Say Anything Blog

The Village Voice is saying that the Democratic leadership may be sorry that they didn't give more support to Howard Dean:

With growing issues over his wealth (which makes fellow plutocrat Bush seem a charity case by comparison), the miasma over his medals and ribbons (or ribbons and medals), his uninspiring record in the Senate (yes war, no war), and wishy-washy efforts to mimic Bill Clinton's triangulation gimmickry (the protractor factor), Kerry sinks day by day. The pros all know that the candidate who starts each morning by having to explain himself is a goner.

What to do? Look for the Dem biggies, whoever they are these days, to sit down with the rich and arrogant presumptive nominee and try to persuade him to take a hike. Then they can return to business as usual--resurrecting John Edwards, who is still hanging around, or staging an open convention in Boston, or both.

If things proceed as they are, the dim-bulb Dem leaders are going to be very sorry they screwed Howard Dean.

I think they've got a point. Howard Dean may not have appealed to many outside the spittle-flecked lefty crowd, but at least he stood for something. Near as I can tell, the only thing Kerry is sure of is that he should be President instead of Geroge Bush.

I'm speechless. You gotta love a set of parents who are willing to start their children down the road to substance abuse before they're even potty-trained.

Judging from these pictures, they must have been ripped when they were arrested.



From The Smoking Gun:

Meet Elizabeth Lyvers and John Robert Gray. The dimwitted Kentucky couple was arrested Sunday for felony child abuse after taking pictures of Lyvers's two-year-old son smoking pot. The pair was nabbed when an employee at the convenience store where Lyvers, 24, and Gray, 20, dropped off their film called cops after seeing the offending images. According to Bardstown police, one photo shows Gray holding a pipe to the child's mouth while an unidentified man--who is being sought--lights the pipe (after his arrest, Gray acknowledged that the device contained marijuana). Lyvers's son--and a one-year-old fathered by Gray--were removed from the couple's home by state child welfare officials. The below mug shots were taken by the Nelson County Sheriff's Department. Along with the abuse charges, Lyvers and Gray have one other criminal headache: their central Kentucky home was robbed yesterday while they were bunking at the local lockup.

Elton John thinks the people who are voting for singers on the American Idol show are racist.

From Reuters:

John, who heard the wannabe pop stars perform his songs during an appearance on the FOX TV show, added his voice to a chorus of dissent that followed last week's shock exit of black vocalist Jennifer Hudson, considered one of the top talents among those vying for a recording contract.

"The three people I was really impressed with, and they just happened to be black, young female singers, and they all seem to be landing in the bottom three," said John, commenting on the tally in which the lowest vote-getter is eliminated.

"They have great voices. The fact that they're constantly in the bottom three -- and I don't want to set myself up here -- but I find it incredibly racist," John said at a news conference promoting his Radio City Music Hall concert backed by an orchestra of students from London's Royal Academy of Music and The Juilliard School of New York.

I've never watched American Idol so I'm not certain I'm qualified to express an opinion on this subject, but I do have a theory despite that.

I have a great deal of respect for Elton John. If he says somebody is talented then I'm inclined to believe him. I have no doubt that he believes that some of the people being voted off the show are very talented. The problem is, the viewers of the show may have a different definition of talented.

I don't think that the entertainment industry is really in touch with what the average citizen likes when it comes to music. Hollywood had refused to do religious movies for years until the Passion came along and proved that religious movies were what a good portion of the population wanted all along.

So perhaps its not all that surprising that some of entertainment's big-wigs would be surprised by the voting results of a show like American Idol. But why are the black performers the ones being voted off?

Again, I have very little experience with American Idol, so bear with me. When it comes to singing and performing blacks have a certain style. Black performers often sing and dance differently than white performers. Now, of course, this isn't an absolute rule but in general its a serviceable theory.

Keeping that in mind, could it be said that perhaps the majority of American Idol voters don't really prefer the way the blacks are performing the music? It doesn't have to mean that the blacks are inferior performers, just that maybe their style isn't as popular with American Idol viewers as some of the other performers.

I'll probably never be able to answer my own questions as I don't plan on watching American Idol any time in the future, but its an interesting discussion.

Reuters is currently running this headline over an article about the President and Vice President's upcoming appointment to testify in front of the 9/11 Commission:

Bush, Cheney Coached for 9/11 Questioning

Coached? Bush and Cheney are being coached? That word brings to mind attorneys suborning perjury. Is Reuters trying to imply that the President and Vice President are being prepared by White House staff to lie in front of the 9/11 Comission? The headline seems to imply that, but the article tells a different story:

Bush already has met with his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, Chief of Staff Andrew Card and White House counsel Alberto Gonzales to prepare for the session, which at Bush's insistence will be held in private and with Cheney at his side.

McClellan said Gonzales' office has provided Bush with "documents from that time period to refresh his memory." Bush and Cheney plan to continue meeting with their top advisers and reviewing internal documents over the next two days, officials said.

So, in reality, Bush and Cheney are so much being "coached" as they are being "reminded" of past events surrounding 9/11. Doesn't sound quite as sinister now, does it? I mean, it'd be awfully unprofessional of the President and Vice President to show up to testify and not be able to remember a lot of the vital facts they're testifying to, wouldn't it?

Reuters is so biased sometimes it makes me sick.

I found the following three articles at Everything I Know Is Wrong:

From Worldnet Daily:

In virtually every case -- chemical, biological, nuclear and ballistic missiles -- the United States has found the weapons and the programs that the Iraqi dictator successfully concealed for 12 years from U.N. weapons inspectors.

The Iraq Survey Group, ISG, whose intelligence analysts are managed by Charles Duelfer, a former State Department official and deputy chief of the U.N.-led arms-inspection teams, has found "hundreds of cases of activities that were prohibited" under U.N. Security Council resolutions, a senior administration official tells Insight.

"There is a long list of charges made by the U.S. that have been confirmed, but none of this seems to mean anything because the weapons that were unaccounted for by the United Nations remain unaccounted for."

From Insight Magazine:

On Dec. 24, 2002, nearly three months before fighting in Iraq began, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon accused Saddam Hussein's regime of transferring key materials for his weapons of mass destruction (WMD) programs to Syria in convoys of 18-wheel trucks to hide them from U.N. weapons inspectors. "There is information we are verifying, but we are certain that Iraq has recently moved chemical or biological weapons into Syria," Sharon told Channel Two television in Israel.

From Middle East Newsline:

Arab diplomatic and Sudanese government sources said the regime of Sudanese President Omar Bashir has ordered that Syria remove its Scud C and Scud D medium-range ballistic missiles as well as components for chemical weapons stored in warehouses in Khartoum.

I don't normally article quotes from other blogs, but the information contained in these three articles is just too important. This information needs to be out. The President's critics continue to claim that the President initiated the war in Iraq with lies. That's just not true. There were WMD's in Iraq. Unfortunately, Saddam Hussein was able to move them out of the country while we were still trying to get the U.N. to help us go into Iraq. And even with the WMD issue put aside for a moment, there is a whole laundry list of U.N. violations that have been 100% confirmed which amounts to a good enough reason on its own for invasion.

The war in Iraq was and is warranted.

Employers in Europe are going to have to find some heavy-duty spam-filtering software if they hope to avoid lawsuits under a new European law:

From Reuters:

E-mail porn spam in the workplace could land European employers in court for fostering a hostile work environment, a Dutch researcher says.

The broad wording of new European anti-spam legislation opens up a new breed of legal snares for Europe's corporate sector, according to Lodewijk Asscher.

"European employers must be aware of the risk of new computer-related liabilities," said the researcher for the University of Amsterdam's Institute for Information Law.

"An important example of such a potential new liability is the risk of being held accountable for not protecting employees against unsolicited pornographic e-mail."

He advises companies that operate an e-mail network to specifically inform users of the nature and content of spam and use filtering technology.

"Otherwise, an employer could be liable under European law for creating a hostile work environment," he told Reuters.

Is there any email address that isn't susceptible to spam, especially porno spam, after being activated for a certain amount of time? I once started an email address for my daughter and within a week it was already being hit with Viagra ads. But whose fault is this? Should businesses really be held responsible for content being sent to its employees from outside sources?

I don't think so. As long as a business isn't encouraging such spamming and is doing what it can to filter out unwanted email messages it shouldn't be susceptible to a lawsuit.

I wonder what effect this law will have on Europe's economy? I could see a lot of businesses moving away from email as a business tool in order to avoid lawsuits.

Apparently the questions about Kerry's anti-war days are hitting a little to close to home, so he's renewed questions about Bush's National Guard service.

From USA Today:

Democrat John Kerry battled back Monday against a Republican offensive designed to erode one of his biggest assets as a presidential candidate: his credentials as a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War.

Kerry responded testily when asked in several TV interviews whether he had changed his story about throwing combat ribbons or medals over a fence at the Capitol in an anti-war protest in 1971. For the first time, he also cited President Bush's spotty attendance in the National Guard.

Kerry called the medals issue "a distraction" and a campaign tactic. "It's coming from a president who can't even prove that he showed up for duty in the National Guard," he said in an interview with WTAE-TV in Pittsburgh.

Does anyone else find it laughable that one of Kerry's biggest campaign assets is his status as a decorated veteran of the Vietnam War? Especially given the fact that he was apparently ashamed of what he did in Vietnam. I mean, he threw his medals or his ribbons or something over the fence at the White House. That isn't exactly the action of a man who is proud of his military service.

Are these allegations about Kerry's Vietnam record really coming from the President? I don't think I've ever heard the President or one of his spokesman say much of anything about Kerry's service in Vietnam or his anti-war activities afterward. The only questions I've heard on these topics have come from the press.

And if the medal issue is "a distraction" and a campaign tactic, then how does Kerry classify his questioning of Bush's National Guard service? Isn't that "a distraction" and a campaign tactic as well?

I find it somewhat interesting that Kerry would respond to questions about his anti-war past with an attack on the President. Why doesn't he just address this issue head-on? Is he hiding something? Is he proud of what he did back then, or is it something he's now ashamed of? Either way, why won't he address this issue directly instead of avoiding it?

I'd be willing to at least listen to the arguments some of these people put forward if they'd just control themselves a little bit, but the pro-abortion crowd in Washington D.C. this last weekend was like a pack of rabid dogs.

From The National Review:

"I wish Barbara Bush had had choice available to her." That was a snippet of an ongoing conversation -- and it was characteristic of more than one -- overhead Sunday night on an Amtrak train from Washington, D.C., to New York City. The train was filled with March for Women's Lives participants.

And that was characteristic of the whole weekend. At a pre-march rally on Saturday night at the D.C. Armory by RFK Stadium, California congresswoman Maxine Waters told George W. Bush to "go to hell." Going to hell with him, said Waters, should be John Ashcroft, Don Rumsfeld, and Condi Rice. In a brief, non-impromptu speech, that's what a member of the United States Congress chose to say. (You'll be amused -- or horrified -- to know she was introduced as "the future president of the United States.")

Of course, there were plenty of relatively hum-drum placards and t-shirts, etc., around the nation's capital this weekend: "It's Your Choice...Not Theirs," "Stop Bush's War on Women," and the like. But you couldn't avoid the obvious: At the official march kickoff rally Saturday night, the most frequently used word was the f-word -- and I don't mean "feminist." There was a crass, angry framework to the whole march weekend, in fact. President Bush hates women, for sure. And, mercy be on any woman in the line of sight of John Ashcroft (that would be, for the record, every American woman). Abortionist George Tiller actually referred to Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, and Ashcroft as "the four horsemen of the apocalypse" -- which, I guess, makes eternal damnation all the more fitting. The war being waged is against women; as one attendee put it: "Pro-life is to Christianity as al Qaeda is to Islam."

What was desperately lacking at the March for Women's Lives was any sense of perspective.

Perspective indeed. The most disgusting thing about this event is how its leaders constantly tied the abortion issue to other women's rights issues as though the right for a woman to kill her baby were equivalent to a woman's right to equal pay or a sexual harassment-free workplace.

Baldilocks, via Rosemary, points out a Maxine Waters quote that shows just how out-of-touch with reality these people really are:

"I have to march because my mother could not have an abortion."

--US Congresswoman Maxine Waters (D-Calif) at Pro-Abortion Rally Sunday, April 25

I don't know about you, but I'm certainly glad that my mother couldn't have had, nor did she want to have, an abortion. You see, unlike Senators Clinton and Waters, my mother was a real woman who didn't shirk her responsibilities.

I wish somebody would explain to these women that the do have a choice when it comes to pregnancy. Its called abstaining from sex if you aren't ready or willing to deal with the consequences. From what I hear, its 100% effective.

A teenager in Massachusetts is trying to sever any parental ties he has with his father, and he has good reason to do so. His father is currently in prison for killing his mother.

From The Los Angeles Times:

Patrick Holland was only 8 when he found his mother dead on her bedroom floor. Elizabeth Holland had been shot eight times and beaten so savagely with the gun that its wooden handle shattered.

The killer was Patrick's father, Daniel Holland.

Now 14 years old, Patrick Holland is trying to cut off all ties -- legal as well as emotional -- with the man who murdered his mother.

"He is not my father anymore," Patrick said.

Today, a Massachusetts judge is to hear Patrick's petition to terminate his father's parental rights. State social service officials have joined with Patrick to ask the court to end Daniel Holland's role as a father.

Legal experts do not know of another case like this one.

I'm all for this. Being a parent is a privilege, not a right. In a situation like this one where the father has obviously done irreparable harm to his relationship with the child he should lose his parental rights.

Rosemary has a question to ask regarding this Fox News story:

Jared Gamwell, 17 year old and openly gay, is fighting to campaign in his school's election with gay slogans.

His posters read: "Gay Guys Know Everything!" and "Queer Guy for Hunt High."

The school's principal removed his posters. Gamwell contacted the ACLU, he wants help getting the decision reversed. The argument is that his constitutional right to free speech is being violated. The school's position is that the posters are a disruption and have no relevance to his qualifications for office.

Rosemary would like to know if this student's right to free speech is being violated. My answer is no.

I realize that a lot, if not the majority, of teenagers are not only familiar with sex but are also participating in it. But that doesn't mean we should forget that the students in Mr. Gamwell's school are still minors. Mr. Gamwell himself is a minor. A student using his sexual orientation in slogans for a school election just isn't appropriate.

The school is right on target by saying that the posters have no relevance. This young man putting up posters referencing his homosexuality is no more appropriate than a straight student using a slogan like:

Vote For Me Because I Score With Lots Of Chicks

If the objective of a school election is to introduce these students to the world of politics then slogans like these should be disallowed. They wouldn't be appropriate in the real world and they're not appropriate in a school setting either.

On John Kerry's campaign website there is a section called "The D-Bunker." According to its description, it is a space for the Kerry campaign to "set the record straight" in regards to allegations made by critics. Unfortunately, "D-Bunker" has been used recently to set the record crooked, as one Powerline reader has discovered (screen shots available at the Powerline post):

The linked screenshots show significant editing of the DBunker post on Kerry's medals that was featured on Good Morning America. The phrase, "he has been consistent about the facts and the symbolism of the medal-returning ceremony" was removed in between the two screenshots enclosed. The first was taken at 9:50 am, the second at 10:26 am, as indicated on the timestamp in the filename.

There lies the beauty of the blogosphere. Four years ago such illicit editing was easy to get away with. A campaign or news organization didn't have to worry so much about making mistakes because they could be swept under the rug with very few people noticing. Today, however, there are millions of people watching every word being published on the internet and through blogs, these people have a voice. They can make themselves heard like never before.

This flap over Kerry's medals is going to hurt him. No matter what he does he's going to look bad to voters. If he says that he stands by his decision to return his medals people are going to wonder why he keeps bringing up his Vietnam service if he was so ashamed of it back then. They're also going to wonder why he kept the medals.

If he renounces his "return" of his medals he's going to lose the faith of a lot of the voters in his leftist base and voters on the right are still going to wonder if he's truly renounced his feelings of the past or if he's just trying to change his image to get a few votes.

Kerry should have nipped this issue in the bud back when it first came up during the primaries. He should have called his actions during that protest the "actions of an immature kid." Instead, he tried to stay on both sides of the issue by claiming to have thrown his ribbons while keeping the medals.

That duplicity is going to cost him.

The Boston Globe, via Instapundit, has an article about Kerry's newer, tougher foreign policy:

If elected president, John F. Kerry would move to increase the US military by 40,000 troops. He would send more soldiers to Iraq if commanders said they were needed. He would stay in Iraq as long as it took to get the job done.

Those are the policies that Kerry's inner circle of foreign policy advisers must work with every Monday at lunchtime when they meet to discuss ways to take the Democratic candidate's ideas to the American public.

Their main goal: ''To show that we can protect America better than George Bush," said Rand Beers, Kerry's chief national security adviser. . . .

Kerry's success may hinge on whether voters are convinced that his ability to forge ties with allies can make America safer than President Bush's more unilateral approach. Lately, the differences between the candidates have sometimes been hard to detect.

Will this strategy work for Kerry? I would think that an approach that is similar in many ways to Bush's would make many voters of the Deaniac base shy away from Kerry while making many on-the-fencers from the right wonder why they wouldn't just vote for Bush.

There are a lot of worthy causes available when you're looking to donate some money. There are plenty of people suffering even as you read this who could be helped significantly by a modest donation from yourself. The girls at InvestInMyBreat.com, however, aren't suffering in the way the beneficiaries of other charities are.

They just want better boobs.

From their website:

What is InvestInMyBreast.com? InvestInMyBreast.com is a new site to help all women who would like breast implants, but can't afford the high cost of augmentation surgery.

It is commonly known that the majority of women are unhappy with the size of their boobs. Well, now there is a place where you can make your dreams come true! You can get bigger boobs. And how is this possible? It is actually quite simple. InvestInMyBreast.com provides a service in which any woman who submits tasteful pictures and a biography about herself can raise money to reach her ultimate goal: Breast Implants! Visitors of InvestInMyBreast.com will view the variety of different women and, if they choose to, will donate money toward the cost of that woman's breast augmentation surgery.

I understand the desire to look more attractive, but if I'm going to donate money to a cause I'd rather see it go to something a person actually needs. I could see donating some money for plastic surgery for breast cancer survivors, but if Lindsay718 wants to go from a 34B to a 34D she can earn the money the old-fashioned way...by getting a job and working for it.

Why is this guy still in power?

From Reuters:

Turkmenistan's autocratic president has opened a gleaming new leisure centre, equipped with a swimming pool, air conditioning and even medical facilities -- all of it for horses.

President-for-life Saparmurat Niyazov showed foreign diplomats around the vast $15 million (8.4 million pounds) complex which includes an operating theatre, a hippodrome and stables kept cool from the desert heat.

The new equine centre, shown on state television, proved something of a contrast to conditions for many people in the gas-rich yet impoverished Central Asian state.

Niyazov, officially known as Turkmenbashi or Father of the Turkmen, last week fired several ministers for failing to bridge huge salary arrears, which average little more than the official minimum wage of $70 a month and are regularly paid late.

Earlier this year he fired 15,000 nurses and medical staff -- likely to be replaced by conscripted soldiers -- in an unexpected shock reform of the national health system.

But the horse complex, named Turkmenbashi after him, is equipped with modern X-ray and ultrasonic scanning machines in its state of the art equine operating theatre.

The debate continues over Kerry's Vietnam medals. Kerry is saying that he only through the ribbons for his medals over the fence and not the medals themselves. Republicans are pointing to an ABC interview with Kerry taken shortly after the protest which seems to imply that Kerry through more than the ribbons over the fence.

From The Associated Press:

Kerry has said for years that he threw away his ribbons, not his three Purple Hearts, Bronze Star and Silver Star during the April 1971 protest. On Monday, however, a tape of a television interview Kerry gave shortly after the protest suggested he was talking about more than his ribbons when discussing the anti-war demonstration.

In an exchange, aired by ABC and published in The New York Times, an interviewer asks Kerry, "How many did you give back, John?" Kerry responds, "I gave back, I can't remember, six, seven, eight, nine." The host then notes that Kerry had won the Purple Hearts and Bronze and Silver stars. Kerry says, "Well, and above that, I gave back my others."

Nearly 800 veterans "gave back" medals, ribbons, dog tags and other military items by tossing them over a fence near the Capitol. Kerry has said that after the protest he also threw over the fence the medals of two other veterans who had asked him to return them.

Kerry denied Monday that his statements have been inconsistent. He said ribbons were often referred to as medals.

I'd have more respect for Kerry if he had thrown his medals and his ribbons over the fence that day. Even though I disagree with his reasons for throwing any part of his medals over the fence, at least I'd know for sure where he stood on the issue.

By throwing only parts of the medals over the fence I get the feeling that he is, yet again, trying to get on both sides of the issue. I feel like he was trying to look good in front of his fellow protesters without actually having to throw anything away.

I want to vote for a candidate who does what they think is right, not what they think the people around them will think is right.

A man who passed out on some railroad tracks after a night of drinking was run over by a train, but lived.

From Reuters:

Jorge Lozano Lopez, a 32-year-old electrician, did not regain consciousness until well after paramedics arrived on the scene late on Wednesday night.

"He must have been very drunk to have slept through all that," said Jose Alfaro de la Rosa, a health official in the northern town of San Nicolas de los Garza. "It's a miracle he wasn't hurt."

The train's driver spotted Lozano Lopez on the tracks and frantically blew the whistle but was unable to rouse him or stop the train in time. The undercarriage passed within just a few inches of his body but did not touch him.

"I counted only six beers," a bewildered Lozano Lopez told local newspaper El Norte. "But who knows how many more there might have been. I don't remember."

I don't expect that he would remember.

John Kerry thinks Bush is trying to hide something by disallowing photos of the coffins of deceased soldiers.

From Reuters:

Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry Sunday accused President Bush of trying to hide the consequences of the Iraq war by restricting photographs of flag-draped coffins returning home from the conflict.

Under a policy that Bush endorses, the Pentagon (news - web sites) tightly restricts publication or broadcast of photographs of coffins with the remains of U.S. troops.

And it forbids journalists from taking pictures at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, the first stop for the bodies of troops being sent home.

"I believe that keeping faith with those who serve also requires us to understand the sacrifice they're making and to honor it when they come home to the fullest measure," Kerry told a rally here.

"We shouldn't hide that from America," he added. "If they are good enough to fight and die, they are good enough to be received home with full honors in America."

I find it odd that Kerry would think that the deceased soldiers wouldn't be fully honored until they have photos of their coffins published in newspapers and on television. Isn't a full honor guard and the presence of their friends and family enough?

Unfortunately, honoring the soldiers isn't the real reason behind Kerry's "outrage" on this issue. He simply wants to use the imagery of the coffins in a political attack on the President. Hence his claim that the President is "hiding something" by not allowing the photos.

My question is, how can the President be hiding the deaths in Iraq when every U.S. casualty in the middle-east is a newspaper headline? The press goes through great pains to ensure that the body count for U.S. soldiers in Iraq is accurate and up-to-date. What additional information would photos of coffins provide us with?

To be honest, I wouldn't have a problem if a newspaper ran photos of my coffin had I died in Iraq. I also wouldn't have a problem with photos of the coffin of a loved one. The problem is, some people might have a problem with it. If we allow the press to take photos of the coffins then every coffin is going to be photographed wether the family likes it or not. The President is trying to respect the wishes of the families of the soldiers as best he can.

Not having photos of coffins available to the press seems like a rather small price to pay in order to give the families of soldiers that respect.

The pro-abortion rally kicked off this morning in Washington D.C. with some words from Senator Hillary Clinton.

From The Associated Press:

Tens of thousands of women gathered for an abortion-rights rally Sunday as Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton told several hundred of them the issue is about women gaining full equality.

At a pre-rally breakfast, Clinton said the Bush administration is "filled with people" who view the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade abortion ruling by the Supreme Court "the worst abomination of constitutional law."

"This administration is filled with people who disparage sexual harassment laws, who claim the pay gap between women and men is phony ... who consider Roe v. Wade the worst abomination of constitutional law in our history," said Clinton, D-N.Y.

The Bush administration "disparages" sexual harassment laws? They said the man-woman pay gap is phony? When? Who, specifically, did the disparaging? Honestly, I'm not certain I'm willing to listen to criticism over sexual harassment laws from the wife of a serial harasser. I mean, her husband's presidential legacy is office-place sex. Where does she get the gall to lecture about sexual harassment?

Lets see, George W. Bush has placed women in some of the most powerful and influential positions in a Presidential administration. Condoleeza Rice is the highest-ranking woman ever to hold office in the executive branch. Senator Clinton's husband is best known for an Oval Office blow-job. Sounds like the pot trying to call the kettle black to me.

As for her remarks about Roe vs. Wade, I think she's right on target. Most Republicans do feel that the decision is an abomination. It gives mothers the right to kill their children. If that's not an abomination I don't know what is.

Senator Clinton is making abortion an equal rights for women issue, but who exactly are women unequal to when it comes to killing their children? Men certainly don't have the right to kill the children they don't want. So maybe she's right, we should make things equal. But which way should we go? Should we allow men the option of forcing an abortion or should we just stop abortions altogether?

I'm for the latter option.

Despite a directive from the Vatican itself John Kerry was able to receive communion at Boston's Paulist Center, a church he attends regularly.

From The Associated Press:

Kerry took communion during the 6 p.m. mass at Boston's Paulist Center, where campaign spokesman David Wade said the candidate regularly worships. The church is close to the Beacon Hill home Kerry shares with his wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry.

"We're following the directive of our archdiocese," said Father Joe Ciccone, who gave Kerry the Eucharist. "They have said we should give him communion."

The Paulist Center attracts Catholics uncomfortable with some of the Vatican's orthodox teachings or who otherwise feel alienated from the Roman Catholic Church.

The congregation includes gay couples, whose adopted children are baptized there, unlike in some other Boston parishes. In November, its leaders refused to read aloud during Mass from a letter opposing gay marriage, as requested by the Massachusetts bishops.

So its not like this church is a real Catholic church. They call themselves Catholics but they don't follow much of the Catholic doctrine. A review of their website makes it pretty clear that they aren't officially affiliated with the Roman Catholic Church. To use their words:

The Paulist Center is a worship community of Christians in the Roman Catholic tradition in Boston, Massachusetts.

But so what. This country has freedom of religion, I'm glad to see Kerry had nerve enough to practice it. To be honest, I think this is the first time I've ever seen Kerry show some spine. Too bad the reason he's taking a stand is so despicable.

Kerry has criticized the war in Iraq yet his policies move more toward Bush's every day. He likes to talk about saving the environment but fuel conservation is apparently only for us common folk in Kerry's mind. But when it comes to killing unborn children Kerry takes a stand.

Hey, at least we've found an issue he's firm on.

More than 1,000 people showed up for Dru Sjodin's funderal. Sjodin was the University of North Dakota student who was abducted and killed a few months ago.

From The Associated Press:

More than 1,000 mourners packed a resort lodge and overflowed from two tents for the funeral of slain University of North Dakota student Dru Sjodin, who was remembered for her generous heart and infectious spirit.

The lodge was one of the few places in northern Minnesota large enough to hold such a crowd.

The body of Sjodin, 22, who grew up in nearby Pequot Lakes, was found April 17, five months after she disappeared from a Grand Forks, N.D., shopping mall parking lot.

The Rev. Mark Anderson told mourners that the community had moved from shock to anger to fear.

"Lastly, we became a community of sorrow," he said.

"We are here to begin the process of saying farewell to Dru," he said. "It's not a one-day shot."

Things like kidnappings and murders don't happen very often in North Dakota, so when they do sadness has a ripple effect in the community. We all feel it. That being said, I just don't think its appropriate for 1,000 people to show up at a funeral.

A funeral is for the friends and family of the deceased. When 1,000 people show up I can't help but feel that some people are there more for themselves then for the family. I feel like they're taking the oppurtunity to make a spectacle out of the event and draw attention to themselves. Let the friends and family of Dru Sjodin say goodbye in peace.

That's just my two cents. Perhaps Dru's family wanted it that way. Its not my place to tell them how to say goodbye, but if I were running things the funeral would have been an intimate affair.

I feel the same way when I hear the media questioning why the President isn't attending the funerals of fallen soldiers. Those funerals are supposed to be for the friends and family of the dead soldier. It shouldn't be turned into a media event.