Alan Abelson in the Current Issue of Barrons Sounds an Ominous Prediction for the Economy

I love to read Alan Abelson in Barrons each week. He's a good writer and always has some witty observations to challenge his readers. Whether you agree with everything he says or not, I can't help but add his prognostications into my thinking about the markets and where they may be heading.

And so it is, Abelson sounds an ominious warning in his weekly column of the current issue of Barrons:

"That pretty much the rest of the global economy has been humming along at a brisker pace than we have has given rise to the notion that the world is no longer dependent on us...that Europe and Asia can thrive quite nicely if we---the U.S. economy---hits the skids. But we don't buy it for a second. And we suspect it'll become painfully evident why we don't, as the months go by.

"We think the economy will slide into recession, as the drag from housing and the burden of unprecendented consumer debt make themselves increasingly felt. We think the dollar will continue down the slippery slope, complicating Mr. Bernake's life and inducing slumpfation.

"We think this overleveraged, overheated, overhyped market will blow itself out and touch off a chain reaction that'll rock global bourses. And all this will happen, if not tomorrow, then soon enough, we're afraid."

*******

I tend to agree with Alan's assessment of future markets. I think the housing bubble which is far from completely burst, coupled with decades of profligate consumer overspending, is a train wreck waiting to happen and probably not that far off in the future.

Time will tell. But it certainly admonishes caution in all money transactions today.

A White Spiritual Built Only On the Five Black Notes on the Piano, The Slave Scale

Words by John Newton, melody by Unknown, stunning interpretation by Wintley Phipps.

Sunday, The Principle of Contentment as Taught by Paul in Phillipians

Dr. David Jeremiah talks about what does and doesn't bring contentment in our lives.

True contentment doesn't hinge on external circumstances, geography, greater wealth, a new and better job or relationship.

But no matter how hard we try to make it other things, true contentment is dependent on a relationship with Jesus Christ and our willingness to let Christ lead every aspect of our daily lives.

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And here's Lon Solomon's personal testimony of how he came to Christ in college, after living a dissipate life of drugs, sex and alcohol in the sixties. It's an incredible story of a changed life worth listening to many times. Lon, a Jew, is senior pastor at McLean Bible Church in McLean, Virginia.

One Reason Why Fred Thompson May Be Hesitating

Yesterday, I read a little blurb written by gossip columnist Cindy Adams in the New York Post on why Fred Thompson may be hesitating to officially announce a run for president.

It's an angle I never thought about and goes like this (Adam's sarcasm included):

"Anyway, should Thompson announce, the Federal Communications Equal Time law steps in. "Law and Order," in all its permutations is a big moneymaker. And NBC will be precluded from airing on network or affiliates any "Law and Orders," even reruns, featuring fickle Freddy as the urbane DA. With the segments also on TNT and Bravo, the syndication stuff would have to go away too. Thompson's lawyers are now figuring out how to keep him on the air while he walks for president."

Wow, stunning to realize that all his old episodes would have to be pulled for the duration of his candidacy. And if he wins and goes to the White House? Would the old segments have to stay off the air for four or more years?

It all seems trulyabsurd to me. I can only ponder what might happen if, say, one of the founders of Google decided to run for president. Would the Internet have to shut down?

The One Good Thing I've Learned Unequivocally This Week:

As a woman, conservative, conservationist, investor, friend, member of polite society, I come away from current events this week knowing only one good true thing:

Stockpile toilet paper.

Forget carbon offsets; stockpile toilet paper.

One day, if the eco-nazis get back into power, we could just have a toilet paper frenzy, a la tulip mania in Holland, early 17th century. You could perhaps end up trading a roll of your stockpiled scarce bathroom tissue for, say, Sheryl Crow's used Mercedes, or a small mobile home.

Who knows what the future could bring here if a bubble gets going.

And, since you asked, here's a brief history of toilet paper and, er, what went before the free markets and entrepreneur spirit took care of our baser needs. Don't miss the part about the splinter-free variety and when it first hit the market.

Let's see, that was after the corncob and early editions of the Sears catalogue and New York Times had been used for decades, but centuries after 14th century emperors in China had ordered 3 foot squares made for their luxurious disposal.

If I were a betting woman, I would say we'll see some clever new designs---entrepreneur applications---for bathroom paper in the next few months, as a result of all the hubbub this week.

Some women have even made wedding dresses out of the stuff with extraordinary results.

Let's see, toilet paper clothing, jewelry, hats, sculptures, floral designs and tiny books.

As I was saying, stockpile toilet paper.

Dems Debate Among Themselves Last Night: Mashed Green Peas Or Just Hummus Style Hubris?

There's an old saying that goes something like this:

"He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not, is a fool. Shun Him
He who knows not, and knows that he knows not, is a child. Teach him.
He who knows, and knows not that he knows, is asleep. Wake him.
And finally, He who knows, and knows that he knows, is wise. Follow him."

I didn't watch the debate last night, but I've read a little about it this morning. And from everything I can gather, it sounds like the Democratic candidates, especially boy-wonder Barrick, fall into category one above.

Overall, the debate sounded like tired, old rhetoric and demogogary of old. Very ho-hum. (Editors note, "ho" is not used here in the traditional Biblical sense.....on second thought, maybe it is!)

At any rate, my new favorite columnist, Wesley Pruden of the Washington Times, writes about the ho-hum mushiness of the whole event, much better than anything I could say.

Pruden writes,

558 Days to Go on a Track of Mush:

"Barack Obama, only three years out of the Illinois legislature, is getting more mileage from warmed-over warm and fuzzy Ladies Day rhetoric than any presidential candidate since Harold Stassen got lost on his way home from the hustings."

Read it all.

************
When Obama speaks, people swoon over his soothing rhetoric. But does anyone really know what in the world he's saying? Perhaps we're really not meant to know now, are we?

Oh, and then there's the little matter of the energy inefficient, private jet thingy here.

Glad we got that cleared up for the continuing debate of global warning.

I want a candidate who knows and knows that he knows, or said another way, who gets it and gets it that he gets it.

Dow at 13,000: Markets Rise in Heavy Volume

Without a doubt, one of the greatest things about the Internet, is that it provides the average investor the means and information to trade stocks online. I have availed myself of this oppotunity and been a student of disciplined investing for a number of years, long before I ever dreamed of blogging. I would probably be a better blogger, were I not committed to spending a part of every online day investing, doing research and reading lots of stock charts.

For the record, I'm an IBD woman all the way. After that, I'm a Coolcat kind of investor.

Larry Kudlow is someone I admire and respect who comments daily on the markets. His latest post on the dazzling market rise follows:

"There is a simple explanation behind the stock market boom that is pushing the Dow over 13,000 into record territory—profits are high and interest rates are low. These are the two main drivers for stock market value. When you combine them into capitalized profits (using the 10-year Treasury to discount earnings) what you find is this:

"From the bottom, capitalized profits have increased 197 percent. But stocks have increased by roughly 90-100 percent. Therefore stocks have value. Stocks are cheap. Add to the mix a strong dose of record low tax rates on investment capital.

"Barring some terrible outside shock, the market can keep rising for years.

The stock market is still the greatest story never told."

A Testimony of A Child Aborted Late Term Who Survived

If you don't read anything else today, read this testimony of a young woman who spoke before Congress in 2000. She was aborted in the seventh month of her mother 's pregnancy and miraculously survived the procedure. It is a phenomenal short piece which was posted by a commenter at American Digest.

It goes without saying that, in spite of Hillary Clinton and company, The Supreme Court's decision last week upholding the ban on partial birth abortion is a life-affirming decision. Just ask the women who barely survived a late term abortion and survived.

A Post For Cooks and Food Aficionados

Nancy Rommelman, a food critic for the Los Angeles Times, writes a not-to-be-missed piece on hunting the elusive white Oregon truffle over at Pajamas Media. Don't miss it, but be forewarned, don't go there on an empty stomach. She has a way with words that whets the w-appetite!

See, there are still a few good things that come from liberal papers like the LA Times, and this is the best of the best.

A Friend E-Mails Her Tolerance For TV Is Getting Thinner

TV – BIG DUMB BROTHER

Things were better back when TV was in one room – usually the den (rarely the living room) and everyone had their own radio or record player. We would gather together to watch our favorite show and the adults would wait for Cronkite to sum up the country’s news.

Then something happened.

Today, our “big dumb brothers hang or stand in every room – sleek, thin, silver or black. Squawking and hawking at us from our bathrooms, kitchens, bedrooms, bars, airports, even cars 24 hours a day. Anna Nichols’s baby, boy scout disappearance, runaway bride, child snatchers and political bashing are our one-size-fits-all rap entertainment world news.

The surfing thumb is always seeking something. Attention deficit is the chronic national disease of “big dumb brother." Are we in control because we hold the gun? Or are we just plain addicted to the mind-numbing drum roll of canned laughter and constant comment?

Is there a cure for this national addiction to Big Dumb Brother, to the noise, disturbance, hawking insults and idiocies? I think so. There is a kid on the block who is growing up with us – the C O M P U T E R.

We're once again gaining control, choosing what we read, researching, exploring, communicating and creating.

**********

Thanks, SB, for sending this. I couldn't agree more. I hope you'll follow this up with more postings.

Ambush Lobbying, Crow and David: If You See Them on the Towpath in D.C. Run For Your Life!

And if you can't run, walk. And if you can't walk, crawl, roll or squat and hide behind some duckweed.

The global warming nazis are back in town and want to make it perfectly clear: time's up for trying to sort it all out for yourself.

Just ask, you know, Darth Vader who was sitting at table 92 at the White House Correspondents dinner last weekend at the Washington Hilton. Minding his own business, Carl Rove was confronted by these two "influence peddlers" who, you know, wanted to strongly encourage him to rethink his stand on global warming, by cracky.

Let's see, from my days of lobbying and fundraising, I can't think of a less effective way of promoting my cause, whatever that cause might be, and it often involved conservation, than to totally alienate a person I wanted to influence by brow beating them.

Here's Sheryl Crow and Laurie David's quick formula for lobbying success: Winning by ambush and intimidation.

1. Know that you're right and everyone who doesn't agree with you is dumber than dirt.

2. Demand special and lavish treatment in the halls and walls where you work, perform, talk.

3. Don't bother to walk the walk, as you talk the talk.

4. Accost, confront, buttonhole, accuse, insult and finally walk away in disgust from someone you want to influence, leaving them in such a state of shock that they don't even want to see you face or hear your name again.

5. When all else fails, get a little physical with your ambushee who is rightfully trying to get away. That will surely seal the deal, one way or the other.

6. Go tell the world how utterly rude and hopeless that person, your ambush target, was--who was minding their own business--after you ganged up on him or her at an inappropriate time and place.

Next time, just to make sure you get your point across, bring red pepper spray, tie the infidel to his chair and pour red wine on his tux or down her decolletage.

Good luck, ladies. Like I say, if I see you on the towpath, I'll be hiding in the duckweed, with my red pepper spray at the ready.

***************
Sen. Inhofe talks back and gets uppity. Nice going.

I'm sure glad I've had some time in D.C. during a Republican administration, cause if Hillary or Gore or Obama win, God forbid, this city won't even be fit to visit. I'm getting my licks in now, just for good measure.

Also, under the wish I'd written it department, Wesley Pruden of the Washington Times wrote a column in this morning's edition about the Crow/David/Rove incident. Don't miss it.

Lon Solomon on the Fourth Commandment Given to Moses By God on Mt. Sinai

The Fourth Commandment:

8Remember the sabbath day, and keep it holy. 9Six days you shall labor and do all your work. 10But the seventh day is a sabbath to the Lord your God; you shall not do any work—you, your son or your daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the alien resident in your towns. 11For in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, the sea, and all that is in them, but rested the seventh day; therefore the Lord blessed the sabbath day and consecrated it.


Lon Solomon, senior pastor at McLean Bible Church talks about the resting on the seventh day like you've never heard it before.

Sunday: John MacArthur Talks About the Virginia Tech Tragedy This Week

John MacArthur, pastor and president of Masters College talks about the randomness of these mass murders at Virginia Tech this week.

It's well worth listening to his perspective on this tragedy, and of all life and death matters.

Earth Day 2007, A New Movie on Global Warming: Will It Change the Conversation?

The Pacific Research Institute has finished a new film on global warming and you can watch it online. The planet may be warming, but is it due to manmade effects?

Go to the link, watch the trailer, or the movie here.

Bill Withers, Ain't No Sunshine

My Kind Of Guys

Thanks, Pajams Media.

My Recent Comment at American Digest: The Night I Used A Handgun to Defend Myself From a Stalker

A little while ago at American Digest, I commented on a post that Gerard Van der Leun wrote entitled "The Gun School ."

The point of my post and my position on the Second Amendment hopefully speaks for itself.:

***********

"I grew up around men who hunted and were comfortable having and using guns. I loved to trapse around behind my father when he went quail hunting. He taught me a lot about guns. I learned to shoot when I was a teenager.

Anyway, many years later my former husband and I had a weekend cabin on a lake. Since it was considered somewhat rough country, we bought and hid a handgun in our bedroom, near the bed.

One summer evening I escaped the city and was at the cabin alone for a night. Luxuriating in the peace and quiet, I had turned off all the lights, gone to bed in my nightgown on and was on my way to dozing off to sleep. It was summer and all the windows were open with only screens between me and the outdoors and the wonderful sound of crickets.

As I fell asleep, I heard footsteps coming through the woods towards our house. I sat up in bed in the dark, frozen with fear. I listened. There was definitely a man outside and he must have known I was in the cabin alone.

I was as frightened as I've ever been in my life. I remembered the gun hidden nearby. I could hear the man breathing outside through the screens.

I remember my father teaching me that I should never ever pick up a gun, never touch it, unless I fully intended on using it.

For a split second, I hesitated, too frightened to move. And then I made the commitment. I went for the gun knowing I was going to have to use it.

When I picked it up, something deep inside me said to make loud noises. So in the darkness of that warm summer night I jumped up with the loaded gun and reached for a nearby drawer and started banging it, stomping on the floor and shouting at the top of my lungs:

"I know you're out there. I know who you are. I have a gun and am going to kill you if you come any closer." I meant what I said, just like my father taught me. There was no more hesitation.

I repeated my outburst several times, and then stood silent and shaking in my nightgown with the gun loaded, cocked and ready to fire. I held my breath. The tension inside me was unbelievable.

The stalker must have known I meant business.

Next thing I knew, I heard the man under my window turn and run away through the woods. He was gone. Never to return. Nevertheless I stood there ready for World War III for I-don't-know-how-long.

I called my husband who was a hundred miles away, and then the police. We decided I should stay put and not try to leave the house alone in the dark. I sat up in bed for the rest of the night caressing my little loaded pistol. There was no rest that night for the weary.
But the truth is, I am forever grateful that I had that pistol with me that night and was willing to use it, if I had had to.

I thank God that I didn't have to.

Peggy Noonan in the WSJ on the Virginia Tech Shootings

Noonan writes today:

"There seems to me a sort of broad national diminution of common sense in our country that we don't notice in the day-to-day but that become obvious after a story like this. Common sense says a person like Cho Sheng-hui, who was obviously dangerous and unstable, should have been separated from the college population. Common sense says someone should have stepped in like an adult, like a person in authority, and taken him away. It is only common sense that if a person like Cho leaves a self-aggrandizing, self-celebrating, self-pitying video diary of himself to be played by the mass media, the mass media should not play it and not publicize it, not make it famous. Common sense says that won't help."

Read her entire post.

I couldn't agree more. Where has common sense gone? And personal action in a crisis? Are there any take-charge grown-ups living in our society any longer?

Millions if not billions will be spent on studies on this massacre and why Cho did it. But common sense tells us we really already know, doesn't it? And we know some of the things we need to do in the aftermath. Don't we really?

One thing's for sure, unless we and the media stop--as in NBC's decision to roll the killer's manifesto by giving such attention to this psychotic man's rantings-- the feeding frenzy, there will only be more and more and even worse of the kinds of incidents we witnessed this week.

Hillary, I Can No Longer Stomach Your Extreme Feminist Politics

Today the Supreme court ruled rightly against partial birth abortion, which is really a misnomer for infanticide, since it is performed after the fetus is fully formed in the late stages of a woman's pregnancy.

(Note: When I linked to Wikipedia last night, there was a series of well-done images showing the sequence of partial birth abortion in an understandable way. However, this morning, this sequence has been removed from the site. I am very disappointed that this has been removed.)

This news caused Senator Hillary, now running for president, to strongly object, whining it infringes on the rights of women to choose:

"This decision marks a dramatic departure from four decades of Supreme Court rulings that upheld a woman's right to choose and recognized the importance of women's health. Today's decision blatantly defies the Court's recent decision in 2000 striking down a state partial-birth abortion law because of its failure to provide an exception for the health of the mother. As the Supreme Court recognized in Roe v. Wade in 1973, this issue is complex and highly personal; the rights and lives of women must be taken into account. It is precisely this erosion of our constitutional rights that I warned against when I opposed the nominations of Chief Justice Roberts and Justice Alito."

Oh please. In every aspect of our lives, we face limits, boundaries, in the popular lingo. But in the case of women's sexual politics, no limits are demanded. We want no limits on our right to have sex and have absolutely no consequences.

Needless to say, this demand, for reproductive freedom without repsonsibility, largely met since the 70s, has had the effect of infatalizing women and sex, and keeping them in a perpetual state of irresponsibility.

"We want and demand no limits on our sexual freedom. We want and demand no limits on our abilities to do whatever we damn well please, and then do whatever we damn well please in the aftermath," is the common cry.

Oh please.

Hillary you've got to be the greatest enabler of immaturity of women in the modern world.

After more than 40,000,000 horrifying abortions in this country since 1973, I'd say we definitely have taken the right to choose (after the fact) to heart, don't you think? And what about the doctor who invented the partial birth procedure who walked, no, ran away because he was so revolted by what he saw himself doing in surgery. He could no longer live with himself and his killing procedure.
Have you no shame?
I repeat, have you no shame?

Do you not know, yet, there are no rights without responsibilities? Have all these years with Bill and politics caused you to lose contact with the real woman in you?

Listen up, madame: I can no longer stomach your aging, tired feminst politics. And as a woman, will actively work against your bid to be president, starting with my right to choose to vote and speak against you every chance I get.

You are not fit to be president of this land.

And neither is boy wonder, Obama. Or, Silky Pony.

Enough is enough is enough is enough. There need to be limits, even for women and sex.

A Direct Link to Virginia Tech

It's plain and simple, but direct. A link to the latest at Virginia Tech, on this the second day.

No talking heads, no righteous indignation, no calls for scalps or new laws at this point: just the barest of facts now.

**********

Katie Couric interviews Derick O'Dell one of the survivors who was in his intro German class, where 10-15 of his fellow students were shot and killed Monday. It is worth watching, in my opinion. Again, it's a first hand account by a very articulate, but restrained student.

All Eyes and Prayers Are on Virginia Tech

The campus---as well as family and friends--at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, VA where 33 students were killed today by a lone gunman, need our unceasing prayers for the horrific tragedy that has just happened there. God help them. God help us all.

Several friends at McLean Bible Church in McLean, VA have children at Virginia Tech.

What we don't need right now are crazy, frenzied liberal conspiracy theories, finger pointing or calls for stricter gun control. If anything, they need the opposite: looser gun rules. Glenn Reynolds writes earlier:

"THIS IS AWFUL: "At least 20 people were killed this morning at Virginia Polytechnic Institute and University after a shooting spree at two buildings on the campus." Nobody seems to know much yet on what happened.


Reynolds continues,

"These things do seem to take place in locations where it's not legal for people with permits to carry guns, though, and I believe that's the case where the Virginia Tech campus is concerned. I certainly wish that someone had been in a position to shoot this guy at the outset.

UPDATE: More here and here. And some background here. And reader John Lucas, who works with a Virginia law firm, emails that Va. Tech is a "gun-free zone." Well, for those who follow the law. There was an effort to change that but it failed: "A bill that would have given college students and employees the right to carry handguns on campus died with nary a shot being fired in the General Assembly." That's unfortunate. Had the bill passed, things might have turned out differently, though we'll never know now.

ANOTHER UPDATE: Here's a big, continuously updated roundup on the subject from Pajamas Media. And here's lots more from a blogger at Virginia Tech.

Lon Solomon at McLean Bible Church on God's Third Commandment to Moses

"You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain."

Whether I attend in person or just listen online to Lon Solomon, senior pastor at McLean Bible Church in McLean, Virginia, I always hear more than I bargain for. And sometimes, more than I want to hear.

Lon, a converted Jew, is highly knowledgeable, no nonsense almost to a fault, totally devoted to teaching the Word of God as it is written, and highly articulate and effective in his delivery. Lon refuses to soft-peddle and water down the Gospel in any way. He does not preach to make us feel good.

And, several years ago, he brought me, mercifully, to the Risen Christ, while attending McLean.

Today, I had the privilege of hearing Lon's message live at McLean. It was worth braving these Nor'easter elements outside in order to sit in that large auditorium and take in his message.

He's currently doing a series on the Ten Commandments, and today he talked on the Third Commandment God gave to Moses on Mt. Sinai. If you think this one is just about watching your words, then think again.

Lon shows us a much deeper meaning of not taking the Lord's name in vain. It's surely not an easy message to give. It's certainly not an easy message to hear.

It calls us to an all-encompassing lifestyle, where we endeavor at all times to honorably bear the name of Jesus Christ with dignity and honor in the eyes of an onlooking and critical world.

Easier said than done by a long shot. But hearing Lon's sermons raises the bar of how I want to strive to live.

Saturday: On Constitution Avenue, The National Cherry Blossom Parade, Brrrrrr!

It was a chilly, overcast day on Constitution Avenue in the nation's capital, but the parade went on as scheduled, since it had already been cancelled once, due to freezing cold weather.

I was here with the girls. It was a lovely event with lots of energized marching bands, floats, and groups of performers and honorees kicking the spring season off in D.C. Above are two ladies in the court of the queen of the festival.

The history of the festival is found here, and goes back to the first cherry blossom trees the Japanese government gave to the United States in 1912.

A knight in shining armor, undoubtely from King Arthur's Roundtable. Someone catch and clone him and send him to Iraq for the surge.

The two Cherry Blossom queens, one from Japan and one the United States, where our winner is chosen from among 49 other ladies by lottery. Our queen is from Missouri this year. Both are studying to get advanced degrees in medicine and business, in their respective countries. And here at the end of the parade, both are ready for a warm cup of tea!

The men who keep downtown D.C. looking impeccable and like a nation's capital should. They were having a great time and looked dashing in their red jackets.

Gauchos from the exotic region of a state called Maryland.

Sally, you did it again, deary. It was another wonderful downtown D.C. adventure. But I didn't publish the photo of you and me with the clowns. But I'll email it to ya later.

Paul Wolfowitz, Head of The World Bank, Needs More Than A New Pair of Socks, He Needs a New Job

I hate this because I like Paul Wolfowitz. And I think that's the cutest picture of him above.

But he needs to go as president of the World Bank.

Pronto.

He's lost the respect of his colleagues and employees through his indiscretions--a sexual liason (evidently, one of many through the years) with a woman who worked there at the World Bank and was helped professionally by his pulling some behind-the-scene strings after he arrived. Actually he should never have been appointed to the post of president in the first place, because of this ongoing liason.

Now it's a mess and a distraction to all concerned. And no one at the World Bank has a kind word to say about Wolfowitz. He was booed off the stage after apologizing to employees.

Wolfowitz has lost his moral authority to lead his organization.

He needs a new job where there's no conflict of interest, or even a perceived conflict of interest.

Maybe he will take a little time off and get his socks darned, among other things.

And think about how many people he's alienated by wanting his cake and eat it too.

Whatever was he thinking?

**************

UPDATE:

U.S Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is giving Wolfowiz a good-ole-boy network "thumbs up." But he's got it wrong: Hank, it's not about what a good or smart and capable man Wolofowitz is. It's about his being respected enough by World Bank staff and employees to be able to lead the organization forward. And he's lost that, I'm afraid.

A Note to Commenters, No More Anonymous Comments, S'il Vous Plait

After thinking about this for a while, and surveying lots of other blogs I like, I've decided that I will no longer publish anonymous comments, here at Webutante.

If you want to comment, you may certainly keep your anonymity by using a pseudonym, as I do here. But you must have either a verifiable e-mail address that only I see, which will never be shown online, or a link to your own blog or website, which is usually published.

I am finding that the identites of too many anonymous commenters get confusing and confused.

So in the future, if you don't get a perfectly good, comment published here, it's because it's anonymous and unverifiable to me. Of course, it goes without saying that comments with obscenities, and personal attacks have not and will never get posted.

Thank you for all your past comments, and I hope you will return again here to post an opinion whenever you want to, whether you agree with me or not. And private feedback to me is always welcome through e-mail: webutante@gmail.com.

Best wishes.

And Now A Word From the Liberal WaPo

Short and sweet.

John Tamny on Capitalism: Setting Some Liberal Myths Straight, Yet Again

Underselling Capitalism

By John E. Tamny : 13 Apr 2007

In a recent Los Angeles Times op-ed, "Overselling Capitalism," University of Maryland Professor Benjamin Barber wrote of the "crisis" in the capitalist mindset, where the "'Protestant ethos' of hard work and deferred gratification has been replaced by an infantilist ethos of easy credit and impulsive consumption that puts democracy and the market system at risk."

While doubtlessly well intentioned, the contradictions and falsehoods within were numerous.

Let's begin with the idea that hard work and deferred gratification are no longer part of the capitalist mindset. In the 2006 edition of the Forbes 400, most of the fortunes were entirely self-made. Unless it's suddenly become easy to steal or beg one's way to great fortune, it appears America's greatest capitalists have engaged in both hard work and deferred gratification.

Indeed, since wealth can only result from the combination of brains and capital, and as all capital is the result of prior savings, it would seem that the very business successes Barber decries sacrificed greatly in the near-term to achieve the distant object of becoming billionaires. His mention of easy credit and impulsive consumption is contradictory in that if easy credit is available, there must be a great deal of abstinence, too, such that credit is available for consumption.

Barber posits that capitalism "busies itself manufacturing needs for the wealthy while ignoring the wants of the truly needy." This might interest the middle-class patrons of Wal-Mart, who have access to top-quality goods at low prices thanks to the latter's messianic devotion to keeping costs down. Wal-Mart comes in twelfth of the fifty most valuable companies in the world according to Forbes, and within that fifty there's nary a mention of Gucci, Hermes or Armani.

To Barber capitalism "is stymied, courting long-term disaster" as it turns "reluctant consumers with few unsatisfied core needs into permanent shoppers" totally in thrall to producers who "take over their life worlds, encourage impulse buying, cultivate shopoholism and invent new needs." Barber's insights might interest Coca-Cola given its failure to trick consumers into buying "New" Coke, not to mention Blockbuster Video's inability to make movie fanatics pay late fees, or ESPN's inability to foist sports phones on its dedicated viewership.

Barber speaks of an ethos favoring "laxity and leisure over discipline and denial." That total household wealth in the U.S. hit $55.6 trillion last month didn't seem to concern or register with him, nor the impossibility that Americans could possess any wealth if indolent leisure and rampant consumption were the nation's ethos.

Barber contradicted himself once again in urging capitalism to "learn to defer profits and empower the needy as consumers." Apparently he forgot that profits are by definition the remuneration of abstinence, so it would seem we're not the prodigals he says we are.

Still, he has a point that big business and big capitalists can help the less fortunate, and sure enough they are. He might simply be reminded that it is abstinence in the name of profits which enables the rich to offer aid. Just last week the Wall Street Journal's Jason Riley wrote about hedge fund manager Lance Laifer, and his successful efforts to fund malaria-free zones in Afric.

Author Robin Meredith wrote in the latest Forbes that Starbucks (no doubt Barber would deem it guilty of "shaping" American wants) pays its servers in China $6 for an eight-hour day; a low wage until one considers a nearby "Chinese-owned teahouse where the staff works a 12-hour day for $3.75."

Barber calls on pharmaceutical companies "to sell inexpensive retro-vials to Africans with HIV instead of pushing Botox" stateside, but he forgets that it is the profits earned from Botox sales that enable pharmaceutical companies to sell or give away low-cost goods in Africa.

Capitalism is the villain in Barber's piece, yet capitalism has proven time and again to be the singular cure for the poor health threatening the Third World. According to the 2005 Economic Freedom of the World report produced by the Cato Institute, the nations in the top quintile of average per-capita GDP also have the highest average life expectancy; 77.7 years versus 52.5 years for citizens of countries in the bottom quintile.

Barber concludes by saying to "sustain itself, capitalism will once again have to respond to real needs instead of trying to fabricate synthetic ones." He gets it backwards. That capitalism gives people what they want means that it alone will have the wherewithal to provide the jobs, aid and medicine to those not lucky enough to live in cultures blessed by the most compassionate economic concept ever known.

John Tamny is the editor of RealClearMarkets. He can be reached at jtamny@realclearmarkets.com

******************

I tell you, those liberal college professors, what planet are they from? Thanks, John.

And, if you want to contribute some of your capital to the War Effort in Iraq, then here's a wonderful idea.

Rep. Tom Lantos: Has He Finally Jumped the Shark?

I am deeply concerned and saddened by what I am hearing and reading about the only Holocaust survivor to ever serve in Congress, Rep. Tom Lantos of California: He's ready to go with Nancy ("Come let us reason together on the road to Damascus!") Pelosi, to open a dialogue with none other than serial Jew hater and would-be exterminator II, Iranian President Ahmadinejad.

What in the world is he thinking?

After returning from the ill-fated trip Madame Pelosi led recently to the Middle East and Syria, against the Bush Administration's strong objections (Yes, yes, I know some Republicans took another delegation to Syria--also against the Administration's strong objections. And that both groups were briefed by the U.S. State Department, which did not condone the trips either.), he's ready to do it again!

He must be basking in the perceived glory of his mission of hijacking foreign policy!

Has Lantos suffered a fatal case of "messianic complex?"

Has he finally jumped the shark?

And is he vying for the 2007 Appeasement Award in honor of Neville Chamberlain, who steadfastly, naively, tried to dialogue with Hitler before World War II?

I'm afraid the answer to all three of these questions is sadly, yes.

Mr. Lantos, what are you thinking?

Please consider taking a chair, Sir, and thinking through the consequences of your actions here, and of the possibility of throwing your reputation away in this process.

Power corrupts absolutely, and I'm afraid that even Tom Lantos, whom I have always admired though often disagreed with, has fallen prey to this maxim.

Really sad.

Today Would Be Clare Booth Luce's 104th Birthday

I am traveling today (and yesterday), but wanted to post this from an e-mail that I just received from the Clare Booth Luce Policy Institute:
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From Investor's Business Daily feature on Luce below from 2000.

Writer, Diplomat Clare Boothe Luce Dedication To Hard Work Got Her To The Top

By Amy Reynolds Alexander

Investor’s Business Daily March 3, 2000

Like many people in 1929, Clare Boothe Brokaw (who became Clare Boothe Luce six years later) was facing tough times.

She’d just been divorced from a cruel alcoholic. She was a single mother. It was the beginning of the Depression. The 26-year-old New Yorker decided what she needed was something she could really sink her teeth into—like a job.

There was just one problem. She had little experience. Yet she refused to let that get in her way. She wanted to work, and work she did.

By 1933, she’d become managing editor of Vanity Fair magazine. In 1936, she wrote the hit play The Women, still performed today. She was a foreign correspondent for Life magazine in Europe and in China during the early part of World War II in 1940. She became the first congresswoman from her home state of Connecticut in 1943. In 1953, she became ambassador to Italy under President Dwight Eisenhower. In 1983, President Ronald Reagan awarded her the Presidential Medal of Freedom for her service in the U.S.

Ever since girlhood, Clare Boothe had a way of making things happen.

She was born in New York City to an ex-chorus girl and a wandering musician who traveled constantly. Because she went with them, she attended only two years of grammar school before she was 12, notes Michelle Easton, president of the Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute, a leadership school named for Luce that trains politically conservative women.

Clare wanted to learn and filled the gaps herself. Growing up, she read biographies of successful people and history and philosophy books. In high school, she took the opportunity to focus on her studies.

“When the other girls were reading a racy, contraband account of their favorite movie star, Clare would have a volume of Racine or Moliere,” recalled Dorothy Burns, her best friend at the Castle School in Tarrytown, NY. “She just didn’t have the time for trash. She even read while brushing her hair or when she bathed, propping a book on the faucet of the tub.”

Her hard work paid off. She graduated first in her class in 1919, at the age of 16.

She approached her 1929 job search with the same hungry attitude that had brought her an education. Analyzing her interests, she decided to work in publishing and narrowed her focus to writing for magazines. Instead of going door to door, she racked her brain for people she knew who might help her. She’d met Conde Nast, owner of Vogue and Vanity Fair magazines, through mutual friends.

When she ran into him at a dinner party a few weeks later, she didn’t hesitate to jump at the chance. “She approached the publisher with a directness which must have been disarming and asked him for a job on one of his magazines,” wrote Stephen Shadegg in Clare Boothe Luce: A Biography.

Nast gave her the brushoff.

“ ‘My dear girl,’ she later recalled, ‘ I’ve had many like you come and ask for jobs, but you won’t stick it out. You won’t have any capacity for work.’ ”

She zeroed in on her goal. Three weeks later, she showed up at Vogue offices. Told that Nast had left for Europe, she resolved to take matters into her own hands. “She noted through the open door another editorial office where there were six desks. Two of them were vacant. She popped into the office and asked about the empty desks,” Shadegg wrote. “Someone told her that two caption writers had left to get married. (She) took off her coat and gloves and settled herself at one of the desks with the brief explanation that she was ready to go to work.”

By the time Nast returned, she was already on the pay roll, proving herself. After three months of writing photo captions, she decided to make the next move.

Smart and satirical Vanity Fair was more to her taste than Vogue’s fashion pages. She dreamed of seeing her name in Vanity Fair’s pages. Again, she went straight for her goal. She made an appointment with Frank Corwninshield, editor-in-chief of Vanity Fair and asked for a job. His response? Come back in a week with a hundred well-researched ideas for articles and you’ve got a job. It was a daunting task. But she loved a challenge. Although, she was working full-time she found the hours to make her mark.“(She) spent frantic nights typing, editing, rejecting the ideas that flowed into her mind,” Shadegg wrote.

A week later, she returned to Crowninshield with her surviving article ideas. He offered her a job. It was an entry-level assignment, but she gave it her all. She made sure her notes for photographers were accurate and thorough. As she arranged interviews for other writers, she practiced her finesse.

In her spare time, she honed her writing skills. She sought mentors, including editor Donald Freeman, who drilled into her that success depends on discipline.

“No good writer can depend on flights of inspiration,” he told her. “If you are going to let anyone or anything distract you, you’ll never be a writer.” She was a perfectionist. When she wrote, she’d go over every page, paragraph and word, crossing out and rewriting parts that didn’t satisfy her. “It was her nature to always want to do better,” Easton said.

She also paid close attention to politics and people. She studied current events until she knew them inside and out, always on the lookout for new material. Steadily, she worked her way into the magazine’s pages and up the ranks, until she was named managing editor in 1933.

Her nerve helped nearly double the magazine’s circulation. The discipline and perception she developed at Vanity Fair fueled what became another passion—writing plays.

Brokaw, who became Clare Boothe Luce in 1935 when she married Henry Luce, the founder of Time magazine, kept aware of the happenings around her- trivial events as well as global ones.

She was inspired to write her 1936 play The Women when she overheard a gossip session in a women’s restroom.

Shortly after World War II began, she traveled to Europe to understand the brewing conflict up close.

Clare Boothe Luce saw how integral politics was to everyday life, and in 1942 she ran as a Republican for the U.S. House, winning the election in a Democratic district in Connecticut. During her two-year stint in the House, she served on the Committee on Military Affairs.

Luce (1903-1987) didn’t mince words. She often relied on the creative spark she honed at Vanity Fair when she made statements to Congress and the president. For example, she once criticized Vice President Henry Wallace’s foreign policy ideas as “globaloney.”

Her keen observation helped get her named ambassador to Italy in 1953. A hard worker who was well studied in Italian affairs, she relied on creative ways to get attention for issues. Once she sent President Eisenhower a poem about increasing tension in Trieste, on Italy’s border, to make sure he understood how severe Italy -Yugoslavia border disputes had become.

When times got tough for Luce, she turned to religion. In 1944, after her 19-year-old daughter was killed in a car accident, Luce became a devout Catholic. She took time each day for prayer and reflection to help her maintain a positive attitude.

Work also kept her inspired. She stayed active in politics until the end of her life, serving as a member of the President’s Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board under Presidents Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan.

A Commenter Asks, Who is a Contemporary Appeaser?

Oh, I don't know, I simply can't imagine. Wink, wink, nod, nod.




UPDATE: Here a Syrian blogger takes Nancy---come let us reason together---Pelosi to task for her Middle Eastern shuttle diplomacy.

And Now Back To A State Called Denial, A Plan Called Appeasement

Hat tip: Bereft.

Easter, O Happy Day! Christ Jesus Is Risen!

Since the foundation of the world: an empty tomb, a New Covenant, a personal relationship, a new eternal perspective. A New World coming without end.

Here, Lon Solomon, senior pastor at McLean Bible Church in Tysons Corner, Virginia gives his Easter, 2007 sermon.

Two Easter Videos

This account from John 20:




This account is taken from Matthew 28:

Depot Bottom: Going Home to My Parents' Graves and The Old Lumber Mill During Dogwood Season

For some reason, I miss them most at this time of year, when my homeland is breath-takingly beautiful. I love to go there then and wander amongst new life bursting out everywhere.

I love the smell of sawdust, of freshly cut oak logs under the sprinklers, of dogwood blossoms.

I love to traipse around in the mud of the lower lumber yards, just like my Daddy did.

No matter how times my Mother would ask him to take off his muddy boots so he wouldn't track mud though the house, and on the rugs, he would occasionally forget.

I know how she felt now and sometimes do it myself after a day outside. I love to remember their predictable rows. In a strange way, it was always reassuring to me when they fought over the mud on his shoes.

A video from Mel's movie with music by Jeff Buckley. Rough images, but gripping sounds.

Good Friday: The Darkest Night of the Soul

Since the Foundation of the World, God planned on this day to bring fallen mankind back from the consequences of our self-inflicted wounds and rebellious separation from Him.

In the church cycle, it is the darkest day of the year. But it is meaningless, unless each of us---individually---grasps he or she is a sinner in desperate need a Savior. Even if outward appearances look as if we're doing just fine, we are still separated sinners in need of a Savior, from our hearts outward.

Once we grasp this, we are in a position to find and accept the Savior of the World in Christ Jesus, and begin our own personal relationship and journey with Him.

Right there on the Cross, HE IS. And today is suffering and dying for each one of us.

It is a day for sober, quiet reflection and whatever comes from that.

*********************

When Easter falls each year, and how it is calculated.

A Truly Amazing Video

This has to be one of the most amazing things I have ever seen. By all means, watch the whole thing. The night the leopard laid down with the baby baboon.

From National Geographic through Spiked Humor.

UPDATE: HG tells me the tiny baby baboon later died after losing its mother when it was one day old. But the leopard never harmed it. Simply amazing.

Webutante's Second No Cigar Awards to the Bobsie Twins of Appeasement: The Carelosi's

Taa Daaaah........

Hijacking foreign policy and proud of it, these are two of my least favorite US citizens who love to blame American first and be palsy-walsy with thugs and low-lifes.

The king and queen of moral equivalence, the Carelosi's.

Even the Washington Post frowns upon Pelosi's Middle East prattle, though Brother Carelosi approves her surge in Syria. Her freelancing is not appropriate and a gross violation of national boundaries.

It's no cigars to Carter and Pelosi, the Carelosis.'

***********

UPDATE: Friday's WSJ writes Pelosi may have broken the law by taking this trip and a peace mission with Syria.

And the Philidelphia Inquier had this to say about her trip: It's nuts!

A Note From A Commenter On the Rosie Post, and My Response

Anonymous Original writes this morning:

"Of course, you have every right not to buy any product that sponsors a show you don't like. I would never, ever, spend one penny of my money on any book Ann Coulter writes - or any book Rosie O'Donnell writes either.

"They are the extremes on the political meter, and both delight in saying outrageous things to get publicity. I don't have much use for either, I guess, but they can say whatever they want.

"My point was that last month you spent a considerable amount of time mocking people who felt offended by what Ann Coulter said, and then this week turned around and felt so outraged at what Rosie O'Donnell said that you are throwing all your detergent away and will never purchase an M&M again.

"More for the rest of us I suppose. Someone here has been using my identity as "anonymous" so I guess I'll go with a new identity, so as not to get all of us anonymouses confused... "

*********

Dear Original Anonymous,

Thank you for your remarks. I see that we are in agreement on some things. I doubt I would buy a Coulter book either and was also offended by her over-the-top rant last month.

While I can boycott various products and services who sponsor people I disagree with, I will staunchly defend the rights of those who say them. Rosie included. Even Bruce Springsteen whom I will no longer listen to. Ditto the Dixie Chickies. And don't even get me started on buying gas at Citgo.

Sorry, I gave the impression that I was "mocking people" who were outraged by Ann Coulter. Being misunderstood goes with this territory at times, and that was never my intention.

In truth, I'm actually outraged by very little these days, though it does happen occasionally. The Rosie thing is not something I'm willing to give much of my power and energy away to, but I do love writing about the First Amendment. I know I can verge on the outrageous at times, and so stand guilty as accused. You're an adult and can take what you choose and leave the rest.

I give my readers credit for their powers of sorting things out for themselves. And knowing that I'm a human being capable of plenty of mistakes, the least of which is spelling and grammer, not to mention a run-away sense-of-mischief. I'm often having fun with this and am sure I can be insufferable at times.

To repeat: I can be a boob and a boor, but hopefully not all the time, and when that happens, I don't expect your forebearance. Walking away and/or taking me to task, within the bounds of decency and my taste meter at least here, is your First Amendment right...

Anyway, thank you for your continued comments and best wishes to you.

FYI: Rosie's The View's Conspiracy Theory Advertisers: Naming Names

Here is a list of some of Rosie O'Donnell's sponsors who support her anti-American---blame America first---conspiracy theory rants, thanks to HotAir TV. Not only am I not going to buy these products while they sponsor her madness, I'm even going to contact some, if not all, these companies to tell them I am withdrawing my buying power.

Gerard Van der Leun at American Digest has more advice on this for us, and it's not Letters to the Editors.

The View’s Sponsors include:

All Detergent (Unilever) (http://www.unileverusa.com/resources/contactus.asp)
BAM Power Cleaner ( Reckitt Benckiser)
Best Foods Mayonnaise http://www.bestfoods.com/contact_us.aspx
Bush’s Baked Beans http://www.bushbeans.com/contactus.php
Claritin-D (Schering-Plough) (Telephone: (908) 298-4000)
Clorox (thecloroxcompany.com)(http://thecloroxcompany.consumerreply.com/Clorox/thecloroxcompany/faqs.nsf/WebContactUs?OpenForm)
Whitening Rinse (P&G)(http://pg.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/pg.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php)
Disney’s “Meet the Robinsons”
Dove Ice Cream (Mars, Inc.)Phone: 1-908-852-1000
Excedrin (Novartis)
Head & Shoulders Shampoo (P&G)(http://pg.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/pg.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php)
Honey Buches of Oats (Kraftfoods.com)
Humira (Abbot Laboratories) 100 Abbott Park Road;Abbott Park, Illinois 60064-3500; Telephone: (847) 937-6100
I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter (Unilever)(http://www.unileverusa.com/resources/contactus.asp)
Janome Sewing Machines (fax (201) 825 - 3612)
Loestrin 24 (Warner Chilcott Inc.)Telephone: (973) 442-3200 Fax: (973) 442-3283
M&M’s (Mars Inc.)Phone: 1-908-852-1000
Marshall’s (customer service at 1-800-Marshalls)
Miracle-Gro (Call us Toll Free at: 1-888-295-6902)
Pepto Bismol (P&G) (http://pg.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/pg.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php)
Pier 1 Imports (Customer Relations: (800) 245-4595)
Pillsbury Toaster Strudel (General Mills) (1-800-775-4777 between (7:30 a.m. - 5:30 p.m. CT, weekdays)
Reach One Ultimate Clean ToothbrushScrubbing Bubbles (S.C. Johnson & Son Inc.)SearsSingulair (Merck)Phone: 908-423-1000
Stainmaster Carpet (http://www.invista.com/page_whois_index_en.shtml
Stanley Steemer ( 1-800-STEEMER)T. J. Maxx (call us at 1-800-926-6299)
Tide Laundry Detergent (P&G) (http://pg.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/pg.cfg/php/enduser/ask.php)Vaseline Intensive Rescue Body Lotion (Unilever)(http://www.unileverusa.com/resources/contactus.asp)
Woolite (Reckitt Benckiser plc)
Zyrtec (Pfizer)Phone: 1-212-733-2323

I don't know about you, but the Tide is definitely going out where I live!

Thank You, Jungle Mom

Yesterday, I got a comment to go to Jungle Mom's blog from Venezuela, The Jungle Hut, as she had something for me to read there.

So I followed the link back to her latest post and found that she had given me her own brand of approval as a "thinking blog," along with four others (Llano Estacado, and Bereft are two.)

She was most graciousloy sharing the award she herself had been given by another blogger, The Preacher's Wife.

Buried yesterday in tax preparation, I am only now getting a chance to say thank you to her, not just for that mention, but also for her encouragement over the past six or so months as I have struggled with starting and maintaining this blog.

She has been a frequent commenter here, since I started Webutante at a time when I often have had no idea whether anyone was listening.

Because much of my family is very liberal and sadly hates my conservative, Christian perspective, I don't have the same online support or camaraderie with them that I'd like to have. Political correctness and liberal moral relativism abound in my family and has, sadly, caused some interpersonal unpleasantness over the past few years.

Nevertheless, I have resoundingly decided to forge on here no matter what. I need an outlet, and feel called to be here at this time in my life whatever the readership.

So having Jungle Mom read and comment here, has been, and is, a reality that I value greatly and never take for granted. It is especially noteworthy as our politics and world view are very simpatico.

More importantly, we both have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, which makes us sisters in this supernatural Body at a stunning time in our world's history.

So while I am new to the blogosphere and am only now starting to explore the riches of thought and reporting from all over the world at my fingertips which she already knows about, I am grateful and pleased that someone of Jungle Mom's integrity, wisdom and unique perspective would take the time to look at my work occasionally, and comment.

Thank you dear woman, and may God bless you, your blog and family greatly.

**********

I am thinking about the blogs that I would turn around and share this award with and will be back later to name them. Sadly, two of my favorites, Port McClellan and a Russian blog have gone out of business in the past few weeks.

Minnesota Gets Chummy with Islam: Becomes A Hotbed for Islamic Agitation in the United States

Aunt Tilley in Minneapolis comes face-to-face with Sharia: taxi drivers, clerks at Target, not to mention those crazy flying imams, all while Keith Ellison, the first elected Muslim representative goes to Congress.

The state's leftish administration is being victimized by its hate for Bush. And while it fiddles, the radicals move in.

HotAir and Robert Spenser has it all from Lake Wobegon.

It's enough to put Aunt Tilley and Uncle Pete in a tizzy, in a state where Islam is pushing the envelope.

Be aware: Minnesota is on the forefront of Islamic assault in this country.

The Taxman Cometh

I am normally not a big procrastinator---until, that is, it comes to doing my taxes. I can find a zillion things I need to be doing rather than bite-the-bullet and get down to it.

This year has been no exception.

By last weekend the whole tax thing felt like the weight of the world was on me. So yesterday and today, I have chained myself to the desk and am not permiting myself to go out, or to blog, until I have completed my tax work and several other business matters (I have a new renter in my rental property who is waiting for me to bring her a lease to sign.....)

Anyway, I'm about to see the light at the end of the tunnel. And when I do---hopefully later today---will be back to the computer. I always dread this so much, but am simply ebullient when I finish what usually turns out to be less than a big deal.

Oh, the relief of handing it all off to my accountant to finish and give me an aura of respectability!

Hezbollah in the United States from HotAir TV

This should concern all of us: Erick Stakelbeck's "Stak Attack" on HotAir.

Watch: Hezbollah's ability to wreck havoc in the US is growing and the cells could attack whenever we flex our muscles with Iran? It's firmly established in 12 cities here and flush with money and weapons from Iran?

Very scary possibilities indeed.

Palm Sunday: Triumphal Entry of Jesus On the Way to The Cross, Before He Forever Bridged the Chasm Between A Righteous God and Sinful Man

On Palm Sunday we celebrate the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem for the last time.

It would be the last week of His life before the events of his Crucifixtion and Resurrection in which he overcame the estranging power of sin and death, for all of humanity, for all time.

The last week before He bridged the chasm---for once and for all---between God the Father and fallen mankind separated by our sin.

But his followers believed Jesus was about to be crowned as a political king who would subsequently overthrow the oppressive Roman rule the Jews had been living under for far too long.

They would be very wrong. Their idea of Jesus was far too small, as was their view of their own sinful nature and need to repent for God's forgiveness, grace and redemption.

While waving palm fronds as Jesus rode into Jerusalem, His followers never dreamed that Jesus was about to be falsely accused, rejected and put to death in the most horrendous of ways. Or that He was about to fulfill God's far greater purpose: to overcome sin and death for once and for all and make it possible for man to have a personal relationship with God through Christ.

As a result of Christ's soon-to-be-completed work on the Cross, God could offer us the inestimable gifts of forgiveness and eternal life. And we could then choose to freely accept them, through repentance and faith, or reject them.

And so it is we celebrate Palm Sunday and the real promise of Easter: That Christ came to be a Bridge, the only Bridge, over the chasm of separation between a righteous God and fallen mankind.

Today, John MacArthur talks about what the Cross meant to God.

And, Lon Solomon talks about the meaning of the Risen Christ to man.

Palm Sunday is about the coming of the greatest event in all of human history: a Risen Christ, an Eternal Bridge, for an undeserving mankind to come back into a living relationship with a Righteous God, for now and evermore.

Christ is the Way, the only Way, the only Bridge, that God has ever provided us to cross the chasm of separation back into the fullness of Life with Him. And Palm Sunday helps us anticipate this miracle of miracles.

1000 Words

This kind of photo doesn't get a lot of play in the anti-Bush MSM, but it's worth its weight in gold here. I am a great supporter of our President.

From Don Surber's blog:

"One of the most touching photos in years taken by an AP photographer moved across the wires last night and few newspapers published it. The Daily Mail did. It showed President Bush helping Robert Byrd walk.

"The occasion was the overdue awarding of a congressional Gold Medal to the Tuskegee airmen who served in World War II. There is irony there.

"But there also is compassion from President Bush. This may be why the photo received so little play in the newspapers today."

Hat tip: Instapundit

More on the Tuskegee Airmen and their long-over due award.

Hopefully, No One Believes This Nonsense: Iran is Pushing the Envelope and Should Soon Get Its Comeuppance

Like a child who keeps misbehaving in front of its parents, Iran is on notice that it's only a matter of time before the thwacking begins. And it should be one that it never forgets.

Who is Rep. Bennie Thompson? Is He In Cahoots with Those Crazy Flying Imams?

This week, the US House passed the Rail and Public Transportation Act of 2007 which protects passengers---especially on airplanes and trains---who report suspicious behavior to authorities, without fear of being sued.

It's a good law to protect passengers from lawsuits, after six imams were removed from a US Airways plane bound for Phoenix last year because passengers were alarmed by their crazy behavior. While at the gate, the imams chanted "Allah, Allah, Allah," while making anti-American statements.

After boarding the plane the imams bizarre behavior continued. That is, until some passengers---collectively called John Doe---had enough and reported this to US Air officials while the plane was still on the ground.

The imams were subsequently escorted off the carrier, and later sued the airline for their removal. They contended, in essence, that their rights to bizarre behavior ---when and wherever they wished----over-shadowed the safety concerns of the many on the US Airways flight.

Such is the evolution of victim consciousness and victim rights in America today.

Citizen outrage ensued, as it should have, and ultimately prompted the House vote this week.

But an interesting thing happened on the way to that vote in the House:

Rep. Bennie Thompson, a Mississippi Democrat and honoree of the Mississippi Trial Lawyers Association, opposed this protection of "John Doe" passengers on none other than grounds that it promotes racial profiling.

For this, Americans should be very concerned.

Rep. Thompson, whose election to Congress was largely funded by contributions from lawyers and law firms, is Chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee which oversees homeland security issues for our citizens. He's part of Nancy Pelosi's er, "dream team."

He either will not or cannot recognize the risk to people who are subjected to bizarre behavior by fringe elements like these imams.

Simply amazing!

His sympathies clearly lie with the poor victimized imams as he opined recently: "They (the imams) should have the ability to seek redress in a court of law."

He feels the pain of the few who acted totally inappropriately, but he doesn't feel the pain of the many who, after 9/11, were terrified by these imams outrageous behavior.

For that Thompson should be suspect in the House and removed as chairman of his House Homeland Security Committee.

We need people on our side in Congress, and not politically confused enablers of inappropriate behavior.

And we nee d to know that John Doe can speak up when each of us sees something like this. We can and must report suspicious behavior. Click above and watch HotAir's recent Vent.

You Old Green Bean: Fred Thompson, Will You or Won't You?

(The short answer is: No, you won't run and you won't ever be president, though you're certainly enjoying all the attention, and the public is enjoying the distraction.)

Now back to the long answer.

***************
I am an early riser and have a good, old friend with whom I breakfast at 6 am about once a week.

We go the the Cracker Barrel on I-40, where I have scrambled eggs with green beans, and she, one sausage & biscuit with green beans. We both sip coffee and talk about almost everything.

We've been doing this for over 25 years.

She's one of the only friends I have who loves to socialize at the crack of dawn, like me, and we both love the down home, early morning atmosphere of the Cracker Barrel.

So strong is our early morning ritual that it has endured a radical change in my politics. She's an ultra liberal, as I was until about ten years ago. She is confounded by my transformation into a conservative, as I am by her lack thereof.

Anyway, we simply cannot and do not talk politics anymore. She refuses to go to my blog---even once---for fear that it will upset her so much that she won't want to have her weekly green bean breakfast with me anymore.

I agree. A woman has to keep her priorities straight. And frankly, no presidential campaign, no war should get in the way of a ritual now rooted in geological time.

OK, OK, I'm getting to Fred.

So anyway, this morning we were at the Cracker Barrel and a former Republican governor of our state walked in and sat down at a table beside us. I have known him casually and liked him for a long time.

Of course, I immediately wanted to gossip about politics with him, but waited until my good friend was ready to leave and then simply beckoned her to proceed on to the cash register, saying I would be on in a few minutes.

She knew what was up and gladly cleared out.

So for the next few minutes, I chatted with our former governor about Fred Thompson's candidacy and the real prospects of his running for president.

What about Fred? I asked the governor.

I was told that Fred is really having to make a tough decision right now because he has such a good, good life. He likes his life, his wife and his role as an actor, senior statesman and former politician.

If Thompson does run, he went on, it's for love of country and not the fulfillment of some long-standing ambition., with a capital A. Fred, it seems, is not overcome with ambition. And that's a good thing, in my book.

Would Thompson run as VP on a ticket with Giuliani? Absolutely not, according to the governor. Fred would be in it to take the presidential nomination and then win the national election. End of story.

I had heard before that Thompson and Giuliani would never consent to being together on the same ticket. And now I was hearing it again.

But the governor was enthusiastic about Thompson running, as many people are here.

Still, I have my reservations about Fred. And they are similar to the sentiments expressed in Slate today.

I can't believe that Thompson---like Barack Obama---has the experience of, say, a Giuliani in these trying times of war.

Of course, only time will tell. Even the governor wonders what Fred will do next.

But we all agree, early morning socializing at our favorite breakfast haunt is too good to let politics get in the way. And green beans can often overshadow the deepest of political differences, if even for a little while in the wee hours of the morning.

But in truth, I don't really think that Fred Thompson will ever be president of the United States, nor vice-president. He might head a presidential commission, or be an ambassador to some exotic country. But, Fred's candidacy, while fun to contemplate, is merely a distraction to a race that has essentially come down to two people, in my opinion: Rudy and Hillary.

Presidents Who Love Too Much

Like a battered woman who keeps going back for more abuse, Clinton just couldn't get enough of Yasser's cheatin heart and lies....ditto Jimmy Carter.

This image reflects my sentiments exactly. Too bad we couldn't have arranged an intervention and treatment program before Bill had Baruk give away the heart and guts of Israel to Arafat the Abuser, who couldn't even keep a straight face as he licked his chops and took all he could get his hands on, even as he stepped up his terroist activities against Israel.

Think about it: The Temple Mount---the holiest place on earth for Jews and Christians alike---is controlled today by Muslims.

Utterly outrageous! Thanks Bill, you ole negotiator you.