Sports Semi-Celebrity Sighting

In town because his team was playing the Los Angeles Angels O'Anaheim, Boston Red Sox third baseman Mike Lowell showed up for Mass at my parish in Costa Mesa this past Sunday.

I'm more than certain that the priest's homily about angels was purely coincidental.

More Obamisms

Dude is either stupid or he's planning on something IF elected. (h/t)

Well, Alright!

The U.S. Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals pretty much recognizes the personhood of the unborn in upholding South Dakota's abortion consent law.

Obamisms

And they say George W. Bush is stupid? (h/t)

"I remember, when living for four years in Indonesia as a child, I listened to my mother reading me the first lines of the Declaration of Independence, "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they're endowed by their creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness." -- Obamessiah (Harvard Law '91), 6/30/08 - Independence, MO

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation. -- The first lines of the Declaration of Independence, 1776

"As we begin our fourth century as a nation, it is easy to take the extraordinary nature of America for granted." - Obamessiah, 6/30/08 - Independence Missouri

2008 - 1789 = 219. Does 1 + 1 = 3 now?

I Want To Believe

Spooky is back!

Schism Here, Schism There...

Rad Trads say "up yours" to Rome, as do conservatives in the Church of King Henry VIII.

Clarification: Conservative Anglicans are specifically saying "up yours" to the liberals within their own communion, although I suppose you could say that their very existence as Anglicans generally expresses the same sentiment to Rome.

Outstupiding Himself Again

That would be Justice Anthony Kennedy, who along with four other boneheads on the Supreme Court, believes that "evolving standards of decency" renders the execution of brutal child rapists unconstitutional.

The abject dumbassness of the Court majority opinion in Kennedy v. Louisiana, which Justice Kennedy wrote, is nicely expressed by Justice Samuel Alito:

The Court today holds that the Eighth Amendment categorically prohibits the imposition of the death penalty for the crime of raping a child. This is so, according to the Court, no matter how young the child, no matter how many times the child is raped, no matter how many children the perpetrator rapes, no matter how sadistic the crime, no matter how much physical or psychological trauma is inflicted, and no matter how heinous the perpetrator’s prior criminal record may be. The Court provides two reasons for this sweeping conclusion: First, the Court claims to have identified “a national consensus” that the death penalty is never acceptable for the rape of a child; second, the Court concludes, based on its “independent judgment,” that imposing the death penalty for child rape is inconsistent with “ ‘the evolving standards of decency that mark the progress of a maturing society.’ ” Ante, at 8, 15, 16 (citation omitted). Because neither of these justifications is sound, I respectfully dissent.

Ouch

Here and here.

Pat Buchanan is Horribly Wrong...Again

Victor Davis Hanson lays the smackdown. (h/t)

Eww

Welcome to Calimorrah.

Law of the Land

Happy Father's Day! (h/t)

36 United States Code Section 109. Father's Day

(a) Designation. - The third Sunday in June is Father's Day.
(b) Proclamation. - The President is requested to issue a
proclamation -
(1) calling on United States Government officials to display
the flag of the United States on all Government buildings on
Father's Day;
(2) inviting State and local governments and the people of the
United States to observe Father's Day with appropriate
ceremonies; and
(3) urging the people of the United States to offer public and
private expressions of Father's Day to the abiding love and
gratitude they have for their fathers.

Male BuFu Boy Thinks Gov. Jindal is "Creepy"

He's one to "dish" such ridiculous smack. (h/t)

Boumediene v. Bush

"The Nation will live to regret what the Court has done today."

How Bad is the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals?

One of its "better" judges, the libertarian leaning (natch) Alexander Kozinski, has been uploading explicit porn onto his website. (h/t)

The judge said he began saving the sexually explicit materials and other items of interest years ago.

"People send me stuff like this all the time," he said.

He keeps the things he finds interesting or funny with the thought that he might later pass them on to friends, he said.

Good gawd.

Potential "Kmiecian" Dilemma

So, if John McCain taps Mitt Romney to be his VP running mate, it'll be real interesting to see what Doug "Mental Gymnastics" Kmiec, a high ranking member of Romney's failed presidential campaign who has come out and endorsed Obamessiah, will do.

Silver Lining in G@y "Marriage" Ruling

As a matter of principle, the outright refusal by the California Supreme Court to put a stay on its recent g@y "marriage" ruling until after the November election, when Californians will have voted on the California Marriage Protection Act, is nothing short of an assault on representative government.

As a lawyer who practices in the area of family law, though, g@y "marriage" could potentially be economically lucrative for me. I don't have any hard data to back it up, but I'm inclined to believe that same sex couples, particularly g@y men, have a pretty high break up rate. Plus, I wouldn't have any moral qualms, like I currently do for real marriages, about assisting a homosexual divorce his/her homosexual spouse.

Overall, though, I really do hope my fellow Californians vote to pass the Marriage Protection Act.

Reason #90902932032 Not to Vote Democrat

Given this and this, I'd be willing to bet that if the Dems control both the White House and Congress next year, the price of gas in this country will not be going down anytime soon and will continue to increase.

The Case for Kobe

Paul Mirengoff at the otherwise sensible Powerline blog questions a suggestion made in a Sports Illustrated article that Kobe Bryant is a better basketball player than Lebron James:

At age 23, LeBron has demonstrated that he can take a mediocre supporting cast deep into the playoffs. Kobe, when surrounded by a mediocre cast (about which he complained incessantly) during the three seasons before this one, missed the playoffs once and was eliminated in the first round twice, albeit in a tougher conference. Kobe may be better than LeBron, but I couldn't find objective evidence that shows this to be the case.

The emphasis on the curiously downplayed concession by Mirengoff that Kobe plays in a much tougher conference than Lebron is mine. That the NBA Western Conference has been far better than the Eastern Conference in recent years is indisputable. All 8 teams in the Western Conference playoffs this year, for instance, had at least 50 wins, while the Green Booger Boys from Beantown barely got out of the first round of the playoffs against an Atlanta Hawks team that had a below .500 regular season record. Within this context, the fact that most of Kobe's offensive numbers this year are only slightly below Lebron's tells me that Lebron James would not be nearly as prolific as he is if he had played most of his games against Western Conference teams. Indeed, let's not forget that Lebron and his team were easily swept by the San Antonio Spurs in last year's NBA Finals. Let's also not forget that by the time he was Lebron James' current age, Kobe Bryant had won 3 championship rings.

Mirengoff is generally a smart guy, but on this matter, he's way off mark.

Back to the Future

Go Lakers! Beat the green booger bums from Beantown!

Fascinated by Pictures of Dirt

I've never been much of a science guy, but I find these ground pictures of Mars taken by the Phoenix Lander intriguing.

Hope the boys at JPL and NASA get a lot of useful information in the next three months.