I don't know Judge Samuel Alito

...but everyone whose judgment I respect on Supreme Courts picks likes him.

The left hates him. This just could be the Armageddon battle of the left.

Senator Rick Santorum's woes

Senator Rick Santorum is up for reelection in 2006 and things do not look good. He's down 15 points to Casey in a recent poll -- and his state, Pennsylvania, went for Gore in 2000 and Kerry in 2004.

According to
The Hill, relations between him and the White House are frayed: He didn't get behind Miers as other Bush loyalists did.

It would be ironic if after the big effort to get the RINO Specter reelected, Santorum was abandoned by the Republican party as being too far behind in the polls to give campaign money and appearances to.

Is it Patrick Fitzgerald or Gerald Fitzpatrick?

It started out as investigation as to who leaked the name of Valerie Plame to Robert Novak.

And two years later we don't know.

There's a lot of stuff we don't know. A investigation that wound up asking more questions that supplying answers.

First, I want to be consistent: You can't lie on a material matter to the FBI or to a grand jury. Martha Stewart, I believed, was properly tried and convicted.

Who was the first person in the government to make a disclosure outside of the government on Plame?

Was Plame actually covered by the identity disclosure law?

I think it will be another Oliver North-style inquisition -- turning the tables on the prosecutors -- if it goes to trial.

Halloween is not hallow

Two trends here in the New York metro area:

• "We're responsible retailers! We won't sell eggs or shaving cream to minors this week." Signs seen is various stores around my neighborhood.
  
• Special mandatory meetings for registered sex offenders in the evening hours
  of Halloween.
  

From the Religious Freedom Watch

5-year old censored by NY school will get his day in court : Catholic News Agency

5-year old Antonio Peck had no idea when he turned in his homework assignment--a poster about protecting the environment--that it would land him in federal court.

Peck, then a kindergarten student at Baldwinsville, NY’s Catherine McNamara Elementary School, originally turned in his poster-assignment to his teacher in 1999. It featured, among other things, a cut out picture of Jesus--something he reportedly thought applicable to the environment, and the assignment.

I think the advocates of secularism cringe when they see stories like this. Cases like this might just trigger a legislative remedy that would restore sanity.

The teachers and school administrators want to do this is a stealth mode, concealing the intimidation of kindergarden kids and their parents.

In the United States today, obscenity is more tolerated than the name (or image) of Jesus in schools.

via
National Review Corner

Baldwinsville NY is near Syracuse.

Kellenberg taking heat for cancelling prom

Kellenberg just says no to senior prom culture : Newsday (October 10, 2005)

Why do many parents on Long Island sacrifice to send their children to parochial schools? The decision to cancel this year's senior prom at Kellenberg Memorial High School in Uniondale might provide a clue.

Among various reasons to choose parochial schools, an obvious factor is that these institutions offer something special - an education rooted in faith and traditional moral values.

In an important sense, such an education should be countercultural. It should reject both ever-expanding secularism pushing God to the sidelines and acceptance of an anything-goes-that-feels-good moral relativism. So perhaps it shouldn't have been surprising last month when Kellenberg, a Roman Catholic school, announced it would no longer sponsor a senior prom.

Brother Kenneth Hoagland, the principal at Kellenberg, told me: "We certainly would want to instill [in the students] a proper sense of values, and we felt that the prom culture was going in the opposite direction." He noted that this was not particular to Kellenberg, nor should it be viewed as punishing students.

At the risk of sounding like a prude, I think that certain "traditions" or "parties" have been given a Jekyll-Hyde transformation.

Around the time I turned 21 in the 1970's there was a high-water mark in the sexual revolution. The place that everyone was talking about was Plato's Retreat. Clubs like this were shut down not only for the drugs and prostiution but out of health concerns with the spread of AIDS.

Proms became the gateway drug to sexual anarchy.

It's a sad cultural indicator that's the outrage lasted only a day or two on
the story of the Minnesota Vikings sex cruise, which included allegations of drugs, prostitution, and threats and solicitations made to women employees of these ships.

Shocked by the Vikings boat bash? Hardly : Pioneer Press

"We're not immune but desensitized to acts like this," said Doug Hartmann, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota who studies American culture.

Another social critic on the Vikings from OnMilwaukee

"I Was Blind But Now I Can See," tells the story of a young Christian who converts to Islam and becomes disillusioned.

Another tale of the religion of peace

Muslims clash with police outside Egyptian church; 1 dead, 90 wounded : AP

Demonstrators gather at a Coptic Christian church Friday to denounce a play deemed offensive to Islam.

AXALEXANDRIA, Egypt (AP) -- One person died and more than 90 were injured as thousands of Muslims rioted outside a Coptic Christian church Friday to denounce a play deemed offensive to Islam. Police responded by beating protesters and firing tear gas into the crowd, officials said.

Stories like this lead one to conclude that Islam isn't so much a way to worship God, but a way to channel violence. It's almost like a demonstration of how to gather and deploy a mob.

The 20th century's version of Islamic fanaticism nearly destroyed Egypt's Coptic Church. I doubt that this Church will see the end of the 21th century.

a²blog

a²blog has not been functioning in the normal level lately. the posts aren't of the normal styles, and they are extremely boring, and aim-less. hopefully everything will be resolved soon. it will always be a better tomorrow everyday!

afterall, it is hope that keeps us alive, and living on our lives.

The Boy..

The boy has not been himself lately.
The boy is down, down with fear and fear.
The boy fears the scar in his heart.
The boy fears the recurrence of his past.
The boy fears of something that he can't even explain of himself.
The boy can only pray to Him.
The boy can only hope for the best.

As, the boy fears that the angel may leave him.



Next important date: 7 November, 2005

Back from Rush on Broadway

Rush served up a version of his radio program on stage covering many of his personal stories:
his early days at WABC his cochlear implant, and his trip to Afghanistan as well as covering the political issues of the day.

I sat next to a couple at the show who came down from Toronto and told them about his arrival in New York back in 1988.

Death at the World Trade Center : The Disney Experience

Memorial museum: Trade center steel, memories and "immersive" look at attacks : AP

Visitors to a Sept. 11 memorial museum could relive the 2001 terrorist attacks in an "immersive" area that surrounds them with pictures of the falling towers, the sounds of police sirens and the last words of some of the people who died at the World Trade Center.

This is sick. The parallel would be the immersive experience of drowning or being blown to bits on the U.S.S. Arizona in Pearl Harbor or being nuked in Hiroshima.

Just because we have the technology to recreate the experience doesn't mean that it should be done.

Answering: "why not wait for the hearings?"

It's too late for that. If there was anything in the public written record of Miers that the White House could feed to the media and say "Here -- this clearly is a writing sample of an intellect that belongs on the Supreme Court"

The White House hasn't done so. It's the conservative opponents of the nomination who have discovered and made her writing -- such as it is available -- to the nation.

The loyalty of the conservative movement to President Bush is not in question: We stood by for the sellout on education, immigration, Medicare prescription entitlements, signing McCain-Feingold. That's loyalty.

Rather, it is President Bush who is being disloyal to the conservative movement who elected him twice by picking someone for whom the chief priority seemed to be to always appear as if she didn't have a stake in how the Court interprets the constitution.

B-o-r-e-d

Dull..

Bored...

Boring....


I am feeling so bored. The blog is getting dull and boring, there is not much color here. I couldn't upload and share any photos and pictures here. Sigh..

Life's gone without Internet access at home!

Arghh!!!!


**Upcoming/Next Important date: 16 October 2005...

Subway Terror Threat News May Have Been Leaked Ahead Of Public Disclosure : NY1

The Department of Homeland Security is looking into whether or not agency officials tipped off family members about last week's alleged terror threat against the New York City subway system before the public learned about it from the mayor.

A report in Thursday's Daily News says people received emails about the potential threat as early as October 3rd, three days before Mayor Michael Bloomberg's announcement about the suspected plot.

Very bad for Homeland Security. In public they cut Bloomberg and Kelly off at the knees -- for being alarmists. In private they were sending out warnings to insiders.

Good for Bloomberg and Kelly. If this had come out and they had not taken the cautionary steps they did, it would have been bad.

Bad for Fernando Ferrer because it its means that that some in Homeland Security were privately very sure that this was a serious threat and not a hoax.

You're Fired (and maybe you go to jail) for the person or people who sent these emails.

The Return of A70

Canon A70 returns!

It looks better than before. So new that I even have doubts that if that camera is mine or not. Nevertheless, I am happy to have it back, working properly now. Hehe.. So, snap shooting time is back!

Cheers!

Los Angeles Earthquake Predicted

Los Angeles Files Recount Decades of Priests' Abuse: New York Times

The confidential personnel files of 126 clergymen in the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Los Angeles accused of sexual misconduct with children provide a numbing chronicle of 75 years of the church's shame, revealing case after case in which the church was warned of abuse but failed to protect its parishioners.

People watching the scandal since 2000 or earlier have known that Los Angeles has been able to dodge the bullet for years. No longer it seems.

This is only the signal that the documents will be released sometime this week. The worst is yet to come.

Leaked emails published two years ago indicated the efforts they were making to avoid this day.

The Times speculates that the price tag to settle all the oustanding cases would be over $500 million.

My 30th Post

All blank. I can't think much.

Why? Why? Why?

Can I do it?

Regardless, I must resolve it.

My wish list

1. Job/Career
2. Transport
3. My Angel
4. Canon 350D
5. Canon Powershot (My Canon A70 replacement)
6. My own business
7. Juniors
8. A new Mobile Phone (Replacement for my Nokia 8210 - since 2001)
9. Watch
10. Home Sweet Home


Will the list grow? Definitely yes! Hehe..

Body of Knowledge

I have a body of knowledge that I use in my work. How financial markets have worked, work now, and will work in the future, and the information technology of their concrete realization.

My knowledge was put to the test when I changed jobs. I had six interviews of one hour each on these topics.

There's no way I could fake it. Likewise, I'm self-taught in history and Catholic theology and it's these two areas that I blogging about because of my personal interests. I can spot fakers in these area as well.

The consequences to one who fakes their mastery of a body of knowledge in a job interview are they will be denied a job offer and embarassed. A nomination of a Supreme Court is orders of magnitude more significant.

Has Harriet Miers mastered the constitutional law of which she will er... "Supreme" in its future interpretation?

I think this is a wonderful opportunity for Schumer, Kennedy, Biden, Feinstein, Leahy, and Durbin to look smart after being made to look stupid.

Fr. Ryan Erickson follow-up

Priest said he voiced concerns about Erickson to a bishop : AP

A co-worker of a priest who was found by a judge to have likely killed two people to cover up his sexual misconduct said [Rev. John Anderson] had voiced concern about the priest's social habits to the Superior diocese bishop.

A judge last week ruled that the Rev. Ryan Erickson almost certainly shot to death funeral home director Dan O'Connell, 39, and employee James Ellison, 22 in 2002. St. Croix County District Attorney Eric Johnson said evidence suggests the O'Connell had found out that the priest was sexually abusing someone, was providing alcohol to minors, or both.

The ruling came Oct. 3 after a so-called John Doe hearing requested by the victim's families.

I need to add that these proceedings are rather unusual. Erickson is deceased, and apparently he is not represented by attorney from his estate.

The Daily Miers Post

1. If being an originalist were made a crime would there be enough evidence to convict Harriet Miers of being one?

2. Bush can survive withdrawing the Miers nomination. Are you sure that Conservative movement will have the opportunity to get another Scalia or Thomas on the Court in the not too distant future?

The threat is real Few things surprise me in the news, but I was surprised that outside of New York there was skepticism the threat of a subway bombing was real. For a moment, think what the consequences would be to the victims directly, and to confidence in the government if this was not made public with the appropriate measures taken. Monica Crowley on her Saturday radio program reported the fear the she had and what she observed in other subway passengers had when someone entered the car wearing a chador (but since according to Monica the face was veiled it would be called a burqa) and a large backpack. I didn't get a chance to call Monica, but to me this had all the appearances of a dry run. I would also expect there to have been a inconspicuous observer nearby with a camera, or camcorder. Dry runs like this accomplish several purposes: To identify what profiling and what procedures are used in a backpack search. To test how thorough the search will be (in the case a chador- or burqa-wearing individual) To see what reactions of the civilians, will be and if they contact authorities. (And explaining the presence of an observer) to record for legal and propaganda purposes, any confrontation with police, Nation Guardsmen, or civilians. To desensistize us to the presence It also was remarkable, here making the assumption that Monica's subject was a devout Muslim woman, that she would be alone on the subway. Muslim women according to their own rules for being out in public should be accompanied by their husband or male member of their immediate family or in a group of women. There are such things as dry runs. The most famous of which was Northwest Flight 327 where there was an official coverup but ultimately the FBI admitted they shared her suspicions. Terror in the Skies: Why 9/11 Could Happen Again

Miers: A career avoiding the originialist movement to becoming its putative champion

Bush says to trust her. (1) I don't know. (2) I don't know why I'm being asked to trust her.

Miers avoided in her entire career any alignment with the originalist movement.

I'm beginning to wonder if she's really, really prepared to champion it, or is she the designated safe vote. (As we thought O'Connor, Souter, and Kennedy were)

Bush misunderestimated the loyalty of the conservative movement to principle.

This seems like a win-win to the Dems -- which is why if she's collapsed before the finish line, the Dems will drag her across it. If she's utterly clueless before the judiciary committee, she will be rejected and Bush will be humiliated. If she does OK, she's in a seat that could have gone to a non-crony originalist judge. We will have to wait for the third vacancy on the Court.

I don't like the undercurrent of -- on the one hand, we know she's an originalist, but no we didn't discuss Roe, privacy, gay marriage, Kelo, etc. Someone's lying.

Sorry, a second post on Miers -- an analogy

RNClife had a great line in their email to me:

The opportunity to replace Justice Sandra Day O’Connor should have resulted in a nominee who is to life what Ruth Bader Ginsburg is to abortion.

Pass it on.

Homosexuals and the Priesthood

Amy Welborn has devoted some serious thought to the question of admitting homosexual persons to seminaries.

Same sex attraction is a disorder and represents a risk to the Church which should be manifest to anyone paying attention. Homosexual acts are 80% of the clergy sexual abuse of minors.

I have gone to school with and worked with homosexual persons all my life. There's no question in my mind that some are good Catholics and living a life of grace. I think they would, if the opportunity presented itself, to suppress what the Church teaches on human sexuality.

Many priests, and many bishops have revealed themselves to be homosexuals and have been working for years or even decades to undermine Church teaching on human sexuality. Even if they were not caught with their pants down, they were betraying the Church in their obligation to teach what the Church teaches by omission and artful distortion of the truth.

Persons afflicted with disorders such as addictions to gambling and drugs don't form networks to undermine the Church's teachings in these areas.

If there's a climate of fear in seminaries today, it's the fear of men committed to celibacy and chastity from other seminarians and people appointed above them to accept (or tolerate in others) the lifestyle choice of unchastity.

I am be alone in believing this but I believe at the heart of the crisis is the abuse of discretion -- given any loophole, any rationalization to permit an sexual abuser priest to have access to children -- the bishop's discretion invariably was against the accuser, the witness, the whistleblower, etc. and for a brother priest.

A rule that permits exceptions in the area of excluding homosexuals from seminaries means that in practical terms, no homosexual will be turned away. It's parallel to the so-called health exception in abortion which includes psychological health, for example, a self-diagnosis of anxiety in allowing the unborn child to continue to live. Such an exception has the real effect of not restricting any abortions.

To borrow Amy's term of witch hunt. I think the witch hunt will be for the seminarians naive or bold enough to hold to what the Church teaches.

Miers

I don't want Congress to be 535 lawyers. Congress needs some occupational diversity. But what about the Supreme Court?

"Even if he is mediocre, there are a lot of mediocre judges and people and lawyers. They are entitled to a little representation, aren't they?" - Roman Hruska in defense of Harold Carswell on the charges that he was 'mediocre'. A Nixon nominee, Carswell was rejected by the Senate.

I disagree.

But first, let me do a little "Paul Harvey"-style aside. Justice Abe Fortas was forced to resign after it had been learned by he accepted cash from a businessman under investigation. Nixon nominees Clement Haynsworth and Harold Carswell were rejected by Senate. In exasperation he went for the safe but not well known Harry Blackmun -- who later went on to write the majority opinion in Roe v. Wade

Rather than being a man or woman of the people, I want a pilot's pilot, a surgeon's surgeon, a genius like Scalia or a near-genius like Thomas to craft the opinion that will reverse Roe and maybe Griswald as well.

God save this honorable court! God bless America!

The Battle of Lepanto, October 7, 1571

A fresco from the wall of a chapel depicts the Battle of Lepanto, St-Etienne-de-Tinee, Cote D'Azur, France. (CORBIS)

434 years have passed. Yet this war is not over. The original dedication of the Church for this day was to Our Lady of Victory. Many churches carry this name as well as the name of the new dedication for this day to Our Lady of the Rosary.

Pope St. Pius V prayed the Rosary and believed through the intercession of the Blessed Mother, the Austrian (?) fleet under Don Juan (?) was victorius. (Austria's border's once include the Mediterrean Sea, the royal houses of Spain and Austria were allied at this time.)

It was also one of the greatest days of emancipation of slaves. This battle was the last to be fought primarily by oared ships. The Ottoman fleet had 15,000 Christian slaves. 10,000 of which were liberated after the battle.

The beginning of Lepanto by G.K. Chesterton

WHITE founts falling in the Courts of the sun,

And the Soldan of Byzantium is smiling as they run;

There is laughter like the fountains in that face of all men feared,

It stirs the forest darkness, the darkness of his beard;
It curls the blood-red crescent, the crescent of his lips;

For the inmost sea of all the earth is shaken with his ships.

They have dared the white republics up the capes of Italy,

They have dashed the Adriatic round the Lion of the Sea,

And the Pope has cast his arms abroad for agony and loss,

And called the kings of Christendom for swords about the Cross.

The cold queen of England is looking in the glass;

The shadow of the Valois is yawning at the Mass;

From evening isles fantastical rings faint the Spanish gun,

And the Lord upon the Golden Horn is laughing in the sun.

So in a real sense, the Crusades did not end in 1291 with the fall of Acre but continued and continues to this days.

We call the enemy Al-Qaeda but what do they call themselves? During the Clinton administration and after the 1993 American humiliation in Mogadishu and the first bombing of the World Trade Center, bin Laden proclaimed in 1998 the Jihad Against Jews and Crusaders.

Before the takeover of the Iranian embassy in Teheran, who thought the 21st century's principal conflict would be rooted in the 16th century?

If you want to get an early jump on praying for this intention...

I'm not a biologist. I only read books with sci-fi plots that involve some sort of world-ending plague.

Avian flu human transmission is the big one.

Pope John Paul II died from the flu. We can ask for his intercession that was don't face a pandemic as the world faced in Spanish flu pademic of 1918-1919.

A Quick Update

I have been busy for the past week. Shifted place, went down to Malacca, rushed back, busy with work (training), and I have not got Internet access at my place. But, everything is settling down slowly. Just because of no internet access, the prof. is unable to share stuff in a²blog. Too bad. It's been a quiet place here.

My Canon A70 is down again, sent it for servicing yet again. If it costs me money to repair again, I would abandon the attempt to revive her. Sigh. She's been with me for 2 years, but dying, I guess it's due to my excessive usage. Hehe. Should my A70 goes down, I'll be aiming for Canon 350D, as well as another Powershot product. The latter one comes into the frame much later. 350D has higher priority. My 128MB SanDisk CF went down as well. The data corrupted mysteriously. However, thank goodness I was able get a replacement with nothing charged. The replacement is a 128MB CF of other brand, can't remember the name though.

It's October and Fasting Month for the Muslims. Hmm.. I miss home (but this has nothing to do with the Raya or Muslim's festive holiday).

Till next time, signing off.

SPAM stock tips

If you are like me and wondered what happened to the prices of these stocks.
Joshua wrote a Spam Stock Tracker to report on the stocks he was told about.

If I were writing a tracker like this I would automatically sell at gain or loss of 25%. I wonder how different the results would be for that.

The Little Thing She Does

The little thing she does,
makes me happy;

The little thing she does,
makes sour turns sweet;

The little thing she does,
may not mean much;

The little thing she does,
sure sent a smile to me.

She's such an angel,
a cute angel.

Sightings: New York Archdiocese Education Parish Service

EPS is educating lay Catholics for participation in the Church's life and mission through academic and spiritual programs.

Fr. Carleton Jones, O.P. is pastor of St. Vincent Ferrer Church at East 65th Street and Lexington Ave. I am fortunate to be one of his students this term.

The Gothic church is one of the most beautiful churches in New York City.

So explain to me why this wasn't a betrayal

Maybe picking Miers wasn't a betrayal, but demanding that we take this all on faith was. (Yes, I'm taking that smirk on President Bush's face personally.)

Why should the conservative movement risk so much nowafter we have achieved victory?

This nomination should have been the sewing of the salt over the ruins of Carthage.

We can only hope that the next nomination, if we should be so blessed with be.

Does anyone know of an Evangelical Christian who isn't 100 percent behind Miers?

Who would have thought?

The Bush would say "Trust Me" and conservatives would shout back "No".

Hannity and Limbaugh (and I) are really on the fence -- certainly wishing
the this would not have happened -- but willing to listen to all sides.

I think the critical question (and I've not read this elsewhere) is which way is the obligation facing?

• Is Bush obligated to the conservative movement which elected him to keep his promise and appoint an originalist like Scalia or Thomas?
  
• Or is the conservative movement which elected him obligated to trust his judgment that his judgment of Miers is sufficient?
  

I answer, Bush has the obligation. Republican presidents who have said "trust me" have given us Stevens, O'Connor, Souter, and Kennedy.

Only 2 justices are Democratic appointees: Breyer and Ginsberg.

Where are the 7-2 decisions -- which would reflect the values of the conservative movement? Elections out to mean something.

The Fight

An full-of-himself caller to Hannity thought himself clever to say "Isn't the best general the one who wins a war without firing a shot?".

The question was not answered directly on the show but I can answer it here.
Sometimes, to win the war, the enemy has to be educated -- there can be no ambiguity as to who won the war and who lost.

Leaving behind Saddam after the first Gulf War was a tragedy. The coalition of 1991 ended a limited war without winning a peace.

Lincoln knew that a negotiated end to the Civil War would be the end of the United States, which is why he continued to pursue an unconditional surrender. The South had to be educated that they lost the war.

The best electable conservative since Reagan is in the White House, we have a solid House majority, and 55 Senate votes, if that's not enough
when will there be enough on our side to fight?

This nomination should have been the fight because it's by no means certain that Bush will get a third nomination -- or that we will get the White House in 2008.

The month of October is devoted to the Holy Rosary

Lohan family drama : New York Daily News, Rush and Malloy

Lindsay Lohan poured her soul out in the video for "Confessions of a Broken Heart," shooting in Chelsea last week. At left, actors portraying Michael and Dina Lohan duked it out (note Mom's rosary). Lindsay's sister Ali got in on the action, clutching a teddy (and rosary). Finally, Linds (rosary in hand) had her say. The song is reportedly about the singer/actress' issues with her father.

We'll have to wait for the video to see if the Rosary is treated with respect I guess.

Separation of Church and Sony: Gamespot PlayStation ad brings forth fire and brimstone from Vatican; Sony apologizes, pulls ad depicting crown of thorns with PS button-face symbols. In the console wars raging between Sony, Microsoft, and Nintendo, taking aim at a competitor not only makes for good gossip and quotes, but also it's expected. No one will blink an eye if Microsoft irks Sony or if Nintendo brushes off Microsoft. But regardless of one's religious preferences, it's probably not a good idea to incense the big man upstairs or the house He built. An ad campaign from Sony in Italy has done just that, Reuters is reporting. Full-page ads celebrating the PlayStation's 10th anniversary recently ran in the country's newspapers and magazines. They featured a young man smiling sheepishly while wearing a crown of thorns. If that already sounds touchy, it gets worse. The thorns are contorted into the X's, O's, triangles, and squares--the symbols on the faces of the PlayStation's four main buttons. A phrase at the bottom of the ad reads "Dieci anni di passione," which translates to "Ten years of passion," a possible reference to Mel Gibson's controversial Jesus biopic The Passion of the Christ. "This time they've gone too far," Antonio Sciortino, editor of the Catholic weekly Famiglia Cristiana (Christian Family), told a local newspaper, according to Reuters. "If this had concerned Islam there would have been a really strong reaction." Sony has reportedly since apologized and has pulled the advertisement from circulation. Stuff like this is just going to get more and more common as the cultural is secularized and religion is marginalized. No one at SONY or at SONY's advertising agency raised a red flag on this one, so it got out to the public. Or worse, they did it knowing the reaction it would provoke and decided it would be inconsequential and probably the publicity would help. The other graphic is William Jennings Bryan He is a significant figure in American history for many things, one of which is the Cross of Gold speech.

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Thought experiments considered harmful

William Bennett: What is there say about this other than the attacks on him are unfair?

He's accused of supporting something that he called morally reprehensible.

They play the tape without including that part.

Ellis Henican in Newsday has a particularly unfair spin on things.

Judith Miller

Scott Libby gave her a wavier of source confidentiality in 2004.

Why wasn't that wavier good enough?

Scott Libby wrote on September 15, 2005, this is the same wavier you got last year. It's personal. It's uncoerced. She accepts the same wavier and now claims its a different wavier.

No one is buying that story.

Possible explanations:

• It was only a misunderstanding. Someone forgot to make or to return a phone call or email.
  
• She's got a source other than Libby for Plame-Wilson.
  
• She did the time in order to cut a deal for leaking to the Muslim group Global Relief Foundation that the FBI was about to raid them and thereby giving them time to destroy the records the FBI was seeking.
  
• She did the time for a resume enhancement. She figured she had enough and needed some rationalization to get out of jail.
  

All I know is that she and her lawyers have been lying.

Kate Moss and Contrition

As an over-the-hill 31 year old fashion model, one has to admire her ability
to obtain valuable contracts from several fashion houses.

A supermodel who abuses drugs. That's a dog bites man story. What's really news here is that she was so out of it that she was photographed.

She's sorry she was caught. Does anyone think that she'd check into rehab if she wasn't photographed, or if the photos came out and she's wasn't dropped by H&M, Chanel, etc.?

I hope the rehab is successful. With the sort of money that she has earned, it's tragic that she can't be happy without using cocaine.

Perhaps that's a harsh judgment on my part, I've never been as rich as she is.

To make the point about how greed doesn't transform into happiness, I told the old joke: Money can't buy love, but it's a down payment.

Update: A writer at Slate: Kate Moss: The ironies of her downfall. extends this observation of hypocrisy to the entire industry.

Fernando Ferrer, an anti-Catholic Catholic (a leftover from Wednesday)

Ferrer is so hostile to the Catholic Church that he has no apology for lying in his own blog that he attended public schools when he attended Catholic schools including Cardinal Spellman High School.

Fibbing Fernando : Daily News

Fernando Ferrer was caught yesterday in a grade-school error - falsely claiming on his campaign Web site he was a product of public schools.

The former Catholic schoolboy quickly pulled the flub from the Internet but not before Mayor Bloomberg's aides made sure he was taught a campaign lesson he'll never forget.

"If Freddy Ferrer can't be trusted to get the facts right about his own schooling, why should voters believe anything he says about education policy?" thundered Bill Cunningham, a senior Bloomberg campaign adviser.

another Daily News background story

from an anonymous Blauvelt Dominican Sister.

Bill Donohue of the Catholic League has a critique of Ferrer that looks an awful like a Bloomberg endorsement.

This is not the first time that Freddy-the-Faker-Ferrer has turned his back on Catholics. In 1996-97, when Mayor Rudy Giuliani floated the idea that one way to stem overcrowding in the public schools was to send students to Catholic schools, the Faker went mad. No doubt he would be just as mad to learn that his challenger, incumbent Mayor Michael Bloomberg, is a contributor to the Catholic Schools Foundation.

Since term limits prevent Bloomberg from running again for mayor in 2009. The way the election cycles work, the next spot he could run for would be to oppose Schumer, or whoever is governor in 2010.