SCOTUS declines to hear Mattel appeal over song that calls Barbie a "blonde bimbo."

The song, by a Danish group called Aqua, includes the lyrics, "I'm a blonde bimbo in a fantasy world/Dress me up, make it tight, I'm your dolly."

Mattel Inc. (MAT), which gets $1.5 billion or more annually in Barbie sales, complained that an advertisement for the song ran during Saturday morning cartoons and that MCA Records Inc. even wanted to sell the recording at toy stores.

The Bucs don't have a chance unless Warran Sapp or Brad Johnson have a relative who is a priest or nun . (article requires registration)

"I'm part of the Raider Nation," said Sister Kathleen Gannon, a nun in Berkeley whose nephew, Rich Gannon, is Oakland's starting quarterback.

"When Rich first came out here to the Raiders, I said, 'Rich, they have a very bad reputation," she said. "But he said, 'Aunt Kath, I know that's their reputation, but if you talk to the guys they have a very deep spirituality.' "

I'm glad to see the feds have finally done something to make California fix its woeful foster care system. Perhaps the feds' findings will prove useful in beating back proposed bills to make private foster care agencies place children with homosexual applicants.

Do it! Do it!

Bishop Wiegand of Sacramento advises Gov. Davis to stop receiving Holy Communion for as long as he supports pro-abortion policies. The way I see it, "Gray-out" should be looking at this as a favor, since he is blaspheming our Lord every time he receives the Eucharist. (How else should a person who receives Holy Communion while in a state of mortal sin be described?)

How incredibly dumb do you have to be to not know that eating a Big Mac with fries every day will make you fat?

Roe has seen the light of truth, but her former attorney is still in the dark.

Cold, hard, and sad facts on this, the 30th anniversary, of Roe v. Wade.

The retirement watch on Chief Justice Rehnquist grows.

He is now in his 17th year as chief justice, and the 31st as a member of the court. Recent health problems, the political calendar, and Rehnquist's success in advancing a conservative agenda all have helped fuel the retirement speculation.

''He is the most likely to retire, and the stars are aligned right for it,'' suggested Roger Pilon, vice president of legal affairs at the Cato Institute, a libertarian legal advocacy group. Given that the Congress and presidency are both controlled by Republicans, Pilon said, ''it's the opportune time for him to retire; all that could change with the next election.''

Nice to see the Ninth Circuit got something right for a change. They rule that Maui County Council members, in their capacities as individuals, cannot claim government immunity when they are sued under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act of 2000. In other words, if a government entity violates a plaintiff's rights under RLUIPA, each individual responsible for that violation (e.g., a city or county council member) can personally be on the hook for any damages incurred.

The capital of Raider Nation (yes, I'm on the bandwagon) gets a new, and seemingly better, bishop. (Hey, any guy labeled a "conservative" by the ultra-liberal SF Chronicle can't be all bad).
(link via Amy Welborn's blog)

In light of the fact that Martin Luther King was an adulterer and partly named after the man who effectively ignited the Reformation and Protestantism, I just can't get very excited about MLK Day. Maybe the government should have just called it "Civil Rights Day" or "Title VII Day".

Somehow, I doubt the founding fathers ever envisioned lap dancing as being a First Amendment right.

This is just utterly twisted.

Stewardship. Genesis tells us that we are created in God's image and that with that gift comes the responsibility for "...every living thing that moves upon the earth" (1:27-28). It follows that, as moral agents, women have the God-given responsibility to make decisions about the course of action that seems to them most responsible in cases of unwelcome pregnancy.

The SCOTUS upholds the constitutionality of "double jeopardy" death sentence.

The Constitution guarantees that no one will be "subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb." That means that once acquitted of a crime, someone cannot be tried again.

Double jeopardy protection does not apply in Sattazahn's case, because the first jury did not acquit him but merely disagreed whether he deserved to die, Justice Antonin Scalia wrote for the court majority. He was joined by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices Sandra Day O'Connor, Anthony M. Kennedy and Clarence Thomas.

Without having actually read the decision, I suppose the majority was correct insofar as the "double jeopardy" principle applies to convictions and not sentences. Still though...

I get the distinct impression that Pat Buchanan thinks the death penalty needs to be regularly imposed in this country.

Again and again, in Illinois and across America, people have voted to retain this ultimate sanction for the most vicious and vile killers among us. Our Constitution provides for a death penalty. For centuries, it has been a part of our criminal justice system. When Illinoisans elected [George] Ryan [governor], they were voting to retain it. Every killer on death row is there because a jury, after hearing all the evidence, voted unanimously to put him there.

Students in Mass. who were suspended for passing out candy canes with Bible verses on them have filed a lawsuit.

Eerily enough, a similar situation occurred last month at a high school in Reno, NV. However, after yours truly sent the school district a sternly worded demand letter, the decision to prohibit the candy cane distribution was reversed. They were smart; the school in Mass. wasn't.

More California cities decide to ban Jesus Christ from city council invocations.

The Superior Court of Los Angeles County ruled that such sectarian invocations violate the Constitution's separation of church and state. The appellate court upheld that ruling in September 2002. The Burbank council has not formally decided to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court yet, but Mayor David Laurell said it's only a matter of time.

"I think we need to take this ruling to the highest court of the land," Laurell said. "It has already had statewide impact and could have nationwide impact."

Will you people in South Dakota please make Tom Daschle go away.

Justice Scalia publicly voices complaint on how the courts have gone too far in separating church from state.

As an example, he pointed to an appeals court decision in California that barred students from saying the Pledge of Allegiance with the phrase "one nation under God."

That ruling is on hold pending further consideration by the same court, but the Supreme Court could eventually be asked to review the case.