A LETTER TO GEORGE

Dear Mr. Boss Darth Vader Mr. Steinbrenner,

Please accept my warm regards and a hearty congratulations for your 2-game winning streak against my Boston Red Sox this week. Having said that, I'm going to have to wish you good luck as well, for you and your billions of dollars can't save you from the consequences of your actions.
Yes, George, there are consequences to being the biggest spender in baseball. You see, each day one of the old fogies who you pull out of retirement keeps the bench warm because of a nagging injury.... each day that one of your time-tested veterans buckles, physically, under the pressure of your thumb (and who wouldn't, considering all you've invested, sire?).... is a day spent throwing all that green into the perpetually flushing toilet known as the Disabled List.
Sure your folks try to look professional and polished, marching like seasoned troops under a mad dictator. Sure they fear your wrath. But they fear it so much, they're willing to risk life, limb, and career to do it. Money be cursed.
You lost Hideki. For a while there, you lost one of the 'Roid Twins. Jorge's about to taste the tainted water. Carl Pavano's the Pitcher In Name Only. Captain Caveman's broken toe's at least kept him from running into walls.
Meanwhile, Old Man Johnson's a mess, Melkie is lost in the outfield, and all of a sudden the 'winning machine' looks more like a rusty scrap of sheet metal.
George, if there's one thing you can take home from this, it's this: no matter how hard you hammer your fist on your room-length desk, you can't buy a miracle... and this time, instead of your money walking your team to the playoffs, you're in desperate need of one. Again, good luck.

Sincerely,

A Smarter Sox Fan.

MUNCH MUNCH

If only more environmentalists were as dedicated as this guy to living shoulder to shoulder with nature.

Wink, wink!

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THE INEQUALITY OF FAITHS

Imagine, if you well, a local public school. This particular school decides to conduct a new and highly controversial 'cultural studies' program. This particular program is an experiment in religious role playing.

The students start and end each day with a vocalized word of prayer by the teacher or a designated student.

Students are encouraged to memorize Scripture verses, the Ten Commandments, and the names of Jesus' 12 disciples.

Readings of various well-known Bible stories, with a question and answer session afterwards.

Holding a one-week "fast" of television, a particular food, sports, or something important in the students' lives.

Studying the culture and customs of the Holy Land in Jesus' day, and holding special events to commemorate Christmas and Easter.

What would be the reactions of parents if this were to happen? The school board? The media? The chances would be almost overwhelming that there would be a public outcry about the "separation of church and state" and "keeping God out of the classroom".

So why is there a double standard when it comes to the exact same proselytizing occuring in our classroom - only in this case, for Islam?

What we have is an approved culture of hate - but only, it seems, for the Judeo-Christian community and traditions. This mind control is working its way downward to our schools, where our children are learning to embrace sharia and despise Christ.

Is it really coming to this? Is it going to be this easy for Islamists to infiltrate our nation and conduct a 'bloodless revolution' with our young people? We have kids kneeling prostrate to Mecca yet can one even pray aloud at their graduation? Perish the thought.

Wake up, America. Our ancestors' blood was not shed for us to be infiltrated and conquered from within.

via Michelle Malkin et. al.

STYMIED AGAIN - BUT WHY?

This is ridiculous. So much for energy independence. The House may as well have waited in line at the local gas station to the screw the consumer directly.
Let's go over the basics very briefly. There's SUPPLY and DEMAND. When demand is up and supply is down, prices go up. When the contrary is true, prices go down. It's that simple. The government, short of regulating us out of our cars, can't do a whole lot about demand.... but it CAN nudge supply along by exploring new areas where there's thought to be a lot of oil! And who are us Floridians to think that we have the right to a NIMBY attitude at the expense of everyone? Heck, even Beverly Hills has its own oil well! Are we forgetting the 'sacrifice' part of the equation?

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TAYLOR HICKS, THE NEXT AMERICAN IDOL?

My God, Taylor Hicks may just win this thing.

Not if I can help it.

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I'm voting for Katharine tonight, several times. No matter what.

DA VINCI CODE FALSEHOODS

Claim: The Merovingeans founded Paris. FALSE! Um, actually, the city of Paris was established over 7 centuries before the Merovingean dynasty by the Celtic Parisii.
Claim: The Church burned 5,000,000 women as witches. FALSE! The figure was more like 30,000 at the most, and most of them were killed by the government not by the church; as well, many were not women, and many were not burned.
Claim: The 5 rings of the Olympic games and the 8 year cycle are a secret tribute to Aphrodite (Venus). FALSE! The Olympics were held in tribute to Zeus, and the rings were designated to specify another year of games (which stopped at 5).
Claim: The Templars masterminded the Gothic cathedrals. FALSE! The Templars had nothing to do with the cathedrals, which were commissioned by the bishops of that day.
Claim: The New Testament was a manipulation by Constantine that displaced true accounts by gnostic texts. Constantine ordered all older scriptural texts destroyed. FALSE! The earliest Scriptural canon comes about two centuries earlier, and by then the gnostic texts were already dismissed as forgeries. And if earlier texts were rejected, then what of the Old Testament, which at latest, is more than a thousand years old?
Claim: Christ wasn't considered divine until the Council of Nicea voted this in in 325. FALSE! Texts dated before Nicea confirm that Christians have always considered Jesus to be God made flesh and Lord and Savior.
Claim: No complete set of gospels predates the fourth century. FALSE! Historical texts actually date the Gospels to the first century AD, before even the gnostic gospels.
Claim: Roman Catholic Church referred to as 'The Vatican'. FALSE! Brown doesn't realize or at least mention that the Popes once took house at Avignon.
Claim: 'YHWH' comes from Jehovah, a cross between the masculine Jah and an antiquated name for Eve, 'Havah'. FALSE! Jehovah is a 16th century homophonic use of Yahweh using the vowels of Adonai (meaning LORD).
Claim: Tarot cards teach the secret religion of the goddess. FALSE! They were used in a game from their invention in the 15th century up until the 18th to 19th centuries, when they were used for occultic purposes.
Claim: The Templars were suppressed by Pope Clement V, tortured, and burned at the stake. FALSE! King Philip of France issued this order, not Pope Clement, in 1307. Only 120 Templars were burned at the stake; the order was simply disbanded 5 years later. Oh, by the way, Pope Clement lived in Avignon!
Claim: Mona Lisa is actually a feminized self-portrait of Da Vinci FALSE! It's a portrait of a real woman, Madonna Lisa, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo (thus its real name La Gioconda).
Claim: The person seated to the right of Jesus in The Last Supper is a female, Mary Magdalene FALSE! No, it's John. Da Vinci used female features for several of his male subjects, such as John the Baptist (and again).
Claim: The pyramid in the Louvre is made up of 666 panes of glass. FALSE! ERCO, the company which provided the pyramid's lighting, notes that there are 793 total panes of glass.
Claim: The Priory of Sion is an ancient secret society formed in 1118 by the Knights Templar, dedicated to preserving Jesus's bloodline through Mary Magdalene FALSE! Sorry to disappoint Mr. Brown, but the P of S has only been around since 1956, and was the brainchild of a professional forger and prankster named Pierre Plantard. He was also an active anti-Semite.
Claim: The Dead Sea Scrolls were found in the 1950s, and were the earliest Christian records. FALSE! They were found in 1947 by a Bedouin shepherd. The Dead Sea Scrolls were Jewish, not Christian. They never mention Christ.
Claim: Francois Mitterand was obsessed with ancient Egyptian culture, as seen through the Louvre, which he commissioned FALSE! The pyramid was designed by I.M. Pei. Mitterand was an art connoisseur, but not necessarily of the Egyption culture.
Claim: Les Dossiers Secrets proves the existence of the Priory of Sion. FALSE! The documents are considered fraudulent.
Claim: Da Vinci has forgetfully left out the Chalice of Christ at the Last Supper FALSE! The scene takes place upon Jesus' announcement of his betrayer, which takes place after the table has been cleared.
Claim: That Mary Magdalene was married to Jesus is historically recorded FALSE! Nowhere is it mentioned, not even in the gnostic texts, that Jesus was married at all.
Claim: The Gospel of Philip says that Mary was Jesus' "companion"... which translates in Aramaic to "spouse". FALSE! Philip wasn't written in Aramaic; it was written in Greek; and the word used 'companion' in Greek is commonly used for friends, not for a spousal relationship.
Claim: "All descriptions of artwork, architecture, documents and secret rituals in this novel are accurate." FALSE!!! See above.


There you have it.... view the movie at your discretion, do the research, and draw your own conclusions. Remember, of course, that this is a work of fiction.

UPDATE:
Steven Bainbridge puts it well, quoting a master of Biblical apologetics:

Perhaps no one has ever captured the basic problem with the truth claims made on behalf of DVC and its ilk better than C.S. Lewis, who observed in Mere Christianity that:

"I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: 'I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God.' That is one thing we must not say. A man who was merely a man and said the sort of thing Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic -- on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg -- or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill him as a demon or you can fall at his feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to."

All Dan Brown, Ron Howard, Tom Hanks, and that whole crew have accomplished is getting richer by saying that "really foolish thing."

STYMIED BY OIL

I've supported the President both in 2000 and 2004 and still support him fully with regard to national defense, the war on terror, tax cuts, and certain social issues; having said that, he's really got me seething on a scant few issues, like immigration reform and what is being done about our oil supply.

I really, REALLY didn't like what he had to say about drilling off the coast of Cuba:

"You can't wave a magic wand," Bush said of soaring worldwide oil prices. "We've got to diversify away from crude. That's not going to happen overnight."

In the meantime, Bush said, he supports research into alternative fuels such as ethanol and more domestic production of crude oil.

He does not, however, support drilling for oil and gas within 100 miles of Florida's coastline, saying he shares Floridians' "deep concerns" about protecting the state's environment.

Bush also said he did not like the idea of U.S. companies paying for the right to drill in Cuban waters.

"I think the money would go to -- I know the money would go to support a government that is suppressing the rights of its people," he said.

He doesn't like the idea of buying oil from repressive regimes, huh? So why the $#@&! isn't he saying the same thing about Saudi Arabia, Venezuela, or Nigeria?

(But don't think this anger is causing any change of heart in me.. Whatever moronic things our President is saying or doing would pale in comparison to the sheer looniness of the power-hungry left)

SAD, BUT TELLING

The most telling (and disturbing) item I've gleaned from this National Geographic survey is that - hold on to your seats, fellow Americans - more adults 18-24 from Mexico knew where the United States was than our own citizens!

It's like a magnet. It wouldn't have surprised me a bit if more Mexicans knew where the US was than where Mexico was. Fortunately, ever so slightly more Mexican citizens managed to locate their home country correctly than the United States.