"They shall be cast down into a lake of fire:" --E. Smoots

Reverend Eli Smoots says of the residents of Munson, Ohio who have taken the "Easter" out of the egg hunt.  "Painted eggs has always been part of the Easter Story; I seen proof of it in this and many other famous paintings of our Lord and Savior Jesus H. Christ," preached Rev. Smoots.

The World According to Rick, part 1

Santorum blames 'abortion culture' for problems with Social Security
By: CNN Associate Producer Gabriella Schwarz

(CNN) - Potential 2012 presidential candidate Rick Santorum said the "abortion culture" in America is to blame for the failing Social Security system.

In an interview with WEZS Radio in Laconia, New Hampshire, Tuesday, the former Republican Pennsylvania senator said abortion rates are influencing the number of children born in the United States and there are therefore not enough children to support the program long-term.
"The Social Security system in my opinion is a flawed design, period. But having said that, the design would work a lot better if we had stable demographic trends," Santorum said. "A third of all the young people in America are not in America today because of abortion."
Santorum, an outspoken opponent of abortion, made the comments in response to a caller who said abortion rates are to blame for the problems with Social Security and Medicare.
"We have seven children so we're doing our part to fund the Social Security system," Santorum said. "I want children to be living in America and contributing. America's greatest resource is our people and we're denying America what it needs, which is more Americans."
Santorum was in New Hampshire, the first-in-the-nation primary state Tuesday to meet with voters and headline a GOP dinner in Concord.

The World According to Rick, part 2

Dictionary

"Squirmish"

--How you feel when you watch this woman speak blather.

and so it goes

partly from the Huff.

Orly Taitz Vows To Get to the Bottom of the Donald Trump Birther Controversy.

Reservations Being Held for Mr. Gingrich

Second Circle:  Lust

Eighth Circle:    Fraud

    Bolgia 1:       Seducers

    Bolgia 4:       False Prophets

    Bolgia 6:       Hypocrites

    Bolgia 8:       Evil Councillors

Ninth Circle:     Treachery

In a related story:   Jeffery Dahmer's journal reveals how his experiences informed his criticism of Bobby Flay's grilling techniques.

Intelligent Design

China 'to overtake US on science' in two years 

David Shukman Science and environment correspondent, BBC News

China is on course to overtake the US in scientific output possibly as soon as 2013 - far earlier than expected.  That is the conclusion of a major new study by the Royal Society, the UK's national science academy.  The country that invented the compass, gunpowder, paper and printing is set for a globally important comeback.  An analysis of published research - one of the key measures of scientific effort - reveals an "especially striking" rise by Chinese science.  

Great Medical Scourges of Mankind

"Yo! L'UOMO Vogue"

Vatican opens dialogue with atheists

from the National Catholic Reporter

Mar. 25, 2011

By Francis X. Rocca, Religion News Service

VATICAN CITY -- A new Vatican initiative to promote dialogue between believers and atheists debuted with a two-day event on Thursday and Friday in Paris.

"Thank you, thank you. For my next number: 
the Deus Irae from the Mozart Requiem."

“Religion, Light and Common Reason” was the theme of seminars sponsored by the Vatican’s Pontifical Council for Culture at various locations in the French capital, including Paris-Sorbonne University and the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).

“The church does not see itself as an island cut off from the world. ... Dialogue is thus a question of principle for her,” Cardinal Gianfranco Ravasi told the French newspaper La Croix. “We are aware that the great challenge is not atheism but indifference, which is much more dangerous.”

The events were scheduled to conclude with a party for youth in the courtyard of the Cathedral of Notre Dame on Friday evening, featuring an appearance via video by Pope Benedict XVI, followed by prayer and meditation inside the cathedral.

The initiative, called “Courtyard of the Gentiles,” takes its name from a section of the ancient Temple of Jerusalem accessible to non-Jews, which Benedict has used as a metaphor for dialogue between Catholics and non-believers.

Just how slimy can a newt be?

But what about real news: Charlie Sheen, the royal wedding, K-Lo?

Look who can give, but can not take.

Benny learns that a gang of steaming gays 
doesn't behave like a pile of burning faggots.

Gods, Saints, and Monsters: A Pantheon

Janus

Who deserves to be thrown down a stairwell today?

Ann Coulter
Do we really need specifics?

What possible flaw could there be in this plan?

from 
Human Events

Sarah, What Would Our North Korean Allies Think?

'round and 'round the revolution

That just leaves I-ran, I-raq, Italy, Ireland, Indiana, and Indonesia and I 'll be done with the "I's".

Palin visits Israel

"Todd, get me a ham sandwich."

"Jeez louise, what a rip."

Gunga Dim, part two

Palins blow off Taj Mahal to visit Emporio shopping mall.

The g(r)ift that just keeps on giving.

from Politicususa
Sarah Palin was in New Delhi, India March 19 for the annual India Today conclave, where she gave a speech on “My Vision for America.” The theme for this years conclave was “The Changing Balance of Power.” After her speech, Palin sat down for a Q and A session with India Today Editor-in-Chief and Session Chairman Aroon Purie, during which she blamed McCain for losing 2008, among other mildly amusing indications that she is running for President in 2012.
When asked why she lost 2008, Palin snapped, “I wasn’t the top of the ticket!”

John Paul II relics appear as beatification nears

Early preparations at Vatican Inc.

By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA, Associated Press

WARSAW, Poland – Pope John Paul II is not yet a saint, but objects donated by his longtime secretary are already being venerated as relics in his staunchly Roman Catholic homeland. 

The relics are just one sign of Poles' devotion to their homegrown pope, who served 27 years, and was put on the fast-track for sainthood after shouts of "Santo Subito!" — or "Sainthood Immediately!" — erupted during his funeral Mass at St. Peter's Square in Rome. 

Though beatification, the last major step before possible sainthood, is still six weeks away on May 1, many Polish Catholics already revere him for his religious devotion and as a national hero who helped bring down communism. 

But some critics reject the veneration of relics, saying it smacks of medieval or pagan practices. Others say that by introducing relics into the public cult of John Paul, Dziwisz is reducing the memory of a complex and multidimensional figure to simplistic mementos. 

"Relics were needed in times when people could not read or write," said Rev. Krzysztof Madel, a Jesuit priest in Nowy Sacz, near Krakow, who has spoken out against the promotion of the relics. By placing a vial of John Paul's blood in the altar of a church in Krakow, he argued, "we will return to the Middle Ages and magic-based Catholicism."

The Palin Implosion

The Daily Beast

John Avlon – Thu Mar 17 

NEW YORK – Sarah Palin has gone from the most divisive figure in politics to the most polarizing within the GOP. John Avlon on the polls that show her path to the nomination keeps getting steeper. 

Call off the coronation—the media’s caught on to the slow motion implosion of Sarah Palin’s popularity, and with it her prospective presidential campaign. 

A new Washington Post/ABC News poll found that Palin’s approval ratings among Republicans had declined by double digits since October, while her “strongly unfavorable” rating reached 17 percent among the GOP and 28 percent among Republican-leaning independents. This shift in the conservative populist tide provoked a series of memorable (and frankly enviable) headlines like “The Incredible Shrinking Sarah Palin” from Politico and other outlets.

U.S. to fly unmmanned spy plane over crippled nuclear plant for closer look

Thursday, March 17, 2011   Kyodo News

Photographs taken by the plane equipped with infrared sensors could provide a useful clue to what is occurring inside the reactor buildings, around which high-level radiation has been detected.

The planned mission comes as the Japanese government appears unable to contain the crisis days after the coastal nuclear plant was struck by a magnitude 9.0 earthquake and tsunami.

It would represent a deepening of Japanese-U.S. cooperation in coping with the escalating crisis, with the U.S. military having already provided logistical transportation, and search and rescue efforts in the wake of the disaster that hit northeastern Japan.

In Washington on Wednesday, a Pentagon official said U.S. forces in Japan are in principle not allowed within a 90 kilometer radius of the plant.

There has been no damage to the health of U.S. soldiers as a result of exposure to radiation from the plant, the official said.

Not so sure about # 6 and 8 either

By Peter H. Stone

The Center for Public Integrity
The political unit of a religious conservative group called Renewing American Leadership, whose honorary chair is Newt Gingrich, is aiming to raise $500,000 to $1 million for high-stakes political issues in its first year.

The Law: Written in Cement?

Gods, Saints, and Monsters: A Pantheon

Medusa

"Mirror, mirror, on the wa a a a... 

"Good Morning Miss Bachmann."

"As a mother of 5 and foster mother to 23, as well as someone who homeschooled her children, Congresswoman Bachmann is a strong supporter of homeschooling and is looking forward to speaking to the group in   Iowa," says Bachmann spokesman Doug Sachtleben.

Who deserves to be thrown down a stairwell today?

James E. O'Keefe III 

-fiction film maker-

-liar-

-twit-
-thief-

"I can haz Presidency ?"

"What I love about New Hampshire and what we have in common is our extreme love for liberty," the potential GOP presidential candidate said. "You're the state where the shot was heard around the world in Lexington and Concord. And you put a marker in the ground and paid with the blood of your ancestors the very first price that had to be paid to make this the most magnificent nation that has ever arisen in the annals of man in 5,000 years of recorded history."

Rick Santorum: A miserable little glob of snot*

Rick Santorum: Newt Gingrich's Past Infidelity 'Not An Issue' With Respect To Positions He Takes    

*or a glob of something else      

Well, that explains and justifies everything.

Pope Links Violence In God's Name To Antichrist  

VATICAN CITY -- Violence committed in the name of God or religion is a "favorite instrument of the Antichrist," Pope Benedict XVI writes in a new book on the life and teachings of Jesus.
"Violence does not build up the kingdom of God, the kingdom of humanity," Benedict writes. "On the contrary, it is a favorite instrument of the Antichrist, however idealistic its religious motivation may be. It serves not humanity, but inhumanity."
The passage appears in Jesus of Nazareth -- Holy Week: From the Entrance into Jerusalem to the Resurrection, which was published in English and seven other languages on Thursday (March 10), with an initial printing of 1.2 million copies.

from the Huffington Post

       

[Tea] Party !

later that evening, after much champagne, and brandy on ice

Wisconsin State Senate Republicans Took Hundreds Of Thousands In Government Farm Subsidies

Well, it is the dairy state!

from the Huffington Post

WASHINGTON -- At least three of the Wisconsin state Senate Republicans currently demanding that public workers sacrifice benefits, wages and even collective bargaining rights for the sake of the budget have applied for and received hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal farm subsidies, a Huffington Post review of state and federal records shows.
From 1995 through 2009, state Sens. Luther Olsen, Dale Schultz and Sheila Harsdorf all had stakes in farms that received between them more than $300,000 in taxpayer funds.

Peter King vows to defend us from the Mahometan menace.

Rep. Peter King's hearings on Islamic radicalization

from the Washington Post

Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker Savors an Encounter With His Mentor

The scent of power.

Maybe it's time for India to start outsourcing.

from the Huffington Post

Palin Prepares for India Trip

Run for the White House

"I would love to know more. What I know is troubling enough. And one thing that I do know is his having grown up in Kenya, his view of the Brits, for example, very different than the average American. When he gave the back the … bust of Winston Churchill, a great insult to the British. But then if you think about it, his perspective as growing up in Kenya with a Kenyan father and grandfather, their view of the Mau Mau Revolution in Kenya is very different than ours because he probably grew up hearing that the British were a bunch of imperialists who persecuted his grandfather."