Bill Press Is a Moron, Again

Bill Press' column, appearing today at WND, deals with stem cell research. As usual, Press gets most of it wrong, reciting the left's pro-embryonic stem cell propaganda.

But that's just your average, daily stupidity. What elevates this to "Idiot of the Week" status is the title "Jesus votes for stem-cell research" and the last two paragraphs:

After all, as every one of the four Gospels relates, Jesus spent most of his public ministry healing the sick. It was his life's work. And stories of his healing – St. Peter's mother-in-law, the man with the withered hand, the centurion's servant – are among the most vivid passages in Scripture.

Having cured people of leprosy, dropsy and palsy, is there any doubt that Jesus would embrace today's efforts to find a cure for Parkinson's or heart disease using embryonic stem-cell research? I think not.

Huh?

Please explain what Jesus' ministry has to do with research.

Jesus didn't go about, searching for a cure. Jesus is the cure. HE didn't use medicine. HE didn't use science. HE didn't call the FDA to find an acceptable treatment modality. HE used the miraculous healing power of GOD.
In fact, we have no record that the local physician, Luke, (you've heard of him Press, right?) was ever called on by Jesus to care for someone's illness.

You did get one thing dead right, Bill. Your last three words: "I think not."
You sure don't.

Didn't They Ever See "Jaws"?

Thailand's foremost meteorologists, meeting in a crisis session before the tsunami hit, decided not to issue a warning "out of courtesy to the tourism industry," according to a report in the Thai paper The Nation.

Minutes after the earthquake in the Indian Ocean Sunday morning, Thailand's top meteorological experts met to consider the danger posed to the coast. But the economic impact on the nation's tourism industry dissuaded them from warning those most in danger.

"We finally decided not to do anything because the tourist season was in full swing," a source told the paper. "The hotels were 100 percent booked. What if we issued a warning, which would have led to an evacuation, and nothing had happened. What would be the outcome? The tourist industry would be immediately hurt. Our department would not be able to endure a lawsuit."

Let's see...you're more concerned about a frivilous law suit than the actual human lives in those 100 percent booked hotels. You think a few hours/days evacuation is worse that a possible mass loss of life. (Read this winner here.)

I've got some bad news. You thought a tourist industry lawsuit would be bad?
Wait until you see the one that is now coming your way!
Then after they sue your pants off, you should be tried for murder.

I propose we export every personal injury lawyer in the US to the areas hit by the tsunami.
They'll have years of work ahead of them over there, and we'll get them out of our hair for a while.

No Surprise Here

WND reports on the results of two government studies by the Justice Department and the National Academy of Sciences:

While it is an article of faith among gun-control proponents that government restrictions on firearms reduces violence and crime, two new U.S. studies could find no evidence to support such a conclusion.

The National Academy of Sciences issued a 328-page report based on 253 journal articles, 99 books, 43 government publications, a survey of 80 different gun-control laws and some of its own independent study. In short, the panel could find no link between restrictions on gun ownership and lower rates of crime, firearms violence or even accidents with guns.

Meanwhile, a study released by the Justice Department suggesting background checks at gun shows would do little to keep firearms out of the hands of criminals.
The study noted the number of criminals who obtained guns from retail outlets was dwarfed by the number of those who picked up their arms through means other than legal purchases. The report was the result of interviews with more than 18,000 state and federal inmates conducted nationwide. It found that nearly 80 percent of those interviewed got their guns from friends or family members, or on the street through illegal purchases.

Less than 9 percent were bought at retail outlets and only seven-tenths of 1 percent came from gun shows.

The Justice Department's interviews also showed so-called "assault weapons" are not a major cause of gun violence. Only about 8 percent of the inmates used one of the models covered in the now-expired assault weapons ban, signed into law by the Clinton administration in 1994.

Seems like everything the freedom-loving, responsible gun owners (of which I am one) have been saying for the past 25 years is true.

Once again, we see one of the Left's prized agendas on life-support. Nonsense based on emotion, without a thread of reality to support it.

So lets see what kind of conservative George Bush is in this situation. With absolutely no justification for keeping them on the books, how will George Bush rationalize maintaining unconstitutional gun laws?

Pull the plug on gun control.
Repeal all federal gun laws now!

Merry Christmas!

And in the same country there were shepherds living in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. And lo, the angel of the Lord came on them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them. And they were grievously afraid. And the angel said to them, Do not fear. For behold, I give to you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. For to you is born today, in the city of David, a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.

Remember the Reason for the Season.

Merry Christmas!

More From the Mis-led

I was reading an article on WND about the Jerusalem Prayer Team. This organization, led by Mike Evans, wants George Bush to

...be sworn in with his hand on a Bible opened to a verse that calls the nation to repentance.
Evans has asked more than 300 national leaders, including James Dobson, T. D. Jakes and Tim LaHaye, to back a petition asking Bush to declare a II Chronicles 7:14 National Day of Prayer, Repentance, and Fasting.

As I read through this theologic and practical silliness (which I don't want to discuss here; that's not the point of this post), I came upon two of the most incredible, revealing paragraphs that I have seen in a long time.

Evans said he is asking Bush to use his family Bible, opened to II Chronicles 7:14, because for his first inauguration in 2001, the president requested the use of George Washington's Masonic Bible.

Bush's father, George H. W. Bush, had used the Washington Bible during his inauguration in 1989. But in 2001, due to a snowstorm, the Bible could not be delivered in time for the ceremony, and the 43rd president was sworn in with a closed family Bible.

A Masonic bible! (An interesting transcript on a discussion of the Masonic bible is found here.)

Go ahead. Somebody tell me again what a "great christian" George Bush is.

Its Beginning to Look Less Like CHRISTmas

WND reports that the White House Christmas is beginning to look a little too sanitized.

What's missing from the White House commemoration of Christmas this year?
Jesus.
The little baby in the manger.
The reason for the season.

While President Bush was re-elected last month in an election victory many attributed to an outpouring of support by evangelical Christians impressed with his candid outspokenness about his faith, some Americans notice the White House website lacks even a single mention of Jesus, whose birth is celebrated by hundreds of millions worldwide Dec. 25.

The official White House site proclaims this as the "Season of Merriment and Melody" – not the birth of the Savior of the world.

This just strengthens my assertion that the Christian right was bamboozled by the Republicans into thinking that Bush is Mr. Uber-Christian. (For a previous discussion of this, go here.)

At the lighting of the National Christmas Tree Dec. 2, Bush remarked: "Tonight we begin a joyous season, and the city of Washington is never more beautiful than during the holidays. At Christmas time we celebrate good tidings first announced two thousand years ago, and still a source of great joy in our world. Laura and I are always happy to join in the Pageant of Peace, and we thank you all for coming this evening.

"The season of Advent is always the season of hope," Bush continued. "We think of the patient hope of men and women across the centuries who listened to the words of the prophets and lived in joyful expectation. We think of the hope of Mary, who welcomed God's plan with great faith. We think of the hope of the Wise Men who set out on a long journey guided only by a slender promise traced in the stars. We are reminded of the hope that the grandest purposes of the Almighty can be found in the humblest places. And we embrace the hope that all the love and gifts that come to us in this life are the signs and symbols of even a greater love and gift that came on a holy night. The old carol speaks of a 'thrill of hope, the weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious morn.' And every year at this time we feel the thrill of hope as we wait on Christmas Day."

How's that for a bunch of New Age Mumbo-Jumbo?

Nothing here to offend anyone! Except maybe the people who actually know and celebrate what Christmas is all about...the birth of the Savior of the world, Jesus of Nazareth.

And don't bother making the empty argument about the alleged separation of church and state. IT DOES NOT EXIST. Go ahead and read any and all the founding documents. Tell me where you find the phrase "separation of church and state". You won't.
And don't point to the establishment clause of the First Amendment. Establishment and separation are two completely different things.

Paul of Tarsus told us that a righteous man judges all things. Christians better start watching what people do and listen to what they say, instead of projecting their feelings into a bunch of open-ended, meaningless rhetoric. That will only lead to a path of destruction.

Please STOP the Whining!

SunSentinel.com reports

Leaders of The Parents Television Council today released a study of prime time programming that they say shows that Hollywood "has virtually no respect for religion."

Whoa!! News flash there! Never would have figured that out without the help of the PTC.
*wags head in disbelief*

He (Brent Bozell, head of PTC) said Hollywood is missing out on a marketing opportunity by ignoring the majority of Americans who, according to a 2003 Harris poll cited by the study, believe in God (90%) and the resurrection of Jesus Christ (80%).

Oh really? So, Hollywood is making billions and billions of dollars each year on the backs of 10 - 20% of the population? Don't think so Brent.
Most "religious" people, aren't (religious). They pay lip service to it in an attempt to ease their guilty consciences. They bear no fruit that demonstrates the least interest or concern for God.

The study, put out in conjunction with the National Religious Broadcasters, counted 2,344 treatments of religion — such as the mention of prayer or the presence of God — from September 2003 to September 2004 and deemed 24.4% of them negative. Most were neutral, and 22.1% were positive.

You much be watching different shows than me, because almost every mention of God I see, I consider negative, since they are either anti-God or incorrect in their content, usually coming from a New-Age perspective.

Christians need to just shut up with their whining about Hollywood. Its not going to change. Instead, why don't all you cry-babies provide an alternative? (Heavens no! That would require effort...its so much easier to gripe and wallow in your victimology.) I don't expect anything from Hollywood, so I'm content to just ignore them and turn off their stupid shows.

The world hated Jesus...HE told us they will hate us also. Get used to it.
Its only going to get worse.

Scrooged

The Tallahassee Democrat tells us this:

Pasco County officials have banned Christmas trees from public buildings...
The last of the Christmas trees were removed Wednesday after the county attorney said they were religious symbols, said Dan Johnson, assistant county administrator for Public Services.

Ah yes, Pasco County. Where 30% of the population is the result of failed CIA genetic-manipulation experiments.
As a side note, I find it interesting that this article makes no mention of the name of this 'county attorney'.

"What you allow for one you must provide for all," Johnson said.

Uhhh, wouldn't that be 'What you allow for one you allow for all'?? Or does Pasco county now provide religious symbols for everyone?

And a final question for the unnamed juris prudence genius, masquerading as county attorney:
Please tell me where, specifically, in the Bible, it mentions "Christmas tree". I will then be able to accept your lame-brain interpretation as having a modicum of reality attached to it. Otherwise, you are the winner of the Idiot of the Week award.

Stupid Is As Stupid Does

CNN reports that

President Bush has ordered plans for temporarily disabling the U.S. network of global positioning satellites during a national crisis to prevent terrorists from using the navigational technology, the White House said Wednesday.

Somebody help me out here. Isn't one of the strategies of war to gain an element of surprise on your enemy? Then why, oh why, are we publicising our moves before we take action? Now the alleged enemy has time to develop alternative plans, instead of being caught by surprise.

Also, what is a "national crisis"? (Correct answer is anything the government wants it to mean.) Make note that it doesn't say "enemy attack" or "act of war".
Uh oh...I feel my conspiratorial side rising up!
Back, back I say!

The Parent Trap

AP reports:

The dishes, garbage and dirty laundry would pile up for days when Cat and Harlan Barnard's teenage children refused to do their chores. So the Barnards went on strike, moving out of their house and into a domed tent set up in their front driveway. The parents refuse to cook, clean or drive for their children - Benjamin, 17, and Kit, 12 - until they shape up.

Ok, let me get this straight. The parents move out of the house that they pay for, give up the electric, air conditioning and all the other modern conveniences, in order to teach the children a lesson. I'm hooked already! This is going to be a winner!

Problem number one: the kids' ages. They should have had their butts kicked a long time ago.

Cat Barnard, a stay-at-home mom, and her 56-year-old husband, a government social services worker, decided their children needed to learn about empathy and responsibility.

Problem number two: Dad's a government social worker. Translation: a namby-pamby, bleeding heart, worry about everybody's feelings, new age refugee from the 60's.

Problem number three: mis-identification of the problem. They don't need to learn about empathy. They need to learn about authority and discipline.

The Barnards unsuccessfully tried smiley-face charts and withholding allowances to get their children to do chores. They even sought help from a psychologist.

(Oh God, I'm gonna puke!...smiley faces!) How about a good old-fashioned motivator called a spanking?

The tipping point may have been when Benjamin didn't offer to help his sweating, struggling mother work on the lawn Sunday, even though she should have been recovering from oral surgery.

And where was the freakin' husband? HE should have been doing the grass, not his wife!

Passers-by from this bedroom community between Orlando and Daytona Beach have shouted out words of encouragement. One woman driving past the Barnards' house rolled down her car window Wednesday and shouted "Good for you! You should put the kids outside!"

At least there's one voice of sanity. PUT THE KIDS OUTSIDE!
Better yet, kick the 17 year-old out of the house. Your house, your rules. Don't cooperate? You're outta here. Let him figure out how to fend for himself. You will SO freak out the 12 year old, her behavior will change in a split second. And he'll be back with his tail between his legs.

No one ever said being a parent was easy. It takes two things; guts and a backbone.

Benjamin returned from school on Wednesday to find a dozen reporters in his parents' front lawn. He refused to say anything to them and went into the house followed by his mother, who tried to console him.

The mother tried to console the son?!?? Did I miss something here? He's the embarassment, and she's apologizing? (I rest my case...NO backbone.)

Cat Barnard said she and her husband will keep up the strike until they see some changes.

Well, I've got some bad news, Cat. You're going to be out there quite a while. The kids haven't lost anything! You and your husband are making the sacrifice. You don't think eating TV dinners is upsetting them, do you? Until the pain of remaining the same is greater than the pain of change, nothing will happen. Translated for you public school grads, that means the kids need to loose stuff. They need to loose things, BIG things, to make them change (like loosing the roof over their heads). They've got the A/C, the TV, the computers, the Nintendo (X-Box, PS2 or whatever), the refrigerator (the whole house!) AND NO PARENTS!!! Tell me what they see as the down-side to this situation.

Idiot of the Week

Tommy Thompson, outgoing HHS Secretary, makes the dumbest comment I have come across in a while.

Health and Human Services Secretary Tommy Thompson announced his resignation today with an ominous warning of a health-related terrorist attack and a global flu outbreak.

"For the life of me, I cannot understand why the terrorists have not attacked our food supply because it is so easy to do," Thompson said at a news conference.

Now, I don't want to debate the factual nature of his statement; that's unimportant at this point. Let's even assume its 100% true.

Why in the world would you make this statement publically?? We don't need to be giving the Islamo-fascists new ideas.

I have personally thought of about six places to attack and methods to use that I guarantee would be successful to disrupt the US and induce terror. How responsible would it be for me to post them here? Not very. And this moron makes this statement, knowing he is on, at least, the national stage.

*wags head in disbelief*

Kiss Your Computer Goodbye

Feeling safe on the Internet?

Read Gone in 30 Seconds

Then, Hijacked in Minutes


"Bwwhhhaaaahahahaha", the Penguin roared.

Time to Replace My PONG?

Sony will be launching a successor to PlayStation2, probably in the next 18 months. But its more than just a game console.

IBM disclose today details of a project to put a supercomputer on a chip.
Code-named the ``Cell'' chip, it has been in development by IBM, Sony and Toshiba since 2001 for Sony's next-generation video gaming console. But the chip also has been designed with a grander purpose -- to become a core chip for devices ranging from supercomputers to network servers.
``We have a supercomputer on a chip,'' said Jim Kahle, an IBM Fellow who heads up the design team of 400 engineers at IBM's facilities in Austin. ``This will be significantly faster than previous types of game systems and should provide new effects.''

A gaming console with that kind of supercomputing power will give video games a true cinematic feel, especially when played on a high definition television screen, said Jon Peddie, president of Jon Peddie Research in Tiburon.

``If the story and the action is good enough, you will forget you are playing a game, you will be part of a movie,'' Peddie said.

Kahle said IBM will not divulge any information about the chip's performance. But he did tout the speed of a prototype workstation, which is designed around the Cell chip. IBM said a Cell-based workstation will reach a supercomputer-like performance of 16 teraflops, or trillions of floating point calculations per second. By contrast, one of the fastest supercomputers in the world, the NEC Earth Simulator, hit a peak speed of 36 teraflops this year.

``We are talking about some very intense compute systems that will be on par with some of the fastest in the world when we start rolling these out,'' Kahle said.

Wowzers!
From my corner of the universe, game console evolution has been kind of overrated; hype and not much else. Incremental steps forward, not really justifying the prices.
But this! If it lives up to 10% of the expectations in this story alone, it will revolutionize home gaming. The fluidity and detail of a DVD, with increased capabilities for characters and plots!

I think I know what's for Christmas 2006.

What It's Really Like

This editorial appeared on WND over the weekend.

Its the moving description of the war in Iraq, as told by a platoon leader (in all likelihood, a 2nd Lt. Chances are good that he is in his early to mid 20's, a recent college graduate, coming from a Service Academy or ROTC program.)

Put aside your opinion of the war for a moment. (Debate the war with the politicians, not the soldiers.)

Feel the emotion woven through this commentary.

I know a good number of military personnel, retired, active, and in training. All hate war. But they understand it is an unfortunate yet necessary evil of our world.

They are not driven by blood-lust.
They are not homicidal maniacs.
They are not on a testosterone or adrenaline high.

They do not choose where to go, nor which battles to fight.
But when the call goes out, they are there to answer it.
Often at great sacrifice to themselves and their families.

So, do me a favor.
Next time you see a man in uniform, think back to this article.
Recall what they've probably seen and been through.
And simply tell them, "I appreciate your sacrifice."

Jesus As A Socialist?

Recently, a mal-educated leftist wrote to Joe Farah, editor of World Net Daily, embarking on what basically turned out to be an anti-Christian, pro-ACLU rant, chock full of non-facts and misinterpretations.

But the epitomy of stupidity occurred in this quote:

If you believe the words of Jesus, one would have to place Him somewhere on the socialist-Marxist portion of the political spectrum.

For starters, Jesus was not a politician, but we'll let that go for now.

Secondly, socialism/Marxism/liberalism/Nazism or any of the other leftist -isms are all, by definition, Godless. They all see the State as the supreme authority in all things. Therefore, by being a socialist, Jesus would have to deny Himself.


Finally, does the phrase "free will" ring a bell?? Jesus never forced anyone to do anything. Following Him is a decision, an exercise of free will. Leftist government believes in control of the individual for the benefit of government.
And if you're ridiculous enough to point to Jesus' discussions of charity to make your point, once again, you're wrong. Do not confuse taking of assets under coersion by government, with charitable giving. Again, the taking by government is done either under the threat of, or with direct force. Giving is a choice, an exercise of free will.

If you want to assign political philosophy to Jesus,
Jesus is a Libertarian.

The True Meaning of Christmas

Parents in Sante Fe Springs were in an uproar, reports Tracy Garcia of Whittier Daily News, when

...the Rev. Ruben Rocha repeatedly told the students in grades kindergarten through third that there is no Santa Claus.

“There’s a time and place for everything, and this was not the time or the place or the age group to be talking about the true meaning of Christmas, at least in terms that young children cannot understand", said Tod Tamberg, spokesman for the Archdiocese of Los Angeles.

Now wait a minute. This is a Catholic school and the service was being held during school hours, for students. What other time and place seems more appropriate to discuss the true meaning of Christmas?

“I believe they’ve taken some of the innocence out of her childhood, and I’m very upset,” said parent Rick Martin, whose daughter attends kindergarten.

Explain to me how innocence is removed when we replace fantasy with Truth.

Maybe you think its better for you, the parent, to keep on lying to her for a few more years. Then, when her classmates find out she still believes in Santa, they can ridicule her and make fun of her. That way, she can come home in tears, traumatized at the hands of her "friends".
Oh yes, that's a much better option. Coward parents.

“Now my daughter doesn’t believe in Santa Claus. She sees him, and she knows it’s a costume. What happens when we go to the mall this year? It’ll just be a costume to her,” Martin added. “I’ve just been let down by this whole deal.”

And the harm in her not believing a lie is what? The reality is that it IS just a costume Ricky!

(An interesting side note: Did you notice there is only ONE parent quoted here as complaining? If there was so much outrage, where's all the other parents?)

Children are resilient. As a parent, I've found the truth always works better than some made up nonsense to "preserve their innocence".
Children can carry the Truth with them for the rest of their lives.
It will make them stronger, better people.

(Originally found this story over at Crispy's...couldn't pass it up.)

Your Printer May Be Spying on You

Government Uses Color Laser Printer Technology to Track Documents

According to experts, several printer companies quietly encode the serial number and the manufacturing code of their color laser printers and color copiers on every document those machines produce. Governments, including the United States, already use the hidden markings to track counterfeiters.

Peter Crean, a senior research fellow at Xerox, says his company's laser printers, copiers and multifunction workstations, such as its WorkCentre Pro series, put the "serial number of each machine coded in little yellow dots" in every printout. The millimeter-sized dots appear about every inch on a page, nestled within the printed words and margins.
However, they could also be employed to track a document back to any person or business that printed it. Although the technology has existed for a long time, printer companies have not been required to notify customers of the feature.

Laser-printing technology makes it incredibly easy to counterfeit money and documents, and Crean says the dots, in use in some printers for decades, allow law enforcement to identify and track down counterfeiters.

Uhhh, no it doesn't. You need to have a suppy of highly specialized paper, which contains a number of security features and is available only to the government.

Crean says Xerox pioneered this technology about 20 years ago, to assuage fears that their color copiers could easily be used to counterfeit bills.
"We developed the first (encoding mechanism) in house because several countries had expressed concern about allowing us to sell the printers in their country," Crean says.
Crean says Xerox and the government have a good relationship. "The U.S. government had been on board all along--they would actually come out to our labs," Crean says.
Since then, he says, many other companies have adopted the practice.

Lorelei Pagano, a counterfeiting specialist with the U.S. Secret Service, stresses that the government uses the embedded serial numbers only when alerted to a forgery. "The only time any information is gained from these documents is purely in [the case of] a criminal act," she says.

Guess it depends on your definition of a criminal act...like anything you do that the government doesn't like.

John Morris, a lawyer for The Center for Democracy and Technology, says, "That type of assurance doesn't really assure me at all, unless there's some type of statute." He adds, "At a bare minimum, there needs to be a notice to consumers."

George Orwell was a prophet.

...the Right to Bear Arms...

I can imagine that after my previous post, the anti-gun zealots are about ready to pop a cork.
Well here's something to give you that added cranial pressure to finish you off.

Its the A-Z Gun Freedom Refresher Course:

FREEDOM REFRESHER COURSE

a. An armed person is a citizen. An unarmed person is a subject.
b. A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone.
c. Six-shooter: The original point and click interface.
d. Gun control is not about guns; it's about control.
e. If guns are outlawed, can we use swords?
f. If guns cause crime, then pencils cause misspelled words.
g. Free men do not ask permission to bear arms.
h. If you don't know your rights, you don't have any.
i. Those who trade liberty for security have neither.
j. The United States Constitution (c) 1791. All Rights Reserved.
k. What part of "shall not be infringed" do you not understand?
l. The Second Amendment is in place in case they ignore the others.
m. 64,999,987 firearm owners killed no one yesterday.
n. Guns only have two enemies: Rust and Politicians.
o. Know guns, Know peace and safety. No guns, no peace nor safety.
p. You don't shoot to kill; You shoot to stay alive.
q. 911 - government sponsored Dial a Prayer.
r. Assault is a behavior, not a device.
s. Criminals love gun control - it makes their jobs safer.
t. If Guns cause Crime, then Matches cause Arson.
u. Only a government that is afraid of its citizens tries to control them.
v. You only have the rights you are willing to fight for.
w. We don't enforce unconstitutional laws; we REPEAL them.
x. When you remove the people's right to bear arms, you create slaves.
y. The American Revolution would never have happened with "gun control."
z. "....a government by the people, for the people....."

Thanks to the International Freedom Foundation for this refresher!

Don't Try This at Home (or Work)

USNews.com reports on intrusive new searches being performed at airports in the US.

In late September, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) began allowing security checkpoint screeners to manually pat down women's breasts and the genital and derriere regions of both sexes during searches.

"I know it's not pleasant," says Rep. John Mica, chairman of the House aviation subcommittee, "but until we get the technology, what are the options?"

You freakin' moron!! What are the options?!!?! How about not treating every American like a criminal? And don't give me that crap about terrorists blowing up planes. Name one flight originating from America that was blown up by a bomb carried on board through the terminal.
You can't because there is none!

Everywhere else in the country, this is sexual harrassment. But in airports its standard operating procedures. (Wait until you see the freakoids that will be applying for jobs as airport screeners, once this gets out).

Hey Representative Mica! (He's from Florida...I'm sooo embarassed!) How about we take your wife and daughter to the airport and expose them to a little groping? Then lets see if you still ask what options we have.

Ben Franklin said it best:
"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety."

Now for those of you still wringing your hands over the supposed terrorists, I will solve the terrorist-on-airliner problem in 5 words:

Let law-abiding citizens carry guns.

It would have stopped all 4 hijackings on Sept. 11th. In fact, had those Saudis known there was the possibility of armed citizens on those planes, they never would have attempted hijacking them.

Who's to Blame?

Sports everywhere seem on the verge of a meltdown.
South Carolina - Clemson
Pistons - Pacers
Teams win a championship (insert any sport here) and their "fans" burn down the city.
Players attack officials.
Fans attack players.
Spectators at a LITTLE LEAGUE (!) game jump the fence and attack the umpire!

How long before we see a player or official killed on the field of play?

So who's to blame? The list is short.

1) Parents. Your job is to shape your child's behavior. Its not to let them run wild like some pack animal. When you see them emulating the Thug-of-the-Week on ESPN, jump on their case. Tell them that's not how you behave. Teach them some sportsmanship! I've got some bad news parents. Your little bundle of joy, in all likelyhood, is NOT the next Derek Jeter or (insert sport-idol du jour here). At least get them on the path to being a decent human.
Unfortunately, some of you parents are the worst offenders in the ignorant behavior category.
That brings us to the next level of responsibility.

2) Coaches. Not all of you. Just the "win at all cost" bunch. The Bobby Bowdens of the world. Back in the 90's, Bowden's FSU players were notorious for "misbehaving". Coach Bowden's response? Something to the effect of: If discipline was important, then West Point would be National Champions.
Doesn't matter if its youth sports, high school, college or the pros. A coach owes his players more than teaching them just to win. (No doubt that winning is important...its the purpose of the game.) You are a guiding force in their life. Something that many of them don't have at home. Teach them sportsmanship. Teach them respect. Respect for themselves and authority. (If these black college athletes really respected themselves, would they allow themselves to be branded, like cattle?) Teach them that the game is not all about them. (There is no "I" in TEAM.)

Enough with the punks and thugs
On the field and in the stands.