Category: Current Affairs

You may have heard of the plans to build a memorial to the heroes of Flight 93, who died trying to wrest control of the ill-fated flight from Mulsim terrorists who sought to plow it into a major American landmark, most likely either the White House or the Capitol Building.

This was the flight where, as the passengers learned via cellphone that a massive terrorist operation was underway, the men on the plane voted (democracy) and then stormed the terrorist-controlled cabin, showing that Americans would no longer sit passively by and allow this kind of terrorism to take place.

It was the flight on which Todd Beamer uttered the immortal words, "Let’s roll" as the passengers began their heroic bid to take back the plane.

I said at the time that they needed to build a statue to those guys.

I did not envision the following MONSTROSITY:

SOURCE.

The plans currently call for the memorial to take the form of a "Crecent of Embrace" composed of maple trees of a species that will turn red in the fall, just like the red Islamic crecent.

MORE ON THIS OUTRAGE FROM MICHELLE MALKIN.  AND MORE.

If you are as outraged as I am by this hijacking of the memorial that the heroes of Flight 93 deserve by turning it instead into an orgasm of political correctness that honors their MURDERERS then I invite you to join me in contacting the National Parks Service and telling them they must cancel this abomination and go back to the drawing board.

The person to be called is Joanne Hanley, the Superintendent of the Flight 93 National Memorial.

She can be reached at (814) 443-4557 or faxed at (814) 443-2180.

You may also be able to send an e-mail message HERE, though there are reports that the form doesn’t work.

I also agree with one of the commenters over at Michelle Malkin’s:

I propose a single block of unfinished granite, representing the
enduring and unvarnished legacy of Flight 93 with the immortal line,
“Let’s Roll” hewn into it in 5’ high letters. A panel below should be
smoothed and polished and the names of the fallen engraved there along
with a description of their actions that day. In front of this would be
a simple paved plaza with one flagpole facing the monument in their
honour. Let the memorial be simple and straightforward, uncluttered by
the baggage of others and with a clear and unambiguous message for all
who would stand before it.

Only I’d like one change: I want the letters in LET’S ROLL to be ten feet high.

Not all of the murders committed in New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Katrina were committed by people from lower socio-economic brackets.

Some physicians were afraid of the threatening circumstances created by murdering hoodlums in the city.

So they murdered them themselves.

If the following press report is true.

GET THE (ABOMINABLE!) STORY.
(CHT to the reader who e-mailed.)

The Senate confirmation hearings for John Roberts’ Supreme Court nominations are expected to return to the issue of religion:

"The degree to which Roberts’s religious beliefs may inform his judicial philosophy could be a significant line of questioning, especially given that Roberts is replacing Sandra Day O’Connor [Editor’s note: Since Chief Justice Rehnquist’s death, Roberts will now be replacing Rehnquist and not O’Connor. –MLA], a key vote on many contentious social issues. Conservatives distrusted O’Connor for the same reason that liberals are sorry to see her go: She supported abortion rights and took moderate stances on other social causes, including voting to strike down Texas’s sodomy law, a 2003 case that was a turning point for gay rights.

"The signals with Roberts are mixed. Liberal women’s groups believe that based on his legal record, he may attempt to overturn Roe v. Wade. Conservative groups also have found material not to like in the Roberts dossier, such as the Supreme Court case he helped to prepare challenging a Colorado constitutional amendment excluding gays from anti-discrimination laws."

One commentator, Georgetown university professor of government W. Clyde Wilcox had this to say:

"’They want to get a read on the guy, and it’s hard to find anything to grab onto — so maybe [his Catholicism] would be an attractive line of questioning,’ said W. Clyde Wilcox, a Georgetown University government professor.

"’You can understand a person better if you know the reason they’ve taken a position is from their faith,’ Wilcox said. But, he added: ‘Knowing someone is a Catholic doesn’t really tell you where they are on abortion at all.’"

GET THE STORY.

That a Georgetown University professor could blithely note that a person’s known adherence to Catholicism "doesn’t really tell you where [he is] on abortion at all" is a scary assessment of the state of cafeteria Catholicism in our country today.

Chief Justice William Rehnquist’s funeral was to be held Wednesday, September 7, at the Cathedral of St. Matthew in Washington, D.C. Although Rehnquist was a Lutheran, his family asked the Archdiocese of Washington for permission to use the cathedral because of its size and favorable location, a request that was granted by Theodore Cardinal McCarrick.

"[T]he Rehnquist family asked Cardinal Theodore McCarrick for use of the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle due to its size and central location, said Susan Gibbs, spokeswoman for the Washington Archdiocese.

"McCarrick will be present to welcome the Protestant worshippers, said the Rev. Jan Lookingbill of Emmanual Lutheran Church in Bethesda, Md., where Rehnquist long held membership."

GET THE STORY.

As the article notes the Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism allows for the local ordinary — in this case, Cardinal McCarrick — to permit the use of a Catholic church for a non-Catholic religious service:

"137. Catholic churches are consecrated or blessed buildings which have an important theological and liturgical significance for the Catholic community. They are therefore generally reserved for Catholic worship. However, if priests, ministers or communities not in full communion with the Catholic Church do not have a place or the liturgical objects necessary for celebrating worthily their religious ceremonies, the diocesan bishop may allow them the use of a church or a Catholic building and also lend them what may be necessary for their services. Under similar circumstances, permission may be given to them for interment or for the celebration of services at Catholic cemeteries."

The issue is currently being discussed over at Amy Welborn’s site if you’re interested in further commentary. Given the request of Rehnquist’s family, Cardinal McCarrick’s approval of the request according to the norms set down by the Directory, and the reports of Rehnquist’s own faithful attendance at the cathedral’s annual Red Mass for the legal profession, I have no problem with it. May Chief Justice Rehnquist rest in peace.

The pup to the left is Snowball.

You may remember Snowball because of his heart-wrenching story:

Among the thousands of crushing moments from last week’s deadly
hurricane, one image brought the anguish home to many: a tearful little
boy torn from his dog while being shuttled to safety.

"Everyone wants to know about Snowball," said Laura Maloney,
executive director of the Louisiana Society for the Prevention of
Cruelty to Animals.

The boy was among the thousands sheltered at the Superdome after the
hurricane. But when he went to board a bus to be evacuated to Houston, a
police officer took the dog away. The boy cried out — "Snowball!
Snowball!" — then vomited in distress. The confrontation was first
reported by The Associated Press. Authorities say they don’t know where
the boy or his family ended up.

But now there’s a ray of hope!

The United Animal Nations said
Snowball was safe, citing news from the state veterinarian’s office.
However, the information could not be immediately verified.

VERIFICATION FROM THE AMERICAN VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCATION!

The search is now on for the boy:

Reuniting Snowball and his owner will require work, patience and luck.

Volunteers planned to make visits to shelters in the Houston area
looking for the dog’s owners. They were considering walking around
carrying signs with Snowball’s photo.

"I don’t know how hopeful I am," Jones said. "They probably
don’t know anything about this — that there’s a reward out there and we’re
trying to look for them.

GET THE STORY.

VIDEO OF SNOWBALL.

KatrinaFound Pets.Com

A big CHT to the readers who e-mailed, one of whom wrote:

I, like everyone else, was dumbfounded at the aftereffects of the hurricane last week. I was so shaken that I couldn’t even cry. For some reason, your relating of this story was what enabled me to cry — not only for the little boy and his dog, but for the tens of thousands directly affected by this disaster.

Not even one of the worst natural disasters in the history of the United States could dampen the enthusiasm of some revelers determined to cavort in the streets of the ravaged city of New Orleans:

"You know a city has legs when three or four dozen of them are parading down Bourbon Street
— some clad in tutus and grass skirts — six days after the most damaging hurricane in American history.

[…]

"The [‘Southern Decadence’ parade] event always manages to be held the Sunday before Labor Day. This time, of course, the circumstances were different.

"Water covered the upper northwest quadrant of the Quarter, roughly from Conti to Canal streets, between Bourbon and North Rampart.

"There was no power or water, and only hints of the kinds of food made legendary at venues such as Brennan’s or Galatoire’s. Both of those restaurants seemed relatively unscathed, as did many of the structures on the riverside end of the district, its highest elevation.

"But the Quarter was far from its famously lively and carefree self. National Guard and police were everywhere to keep the peace and stop looting. Helicopters buzzed overhead as the evacuation of the city proceeded."

GET THE STORY.

Thousands may be dead, perhaps over a million are refugees, and all these people can think about is partying in the storm-drenched streets? In the epitome of tastelessness, the article mentions that one woman was spotted wearing a T-shirt inscribed with the words "I survived Hurricane Katrina and all I got was this lousy T-shirt."

Well, at least this person survived. In case she hadn’t noticed, she was far luckier than many others and, instead of honoring the dead, was all but dancing on their graves.

I was thinking about how to assess and explain the magnitude of losing New Orleans, which has gone from being a city of almost half a million to a ghost town of maybe 10,000, they think.

I thought about putting up a list of the Top 10 biggest U.S. cities and crossing a line through New Orleans as a way of visualizing the loss. Seeing that crossed out name next to other Top 10 names like "New York," "Los Angeles," or "Chicago" could powerfully communicate just what our nation has lost.

But it turned out that I couldn’t do that. On researching the matter, I discovered that–despite its fame and its history–New Orleans is not in the Top 10 biggest U.S. cities. It’s not in the top dozen, or the two two dozen. The list would simply be too long to make the point I wanted to make.

By population, New York is sixteen times as big as New Orleans. Los Angeles is eight. Houston is four. The city I live in–San Diego–is almost three.

Places like Columbus, Milwaukee, El Paso, Charlotte, OKC, and Tucson are all bigger than New Orleans was.

I guess we were lucky that–as unimaginably horrible as the damage of losing New Orleans has been–it was not as bad as if a Top 10 city was taken out. That would have been even more unimaginably horrible.

So where was New Orleans in the rankings?

IT WAS NUMBER TWENTY-EIGHT.

That distinction now belongs to Las Vegas.

In an unsurprising move, President Bush has nominated Judge John Roberts for chief justice of the Supreme Court.

The move is logical given:

• he’s qualified for the job from a professional perspective
• he has been able to withstand media scrutiny over the last few weeks
• he’s still not the subject of intense opposition in the Senate
• he originally was looked at as a replacement for Rehnquist, before O’Connor retired
• at the time Roberts was nominated, many thought he was only going on the Court to get experience as an associate before being elevated to chief
• he’s acceptable to the conservative base
• he could be confirmed by the time the Court’s new term opens on October 3rd (less than a month from now)
• without a new chief justice on October 3rd the senior associate justice (Darth Stephens) would be acting chief justice and there could be 4-4 deadlocks
• Darth O’Connor’s resignation isn’t effective until her replacement is confirmed, so Bush has a bit of room to look for a new replacement for her
• it prevents the President from having to take significant time away from the Hurricane Katrina situation at a moment when he needs to show that he’s on top of that

GET THE STORY.

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A number of folks in the blogosphere have been wondering where all the finger-wagging Europeans are in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

You know: The people who after the tsunami relentlessly badgered the U.S. for not doing "enough" to help the people of the Pacific Rim, when in fact we were doing vastly more than anybody else to help them.

One can always play the "You’re not enough ‘enough’" game.

Now that America has been hit with a natural disaster, these same folks are doing NOTHING.

Right?

WELL, NOT SO FAST!

Kudos to all Europeans of good will!

OH YEAH, AND HERE’S ONE.

ON THE OTHER HAND . . .