control. What's left? Iraq. The reversal is coming, and soon." - Charles Krauthammer
"Obama's constant policy adjustments tend to be admired for their alleged deftn
