Return for Regrooving... next chapter

Another week, another edition of Return for Regrooving.
This week's subjects:
Charlie Angus and Joe Comartin. These Canadian Liberal MPs are in some trouble with the Catholic Church (to which both belong) for their votes in favor of same-sex marriage. Angus' priest won't give him Communion; Comartin's bishop banned him from teaching any marriage courses, which he had done for some time, although that bishop stopped short of denying Comartin the Eucharist. Angry's wonderful post on the consequences of one's actions says it all far better than I. Gentlemen, start your regrooving.
Ramsey Clark. The looney former U.S. Attorney General, one of the "greatest" moonbats of all time, is defending Saddam Insane. Say no more. Regroove immediately.
George Galloway. The Oil-For-Food MP for Osama Looney bin Laden and Saddam Insane blames Tony Blair for the terrorist attack in London. This may take a long time, but regroove this guy now.
Howard Moscoe. This is the Toronto city councillor (did I spell that right?) in charge of that city's public transit system who didn't sound too worried about a terror attack in the wake of Thursday's blasts in London. "I would wonder if the terrorists first would have to find where Toronto is before they attacked it," Mr. Moscoe was quoted as saying in the Toronto Free Press. First off, Mr Moscoe, the terrorists don't need a map. Remember the Khadr family? And, even though you apologized to Girl on the Right, you're still way off. Return this joker for regrooving. Now.
New York Times editors. The good Captain enlightens us on this correction from the Gray Left Lady: The Op-Ed page in some copies yesterday carried an incorrect version of an article about military recruitment. The writer, an Army reserve officer, did not say, "Imagine my surprise the other day when I received orders to report to Fort Campbell, Ky., next Sunday," nor did he characterize his recent call-up to active duty as the precursor to a "surprise tour of Iraq." That language was added by an editor and was to have been removed before the article was published. Because of a production error, it was not. The Times regrets the error. Though I fear it's too late, take 'em all and regroove 'em.
Till next time, pax.

Flying sheep

From the Associated Press comes this tale of woe from Turkey:
ISTANBUL, Turkey -- First one sheep jumped to its death. Then stunned Turkish shepherds, who had left the herd to graze while they had breakfast, watched as nearly 1,500 others followed, each leaping off the same cliff, Turkish media reported.
In the end, 450 dead animals lay on top of one another in a billowy white pile, the Aksam newspaper said. Those who jumped later were saved as the pile got higher and the fall more cushioned, Aksam reported.
"There's nothing we can do. They're all wasted," Nevzat Bayhan, a member of one of 26 families whose sheep were grazing together in the herd, was quoted as saying by Aksam.
The estimated loss to families in the town of Gevas, located in Van province in eastern Turkey, tops $100,000, a significant amount of money in a country where average GDP per head is around $2,700.
"Every family had an average of 20 sheep," Aksam quoted another villager, Abdullah Hazar as saying. "But now only a few families have sheep left. It's going to be hard for us."
The evidence points to Harold.
He's that sheep there over under the elm. He's that most dangerous of animals, a clever sheep. He's the ring-leader. He has realized that a sheep's life consists of standing around for a few months and then being eaten. And that's a depressing prospect for an ambitious sheep. He's patently hit on the idea of escape.
Harold's been around before. He tried to get sheep aviation off the ground (so to speak) before, as documented here by Rustic:
Witness their attempts to fly from tree to tree. Notice that they do not so much fly as...plummet.
That's the sad story from Turkey.
Sorry, no film at 11... but a shoutout to Kate and to Monty Python's Flying Circus.

Pump blues

Why big oil sometimes really ticks me off...

Today, the day after the London attacks by the Al-Killers, our area's gasoline prices were up. Not just a penny or two, which is the usual modus operandi, but seven, eight, even 10 cents a gallon for regular.
The S.O.B.s.
Did you all notice that in your areas, too?

London bombs: Galloway may as well have set 'em off

George Galloway is the north end of a southbound horse.
As noted by the BBC:
Within hours of Thursday's bombing atrocity MP George Galloway was on his feet in the House of Commons saying Londoners had paid the price for Tony Blair's policy in Iraq and Afghanistan.
His comments were branded "disgraceful" by Armed Forces Minister Adam Ingram.
Mr Galloway was a vocal opponent of the Iraq war. But at a Stop the War Coalition press conference Mr Galloway was having none of it, insisting the families of the dead and injured would not be offended by his words.
US President George Bush and UK premier Tony Blair had chosen to be overtly political when they made their comments on Thursday.
"Silence would be complicity. I am not prepared to be complicit when people in Iraq and London are paying a blood price for Blair's bizarre special relationship with Bush," he said.
In the Commons Mr Galloway was heckled as he spoke. But at the Socialist Workers Party Marxism 2005 conference on Friday, just around the corner from the scene of the Bloomsbury bus bomb, he received a rapturous welcome.
Clearly for many on the left, the MP's stock could not be higher and telling a room full of comrades that Tony Blair's administration is a "rotten government with a rotten foreign policy" was a genuine crowd pleaser.
He said although the primary responsibility for Thursday's attack on London lay with the terrorists, UK involvement in Iraq played its part.
At the same event former Labour cabinet minister Tony Benn warned that Thursday's atrocity was "only just the beginning for this country" and he called for leaders to re-engage with the Middle East peace process.
Mr Benn wants the Middle East peace process back on the agenda."If you go on bombing other people they will go on bombing us," he warned.
Mr Galloway, who was thrown out of the Labour party over remarks he made about the Iraq war, later said Mr Blair should quit and the UK should "cease its obscene special relationship with the worst US president ever".
"We must get out of that axis of evil," the Bethnal Green and Bow MP said.
"I don't believe Mr Blair or Mr Bush are capable of solving this problem - I believe they are the cause of this problem," he said.
He said Britain would be a safer place if it had a change of foreign policy.
"We will threaten the safety of our citizens and our interests unless we change political course," he warned before stressing he did not think the West should talk to Osama Bin Laden.
George Galloway, Osama's MP, strikes again.
The bleep.
Our prayers for everyone affected by Thursday's massacre... and that's what it was.
Dear Mr Galloway: If you want to see the value of appeasement, which is exactly what you are proposing, go read up on Neville Chamberlain. Or talk to Jimmy Carter, whose appeasement got us nowhere fast.

Self-destruction

Q. What's the quickest way for the U.S. Democrats to self-destruct?
A. Filibuster President Bush's nominee to replace Justice O'Connor.
Reason. They will be shown to be little more than a lying sack of cow droppings, unable to honor a single agreement and captives of the farthest left elements of uncivil society.
Musings. As I posted in a comment over at Exile from Hillary's Village a few days ago, I really didn't think the Dums would be so stupid as to waste their ammunition on replacing O'Connor. I really didn't think at first they'd do it even to replace Chief Justice Rehnquist. Where I expected the whole-hog battle royal was when Justice Stevens stepped aside. Dummy me. According to the Drudge Report, Chuck Schumer, the less-well-known senator from New York (who is quite jealous of Hillary's popularity, by the way), is already talking about "war" plans. Remember, Schumer is the joker who thinks that "deeply held personal beliefs" (translation: religious faith) should disqualify one from the judiciary.
This doesn't surprise; after reading the comments on Angry in the Great White North's terrific post on actions and consequences, there were some there who felt that people of faith have no business in politics, period.
But they're leaving themselves wide open to charges of obstructionism for obstructionism's sake (which, of course, would be 100 percent true). And if the GOP and Mr Bush have any smarts, they'd let the Dumbocrats shut down the government for the sake of their filibuster. Period.
However, from what we've seen of the GOP Senate, I can't be too sure about them.
Pax.

On optics

A story in Tuesday's Boston Globe set me off a bit.
Concerned that the nation's incendiary culture wars have taken a toll on their image, Christian conservatives are joining liberals in calling for more government spending to combat global poverty and are urging fellow evangelicals to remember that their primary calling is personal ministry, not politics.
Something about the tone of that lead paragraph really rubs me the wrong way... sort of saying that Christian conservatives don't belong in politics.
But the real kicker comes later in the story...
Many leaders fear there is a widening perception that they (the evangelicals) are a harsh, and resented, presence in American public life.
Of course they're resented. They have the courage of their convictions to stand up against the moral relativism so prevalent today. The perception is created, developed and nourished by a media -- such as the Boston Globe -- that is less than friendly to them and the ideas they hold dear.
The story does acknowledge that Evangelicals, whether liberal or conservative, have always been deeply involved in poverty and relief work, as well as human rights, both at home and abroad.
Well, gol-lee, Sergeant Carter. You'd never know it from the media.
The evangelicals -- and the other faith-based groups who are active in trying to uplift the less fortunate among us -- have never been overly concerned with what my Canadian friends call "optics" -- how they look. They're not show horses, like many of the ones who ran amok on Saturday at Live 8. They're the workhorses of the anti-poverty effort. Always have been, always will be.
And have you ever noticed that missionaries are often targets of repressive governments and repressive rebel groups that would be governments? That's because the missionaries are not only bringing their Gospel, but they're bringing the tools to uplift those to whom they are preaching -- not just the tools of faith, but the tools to break the shackles of poverty and ignorance that hold them down.
So this latest move by some evangelical groups may be good for the "optics." But the way it was presented in this report tells me a lot more about the ignorance of the supposedly-informed than it does about any evangelical.
Rant off.

Redefining the phrase "slugging outfielder"

Being somewhat close to Philadelphia, I tend to follow the misfortunes of the city's major league baseball team, the Phillies.
The news hasn't been good lately. As usual, they're falling into their traditional also-ran status.
But they're still our Fightin' Phillies, as this Associated Press dispatch demonstrates:
PHILADELPHIA -- Philadelphia Phillies outfielder Jason Michaels was arrested early Sunday after allegedly punching a police officer outside a city nightclub, authorities said.
Michaels, 29, spent nine hours in custody before he was released on his own recognizance at about noon, said Philadelphia police Cpl. Jim Pauley.
"Jason Michaels is not a bad guy," manager Charlie Manuel said. "He's a pretty good guy. Sometimes you do some things and you get in trouble. That doesn't make it right or nothing, but he's a good guy."
Michaels was charged with aggravated assault on a police officer, simple assault and reckless endangerment. Officer Timothy Taylor sustained minor injuries in the incident, Pauley said.
"He punched a Philadelphia police officer and wrestled him to the ground, in the process ripping the police officer's shirt," Pauley said. "It took four officers to control him."
Police were dispersing a crowd in the Old City entertainment district just before 3 a.m., the spokesman said. Everyone moved on willingly except Michaels, he said.
Michaels, a native of Tampa, Fla., is listed at 6 feet and 205 pounds. He has a .297 average with three home runs and 18 RBIs in 158 at bats this season.
Michaels' attorney, Theodore Simon of Philadelphia, said his client is entitled to the presumption of innocence. Michaels is due to appear in court on Thursday.
So it goes, eh?

Happy Independence Day

May my friends in the US of A enjoy Monday's Independence Day celebrations...
I have a small celebration to attend, so I'll not be on the line until Tuesday.
But a note of thanks to all who have visited the homestead here... As of this weekend, according to my trusty stat checker, this blog has now had visitors from each of the 50 states, plus D.C.; all Canadian provinces, plus one territory (Yukon); and 20 other nations. Not bad for a small-timer, eh? The last of the states to come on line was Montana.
As the guys from Bartles & Jaymes used to say, thank you for your support.

McKenna mania

Reading the Toronto Red Star has its advantages.
For one, it helps me keep track of Frank McKenna' latest ravings.
Mr. McKenna, the former premier of New Brunswick, is Canada's Ambassador to the US of A and an occasional topic of posts on this blog.
This from Red Star Washington bureau chief Tim Harper:
Canada's ambassador to the United States marked Canada Day by embarking on an ambitious new goal -- mobilizing more than a million Canadians in the U.S. to take their country's message to Americans.
Frank McKenna wants the "Canadian diaspora" to be armed with facts, to debate Americans, to lobby when Washington makes decisions that can hurt Canadians and to try to counter the "Fox factor", referring to the U.S. television network, which often spreads disinformation and feeds a negative perception of its neighbour to the north.
First, a beef with Mr. Harper and his editors. Without attributing that description of Fox, he has libeled Fox.
Second, any negative perceptions we here in the U.S. of A. might have about the Canadian government have been fostered by persons involved with the Canadian government.
Let's take a look at just why some of us might have a negative perception of the government of Canada:
* In the past two years, we Americans have been called "bastards" by two separate members of Parliament in public statements without apology from either.
* The Canadian government refused to support the liberation of Iraq from the master butcher, Saddam Insane... who invested $1 million US in a company founded by... Canada's current prime minister.
* Two prominent Canadians have been mentioned multiple times in connection with the Oil-For-Food scandal.
* That same current prime minister has been actively promoting the sale of key minerals, including oil, from Canada to China, which is currently gearing up for a major fight with the U.S. of A.
Don't those things, taken individually, make you wonder whose side Canada is on?