Ron Paul, Superstar

Every time I think that Ron Paul couldn't possibly do anything more to endear himself to me, he does something more. Earlier this week, Rep. Paul appeared on the Glenn Beck radio program, and, since I was running late and traffic was abysmal, I actually got to hear it live. Here is an excerpt.

GLENN: You don't have to tell me who it is, but do you know who you're going to vote for for President yet?

CONGRESSMAN PAUL: Not exactly, you know, because we don't even know who will get on the ballots. I've actually?--?

GLENN: Could you see yourself?--?

CONGRESSMAN PAUL: I couldn't vote for McCain.

GLENN: You can't vote for McCain?

CONGRESSMAN PAUL: No, I can't vote for him. I've said that publicly. That, of course, gets me in trouble with my Republican friends. No, he doesn't stand for essentially anything that I believe in. So I wouldn't be able to do that.

Imagine that! He can't vote for his party's candidate for President because "he doesn't stand for...anything that I believe in". I'd like you to contrast that with Harry Reid's parrot, Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland, who must have Senator Palpatine's hand up his ass, given the way he recites almost verbatim the Team Donkey talking points of his master.

Couple that with this speech given on the House floor July 9th (not a comfortable read, but a necessary message), and you can see why I have so ardently supported Dr. Paul throughout his run to the presidency. I just wish more Americans understood the principles that Dr. Paul espouses. If they did, then only a beneficiary of the status quo or the truly evil could possibly vote against him.

Ron Paul is a true man of principle. He has core beliefs and he is true to them. He is the anti-Clinton, the anti-Bush, the anti-Obama, the anti-McCommie. This country needs leaders like him.

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Unrelated, but important (to me). I'd like for you all to keep in your prayers two regulars to this blog who are ailing.

yodaddy had knee replacement surgery and is recuperating from the surgery and post-surgical complications.

dw broke his leg riding his quad out in the AZ. He's all kinds of messed up.

My prayers are with you, guys. Get well soon.

Tales from the TSA

Apparently TSA's abuses have reached the level where "serious" journalists are starting to notice. Kudos to Channel 2 in Chicago for going where 99.9% of local news and 100% of network news refuses to go. In this report, Pam Zekman gets the skinny on a number of abuses, which include:

• A woman slammed to the floor by TSA agents for daring to argue with them


• The infamous "nipple rings" incident


• A 71-year-old man in a wheelchair who is routinely forced to drop his pants so agents can verify that, yes indeed, he has an artificial knee


• A 16-year-old girl with a prosthetic leg who has to drop her pants to let our protectors examine "her whole leg"


• The numerous women who've had the under-bra "grope" administered to them


• The newest: a machine that can "see" through clothing and pretty much leaves nothing to the imagination (see picture below)

Why does TSA feel compelled to take people who are no obvious threat and treat them so disrespectfully? Because they can. And they will...right up until enough people make a serious stink about it.

Once again, major kudos to CBS2 in Chicago for daring to "go there".

Finally, a photo of the new "see through" technology at work. Gives new meaning to the phrase "I'll need to check your bag."

Wiener of the Week

The WotW for this week is not a single person. It is not an organized group of people. No, this week you can think of the WotW as a class-action award. This week the "wieners" are the tens -- hell, maybe HUNDREDS -- of thousands of people who plan to hold their nose and vote for John McCommie this November.

William Grigg, a man of principle, has said:

[T]he "lesser" evil isn't; when it is chosen it is always the greater evil, because it's the one that is actually done, rather than serving as a convenient rhetorical device.

Those people who will vote for McCommie because "Obama is worse", or their fear is of "the damage Obama could do with court appointments", or who have the mistaken notion that "we'll be able to have some input with McCain that we won't have with Obama" are drinking that Team Elephant Kool-Aid.

The worst damage done to personal freedoms and the most long-term damage done via creeping Socialism post-LBJ has been done by REPUBLICANS. See, Bush, George W., if you doubt what I'm saying.

A liberal-leaning Republican is several orders of magnitude worse for the nation than the most Marxist Democrat. A Democrat could have never normalized relations with Communist China; it took Nixon to do that. A Democrat could have never implemented wage/price setting tyranny; it took Nixon to do that. Democrats couldn't get socialist health care passed; it took GWB to get an incrementalist version of that passed.

Pay attention, people! The worst possible thing that can come out of this election is a McCommie victory! Just because he has an 'R' after his name doesn't mean he's playing for the same team as you. He isn't. He's a One-Worlder, in the mold of his idols, Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. You're idiots if you waste your vote on him. Idiots. And well-deserving of the Wiener of the Week.

Calling out prophets for hire

William Grigg from Pro Libertate has an uncanny knack for calling out people of power and influence. He's especially good at pegging phonies. In this article, he takes on the "palace prophets" of our age.

The object of sharing this rather emancipated paraphrase of I Kings 22 is to underscore the moral and practical futility of seeking wisdom from religious leaders who are on the state's payroll, or who covet the power that comes from proximity to the politically powerful.

I do not intend to interpolate my own views into the Scripture, but from what I know of human nature it seems likely that many of the payola prophets who took part in Ahab's “Faith-Based Initiative” probably believed that their compromises were necessary in order to advance some worthwhile objective or another. After all, working in partnership with the government is the key to getting things done, isn't it?

Here's a critically important principle: In any “public/private partnership,” the state is always the senior partner. When Christian leaders are on Caesar's payroll, they have to render to him things to which he is not entitled. And when Caesar's tactical priorities change, those religious leaders who thought they could co-opt the power of the state to do good will discover, to their dismay, that the state has co-opted them, leaving it stronger and more hostile toward the values those leaders supposedly served.

Chief among those who serve on Caesar's payroll, and the main target of Mr. Grigg's article, is faux-Evangelical "Doctor"* James Dobson.

"Doctor" Dobson has walked down the same unholy path as his predecessors, Jerry Fallwell and Pat Robertson. To say I have nothing but the highest contempt for those two asshats is to understate the loathing I have and have ALWAYS had for them. They were Christianity's worst enemies, the fifth-column undermining us from within with their trust in the arm of Government over the arm of God.

"Doctor" Dobson has now supplanted the dead Fallwell and doddering (and utterly sold-out) Robertson (remember: he endorsed Rudy f'ing Guiliani earlier this year). He stands alone as the "palace prophet" in the ignoble tradition of Zedekiah and the other 399 sell-outs of Ahab's court. His allegiance is no longer to the things of God. No, he wants to be on the side of power.

Earlier this year, the "Doctor" boldly proclaimed that he would not under ANY circumstance EVER vote for John McCommie. Yeah, sure. Now he's hedging and saying that he might "reconsider" and actually endorse McCommie since Obama is so antithetical to his beliefs. And what beliefs might THOSE be, "Doctor"? Your belief in remaining close to the levers of power?

By their fruits you shall know them. If "Doctor" Dobson really cared about the things of God, he would decry BOTH candidates and BOTH major political parties and work his ass off to throw Evangelical support behind either Dr. Ron Paul or Libertarian Bob Barr. But he'd never do that, because, given the libertarian beliefs of both of those good men, there wouldn't be any perks or goodies to be garnered from their presidency.

"Doctor" Dobson, you're a phony and a false prophet. Those of you who call yourselves Christians need to distance yourselves from this charlatan posthaste, or you'll sink with him when Caesar decides he's done with him.

* Bias alert. I have a default posture of negativity towards anyone who insists on being called "Doctor" who isn't a practicing clinician or professor. My pastor has a Doctorate: he insists on being called "Richard". My kinda guy!

Finally....indictments

It started with a false tip from an anonymous source, who turned out to be a woman with mental issues who routinely calls police with false tips. Their ranch/compound was raided by Stoßtruppen with armored vehicles and automatic weapons. Their children were taken from them at gun point, and only returned when the Texas Supreme Court overturned a stateist judge's ruling and then had to force the nanny-fascist to comply with their ruling.

But all along they (the FLDS men) were guilty, right? After all, would Der Staat have descended upon their little enclave with such a display of force if they weren't? I mean, for a display of force THAT ostentatious, surely ALL of the men in the compound MUST be guilty of SOMETHING, right?

Yesterday it was reported on by the AP that indictments have FINALLY been handed down. Surely there must be dozens, right?

A Texas grand jury Tuesday indicted polygamist sect leader Warren Jeffs on a charge of felony sexual assault of a child. Five of his followers have been indicted as well.

Attorney General Greg Abbott said four of Jeffs' followers are charged with one count of sexually assaulting girls under the age of 17. One of the four faces an additional charge of bigamy.

Abbott said a fifth follower is charged with three counts of failure to report child abuse.

Okay, let me get this straight. After...what has it been? 2? 3 months? After all this time, they hand down six indictments. Six. They send an effin' army, they steal the children of every family living there...and they could only come up with charges against six of them!

I hope the state of Texas is damn proud of their government agents. The Stoßtruppen. The Child Protective Services. Judge Walther and all judges of a like mind with her. Your tax dollars at work.

Crackpots in the news

There are crackpots, and then there are crackpots. This guy takes the cake.

During these turbulent economic times, Gordon Brown is keen for the country to stick by him.

However, this probably wasn't quite what he had in mind.

Dan Glass, of the climate change pressure group Plane Stupid, today tried to superglue himself to the Prime Minister at a Downing Street reception.

Let's see. If I want to get my point across about how important I feel it is to take action against Global Warming (article of faith #1 for my secular religion), I should (a) engage the Prime Minister in conversation in an earnest and sincere manner, (b) ask the PM for a chance to meet with him later to discuss the issue, or (c) pull some lame-ass stunt so that I can get my picture in the paper. They choose (c) every time. Every stinkin' time.

And they wonder why they're called "moonbats" and aren't taken seriously by anyone...

Darwin Awards Qualifier

This guy would be a hands-down Darwin Awards winner, except that he didn't succeed in offing himself.

A New Jersey man trying to exterminate insects in his apartment blew it up instead, the New York Daily News reported on Monday.

Isias Vidal Maceda was unhurt in the incident, but 80 percent of his apartment was destroyed, Eatontown, New Jersey police told the newspaper.

The accident occurred as Maceda was spraying for pests in his kitchen. Somehow the bug spray ignited a blast that blew out the apartment's front windows and triggered a fire that quickly spread, the newspaper said.

"Somehow the bug spray ignited". "Somehow". How about maybe Einstein here might have been SMOKING? Nah, nobody could be THAT dumb, could they?

Stories like this really put a smile on my beak. Must be my undying love for schadenfreude.

A baby vulture leaves the nest

In every Vulture's life there is that moment when its young must stretch their wings and fly the nest. It's not an easy thing for a vulture mommy to digest: the infant she held so close -- doesn't it seem like only yesterday? -- has moved into the next phase of his life. Yesterday this Vulture's nest got a little bit lighter. TJ is now living on his own in an off-campus apartment in Towson.

You might say, "C'mon Vulture! He's only at college. And it's Towson, not even an hour's drive!" You're right. But it IS that first step out of the nest. And, with Kyle getting a job in Annapolis (congratulations to Kyle on that major land, BTW!), the only thing keeping him in the nest is the post-graduate classes he's taking at Hood. Once he's done with his post-grad certification in Tanatology, he's going to want to get his own nest closer to work. Then it'll just be me, Mrs. Vulture, and the dogs.

On the bright side, I did get my garage back.

Wiener of the Week

The WotW this week is a no-brainer. See the previous post on Snyder, Daniel and Radio, ESPN -- congratulations to both.

Axis of Evil - ESPN and Daniel Snyder

Some months ago I wrote about the decline of ESPN. The "world-wide sports leader" has become the "world-wide artificial debate/artificial argument leader" in 90% of its programming (the exception being actual live sporting events). ESPN radio is unlistenable. Un. Listenable. Give me a choice between a Yoko Ono album and 15 minutes of Mike-and-Mike (AKA Dumb and Dumber), and I'll take Yoko every time.

The flip side of Dumb-and-Dumber is Steve Czaban of Fox Sports Radio, whose show is the anti-ESPN format. No artificial debate. No stupid call-in polls. No "who would you rather have on your team?" dopey "question of the day" nonsense. Just a show that's smart, funny, and occasionally a little risque.

The Washington Redskins are owned by midget fan-boy Daniel Snyder. He made his billions during the dot com boom. But since then, he has become the reverse-Midas: everything he touches turns to shit. The Redskins are fast becoming the Arizona Cardinals of the East.

What do these three things (ESPN Radio, Czaban, and Danny-boy) have in common? Czaban's "home" station is WTEM in Washington. He broadcasts both his nationally syndicated morning show and his afternoon local show from the WTEM studios. Danny-boy owns two crap-ass radio stations in town that have just enough signal strength to reach Bethesda. The crap-ass stations were ESPN Radio affiliates. The "were" comes into play with the other shoe dropping: Danny-boy bought WTEM, and the first thing he did upon buying it was to make it the ESPN Radio affiliate for Washington, DC. This means that Czaban's morning show, which was beating Dumb-and-Dumber in the 18-54 demographic by 2-to-1, is off the air in Washington and vicinity, replaced by the unlistenable Golic and Greenberg.

Thank God I have XM Radio!

Czaban is broadcast twice daily on Channel 142, Fox Sports Network, from 6-to-9 Eastern and again from 12-3 Eastern. There's a reason his program is broadcast twice-daily: it's THAT good.

I won't be missing out. But those in the area without XM are hosed. The only other local morning radio program worth listening to is the Junkies on WJFK. Everything else is crap.

Danny-boy's reverse-Midas touch continues. It's only a matter of time before he's effed up WTEM as badly as he's effed up the Redskins.

As for Czaban, you can read his take on the matter here.

Bite me, ESPN. Bite me, Danny-boy. May you both contract an itchy, burning, non-fatal STD.

McCain = Roosevelt? Try McCain = Dole

John McCommie is a classic example of a guy who's politically tone deaf. Conservatives and libertarian-leaning Republicans have been BEGGING him to show some sign that he won't hose them the way that Bush I and Bush II did. And how does he respond?

Senator John McCain, in a wide-ranging interview, called for a government that was frugal but more active than many conservatives might prefer. He said government should play an important role in areas like addressing climate change, regulating campaign finance and taking care of "those in America who cannot take care of themselves."

"I count myself as a conservative Republican, yet I view it to a large degree in the Theodore Roosevelt mold," the presumptive Republican presidential nominee said, referring to Roosevelt's reputation for reform, environmentalism and tough foreign policy.

Teddy Roosevelt?!?!?!? OMG!

Theodore Roosevelt was a self-proclaimed Progressive. For those of you unaware of the Progressive movement of the early 20th century, know this: their aims were socialist, their methods fascist, and their worldview unrelentingly collectivist. This is the role model for John McCommie?!?!?!

Personally, I think McCommie's campaign is less TR and more Bob Dole. Hearken back with me to that dark year, 1996. Bob Dole was the Republican nominee. Bob Dole was a dreadful choice, the kind of candidate that NO ONE could get excited about. As the campaign wore on, Bob Dole looked more and more like a grumpy old man out of his league against the younger, more charismatic Bill Clinton. Even though Clinton was a total lightning rod, and more people voted against him than for him (he got 49% of the popular vote), Dole still got his ass kicked.

You may want to model yourself after TR, McCommie, but your personality and probable chances of success in this election more closely mirror Bob Dole.

TSA - the 'A' stands for asinine

We've all heard the 'no-fly' watch list horror stories. Babies and toddlers who happen to share the same name as some suspected terrorist. A Senator's wife. A 63-year-old writer, founder of The Giraffe Project. Etc, etc.

But this one, to me, REALLY takes the cake.

The Justice Department's former top criminal prosecutor says the government's terror watch list likely has caused thousands of innocent Americans to be questioned, searched or otherwise hassled. Former Assistant Attorney General Jim Robinson would know: he's one of them.

Yeah, you read right: a former prosecutor for the Justice Department. A guy who holds a Top Secret clearance. And he's not only ON the list, he can't get OFF it.

The TSA clearance process will not remove a name from the Watch Lists. Instead this process distinguishes passengers from persons who are in fact on the Watch Lists by placing their names and identifying information in a cleared portion of the Lists.

In other words, you can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.

Apparently, according to those on the 'cleared portion of the Lists', it doesn't help. Surely the TSA could issue some sort of 'I'm not him!' identification for people in Mr. Robinson's situation. That would be one way to combat this problem, right?

The other way -- which will NEVER happen -- is to get rid of that stupid list once and for all. Do you REALLY think that the terrorists are so stupid that they would travel using their real name or a known alias? They'll get new aliases and fake papers to avoid being hit by the list. Come on!

No, the purpose of the list, like the purpose of the TSA, is to get us used to being herded around like cattle in a situation where we dare not speak out, in order to get us prepared to be herded in every situation in the future. It's the beta version of Police State USA.

Wiener of the Week

The WotW this week is a group of people that feels persecuted and hated. They're constantly whining about how the culture is being taken over by those who think differently than themselves. They take every display of this group's beliefs as a personal assault. And, no, I'm not talking about liberals. I'm talking about strident atheists.

Vox Day calls them "socially autistic". I'll buy that. These clowns think that the display of any Christian symbol anywhere is a direct threat to their person, and they're not afraid to be vocal about it.

Their latest crusade (ironic choice of words, no?) is to ban Christian-themed license plates.

You've seen the dopey "theme" plates. Penn State Alumna. Miami Dolphins. Save the bay. Choose life. It seems like every imaginable group is pushing to get its own particular personalization. And, trust me, if Maryland ever came out with a 49ers-themed plate, I'd be all over it.

I rather doubt that anyone thinks that by putting out a Miami Dolphins-themed plate the state of Florida is endorsing the Dolphins over any other football team. You don't see Tampa Bay fans panicking over that, do you?

But the autistic atheists think that one Christian-themed plate is one too many.

[T]he plates may constitute a state sanctioning of one religion over another, and that raises the ire of non-Christians and free speech advocates.

"Free speech advocates". Now there's an oxymoron!

These people don't want free speech for anyone but themselves. Express your love for Christ, expect to be shouted down by the "free speech advocates".

For putting their little tender sensibilities ahead of the free-speech rights of Christians, strident atheists are the Wiener of the Week.

Joseph Goebbels would be proud

Many times I shake my head and wonder why it is that the sheeple are so caught up in all of the phony climate change hype. I mean, anyone with half a brain who's done half an hour's research into the subject knows the score: 2,000 hysterical scientists and Al Gorebells vs. 32,000 scientists (and common sense). But when you have so-called reputable news outlets like Agence France-Presse printing crap like this, people without the time and inclination to explore further can be easily misled.

The dangerous rise in greenhouse gases in the atmosphere may be troubling scientists and world leaders but it could prove to be a boon for plants, German researchers said Tuesday.

Let's parse this together, shall we?

"The dangerous rise" isn't meant to inform, or even to evoke an understanding of previously-presented information. Those word are designed to propagandize. Period.

"troubling scientists and world leaders" is misinformation at its finest. The aforementioned scorecard shows scientists on board with climate change hysteria outnumbered by "doubters" by a 16-to-1 ratio. "world leaders"? Outside of a few Western nations looking for a way to leverage the hysteria into increased taxes (and as a way to damage the USA), there are none. And, no, Al Gorebells doesn't count! He's simply an availability entrepreneur looking to get rich(er) by selling carbon credit schemes.

So, even though the gist of the article is positive news (an increase in carbon dioxide is good for plant growth, a real "no shit?" notion to anyone who understands the concept of plants "breathing" carbon dioxide), the writer just had to get their propaganda into the story, and right there in the first sentence. His editors apparently saw nothing wrong with that, even though "news" stories should, by the rules of "fairness", never contain knee-jerk phrases of that sort. AFP isn't censuring the writer in any way, so they obviously see nothing wrong with it.

As long as the propaganda machine is humming along unobstructed by reason, the sheeple won't question. There could be 1 million scientists screaming from the rooftops that global warming is a con - it wouldn't matter. The sheeple will follow the information they get most often, and these days, that information is pro-Gorebells.

"Fatal delusion" - an Aussie speaks on climate change

I think I found a new columnist to add to my collection of those I regularly read (you'll find links to their work in the right column, under "What I Read (you should too)"). This guy, Andrew Bolt, from Melbourne, Victoria, Australia, is a frickin' genius.

I can't do this article justice - you just got to read the whole thing. The article begins by commenting on a young man, age 17, who suffers from mental problems due to an irrational fear of climate change.

"A 17-year-old man was referred to the inpatient psychiatric unit at Royal Children's Hospital Melbourne with an eight-month history of depressed mood . . . He also . . . had visions of apocalyptic events."

(So have Alarmist of the Year Tim Flannery, Profit of Doom Al Gore and Sir Richard Brazen, but I digress.)

Zing! But he's just getting started.

And here is a senior Sydney Morning Herald journalist aghast at the horrors described in the report on global warming released on Friday by Rudd's guru, Professor Ross Garnaut: "Australians must pay more for petrol, food and energy or ultimately face a rising death toll . . ."

Wow. Pay more for food or die. Is that Rudd's next campaign slogan?

Of course, we can laugh at this -- and must -- but the price for such folly may soon be your job, or at least your cash.

Mr. Bolt goes on to describe why the Indians and Chinese have balked at implementing carbon standards (hint: because they're not stupid).

Their conclusion? They couldn't actually find anything bad in India that was caused by man-made warming: "No firm link between the documented (climate) changes described below and warming due to anthropogenic climate change has yet been established."

In fact, they couldn't find much change in the climate at all.

Nor can anyone else, for that matter, with the exception of Al Gorebells and his pack of fanatics.

It is a fun and informative article. I highly recommend that you check it out.

Liberal fascism -- the race card

How I abhor the race card! Con men Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton deal it from the bottom of the deck in a dual effort to keep themselves relevant as well as to fuel "donations" to their grievance-mongering industry. Excuse me, that's grievance-mongering AND extortion. Think of the companies that have paid millions to get Jesse Jackson to just go away. Toyota springs immediately to mind. Viacom. You get the picture.

Now the Brits are at it. Worse than just playing the race card, or even dealing it from the bottom of the deck, they're playing it against toddlers and even babies.

Toddlers who say "yuck" when given flavorful foreign food may be exhibiting racist behavior, a British government-sponsored organization says.

The London-based National Children's Bureau released a 366-page guide counseling adults on recognizing racist behavior in young children, The Telegraph reported Monday.

The guide, titled Young Children and Racial Justice, warns adults that babies must also be included in the effort to eliminate racism because they have the ability to "recognize different people in their lives."

I see. So......since I absolutely HATE curry, I'm a racist. Ipso facto. But I love Thai, Mexican, Chinese, and Vietnamese! No matter. I don't like curry. I don't like hummus. I'm a racist.

As absurd as that may sound, the idea that a toddler, whose tastes probably don't extend much beyond mac and cheese, and who probably hates 90% of all food offered him, is a racist, is among the most absurd things I've ever read, and I've read some pretty absurd things.

What this is is a leftist organization looking to leverage white guilt as a vehicle to gain more control over the nation's children. Brits would be wise to hoot these asshats off the stage. We have enough problems in this world without inventing new ones.

Wiener of the Week

Okay, yes. I'm late again. And technically this didn't happen last week, but just this past few days. So sue me! It's my blog, and I'll handle the WotW any way I want. Besides, this was just TOO good to pass up.

George Walker "Traitor" Bush, friend to gun-grabbers and Fascists, created this little gem at the G8 summit in Japan.

President Bush has posted a message on a "wishing tree" at the G8 summit in Japan and, true to the aims of his second term in office, his main desire is for a world free from tyranny.

OMG! The irony!

The man who brought us "Club Gitmo" and the TSA desires a world free from tyranny. Hypocrite! Why don't you start right here at home, by demilitarizing the police and disbanding TSA?

For being a self-parodying asshat, GWB is the Wiener of the Week.

Another "faith shaking" news story

Am I the only one who gets tired of reading news reports trumpeted as "shaking the faith" or "redefining who Jesus was" that turn out to be significantly less than advertised? Here's yet another such "revelation".

A three-foot-tall tablet with 87 lines of Hebrew that scholars believe dates from the decades just before the birth of Jesus is causing a quiet stir in biblical and archaeological circles, especially because it may speak of a messiah who will rise from the dead after three days.

If such a messianic description really is there, it will contribute to a developing re-evaluation of both popular and scholarly views of Jesus, since it suggests that the story of his death and resurrection was not unique but part of a recognized Jewish tradition at the time.

Yawn. Yeah, my faith is quaking in its boots.

The article goes on to quote a professor of Taludic studies (a Rabbi?!?!?), who proceeds to pontificate to Christians what they should think of this momentous find.

"This should shake our basic view of Christianity," he said as he sat in his office of the Shalom Hartman Institute in Jerusalem where he is a senior fellow in addition to being the Yehezkel Kaufman Professor of Biblical Studies at Hebrew University. "Resurrection after three days becomes a motif developed before Jesus, which runs contrary to nearly all scholarship. What happens in the New Testament was adopted by Jesus and his followers based on an earlier messiah story."

Suuuuure it was. Anything you say, pal.

The danger of these articles is that most people are inherently lazy in their news reading habits and seldom get past the first 5 paragraphs of an article. Because, had a brotha kept on reading into the guts of the article, they would find this.

Regarding Knohl's thesis, Bar-Asher is also respectful but cautious. "There is one problem," he said. "In crucial places of the text there is lack of text. I understand Knohl's tendency to find there keys to the pre-Christian period, but in two to three crucial lines of text there are a lot of missing words."

Ah, yes! The old fill-in-the-missing-words-with-your-preconceptions ruse. In fact, the main section the Rabbi/professor trumpets as the money quote has two unreadable words and an "unusual spelling" as part of it.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: these people are NOT about revealing Jesus in a historical context, they're about destroying the faith of the weak. Read what they have to say, but do so with a generous dose of cynicism, and make sure to look for those "disclaimer" paragraphs: that's where you'll find the information that makes discernment possible.

Wiener of the Month - June

OMG! How in the world could I have forgotten to name a WotM for June? I guess July just sort of snuck up on me or something.

There wasn't any one stand-out candidate last month, but these clowns are probably more deserving of the award than anyone else. I speak, of course, of Mr.-and-Mr. Orombi-Williams, the two Anglican priest who "married" this past month.

Never mind that their calling as ministers of Jesus Christ is to magnify Him. No, these asshats are in the business of magnifying the gay agenda while tearing apart their denomination (which, given its focus on social issues as opposed to, say, the Gospel, might not be such a bad thing).

Mr.-and-Mr. Orombi-Williams -- you are the Wieners of the Month for June! Congrats (I think).

Best. Present. Ever.

Mrs. Vulture "kidnapped" me for a long weekend getaway that was supposed to last from Friday morning through Sunday morning. We had a great time at a very nice inn in Berkeley Springs, WV. The food was exceptional. The spa services were very nice. The naps -- priceless!

Saturday night Mrs. V asked me if I would be disappointed if we went home right after dinner; she "missed the puppies". I was cool with that, so after a fabulous meal, we checked out and headed home.

When we got home, Mrs. V asked me to bring the suitcase upstairs. I never made it upstairs.

Lo and behold, sitting in my living room was a baby grand piano!!!! OMG!!!!!!!!!

Boys and girls, if you know the Vulture, you know that I loves me some piano. I've played some beautiful instruments before, but never owned one myself. Although I've been extremely happy with my electronic keyboard, it's not the same as a real, honest-to-God baby or larger grand piano. Not even close.

Mrs. V and the boys purchased the piano WAAAAAAY back in October from Hood College. It's a Yamaha, so it's very good quality. AND. IT'S. MIIIIIIIIIIIIINE!!!!!!

Happy freaking birthday to ME! WOO HOO!!!!!!!

It was 50 years ago today

A 21-year-old woman, a blushing bride a mere 10 1/2 months prior to today, goes into labor. Her 23-year-old husband rushes her to the hospital. In that era, his job was over once she was admitted; he and the other husbands were relegated to a waiting room where they paced and chain-smoked unfiltered Pall Malls, Camels, and Lucky Strikes (filtered cigarettes were available back then, you understand, but weren't considered "manly").

The young father-to-be waits hopefully. He wanted his first-born to be a son.

At 12:07 MST, the young mother delivered the child -- a son.

They called him....Vulture.

Okay, I made that last part up. It's my story, after all!

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I still can't wrap my wings around 1/2 a century. It's a big concept for my wee brain to process.

50 years ago the only computers that existed were predominantly owned by the government and Fortune 500 companies. They were huge monstrosities, but not as big as they had been just a decade before, with vacuum bulbs having been replaced by transistors. Now, my 3 pound laptop has more power than a thousand of those antiques. There are at least 10 computers in my home - 4 personal laptops, 3 company laptops, 3 desktops, perhaps 1 or 2 others the boys are using for game servers, storage, or parts. Even comparing using today's inflated monetary value for our computers against the more stable 1958 dollar for the giant behemoth, our 10 computers cost about 1/1000 as much as the behemoth. Technology is good.

50 years ago families had one TV on which they could watch 3, maybe 4 channels. Now there's a TV on every floor plus one in my office; the one in the family room is a 52" high-definition set with 5.2 Dolby surround sound. DirecTV satellite feed means hundreds of channels plus NFL season ticket; I can watch any game I want on Sunday in glorious 1080i high definition. Technology is good.

Technology is good, but the other changes haven't always been good. The nation sacrifices freedoms for "safety" more each passing year. The nanny state, like the cancer it is, extends its tentacles into more and more aspects of our lives. Endless war seems to be the theme of the day.

Perhaps I have 50 more years to live, perhaps only a dozen. Such are the vagaries of life. It matters not to me; God will bring me home in His good time. I've lived to see two fine sons become young men. I've had the blessing of a wonderful, supportive wife whose patience and love have buoyed me for the past 2 decades. I've been truly blessed.

So, let's have a rousing rendition of Happy Birthday for the Vulture, who's now 50! Woo hoo!

Be back soon

Mrs. Vulture is taking me on an intimate week-end getaway, so I'll be unable to blog for a few days. Catch you soon.

Life in the fast lane

Let me introduce you to Jennifer Bitton. She owns a Mustang. She likes to drive. Fast. Not that I (or my sons) would know anything about that.

A 24-year-old woman who was clocked speeding by Loop 101 photo enforcement cameras 22 times in less than two months was arrested and placed in jail.

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Bitton told officers she "didn't know cameras were there." She was flashed 22 times in a 45-day period beginning in mid-May. The fastest speed she was clocked at in her Ford Mustang was 92 mph, according to the agency.

22 tickets in 45 days! It took me almost 30 years of driving to get that many tickets......I mean, I read a book about someone who got 22 tickets in 30 years. Yeah, that's the ticket.

Jennifer, you, I, and Sammy Hagar have this in common: "I....can't....drive....55!"