Netherlands: Three People Wed One Another

Once again, the Dutch remain on the forefront of the movement to destroy the institution of marriage. The direction we all predicted gay marriage would inevitably lead manifested itself this past week in the Nethlerlands where 3 people wed one another, one man and two woman. They are trying to parade it as something other than polygamy as if that's a dirty word or something and if they call it something different, it will be different.

Everyone knows that if gay marriage can be justified, anything can be justified...including the absence of all moral inhibitions. It's sad to see a nation that served as a haven to the Pilgrims for a time when religious liberty was not widespread in Europe, that produced the powerful legacy of William the Silent, and Abraham Kuyper become the leader in the legalization and regulation of prostitution, the legalization of drugs, the legalization of gay marriage, euthanasia, and now this.

Legend of the Deep Filmed For First Time

Check out this article in the New York Times. Japanese researchers have filmed giant squid for the first time. They caught one for four hours and held it captive while filming it. It eventually broke free leaving an 18 foot tentacle behind. The creature of so much fascination is just as cool in real life as in imagination.

The Shame of Yale Law School

Scott Johnson of Powerline Blog has an excellent article on the Solomon Amendment and the ongoing litigation surrounding it.

Simply disinenguous what Yale Law School will do for money. I think I would respect their administration more if they refused to allow JAG recruiters on campus and refused to take the $350 million in federal funding. But instead they resist as much as possible . . . except they allow the recruiters on campus while still making their stay as cold and unfriendly as they can. Pathetic.

Prayer on Capitol Hill

I had a great conversation recently with Congressman Randy Forbes in which he was telling me about the prayer meetings he started a little while ago in Room 219 on the Hill for a group he is calling the Congressional Prayer Caucus or something to that effect. The meetings are simply referred to has 219, and the turnout of congressmen to pray together has been outstanding. It continues to grow and take off as 219 groups have begun to pop up all over the country as leaders around the country focus on praying for our nation. It is comforting to know that we have at least some leaders who recognize their dependence on a higher being and come to Him humbly on their knees regularly.

There are also many people who are full-time prayer warriors, if you will, for our nation on Capitol Hill. I met several of these people recently, one of which is Ruth Coz Mizell, widow of the late Congressman Wilmer Mizell of North Carolina. She has spent almost twenty years now of praying in the corridors of power after retiring from chairing many major Republican campaigns for the Senate and the governor's mansion in Texas. She is a fascinating woman who has lived a spectacular life story and I'm glad she's still doing battle in Washington although no longer on the front lines of the grassroots political struggle.

Krempasky: FEC Trying to Regulate Political Blogs

Here is the article about Krempasky speaking at UVA Law last week. If you don't know this already, you bloggers will want to read this. This article doesn't do a good job of explaning Krempasky's actual tone during his talk. He is worried by the FEC, but their first attempt at regulating us will not succeed.

President Cup Signs in Gainesville

Did anyone notice the permanent green road signs that VDOT put up along I-66 for the President's Cup this past weekend in Gainesville, Virginia? I just found that rather odd. They were up for several weeks before the event. They will be priceslessly original for somebody's stolen sign collection.

On another note, it was great to see Jack Nicklaus go out with a win as captain of the American team, especially considering our poor track record with him as a coach in the last few President's Cups.

Leinart the Celebrity

I've never rooted for USC or particularly liked anyone in the Pac-10 in general. In fact, I've always looked down on them as something of an overrated conference both in football and basketball, although less so in basketball thanks go UCLA obviously. But Matt Leinart's decision to come back for his final year of eligibility despite having accomplished just about everything possible on the college level amazes me and he's reached a level of celebrity unknown to any college athlete in quite some time. It doesn't hurt for him to play in Hollywood.

Roberts the Inevitable

This is about what everyone was expecting. Three Democrats crossed party lines to vote for Roberts nomination.

Powerline is right that the fact that a majority of the Democrats voted against an eminently qualified nominee supported by major liberal media outlets such as the Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times sets a precedent which will be remembered for a long time. It's something we should certainly remember the next time we have a Democratic President in the White House and he nominates a qualifed but liberal judge (and we are certain he will do the latter without wavering).

Warner Doesn't Take Page Out of Groh's Playbook

This Saturday against Syracuse, when Al Groh went for it on fourth down and one from the 10 yard line with a minute left to kill the clock when he could have gone ahead and kicked a field goal to probably win the game, he took a calculated risk. After the game, he said that he made the decision while thinking about the movie Risky Business: "All we came for was to win ... You guys ever seen the movie 'Risky Business'? Sometimes, you've just gotta say, 'What the ... heck.' "

Patrick McSweeney's piece on Bacon's Rebellion is an excellent analysis of Warner's failure to do exactly what Groh did on Saturday: take a calculated risk. Despite Warner's superior ratings among Virginia voters, he is not bold enough to put his political future on the line in a campaign against Allen. If he won, his chances at being elected President would be greatly enhanced, but he is not willing to risk the ramifications of a defeat.

That's what separates George Allen and Mark Warner. When George Allen was redistricted out of a congressional seat, he decided to ante up and run for governor. Warner just doesn't have that kind of guts.

Mazzone Best Assistant Coach of All-Time?

Here is a excellent article on ESPN.com about Leo Mazzone's job as pitching coach for the Atlanta Braves over the last 15 years. It argues that he's the greatest assistant coach of all-time. As a long time Atlanta fan, I find that hard to argue with. It's also an exhaustive article with interviews with roughly 15 people who he worked with or coached over the last 20 years, including quite a few pitchers who benefied from his mentorship.

Krempasky and Hayward In the Same Room

We've got Mike Krempasky of www.redstate.org and Allison Hayward of www.skepticseye.com here as we speak in the room discussing the FEC and bloggers. Excellent panel put on by the Federalist Society at UVA Law.

Riner on Character at Dartmouth Convocation

I recommend you this brief but amazing speech by Dartmouth senior and Student Body President Noah Riner. The speech is his welcome to the class of '09. In his speech, he talks about how though the new class may be brilliant, intelligence doesn't matter much if you don't have character. He focuses on the nature of human beings and the need for redemption. It is encouraging to know that speeches such as this one can occur in the Ivy League or the Northeast in general....or any university for that matter.

An excerpt:

My purpose in mentioning the horrible things done by certain people on the Gulf Coast isn’t to condemn just them; rather it’s to condemn all of us. Supposedly, character is what you do when no one is looking, but I’m afraid to say all the things I’ve done when no one was looking. Cheating, stealing, lusting, you name it - How different are we? It’s easy to say that we’ve never gone that far: never stolen that much; never lusted so much that we’d rape; and the people we’ve cheated, they were rich anyway.

Let’s be honest, the differences are in degree. We have the same flaws as the individuals who pillaged New Orleans. Ours haven’t been given such free range, but they exist and are part of us all the same.

Noah Riner spent this summer before beginning his senior year at Dartmouth at Marine officer training at Quantico. Unfortunately, he broke his foot after about 6 weeks. It takes character to recover from that sort of blow. So he knows what he's talking about.

Update on German Elections

The news out of Germany is not as hopeful as we had previously thought. I am still positive about Merkel's chances when I remember how the French voted down the European Constitution and the English have reelected Tony Blair...there is still some sanity in the Old World.

Hagans Excellent Minus the Interceptions

For those of you who watched the UVA-Syracuse game this afternoon, you will appreciate what I'm saying when I say that Hagans dominated the game with his scrambling ability. It was the first 100 yard rushing game of his career, but I believe that he could have a lot more if Groh would just give him the greenlight to run whenever. Last year, Groh often reigned Hagans in, but Hagans is an amazing talent to watch in the open field. He's far better than Marcus Vick at running the ball.

Admittedly, he did throw 3 picks in the first half, to bring his total to 5, the same number he threw all of last year. But he didn't let that stop him. And the final drive where he ran for 26 yards in a spectacular scramble on third down showed his steel. I believe he can lead the team to a lot of victories this year, although Virginia really really needs to get Ahmad Brooks AND Wali Lundy back on the playing field if we hope to have a solid year.

The War on Poverty's Failure in New Orleans

Here is a powerful article by Brendan Miniter in the Wall Street Journal on the stranding of the poor in New Orleans since the days of LBJ. For once, somebody gets it right.

Joe Biden in 1993

Chairman Joe Biden: "[Y]ou not only have a right to choose what you will answer and not answer, but in my view you should not answer a question of what your view will be on an issue that clearly is going to come before the court in 50 different forms, probably, over the next - over your tenure on the court." (Committee On The Judiciary, U.S. Senate, Hearing, 7/22/93)

Kilgore Won This Race in 2001

Despite the fact that pundits such as Larry Sabato are claiming Kilgore looked nervous and argued his positions poorly, the Fairfax Chamber of Commerce debate yesterday will make little to no difference on how people view Jerry Kilgore and how far ahead he is in the polls. First of all, no average Virginians watched the debate, partly because it it was early in the afternoon, and partially because no one really cares...at least not yet.

To be perfectly honest, Jerry Kilgore won this race in his 2001 campaign for Attorney General when Ken Hutcheson did an excellent job of defining Kilgore for the voters against an extremely poor opponent. While Kilgore was garnering 60% of the vote, Tim Kaine was struggling to defeat a poorly run and poorly funded Jay Katzen campaign by less than a percentage point. Kilgore appeals to Virginians despite or perhaps because of his accent. The worries that he might not resonate in more "sophisticated" areas of Virginia is proving to be a fleeting thought.

Jeff Sessions: I Don't Know What Roberts Will Do on Roe

It's a bad sign for conservatives when one of the prominent Republican senators on the Senate Judiciary Committee has no faith in Roberts to actually accomplish what most Republican voters were motivated by when they voted for Bush. Now, this may all be just the brilliance of Roberts to obfuscate and get approved by the Senate, and I hope it is, but you have to admit that the uncertainty of Roberts' stance on abortion makes one a little queasy when remembering past occurrences (i.e. David Souter).

News Flash: Chicago Still Corrupt

Sometimes we begin to think we have reached some civilized age where the old prejudices and corruptions that once controlled the inner cities are things of the past. But then we are quickly put in our place.

Matt Rosenberg breaks down the continued corruption of the Daley machine and their inability to conduct themselves in a manner respectful of the rule of law or the democratic process.

Three cheers for Gary Skoien, Chairman of the Cook County Republican Party, and his crusade to take down Daley. We can all hope he will eventually take Daley down.

New Ukraine Administration Reeling

President Yushchenko fired his prime minister, Tymoshenko, along many other members of his cabinet in the wake of scandals involving his son and others. Tymoshenko says that she will be running for the post of prime minister in the parliamentary elections of 2006. It is sad to see these former allies in the battle to free Ukraine now pitted against each other politically...somewhat reminiscent of the early 1790s and Jefferson and Hamilton's clashes.

Reports from Ukraine say that many of the citizens are very disappointed with the direction that Yushchenko has taken the country and are ready to go out into the streets yet again.

Michael Luttig for Justice

I know it's just a shot in the dark, but he is still on all the short lists. Having sat down with Judge Luttig for several hours and heard his judicial philosophy and where he stands on the issue of abortion among other things, there is no one I would rather see sitting on the Supreme Court bench than Michael Luttig. I realize that the President will probably appoint a woman or a minority to the court, which would clearly exclude Luttig, but one can still hold out hope. Bush has never been one to just do what people want him to do. He feeds off of people disagreeing with his decisions in the most vociferous of ways.

Luttig is a 1981 graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law, and has an excellent record of his clerks becoming Supreme Court clerks with Scalia and Thomas primarily. I believe the count is now 41 of his past 43 clerks have gone on to be clerks at the Supreme Court. This is a result of his intense and demanding training routine...the equivalent of Navy SEALs training for clerks.