Good

Dubya has done the right thing here, and contrary to the shrill and disingenuous ravings of some in the Catholic blogosphere, waterboarding is not torture when we do it, and even if it was, it would only be legally applied under justifiable circumstances. Yes, "torture", like war, theft and killing, can be morally justified.

Ron Paul Sux (cont.)

I am trying real hard not to impute anti-Semitic motives on Ron Paul for his most recent inane moral equating of Israel with Palestinian terrorists, but there comes a time when you just have to call a spade a spade.

Man, I'm glad this crackpot has finally decided to end his embarrassing run for the GOP presidential nomination. h/t AmSpec Blog

Obama Cult

Set to the music of Cake. h/t Dan

Liberal Fascism

I haven't yet read the above titled best seller by Jonah Goldberg, but he's definitely going to have to add this episode to subsequent printings of his book:

Parents who lack teaching credentials cannot educate their children at home, according to a state appellate court ruling that is sending waves of fear through California’s home schooling families.

Advocates for the families vowed to appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court. Enforcement until then appears unlikely, but if the ruling stands, home-schooling supporters say California will have the most regressive law in the nation.

(...)

“Parents do not have a constitutional right to home school their children,” wrote Justice H. Walter Croskey in a Feb. 28 opinion signed by the two other members of the district court. “Parents who fail to [comply with school enrollment laws] may be subject to a criminal complaint against them, found guilty of an infraction, and subject to imposition of fines or an order to complete a parent education and counseling program.”

Update (03/07/08): It might not be as bad as it has been made out to be.

I Was More Excited Over Bob Dole

Ho hum, John McCain basically clinches the Republican Party nomination for President tonight. While I would certainly rather see McCain be President than Hillary or Obamamessiah, you'll excuse me if I don't show a whole lot of enthusiasm for a guy who has an American Conservative Union lifetime rating that is lower than the ACU rating held by Chuck Hagel, the RINO U.S. Senator from Nebraska.

Hagel, of course, has recently been rumored to be someone whom Obamamessiah, if he's annointed elected President, might tap to serve in his Cabinet.

Hoop Dreams

This is one area where the Jesuits are objectively and extraordinarily good.

Actress + French + Oscar Winner = Idiot

Contrary to what the article says, Marion Cotillard did not cause a "political row" by revealing her status as a 9/11 Troofer. That would imply there's some legitimacy to what came out of her pie hole.

Women are Kinda Dumb

So observes Charlotte Allen in a few different contexts, including at Barry O. rallies and Hillary's campaign. (h/t The Corner)

"Women 'Falling for Obama,' " the story's headline read. Elsewhere around the country, women were falling for the presidential candidate literally. Connecticut radio talk show host Jim Vicevich has counted five separate instances in which women fainted at Obama rallies since last September. And I thought such fainting was supposed to be a relic of the sexist past, when patriarchs forced their wives and daughters to lace themselves into corsets that cut off their oxygen.

I can't help it, but reading about such episodes of screaming, gushing and swooning makes me wonder whether women -- I should say, "we women," of course -- aren't the weaker sex after all. Or even the stupid sex, our brains permanently occluded by random emotions, psychosomatic flailings and distraction by the superficial. Women "are only children of a larger growth," wrote the 18th-century Earl of Chesterfield. Could he have been right?

I'm not the only woman who's dumbfounded (as it were) by our sex, or rather, as we prefer to put it, by other members of our sex besides us. It's a frequent topic of lunch, phone and water-cooler conversations; even some feminists can't believe that there's this thing called "The Oprah Winfrey Show" or that Celine Dion actually sells CDs. A female friend of mine plans to write a horror novel titled "Office of Women," in which nothing ever gets done and everyone spends the day talking about Botox.

We exaggerate, of course. And obviously men do dumb things, too, although my husband has perfectly good explanations for why he eats standing up at the stove (when I'm not around) or pulls down all the blinds so the house looks like a cave (also when I'm not around): It has to do with the aggressive male nature and an instinctive fear of danger from other aggressive men. When men do dumb things, though, they tend to be catastrophically dumb, such as blowing the paycheck on booze or much, much worse (think "postal"). Women's foolishness is usually harmless. But it can be so . . . embarrassing.

Take Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign. By all measures, she has run one of the worst -- and, yes, stupidest -- presidential races in recent history, marred by every stereotypical flaw of the female sex. As far as I'm concerned, she has proved that she can't debate -- viz. her televised one-on-one against Obama last Tuesday, which consisted largely of complaining that she had to answer questions first and putting the audience to sleep with minutiae about her health-coverage mandate. She has whined (via her aides) like the teacher's pet in grade school that the boys are ganging up on her when she's bested by male rivals. She has wept on the campaign trail, even though everyone knows that tears are the last refuge of losers. And she is tellingly dependent on her husband.