Harriet Myers v.2.0 (The Liberal Edition)

Per Erick @ RedState:

"Conservatives rejoice. Of all the picks Obama could have picked, he picked the most intellectually shallow.  Even the New Republic has been rather scathing about her. It’s like Obama decided he wanted a Souter to replace Souter."

HAH!

P.S.  And, yes... I'm back.  Real life has a way of taking hold of you and putting you through the ringer.  Persistent bad cold, among other things.  I'll gradually start blogging again, soon.  Thanx for being patient.

Here we go again...

(link)

"Oil prices rose sharply on Tuesday, with the New York contract hitting a six-month high above 60 dollars as the US currency tumbled against other leading units, traders said...

"Crude oil prices have found support in recent days from rallying stock markets and a falling dollar rather than from signs of rebounding demand for energy, according to analysts...

"Many market watchers believe the dollar is likely to decline against most rival currencies in the coming months as risk aversion recedes on hopes the worst of the global slump is over."

And hyper-inflation will start kicking in in about 6-9 months.

Where the heck is Trubador?

Sorry... real life finds it's way to edge out blogosphere stuff.  Will be back to blogging soon.  In the meantime, check out this link over to The Blue Boar with a video of Fr. Corapi taking Notre Dame to task.

AWESOME!

Creative Minority Report has a link to a story about Fr. Frank Pavone (head of Priests For Life) leading an alternative to the official commencement on the campus.

Paragraph Farmer links to a Joseph Bottums article in the Weekly Standard (Bottoms being the editor of First Things) which puts the ND scandal in it's proper perspective.

My Own Inoculation...

I did my part in combatting swine flu by cooking and eating pork chops for dinner last night, with brown rice and veggies. I even have leftovers for tonight.

YUM!

Ventura ArtWalk Spring 2009...

Last weekend was the bi-annual ArtWalk in downtown Ventura.  I spent the first day browsing around with a couple good friends, and then returned on my own on the second day.  Below are some of the newest and latest that I found quite intriguing.  Just click on each image to get a larger view of the works of art.

First, Gerardo Segismundo (one of my favorite local artists) is stretching his art into a larger, expressionistic, oil-based realm with works like "Mirrored Moves":

Next is Sarah Kalvin with her watercolors and oils, such as "The Yellow Umbrellas":

Jim Martin continues to wow with his stunning photography, such as "Sunset Behind Two Trees" and "Pelicans, Ventura":

Sherron Sheppard's fine art photography also captures haunting moods, such as "Caddo Sunset" and "Strawberry Field in B&W":

Michael Zelcer has a wide range of artistic talents, such as architectural art glass and painting, as well as sculpture:

One gallery was filled with works by young local art students from Cal State University - Channel Islands (CSUCI).  One impressive artist was Leah McMahan with her "Gateways II":

And then... there's the amazing 24-year old Christine M. Brand, a graduate of CSUCI's art program.  Her two oil paintings - "November Leaves in Merced River" and "Vintage Abalone Shell" - were shockingly gorgeous, especially from someone who's only been painting for just a handful of years. This young lady will leave an amazing artistic legacy, if these early examples are any indication:

Sunday Cross-Post (in more ways than one)...

For today, I want to cross-post to West Coast Catholic who posted on 4/23 about an article appearing in American Spectator On-Line.  The topic was on The Obamessiah's policies on "torture" versus abortion.

WCC writes:

A very scary thought. With so much talk about 'Torture' lately, this article shows the unspoken side. Water boarding is Torture, sleep deprivation is torture, a bath of bugs is torture. The cry, "Prosecute the Torturers!" Abortion is not torture?

WCC then posted an excerpt from the AS article, which posed the question:

If achieving world peace required torturing a single baby, asks a character in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, would it be worth it? 

"Imagine that you are creating a fabric of human destiny with the object of making men happy in the end, giving them peace and rest at last, but that it was essential and inevitable to torture to death only one tiny creature -- that baby beating its breast with its fist, for instance -- and to found that edifice on its unavenged tears, would you consent to be the architect on those conditions? Tell me, and tell the truth." 

The liberalism that Barack Obama seeks to complete answers Dostoyevsky's question with an emphatic yes. What is Obama's abortion-on-demand-forever policy but the building of a modern American way of life upon the graves of tortured babies? And not just the unavenged tears of one baby but millions of them...

Terrorists, we're told by pro-abortion liberals, suffer excruciating pain while the ejected unborn and euthanized elderly feel nothing.

I felt compelled to respond with a comment of my own:

In answering the question: "If achieving world peace required torturing a single baby, asks a character in Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Brothers Karamazov, would it be worth it?"

Actually, yes. But not in the way that you think. For it was of God's choosing and offering, not of humans choosing and offering. He was an infant born in a cave some 2000 years ago, who was even more perfectly innocent than any other baby before or since. Some 30 odd years later, he was tortured and put to death for the salvation and peace of the whole world.

Though we were the instigators and executioners of this One Man, it could not have occurred without the allowance and consent of God himself. For He knew that the ONLY way to bring true peace and salvation was through this one Man - the God-Man, Jesus Christ. Unfortunately, too many people today fail to take that message to heart. We keep trying to offer up our own "sacrifices" - via abortion, hatred, war, bankruptcy, corruption, lifestyle, etc. And we offer them up to ourselves rather than to God, because we think of ourselves as our own gods.

Two millennia ago God said, "Enough! What I am offering for you is enough. Peace be with you." If only we would all listen.

How Supreme!!!

"The One" will now get to appoint David Souter's replacement to the Supreme Court this summer, with a filibuster-proof Senate (thanks to Benedict Arlen Spector).

Just peachy!

UPDATE:  John Hawkins chimes in.  So does Michelle Malkin.

HotAir's AP comments, as does  Gateway Pundit.

Ace, as well.  Ben Smith, too.

And, of course, Captain Ed.

H.R. 1913 Hate Crimes Bill & the Election Aftermath...

The House of Representatives passed HR-1913, a so-called "hate crimes" legislation that will now be used to muzzle Christian pastors and preachers.  More info here, here and here.  Human Events warned about it here.

A former judge and congressman asked the members of the committee if the bill would make it illegal for pastors and preachers to publicly teach from the Bible that homosexuality is a sin.  He was told "yes".  So he offered up an amendment to the bill to protect their free speech from the ominous effects of the bill.  The amendment was then voted down in committee!  It went to the floor of the House, and passed 249-175.  With Arlen Spector now a (D), the Democrats have a filabuster-proof 60-vote majority in the Senate.  Then off it'll go to The Obamessiah's desk for his signature.

There yah go, people.  The fourth of five first steps towards cultural corruption by this administration.

First you had "The One" reverses the ban on tax-payer funding of abortion overseas.

Then he re-opens tax-payer funding for embryonic stem cell research (even though ESCR has already  been done without federal input, has failed miserably in it's results, and dozens of breakthroughs already have occurred with adult stem cell research instead).

Next the Department of Homeland Security (under Janet Napolitano) issues a report that targets so-called "right-wingers" and veterans as being more dangerous to the country than islamic terrorists.

Fourth is now this bill to further attack Judeo-Christian values (now it makes sense that he had Georgetown University cover the Name of Jesus over the archway behind him during a speech he gave there a few weeks ago) by limiting our free speech rights.

What's the fifth one?  It'll be coming this summer.  Read the next post for more info.  It's really Supreme!!!

OH!  And don't forget those Youth Brigades, now.