The Last Ephor

Austin Bay's latest, The Next Failed State , is a good one. He talks briefly about Canada's problems of late. I cannot see how the Liberal party can survive Adscam. If half the allegations are damning it will be fatal. The government will collapse, probably in the next 3 months or so, and new elections will be called. Without the illegal cash and the stain of the scandal, they will most assuredly lose seats and could become a minority party. Bay speculates that the Partie Quebecois will make significant gains in their stead and finally have the political muscle to sever themselves from Ontario. They may gain the votes but do they have the political will? There's a good chance they may get what they ask for and then get cold feet (this would not be surprising given the climate). They may opt for a much looser confederation with only national defense, foreign policy and free trade across the provinces instead. What Bay omitted is the growing rumblings of western Can...

Andrew's latest take on the Pontiff contains some whoppers. www.AndrewSullivan.com - Latest Posts : "Alas, the Gospels do not tell us everything. Jesus never mentions, say, abortion, homosexuality, reproductive technologies or a celibate priesthood, to name just a few of the issues confronting the Roman Catholic Church. " The first point is not really valid. I seem to remember one of the Commandments mentioning something about "Thou Shalt Not Kill." It does not have the codecil, "Unless You Are Inconveniently Pregnant." Homosexuality is explicitly mentioned in both Leviticus and the tale of Sodom and Gommorah (despite Andy's ravings to the contrary). Reproductive issues ("technologies" or otherwise) are addressed in the story of Onan. He was castigated because he spilled his seed upon the ground which displeases the Lord. One can reasonably extrapolate that the same thing happens in actuallity with some methods and i...

Syrians stage rare protest at trial of rights activists . This is big. Not a protest in Lebannon against Syrian Occupation, but rather, one in Syria against SYRIAN occupation. Assad's regime is crumbling beneath him. He is clearly not his father. He simply does not have the ability to hold it together. I suspect he is more of a titular head at this point than it appears. There are a good many party members who have much to lose if Assad falls. Syria, like antebellum Iraq, is run by the Ba'ath party. In both cases, they are run by a class of thugs who raid the country for their own well being and position. They are accustomed to wealth and privildge and are not going to give it up without a fight. Syria is going to be well and truly surrounded. Lebannon and Iraq are going to be very good peer models for Syria. The regime can no longer control information. Without that control, the center cannot hold. Assad's regime will be gone within a year.

"Riot Police Crack Down on Day of Anti-Mubarak Protests Across Egypt". The Bush Doctrine continues to make waves. How long can Mubarak go without calling for elections? Isn't 20 years long enough to deal with an "emergency"? The whole world is watching.

The Charter School Revolution. A must read article on charter schools and what they can accomplish. Seems to me charter schools are only doing the things that public schools used to be able to do.

I'd like to buy this guy a beer sometime.

One Hand Clapping has been great the past few days. Just keep scrolling (as they say).

Yet more reviews: The Bishop and The Missing L Train: A Bishop Blackie Ryan Novel . Not good. A romance novel maquerading as a mystery. Not a very good story. Ultimately I didn't care about the characters and the theology was as subtle as a poke in the eye. You don't like orthodox Catholics. OK WE GOT IT. MOVE ON. Worse than that was the tin ear dialog between Patrick and his "lioness". Fr. Greeley is hopelessly romantic (to his credit) but really Father, nobody talks like this.

Another book review: The Bishop and the Beggar Girl of St. Germain: A Blackie Ryan Story (Bishop Blackie Ryan Series) . Quite well done. Enjoyable read. One problem: The author use "arguably" and "patently" at least twice in every paragraph. Someone please buy him a thesaurus.

Book reviews in less than one minute: Edge of Danger by Jack Higgins and it's sequel, Midnight Runner . Dreck. not even entertaining dreck. It's so formulaic I suspect he outsourced it to ghost writers. Simply put: 1. Establish our heroes. They are unflinchingly heroic, good, charming and perfectly mannered. All heroes were/are in the military, are fabulously good looking and have countless decorations for valor. 2. Establish the bad guys. They are unflinchingly ruthless, well mannered, well dressed and enormously wealthy. 3. Bad guys do something and succeed. They go to uber-posh bar for Bushmills and Champaign. 4. Good guys join them there and engage in mind games and witty reparte of dueling words. Everyone maintains their manners 5. Good guys do something to thwart bad guys 6. Repeat until all bad guys are dead. This formula works equally well for either book. It does not help that this guy did the reading for the audiobook. ...

Bulletin - The continuing crisis : "A certain globally influential organisation has been much in the news recently. You know who I’m talking about: that corrupt cabal led by a weirdly named fellow whose election no one understands, and whose underlings seem to specialise in sex scandals, corruption, accumulation of vast wealth, and causing the deaths of millions in the Third World. From where, exactly, does this venal, outdated body derive its authority? Why do so many remain in its thrall when every one of its programs ends in controversy and division? Why is it so violently resistant to reform? Why do furious crowds not storm the luxurious buildings in which this group’s elite, unaccountable princes and princelings sit planning their next amoral incursion against elemental human rights? How is it that we even tolerate the existence of this vile, poisonous outfit, with its sickening claims to moral superiority despite a history – continuing to this very day! – of sucking up to so...

It Didn't Start With Tom DeLay . Kudos to CBS for pointing out the glaringly obvious. One of the reasons why you'll never clean up washington is that EVERYONE takes advantage of these things so nobody can point fingers because they all have dirty laundry. The few that don't won't speak up because they know there are others in their party who wouldn't survive the scrutiny. Can we have term limits now? Please!?

There are days.... Me: Do you know if anyone is running jobs on [Server name]? Coworker: No. Me: No, they're not running them or "no, I don't know". Co: I don't know Me: *IM's dba team, no response* My painfully simple query finally returns...."No data to fetch" Me: AAAAAAAgggggggh! How can this be? The fund is on the table, table has data, no cartesian, no outer join....I'll run an explain... 12 minutes later... Me: Ok, explain plan is fine, so what the @!&*^? Hey Coworker, come look at my query. Co: What's up? Me: What's wrong with my query? Co: Nothing looks good to me. Me: So why don't I have any data? Co: No idea. 15 hours later....I'm checking my email as part of my morning routine.... DBA has sent an email to the team explaining that yesterday he was re-running a job that failed over the weekend. I swear, he's lucky he sits in New York.

More please.

Lying? Sure. Biased? Fine. Exaggerate? Not only permissable but expected. Just don't drink beer . Glad to see the MSM has their priorities in order.

Ned Rice on Pope Benedict XVI . Excellent article on our new Pope. Read the whole thing.

Quote of the day: Mark Steyn : "Apparently, the New York Times was stunned that their short list of Cardinal Gloria Steinem, Cardinal Rupert Everett and Cardinal Rosie O'Donnell were defeated at the last moment by some guy who came out of left field and isn't even gay or female but instead belongs to the discredited ''Catholic'' faction of the Catholic Church." From the ever brilliant Mark Steyn. Why this man doesn't have his own TV show I'll never understand. Agree with him or not, he's funnier than Ann coulter. SOMEONE HIRE THIS MAN.

Watching TV Makes You Smarter . If so, we'd be a nation of f'ing geniuses! This article, while interesting, belies the popularity of American Idol and Survivor both of which saw more votes cast than the last presidential election.

Unelectable? Let's hope so. I'm a bit more cynical than Mr. Cost. I think that while hilarious maneuvering is nakedly opportunistic, it does not make her unelectable. She makes the moves openly that everyone admits they are doing also. This make give her more appeal to younger voters as they see this as somehow being more honest. (In a twisted way, it makes sense, she is being politically expedient, and therefore, dishonest but she does so openly which is seen as honest.) Essentially, Americans believe all politicians are crooks, liars and thieves. It's just a matter of who they like the best. One thing about her is that she is a lightening rod for both sides. The mymrdions on the Left will follow her over a cliff if that's where she's going (and it appears she is). I think it possible that she gets the nod for '08 but if you think the last election cycle was nasty, you ain't seen nothin' yet. The conservatives will blast her with every pos...

My wife and I were discussing the role of women in Catholicism the other day and I was trying to explain that while women may not be priests, they are undoubtedly powerful within the Church. Women can head up a Synod, they can be Mother Superior and even, as noted head of the Pontifical Academy. That is no small beer to be sure. I concur with the author that while we have different functions and roles within the church (as in life) neither is lesser in the eyes of God. Important point to remember and one often overlooked.

Color me green with envy. How could you ever go out to a movie again?

Profiling? I'm positively gobsmacked. Whomever is responsible for this should be summarily beaten and then fired. NB: the woman in the first picture is also shoeless.

*Shrug* . The only people surprised by this are the NYT editorial staff. The rest of the world, especially those in flyover country already know this. Having lived in both very blue and very red states, I can affirm that the old aphorism of "an armed society is a polite society" is absolutely true. You don't flip the bird to someone in traffic in North Carolina (or DC for that matter) but in Jersey, it's required. By law.

Bias? What? Where?