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.

Hope His Lawyers are Being Paid Hourly

Dan Rather goes ape sh!t crazy and files a civil suit against CBS for, get this, "intentionally mishandling" the discredited story about President Bush's service in the Texas Air National Guard. Gunga Dan also asserts he was wrongfully made the scapegoat by CBS, while at the same time claiming that the fabricated tale about Bush getting special treatment was never proven to be fake.

I figure one of two things will happen here. Rather either loses his case on summary judgment, or whatever it might be called in New York State, or he accepts an undisclosed settlement offer, i.e., almost nothing with waiver of attorneys' fees, from CBS.

Here's a link to an apparent copy of the complaint filed by Rather. Thirty-two freakin' pages!

Not a Good Start

Just days after hiring him, UC Irvine fires noted constitutional law scholar and flaming political liberal Erwin Chemerinsky as its first law school dean. The chancellor of the university basically, and comically, blames the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy™ for the decision.

As much as I disagree with Chemerinsky in his interpretation of the law, the guy really does know his stuff. I personally discovered this when I studied for the Bar a few years ago, and the constitutional law review course I used was presented by Chemerinsky, via videotape. Not only was his presentation well structured, Chemerinsky wasn't using any notes as he spoke, and it didn't seem like he was reading off a teleprompter or cue cards. UC Irvine, I think, has made a huge mistake in not retaining Chemerinsky, and it isn't doing itself any favors by laying the blame on unnamed conservative pressure groups.

Beckwith on Catholic Answers Radio

Recent Catholic "revert", Francis Beckwith, is the featured guest on Catholic Answers radio today. In addition to being the former president of the Evangelical Theological Society, Dr. Beckwith used to be an instructor at my law school, though he didn't actually teach any law courses. Trinity Law School has a Master's degree program that can probably be best described as a hybrid of Christian apologetics and political science. I thought about enrolling in the program while I pursued my law degree, but then I discovered I would have been required to sign a statement of faith that included some beliefs an observant Catholic could not sign off on.

Highlanders on the Rise

This is interesting. My undergrad alma mater, UC Riverside, is a top 20 national university according to the Washington Monthly. Coming in at number 15, UCR is ranked ahead of several Ivy League schools like Penn (17), Harvard (27), Yale (38) and Columbia (41).

Even more interesting, though, is which school was ranked number 1: Texas A&M. (h/t)

My Grandfather's Son: A Memoir

I've really been anticipating the release of this autobiography from Clarence Thomas ever since I first heard about it five or six months ago at a Federalist Society meeting that featured John Yoo, one of Justice Thomas' former law clerks.

Looks as though Justice Thomas will also be doing a kind of book tour. He's scheduled to appear in So. Cal. at Chapman University on December 17.

What Got My Ass Kicked Off of CatholicMatch.Com

To be more accurate, what effectively got me kicked off: writing "bobbackwardsisbob.com" in response to an objectively racist, i.e., anti-semitic, comment made by another member of the site named, you guessed it, Bob. The administration of Catholic Match said my comment, which was written in the politics discussion forum on the site, was a personal attack. Unbelievable.

Well, at least they've agreed to give me a pro rated refund of the money I paid for membership.

Clarification: Man, I'm having a bad choice of words day. I literally was not kicked off of Catholic Match. I chose, instead, to terminate my membership, at Catholic Match's "invitation," because the administration of Catholic Match restricted my posting privileges on its discussion forums for the above state reason.

Update (8/20/07) I'm back on CM again with full privileges after an apology from the administration.

I Don't See Nothin'

For about five months now, I've been commuting from Orange County to San Bernardino County for a new job. So I figured since tomorrow is a Holy Day of Obligation, and I have to be all the way out in the Inland Empire for work, I'd go to a parish near my office for Mass. Not being familiar with the area, I naturally went to the website for the San Bernardino Diocese. Try as I might, however, I can't find any mention on the site of tomorrow being the Feast of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary. Therefore, I have no idea if the local parishes are going to be on their Holy Day Mass schedule. Rather than take a chance, I'm just going to go to the morning Mass at Holy Family Cathedral in Orange County, and arrive about a half hour later for work.

The Powerhouse Justice

I'm currently reading Supreme Conflict by Jan Crawford Greenburg, who is a correspondent for ABC news. Some pretty illuminating stuff about the SCOTUS, the chronology of which pretty much starts from when Sandra Day O'Connor was nominated and confirmed as a Justice in 1981.

I just recently finished the section on my favorite Justice, Clarence Thomas. Contrary to popular perception and characterization, Thomas was never Justice Scalia's intellectual water boy when he began his tenure on the Court. Indeed, during his first couple of weeks as a Justice, Thomas actually persuaded Scalia to change his mind on two cases.

An interesting side note about Clarence Thomas in Supreme Conflict is that shortly after the contentious battle over his confirmation to the Court, Justice Thomas had apparently discovered, and began drawing spiritual and emotional strength from, the Litany of Humility prayer. Given the words of this prayer, I have to believe that this is what has prevented Justice Thomas from "evolving" on the Court and lurching into judicial activism like Justice Anthony Kennedy, who is largely portrayed as being hyper-sensitive to public opinion.

It's Just Numbers, Man

I'll probably watch I Hate My 30's, but I have a feeling it'll end up on the ash heap of Gen-X nostalgia shows like this and this (both of which I actually liked).

Qualifications for Civil Servant Job

Brains is literally not one of them. This story is just so weird to actually be true that I almost half expect a somewhat respectable Catholic apologist to gleefully claim that presidential candidate Ron Paul is a serious threat to the Republican Party establishment. There's gotta be some pretty wacky stuff in your Seattle-brewed coffee to make that kind of a claim with a straight face.

If Berkeley Were An Entire Country

Being expressively against disordered behavior and Islamofascism is sure expensive in Canada. Just ask a guy named Bill Whatcott.

Does This Make Giuliani Functionally Pro-Life?

As revealed here, some of the members of The Mayor's "Justice Advisory Committee" include former U.S. Solicitor General Ted Olson, former Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson and filibustered judicial nominee Miguel Estrada. The selection of these individuals, I guess, are supposed to allay the concerns of many conservatives within the GOP regarding His Honor's rather well known liberal positions on several social issues, like abortion. Of course, we really don't know how influential this Advisory Committee is supposed to be if Giuliani is elected, much less who the other members are. Stay tuned.

Stranger Than Fiction

The Reverend Tori Spelling, who, like, got ordained online, like, presided over a g@y "wedding", like, as one of her first acts as, like, a woman of the, like, cloth. Fer sure.

Stuff is Happening

First, the long anticipated and welcomed motu proprio "freeing up" the Tridentine Mass, and coming this Tuesday (supposedly) a new document that appears to expound upon Dominus Iesus, and the therein discussion of the ecclesial nature of non-Catholic Christian, i.e., Protestant, "churches". (via)

Correction: Actually, Lumen Gentium is the original source of the topic to be addressed by the impending document.