Editorial Blog


July 26 - August 7, 2002
By JEFF RUSHING, Webmaster


    Tonight's fortune cookie says: "You are your wisest counselor."
    With that in mind, trusting that I know best, I'm going to enjoy a good night for a lonely single guy: Watching baseball, eating ice cream sandwiches and finishing off with Basic Instinct.
Posted 08/07/02, 11:41 p.m.

    British psychologist Sandy Gaskins says that by analyzing 1,000 people on how they held, cradled or gripped their phones, she was able to divine five distinct personality types from the findings.
    Gaskins found that 560 of her subjects were "naturals," holding the phone "in their primary hand to the primary ear," indicating a confident, straightforward person who likes conversations, the survey said.
    Then came the upright bunch: 172 confessed they stood while talking, revealing a forthright person who is well-focused and of few words.
    Another 148 cradled the phone on their shoulder, suggesting a person who wants both hands free. It indicates someone who "prioritizes tasks quickly and is always thinking two steps ahead," the survey stated.
    Woe to those 64 persons who held the phone to the ear opposite the writing hand, "which suggests the person lacks confidence and may have low self-esteem."
    Finally, there are the relaxed phoners, who talk with one arm wrapped around their heads, obviously showing someone to be "relaxed and laid-back." (From a Washington Times story)
Posted 08/06/02, 5:05 a.m.

    The cutest little Commie in Congress, Cynthia McKinney, may need a new title: Cutest Islamofascist Princess in Congress.
      The Atlanta Journal-Constitution analyzed McKinney’s donors for the past year, and it turns out that most of them have Arabic names and live outside Georgia. Many have suspicious ties to terrorism, including Abdelhaleem Ashqar, a professor who was jailed in 1998 on contempt charges for refusing to answer a grand jury's questions about alleged money-laundering links to Hamas. Then there’s Abdurahman Alamoudi, leader of a Muslim organization, who during a 2000 rally outside the White House expressed support for the violent Palestinian group Hamas and for Hezbollah, the Lebanese Shiite party linked to bombings. The controversy surrounding his comments caused Senate candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton and George W. Bush's presidential campaign to return his contributions. Another five are businessmen whose homes or businesses were searched in March during an FBI raid investigating financial links to terrorism. Another was an officer in one of the groups under investigation, according to Federal Election Commission reports.
    Perhaps most head-scratching of all the facts is that McKinney received over $13,000 worth of donations, the second-biggest haul of her long career in one day, on September 11, 2001. Yes, that September 11. The Wall Street Journal editorial page notes that Bill Banks, McKinney's campaign manager, claims, in the AJC's words, that "the campaign had organized a fund-raiser a few days before Sept. 11 and the donations collected were coincidentally recorded on that date." If so, this is apparently a violation of campaign law: "FEC spokeswoman Kelly Huff said the date listed on disclosure reports is supposed to be, by law, the date the campaign received the money."
    I truly wish I still lived in McKinney’s district. With no party registration in Georgia, we can vote in either primary. Just as I voted for Bill Bradley in the presidential primary of 2000 just to vote against Gore, so I would vote for McKinney’s opponent, Judge Denise Majette, an African-American woman being painted in ads by McKinney’s campaign as an Uncle Tom. Don’t you love that McKinney is playing the race card against her own race? It’s only fitting for such a detestable woman.
Posted 08/06/02, 4:58 a.m.

    Did you ever wonder what is the world’s best job? Reuters details what may be tops: "One of Britain’s most exclusive grocery stores needs a new chocolate taster — and will pay 35,000 pounds ($54,400) a year to the successful candidate. Fortnum & Mason in London’s Piccadilly — one of the capital’s most prestigious addresses — is looking for a chocolate buyer to travel the world, taste as much chocolate as possible and select only the best for its discerning customers."
    It's not as if they have to look far; it starts and stops with Mr. Goodbar, of course! Oh, some may argue for Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, which I wouldn't bicker with, and I could also make a point for Goobers.
Posted 08/06/02, 4:47 a.m.

    Islam means peace:
      Masked gunmen stormed into a Christian school campus in Pakistan yesterday, murdering at least six people with rifles and wounding two others before escaping. This is just the latest in a continuing effort to punish Christians in the country, just a day after our ‘ally,’ Pakistan's President Pervez Musharraf, said that he doesn’t think Osama bin Laden is responsible for 9/11.
      Columnist Doug Bandow has a terrifc and sad piece on the overwhelmed fate of Christians in the country.
Posted 08/06/02, 4:40 a.m.

    Remember these numbers the next time someone in journalism says that last year’s tax cuts were "huge":
      According to the National Taxpayers Union, Bush’s total tax cut amounts to only 0.9 percent of total GDP. In contrast, Ronald Reagan’s 1981 tax cut represented 3.3 percent of GDP, and even Democratic President John F. Kennedy’s tax cut was 2.0 percent of GDP. (MediaResearchCenter.org)
Posted 08/06/02, 4:38 a.m.

    The nine Pennsylvania miners freed after three days underground have sold their story to Disney for $150,000 apiece.
      With all due respect, I think they got hosed. I would have held out for a cool million, plus another million bucks for a book deal. And someone would have paid all nine at least that much for their dramatic story.
Posted 08/06/02, 1:50 a.m.

    Some Ponderables courtesy Grif.net:
    - Money can't buy happiness, but it sure makes misery easier to live with.
    - If flying is so safe, why do they call the airport the terminal?
    - I don't approve of political jokes...I've seen too many of them get elected.
    - I love being married. It's so great to find that one special person you want to annoy for the rest of your life.
    - I am a nobody, and nobody is perfect; therefore I am perfect.
    - How come we choose from just two people to run for president and 50 for Miss America?
    - Isn't having a smoking section in a restaurant like having a peeing section in a swimming pool?
    - If carrots are so good for the eyes, how come I see so many dead rabbits on the highway?
Posted 08/06/02, 1:49 a.m.

    Nothing makes you understand complaints about the medical system than accumulating personal experience.
      Refresher Course: On June 17 I had a serious allergic attack to an unknown food allergy, necessitating that an ambulance be called for me at work so that I could be taken to the hospital. And it wasn't on a whim; I went through every illness possible short of growing a mole: Headache, asthma, chills, vomiting, hives, nausea and then blacked out before calling in the guys with sirens.
      Since then, I've taken full use of my HMO, Kaiser Permanente of Georgia, to get tested by an allergist to figure out what happened. Apparently the medical community from the night of June 17 was very aware of my insurance, and they're taking advantage as well.
      Over the last month-and-a-half, I've received three bills: One from the EMT service, another from the clinic within the hospital that runs the ER, and another from the hospital itself. The three combine to run the tab to about $800, all for a two-hour visit to the emergency room.
      I've sent all to Kaiser for review with the idea that they'll foot the entire bill (after all, they do tell you to go to the ER in case of emergency rather than talk to your physician). But I doubt the hospital would charge so much unless they knew I had insurance. It's a little disheartening to think that is how the system works.
Posted 08/03/02, 5:31 a.m.

    I wish the Bush administration would better explain exactly why we haven't declared war on Hamas following the homicide bombing deaths of five American students at Hebrew University in Israel on Thursday. Hamas confessed to the crime, and thus should be held accountable, either by U.S. forces or more likely, giving the Israeli army more leeway to pursue and eliminate the terrorists among Palestinians.
      As if we need more incentive, if it helps, the London Times reports that Saddam Hussein is suspected of planning to arm a Palestinian terrorist group with biological weapons to attack either American or Israeli targets. The Times adds that "Saddam has funded Palestinian extremist groups for many years, and the assessment now is that, with the Middle East in turmoil, the Iraqi leader may see that the best way of taking revenge against the US and Israel is by using a Palestinian organisation as his proxy terrorists."
Posted 08/03/02, 4:54 a.m.

    Further proving that science is not exactly . . . exact, the chief scientific officer at the Centre for Atmospheric Sciences in New Delhi says large volumes of greenhouse gases have been released by US warplanes over Afghanistan, and is to blame for the lack of monsoons in parts of India.
      Um, yeah. As if nature were really that fragile. Maybe he could look to other options as well, such as large amounts of methane (read: gas) expelled by the cows roaming streets in his country.
Posted 08/03/02, 4:48 a.m.

    Time for a new batch of Vents from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
    – If forced from retirement, I’ll open a combination strip club and bait shop on the river and call it “Wigglers.” Life can still be good.
    – The guy who was doing the brake job on my car said he stands behind his work. I asked him if he’d be willing to stand in front of it.
    – My bank sent me a flier notifying me of pending “improvements” in my account, including a new “deposit fee” each time I put my money in their bank. Only a bank would consider gouging the consumer an “improvement.”
    – U.S. immigration policies remind me of a politically correct restaurant that lets in 100 people but seats only 20.
    - Flopped Book No. 7: "Famous French Battle Tactics"
    - I just realized how you know you are a true Southerner. My grocery list on my fridge right now reads: "bourbon, grits."
    - Bill Clinton is getting $12 million for his memoirs; Hillary got $8 million for hers. That's $20 million for two people who spent eight years telling everyone they couldn't remember anything.
    - A good thing about the Yugo: It had heated rear windows so your hands would stay warm while you pushed.
    - Put the blame where it belongs. Global warming started under the Clinton administration.
Posted 08/02/02, 4:42 a.m.

    Proving that Democrats will nothing get in their way of taking over Congress, many on the Left are subtly criticizing the war on terrorism and speaking against a war against Iraq to remove Saddam Hussein.
      For example, Dem. Sen. Max Cleland, in a heated race in patriotic Georgia brought out the "They haven't got Osama yet" ploy, as if not having Bin Laden in custody makes the war a failure.
      Don't forget that it was by the slimmest of margins that the Democrat-controlled Congress voted in favor of Bush 41 launching an attack on Iraq in 1991. What makes you think that they'd be any more prone to 'help' Bush 43 in his attempt to root out the Axis of Evil? But who do you think they'll blame in the event of another terrorist attack that takes dozens, hundreds, thousands of American lives?
Posted 08/02/02, 4:30 a.m.

    During the debate over the "Under God" line of the Pledge, we heard many detractors say that it should be stricken since it was only added as an insult to the atheist Communists in the U.S.S.R. Two years ago, liberal Georgians demanded that the state change the flag to remove the Confederate battle emblem, since it was added in the mid-50s in response to desegregation.
      Because of this, I'm sure the Left will have no problem with a federal court striking down a Washington state statute that prevented students from using a state scholarship to pursue a degree in theology. After all, the only reason such laws were enacted was started by 1884 presidential nominee Maine Republican James Blaine in the late 1800s, who was a vehement anti-Catholic who managed to convince 36 states to withdraw any money from going to religious purposes. Now that these laws are being challenged, they are being overturned as ridiculous abridgements to freedoms of citizens to use their own money for whatever purpose they so choose.
      The Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals ruled that once a state makes a benefit available to individuals, it cannot exclude people who decide to use it in a program associated with religion. This is similar to the reasoning that the government has no right to tell you not to give part of your Social Security check to a church, or to tell GI Bill or Pell Grant students they can't major in religion or attend seminary.
      This is another positive ruling that maintains the charge of the right of school choice so that the public school monopoly may someday end.
Posted 08/01/02, 11:25 a.m.

    Remember all the hubbub that the Israeli army had committed a "massacre" in the Palestinian town of Jenin? Sensible citizens long ago knew the charge was hogwash, today even the Israel-unfriendly U.N. has sided with the Jewish nation. Let's see if any of the blowhards in England or at the New York Times will backtrack from their haughty consternations at the time.
Posted 08/01/02, 11:15 p.m.

    It turns out that the worst hair on the planet, belonging to convicted felon and ex-Congressman Jim Traficant, was really a toupee. So instead of having the worst hairdo, he merely had the ugliest hairpiece.
Posted 08/01/02, 11:12 p.m.

    The news today was that a Russian mob boss was arrested Wednesday in Italy on U.S. charges that he fixed the pairs and ice dancing in a vote-swapping deal at the Salt Lake City Olympics.
      Big deal. If he were really influential, he'd help Anna Kournikova win a professional tennis tournament for once.
Posted 08/01/02, 3:13 a.m.

    Twenty-three Cuban youngsters took the opportunity of attending the Catholic World Youth Conference in Toronto to defect, a decision that - unbelievably - has organizers "disappointed."
      "You know that's not why we held World Youth Day," Paul Kilbertus, the conference's communication director, tells the Toronto Globe and Mail. "We wanted people to come for the right reasons. ... We're sorry that there are people who've used the opportunity to take part in a religious event as an excuse to get in the country."
      Yes, it’s so unfortunate that these brave kids took advantage of "the right reasons" of religious liberty to seek life in a free country. Let's just hope that there aren't any Janet Renos in Canada to deport the children back to Cuba.
Posted 08/01/02, 3:07 a.m.

    It's sad when the joke becomes truth. A trial lawyer has filed a lawsuit against four fast-food companies--McDonald's, Burger King, Wendy's and KFC--alleging that they are to blame for his client's corpulence. The lead plaintiff, 56-year-old Caesar Barber, ate at fast-food restaurants four or five times a week and blames his fatty diet for his obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure and cholesterol and the two heart attacks he has suffered.
      Barber says that he was more prone to eat fast-food because he’s single, impatient and he can’t cook. Hey, would someone please give this guy the phone number to Jared and a map to the nearest Subway?
      But, by golly, maybe there really is a special sauce in KFC that makes you crave it fortnightly!
Posted 07/30/02, 3:05 a.m.

    A court in Lahore, Pakistan, sentenced a Muslim man to death Saturday for making derogatory statements about the Prophet Mohammed and Islam, police and court officials said. Wajihul Hassan, 27, was also sentenced to 10 years in jail. (Associated Press)
      Yes, you read that right, and no, I have no idea why they plan to free his body 10 years after they’re supposed to kill him.
Posted 07/30/02, 3:03 a.m.

    I don’t know what it means, but I found these statistics nteresting:
      While American men are less inclined to smoke than their counterparts in Europe and Japan, they have a far higher incidence of lung cancer. As a rule, men are heavier smokers than women. World Health Organization figures for male smokers as a percentage of their respective populations during the 1990s: British, 29 percent; German, 43 percent; French, 39 percent; Italian, 32 percent; Japanese, 31 percent; United States, 27 percent.
      Estimated lung cancer deaths among males, ages 35-69: British, 9 per 1,000; German, 16 per 1,000; French, 11 per 1,000; Italian, 14 per 1,000; Japan, 9 per 1,000; United States, 46 per 1,000.
Posted 07/30/02, 3:00 a.m.

    ESPN treated the bass fishing championships like the Super Bowl. Now, I like fishing as much as the next guy, but should we really give so much praise to the guy who just coaxes the most stupid fish into biting the bait ?
Posted 07/30/02, 2:58 a.m.

    This week's best Vents from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution:
    – Finally, the culmination of my winter dreams: juicy, wipe-your-chin tomato sandwiches. That one’s for you, Mom!
    – If everybody hates their job so much, why are they in such a hurry to get to work every morning?
    – My friend thinks that abdicate means giving up any hope of having a flat stomach.
    – If I could have invested my Social Security in the stock market beginning in the 1950s, I would be rich by now.
    – P/E ratio: The percentage of investors wetting their pants as the market keeps crashing.
    - We are Macintosh. You will be assimilated. Resistance is futile.
    - My air conditioner just went on the fritz, and now I believe in global warming.
Posted 07/27/02, 8:32 a.m.

    Apparently what's good for the goose is not good for the gander, even if no one knows what a 'gander' is. In this case, though, it's Senate Majority Leader Tom Dasc-hole.
      Among all the forest fires across the west this summer, many of which were caused by environmental regulations imposed by Democrats joined at the hip to green groups, Dasc-hole quietly slipped into a spending bill language exempting his home state of South Dakota from environmental regulations and lawsuits, in order to allow logging in an effort to prevent forest fires.
      You can imagine that this might anger some other Western legislators whose states were forced to obey rules disallowing tree-clearing. Rep. J.D. Hayworth, Arizona Republican, where more than a half-million acres have been destroyed by fire, said the process should have been open and the solution available to all states in a "tinderbox situation."
      "It certainly can only be described as blatant hypocrisy on behalf of the Senate leader to claim on one hand to be the champion of the environment and then on the other hand to cut a special deal for his home state," Hayworth said.
      The situation is even more juicy when you realize that the provision to allow logging was first included in the farm bill by Rep. John Thune, South Dakota Republican, who is challenging Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson for his seat in November. It was killed by Dasc-hole and Mr. Johnson under pressure from environmental groups, congressional aides said. Only after Dasc-hole couldn't pretend that disaster loomed did he insert the rule back into the bill and pretend it was his idea all along.
Posted 07/27/02, 8:30 a.m.

    Here's a shocking study that must've taken all of $20.50 to figure out: Husbands forget spats, wives never do.
      (Pause for inevitable gasps) Yes, someone actually studied this. A team of psychologists at State University of New York Stony Brook tested groups of women and men for their ability to recall or recognize highly evocative photographs three weeks after first seeing them and found that the women's recollections were more accurate by 10 percent to 15 percentage points.
      Might I add: Duh. The only reason it should cost as much as twenty bucks is that it would pay for one hour each of the time of a man and woman, and a pint of Ben & Jerry's to compensate the woman having to remember past grievances.
Posted 07/26/02, 5:50 a.m.

    Forever enriching my audience's lives, here's a Did you Know: Famous chef Julia Child could be described as a World WWII hero.
      Yep, during the war Child held a sensitive position with the Office of Strategic Services, the predecessor of the CIA. Stationed in the British colony of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), she processed all classified papers for the invasion of the Malay peninsula. She also organized the Southeast Asian Command headquarters' handling of secret documents, including orders for espionage and sabotage.
      Later, she was transferred to China, where she met Paul Child, an ex-OSS employee, and the two were wed after the war. Several years later, he was assigned as a U.S. information officer at the U.S. Embassy in Paris, and she took up cooking seriously, studying at the famous Cordon Bleu school. In 1961, she and two Cordon Bleu classmates found a publisher for their two-volume opus, "Mastering the Art of French Cooking," and she's been a recognized authority on the subject ever since.
Posted 07/26/02, 5:50 a.m.

    As if you couldn't figure out from blogs below, you wanna know what I find funny? Watching leftist groups bicker about who really has the right heart for the fight for mother earth.
      For example, environmental activists are under fire from animal-rights organizations. PETA is apparently upset that WWF, NRDC, and other green groups support the EPA's plan to use animal testing to help identify whether various chemical compounds pose risks to human health.
      Meanwhile, from the files of the "You can never make leftist bedwetters happy" file comes news that the same tree-huggers who whine constantly for more 'natural' forms of power are in a tiff over a Pennsylvania plan for wind power. They're angry over the necessary use of land for the project - 47 giant windmills this fall along a five-mile stretch of the wooded Moosic Mountain Ridge, a project that will make Pennsylvania the leading producer of wind-based electricity east of the Mississippi. God forbid we have to use land to get power!
Posted 07/26/02, 5:45 a.m.

    Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer comes out with one of the most definitive explanations of differences between conservatives and liberals that I've ever read.
Posted 07/26/02, 5:09 a.m.

    Can a fortune cookie be retroactive to when you bought the food? Today's said, "Good news is on its way," but I read it after I saw this tidbit of fun political news (meaning that another Democrat is embroiled in scandal).
      Yesterday the House voted to expel Democrat James Traficant. Today we see that in the ethics investigation of Sen. Robert Torricelli, investigators have evidence that the New Jersey Democrat took illegal gifts from political contributors.
      But just as Traficant's only supporting vote was from Gary Condit, you can bet that Ted Kennedy would vote to keep Torricelli. After all, you always want someone who the public sees as just as bad or worse to take all the heat off your transgressions. I would say that Kennedy will go to any length to save Torricelli. Unless, of course, he was drowning in Kennedy's car in a lake.
Posted 07/26/02, 1:30 a.m.



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