The so-called conservative Supreme Court judges appointed by St. George of Bush have proved their perspicacity twice recently - once when they made their well known decision on eminent domain - which permits a business to take your land without your agreement. (If you live next door to any facility ruled by Halliburton - you are doomed)!

Then came decision #2 demonstrating this Supreme Court's level of integrity and intelligence. Now any government worker that blows the whistle on his employer - is at blame and without recourse. Hell yes. That makes sense! Every government agency, every politician is entitled to the pursuit of happiness/money/power - just like that dumb Democrat from Louisiana. Let us not forget that the FBI which searched and seized property of that intellectual & moral giant with a warrent that would suffice for doing the same to any of us - that FBI is being censured by politicians of both parties. Do we have the fox guarding the henhouse or what?!

Anyway - I hope all the dim-bulbs that voted for St. George are happy. They soiled their own beds - and now all of us are sleeping in it.

The following is a hoot! John Carroll of the San Francisco Herald wrote about the Unitarian Jihad in a recent column. This is just an excerpt - it is so funny:

"Beware! Unless you people shut up and begin acting like grown-ups with brains enough to understand the difference between political belief and personal faith, the Unitarian Jihad will begin a series of terrorist-like actions. We will take over television studios, kidnap so-called commentators and broadcast calm, well-reasoned discussions of the issues of the day. We will not try for "balance" by hiring fruitcakes; we will try for balance by hiring non-ideologues who have carefully thought through the issues."

Read the whole thing here.

So - once again AOL and Yahoo are out to screw the consumer. Oh - they're not going to charge consumers to send e-mails - only businesses - and then only as an option. Thing is - the hucksters that sign on for this will be able to SEND E-MAILS DIRECTLY TO MAILBOXES - BY-PASSING SPAM FILTERS. The YO-YOs responsible for this stroke of genius say that - by doing so - it will eliminate spam since spammers won't pay. Wanna bet? Wanna bet how long it will take for the greed-grapplers to decide that charging everybody a fee is a really cool idea?

There is perhaps one ray of light. There will always be providers like Google & others who will take advantage of the situation by maintaining their free e-mail and raking in stock boosting revenue from advertisers - and the same folk who provide open source will surely take up the gauntlet. One hopes.

Let's suppose that a cartoon is printed in an Arab paper showing a caricature of Jesus wielding a flame thrower and turning it on a group of Iraqi children. Let's suppose that it is widely disseminated throughout the western world. It goes without saying that there would be plenty of angered and insulted people writing letters to the newspapers and talking about it.

Question: Would aggrieved Christian crowds riot - surrounding and burning the embassies of Muslim countries?

Wouldn't happen.

Think about it.

OK - let's hear it for the latest blatantly stupid trend. Salt. Yep - in a recent Newsweek TipSheet section - taste tests on salt were conducted - tongue in cheek, I'm sure. Turns out you can pay anywhere from about 75 cents for 26 oz. of ordinary table salt up to - are you ready for this - $17.95 for 16 oz. of Pink Himalaya Salt! Now - I don't want to put down the Himalayas (subtle pun there) - or the color pink - but how dumb is that? It presents a veritable saltmine of satire - a total collapse into the depths of dumbth. And to think I thought bottled water was stupid if your water supply isn't entertaining an aquarium full of coliform. (At least Perrier bottles make good bud vases).

Did anyone watch The French & Indian War on PBS last night. Wow! (I always thought it was 'Wars' plural - but I'm not about to argue with near-perfection). Talk about knock-your-socks off! 9 to 11 PM and neither my husband nor I suffered from 'droopy-lid syndrome'. In past years, I've read a great deal about that era and some of the accounts last night were like revisiting a place where I had been. The account of Braddock's ill-fated campaign and the story of the exodus of the British from Fort William Henry under a white flag when the disgruntled Indian allies of the French fell upon the evacuees despite French efforts to hold them back - amazing. And do you realize easily we might have lost George Washington - he was a young 'wet behind the ears' & none too competent officer with Braddock's army. The conclusion should be next Wednesday night, I assume. Don't miss it!

'Tis the season - to be silly! I think I'll join the fray - and offend everybody! This was my response to a righty pal who sent me the latest gooflogalnatity from the hard-right wing. (Go straight down Bush Ave. & make a hard right). His forwarded e-missive pertained to saying "Merry Christmas" and how that evil LIBERAL cabel is robbing us of the right to say Merry Christmas - and I've received a bunch of those lately. Herewith (I never get a chance to say that word in conversation) my reply:

Aw geez - this is the newest right wing waste of time. My cards say Merry Christmas. Those I send to Jewish friends say Happy Holiday (but they're still Christmas cards). I don't know any Druids who kind of originated the winter holiday we celebrate as Christ's birthday. It made sense I might add - since using an established pagan holiday and making it a Christian holiday prevented any back sliding on the part of early Christians who still loved that winter solstice holiday.

Now I'm afraid to say "Merry Christmas" in public for fear people will think I'm a follower of Bill O'Reilly instead of Christ. Y'know - O'Reilly really does think he's the saviour - (that's lower case).

Well - there he goes again - my beloved George Will - the 'thinking conservative' - which I used to consider an oxymoron till I met George. The following is from his column in The Washington Post this week:

"Thomas Jefferson's view:

"It does me no injury," said Thomas Jefferson, "for my neighbor to say there are twenty gods, or no god. It neither picks my pocket nor breaks my leg." But it is injurious, and unneighborly, when zealots try to compel public education to infuse theism into scientific education. The conservative coalition, which is coming unglued for many reasons, will rapidly disintegrate if limited-government conservatives become convinced that social conservatives are unwilling to concentrate their character-building and soul-saving energies on the private institutions that mediate between individuals and government, and instead try to conscript government into sectarian crusades."

So cool - so calm - so reasonable - unlike my snotty remarks. Carol Burnett can have John Foster Dulles - I have George Will.