Success of 'Passion of the Christ' extends to albums

Apparently, everyone has forgotten the best-selling soundtrack to The Last Temptation of Christ. For those of short memory, here's a link to that album at Barnes & Noble.

Arafat: Passion of the Christ 'impressive'

Pull Quote:

"Arafat, who watched the film on a small TV set in his Ramallah office, said the movie was 'historic and impressive.' "


Yet another case of an endorsement not likely to be hyped by Gibson, Peggy Noonan, or any of the film's other champions.

At Florida Rally, Bush Attacks Kerry on Economy

There's nothing new in the article--either in claims or absurdities--but there was an interesting Pull Quote:

"His opponent, Mr. Bush suggested, was playing for the votes of foreign leaders and was too willing to view the battle against terrorism as a matter of law enforcement and intelligence gathering."

Okay, if it's not a matter of that, what is it? Randomly selecting a country to invade on a biennial basis?

Anyone able to point out the actual statement?

Unemployment Rates by State March 2001-January 2004

It appears to be time to move to South Dakota, Nevada, or Hawaii, the only three states in the union to show a reduction in their unemployment since the recession began. (Each of 0.3%, or 3 people in 1,000)

Of course, if we all move to those states--or even a few thousand of us--that gain will go away.

In fairness, Montana and Delaware, as well as the District of Columbia, appear to be neutral. But is it really encouraging that there are government jobs?

Scalia Won't Sit Out Case On Cheney

How A Supreme Court Justice Treats the Law: cite example from before the law in question was passed, as if they are precedents and not precisely the behavior the law was intended to address.

Pull Quote:

"He noted that, although Scalia wrote that his conduct was consistent with friendships such as those between Justice Byron R. White and Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy, and between Justice Robert H. Jackson and President Franklin D. Roosevelt, which did not lead to calls for recusal, those cases took place before the enactment of the federal law on judicial recusal. That statute, cited by the Sierra Club as the basis of its motion, requires judges to recuse when their impartiality might 'reasonably be questioned.'"

Purported Al Qaeda Letter Calls Truce in Spain, Endorses Bush

Yahoo! may have left it off the headline, but it's nice to see one "foreign leader" who is endorsing Mr. Bush's election, though it's not likely to appear in RNC ads.

WSJ: The Pill made same-sex nuptials inevitable


If they had said this years ago, would we not be having all the fooforah now?

Pull Quote:

"So the economics of sex evolved into a win-win deal. Women agreed to give men exclusive sexual rights and guaranteed paternity in exchange for their sexual loyalty and enduring assistance with childbearing and -rearing. The man's promise of sexual loyalty meant that he would expend his labor and resources supporting her children, not another woman's." [emphasis mine]

So divorce can be blamed on The Pill as well, and all those divorces and trophy wives of the pre-Djerassi years are (a rather large) outlier in the database?

Caesarean refusal leads to murder charge - Mar 12, 2004

For those of us who have heard all the charges about the "slippery slope" of abortion, a cautionary tale from the other side...

So called virgins have same rate of sexually transmitted diseases as non-virgins

If you're as confused as The Wall Street Journal, which cited the article, be very afraid of the Pull Quote:

"As many of these ‘virgins’ had not been attentive during sex education classes (or had not had them) they tend to have sex without protection more often than other kids....Researchers also found that these kids were less likely to seek medical help when they did catch a STD – probably because they did not know what they had."

I guess the motto has to change to "Abstinence Works--Except When It Doesn't."

Think tank chief backs tax increase

THis will be a link in my forthcoming "Thinking about Larry Kudlow" piece. For now, nothing more need be said.

Iraqi scientist: Nuclear bomb was 3 years away

MSNBC's Misleading headline of the day...the statement might have been true prior to 1991.

The REAL pull quote: "The scientists presented their paper Monday to the conference, declaring that most Iraqi nuclear facilities were damaged or destroyed in the 1991 U.S.-led Gulf war. They said scientists, engineers and technicians involved in the program dispersed after the war and the program was dismantled on Saddam’s orders." [emphasis mine]

Yep, the man was really trying to build a bomb and attack the U.K. and the U.S. Uh-huh.

Ohio Nuclear Plant Can Reopen, Agency Says

FirstEnergy, well known for its blackouts, wins one. Homeowners in Toledo, whose property values should go down severely if the market is efficient, lose badly.

Women should vote … as instructed: Karzai


It's always nice to see how well we installed democracy in Afghanistan before trying to convert the rest of the Middle East.

Military Spending Sparks Warnings

Maybe this will get the "deficits don't matter" people to look again at the shenanigans of the past three years...

MSNBC - Hunters get Bush to ease up on wetlands

No chance Scalia would override this one, is there?

Libertarian Purity Test

I was amazed to score a 66 on this. On the other hand, I forwarded it to (among others) sixpeople who scored below 20.

One commented that the test "portrays libertarians as whiners who if they had the courage would be waving black flags with an A surrounded by a circle." Having visited freerepublic.com several times recently, I'm trying to figure out what might be wrong with that portrayal.

ESPN.com - NFL - T.O.: No to physical; Union to fight trade

The Pull quote here goes to the heart of the matter: Ravens coach Brian Billick told the Sun.... "If he is of a mind that he won't come report for a physical, we can waive that and he's our property."

As long as that attitude is explicit, it's difficult to be sympathetic to the owners on this one.