When I heard the news of President Bush’s latest nominee for the Supreme Court the other day my initial reaction was much like Fozzie Bear’s famous “AAH-ah” of discovery: surprised, interested and a bit uncertain. I’ve sat back and tried to process my thoughts and predictions as just about every other blog I’ve read has jumped on one side or the other as to whether this is a good thing or a bad thing. Even after a few days of this I’m still, like Fozzie, a bit wide-eyed.

Here’s the thing for me: I’m politically and socially conservative, and most of my close friends and family vote the Constitution Party. Having been quite involved in Minnesota Republican politics some years ago, I have long since overcome any illusion that there was any real difference between Republicans and Democrats when it came to fiscal sanity. For all the supposed rhetorical differences, each party in practice is pretty much the same when you look at the results. Socially there was a big difference between Bush and Kerry, but I probably would have gone ahead and cast a protest vote for the Constitution Party candidate, Michael Peroutka, but for one, over-riding reason: the Supreme Court.

Given Bush’s track record of judicial nominees in his first term, I really wanted him – and our country – to have a chance to put conservative constructionists on the Supreme Court for the next 30 years. When the first opening arrived and he nominated John Roberts I was almost giddy – something I haven’t felt when it comes to politics in a long time. I was blown away at Bush’s political masterstroke in distracting his opposition while coming up with, almost out of the blue, a bulletproof heavyweight. The Dems knew they couldn’t touch him, but it was fun to watch clowns like Joe Biden blunt their pointy little heads on Roberts’ Kevlar fashioned from experience, scholarship and gravitas.

I thought the only question with the second nomination would be whether Bush choose to go into battle with one of the leading candidates already out there drawing fire, or whether his team had another overwhelming powerhouse like Roberts waiting in the wings to wheel onto the field.

Consider me underwhelmed.

There are definitely things about Harriet Miers that I like and make me feel hopeful, and I can’t – as you may have noticed over the past few days – work up the righteous indignation of so many other bloggers and pundits regarding her nomination. At the same time I can’t help but feel more than a bit wistful at an opportunity lost.

It was kind of like waiting for the NFL draft when your favorite team has a top pick. You spend months reading scouting reports, listening to Mel Kiper and the wannabees, imaging this blue-chip player or that coming in to plug a hole on your team. Then, on draft day, Paul Tagliabue steps up when it’s your team’s turn and says, “From Slippery Rock State …”

Hey, maybe the kid has 4.2 speed in the 40, great hands and eats linebackers for lunch, but you still don’t know if he can play in NFL. Someone high up must have seen something in him, but you can’t help yourself from thinking, “Is that the best we could do with that pick right now? Maybe he would have been available next round after you’ve already drafted the stud from the national championship team.”

Blogfather Hugh couldn’t ease my concerns completely, and the President’s “Trust me” statement wasn’t what I was hoping to hear, either. While he hasn’t inspired my confidence in areas such as immigration and spending (where I had low expectations going in anyway), I will say that his judicial appointments throughout his time in office have been more than solid.

So, back to my Muppet analogy, perhaps my hopes have been abused and my support manipulated by unseen hands. My options are limited, however. It’s not going to do any good for me to go all Animal right now or to act like the karate-chopping Miss Piggy – or even to heckle from the balcony like Waldorf and Astoria. I’ll just be Fozzie; a bit dim, I guess, but always optimistic that things are going to turn out alright. I just hope that this isn’t a re-run.

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Here’s an old joke:

A Protestant pastor is attending a conference in Ireland when he decides to use some free time to drive through the countryside. It’s a lovely day and he’s enjoying the beautiful scenery and accidentally drifts over the center line and strikes an oncoming car.

The pastor is shaken but okay, and is surprised to see that the driver getting out of the other car is a Catholic priest. The priest says, “Faith and begorrah, are you all right, Reverend?” (What’s a joke without a little stereotyping?)

“Why, thank the Lord, yes I am,” said the pastor. “Are you all right, Father?”

“Yes, quite,” said the priest, “but looking into your eyes it seems you are still a bit shaken.”

“I suppose I am,” admitted the pastor.

“I have just the thing,” said the priest, returning to his car and bringing a flask out of his glove compartment. He gives it to the pastor who sips it appreciatively.

“I’m so sorry,” says the pastor. “I was enjoying your lovely countryside and I must not have been paying attention. I’m so glad you’re not hurt.”

“It’s quite all right,” said the priest. “It is a lovely view, and I often find my own mind wandering when I drive past here. The cars can both be repaired, the important thing is we’re both unhurt.”

“Well said, Father,” said the pastor, taking another sip from the flask. “Isn’t it amazing, here we are two members of different religions, sitting here on the side of the road after an accident, peacefully considering each other’s health instead of fighting. In fact,” he said, “here’s to your health!” taking another sip and passing the flask back to the priest. “Won’t you join me?”

“Oh, no thank you, Reverend,” the priest said. “I think I’ll wait until after the police arrive.”

George Bush says to trust him regarding Harriet Miers. Ehhh, maybe. But trust Harry Reid?

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No, I’m not about to start stamping about on Doug’s turf, but I noticed this story in today’s New York Times (free registration required). Apparently there is such a glut of French wine in the market that some quality wines are selling in supermarkets in that country for less than the cost of bottled water. To survive, French vintners are converting 150 million liters of the country’s Appellation d’Origine Controlée into ethanol to be used in gasoline.

The article cites a few reasons for this overabundance, including a crackdown on drunken driving in France, but finally gets around to this:

Mr. Gibelin’s exports to the United States are a tenth of what they were a few years ago, thanks to a strong euro and, to some extent, he says, to the American boycott of French products that followed France’s refusal to support the invasion of Iraq (his biggest market was in Texas).

France may yet have the last laugh, however:

Because France exports gasoline and one of its biggest markets is the United States, by sometime next year, some Americans may be pumping their cars full of gas that includes a bit of Chardonnay or Pinot Noir.

I guess that soon I won’t have to check just the octane rating but the vintage as well when I fill my car. With a particularly bad year it might be fun spill the gas on the ground and complain to the attendant, “You call this gasoline? Why, I wouldn’t serve this to my lawn mower!”

I don’t want to trespass on King’s turf either, so I’ll leave it to him to evaluate the effectiveness of the EU’s response:

Whatever its cause, the glut has led to ruinous price declines. A bottle of modest Côtes-du-Rhône that used to sell wholesale for about 1.20 euros, or about $1.40, sells today for 60 centimes, about 70 cents. Even bottles of fancier Saint-Émilion are going for under 3 euros apiece.

To prevent the problem from growing, the European Union has kept the acreage devoted to vineyards in Europe fixed for the last five years. There are even subsidies available for people who agree to tear up their vineyards rather than keep producing bad wine, known in Europe as plonk. France’s state wine regulator, the National Inter-Professional Wine Bureau, has also been buying up vineyard rights – in effect, licenses to make wine – and taking them off the market.

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June 14, 2005:

McCombs, speaking on a conference call from his San Antonio office, reminded reporters that all the offseason moves made by Minnesota were completed under his watch. After adding at least five new starters on defense, the Vikings could be a legitimate Super Bowl contender.

“To me, this year — this will be my team, regardless of the fact that we’re totally out of ownership,” he said. “It’s obvious that we were involved in putting this team together.”

Red,

Most of us Vikings fans snorted back in June at your all-too-typical attempt to wring another windfall out of your stint as Vikings owner. We knew the only reason the new free agent acquisitions were made was because you already had Reggie Fowler’s $20 million non-refundable deposit safely tucked into an empty Folger’s can and buried in a secret location on your ranch. As if that weren’t enough, you tried to arrange it so that all the signing bonuses for the new guys wouldn’t be paid until after the team was sold so as not to depreciate your $400 million profit.

You are, after all, the guy who wouldn’t even pay to have the central air-conditioning at the club’s headquarters repaired. And I wouldn’t be surprised to find out you smuggled your own peanuts into your owner’s suite at the Dome so you wouldn’t have to pay those high catering prices.

Nor were we shocked that when it it was time to replace Denny Green you embarked on an exhaustive, 16-hour search of possible candidates before settling on Mike Tice, the team’s offensive line coach. Tice did have one important credential, however: he was so gosh-darn excited by the opportunity to be a head coach — despite never having even been a coordinator — that he was willing to work for about one-third the going rate for NFL head-coaches. It was a match made, not in heaven, but at Sam’s Club.

For the past three seasons as the team has struggled under your ownership it was hard to tell how much of the problem was coaching and how much of it was a lack of skilled players across the roster. Of course, it didn’t help that you savored the bouquet of all those dollars you saved by staying well under the salary cap each year the way some rich folks covet a fine cognac.

But, oh, the promise of this year! Fans were overlooking, however, that your actions let Tice limp into this season as the lamest of ducks. Therefore, once Scott Linehan found out he could make nearly as much money being the coordinator for the Dolphins as Tice would make as head coach, it was impossible to attract a promising offensive-coordinator for what might be a one-year (low-paying) job. Undiscouraged, you left no stone unturned in the Winter Park parking lot in another exhaustive search and found yet another offensive line coach already under contract. Not only was he willing to take the new responsibility, but he’d keep his old job, too. I bet you loved that two-fer.

It’s not that Coach Tice doesn’t have some positive attributes. He’s much more charming and forthright than Denny Green, and while his efforts to motivate his players were mostly ham-handed, he seemed to know a bit about the game and it was hard not to root for the big lug. And, yeah the team has had injuries and played some tough teams so far. But I’ve got to draw the line on a guy who said repeatedly, “This is my team. This is the team I built,” and who now says “We’re still trying to find our identity.” Finding this team’s identity ought to be as easy for him as finding his own backside with one hand; instead it’s looking like a game of two-handed blind man’s bluff.

Red, with your used car selling background you know better than anyone else that you get what you pay for. The irony in this situation is that this is the team that you got paid for, but you were absolutely right back in June. It’s your team, Red. You’ve earned it.

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Jeff at Peace Like a River had an account the other day of a Pentagon briefing where Donald Rumsfeld openly speculated on the types of questions Al Qaida leadership might face from a similar press corps (if the Arab world actually allowed such a thing). Using Rumsfeld’s questions (in italics, below) I imagined the following scene:

(Setting: a subterranean cavern. The hum of generators powering the lights for TV cameras neutralizes the echoes of the voices of the press corps as they await the briefing. At one end of the cavern a man emerges from behind a tapestry, and approaches a lectern already set up. He is flanked by three guards. He is the senior minister of military activity for Al Qaida.)

Minister: Thank you all for coming today. Our illustrious leader, Osama bin Ladin, sends you greetings from his undisclosed location. He has asked me to speak to you today to brief you on the most exceptional progress of our war against the Great Satans of the West and our impending, glorious victory.

We are making progress. We are winning. Our enemies cower in hiding, afraid to venture outside their compounds. Their media daily broadcast the news of their defeats and the numbers of their killed and wounded. Weekly the people in America take to the streets by the millions calling for their soldiers to surrender. Our own people are so inspired by our cause that now even women and children are being pressed…I mean, are volunteering to be martyrs. As for our own leaders, the jihad is going so well that they have been permitted to take vacations in order to rest up for our final victory, so don’t be concerned if you don’t see some of them around. I am now permitted, ensha’allah, to take a few questions.

Reporter: Minister, it appears your insurgency has failed to stop millions of Afghans and Iraqis from voting in free and relatively orderly elections. Could you explain how this advances your cause?

Minister: (turns to one guard and whispers; the guard takes out a notebook and writes briefly) Those were not elections. In fact, we encouraged our brothers to take to the streets en masse to show that they are not afraid of the terroristic actions of the imperialists swine. And, of course, they did so with smiles on their faces.

Reporter: Yes, but we have reports that even the Iraqi Sunnis, who are supposedly the natural allies of the insurgents, have chosen, albeit belatedly, to energetically embrace the political process, registering in large numbers.

Minister: Look, who are you going to believe – me, or your lying eyes, for as ever long as they remain in your head? Next question. Yes, you from Islamic Week.

Reporter: Minister, can you tell us why the insurgency has failed to prevent nearly 200,000 and some 75,000 Afghans — 200,000 Iraqis and some 75,000 Afghanis — I think it’s technically 194,000 Iraqis — from joining the Afghan and Iraqi security forces, despite their very best efforts at intimidation to prevent them from joining those forces? Or why the vast majority of Afghans and Iraqis have rejected twisted ideology and, instead, are supporting efforts to build new societies? Or how you expect to succeed militarily when you cannot rely on sanctuaries in places like Fallujah or Najaf or Tall Afar to plan operations and to train recruits?

Minister: (menacingly) “Look, don’t get stuck on stupid.” (Guard writes again in notebook.)

Reporter: Um, uh, so do you have an exit strategy?

Minister: An excellent question. (Turning to a guard) Hassan, will you help our friend here exit the room? Take him down to our new media center where I can, um, explain things more personally.

Now then, I’d like to take some questions from bloggers. Any bloggers here? (A few hands go up. Guards immediately descend and remove those who raised their hands). I’m sorry, I meant to say, “I have a few questions for bloggers.” Pardon my slip. Are there any other questions?

No? Well then, thank you all again for coming. We have arranged special transportation for each of you to get you safely home. A number of cars are waiting for you outside this complex; please take them back to your cities.

Oh, one piece of advice: no smoking.

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Kind of a weird experience today. This morning I read about the Aussies who won the Nobel Prize for their work in determining that ulcers are caused by bacteria and not by stress or lifestlye. Later in the day, while looking for something else, I came across the Eye of Science web site, that had picture of the very virus in question, magnified 9,000 times.

Bakteria: Helicobacter pylori

Colored scanning electron micrograph (SEM). This pathogen of chronically active gastritis and intestinal ulcers was discovered in 1983. The bacteria are wound in a spiral shape and possess up to 7 flagella. H. pylori populates the mucosa of the human stomach exclusively. It is diagnosed by a stomach biopsy or a Urea Breath Test. Treatment of the infection involves the administration of anti-microbial substances combined with bismuth salt over the course of 14 days. Transmission of the infection seems to take place by mouth to mouth contact. Magnification 9.000 X

Beauty, eh? This is a super-cool site, subtitled “life in a microcosmic world”, that features images of tiny to microscopic bacteria, flora and fauna. Browse their galleries or visit their online store for posters and books of these images which include butterfly wings, a tick, a fruit fly, E coli bacteria and several others – 10,000 times larger than life and in brilliant color. As I said, cool!



(HT: Z + Partners Blog,.)

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No alchohol. No strippers. And no mercy. What a party!

Imminent newlywed Cedric over at Cedric’s Blog-0-Rama just had a day-long bachelor party that covered multiple locations and events and involved several costume changes and much public humiliation. (With friends like these, who needs nightmares?)

From his account, however, Cedric appears to have enjoyed every minute and I’d have to say his friends probably did him a great service in preparing him for marriage. After all he’s already endured, marriage will be easy.

Intrusive in-laws? No problem! 2 a.m. baby feedings? Piece of cake! Cold feet on your backside? Refreshing! Trip to the store for feminine hygiene products? Smiling all the way!

You know, these guys might be on to something.

You can keep up with the more typical daily adventures of this mild-mannered illustrator here.

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For those of us who think we have a biblical worldview, it can be both shocking and stimulating to learn there are areas in our lives where our thinking and what we assume to be true is really based on humanism. A “Worldview Weekend”, sponsored by a group by the same name, can be challenging and entertaining way to examine our own thinking and learn how to be more effective in understanding, living and communicating Christian values.

These weekends are held all around the country throughout the year, and one is coming to North Heights Lutheran Church in Arden Hills, Minnesota, in just a couple of weeks: Friday night, October 14 and Saturday, October 15.

A flyer for the event has the following description:

This is a power-packed weekend featuring some of themost gifted biblical teachers and communicators of our time. Starting on Friday night and ending Saturday afternoon, this weekend is fast paced, energetic and non-stop training on how to see the world through the lens of the Bible. There are nine sessions in a Worldview Weekend of which six are general sessions for both adults and students and three are breakout sessions for students and three are sessions in the main auditorium for adults….

…This weekend is for any student or adult that has the desire to think and live like a Christian in an increasingly anti-Christian culture. This weekend is for any skeptic or critic that wants to investigate the truth claims of Jesus Christ and the validity of Christianity.

(Emphasis mine.)

The event is headlined by Ray Comfort and actor Kirk Cameron. I’ve read a few of Comfort’s books, listened to one of his tape series and seen him in person, and he is very dynamic and will have you laughing and thinking in no time. It appears as if the various sessions will focus not just on the spiritual life but on politics, the media and academia as well. I’ve not been to one of these weekends before, but I’ve read materials from them and they are excellent. You can get more information about the Twin Cities event here (scroll down to the Minneapolis/St. Paul info). There is a cost of $45 for adults and $35 for students, but there is a family plan where if you buy three tickets you get a fourth one free.

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