Man Blind from Birth Knows How to Paint!!

"The picture you are looking at was painted by a man who has never seen a tree. He's never seen a person carrying a pail. He's never seen a mountain or a flower. He's never seen anything, because he was born without eyes!"

Esref Armagen of Turkey, has captured the attention of the art world with his vivid paintings, which he creates using a device called the "Sewell raised line drawing kit." Lines rise off the paper as little puckers, which he can trace with his finger. He learned about concepts such as color, shadow, and shading from conversations with friends. He was featured in a Discovery Channel special called "The Real Superhumans."

Hat tip: Xoom the truth

Here We Go Again

Sadly, we have to drag out the Obama Race Card once again. "Barack Obama has played the race card, and he played it from the bottom of the deck. Its divisive, negative, shameful and wrong," McCain campaign manager Rick Davis said.

This has been the hot topic of the day on talk shows such as Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity. Their interpretation is that Barack Obama is getting desperate. One can say many things about Sen. McCain, but at least he's not a racist, and has been doing everything in his power to restrain the attack dogs of the Republican Party.

EDITORIAL COMMENT: We sense that the American people are yearning for a leader who can reassure the public that things will work out in the end, and who literally is comfortable in his own skin. Freaking out when the news media have been handling him with kid gloves all along is not exactly the way to inspire public confidence.

John Hawkins weighs in on this hot topic at Right Wing News.

AFP Colorado, a Grassroots Movement Ready for Takeoff

When I heard that AFP [Americans for Prosperity] Colorado was holding a town hall meeting in Colorado Springs this evening, I believed that it would be a prime networking opportunity - and I was right!

The following panelists addressed a near-capacity audience: Jim Pfaff, Americans for Prosperity; Paul Prentice, PhD, Limited Government Forum, UCCS Economist; Colorado Rep. Marsha Looper; and Colorado Rep. Bob Gardner. The second part of the program was given over to questions and comments from the audience.

There appears to be a groundswell of public support for the following positions:

1. Arbitrary legislative and bureaucratic restrictions are driving up energy costs, diminishing the world food supply, and cheating the public of hundreds of thousands, maybe even millions, of high-paying jobs in the energy industries.
2. Environmentalism has become a control issue, and is more about imposing socialism and making the people more dependent on government than about preserving our environment.
3. Science is almost incidental in the current controversy over climate change. Many thoughtful scientists do not agree with the dogma, and the high priest of global warming, Al Gore, is not even a trained scientist!
4. Our elected representatives are doing a poor job of serving the public interest. They're either sabotaging development of existing energy sources, or not fighting hard enough for the interests of the entire United States.
5. England, France, Japan, and other countries are well ahead of the USA in using nuclear power to generate electricity. But then, none of these countries produced hyper-traitors like Jane Fonda, who made a stupid movie called "The China Syndrome."

The town hall meeting went well, encouraging its organizers to start planning even larger events in the future. And I was impressed enough to add AFP Colorado to my blogroll, effective immediately.

Ho-Hum

Usually, in presidential campaigns, I don't pay much attention to polls (except for the big one in Nov.), but today's Evans-Novak Political Report (written by Tim Carney while Robert Novak is in the hospital) is worth a little comment or two.

"The usefulness in national polls is in getting rough ideas of a candidate's popularity, and more importantly as a judge of momentum. It is on this latter score that Obama needs to worry. On June 4, Rasmussen Reports released its first daily tracking poll of the general election (3,000 likely voters over three nights, with a margin of error of +/-2%), and it showed Obama 47%, McCain 45%. Fifty-seven days later, the Wednesday, July 30 poll showed Obama at 48% to McCain's 46%-virtually no movement. In the interim, neither candidate has shown movement outside the margin of error.

"The first observation to draw is that voters aren't paying close attention, and so minimal movement is to be expected. This is important: It's still too early to foresee the outcome of the race.

"But the deeper significance of these national poll numbers is the way in which Obama lags his party and has failed to break 50% nationally, even while all the breaks go his way."

EDITORIAL COMMENT: Much has been made of the "bounce" that Obama's recently-concluded world tour gave to his campaign, but more sober observers have noted that the rise, if any, does not live up to the hype, and his campaign ought to be concerned about the fact that his poll numbers are not as high as Gore in July 2000 or Kerry in July 2004. That leaves him with a much smaller margin for error, and one slip-up may be just enough to do in his bid for the presidency. In this way Sen. McCain could, like Inspector Clouseau, back into a solution while appearing to be headed in the wrong direction.

Gasp! McCain Almost as Clueless as Obama on Taxation

The Wall Street Journal has an article, "McCain's Tax Blunder," in which George Stephanopoulos, raises a question about Social Security, "You're a longtime supporter of the private accounts, as President Bush called for them." Wishing to further distance himself from President Bush, when he could have drawn an equally useful contrast with Barack Obama, Mr. McCain didn't even own up to his support for private retirement accounts, simply saying, "I am a supporter of sitting down together and putting everything on the table and coming up with an answer."

The wandering candidate also put his chief economic adviser, Douglas Holtz-Eakin, in an uncomfortable spot. Back in June, the McCain campaign went after Mr. Obama's proposal for a Social Security payroll tax increase on income above $250,000. A President McCain, his adviser then said, wouldn't consider a payroll tax increase "under any imaginable circumstances." So much for that.

It is the unchanging position of this blog that now is not the time to even think about raising taxes in general and Social Security taxes in particular. In a period of economic uncertainty, it is wisdom for the government to inspire public confidence by exercising fiscal discipline and to hold the line (or better yet, reduce) existing taxes. Liberals cling to the fallacy that the public has an infinite capacity to be exploited for tax revenues, even more tightly than we conservatives cling to our guns and our religion! Unless the public is continuously reassured that their hard-earned money is being used wisely, the size of the underground economy will increase and tax evasion will become an art form.

UPDATE: One of my correspondents, whose opinion I respect, has rushed to the defense of Sen. McCain. I inserted his e-mail and my response in "Comments."

Tributes Pour In for Rush Limbaugh

Rush Limbaugh is the gold standard of talk radio, and Human Events has seen fit to celebrate his 20th anniversary by running a series of tributes this week.

UPDATE: Today, on his radio show, Rush counseled a disgruntled Democrat, Mrs. Lakoff (rhymes with), who "felt raped" because her candidate, Hillary Clinton, didn't win. He brought up the case of the 12-year-old girl in Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita" who was raped by Humbert Humbert, yet returned to his bed. 'You see,' Humbert tells the reader, 'she had absolutely nowhere else to go.'

Ever felt the same way about the party of your choice, whether Republican or Democrat? There are millions of Republicans who still have faith in the Constitution and limited government, and numerous Democrats who believe in God, country, and family values, who are beginning to realize that the leaders of their respective parties are selling them down the river because they have been corrupted by the mad pursuit of the ring of power (to use an analogy from "Lord of the Rings"). That's why I gave Col. Riley of Patriots Revolt a platform to disseminate his ideas on this blog.

Because I Can

This is not an endorsement of any presidential candidate, but an opportunity to take a swipe at the New York Times for infringing on Sen. McCain's First Amendment rights. Whether you like him or not is irrelevant and immaterial; he is as much a public figure as Barack Obama (whose views on Iraq were published by that newspaper), and the people have a need to know where he stands on the issues.


Sen. McCain's NY Times Op-Ed
By GOPUSA Staff
GOPUSA News
July 22, 2008

HOUSTON (GOPUSA News) -- Below is the op-ed by Sen. John McCain that the New York Times refused to print. An op-ed by Sen. Barack Obama regarding his plans for Iraq was accepted by the New York Times.

-------

Op-ed by Sen. John McCain

In January 2007, when General David Petraeus took command in Iraq, he called the situation "hard" but not "hopeless." Today, 18 months later, violence has fallen by up to 80% to the lowest levels in four years, and Sunni and Shiite terrorists are reeling from a string of defeats. The situation now is full of hope, but considerable hard work remains to consolidate our fragile gains.

Progress has been due primarily to an increase in the number of troops and a change in their strategy. I was an early advocate of the surge at a time when it had few supporters in Washington. Senator Barack Obama was an equally vocal opponent. "I am not persuaded that 20,000 additional troops in Iraq is going to solve the sectarian violence there," he said on January 10, 2007. "In fact, I think it will do the reverse."

Now Senator Obama has been forced to acknowledge that "our troops have performed brilliantly in lowering the level of violence." But he still denies that any political progress has resulted.

Perhaps he is unaware that the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad has recently certified that, as one news article put it, "Iraq has met all but three of 18 original benchmarks set by Congress last year to measure security, political and economic progress." Even more heartening has been progress that's not measured by the benchmarks. More than 90,000 Iraqis, many of them Sunnis who once fought against the government, have signed up as Sons of Iraq to fight against the terrorists. Nor do they measure Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki's new-found willingness to crack down on Shiite extremists in Basra and Sadr City-actions that have done much to dispel suspicions of sectarianism.

The success of the surge has not changed Senator Obama's determination to pull out all of our combat troops. All that has changed is his rationale. In a New York Times op-ed and a speech this week, he offered his "plan for Iraq" in advance of his first "fact finding" trip to that country in more than three years. It consisted of the same old proposal to pull all of our troops out within 16 months. In 2007 he wanted to withdraw because he thought the war was lost. If we had taken his advice, it would have been. Now he wants to withdraw because he thinks Iraqis no longer need our assistance.

To make this point, he mangles the evidence. He makes it sound as if Prime Minister Maliki has endorsed the Obama timetable, when all he has said is that he would like a plan for the eventual withdrawal of U.S. troops at some unspecified point in the future.

Senator Obama is also misleading on the Iraqi military's readiness. The Iraqi Army will be equipped and trained by the middle of next year, but this does not, as Senator Obama suggests, mean that they will then be ready to secure their country without a good deal of help. The Iraqi Air Force, for one, still lags behind, and no modern army can operate without air cover. The Iraqis are also still learning how to conduct planning, logistics, command and control, communications, and other complicated functions needed to support frontline troops.

No one favors a permanent U.S. presence, as Senator Obama charges. A partial withdrawal has already occurred with the departure of five "surge" brigades, and more withdrawals can take place as the security situation improves. As we draw down in Iraq, we can beef up our presence on other battlefields, such as Afghanistan, without fear of leaving a failed state behind. I have said that I expect to welcome home most of our troops from Iraq by the end of my first term in office, in 2013.

But I have also said that any draw-downs must be based on a realistic assessment of conditions on the ground, not on an artificial timetable crafted for domestic political reasons. This is the crux of my disagreement with Senator Obama.

Senator Obama has said that he would consult our commanders on the ground and Iraqi leaders, but he did no such thing before releasing his "plan for Iraq." Perhaps that's because he doesn't want to hear what they have to say. During the course of eight visits to Iraq, I have heard many times from our troops what Major General Jeffrey Hammond, commander of coalition forces in Baghdad, recently said: that leaving based on a timetable would be "very dangerous."

The danger is that extremists supported by Al Qaeda and Iran could stage a comeback, as they have in the past when we've had too few troops in Iraq. Senator Obama seems to have learned nothing from recent history. I find it ironic that he is emulating the worst mistake of the Bush administration by waving the "Mission Accomplished" banner prematurely.

I am also dismayed that he never talks about winning the war-only of ending it. But if we don't win the war, our enemies will. A triumph for the terrorists would be a disaster for us. That is something I will not allow to happen as president. Instead I will continue implementing a proven counterinsurgency strategy not only in Iraq but also in Afghanistan with the goal of creating stable, secure, self-sustaining democratic allies.

UPDATE: Here's a fascinating glimpse into a parallel universe, courtesy of Neal Boortz.

MCCAIN GETTING BETTER MEDIA COVERAGE?

Barack Obama made an appearance at the UNITY conference for minority journalists. Apparently black journalists are equally as frustrated with the media coverage of the campaign, but in a different way. Les Payne, a founding member of the National Association of Black Journalists and an editor at Newsday, sat on one of the panels at this conference. When asked whether it was appropriate for journalists to clap for Barack Obama, here's what Mr. Payne had to say: "The total duality of it gets to me ... There's no question that mainstream journalists completely adore McCain and cover him favorably ... Now it is: You cannot do what we do routinely . . . and have been doing for a century ... You have been writing favorable stories about [President] Bush for eight years. This is a serious problem and one of the reasons why this organization was founded." So there you go. According to a black journalist, it is McCain who is getting all of the adoration from the media, not Barack Obama.

OK ... I'll have some of what he's drinking.

What Is He Thinking?

Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert granted full amnesty to several terrorist leaders, confirming his dubious status as the lamest Prime Minister in the modern history of Israel. Among the criminals he released was Nasser Abu Aziz, second-in-command of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades. This man has the blood of at least 10 Jews on his hands, including an American who happened to be visiting at that time, Daniel Wultz of Florida.

WorldNetDaily has more stomach-churning details.

Militant Muslim Threat Facing China

For China, Islamic terrorism has been a back-burner issue - until recently. Lately a series of bombings blamed on Muslim Uighurs from Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region in NW China prior to the Beijing Olympics has forced the Chinese government to pay attention. A confrontation could start as early as the 8th of August, especially in light of this Reuters news story quoted in Jihad Watch:

A group calling itself the Turkistan Islamic Party released a video threatening the Beijing Olympic Games and claiming responsibility for recent deadly explosions on two Chinese buses, a terrorism monitoring firm said.

IntelCenter, a US-based terrorism monitoring firm, said the group had released a video entitled "Our Blessed Jihad in Yunnan," featuring a statement by the group's leader, Commander Seyfullah, threatening next month's Olympics.

"Despite the Turkistan Islamic Party's repeated warnings to China and international community about stopping the 29th Olympics in Beijing, the Chinese have haughtily ignored our warnings," IntelCenter quoted Seyfullah as saying.

"The Turkistan Islamic Party volunteers who had gone through special preparations have started urgent actions."

Word to the wise: One national policy dating from the days of the imperial dynasties that the Communist government will enforce is that they will fight to defend any land regarded as Chinese territory, and move against any threat to their national security. It may not happen today or tomorrow, but once they get going, heads will roll.
More information on threats from the Turkestan Islamic Party from the Washington Post/MSNBC.

German Reporter Melts Like a Puddle in the Presence of the Divine Obama!

I still have trouble believing this story from Bild am Sonntag magazine, even after I read it:

I worked out with Obama!
He curled 32 kilo dumbbells next to me +++ Barack is top fit +++ He didn’t sweat at all
By Judith Bonesky

As thousands waited at the Sieges Saule monument in Berlin to hear Obama’s sensational speech, a BILD reporter met Barack all alone – in the gym! Here's the incredible account of Judith Bonesky’s meeting…

It's 16:02pm and I’ve been training in the gym of the Ritz Carlton hotel in Berlin. A man in a suit approaches me and says: "Barack Obama is about to come and train ...“ Shortly after half past four and he actually arrives! Barack Obama is wearing a grey t-shirt, black tracksuit bottoms – and a great smile!

"Hi, how’s it going?“ asks Obama in his deep voice. My heart beats. "Very good, and you?" I say. Obama replies: "Very good, thank you!"

Obama (with toned arms and a strong back) puts on his headphones for his iPod to listen to pop music. He hums quietly. Then he jumps on a fitness bike. He pushes three times on the pedals – but then can’t be bothered with it.

He goes and picks up a pair of 16 kilo weights and starts curling them with his left and right arms, 30 repetitions on each side. Then, amazingly, he picks up the 32 kilo weights! Very slowly he lifts them, first 10 curls with his right, then 10 with his left. He breathes deeply in and out and takes a sip of water from his 0,5 litre Evian bottle.

Shortly before five o’clock Obama comes over and sits directly next to my cross-trainer on the mat. First he does 10 sit-ups, then stretches. Then he looks at his watch and says to his bodyguard: “It’s time, let’s go.” Quickly I ask: “Mr. Obama, could I take a photo?”. “Of course!” he answers, before asking my name and coming over to stand next to me.

“My name’s Judith” I reply. "I’m Barack Obama, nice to meet you!” he says, and puts his arm across my shoulder. I put my arm around his hip – wow, he didn’t even sweat! WHAT A MAN!

Excerpts from "Patriots Sound the Alarm to Washington to listen to the People "

From an article by Felicia Benamon:

Disgruntled Republicans and conservatives...are you disgusted with John McCain as the Republican nominee? Democrats, are you annoyed and tired of Barack Obama?

Colonel Harry Riley, US Army Ret. had a hand in putting together the Patriots Revolt website. He says that from the response he’s gotten, people want to see their politicians "stand up for just the masses. Not for special interests.”

“This has struck a chord...so many people are throwing up their hands… they don’t like any of the presidential candidates,” he continued.

Patriots Revolt addresses concerns of all Americans who wish to hold to traditional roots. Sadly, the Republican Party, which held true to those conservative values and traditions, has sold out to elitism and globalism.

“The Republican Party has abandoned Republican principles… forgotten about their roots," Col. Riley adds. Riley goes further to explain that regardless of party, Americans can find a home at Patriots Revolt.

Col. Riley stressed, “This is not about party name, it’s about founding principles and the moral rudder of America...we are taking a stand.”

Emphasizing the need to see the will of the people hold government accountable for their actions, Riley said, “It takes a measure of backbone, courage, guts… however one describes bucking the system, and charting an ‘uprising’ in America to stop the ‘criminal rape of For the Democrat, Republican, or Independent, etc. who is dissatisfied with the choices for president (better yet, if you are dissatisfied with the way the choices were picked) Patriots Revolt needs to hear from you.

It’s time to rock the boat.

Visit patriotsrevolt.com if you’ve had enough.
our citizens.’”

UPDATE: Gordon Bishop, a regular columnist for Ether Zone, has announced the formation of the American Liberty Party.

Third Party Watch lists names and Web sites of third and independent parties.

Bush Is Guilty of Four Counts of Heresy - No, Five Counts of Heresy! Says Mike Gravel

Posted at Free Republic on Saturday, July 26, 2008 10:40:42 PM by Red Steel

Former Democratic candidate Mike Gravel says President George W. Bush should be taken to The Hague for war crimes rather than being impeached.

In a Monday video conference with Press TV, the former Alaska senator said President Bush does not 'deserve' to be impeached for invading Afghanistan and Iraq, which has resulted in the loss of 'millions of lives'.

"An Impeachment just means you would only take away his (Bush's) presidency. Well, he is almost done (with) his presidency. What really needs to happen is that these people have to be held accountable for the crimes they have committed," the 78-year-old Democrat said referring to the US president and Vice President Dick Cheney.

"If you impeach president and vice president, Nancy Pelosi is going to become president; that is not going happen," Gravel added.

Gravel is an outspoken advocate of impeaching Bush and Cheney over the disinformation campaign they have led in support of their go-to-war policies.

"There is a lot of very good news that makes me tremendously hopeful that we as a nation are starting to wake up and insist our congressional representatives act to make impeachment happen now," he had said in a statement in January after congressman Dennis Kucinich announced plans to introduce articles of impeachment against President Bush.

Payback to Some of Our Loyal Supporters

On the left sidebar, between the Blogroll and Site Meter, you will find something new: a link to the Patriots Revolt Web site. It was started by Harry Riley, COL, USA, Ret., who recognizes the fact that millions of Americans have lost all patience with the corrupt careerists who dominate all levels of government and both major political parties. I know, on this blog, it is redundant to call anything "shameless," but it's about time we stood up for the principles, the people, and the Constitution that all contributed to our greatness. I wrote the following reply to the individual who brought "Patriots Revolt" to my attention:

In my opinion, conservatives will eventually have to form another party, and let the country-club Republicans and RINOs revel in their own irrelevancy. Even in the low-tech days of the 1850s, the Republicans displaced the Whig Party with amazing speed, sending it to join the bleached bones of other political parties in just a few years. Because true independents like Gov. Ventura and Sen. Lieberman get treated like political orphans, it is best that they have some kind of organization to back them up. Win or lose, I don't think that Sen. McCain can stop this trend from happening, as most of the elements for a mass revolt are in place, like logs in a bonfire waiting to be lit.

UPDATE: Col. Riley also maintains a blog at: http://www.independent-patriots-for-america.com/

Speaking Truth to Power on Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac

A Wall Street Journal editorial describes how a small minority of Senators exercised some sanity in dealing with the Fannie Mae-Freddie Mac problem. "Senator Jim DeMint has slowed the bill by requesting a commitment from his colleagues that sometime in the future, they would hold a vote on barring Fannie and Freddie from lobbying." And Sen. McCain made the following statement: "Receivership may indeed by the only option if a regulator can't get the far-flung activities of these two under control."

I summarized the situation to a friend by writing, "In a low-budget horror flick, the villain will be laughing diabolically and saying, 'I have created a monster!!' In this case, there are two of them, and they are textbook examples of how not to run a business. As subsidiaries of the federal government, it takes an act of Congress to effect any significant changes of policy to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and they lack the flexibility to lay off people, trim expenses, close out unprofitable operations, and control risks that private enterprise would have. In this case, spending millions of dollars on lobbyists is not an exercise of the right to petition, but a conflict of interest. I agree that receivership is the only recourse left to cut their losses and salvage what is left."

John McCain Comes Out Swinging!

The Power Line blog ran McCain's most stinging criticism of Barack Obama's position on the war in Iraq today. Speaking in Denver, Colorado (a state that could be pivotal in the upcoming election), he said:

"Senator Obama and I also faced a decision, which amounted to a real-time test for a future commander-in-chief. America passed that test. I believe my judgment passed that test. And I believe Senator Obama's failed....

"Senator Obama told the American people what he thought you wanted to hear. I told you the truth.

"Fortunately, Senator Obama failed, not our military. We rejected the audacity of hopelessness, and we were right. Violence in Iraq fell to such low levels for such a long time that Senator Obama, detecting the success he never believed possible, falsely claimed that he had always predicted it. ... In Iraq, we are no longer on the doorstep of defeat, but on the road to victory.

"Senator Obama said this week that even knowing what he knows today that he still would have opposed the surge. In retrospect, given the opportunity to choose between failure and success, he chooses failure. I cannot conceive of a Commander in Chief making that choice."

Read the whole speech.

EDITORIAL NOTE: The reason we are being so complimentary to McCain is because throughout most of his campaign he has NOT been articulate in defending his positions and putting down Obama when he has the chance (which comes often enough). No one's going to hand him the presidency - he will have to earn it.

Two Contrasting (But Not Conflicting) News Stories

We are saddened to announce that virtual-reality pioneer Dr. Randy Pausch, 47, passed away earlier today at his home in Virginia of incurable pancreatic cancer, which was diagnosed in September 2006. Living longer than many of his doctors expected, he inspired millions with his "Last Lecture," which in expanded form became a best-selling book. He is survived by his wife, Jai, and three children, Dylan, Logan and Chloe.

Meanwhile, on the campaign trail, the Blogosphere is abuzz with the report that Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama canceled a visit to wounded Soldiers at Landstuhl Medical Center, Germany, because he wouldn't be able to use the inevitable video footage as campaign material.

Peter Kirsanow has a few choice words on National Review Online.
Check out additional coverage and reader comments on Free Republic.
Blogs for Victory is on top of this story too.
On the other hand: Politico.com reports that the Dept. of Defense advised the Obama entourage against visiting our troops at the military hospital in Landstuhl.

Disenfranchising the Military - An OLD American Tradition

Robert D. Novak is one of the latest to bring up this unpleasant topic, which should have seen the light of day years ago.

Rep. Roy Blunt, the House Republican whip, on July 8 introduced a resolution demanding that the Defense Department better enable U.S. military personnel overseas to vote in the November elections. That act was followed by silence. Democrats normally leap on an opportunity to find fault with the Bush Pentagon. But not a single Democrat joined Blunt as a co-sponsor, and an all-Republican proposal cannot pass in the Democratic-controlled House....well, you ought to read the rest of the article at: http://www.creators.com/opinion/robert-novak/the-soldier-voting-scandal.html.

Chuck Norris Speaks Out on the "N-Word"

Chuck Norris, in the Human Events article, "What the Bleep?!" has some choice words to say about blacks who indiscriminately use the "N-Word." Here are two paragraphs, but I recommend you read the whole thing.

Jesse Jackson (on an off-air mic before "Fox & Friends") and Whoopi Goldberg (and another host on "The View") have raised the cultural language debate to a new level: Who has the right to say the N-word? Their answer: Blacks can, but whites can't. Unfortunately, this derogatory debate has degraded into Don Imus on steroids....

This is more than a race issue and far more than a debate over freedom of speech. When will we learn that just because we can say something doesn't mean that we should? Once again, we're confusing liberty for licentiousness. It is a classic example of what happens when a society leaves its moral absolutes: Everything becomes culturally relative, with each deciding what's right in his own eyes. Language is one more infected arena in America's societal degradation.

UPDATE: What uncanny timing! Arkansas is obliged to perform a product recall on hundreds of offending license plates (see illustration below):

McCain's Vulnerabilities on Foreign Policy

Slate.com isn't exactly a bastion of conservative thought, but Fred Kaplan, in "How Much Does John McCain Really Know About Foreign Policy? Not as much as he'd like you to think," raises some valid points the presumptive Republican nominee needs to consider, if he is to remain a serious contender for the presidency. One example:

"It may be time to reassess this narrative's premise—or to abandon it altogether and simply examine the evidence before us. Quite apart from the gaffes, in formal prepared speeches, McCain has proposed certain actions and policies that raise serious questions about his suitability for the highest office. As president, he has said, he would boot Russia out of the G-8 on the grounds that its leaders don't share the West's values. He would form an international 'League of Democracy' as a united front against the forces of autocracy and terror. And though it's not exactly a stated policy, he continues to employ as his foreign-policy adviser an outspoken, second-tier neoconservative named Randy Scheunemann, who coined the term "rogue-state rollback" and still prescribes it as sound policy."

EDITORIAL COMMENT: Although I disagree with Kaplan's interpretation of other events, I have to admit that the paragraph above cannot be easily dismissed. My military experience has taught me that the right combination of civilian and military brainpower can make even the most bone-headed general or politician sound brilliant. Whether McCain - or Obama - see the light and assemble a foreign policy team to help him make wise decisions, or whether they delude themselves into thinking they can do it all, remains to be seen.

Elvis Sighting in the Roman Empire!!!

A Daily Mail article out of England describes how a sculpture bearing a remarkable resemblance to Elvis Presley is up for auction. It dates from the Roman era (2nd century A.D.).

"The Roman Elvis is in fact a genuine marble acroterion - a kind of architectural ornament often found for decoration on the corners of a sarcophagus, a stone tomb or burial chamber...."

A spokesman for Bonhams said: "It is perhaps the strangest item in the sale, certainly to modern eyes.

"Fans of the King of Rock 'n Roll, seeing this face from the distant past will be forgiven for thinking that their idol may well have lived a previous life in Rome!

"Looking at this face with its Elvis-like quiff, strong jaw and nose, one is inevitably led to the thought that the human face for all is diversity and subtlety has after all an ability to repeat itself."