An overlooked tidbit from A Charlie Brown Christmas

Has anyone else noticed -- when Linus is quoting from Luke 2 -- when he gets to the angel's message "Fear not" that Linus lets go of his security blanket?
As far as I know, that is the only time in any of the Peanuts series when Linus does not hold his blanket.

What's wrong with these people?

Intel Corp Survey: Nearly 1/2 of all women prefer the Internet to sex

48 percent of women and 30 percent of men prefer the Internet to sex, according to a new study by Intel Corp.

The study asked more than 2,000 adults what they would rather give up for a period of two weeks, the Internet or sex.

I can't speak for the women, but any man who would prefer the internet to sex obviously hasn't had any good sex. (Just saying.)

I don't believe in karma, but....

Rahm Emanuel is very angry about the press releasing private information about him, namely, his home address. He claims that he is getting death threats. When reached for comment Joe the Plumber said, "I can relate." Sarah Palin asked, "Have they burned down his synagogue yet?"

Man who fled Vietnamese Communism elected to Congress

Congratulations to Anh Cao, the first American of Vietnamese heritage to be elected to the US Congress.
CNN Story Here

A Mystery Solved

I was driving today up I-45 when I passed a Prius hybrid adorned with a bumper sticker (actually one of many stickers) on the painted portion of the back end. It read:

LOBOTOMIES FOR ALL REPUBLICANS: IT'S THE LAW!

You know, I always wondered where Democrats came from.

Hillary Clinton is Unconstitutional!

or, more accurately, she would be unconstitutional as Secretary of State, because appointing her to that position would violate the "Emoluments clause" of Article I, section 6 of the US Constitution.

Google's First Veteran's Day

Since 2001, Google has ignored Veteran's Day and Memorial Day, while having commemorative logos for any number of other special days (Election Day, Chinese New Year, MLKing Day, etc.) But today, for the first time ever, Google honored our service men and women with a Veteran's Day logo:




The left has decided that it's OK to be patriotic, as long as they don't look like they're supporting Bush, I suppose.

Always look on the bright side

Paul Mirengoff of PowerLineBlog.com made the comment that although one should never say "never" in politics, Barack Obama's victory almost certainly means that neither Hillary Clinton nor Al Gore will ever be president of the United States.

McCain might lose, but he won't be a loser

From a Slate article on John McCain:

[McCain's] visceral hostility toward Democrats generally was quickly tempered by his tendency to see people as individuals and judge them that way. He was taken in hand by Morris Udall, the Arizona congressman who was the liberal conscience of the Congress and a leading voice for reform. ...

"Mo reached out to me in 50 different ways," McCain recalled. "Right from the start, he'd say: 'I'm going to hold a press conference out in Phoenix. Why don't you join me?' All these journalists would show up to hear what Mo had to say. In the middle of it all, Mo would point to me and say, 'I'd like to hear John's views.' Well, hell, I didn't have any views. But I got up and learned and was introduced to the state." Four years later, when McCain ran for and won Barry Goldwater's Senate seat, he said he felt his greatest debt of gratitude not to Goldwater--who had shunned him--but to Udall. ...

For the past few years, Udall has lain ill with Parkinson's disease in a veterans hospital in Northeast Washington, which is where we were heading. Every few weeks, McCain drives over to pay his respects. These days the trip is a ceremony, like going to church, only less pleasant. Udall is seldom conscious, and even then he shows no sign of recognition. McCain brings with him a stack of newspaper clips on Udall's favorite subjects....

Aside from a congressional seal glued to a door jamb, there was no indication what the man in the bed had done for his living. Beneath a torn gray blanket on a narrow hospital cot, Udall lay twisted and disfigured. No matter how many times McCain tapped him on the shoulder and called his name, his eyes remained shut.

A nurse entered and seemed surprised to find anyone there, and it wasn't long before I found out why: Almost no one visits anymore. In his time, which was not very long ago, Mo Udall was one of the most-sought-after men in the Democratic Party. Yet as he dies in a veterans hospital a few miles from the Capitol, he is visited regularly only by a single old political friend, John McCain.

Important E-mail Virus Alert

If you get an e-mail with "Nude Photos of Sarah Palin" in the subject line, do not open it. It might contain a virus.

If you get an e-mail with "Nude Photos of Hillary Clinton" in the subject line, do not open it. It might contain nude photos of Hillary Clinton.

How Reason Works

What if Obama had the strongest record of bipartisanship in the Senate, with major bills to his credit like the 2002 McCain-Feingold campaign reform, the 2003 McCain-Lieberman climate stewardship and the 2007 McCain-Kennedy immigration reform acts.
What if McCain had the most extreme partisan voting record in the Senate?

What if Obama offered a broad, sensible energy policy that embraced both emerging and current resources, including building the greenest power plants possible with nukes?
What if McCain declared that the nuclear waste technology we've invested hundreds of billions in over the last three decades is unacceptable, and refused to build nukes until we invent something better than Yucca Mountain?

What if Obama offered sensible tax policies that have historically led to healthy business growth and financial freedom for more Americans?
What if McCain promised to cut taxes for 95% of us while proposing almost a trillion dollars in new spending?

What if Obama had called for reform and oversight of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2006 that could have prevented the current financial collapse, only to have his efforts squashed by the opposition party?
What if McCain was the second highest recipient of political donations from Fannie and Freddie in his short Senate career, and had the former head of Freddie heading up his VP-vetting team, and the WaPo published the fact that the disgraced former head of Fannie was a financial advisor to his campaign?

What if Obama had been the leading supporter of the surge strategy that has won the war in Iraq?
What if McCain's primary claim to fame was his leading the charge to lose the war by withdrawing all our forces in Iraq where Al Qaeda declared their new caliphate?

What if Michelle Obama devoted her time and wealth to charitable organizations over the last couple of decades, and she adopted a Bangladeshi girl with a cleft palate on a visit to one of Mother Teresa's orphanages?
What if Cindy McCain got a $200,000 raise in her job as a Community Relations Director in a hospital when her husband became a Senator, and once in the Senate her husband put in a $1M earmark for her employer U of Chi Hospital, and she declared that when her husband won the nomination for Presidency was the first time she was really proud of her country?

What if Joe Biden had a proven record of opposing his own party and winning, and confronting Big Oil and winning, and sharing the revenues he levied on Big Oil with the citizens of his state?
What if Sarah Palin imagined we and the French "kicked Hezbollah out of Lebanon" and said President Roosevelt "went on TV in 1929" (before TV existed) to talk to Americans about the Depression (before FDR became President in 1933)?

Well, if that were true, I'd vote for Obama.

(written by one Dr. Applebreath.)

While we're on letters to the editor:

This comes from a reader of the Wall Street Journal:

Could you please tell me what [Barack Obama's middle name] is? I know it isn't very important in the overall scheme of the universe, but I have looked twice on the Obama Web site, and I've found no mention of a middle name.

It seemed to me that the most effective way to get people to stop mentioning "Hussein" would be to promulgate his real middle name. At his Web site, Sen. Obama does not list his middle name, nor does he say specifically that he doesn't have one. If you have discovered what it is, you could do him, and the rest of us, a favor by saying so.

I think I've heard this one before

Yesterday's Chicago Tribune carries this "letter":

On my way to lunch recently, I passed a homeless guy with a sign that read "Vote Obama; I need the money." I laughed. In a restaurant my server had on an "Obama 08" tie. Again I laughed. Just imagine the coincidence. When the bill came, I decided not to tip the server and explained to him that I was exploring the Barack-Obama-redistribution-of-wealth concept. He stood there in disbelief while I told him that I was going to redistribute his tip to someone who I deemed more in need—the homeless guy outside. The server angrily stormed from my sight. I went outside, gave the homeless guy $10 and told him to thank the server inside as I've decided he could use the money more. The homeless guy was grateful. At the end of my rather unscientific redistribution experiment, I realized the homeless guy was grateful for the money he did not earn, but the waiter was pretty angry that I gave away the money he did earn even though the actual recipient deserved money more. I guess redistribution of wealth is an easier thing to swallow in concept than in practical application.

The Eclipse of Liberty

I've been reading G.K. Chesterton's Eugenics and Other Evils and came upon this intriguing quote on skepticism:
"Liberty has produced scepticism, and scepticism has destroyed liberty. The lovers of liberty thought they were leaving it unlimited, when they were only leaving it undefined. They thought they were only leaving it undefined, when they were really leaving it undefended." (Part 2, Chapter VI, The Eclipse of Liberty)

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Eugenics_and_other_Evils

Cinco de Mayo

I just learned that although Cinco de Mayo is a big holiday in America, it's not such a big deal down in Mexico. I think it is a big holiday up here because more Mexican citizens live here.

Rambling Political Thought #4

From Jay Leno: "Everyone is so concerned now where all of the candidates are born. McCain was born on a military base in Panama. Hillary was born outside Chicago, and if you believe the media, Barack Obama was born in a manger."

Rambling Political Thought #3

MTV recently interviewed John McCain, and decided to ask him the same question they asked Bill Clinton: "Boxer or briefs?"

He responded: ".... Depends."

Rambling Political Thought #2

With oil prices hitting an all time high, Barack Obama today promised that if he’s elected, he’ll fund research into a car that runs on the bitterness of middle class voters clinging to guns and religion.

Rambling Political Thought #1

Things aren't looking good for Hillary. Like a lot of women in Washington, I think she's just starting to realize she may have slept with Bill Clinton for nothing.

Christian Schools, Evolution, and Sex

This last fall, several evangelical Christian schools in Quebec were told by the the Ministry of Education that they had to teach sex education and Darwin's theory of evolution or shut down.

Why shut them down? Just let them keep going. The fittest schools should survive, if what they say is true.

Politics

From Jay Leno:

"Everyone is so concerned now where all of the candidates are born. McCain was born on a military base in Panama. Hillary was born outside Chicago, and if you believe the media, Barack Obama was born in a manger."

A great writer

There was once a young man who, in his youth, professed his desire to become a great writer.

When asked to define "great" he said, "I want to write stuff that the whole world will read, stuff that people will react to on a truly emotional level, stuff that will make them scream, cry, howl in pain and anger!"


He now works for Microsoft, writing error messages.