McLame Lies

I just picked this up listening to Rush. So, in addition to lying about Romney supporting timetables for withdrawal from Iraq, and falsely denying he suggested Justice Sam Alito is too conservative, John McCain lied about why he opposed President Bush's proposed tax cuts in 2001 and 2003.

In a presidential debate on Wednesday, McCain said he voted against the Bush tax cuts because he wanted to rein in spending.

"I disagreed when we had tax cuts without spending restraint," the Arizona senator said.

The explanation fits with his history of railing against wasteful federal spending. But it does not fit with McCain's comments when he opposed the Bush tax cuts in 2001 and 2003.

In 2001, McCain said the tax cuts favored the wealthy at the expense of the middle class. In 2003, he said there should be no tax cuts until the Iraq war costs were known.

Bottom line, McCain sucks.

Trinity Law School Will Never Be ABA Accedited

It was already kind of a long shot that the law school I graduated from was ever going to pursue accreditation by the American Bar Association. Now it appears that this pursuit will never happen in light of the 75% bar passage requirement that the ABA is set to adopt as an accreditation standard. h/t Patterico's Pontifications blog

FYI - The bar pass rate for Trinity Law graduates over the past 7 to 8 years has been less than 20%. When you consider that the average pass rate for first time takers of the California Bar Exam is 70%, that's pretty awful. And it doesn't seem to be getting better.

Weird People In This World (Cont.)

It's not as weird as this, but the fact that someone got to this blog by doing a Google search for "tori spelling nazi camp" is up there.

Choosing What Is Foolish To Shame The Wise

Part of the first chapter of St. Paul's First Letter to the Corinthians was read at Mass today, and it's something that I found to be both comforting and inspiring in my current employment situation.

[26]For consider your call, brethren; not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth;
[27] but God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise, God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong,
[28] God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are,
[29] so that no human being might boast in the presence of God.
[30] He is the source of your life in Christ Jesus, whom God made our wisdom, our righteousness and sanctification and redemption;
[31] therefore, as it is written, "Let him who boasts, boast of the Lord."

The foregoing verses, I think, also provide a great pre-Lenten reflection on the virtue of humility.

Congrats to Francis Beckwith

On being named Inside the Vatican's top Person of the Year. (h/t) Mirror of Justice blog.

As I note here, Dr. Beckwith is a former instructor at my old (cough) law school, who "reverted" to the Church early last year.

The Axis of RINO

What I Do With Time On My Hands

Attend a political rally for Mitt Romney and shoot a shaky and blurry video of it.

RINO Governor to Endorse RINO Presidential Candidate

More specifically, Ahnuld will be (clap) pahmping-up The Maverick™ .

In a related matter, I didn't watch the GOP debate at the Reagan Library tonight (mostly because I forgot it was on) but there seems to be a consensus in the politically conservative blogosphere, e.g., Powerline and Ed Morrissey, that McCain looked and did pretty bad, while Romney won. Whether or not this will help Romney for next Tuesday is unclear, but I personally hope it does.

I Guess It's Politically Significant

Longtime Congress critter from Los Angeles Maxine Waters, who infamously said she had to march at a "pro-choice" rally because her mother couldn't have an abortion back in the day, has endorsed the presidential candidacy of Hillary Clinton. In addition to being a fairly prominent Democrat, Ms. Waters is black. Given the recent controversies that Hillary has had with racial issues, I guess Waters' endorsement will help her in her battle against Obama for the Democrat presidential nomination.

I May Have To Edit The Banner On The Right

Reports are being made that RINO Rudy Giuliani will be dropping out of the presidential race next Tuesday Wednesday (YAHOO!), and will be endorsing The Maverick™. Not a real surprise to me if this endorsement happens, and it's just one more reason why I think conservative Republicans should refuse to support John McCain.

Blast From The Past

I just discovered that somebody got here by doing a search for the name of the gal I briefly blogged about back in 2002.

Wonder if it was her?

Reminder: We're One Week Away From Ash Wednesday

St. Thomas Aquinas

Today is the Angelic Doctor's feast day (St. Thomas also happens to be my patron saint).



"Good can exist without evil, whereas evil cannot exist without good."

New Year, New Look

Hopefully, more consistent blogging that you might find worth commenting about.

Hey, at least come back for the music (scroll to the bottom).

Abstain From McCain



Lots of reasons to, ranging from amnesty for illegal aliens, McCain-Feingold (McCain, through this friend of the court brief, expressly went after and tried to silence pro-life advocates), and support for continued stem cell research on human embryos.

Man, I Hope It Was For Legitimate Research

Someone got to this blog by doing a Google search for "having sexual intercourse in vegetative state."

I Know I'm Just Gonna Keep Thinking About It

OK, so I went and voted early today in the California primary, and I used one of these new computerized voting machines. While I'm using my right hand to push buttons, I'm holding and reading the things I marked on my sample ballot in my left. After choosing who and what to vote for, or against, I come to a screen that asks me if I want to accept or decline a paper verification printout. This verification printout is supposed to be like a receipt from a retail store. If you push the "Decline" icon, the computer assumes you don't want to cast your ballot, and asks if you want to start over.

Since I wanted to cast my ballot, I pushed the "Accept" icon expecting something to be printed out somewhere. All the while, I was still holding up my marked sample ballot in my left hand. When I didn't see anything printed out anywhere, I went ahead and just pushed the "Cast Ballot" button. After doing this, I lowered my left hand and noticed a small window by the side of the computer screen I had been using. Inside the window was apparently my paper verification printout. Unfortunately, by the time I noticed the printout, it was starting to scroll back into the machine, so I didn't get to see if it matched what I had selected on the computer.

Although I'm pretty sure my ballot was correctly cast by the computer, the small sense of doubt created by my failure to see the verification printout just irks me. I should have just voted by absentee ballot...

My Selection by Default



He's at least clever enough to make this play off his name.

Which reminds me, pitchers and catchers report to spring training on February 14.

Dude, Where Ya Been?

Just been too darn lazy to consistently blog. Plus, I've mostly been hanging around the discussion forums at 4Marks.com, a Catholic oriented social something or other with an online dating feature that you pay money to join.

As you might be able to guess, I like to mostly talk about politics in the forums, though I occasionally will banter about some less contentious matters, like spaghetti (clams and beef hot links sauce is some good eatin').

Since my paid membership is about to expire, and I'm pretty sure I won't renew (I don't need to pay money to be ignored by women), I should be back blogging on here again soon. I'm sure you're really excited about that.

Morons at Princeton

How much of a full blown idiot do you have to be to question the propriety of a Catholic Supreme Court Justice who attends the Red Mass? See Marci A. Hamilton of Princeton University as an illustration.