http://www.drudge.com/user/Doc_Sarvis New links and comments. en-us http://www.rssboard.org/rss-specification Wordzilla/0.58 10 http://www.drudge.com/news/126951/scotus-wight-life-prison-yiouths http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/08/us/08juveniles.html?hp TALLAHASSEE, Fla. There are just over 100 people in the world serving sentences of life without the possibility of parole for crimes they committed as juveniles in which no one was killed. All are in the United States. And 77 of them are here in Florida. On Monday, the Supreme Court will hear appeals from two such juvenile offenders: Joe Sullivan, who raped a woman when he was 13, and Terrance Graham, who committed armed burglary at 16. They claim that the Eighth Amendment's ban on cruel and unusual punishment forbids sentencing them to die in prison for crimes other than homicide. <p>Outside the context of the death penalty, the Supreme Court has generally allowed states to decide for themselves what punishments fit what crimes. But the court barred the execution of juvenile offenders in 2005 by a vote of 5 to 4, saying that people under 18 are immature, irresponsible, susceptible to peer pressure and often capable of change. <p>A ruling extending that reasoning beyond capital cases "could be the Brown v. Board of Education of juvenile law," said Paolo G. Annino, the director of the Children's Advocacy Clinic at Florida State University's law school. Judges, legislators and prosecutors in Florida agree that the state takes an exceptionally tough line on juvenile crime. <p>But they are deeply divided about when sentences of life without the possibility of release are warranted.... <p>Concern about tourism continues to drive crime policy in the state, said Kathleen M. Heide, a professor of criminology at the University of South Florida. "We're at the more extreme level," she said, "because our economy is so tied up with people coming here on vacation and feeling safe. And older people want to live out their retirements here and be safe." <p>Florida is one of eight states with juvenile offenders serving life sentences without the possibility of parole for nonhomicide crimes, according to a report prepared by Professor Annino and two colleagues at Florida State. Louisiana has 17 such prisoners; California, Delaware, Iowa, Mississippi, Nebraska and South Carolina have the rest... Sun, 08 Nov 2009 07:38:00 -0500 Doc_Sarvis http://www.drudge.com/news/126951/scotus-wight-life-prison-yiouths#discuss tag:drudge.com,2005:weblog.126951 discussion, 0.5 daily 126951 http://www.drudge.com/news/126926/tea-bagger-holocaust-imagery-draws-little http://thinkprogress.org/ The Capitol Hill gathering of Teabaggig wackdoodles recently put together by GOP starlet Michele Bachmann featured loons waving signage displaying Holocaust imagery and anti-Semitic messages. Although condemned by many, inclding Nobel laureate and Holocaust survivor Elie Wisel -- who found the messaging "indecent and disgusting" -- these over-the-top displays of paranoiac politics have thus far provoked scant criticism from the GOP "leadership." (Once exception: Virginia congressman Eric Cantor, described a banner showing a pile of dead Holocaust victims captioned "National Socialist Health Care: Dachau, Germany - 1945" as "inappropriate.") <b>Jewish Organizations Condemn GOP For Standing By As Tea Party Protesters Waved Vile' Anti-Semitic Signs</b> [You have to scroll down the page to find the story] <p>One of the most disturbing images from yesterday's Tea Party rally against health care reform on Capitol Hill was a protester's gruesome sign showing a pile of dead Holocaust victims. The banner captured by ThinkProgress here read: "National Socialist Health Care: Dachau, Germany 1945." Another sign said that "Obama takes his orders from the Rothchilds [sic]," a reference to the famous Jewish banking family often implicated in conspiracy theories. Today, Nobel Prize winner and Holoacaust survivor Elie Wiesel strongly condemned the signs, calling them "indecent and disgusting." <p>Jewish Organizations Condemn GOP For Standing By As Tea Party Protesters Waved Vile' Anti-Semitic Signs One of the most disturbing images from yesterday's Tea Party rally against health care reform on Capitol Hill was a protester's gruesome sign showing a pile of dead Holocaust victims. The banner captured by ThinkProgress here read: "National Socialist Health Care: Dachau, Germany 1945." Another sign said that "Obama takes his orders from the Rothchilds [sic]," a reference to the famous Jewish banking family often implicated in conspiracy theories. Today, Nobel Prize winner and Holoacaust survivor Elie Wiesel strongly condemned the signs, calling them "indecent and disgusting." From his foundation's Twitter page: <p> <p> The National Jewish Democratic Council also criticized the "vile invocations of Nazi and Holocaust rhetoric" and called out GOP leaders who stood in plain view of the signs but ignored them. The Simon Wiesenthal Center demanded that the rally organizers "publicly repudiate the use of Nazi and Holocaust imagery." Rep. Steve Israel (D-NY) made similar comments in a video he posted on YouTube, singling out the rally's organizer, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN): <p><blockquote><b>I can't believe that Congresswoman Bachmann would stand where she stood, and see those images, and not have the common decency to say, "I disagree with the use of those images."</b> I think that she owes the memory of those who perished in the Holocaust an apology. She owes us all an apology. And I'm waiting. We're all waiting.</blockquote> <p>When Politico asked House Minority Leader John Boehner's (R-OH) spokesman for comment on these signs, he simply replied, "Leader Boehner did not see any such sign. Obviously, it would be grossly inappropriate." Today, Rep. Eric Cantor's (R-VA) spokesman called the photograph "inappropriate." <p> Sat, 07 Nov 2009 07:27:23 -0500 Doc_Sarvis http://www.drudge.com/news/126926/tea-bagger-holocaust-imagery-draws-little#discuss tag:drudge.com,2005:weblog.126926 discussion, 0.5 daily 126926 http://www.drudge.com/news/126924/gop-reps-blow-off-national-security-vote http://tpmmuckraker.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/11/patriot_games_gop_reps_pick_tea_party_rally_over_n.php?ref=fpb When it's a choice between strengthening the Patriot Act, or showing up for the Tea Party Patriots, what's a GOP lawmaker to do? We'll give you one guess...<p>Several Republican members of Congress blew off votes on the signature anti-terror legislation of the post 9/11 era to attend Michele Bachmann's Tea Party rally against health-care reform. Sat, 07 Nov 2009 06:46:33 -0500 Doc_Sarvis http://www.drudge.com/news/126924/gop-reps-blow-off-national-security-vote#discuss tag:drudge.com,2005:weblog.126924 discussion, 0.5 daily 126924 http://www.drudge.com/news/126880/riightie-lies-capitol-hill-teabagging http://thinkprogress.org/ Although Capitol Police say no more than 4,000 wackdoodles showed up for the Michele Bachmann-induced "Kill the Bill" anti-reality demonstration by frenzied teabaggers on Capitol Hill on Friday, riightie fave G. Gordon Liddy estimated the crowd size at around 1 million. A corporate front group founded by Koch Industries billionaire David Koch bussed wingnuts in for the non-event. Which rendered one GOP congressman's claim that people "paid for [the bus transportation] themselves" beyond laughable.<p>How stoopid do the sheeples' think the herd is? Purrty goshdarn stoopid. Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:42:44 -0500 Doc_Sarvis http://www.drudge.com/news/126880/riightie-lies-capitol-hill-teabagging#discuss tag:drudge.com,2005:weblog.126880 discussion, 0.5 daily 126880 http://www.drudge.com/news/126879/cbo-eviscerates-gops-health-care-plan http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ezra-klein/2009/11/congressional_budget_office_th.html Republicans are learning an unpleasant lesson: The only thing worse than having no health-care reform plan is releasing a bad one, getting thrashed by CBO and making the House Democrats look good in comparison. <p>It's one thing to keep your cards close to your chest. It's another to lay them out on the table and show everyone that you have no hand, and aren't even totally sure how to play the game. ...[T]he Congressional Budget Office released its initial analysis of the health-care reform plan that Republican Minority Leader John Boehner offered as a substitute to the Democratic legislation. CBO begins with the baseline estimate that 17 percent of legal, non-elderly residents won't have health-care insurance in 2010. In 2019, after 10 years of the Republican plan, CBO estimates that ...17 percent of legal, non-elderly residents won't have health-care insurance. <b>The Republican alternative will have helped 3 million people secure coverage, which is barely keeping up with population growth. Compare that to the Democratic bill, which covers 36 million more people and cuts the uninsured population to 4 percent.</b> <p>But maybe, you say, the Republican bill does a really good job cutting costs. <b>According to CBO, the GOP's alternative will shave $68 billion off the deficit in the next 10 years. The Democrats, CBO says, will slice $104 billion off the deficit. <p>The Democratic bill, in other words, covers 12 times as many people and saves $36 billion more than the Republican plan.</b> And amazingly, the Democratic bill has already been through three committees and a merger process. It's already been shown to interest groups and advocacy organizations and industry stakeholders. <b>It's already made its compromises with reality. It's already been through the legislative sausage grinder. And yet it saves more money and covers more people than the blank-slate alternative proposed by John Boehner and the House Republicans. The Democrats, constrained by reality, produced a far better plan than Boehner, who was constrained solely by his political imagination and legislative skill.</b> <p><i><b>This is a major embarrassment for the Republicans. It's one thing to keep your cards close to your chest.</b></i> Republicans are in the minority, after all, and their plan stands no chance of passage. <i><b>It's another to lay them out on the table and show everyone that you have no hand, and aren't even totally sure how to play the game. The Democratic plan isn't perfect, but in comparison, it's looking astonishingly good.</b></i> <p> Thu, 05 Nov 2009 21:19:50 -0500 Doc_Sarvis http://www.drudge.com/news/126879/cbo-eviscerates-gops-health-care-plan#discuss tag:drudge.com,2005:weblog.126879 discussion, 0.5 daily 126879 http://www.drudge.com/news/126800/dem-wins-ny-congressional-election http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1109/29118.html Democrat Bill Owens defeated conservative independent Doug Hoffman in the race for New York's 23rd Congressional District, the first time since the 19th century that a Democrat holds the seat. Hoffman was endorsed by Sarah Palin and other national Republicans, who drove Republican nominee Dede Scozzafava from the race. Hoffman became a cause celebre for conservative politicians including former Palin who believed Scozzafava's moderate record and support for abortion rights symbolized a Republican party that has strayed too far from bedrock conservative values. Scozzafava on Sunday took herself out of the race and urged her supporters to back Owens. <p>Hoffman's defeat marks yet another gut-wrenching loss for House Republicans, who have seen Democrats win seats in traditional GOP territory in special elections dating back to last year. <p>Owens' victory means there are only two Republicans left in the state's 31-seat Congressional delegation. The seat was held by former GOP Rep. John McHugh, who resigned in September to serve as President Barack Obama's Army Secretary. Wed, 04 Nov 2009 06:50:22 -0500 Doc_Sarvis http://www.drudge.com/news/126800/dem-wins-ny-congressional-election#discuss tag:drudge.com,2005:weblog.126800 news, 0.5 daily 126800 http://www.drudge.com/news/126801/much-time-before-youre-american http://thinkprogress.org/ CNBC reporter Darren Rovell denigrated Meb Keflezighi's wininthe New York City Marathon -- the first time an American has won that grueling competition in 27 years -- as being not "as good as it sounds" because Keflezighi is an immigrant. This "takes away form the magnitude of the achievement the headline implies." Although Rovell later posted a convoluted sort-of apology the question remains: How long do you have to live in America before you're an American? <b>CNBC Reporter: Keflezighi's Marathon Win Was Empty' Because He Was An Immigrant Rather Than U.S.-Born</b> On Sunday, U.S. media outlets reported that for the first time in 27 years, an American had won the New York City Marathon. Meb Keflezighi was born in Eritrea, "growing up in a hut with no electricity." He and his family moved to Italy when he was 10 years old, and came to the United States two years later. Keflezighi "began running in junior high in San Diego, then went on to star at UCLA." He said he it was with "big honor and pride" that he wore the USA jersey while running in the marathon. Watch a post-marathon interview with Keflezighi here: <p>However, CNBC Sports Business Reporter Darren Rovell doesn't think Keflezighi deserves all this praise because when his mother gave birth to him, she wasn't in the U.S. Rovell wrote a column yesterday saying that Keflezighi's victory wasn't "as good as it sounds" because Keflezighi is an immigrant, and this fact "takes away from the magnitude of the achievement the headline implies": <p> Wed, 04 Nov 2009 05:32:13 -0500 Doc_Sarvis http://www.drudge.com/news/126801/much-time-before-youre-american#discuss tag:drudge.com,2005:weblog.126801 discussion, 0.5 daily 126801 http://www.drudge.com/news/126768/paganism-becomes-issue-city-council-race http://gothamist.com/2009/11/02/queens_council_race_descends_into_p.php In Queens, N.Y., the opponent of city council candidate Dan Halloran has called attention to the fact that Halloran is the "First Atheling" (king) of the ancient Germanic religion of Theodism, a pre-Christian Heathen religion. Halloran once wrote on a web site that his religion "practices blood sacrifice," which he compared to Jewish dietary laws. That riled up supports of opponent Kevin Kim. "By comparing animal blood sacrifices with the Jewish dietary laws of keeping kosher, it's no wonder that Dan Halloran's religion is supported by neo-Nazis and white supremacists," Michael Dovid Sais, a Jewish Kim backer told the <i>New York Daily News</i>. <p>Halloran defended himself by saying that his religion is out of bounds when it comes to the race. "I don't think any of this is really relevant to the City Council race. It's like talking about what church you pray at. That you understand the divine is the most important part." Tue, 03 Nov 2009 09:22:02 -0500 Doc_Sarvis http://www.drudge.com/news/126768/paganism-becomes-issue-city-council-race#discuss tag:drudge.com,2005:weblog.126768 news, 0.5 daily 126768 http://www.drudge.com/news/126761/western-leadership-obama-style http://www.drudge.com/news/126761/western-leadership-obama-style During the 2008 campaign, Barack Obama tapped into a strongly felt need for significant change. Despite inheriting a pile of wreckage left behind by his predecessor, Obama as president has set an ambitious national agenda. But we need to evaluate his leadership not primarily in comparison to George W. Bush, who historians are already putting in the league of Ulysses S. Grant while inebriated. Leadership is a quality Barack Obama showed on the campaign trail. It is a quality he has failed to show as president. It's been a year since that exhilarating night last year when we heard the news that Barack Obama would be our next president. Over the course of that year, we have seen the leadership style of our new president.... [and] I think we have seen the clear outlines of Obama's approach to leadership. <p>Genuine leadership means setting the agenda. It means taking tough stands. It means telling people the truth forcefully and evocatively in a way that makes them want to listen and act. It means drawing lines in the sand when you must, and refusing to compromise your values even if you have to compromise on some of the policies born of those values when you have no other choice. It means fighting for what you believe in and taking on powerful vested interests when people's lives and livelihoods are at stake. And it means looking backward at the past so you don't make the same mistakes, looking sideways at alternatives so you know your options, and using that vision to move the nation forward. <p>Leadership is a quality Barack Obama showed on the campaign trail. It is a quality he has failed to show as president. <p>Before readers start generating caveats and apologies, let me be clear. What he has done is to set a national agenda, and an ambitious one at that....[But] we need to evaluate his leadership not primarily in comparison to George W. Bush, who historians are already putting in the league of Ulysses S. Grant while inebriated... <p>[My] point here is about process, not substance. Leadership is not about saying, "me, too"....and then pulling out your special "me, too" pen for the signing ceremony. Leadership is not making public pronouncements that simultaneously support and undercut the goal of requiring the health insurance industry to compete with at least one plan they don't control. <p>The health care debate is a prototypical example. Obama could have told members of Congress when the health care fight began, "If the average American doesn't have the same quality and range of options at the end of this process that you do, I will not sign any appropriations bill for next year that includes health insurance for federal employees, your family and mine included, because if it's good enough for us, it's good enough for the people we serve." Had the president done that, he would have had populist sentiment at his back, not with its back up against Democrats over "death panels." Blue Dogs and conservative Democrats would have been champions of populist reform, both because it would have been in the interest of their own family's health and because it would have struck a resonant chord with their constituents. All it would have taken was a sharp condemnation of the health insurance industry -- something he ultimately ended up having to do anyway after they decided his plan was no longer in their interest -- and what has led to a recent shift in the Democrats' favor on health care reform. <p>Am I sure that he could have mobilized populist sentiment to mobilize support for health care reform, or is that armchair, 20-20 hindsight punditry? Yes. I polled it 18 months ago, and the idea of the public getting the same quality of care as their elected representatives was wildly popular with everyone, right, left, and center. <p>It would be nice to see from the president a little less Rodney King -- "Why can't we all get along?" -- and a little more Martin Luther King, who wasn't interested in compromising on 3/5 of a man or 3/5 of a vote -- and who wouldn't have sat on the sidelines waiting to declare victory upon insuring 3/5 of the people who can't afford health insurance. When the Senate sent its fifth and final health care bill out committee, the president lavished praise on one person -- Republican Senator Olympia Snow, apparently for failing to obstruct the process -- who promptly noted that her support was only temporary. The president's highest-level surrogates then fanned out on the Sunday morning shows to demonstrate his staunch commitment to equivocation on whether the health insurance industry needs some healthy competition to bring costs down and guarantee high quality, affordable care. <p>This, in microcosm, is the essence of the President's approach to leadership -- Obamaprise -- the art of compromising when you don't have to. The goal is not to get the best possible bill, to fulfill his campaign pledges to the people who elected him, or to fulfill values to which he is deeply committed, whatever they seem to be when the dust settles on his latest moving speech. The goal is to find someone with whom to compromise, whether it's the pharmaceutical industry, the health insurance industry, or Senate Republicans on health care; the energy industry and the "clean coal" lobby on climate change; or the banks lavishing their latest set of outrageous bonuses on their executives for another Heckuva-Job-Bernanke year. <p>The president is fortunate that Martin Luther King did not share his conflict-averse approach to leadership, or Obama himself would be sitting in the middle of a bus somewhere, not on Air Force One, waiting for the day when someone would forcefully take a stand to repeal a Solomonic compromise between those who demanded that blacks sit on the back of the bus and those who demanded that they sit, like whites, wherever they want, and someone came up with the perfect Obamaprise: let them sit in the middle. <p>Leadership is not searching for the golden mean between what's right and what's wrong, what's true and what's false, what the Democratic majority in both Houses of Congress and the people who elected them to run the country believe after eight dismal years of Bush Republicanism and what Chuck Grassley or Olympia Snowe finds aesthetically or financially appealing. <p>We were lucky Abraham Lincoln did not invite Jefferson Davis into his cabinet to insure that he had a "team of rivals." <p>We were lucky FDR famously "welcomed the hatred" of those who had plunged the nation into the Great Depression because that freed him to regulate them. <p>We were lucky Lyndon Johnson did not let the knowledge that he was handing the South to the Republicans for at least a generation by signing the Civil Rights Acts deter him from the dictates of his uncompromised conscience. <p>President Obama needs to reflect on whatever is driving his compromised approach to leadership. He will no doubt accomplish many good things in his four or eight years in office, in part because there is so much damage from the preceding administration to undo, and with a Republican Party in complete disarray, he will no doubt accomplish incremental change we can believe in if that's really what he wants to take to the voters in 2012. <p>But if he does not change course, he is on the path to being known as the first black president -- nothing more, nothing less -- a solid caretaker on the order of Dwight Eisenhower, who tinkered around the edges of the ideology of the last visionary president, FDR, the way Obama is tinkering around the edges of the last game-changing president, Ronald Reagan. <p>With his extraordinary intellect and his ability to speak to people's hopes and aspirations, this president has the capacity to be the transformative leader we all thought we were electing. But if he wants to be known for giving eloquent speeches followed up by field goals where he could have had touchdowns, he is well on his way to the thirty yard line. <p> Tue, 03 Nov 2009 05:20:00 -0500 doc_sarvis http://www.drudge.com/news/126761/western-leadership-obama-style#discuss tag:drudge.com,2005:weblog.126761 discussion, 0.5 daily 126761 http://www.drudge.com/news/126732/50-things-restaurant-staffers-should-never-do http://boss.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/10/29/one-hundred-things-restaurant-staffers-should-never-do-part-one/?scp=1&sq=100%20things%20restaurant%20staffers%20should%20never%20do&st=cse "Herewith is a modest list of dos and don'ts for servers at the seafood restaurant I am building," writes restaunteur Bruce Buschel. "Veteran waiters, moonlighting actresses, libertarians and baristas will no doubt protest some or most of what follows. They will claim it homogenizes them or stifles their true nature. And yet, if 100 different actors play Hamlet, hitting all the same marks, reciting all the same lines, cannot each one bring something unique to that role?" The first ten: <p>1. Do not let anyone enter the restaurant without a warm greeting. <p>2. Do not make a singleton feel bad. Do not say, "Are you waiting for someone?" Ask for a reservation. Ask if he or she would like to sit at the bar. <p>3. Never refuse to seat three guests because a fourth has not yet arrived. <p>4. If a table is not ready within a reasonable length of time, offer a free drink and/or amuse-bouche. The guests may be tired and hungry and thirsty, and they did everything right. <p>5. Tables should be level without anyone asking. Fix it before guests are seated. <p>6. Do not lead the witness with, "Bottled water or just tap?" Both are fine. Remain neutral. <p>7. Do not announce your name. No jokes, no flirting, no cuteness. <p>8. Do not interrupt a conversation. For any reason. Especially not to recite specials. Wait for the right moment. <p>9. Do not recite the specials too fast or robotically or dramatically. It is not a soliloquy. This is not an audition. <p>10. Do not inject your personal favorites when explaining the specials. <p> Mon, 02 Nov 2009 18:30:13 -0500 Doc_Sarvis http://www.drudge.com/news/126732/50-things-restaurant-staffers-should-never-do#discuss tag:drudge.com,2005:weblog.126732 news, 0.5 daily 126732 http://www.drudge.com/news/126728/texting-kills-britain-offers-path http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/02/technology/02texting.html?_r=1&hp Britain has become one of the more aggressive countries in attacking the use of cellphones while driving. [In 2008 the British government issued] directives that regard prolonged texting while driving as a serious aggravating factor in "death by dangerous driving" just like drinking and generally recommend four to seven years in prison.... <p>Although most European countries and a minority of American states now ban the use of hand-held cellphones while driving, Britain has become one of the more aggressive countries in attacking the problem.... <p>Britain's new guidelines state that using a hand-held phone when causing a death will "always make the offense more serious" in terms of punishment and lead to prison time. Texting is given special treatment. Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:18:50 -0500 Doc_Sarvis http://www.drudge.com/news/126728/texting-kills-britain-offers-path#discuss tag:drudge.com,2005:weblog.126728 discussion, 0.5 daily 126728 http://www.drudge.com/news/126704/rich-gop-stalinists-invade-new-york http://www10.nytimes.com/2009/11/01/opinion/01rich.html?_r=5&ref=opinion "The battle for upstate New York's 23rd Congressional District seat confirms just how swiftly the right has devolved into a wacky, paranoid cult that is as eager to eat its own as it is to destroy Obama," writes Frank Rich in the <i>New York Times</i>. Frank Rich reflects on the hysterically self-destructive behavior of the GOP in the contest to see who fills New York's 23rd Congresional District seat: <p> This week's election to fill that vacant seat has set off nothing less than a riotous and bloody national G.O.P. civil war. No matter what the results in that race on Tuesday, the Republicans are the sure losers. This could be a gift that keeps on giving to the Democrats through 2010, and perhaps beyond ... <p>That this pastoral setting could become a G.O.P. killing field, attracting an all-star cast of combatants led by Sarah Palin, Glenn Beck, William Kristol and Newt Gingrich, is a premise out of a Depression-era screwball comedy. But such farces have become the norm for the conservative movement -- whether the participants are dressing up in full "tea party" drag or not. Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:32:50 -0500 Doc_Sarvis http://www.drudge.com/news/126704/rich-gop-stalinists-invade-new-york#discuss tag:drudge.com,2005:weblog.126704 news, 0.5 daily 126704 http://www.drudge.com/news/126667/halloween-devils-birthday http://www.landoverbaptist.org/subjectarchive/halloween.html Will children go to Hell for celebrating Halloween, the Devil's Birthday? Here are some ways that can help you transform Halloween night from a dangerous, damnationary orgy of pagan ignorance into an evening of enlightened, God's own victory Bible based evangelism. 1. Wait for unsaved children to come to your door and hurl a bucket full of warm lamb's blood (goat or dog blood can be substituted later in the night if you run out) all over their hair and faces. Shout - "I plead the power of the Blood of the Perfect Lamb over you! Take that! FOUL DEMON!" <p>2. Dress up as the freshly resurrected Christ. To make your costume as realistic as possible: (a) use your mother's sewing needles to poke holes in your hands and stomach; (b) wear bluish makeup to look like someone who has been dead and lying around in a cave for a couple of days; and (c) stuff five pounds of week-old hamburger meat in your pockets to smell like rotting flesh. Sneak up behind people, grab them, turn them around, look them in they eyes and scream, "Why have you forsaken me!" And then slap them very hard across the face with a palm-full of rancid hamburger meat. It will usually scare the living Hell out of little children, and they are sure to remember their first experience with Jesus for the rest of their pathetic lives. <p>3. Offer to exchange your giant treat bag with the small bag of an unsaved child - when he gets home, surprise! BIBLES! <p>4. Paint your face black, dress up in a flashy suit, and wander around a predominantly colored neighborhood - talking Ebonics into a cell phone about how the Lord Jesus saved you in a voice loud enough to wake the sleeping winos! This doesn't have to be just for Halloween. You can try this anytime. When they ask what you are talking about, simply reply, "Yo, yo, yo wazzup? I be off da chain for Jesus! I be pimpin' for da playa JC on the fly with mad props." Then give them one of those arthritic hand signals the Bloods give their friends, the Crips. Most likely, they will persecute you for righteousness sake. <p>5. Vincent Price may have thought he was scary, but nothing touches the Lord when it comes to the gruesome and macabre! With baby dolls and ketchup, use your front lawn to stage a realistic reenactment of when the Lord got jealous of Samarians worshiping a rival god and ordered that their children be hacked to pieces and their pregnant women experience the Lord's abortion-by-sword calling card. (Hosea 13:16). <p>6. The only costume you should be wearing is "The Holy Ghost Halloween Costume." Jesus makes it quite clear in Matthew Chapter 12:31 that there is one unforgivable sin, and that is blasphemy of the Holy Ghost. So, remember not to say anything unflattering about yourself while in this costume or you will instantly damn yourself. <p>7. Feed almonds to your Christian family dog for the two months leading up to Satan's birthday, Halloween. Follow him around with a pooper scooper. Carefully place the dog-filth in Almond Joy candy wrappers. Sealed in plastic, also insert a Bible verse. At the end of the Bible verse, in very small type, provide a warning not to eat the "candy." That way, wicked children who choose candy over the Word of God will get exactly what they deserve! <p>8. When trick-or-treaters come to your door, tell them you are no different than the Lord Jesus when it comes to playing host to sinners. Then, take them into your basement (where the heater is set as hot as it will go) and torture them. <p>9. One of the best ways to witness on Halloween is by banging on a door, running into the living room and declaring that you will not leave the home of the unsaved until they sit and listen to you read an entire Chick Tract! <p>10. Place a burning cross in your front yard, dress your kids up as ghosts, form a circle around the cross, and sing hymns all night. Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:52:14 -0400 Doc_Sarvis http://www.drudge.com/news/126667/halloween-devils-birthday#discuss tag:drudge.com,2005:weblog.126667 discussion, 0.5 daily 126667 http://www.drudge.com/news/126665/can-gop-accept-end-prohibition http://www.slate.com/id/2234017/ "I think this would be a good time for a beer," Franklin D. Roosevelt said upon signing a bill that made 3.2-percent lager legal again, some months ahead of the full repeal of Prohibition. I hope Barack Obama will come up with some comparably witty remarks as he presides over the dismantling of our contemporary forms of prohibitionlaws that prevent gay marriage, restrict cannabis as a Schedule I Controlled Substance, and ban travel to Cuba. "You may now kiss the groom," perhaps, ora version of the comment he once made about smoking pot"I inhaledthat was the point." Prohibition now is different from Prohibition then. When the 18th Amendment went into effect in 1920, it was a radical social experiment challenging a custom as old as civilization. Its predictable failurethe gross insult to individual rights, the impossibility of enforcement, the spawning of organized crimecame to an end when Utah, of all places, became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment in 1933. Today prohibition is a byword for futile attempts to legislate morality and remake human nature. <p>Our forms of prohibition are more sins of omission than commission. Rather than trying to take away longstanding rights, they're instances of conservative laws failing to keep pace with a liberalizing society. But like Prohibition in the '20s, these restrictions have become indefensible as well as impractical, and as a result are fading fast. Within 10 years, it seems a reasonable guess that Americans will travel freely to Cuba, that all states will recognize gay unions, and that few will retain criminal penalties for marijuana use by individuals. Whether or not Democrats retain control of Congress, whether or not Obama is re-elected, and whether they happen sooner or later than expected, these reforms are inevitablenot because politics has changed but because society has.... <p>The chief reason these prohibitions are falling away is the evolving definition of the pursuit of happiness. What's driving the legalization of gay marriage is not so much the moral argument but the pressures from couples who want to sanctify their relationships, obtain legal benefits, and raise children in a stable environment. What's advancing the decriminalization of marijuana is not just the demand for pot as medicine but the number of adultsmore than 23 million in the past year, according to the most recent government surveywho use it and don't believe they should face legal jeopardy. What's bringing the change on Cuba is not just the epic failure of the 48-year-old U.S. embargo, but the demand on the part of Americans who want to go therewhether to visit their relatives, prospect for post-Castro business opportunities, or sip rum drinks at the beach. <p>For similar reasons, there is not likely to be any retreat on the basic legal statusas opposed to tinkering around the marginsof the right to have an abortion or own a gun. Conservatives would be wise to give up on the one, liberals on the other. In each of these cases, popular demand for an individual right is simply too powerful to overcome. The Internet has been a crucial amplifier of all such claims. With pornography, and gambling, the Web itself became an irrepressible distribution tool for indulgences that were once perforce local. When it comes to gay marriage, the Web has accelerated the recognition of a new civil right by serving as an organizing tool and information clearinghouse. More broadly, the freest communications medium the world has ever known has raised expectations of personal liberty. In a world where everyone has his own printing press, restrictions on private behavior become increasingly untenable. <p>Republicans face a risk in resisting these new realities. Freedom is part of their brand; if the GOP remains the party of prohibition, it will increasingly alienate libertarian-leaners and the young. But the party as presently constituted has very little capacity to accept social change. Democrats face a danger in embracing cultural transformations too eagerly. Nearly four decades after George McGovern became known as the candidate of amnesty, abortion, and acid, cultural issues are still treacherous territory for them. Why get in front of change when you can follow from a safe distance and end up with the same result? Sat, 31 Oct 2009 07:01:43 -0400 doc_sarvis http://www.drudge.com/news/126665/can-gop-accept-end-prohibition#discuss tag:drudge.com,2005:weblog.126665 discussion, 0.5 daily 126665 http://www.drudge.com/news/126628/beinart-forget-gubernatorial-elections http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-10-30/why-the-democrats-should-lose/?cid=hp:mainpromo2 Peter Beinart: Next Tuesday's gubernatorial elections [in New Jersey and Virginia] probably don't matter, and even if they do, they probably don't matter in the way people assume. If 2008 featured lots of politics and very little government, 2009 is the reverse: epic policy battles, but no presidential campaign in sight. Even the midterms are more than a year a way. <p>In this barren landscape, New Jersey and Virginia -- which hold gubernatorial elections next week -- represent a kind of oasis [for pundits].... <p>The only problem with all the tea-leaf reading that next Tuesday will bring is that it will be meaningless. Fri, 30 Oct 2009 13:31:53 -0400 Doc_Sarvis http://www.drudge.com/news/126628/beinart-forget-gubernatorial-elections#discuss tag:drudge.com,2005:weblog.126628 news, 0.5 daily 126628