Mr. Darcy Wins Oscar Playing King George VI

WHAT ROGER SAYS: QUICK OSCAR POST
NOLTE: TEN EASY STEPS TO A WATCHABLE OSCAR
PERHAPS THE BEST NEWS is that no one actually has to endure watching the Oscars anymore to see the high and low points of this increasingly chaotic, structureless affair.

Actually, after getting home at 9 last night, I ended up watching parts of the last hour when motioned into next-door-neighbor Martha's condo to watch the end of the spectacle. Though dreadfully sleepy, I ran home, threw on some sweats, then went back to ask, Any good gowns?

Martha was only moderately enthused saying Reese and Helen (Mirran) looked pretty good and Cate looked interesting but nothing overwhelming to write home about. We chatted for a few minutes before I fell sound asleep sitting up on her sofa. I managed to wake up when Mr. Darcy took best actor for his dazzling performance as King George VI before my eyes glazed over again and I fled home for a good night's sleep.

Today I looked through the fashion field at Go Fug Yourself and The Daily beast picking out a very few from the mostly uninspiring I'd like to comment on.

Halle is a gorgeous-looking woman who looks her best with short hair. Here she's spectacular in a gown made to order for the glamor of the red carpet. What's not to like about glitter, chiffon, silk in a form fitting gown that shows off all one's best assets? But you can see why she'd have to either remove the train or change into some other dress for the after-parties. Otherwise, the dress would be stepped and stomped on, giving new meaning to the words ripped to shreds. With all her personal and family problems, who would ever want to trade places with such skin-deep glamour? Not I, I assure you.

Gold on both Gwyneth and Taylor makes for a great photo-op though I much prefer Gwyneth's slinky number of the two. I confess, Taylor Swift doesn't do much for me. Think there's a harshness--or should I say un-softness--stridency and almost a mean look about her that I've never found attractive. Also think her dress should be a few inches longer for better proportions. Cameron also wore a dress that was way, way to short for my taste. It may be the style, but it leaves me cold.

Jennifer looks stunning in this basic, simple red gown which could actually pass for a swimsuit cover. Nevertheless, whether she paid $65 or $6,500---and I hope it was the former---this look works and is probably the sexiest, most glamorous Oscar dress there, for my taste. Best of all, there's nothing dragging behind or around her that would keep her from wearing it all night to other parties later. In the wee hours of the morning, she should have still been one of the best looking broads in Hollywood. Great unfussy look on a beautiful, fit woman who can make almost anything look good at this point.

With that, I'll stop short of any further criticism of this dreadful awards circus.

Sunday, A Former Atheist and Academic Continues Her Journey To Faith

LAST WEEK'S POST

TODAY I CONTINUE EXCERPTING from Holly Ordway's book Not God's Type, published in 2010 by Moody Publishers:

THE DIFFICULTY WAS NOT A LACK of opportunity to hear about God. The problem lay deeper: in my very concept of what faith was. I thought faith was by definition irrational, that it meant believing some assertion to be true for no reason. It has never occurred to me that there could be a path to faith through reason, that there were arguments for the existence of God, and evidence for the claims of Christianity.

I thought you had to just have faith!---and the very idea baffled and horrified me.

And yet, there was something about the idea of faith that made it stick with me. I didn't have faith. I didn't want faith, but I felt compelled to have a good reason why not. I constructed an elaborate analogy for myself, one that I felt gave a satisfying explanation of why 'faith' was impossible.

I set it up like this: imagine that you tell me, ' If you believe there's an invisible pink unicorn in the sky, I'll give you a new BMW.'....If I can believe what you want me to believe, the new car is mine. Cool! But it's a waste of time: I know there's no unicorn. No matter how much I want that car, I am incapable of believing something contrary to reason in order to get it.

Believing something irrational on demand to get a prize: that is what the evangelical invitation to 'come to Jesus and get eternal life!' sounded like to me.

Sure, if I thought I could benefit by it, I could pretend to believe, and say so: 'Oh yes, I believe in Jesus!' But I'd know I was lying, which would make this so-called faith into deliberate, repellent falsehood.

The only other option for faith, as I understood it, would be to try to convince myself that I believed. Indeed I might be able to work myself up into such a pitch of desire for the product offered that I could for a time, believe what I believed. But it wouldn't be the same thing as really believing---and the idea that I ought to make the effort seemed disgusting and immoral.

As I understood it then, faith was at best a delusion and at worst total hypocrisy.

To me, this was the decisive argument against faith. I could not believe, no matter how much I might want to. If God did exist and would punish me for no believing, I was stuck with being punished. I thought 'faith' was a meaningless word, that so-called believers were either hypocrites or self-deluded fools, and that it was a waste of time to consider any claim a Christian made about the truth.

If I had inquired, I would have found out the Bible was nothing like I thought it was. I would have found Paul's (the erstwhile Pharisee who persecuted Christians before his conversion) forthright declaration that Christianity is based on the historical, witnessed events of Christ's death and resurrection. I would have found that theology and philosophy offered real answers to my questions, not an appeal to blind faith.

I would have found that the history of the church did not conform to my image of the Christian faith as a self-serving, politically useful fiction. But I thought I knew exactly what faith w as, so I declined to look further....

Or perhaps I was afraid that there was more to it than I was willing to credit---but I didn't want to deal with that. Easier by far to read only books by atheists that told me what I wanted to hear: that I was much smarter and intellectually honest and morally superior than those poor, deluded Christians.

I had built myself a fortress of atheism, secure against any attack by irrational faith. And I lived in it alone.

Holly Ordway, Not God's Type, A Rational Academic Finds A Radical Faith

Andrew Klaven: Failures Of Multiculturism, Moral Relativism

TOP 10 LABOR UNION OUTRAGES
THE ONLY THING MORAL RELATIVISM TEACHES THAT'S CAST IN CONCRETE IS THAT MORAL RELATIVISM IS THE ONLY UNIVERSAL TRUTH.... It's a fixed principle for the anything goes, right or wrong is what I say it is crowd. We've all been there. It's the politically/culturally correct-nerati. It's a godless, human-centered worldview where individuals dethrone God and enthrone themselves at the fount and center of all wisdom, judgment and power....until, of course sooner or later, it all breaks down.

Feminists, Pro-Choicers & Al-Shar Have A Hissy Fit Over 'Racist' Soho Billboard

UPDATE: TIME TO END TAXPAYER SUBSIDY OF PLANNED PARENTHOODFAR TOO MUCH TRUTH FROM ONE BLACK CHILD'S IMAGE ON ONE BIG SIGN FOR ELITES TO BEAR. BUT IT CAN'T BE UNSEEN. A HOMERUN!

No matter how much outrage is generated, the facts tell a true story of black genocide from abortion on demand, often made easy by taxpayer subsidies. The good news is awareness IS being raised and black leaders/ ministers are stepping up to the plate and speaking out on behalf of their people. They need to do a lot more, like encouraging abstinence before marriage and responsibly having children within that framework. They've made a good start.

If this is racism, give me more of it.

Life Always, the Texas-based anti-abortion group that sponsored the billboard ad, said it hoped to raise public awareness of Planned Parenthood's "targeting of minority neighborhoods."

Read more.

Here's a video on Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood. Isn't it time we the taxpayers say NO! to any more government funding---our taxpayer monies---of Planned Parenthood? If black and minority women are going to persist in having abortions, they should have to pay for it themselves.

From Chicago and Madison To Athens, Are We Shocked Yet?

ROGER KIMBALL: THE PETULANT CHILD FORM OF DEMOCRACY
FIRST, I GIVE VERY SHORT SHRIFT and an underwhelmed round of one-hand applause for the 'news' that Rahm was just elected mayor of Chicago. What a sham. What a yawn. What a machine. What a shame. The new foul-mouthed mayor-elect said he was humbled by the city's show of support.

OK, whatever you say, your hind-end-ness. No doubt, this political jackal will be embedded in his play-toy dictatorship for life, pumping and dumping as many of our newly printed/ minted, devalued U.S. dollars---at U.S. taxpayers expense---into his and O's pet projects and candidates in this wind-swept desolation. I dislike Chicago to the point that I try never to fly through O'Hare, not wanting to give a dime to their corrupt coffers. Meanwhile, here's the big issue for Rahm, and the answer to his dilemma, below. We all know what the answer is, and so does he:

Mr. Emanuel, 51, offered few specific proposals for how he would resolve the city's budget shortfall, which is approaching $1 billion, or the underfunding of public-employee pensions by some $20 billion.

But noting that many cities are facing a financial crisis, he said, "I want to be the first city to solve it." Source.

*******

MOVING RIGHT ON DOWN THE ROAD to Madison WI which has always fancied itself the Athens of the Midwest, another 'shocking' adventure continues to unfold.

John Hayward writing today at Human Events has the best piece I've seen on the situation, Demands of the Irresponsible, where he compares the entitled state workers of Madison with the ones in Athens Greece. None, not one, of them give a damn that their governments are not only broke but busted so far in debt that they'll never recover. All they care about is getting their bottle of the warm taxpayers' dollars milk, without so much as having to lift a finger. These perpetual children don't care that mom and dad work their behinds off for far less than they get and pay far more taxes. It's a travesty that can't last. In the meantime, the tantrums just get louder.

First Hayward takes us to the mayhem in Greece:

In the city of Athens, Greece, an interesting new mutation of anarchy has appeared: the “I Won’t Pay” movement. As described by the Associated Press, it’s a combination of labor union members and Communist Party activists (funny how those flavors of collectivism combine so readily!) who prevent people from paying for municipal transportation, highway tolls, and even fees at state hospitals. They do this by blockading toll booths, sabotaging ticket machines, and encouraging other Greek citizens to stiff the government for public services, any way they can.

Greece lies in a pool of her own blood at the base of socialism’s cliff, crushed on the rocks of unsustainable government spending and a moribund economy. The “I Won’t Pay” crowd is upset by the government’s new austerity measures, and (justifiably) angered by years of widespread corruption. It’s grimly amusing to watch socialists wail in surprise and fury when they discover their government is corrupt. Of course it is. So was every other socialist and communist government on the planet, throughout the sad history of collectivist thought. Corruption is an inherent feature of collectivism. There are no large, honest governments, and there never will be. When political power becomes one of the most valuable commodities in an economy, it will be bought, sold, and traded.

Then he brings us back to Home Unsweet Home in Wisconsin:

Newspaper columnist Dionysis Gousetis made an interesting point in criticizing the idealistic freeloaders: “The course from initial lawlessness to final wanton irresponsibility is like a spreading cancer.” This is always a danger with civil disobedience. What better word for the crowds of public union employees marching around “the Athens of the Midwest” than “irresponsible?” From teachers using their students as political props and tossing around Hitler references, to doctors writing fraudulent excuses to obtain paid sick leave for union shock troops, to Democrat politicians fleeing the state to shut down a vote, the Wisconsin Left abandoned all responsibility to the people it wishes to subjugate.

And here's the crux of this brilliant piece:

The notion being pushed against the capitols of Wisconsin, Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, and other American states wrestling with powerful and desperate public unions is a related toxin. Call it the “You Will All Pay” movement. It is the idea that taxpayers have no say whatsoever in how public unions are compensated. Union demands override the outcome of the democratic process, to the point where democratic government itself will be shut down, if it seems likely to produce an outcome the union leadership doesn’t like.

Do read the whole thing.

Sunday, More From A Former Atheist And Her Journey To Christ

LAST WEEK'S EXCERPT

TODAY I CONTINUE EXCERPTING FROM HOLLY ORDWAY'S AMAZING RATIONAL JOURNEY FROM HATING and disparaging Christianity to embracing the faith she had long-since decided was make-believe for fools and the uneducated, superstitious underclass. This journey took Holly from self-righteous elitism to shocked humility as pieces of the puzzle began to slowly fall into a new reality crumbling her old atheistic worldview.

I plan to continue using this book through Lent and Easter. In many ways, Holly's story is similar to mine, though I came to Christ at a much later age than she. But still I was repulsed by much that I saw of the emotionalism and hypocrisy in Christianity. What I've come to realize is that God had me, as he did Holly, in His Sights all along and never once had any intention of letting me go, though it was a long and twisted path. He finally brings people, places and situations into our lives that are more compelling to us and begin to break through our pre-conceived defenses and hostilities.

*******

I'D SEEN people handing out pamphlets and telling people "Jesus loves you!" or holding up signs at football games that said "John 3:16," (16 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.) which baffled me entirely. I only knew the word evangelist in the form of "tel-evangelist" which I heard about on TV when one or another of them got into some pathetic scandal. I didn't know anything about Christianity, but why bother learning?

In my twenties, my unreflective atheism gradually hardened into strident hostility. I spent two years of my graduate education in the South, where I was unhappy, in part because of culture shock--as a born and bred Yankee.....My exposure to Christianity increased, but in forms that repelled me. A preacher would regularly come into the student quad during the lunch hour and rant about hellfire and damnation---at which point I would flee and eat my sandwich in depressed solitude in my library carrel. When approached and asked if I was 'saved' I quickly responded, 'NO! And I don't want to be!' half-ashamed, half proud of being rude.

I went back north for my doctorate, back to a safe and comfortable place. My dreadlocked, Birkenstock-wearing neighbors might smoke pot, burn incense and enthuse about crystal vibrations, I could be assured that nobody took faith, you know, seriously.

Though I knew next to nothing about Christianity, and cared less, I began to mock Christians and belittle their faith, their intelligence, their character.

At thirty-one, I was an atheist college professor and I delighted in thinking of myself that way. I got a kick out of being an unbeliever; it was fun to consider myself superior to the unenlightened, superstitious masses, and to make snide comments about Christians.

What does it mean to arrive at that point in life totally without faith? Above all, it meant that I was not interested in searching for God. Consider this analogy: imagine tomorrow you become color-blind. Even if you decided not to seek help to regain your color vision, you would be aware that such a thing as 'color' existed. Consider me as one born color-blind and never having seen color, I wouldn't/couldn't know what I was missing.

Such was my life as an atheist. Before I knew Christ, I see my life in shades of gray. I thought at the time that my emptiness was fullness, that my shadows were light. I denied any and all need for God in my life.

My problem could not be solved by hearing a preacher asserting that Jesus loved me and wanted to save me. I didn't believe in God to begin with, and thought the Bible was a collection of folktales and myths, just like the stories I'd read of Zeus and Thor, Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty. Why should I take time to read the Bible, much less believe and imaginary God had a real Son.

And since I didn't believe I had an immortal soul, I wasn't in the least interested in its purported destination after I died.... No God, no afterlife, no hell....no reason to discuss that matter further.

----Holly Ordway, Not God's Type

To Escape Blame (Responsibility) Be A Victim: Scott Brown, Are You Listening?

SAW THIS LINK ON INSTAPUNDIT @ PAJAMAS, and thought it noteworthy.

Bottom line is that anyone can mitigate self-responsibility by playing the victim card---the harder, the better. Somehow, it softens the adult, painful reality of taking any responsibility for the circumstances of our lives and best of all buys us a good deal of sympathy and often a free pass across the board. Please don't get me wrong: bad things happen to all of us seemingly randomly, frequently without warning. When bad things happen to us, we all, ALL, need to give and receive compassion and a helping hand.

But do we mistake receiving compassion for a sense of being exonerated of any and all responsibility? Often the answer is yes. Do we as adults really look at the unfortunate events of our lives without taking even an iota of responsibility, especially when our offender is often more in the wrong than we are?

It's interesting that the article goes on to say people who are the most heroic and responsible in their everyday lives are often considered the worst offenders when misfortune falls than the perpetually weak who are given a wider berth and free pass.

Being an unresponsible victim is often cultivated over time and may seem like a rather productive way of life to those who have found its benefits. However in the larger scheme, it stunts our growth to maturity and distorts clear and cognitive thinking about ourselves and the real world in which we live.

This week alone in the news, we have several examples of people playing the I was a victim at the hands of predators: card. Sen. Scott Brown is the best example I see from dozens of others. Controversial and up for election next year, Brown comes out with his admission he was sexually abused/assaulted as a teenager at a summer camp. While this may undoubtedly be true and unfortunate, I have to wonder why in the world he is revealing this now, shortly before he begins his re-election campaign.

I admit I sent money to Brown in his first bid for the late Ted Kennedy's senate seat and was glad he won as a 'conservative.' However, he lost me very soon after when he crossed the aisle and voted for Obamacare. There were other things about the senator that bothered me also to the point that I would never send him a dime again. And nothing he can do or no abuse he may have taken as a 10-year old can change that.

Still for some unknown reason, I suppose this revelation will garner this man some lost votes, especially among women. I am highly suspicious of his motives, his timing and especially his unwillingness to answer questions.

There are other victims of the week I could highlight, but my life off-line calls and so I think I'll leave it at that.

Bring Sense of Humor: Sen. Lamar Alexander At Alfalfa Dinner

2011 Federal Deficit, By Jack Daniels

MARCH 4 TICKING TIME BOMB, AS OBAMA THREATENS LAWMAKERS FOR MAKING 'TOO MANY' CUTS

FEEL BETTER NOW? Neither do I.

Picture Worth Trillions

THIS IS JUST TODAY. Tomorrow, who knows?

V-Day 2011

NEWSWEEK'S NIALL FERGUSON: HOW OBAMA BLEW IT FOR THE SECOND TIME IN THE MIDDLE EAST
REMEMBER?

Sunday Excerpts: Memories of A Former Atheist

MY INDIFFERENCE TO THE CONCEPT OF GOD PERSISTED AS I GREW UP, went through high school and started college. In high school, religion of any kind seemed to me an odd but harmless pursuit....like golf or chess. In college I absorbed the idea that Christianity was a historical curiosity, or a blemish on modern civilization or both. My college science class presented Christians as illiterate anti-intellectuals who, because they didn't embrace Darwinism, threatened the advancement of knowledge. My history classes omitted or downplayed references to historical figures of faith: for instance it was only much later I learned that Florence Nightingale was a Christian.....

I suppose I must have had classmates or professors who were Christians, but even if I did I never knew any of them. Nobody talked about faith or Christianity on campus. I remember one particular girl in my dorm, my first semester year, who (in retrospect) was probably a Christian; she objected to the fact that the resident assistants distributed free condoms and had mandatory dorm meetings in which we were instructed on how to do things safely that I, at least, never even imagined that people did. The objecting girl was nice, but I didn't understand why she was making such a big deal about all this; then she moved off-campus, and I forgot about her.

---Holly Ordway, NOT GOD'S TYPE, A Rational Academic Finds a Radical Faith

Note: I will be excerpting quotes from this book for the next few weeks. Am short on time this morning, but hope to come back later to add more.

Egypt's Jubilee After 20-Second Speech & 29-Year Tyranny!

BARRY RUBIN ASKS: A YEAR FROM NOW, WILL ANYTHING REALLY HAVE CHANGED IN EGYPT?
WATCH LIVE ON ALJEZEERA.

Trump Wows 'Em Big Time At CPAC

CAN'T EMBED SO WILL LINK TO THIS VIDEO OF HIS SPEECH THURSDAY. Well worth watching whether you agree with everything he says or not. I happen to agree with much of it, especially what he says of Ron Paul's chances of being elected president---ZERO. This did not sit well with devotees of the religion of Ron Paul. While I like Paul, think he best serves America as a member of Congress being a prickly thorn in Fed chair Ben Bernanke's side.

But back to Trump: Think he's a helluva gutsy leader/entrepreneur who might just end up running for president and getting hired at this point. He's right about Obama losing us more respect in the world. Obama has flubbed the Egypt crisis to an embarrassing degree that I think he may never recover from it. I like The Donald OK. Anything would be an improvement at this point.

Sun is shining in Tennessee for foreseeable future. So I'm going out and away from computerland to enjoy our spectacular, much appreciated warming trend!

Oops, Nope! Mubarak NOT Stepping Down Yet

DEFIANT MUBARAK BAFFLES WHITE HOUSE
HASSAN al-Roweny, of the Egyptian army, addresses protesters in Tahrir Square, in Cairo Thursday, February 10, 2011.
REUTERS/Suhaib Salem

Rep. Chris Lee Looks Like A Toad After All....

UPDATE: BOEHNER WARNED LEE LAST YEAR
RELATED: NY PROSTITUTES USE FACEBOOK AFTER CRAIGSLIST CLOSED EROTIC SERVICES

ONE MINUTE SCANDAL

WHAT WAS THE MARRIED CONGRESSMAN THINKING answering a woman seeking man ad on Craigslist January 15 posing as a single lobbyist? Was it the first time he's done this, or only that he's first-time caught?

We live in the most transparent, tell-all-for-quick-fame, indiscrete society in history, so why do men seeking easy sex act in the most blase, opaque manner?

The woman on Craigslist tossed out the bait asking: why do men on this website all "look like toads."

Lee, 46, a second term Rep. congressman from New 's 26th district couldn't resist, replying (wink, wink, nod, nod):

"Hope I'm not a toad. :) i'm a very fit fun classy guy. Live in Cap Hill area. 6ft 190lbs blond/blue. 39.. Lobbyist. I promise not to disappoint," according to Gawker, the website that broke the story.

His response was accompanied by a husky, shirtless self-photo. Since it's now all over the web, I won't publish it.

He promised not to disappoint? All I can say is it's appropriate that he resigned today, freeing up our country's air and internet space to deal with more pressing issues. Or should I say to free us to deal with less salacious forms of human depravity, like slowing down our national economic wreckage?

The man who wasn't supposed to be a toad turns out to have regressed to acting like a reptile. He's disappointed his wife and family, constituency, party and the public's trust. He's ruined his reputation. Good riddance he's stepped down from Congress so quickly. That fact alone implies this probably wasn't the first time Lee has done this. There may be more.

He should be long gone from D.C. before sunrise.

With or without his shirt. So much for fit, fun and classy. I hope he can save his marriage and salvage his life. Mercifully his days on Capitol Hill are over.

MORE @ BOSTON.com

Lee, a businessman who won his seat in 2008, cultivated a family-values voting record in the House, earning an 88 percent approval rating from the American Conservative Union for his 2010 votes. He voted in favor of a ban on federal funding of abortion in the health care overhaul, in line with the group's position on the proposed ban, which was defeated in the House. He also voted against the repeal of the military's Don't Ask, Don't Tell policy prohibiting service by openly gay men and women.

He served on the House Ways and Means Committee and was active on economic revitalization issues. He has a business background stemming from his family's manufacturing enterprises.

Snow As Night Falls

BUT TAKE HEART ALL YE WHO ARE HEAVY WITH WINTER. The sun is coming out Thursday afternoon and staying out to warm the cold, hard earth for the next six days! Not a minute too soon.

Getting A Few Things Off My Chest

THURSDAY UPDATE: SOME AOL ADVERTISERS FREAKING OUT OVER PURCHASE OF HUFFPO

ROGER L SIMON: DOES THE HUFFPO SALE MEAN OBAMA AND PROGRESSIVISM IS OVER?

BABY, IT'S COLD OUTSIDE! FORECAST FOR MORE SNOW LATER. If I liked this kinda weather, I'd still be living in Jackson Hole year-round. But I don't. And I'm not. Never will be again, God willing. Best of all I no longer own property there, with its abysmal, falling vacation home market and no end in sight. But I digress, need to return to the point of this post.

They are two-fold and brief:

First, I think Arianna Huffington's sale of the HuffPo to AOL is a lose-lose all the way around. I'm astounded AOL would pay so much---$315 million-- for this online entity that pays its writers nothing. Nothing. Is it supposed to be a liberal privilege to work for the undivine Ms. A? Especially now that she seems to be going in another socio-economic direction? Dana Milbank at the WaPo has written a great piece about her now political flip-flops over the years when it seems to suit her and her pocketbook. He cautions not to get your hopes up that she'll remain a strong voice for the left. He doesn't have to worry with me. More at Pajamas as Tom Blumer pens Huffington's Heist.

Never listened to Arianna and certainly not starting now. Still the fact that she'll be editorial director at AOL seems misguided. Think this will run off many, if not most, of the conservatives still there.

AOL stockholders are voting with their money by fleeing in droves as the stock continues to drop like Icarus, pictured above who ignored warnings, flew too close to the sun, melting his wings, and fell back to earth to his death. How many times can AOL shoot itself in the foot in several decades?

Of course I could be wrong about this, but doubt it.

Second thing is that I thought Christina Aguilera's Superbowl appearance was abysmal to put it mildly. Sure she has a decent voice. Whether you think the Star Spangled Banner should be sung at sporting events, and irregardless of her flubbing some of the lyrics, I found she strongly over-played, over-sang, over-belted out her part---ramping up her voice and drama to piercing levels that verged on shrieking. I found it embarassing and unattractive, to say the least. Furthermore, thought she looked and sounded like the White Witch on steroids. Like tasting like a cup of coffee with too much sugar and cream. Or running your fingernails across a blackboard.

Ugh. Don't want to have to watch that again. Way too much.

Tough Guy Criminal Teenagers & Football Players, Ambushed By Love

BRINGS TEARS TO MY EYES. Sometimes this is all it takes to start to turn it around. Being surprise victims of love just rolled their spirits up.

Thanks, Libby, for sending. So fine.

Quarterback Aaron Rodgers of Green Bay

....WITH OTHER TEAMMATES GIVES GOD THE GLORY AS FOLLOWERS OF CHRIST. Win or lose---and it was a spectacular win last night for Green Bay in Dallas---ultimate credit goes beyond his and his team's personal athletic accomplishments. These Christian men, like Rodgers, Wilson, Teebow, are not only sensational, hard-working athletes, but leaders of men both on the field and off.

H/T Daily Spiel

Sunday, John Donne

HOLY SONNETS. XIV

Batter my heart, three-person'd God ; for you
As yet but knock ; breathe, shine, and seek to mend ;
That I may rise, and stand, o'erthrow me, and bend
Your force, to break, blow, burn, and make me new.
I, like an usurp'd town, to another due,
Labour to admit you, but O, to no end.
Reason, your viceroy in me, me should defend,
But is captived, and proves weak or untrue.
Yet dearly I love you, and would be loved fain,
But am betroth'd unto your enemy ;
Divorce me, untie, or break that knot again,
Take me to you, imprison me, for I,
Except you enthrall me, never shall be free,
Nor ever chaste, except you ravish me.
--John Donne, (1573-1631)

New VW Ad

HILARIOUS! INSTANT CLASSIC.

HT Challies

Protester of the Day: Mr. Bread Head

UPDATE: IS EGYPT TODAY A PREVIEW OF AMERICA 2015? FOOD RIOTS AHEAD?
SOME AMAZING PHOTOS have come out of the Middle East the last few weeks. Camels running through Cairo in the midst of protest pandemonium yesterday is my favorite. Anachronisms are rampant there.

Today it's this. An opposition protester shouting anti-government slogans in Sanaa, Yemen calling for the ouster of President Ali Abdullah Saleh has taped little loaves of bread and a visor baguette to his head.

How clever is this? He needs his hands free to demonstrate and make violent gestures. He also knows the sandwich shop around the corner has just been burned down. With bread and clear tape, he does what any resourceful protester would do so he can hang in for the long haul. He can eat 'em or save one for later to barter, maybe for a coupla cigarettes. Or he might make some dough balls from scraps and use 'em for ear plugs....the possibilities are limitless and priceless.

Hats off to Mr. al-Ov'n Bread Head, protester of the day.

COURTESY WSJPhotos (Khaled Abdullah/Reuters)

The Aljazeera Revolution

I ADMIT I HAD QUALMS ABOUT PUTTING ALJAZEERA UP ON MY SIDEBAR LATE LAST WEEK. But only for about five minutes.

No question, it's had more than a few anti-American moments over the years. But then, so has The New York Times, CNN News and a host of other MSM news outlets in this country. So I decided I would go with what I considered the best live Internet coverage. So far, it has not disappointed, especially when authorities were knocking at their Cairo offices' doors to arrest them and confiscate their equipment. As a former newspaper reporter, I can definitely relate to that scene in Cairo as I had several close calls in my journalism day.

Anyway, today there's a good read on The Aljazeera Revolution up on RealClearMarkets. I commend it to you as I run out the door till later today.

EXCERPT:

Put another way: There is no chance that the world would be watching these extraordinary events play out in Egypt if Egyptians had not watched the Tunisian revolution play out in their living rooms and coffee shops on Al Jazeera.

The media is by no means the only force at play in the continuing upheaval in Egypt, the Tunisian revolution, or the copy-cat demonstrations going on elsewhere in the Arab world. At root is a raw anger fed by decades of political, intellectual, and economic stagnation that has led to a powerful convergence of the region's three main political trends -- pan-Arab nationalism, nation-state nationalism, and Islamism.

However, Arab media have been at the vanguard of articulating this new and explosive development. Arab satellite television, such as Al Jazeera...

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Effects of Inflation, Food Inflation on Egypt, The Middle East and World Economies

TAMNY: T BOONE UNWITTINGLY REVEALS ABSURDITY OF 'OIL INDEPENDENCE'

MARC FARBER OF GLOOM AND DOOM REPORT EXPLAINS THE BASICS HERE in this well-worth watching short video. With expansionist money policies in the U.S. and elsewhere, our fiat (paper) money looses value and buys less and less. This money printing is deflating our buying power at the same time inflating food, oil and gas prices all over the world.

If you're living in a Third World country or on a subsistence income anywhere this commodities inflation---especially wrt food---has devastating effects of your survival. This is part of what is happening in Egypt.

Sure Mubarack is a despotic dictator who should go sooner rather than later; however part of the culprit of these riots has to do with food inflation and the possibility of dramatic food shortages and starvation in the months and years to come. There's blood on Ben Bernanke's hand and printing press.

It's not a pretty picture and may get much worse before it gets better.

One other thing I hasten to bring up: While the United States is now the target of dissing by Egyptian rioters, it should be noted that we give Egypt a lot of aid---in the billions---so any new regime that arises there, hopefully will take note of the consequences of completley biting off the hand that helps to feed it.

Basic Boutique Energy

IMPORTANT READ: FOOD AND FAILED ARAB STATES

VIA ROGER SIMON WHO SAYS SPENGLER OF ASIA TIMES TELLS REAL STORY OF EGYPT-- A COUNTRY OF MASSIVE FEMALE GENITAL MUTILATION UNABLE TO FEED ITSELFIF THE PRICE OF OIL continues to rise, and it's predicted to be over $4/gallon by late summer, here's an idea we can mull over: cow dung cakes. Perfectly sculpted, dried and stacked for future use as boutique cooking fuel in villages all over India. Photo courtesy WSJPhotos.

Step Down in September (Won't Last That Long), Proud of Accomplishments, Wants to Die on Egyptian Soil (Won't Happen If He Wants to Live)

IN OTHER DICTATOR NEWS FROM WIKI LEAKS: PUTIN'S BILLION DOLLAR PALACE WT PICS ON BLACK SEA
YOU CAN VIEW MUBARACK'S SPEECH AND REACTION HERE, REPLAYED BY CLICKING THE ALJAZEERA ICON AT RIGHT. Or clicking here.

EXILE BOUND

Not well taken by the clamoring masses who want Mubarack to step down immediately. It's all but over for Mubarack, the beginning of the end, even the middle of the end. I doubt he can hold on to power until September. There would be advantages for a smoother transition of power; however it seems the momentum and mass anger is far too out-of-control to be that patient. Then there's always a high chance of assasination.

MORE HERE.