Back To Our Future

Yeah, it's me again, your faithful servant, here to elucidate my faithful readers as to what you should be thinking about the current events that inundate our senses as the 3rd rock spins madly through time and space.

As I sit in my Fortress of Fortitude here on the Ilse of Lucy contemplating the Yin and Yan of this , that, and the other, I am at once overwhelmed by the fact that Americans are wringing hands and gnashing teeth over the price of gasoline and yet underwhelmed at the lack of understanding shown by the same said people at the ramifications of our gluttonous use of oil. The US leads the world in fossil fuel consumption. With only 5% of the world's population we use 25% of the fuels. While it is true that India and China are rapidly closing the usage gap with us, we have little or no control and leverage in that matter.

While the debate over ethanol's cost effectiveness keeps the talking heads busy wagging their tongues and pointing their collective fingers, the fact that ethanol production literally takes food out of the mouths of the hungry is undeniable.

You may ask yourself "Oh Wazoo, what can we do about this? Can you show us a way to lower our gas expenditures without time consuming Government involvement? Can there be a way to use less ethanol and thereby increase the food available for those who have not?" Yes my children, there is such a two edged sword of economic feasibility and human compassion. TAKE YOUR FOOT OFF THE DAMN GAS PEDAL! A National speed limit of 55 mph is a minimal hardship in comparison to a continued economic slowdown and certainly pales in comparison to world wide hunger. It's time for America to take the lead ,( as it has always done), and show why we are the greatest country in the world.

Update: Jacquie Lawson Cards

Good news. We've heard a response from Jameson with Jacquie Lawson's regarding their new Teddy Bear card. To view the newer version of the Teddy Card.

Dear ,

Thank you for your message.

Thank you for your email about the Teddy and the Seagulls card. I'm really sorry that you saw this negatively - it was certainly not meant to be so. We put the American flag in there just as a sort of joke to show that poor Teddy had been blown so far off course that he was in US waters! It was never our intention to show that Teddy was being ignored by the big ships, but just that his little rowing boat was too small to be seen!

But thank you for warning us about this, and just in case others misunderstand our intentions in the same way, I'll ask the artists to change the flag to another one.

However, if you would still like to receive a prorated refund for your membership fee, please respond to this e-mail indicating us to do so.

Best wishes,

Jameson
help@jacquielawson.com

They have indeed changed the American flag to a nondescript nautical flag. Thank you very much, Jacquie Lawson. I will be keeping my card account that I do enjoy sending out.

Check out Jacquie Lawson's site. It's a great one!

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

One of the email card purchases that I have used over the years has been English artist's Jacquie Lawson's website. It's not a free site. And you would think that a card website would be apolitical when taking money from Americans, but I've cancelled my account due to the most recent card addition. It's a Teddy Bear sail boat adventure that has Teddy floating out to sea and needing help. Good ol' Jacquie has an American boat flying the Stars and Stripes completely passing Teddy without helping.

Being a British website, and Jacquie being English, shouldn't that be an Union Jack flag on a boat in English waters? Why an American flag?

The only reason I can think of is another liberal's sentimental way to slam democratic America for being the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Last Hangout of Witches Updating Image

Trying to update their image, a British school wants to stop using a broom-riding witch as their school symbol. The local villagers are not too pleased though with the idea of their history being eradicated.

Warboys is the last recorded place in England where witches were hanged.

Alice Samuels, in her late 70s, her husband John and her daughter Agnes were executed in 1593 after being accused by a 10-year-old girl, her four sisters and servants of causing them to have fits.

Everything Free? Sure I Want That!

When you offer free prescriptions and free hospital car parking, heck, who wouldn't want to change countries?

An English village is so taken with the benefits of being Welsh, including free prescriptions and free hospital car parking, that it is holding a referendum on becoming part of Wales.

Residents of Audlem, Cheshire, nine miles from the Welsh border, have organised an online poll asking villagers whether it is time to break away from England.

Short of the biggest constitutional shake-up since the 1284 Statute of Rhuddlan made Monmouthshire part of Wales, the village is unlikely to come under the control of the Welsh Assembly any time soon.

The more socialistic a country is, the more people demand to have a part of it without the responsibilities.

Florida Politician Worries About Truck Nuts

Second generation Lake County politician Carey Baker (FL - R) has a lot on his mind lately with all of the important decisions that the Florida House of Representatives has to weigh in on but he's got a mission. Banning bull testicle truck accessories from the back of trucks.

With the massive layoff of teachers and government services, due to Governor Crist's policies, along with escalating property taxes, the GOP Representative finds bull testicles hanging down from redneck trucks offensive and is campaigning to ban them.

Yep you heard it, no bull.

Superstitious Display Doesn't Allow For Resting In Peace

St. Padre Pio, recently canonized 20th century saint, has been put on display as cult-like worshippers pass by. Masquerading as a non-decomposing corpse, a wax mask has been placed over Padre Pio's face to protect the more sensitive viewers from a non-disclosed vitiation.

A team of biochemists and other experts has worked since the exhumation to get the body into a fit state to be shown. Padre Pio's face was covered with a lifelike silicone mask of the type used in wax museums.

This prompted a circle of Padre Pio devotees to ask last night for an autopsy to establish that the remains were authentic. Forensic scientists who took part in the exhumation and attended yesterday's conference denied his face was badly decomposed. They said it had been decided to use the mask to protect the sensibilities of those who visited the crypt where the body is to go on show.

The Church should promote a healthier attitude of death and an eternal unseen soul than the macabre voyeurism of an improbable incorruptible mortal body.

Padre Pio's Body Exhumed.

Incorruptible Saints.

15th St. Catherine of Bologna's supposedly incorruptible body looks like an Egyptian mummy.

Snow Job

First Glenn Beck crosses over to the Dark Side, now Tony Snow? Snow, still battling cancer, and recently quitting the White House post as spokesperson, has now joined CNN.

Past Tony Snow posts:

Bush Has Lost Touch With Republican Voters

Just Watch Me Die

How about an art show where you watch someone take their last breath? The irony? It's by a German artist.

German artist Gregor Schneider wants you to die. But not just anywhere -- he wants you to draw your last breath in an art gallery to make us less scared of the moment that awaits us all.

"Unfortunately today, death and the road to death are about suffering. Coming to terms with death as I plan it can take away the pain of dying for us," the 39-year-old artist told the online edition of daily Die Welt.

"An artist can contribute something to this issue by building humane places for death where people can die with dignity."

This final performance cannot be from just anyone, however. It has to be someone who has a lot of common with Schneider and who understands his intentions, he told the newspaper.

"The dying person would arrange everything beforehand. He will be the focus.

What a disgraceful act of disrespect for life. I wonder if this artist's ancestor was a Nazi.

Cardinal Trujillo Dies

Cardinal Alfonso Trujillo, the controversial president of the Pontifical Council for the Family and the youngest archbishop to be ordained a cardinal passed away today. His stance on not allowing the use of condoms between couples where one spouse had HIV, because Trujillo incorrectly stated that condoms did not stop the spread of HIV, created an uproar and led to condemnation from the medical community throughout the world. Cardinal Trujillo was considered a papabile candidate in the 2005 papal elections.

Colombian Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, president of the Pontifical Council for the Family, died of respiratory failure Saturday in Rome, Vatican sources told Efe. He was 73.

He passed away around 8:30 p.m. local time (1830 GMT) at the Pius XI Clinic in the Italian capital, where he had been hospitalized for a month.

With him at the time of his death were Cardinal Deacon Angelo Sodano, his brother and a nephew, as well as other relatives and members of the Roman Curia.

Cardinal Trujillo's interview.

Columbian Incongruities

Freak Exchange Of Nature

Pelosi and Gingrich sitting in D.C.

K-I-S-S-I-N-G.

In one of the worst pairings in this election year, the hypocrisy of climate protection and change coming from Pelosi and Gingrich is stomach-wrenching. I couldn't believe my eyes watching this black and white, water-wasting slick commercial on the couch with the Congress in the background.

Newt, what are you doing???? This is a conservative approach to pseudo-science misinformation? A better commercial for you, Newt, would have been an ad showcasing the recent finding of 200,000 acres of oil reserves in North and South Dakota, Wyoming, and Sasketchewan. You could have Nancy Pelosi sitting on your lap sipping oil through her recycled Congress cafeteria straws to show solidarity on our abundant natural resource supply.

What's next Newt? Newt Gingrich and Jimmy Carter's Middle East Peace Initiative?

First Lady Wannabe Maybe Middle Class - But Acts Low Class

Michelle Obama squaring off as if she's in a boxing match ready to take on anyone who calls her elitist. What an angry woman! I can't imagine her speaking for the United States as First Lady. When I think of most First Ladies in my lifetime, Jacqueline Kennedy, Lady Byrd Johnson, Pat Nixon, Rosalyn Carter, Nancy Reagan, Barbara Bush, and Laura Bush, they epitomized class. As someone who has never been proud of America before her husband decided to run for office, Michelle Obama doesn't depict Middle Class America. She oozes with body language that says "Don't Mess With Me." And I won't.

Lunatic Quote Of The Day

From the Wall Street Journal, Jimmy Carter exposes his pseudo-Christian, anti-American, and anti-Semitic attitude:

"In a democracy, I realize you don't need to talk to the top leader to know how the country feels," he said over the weekend, responding to a question from an Israeli journalist who noted that Mr. Carter had been snubbed by most of Israel's top leadership and reprimanded by its president, Shimon Peres. "When I go to a dictatorship, I only have to talk to one person and that's the dictator, because he speaks for all the people."

I wonder how Carter would have felt if a young Admahdinejad had ignored Carter when he was President during the 1979-1981 hostage crisis? Oh yeah... he did ignore Carter, a weak, impotent Democrat president.

Hamas terrorists speak for all the Palestinians? Israel deserves to be attacked as the enemy? No wonder Carter got along so well with the North Koreans and Venezuelan dictator Chavez. I wonder if Carter had talked to the impoverished and starving North Koreans and Venezuelans, would he feel different?

Nawwww...

Carter Parades Himself With The World's 10 Worst Dictators In The World.

Guess Which Presidential Candidate Has Hired Jimmy Carter's Advisors?

Carter laments his snubbing:

"I haven't been able to get permission to go into Gaza. I would like to. I asked for permission. But I was turned down. But maybe we can find a way to circumvent that," Carter said.

Hey? Maybe Carter can get Hamas to help him put a bomb backpack on a child and run him across the border area?

Who Said Yankees Don't Believe in Curses?

A construction supervisor found and dug up David Ortiz's Red Sox shirt that a construction worker had secretly placed in concrete in the Yankees new stadium. Amazing how athletes not only believe in God but in superstitious jinxes.

George Bush A Closet Catholic

John F Kennedy may have been Catholic only in name in the White House. Policies count more than a label. What will infuriate Catholic liberals more than anything else is to think of George Bush as having Catholic beliefs.

Recently from The Deacon's Bench, Deacon Greg Kandra offers the opinion that President George Bush is a closet Catholic and he may be right.

When one of George Bush's closest allies, British Prime Minister Tony Blair converted to Catholicism after leaving his post, you had to wonder if Blair and Bush talked about God during their many visits late at night.

Despite all the military and catastropic events during his term, President George Bush's greatest conservative legacy may be his Supreme Court nominations of Catholics Sam Alito, and John Roberts.

"I don't think there's any question about it," says Rick Santorum, former U.S. senator from Pennsylvania and a devout Catholic, who was the first to give Bush the "Catholic president" label. "He's certainly much more Catholic than Kennedy."

Bush attends an Episcopal church in Washington and belongs to a Methodist church in Texas, and his political base is solidly evangelical. Yet this Protestant president has surrounded himself with Roman Catholic intellectuals, speechwriters, professors, priests, bishops and politicians. These Catholics -- and thus Catholic social teaching -- have for the past eight years been shaping Bush's speeches, policies and legacy to a degree perhaps unprecedented in U.S. history.

"I used to say that there are more Catholics on President Bush's speechwriting team than on any Notre Dame starting lineup in the past half-century," said former Bush scribe -- and Catholic -- William McGurn.

Bush has also placed Catholics in prominent roles in the federal government and relied on Catholic tradition to make a public case for everything from his faith-based initiative to antiabortion legislation. He has wedded Catholic intellectualism with evangelical political savvy to forge a powerful electoral coalition.

"There is an awareness in the White House that the rich Catholic intellectual tradition is a resource for making the links between Christian faith, religiously grounded moral judgments and public policy," says Richard John Neuhaus, a Catholic priest and editor of the journal First Things who has tutored Bush in the church's social doctrines for nearly a decade.

This isn't the first time, President George Bush has been noticed for his Catholic actions. The Anchoress also has in the past highlighted Bush's decisions correlating with Catholic and Marian feast days.

Interesting debate between scholars about the parallel between President George Bush's Iraqi decision and 11th century Pope Urban II's Crusades.

Read all of Greg Kandra's column and you might end up agreeing with the Deacon. Or not. The Deacon's Bench post comments are also telling in that it seems the disagreers are more motivated by politics than by religious fervor.

God Bless our President George Bush. The aftermath of 9-11 would have been far worse without him in the White House.

Thanks Dave for the heads up!

Tall Drink Of Tea

The ritual of drinking tea has come to the Masai warriors visiting England to run in a marathon.

Six Masai warriors, who have never before left their tiny Tanzanian village of Eluai, have settled in today with mugs of sugar-packed tea.

Their guest home in Cooling, Kent, is run by mother-of-three Clare Martin, 34, who said: "We soon found out what they did and didn't like - but it became immediately apparent that they are a bit addicted to tea.

"The amount of sugar they have is astonishing - they're on 10 spoonfuls a cup. I don't think they've had that much sugar in their diets before so they're just making the most of all the new tastes. And I'm having to stock up on Coco-Pops as well."

Nothing like a cuppa tea anytime.

Bin Laden's Ambassador: Ingrate or Normal Liberal?

One of Britain's lead terrorists, called Bin Laden's Ambassador to Europe sneers at British liberal compassion, while laughing all the way to the bank. A colleague of Mohammed Atta, Abu Qatada has lied, forged passports, provided millions of dollars to terrorist groups, but is being supported by British welfare, and court judges have determined that Qatada doesn't need to leave the country.

The court ruled that Abu Qatada, one of the world's most dangerous terrorists and described by a Spanish court as Osama bin Laden's "ambassador in Europe," cannot be deported to Jordan to face further terrorist charges because to do so would "breach Britain's human rights laws."

While Abu Qatada remained in a high security prison, the intelligence services had spent three years putting together what one officer called "irrefutable evidence" that he is closely linked to bin Laden and Ayman Al Zarqawi, the deputy leader of al-Qaida.

[...When he was first arrested in 2001, he was found to have about $1.4 million in his possession, including $1,600 in an envelope marked "for the mujahedin in Chechnya."]

Videos of Abu Qatada's virulent sermons were found in the Hamburg flat of Mohammed Atta, one of the members of the 9/11 terrorists. German intelligence, BND, passed them to MI6 to strengthen the case against Abu Qatada.

Both MI6 and MI5 also provided evidence seen by the Court of Appeal that Abu Qatada, 44, who was born in Bethlehem, had arrived in Britain under a forged United Arab Emirates passport. He claimed asylum and was granted refugee status. He also received monthly welfare benefits.

In his own culture, Qatada would be immediately put to death for his actions. So how does Qatada respond to the court's benevolence?

From his home in Acton, West London, he called on British Muslims to "martyr yourselves in a holy war on British oppression."

British oppression? British human rights, my left foot. How about the rights of people who Abu Qatada wants to kill?

The Pogo strip comes to mind: "We have met the Enemy and He is Us."

Good News For Recession

Investors Business Daily has some potentially good news on the horizon for the pseudo-induced recession that Democrats are imposing on taxpayers.

Recessions are part of capitalism. They happen every so often. We've had two in the last superprosperous 25 years. And it looks like we're entering a third one after the latest jobs-loss report.

The unemployment rate went up to 5.1%, which is still a low number in historical terms. But the March labor report showed a loss of 80,000 payroll jobs, while payrolls in the prior two months were downwardly revised by 67,000.

Nonfarm payrolls have fallen for three straight months after peaking last December.

Private-sector jobs have dropped four consecutive months.

This is a big warning sign. Within the private-sector report, professional and business services payrolls — one of the biggest gainers over the past 15 years — dropped 35,000, the third straight monthly decline following a December peak.

Meanwhile, the household survey that picks up entrepreneurial small-business totals is now down 678,000 jobs since a peak in November.

The recessionary handwriting looks to be on the wall...

Or is it? Lawrence Kudlow has some indications that it may be over soon.

How Recessions Work.

Wicca-Impedia

Beware Russian Wiccans, your government is setting out to get rid of fakirs, witches, and healers.

Russian papers are full of advertisements by fortune tellers and purveyors of potions, lotions, curses and charms, often aimed at helping someone catch a mate or take revenge when a relationship has gone wrong.

Typically, the Tvoi Den newspaper ran an advert on Friday by self-styled magician Tatyana Fyodorova offering "powerful charms" to help clients earn money, get a husband back and cure alcoholism.

Gazeta estimated the market was worth 30-40 million dollars (19-25 million euros) a year, with the advertising market worth five million dollars in the first half of 2007.

Quoting health ministry statistics, the paper said about 100,000 people worked as healers in Russia, almost all of them unregistered.

Catholic University Closed Due To Threats

Threatened by a massace on April 14th in graffiti on dorm walls , St. Xavier University in Chicago has shut down until further notice.

Speaking of closing Catholic schools, there's more in the news about parochial education losses.

Crisis in Catholic Schools

Hillary's Husband Sabotaging Campaign - Again!

Bill does not want his wife to be the first woman president, it's painfully obvious now. Bringing up the entire Bosnia sniping attack lie after it had quietly faded out of the media's memory.

"You know, I got tickled the other day. A lot of the way this whole campaign has been covered has amused me. But there was a lot of fulminating because Hillary, one time late at night when she was exhausted, misstated — and immediately apologized for it — what happened to her in Bosnia in 1995. Did y'all see all that? Oh, they blew it up.

Bill said that Hillary was just tired at 11pm when she made the faux pas remark. Well, Bill, if she was that tired at 11pm, how will she ever be able to make credible and safe decisions at 3am in the morning?

Speaking of Bill and his impact on the American economy, have you seen how much the president made multimillionaire has taken from American taxpayers for his bills? Nearly $5 million dollars. Jim Vandehei of Politico.com has the scoop.

Bill still uses taxpayer's dollars for:

Office rent: $3.2 Million
"Other Services" $751,000
Phone Bill: $420,000
Supplies and Materials $143,000

That doesn't include the cost for the Secret Service protection.

Now think about Hillary getting all those privileges on top of her wealth upon leaving the White House? They have nothing in common with the middle class or the common man. They will continue to bilk the American taxpayers for their lifestyle and charge the Republicans with ruining America.

What's Good For The Gander

Clinton Taps Into Left's Racism