Unspeakable Tragedy

I swear, the quotes in this story could not be better if they made it up...

A beer truck flipped over on a roadway overpass in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Monday, prompting local officials to comment on the tragedy.

"It is sad," Capt. Scott Logan of the Halifax Regional Fire Service told The Daily News of Halifax. "Chances are they won't recover any of the beer."

The truck, hauling 46,368 bottles of Alexander Keith's India Pale Ale, skidded to a stop against the overpass's guardrail, luckily avoiding a 50-foot plunge down to another road.

The female driver was pulled out of the cab uninjured — "more frazzled than hurt," according to Logan — letting rescuers focus on the calamitous aspects of the disaster.
"I had a tear in my eye, actually, when I was watching it," said police Constable Mark Hobeck. "It was full of beer. We were hoping a Hostess truck full of pretzels would come by, but no such luck."

I'll let someone else comment on the driver. In the meantime... we weep with you, our Canadian brothers.

Traffic Law Update

Woo-hoo! My state dumps red-light cameras, an abomination that needed to go. (hat tip: Instapundit)

Of course, there is the flip side, where you can't go for a drive in Montana anymore with an open beer. Personally, I'm fine with this. The folks that aren't can still move to Mississippi -- I'm not likely to vsit either state, but Montana is a little more likely.

Advice For Evil Overlords

Here's a list that may come in handy someday. I particularly like #15 and #30, although I disagree on principle with #35. I also think #63 and #96 are innovative ideas to consider.

No, not for me -- I've always pictured myself as a benevolent dictator, controlled by puppet strings by someone else (oh, man... I know that will trigger some good lines). But I'm guessing that a few people I know (Lord of Truth...JK...Minister of War) may want to bookmark the list for later use.

Affirmative Action Run Amok

Remind me not to incorporate a business in Norway...

Norway will shut companies that refuse to recruit at least 40 percent women to their boards by 2007 under an unprecedented equality drive, a cabinet minister said on Tuesday.

"Companies have been dragging their feet. They really have to recruit more women," Children and Family Affairs Minister Laila Daavoey told Reuters.

"In the very worst case, they will face closure."

Norway's parliament told firms in 2002 to ensure at least 40 percent of each sex in boardrooms by mid-2005 to force corporate leadership to match Nordic traditions of sex equality elsewhere in society.

Before Tuesday, however, Oslo had not spelt out sanctions for non-compliance. Many companies denounce the scheme as the toughest corporate sex equality goal in the world.

...Daavoey, who oversees sex equality rules, said that all state-controlled firms including oil group Statoil and telecoms firm Telenor had already complied.

But many other firms are lagging, including energy and engineering group Aker Kvaerner or Internet search group Fast. Many business leaders say the rules will force them to recruit ill-qualified women as quota fillers.

"If we can recruit women to our state companies why can't private businesses do it too?" Daavoey said.

I'm speechless at the stupidity of this policy, and even more so when I read that last quote. I'm sure the private companies can recruit women -- it's the idea that they establish a quota for board representation that probably strikes them as unreasonable. In the meantime, if our government ever opens a "Children and Family Affairs" ministry, it's probably time to give up.

The Great Leaders of the Democratic Party

Jay Nordlinger's one of my favorite reads, and his latest Impromptus had two soundbites from Democrats that featured brilliant reactions...

And here's Sen. Barbara Boxer, on John Bolton, Bush's nominee to be U.S. ambassador to the United Nations: "He's been very contemptuous of the U.N." Well, no sh**, senator. And you haven't? You weren't contemptuous when Saddam Hussein's government chaired the nuclear-disarmament committee? You weren't contemptuous when Qaddafi's Libya and Assad's Syria chaired the human-rights committee? You're not contemptuous that China, Cuba, Saudi Arabia, Zimbabwe, and other beauts sit on that committee?

You weren't contemptuous when the U.N. stood by as thousands were slaughtered in the Balkans? You haven't been contemptuous at the U.N.'s performance in Rwanda, and Congo, and Sudan?

Liberalism used to mean something — e.g., opposition to tyranny and lies. And now? Opposition to George W. Bush seems most important.

...Another great leader? Howard Dean, chairman of the National Democratic Committee. He said that Sen. Rick Santorum, the Pennsylvania Republican, should "stay in Virginia," where he lives as he works on Capitol Hill. But, Dean cracked, "Santorum is too much of a right-winger for Virginia. How about Venezuela?"

Huh? Does he realize that Hugo Chávez, the Venezuelan strongman, is a Castroite?

But then, this is the Democratic leader whose favorite book in the New Testament is Job.

Next time someone mocks Tom DeLay, ask them whether the GOP faithful wants DeLay running for President. Then ask them why many Dems want people like Boxer and Dean as their President.

The Schiavo Memo -- A Mea Culpa, But Where's Theirs?

So it turns out a GOP Senator's staffer did in fact draft the now infamous Schiavo talking points memo. My apologies for alleging the Dems might have done it -- I would have been on stronger ground if I'd concluded Dan Rather had done it. And it should have been readily apparent the Dems didn't do it -- the memo actually made some sense at times.

Jokes aside, this doesn't get the Washington Post off the hook for its original reporting. As Powerline noted, the original Post story claimed that the memo originated with "party leaders" and was distributed to Republican senators. In fact, the only Senator to receive a copy of the memo was Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, who received a copy of the memo from GOP freshman Senator Mel Martinez, in whose office the memo originated. This is yet another point noted by Powerline, yet belittled by those critical of it for attacking the story.

Here's the funny part -- Mike Allen, the Post reporter who wrote the original piece, is now effectively doing the reporting legwork to make certain that what he alleged in the original report is correct. Isn't that supposed to be done before the story runs? As far as I know, it's reasonable and justified to challenge a journalist to prove what he's saying is true. It makes someone like Allen more careful with what he writes -- seperating the facts from the innuendo of what's reported. Some might bray about censorship, but if we're looking for accurate reporting, it behooves us to demand that a journalist can back up what he's saying. If he can't (hello, Jayson Blair), then he should be canned. If he can, the critics should admit they're wrong.

Here, critics like myself have to admit that we were wrong in drawing the conclusions that we did. But the Post and other news outlets who followed the story need to admit that their supposedly high standards failed as well -- they didn't run all the facts down to be able to write what they did. If Allen's original piece had simply noted that a GOP Senator had given the memo to a Democrat, he would have been fine. The story might have been less sensational, however.

In the end, those who are criticizing folks like Powerline are making me wonder -- should we stop challenging news stories and just rely on the high priests of journalism when they swear they're telling the truth?

Now This Is a Bad Idea

You know, I've praised Pope John Paul II quite a bit recently, and I plan to have at least one more interesting post about him this weekend. But sometimes, the Catholic Church stuns me with its poor decision-making...

Cardinal Bernard Law, who was forced to resign in disgrace as archbishop of Boston two years ago for protecting sexually abusive priests, was named by the Vatican today as one of nine prelates who will have the honor of presiding over funeral Masses for Pope John Paul II.

To many American Catholics, Cardinal Law is best known as the archbishop who presided over the Boston archdiocese as it became the focus for the sexual abuse scandal involving priests.

But to Vatican officials, Cardinal Law is a powerful kingmaker who traveled internationally for the church and whose favorite priests were regularly appointed bishops by John Paul. After he stepped down in Boston in 2003, he was given a spacious apartment and a prestigious although honorary post in Rome as archpriest of the Basilica of St. Mary Major.

It is by virtue of this position that he was given the high-profile role of celebrating Monday's funeral ritual, the third in the nine-day mourning period that follows a pope's death. It is expected that most of the cardinals will attend the Mass, which will be open to the public. Cardinal Law will deliver a homily that many Vatican watchers will parse for clues about the cardinals' thinking on who should be the next pope.

By permitting Cardinal Law to take the limelight in Rome just when the church is mourning the death of John Paul, the cardinals have reminded American Catholics that their most painful recent chapter barely registered in the Vatican.

...The list of the nine prelates selected to celebrate funeral Masses for the pope was announced Thursday by Archbishop Piero Marini, master of the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff.

One senior Vatican official familiar with the workings of the College of Cardinals, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the cardinals approved the list during their meetings this week.

When asked whether Cardinal Law's role in the American scandal was taken into consideration, the official said, "I don't think so." He said that Cardinal Law was not acting as a former Boston archbishop in celebrating the Mass but in "another capacity - he's one of the senior cardinals."

However, one Vatican expert said that by tradition, the cardinals had no choice but to select Cardinal Law to preside at one of the nine funeral Masses. Dr. John-Peter Pham, author of "Heirs of the Fisherman," a book about papal succession, said it was customary for the archpriest of one of three patriarchal basilicas in Rome, St. Peter's, St. Paul's and St. Mary Major, to celebrate a novemdiales Mass.

Two of the archpriests are already celebrating Masses in different ceremonial roles; having them celebrate two Masses would violate protocol, Dr. Pham said.

Sometimes protocol should take a back seat to common sense. It didn't do so this time. It's bad enough Law condoned the rape of children. I can understand the idea of forgiving others for their sins, no matter how heinous. But Law went too far in protecting priests accused of horrific acts, and he has largely escaped true censure for his actions. To allow him this honor is absurd. It almost makes me willing to agree with Andrew Sullivan on his point regarding John Paul's failure on this issue.

There's Always Next Season

Oh, this just gets better by the second. As Johnny Red and the Lord of Truth noted, the Wildcats are looking like Top Five material, and even ESPN agrees, with Andy Katz ranking us #4 and Dickie V doing likewise. I'm almost scared by the whole thing.

The last time we ranked anywhere near this high, I had just graduated. If this keeps up, we have a shot at the #1 ranking at some point next season, and I'm not sure that's ever happened. I would do the research, but I don't want to jinx it.

Really, Guys, You Can Do Better

This has to be the dumbest cartoon ever made. Seriously, a walking megaphone? There's a reason Schoolhouse Rock is fondly remembered -- it was clever. This is not.

The Alliance for Justice (which is responsible) doesn't have any official connection to the Democratic Party that I know about... but maybe the Dems should tell them that historically inaccurate and boring cartoon ads probably won't help preserve the filibuster. They could try to hire the writers for the Simpsons, who penned this savage parody nearly nine years ago...

Boy: [spoken] "Hey, who left all this garbage lying on the steps of Congress?"

Amendment: [spoken] "I'm not garbage." [starts singing]

"I'm an amendment to be
Yes, an amendment to be
And I'm hoping that they'll ratify me
There's a lot of flag burners
Who have got too much freedom
I wanna make it legal
For policemen
To beat 'em
'Cause there's limits to our liberties
'Least I hope and pray that there are
'Cause those liberal freaks go too far."

Boy: [spoken] "But why can't we just make a law against flag burning?"

Amendment: [spoken] "Because that law would be unconstitutional. But if we changed the Constitution..."

Boy: [spoken] "Then we could make all sorts of crazy laws!"

Amendment: [spoken] "Now you're catching on!"

...Boy: [spoken] "But what if they say you're not good enough to be in the Constitution?"

Amendment: [singing again]

"Then I'll destroy all opposition to me
And I'll make Ted Kennedy pay
If he fights back
I'll say that he's gay."

Trust me, that would work far better. At this point, Frist should use the nuclear option just because this cartoon is so stupid.

How To Commit Murder... And Get Away With It

Orin Kerr at Volokh points us to this fabulous article by Brian Kalt in the Georgetown Law Journal. James Taranto explains Kalt's thesis, which is that one could legally commit murder in Idaho's portion of Yellowstone National Park...

This is possible, according to Kalt, because of an oddity in the federal courts' jurisdiction: Yellowstone is under federal jurisdiction, which means state law does not apply. An 1894 law defines the federal District of Wyoming as including the whole park, including the portions in Idaho and Montana, which means that any crime committed within the park would be tried in federal district court in Wyoming.

But here's the rub: The Sixth Amendment stipulates that a jury in a federal trial must be "of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been committed." That means that if you commit a crime in the Idaho portion of Yellowstone, the jury must consist of people who live in both Idaho and the Wyoming District, which is to say, the Idaho portion of Yellowstone, whose population is zero. Thus if you insist on a jury trial, which is your constitutional right, the government will be unable to try you. (The Montana portion of the park has an adult population of 41, making it at least theoretically possible to assemble a jury for a crime committed there.)

You know how rare it is to read something interesting in a law review? Yes, I'm kidding, but you gotta love the fact that someone researched this.

The Pope -- A Hero in Any Medium

This is one comic book I'm betting Wojr didn't have.

More On the Schiavo Memo

The Schiavo memo mess continues. If you're wondering what I'm talking about, start by reading this piece from last week. Now, we have some more in-depth reporting, courtesy of the Washington Times. Check out this revelation...

All 55 Republican senators say they have never seen the Terri Schiavo political talking-points memo that Democrats say was circulated among Republicans during the floor debate over whether the federal government should intervene to prolong her life.

A survey by The Washington Times found that every Republican said the memo was not crafted or distributed by him or her. Every one of them said he or she had not seen it until the memo was the subject of speculation in major news organs, particularly ABC News and The Washington Post.

Democrats said Republicans distributed the memo, and one Democratic official told The Post that a Republican senator gave it to a Democratic senator.

The Times surveyed all 44 Democrats and the chamber's one independent, and only one of them, Sen. Tom Harkin, Iowa Democrat, said through a spokeswoman that he saw it circulated on the Senate floor.

"He said that the memo was being circulated by Republican members on Thursday before we went out of session, and that is when he saw it," said his spokeswoman, Allison Dobson.

Two Democratic offices refused to respond — Sen. Jack Reed of Rhode Island and Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat — the latter even as he continued to accuse Republicans of being behind it.

"We will not participate in the survey. News outlets have investigated and authenticated the memo was real and came from Republican sources. We have no further comment," said spokeswoman Tessa Hafen. "If you want more information on the memo, you should work on finding the Republican who wrote it."

She did not respond to a request to name the newspaper or network that had "authenticated" the memorandum.

Well, that's because Dan Rather's document examiners must be on spring break.

Seriously, I'm not sure what Reid is thinking. The Dems can't trace this to any particular member of the GOP. Even Harkin's claim is undercut by the fact that he didn't name any specific Republican who was supposedly circulating the memo. Greyhawk at Mudville Times makes an important point when he notes that the left-wing dishrag previously noted that Democratic aides actually passed around the "unsigned memorandum" and claimed it was from the GOP.

So who did draft the memorandum? Was it a Democrat? And when we figure it out, will the Post place the story on its front page? I don't know the answer to the first question, but the answers to the last two are beginning to look like "Yes" and "No."

The NCAA Final Recap

We know, we know.

You're all terribly depressed. Another NCAA Tournament has come to an end, which means no more great basketball (please, don't try to sell me on anything related to the NBA). No more great endings. No more witty and entertaining recaps from your favorite recapper (that's us, in case you're wondering).

Then again, it also means no more Billy Packer for several more months.

In any case, it's time to draw the curtain on this tournament. But before we do, it's time to take note of some important things we learned over the last weekend...

1. Luther Vandross' "One Shining Moment" is now overplayed. Sorry, I can't sit around waiting for two hours for CBS to do their little video tribute to the tournament. And I can't enjoy the video after watching Greg Gumbel act like a carnival barker telling us to wait for it all evening. The video highlight package is now more overrated than Sean Penn.

2. Sean May is a BEAST. It helps that every high school big man since the turn of the century has turned pro, leaving a 6-8 guy like May to dominate, but you have to appreciate a guy with hands that soft and a terrific understanding of how to play in the low post. I'm also grateful that Jim Nantz didn't use the awful pun, "May...Be the Most Outstanding Player!"

3. Roy Williams is no longer the Coach Who Can't Win the Big One. Eddie Sutton, please pick up the white courtesy phone.

4. Speaking of coaches, we know that Illinois coach Bruce Weber's orange jacket was a tribute to former Illini coach Lou Henson... but considering that Henson never won a Final Four game, maybe he should have just gone with an orange tie. But I have to ask -- where do you get an orange jacket? Maybe I should consider wearing one of those at my wedding.

5. The gecko doing the robot commercial for GEICO grows on you. In fact, all of GEICO's commercials are fun to watch. Unlike Bruce Weber's orange jacket.

6. Yes, it was a good title game, very compelling an fun to watch, with some terrific athleticism on display. But for all that, these two very talented teams didn't demonstrate much basketball intelligence for much of the game. Did anyone else wonder why a good team (Illinois) couldn't figure out how to break a zone on Monday night? The Illini struggled for a while against Louisville's zone on Saturday night before clamping down on defense and remembering how to drive into the lane and attack the soft spots in the zone. They promptly forgot Monday night when UNC went into a zone midway through the first half to protect Felton from earning his third foul. Illinois complied by launching three after three and missing. Maybe that orange jacket was affecting their concentration.

7. Meanwhile, UNC understood that their best weapon was Sean May, and passing him the ball created easy shots for May or for teammates after May was doubled. Yet UNC blew a second half lead when they seemingly forgot about May for about six minutes, and it nearly cost them. It's like both teams were channelling Syracuse, circa the 1980's, when the Orange featured talented players like Sherman Douglas, Rony Seikaly and Pearl Washington, who had all the talent in the world... and perhaps one brain between the three of them.

8. With all that being said, UNC is the best team, and a worthy champion. Of course, they would be more worthy if they hadn't been the beneficiary of that atrocious traveling call against Villanova in the Sweet Sixteen, but we've let go of that, we swear. Seriously. We mean it. Now, where's my voodoo doll of that referee?

9. One key rule was observed: it's always a good NCAA Tournament when Duke doesn't win.

10. Rick Pitino took his third team to the Final Four, yet I also noted that the guy's hair hasn't changed since he first appeared on the antional scene. You tell us which is the more impressive achievement.

11. I tried it Saturday night, and I suggest it to all of you next year -- listen to the radio broadcast and avoid the screeching banshee known as Billy Packer ("The refs just aren't calling the moving screen!"). Bill Raftery and John Thompson don't give us that fingernails on the chalkboard feeling that Packer brings to the table.

12. The much-coveted Award for Best Hair in the tournament goes to Adam Morrison of Gonzaga, for a mop top that reminded me of a young Keanu Reeves. Morrison probably has more acting talent than Reeves, too.

13. The Best Game of the tournament is still the Wake Forest-West Virginia double-OT classic from Round Two. We know Kentucky and MSU came close, West Virginia-Louisville was great, Villanova-UNC came down to the wire, Vermont-Syracuse was spectacular, Bucknell-Kansas was an upset special and Illinois-Arizona was amazing... but we can't pick against a game that ends with the immortal Kevin Pittsnogle and his teammates victorious.

14. Speaking of which, the best way to describe what happened to Michigan State in the second half Saturday night in three words: they got pittsnogled.

15. We're glad CBS gave us promos for terrible movies throughout the tournament. First, there was Spring Break: Shark Attack. Then there was the Elvis movie. Finally, this weekend we got to watch promos for Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. Okay, I don't have any proof that the movie will be terrible... but based on the recent track record, we're reasonably sure this will happen. It's like guessing that Duke will be the beneficiary of good calls from the referees -- no one's certain, but it's a good bet.

Hope you all enjoyed the tournament. Stop by next year, when I get to mock Hillary Clinton's Senate re-election campaign during the tourney.

A Bake Sale Worth Supporting

Once again, the left's double standards are in full view on college campuses. Check out the reaction to the latest "affirmative action bake sale" at Northeastern Illinois University, as noted by FIRE (hat tip: The Key Monk)...

Northeastern Illinois University (NEIU) has warned the members of the College Republicans that both the students and the group will be punished if they hold a campus protest against affirmative action. The NEIU College Republicans canceled its planned “affirmative action bake sale” protest after NEIU’s dean of students warned them in an e-mail that to hold such a sale would violate NEIU’s “nondiscrimination” policy and expose the students to punishment. NEIU, which allowed a feminist group to hold a similar “pay equity bake sale” protest on campus, is the latest in a string of schools nationwide that have attempted to shut down these protests against affirmative action.

“You would think that universities would have learned that affirmative action bake sales are constitutionally protected,” remarked David French, president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE), which has twice written to NEIU on behalf of the College Republicans. “In this case, NEIU’s disregard for its students’ First Amendment freedom of expression is made all the more severe by the university’s apparent double standards.”

The NEIU College Republicans originally planned to hold its “affirmative action bake sale” protest on February 25. Such protests have become a widely used form of political parody directed against affirmative action. Organizers typically display a menu with satirical prices charging black and Hispanic students less than Asian and white students for the same items. The “bake sales” are intended to spark debate about affirmative action policies, not to raise revenue. The College Republicans postponed the protest, however, after receiving an e-mail from NEIU Dean of Students Michael Kelly stating that the protest would violate the school’s nondiscrimination policy. Dean Kelly wrote that “[v]iolating University rules can and will result in charges being filed,” and that “any disruption of university activities that would be caused by this event is also actionable….”

The College Republicans immediately turned to FIRE for help. On March 8, FIRE wrote NEIU President Salme Steinberg, reminding her that “‘[a]ffirmative action bake sales’ constitute a form of satirical political protest, and therefore enjoy the fullest protection of the First Amendment.” On March 17, NEIU attorney Mark Dunn responded that the university was encouraging the students to explore alternatives to the bake sale protest. Dunn did not address NEIU’s threat to punish the students for their protected expression. FIRE replied to Dunn, insisting that the students be allowed to hold the protest of their choice. FIRE also pointed out that since the NEIU Feminist Majority Leadership Alliance apparently has held a “pay equity bake sale” protest (in which men are charged more than women for baked goods to protest the “wage gap” between men and women) on NEIU’s campus, it would be unlawful viewpoint discrimination to forbid the College Republicans from holding a similar protest. NEIU’s second letter to FIRE once again did not address FIRE’s concerns.

It's worth noting that FIRE has been at the forefront of hammering these schools for the heavy-handed attempts to limit free speech on campus. The affirmative action bake sales are a creative response to the discrimination officially practiced by schools in search of diversity. What's wrong with cookie sellers searching for more diversity by charging lower prices?

A Picture Says a Thousand Words

There's significant controversy about one of the Pulitzer Prize winning photos for breaking news photography (awarded to the Associated Press) announced the other day, and it's worthy of a good read. The full set of photos appear here, but it's this one that has drawn the ire of several bloggers. Michelle Malkin has a terrific summary. Here's the story behind the picture, as per Powerline from Christmas last year...

The issue relates to the shocking photo, recently published by the AP, showing three terrorists in the act of murdering two Iraqi election workers on a street during daylight. The photographer was obviously within a few yards of the scene of the murder, which raises obvious questions, such as 1) what was the photographer doing there; did he have advance knowledge of the crime, or was he even accompanying the terrorists? and 2) why did the photographer apparently have no fear of the terrorists, or conversely, why were the terrorists evidently unconcerned about being photographed in the commission of a murder?

Salon printed a defense of the AP (and an attack on conservative bloggers) that included this anonymous comment from an AP spokesman:

A source at the Associated Press knowledgeable about the events covered in Baghdad on Sunday told Salon that accusations that the photographer was aware of the militants' plans are "ridiculous." The photographer, whose identity the AP is withholding due to safety concerns, was likely "tipped off to a demonstration that was supposed to take place on Haifa Street," said the AP source, who was not at liberty to comment by name. But the photographer "definitely would not have had foreknowledge" of a violent event like an execution, the source said.

So the AP admitted that its photographer was "tipped off" by the terrorists. The only quibble asserted by the AP was that the photographer expected only a "demonstration," not a murder. So the terrorists wanted to be photographed carrying out the murder, to sow more terror in Iraq and to demoralize American voters. That's why they tipped off the photographer, and that's why they dragged the two election workers from their car, so they could be shot in front of the AP's obliging camera. And the AP was happy to cooperate with the terrorists in all respects. We'd like to ask some more questions of the photographer, of course, but that's impossible since the AP won't identify him because of "safety concerns." Really? Who would endanger his safety? The terrorists? They could have shot him on Sunday if they were unhappy about having their picture taken. But they weren't, which is why they "tipped off" the photographer. Belmont Club responded to the Salon defense here, in a post we linked to a day or two ago.

Now there's more: Jim Romanesko got an email from another AP spokesman, this time Jack Stokes, the AP's director of media relations. Here it is:

Several brave Iraqi photographers work for The Associated Press in places that only Iraqis can cover. Many are covering the communities they live in where family and tribal relations give them access that would not be available to Western photographers, or even Iraqi photographers who are not from the area.

Insurgents want their stories told as much as other people and some are willing to let Iraqi photographers take their pictures. It's important to note, though, that the photographers are not "embedded" with the insurgents. They do not have to swear allegiance or otherwise join up philosophically with them just to take their pictures.

That makes the admission pretty well complete, I think. The AP is using photographers who have relationships with the terrorists; this is for the purpose of helping to tell the terrorists' "stories."

That's a pretty damning admission. Basically, the AP doesn't seem to mind serving as a propaganda piece for the insurgents, as long as they get some good pictures. And a Pulitzer to boot. Sure, someone died, but they got the story. And people wonder why the press gets a bad rep.

More Pressing Life Questions

The Lord of Truth forwards to us this attempt by Yahoo! to answer one of life's intriguing questions: What the heck is Grimace, the purple blob who hangs out with Ronald McDonald? It doesn't appear that they have an answer...

The amorphous talking blob is apparently just that -- a big, purple...thing. We can confirm he loves milkshakes, which may offer a clue as to how he came to be in the physical shape he's in. But as to whether he's an alien, a dinosaur, or a grape McNugget, we can't tell you. Sorry.

While Grimace's heritage is a mystery, we did track down some interesting factoids about the jolly fellow. For one thing, he wasn't always so jolly. According to Wikipedia, Grimace was "evil" when he first made his appearance in McDonaldland commercials. Since then, he's been given more of a slow-witted, klutzy attitude.

As the Lord noted, one follow-up question would be to ask about how Mayor McCheese was conceived. Personally, I'd like to know if all the FryGuys are related or not.

I Wonder if the Conclave Will Consider These Odds

Regular reader NC lets us know that the off-shore betting sites have established odds on the next Pope. The favorite appears to be Dionigi Tettamanzi of Italy, followed closely by Francis Arinze of Nigeria. The best odds on an American Cardinal stand with Theodore McCarrick at 80-1.

Meanwhile, you can also bet on the next Pope's name. I am really hoping for Pope Lando II, but this appears to be off the board.

Just When I Thought the Offseason Was Safe...

Oh, man, this can't be good...

Add Philadelphia Eagles wide receiver Terrell Owens to the burgeoning list of NFL stars who have retained agent Drew Rosenhaus to do their bidding.

And make him the latest veteran who, apparently, hopes that his new representation will upgrade a contract that already ranks among the league's most lucrative.

League sources on Tuesday confirmed that Owens has hired Rosenhaus, after being represented by Robert David Joseph for the first nine years of his career. Rosenhaus plans to meet with Eagles officials, perhaps as early as Wednesday, to discuss the contract of his newest client, the sources added.

Eagles president Joe Banner, arguably the NFL's top salary-cap manager, did not return a message seeking comment.

Owens is only one season into the seven-year, $48.97 million contract he signed with the Eagles last March after being acquired from the San Francisco 49ers. The three-team trade occurred after an arbitrator voided a deal that would have sent Owens to the Baltimore Ravens. The contract included a $10.3 million signing bonus. Owens is to earn a base salary of $3.25 million for 2005.

The seven-year contract includes $21.5 million in total base salary and large salary-cap charges during the final three years of the deal, so it is doubtful Owens would have played out the deal. Whether Eagles management is amenable to revisiting the contract after just one season remains to be seen.

That's probably a big fat no. And I don't think Rosenhaus is a guy who regularly has holdout clients. But T.O. looking to renegotiate could mean an unhappy T.O., which is never a good thing.

Rick James Strikes Again

The Chappelle Show -- one of the many reasons to watch Comedy Central -- is having grass roots political impact...

A HATTIESBURG, Miss., policewoman and her husband found out the hard way how popular Dave Chappelle's Comedy Central show is - especially his catch phrase, "I'm Rick James, bitch!" Diane James' husband, Rick James, is running for Hattiesburg City Council. She wrote to Comedy Central: "Due to the popularity of the Dave Chappelle show, people keep stealing our 'Vote Rick James' yard signs ... we would appreciate a small campaign donation for more signs, as we are working-class people and financing this campaign out of our own pockets. Each time a sign is stolen, it costs us $4.75! Every time a 'Rick James' piece runs on your show, we stand to lose dozens of signs overnight, which end up decorating people's front yards and dorm rooms ... the yard signs have been spotted at least 100 miles from our home by truckers ... Also, young children on bikes scream, 'I'm Rick James, bitch!' as we drive by in our car with our 'Rick James' car signs ... People even drive by our home and scream, 'Super Freak.'"

Perhaps Rick needs to change his name -- or better yet, don a wig.

Reason #492,374 Why I Don't Live In California

Yet another ridiculous idea emerges from San Francisco -- they want to regulate bloggers. Website traffic audits and a registration fee serve to be the start. Can someone out there please explain why anyone still wants to live there?

Fine, I work in D.C. But at least I get to leave this loopy place for Virginia most evenings.

The Left's Best Mode of Argument -- Hurling Food

I guess it's a step up from hurling insults, which is their other normal mode of argument. Both RB and the Lord of Truth thought I would find this tale entertaining...

Commentator and former presidential candidate Pat Buchanan cut short an appearance after an opponent of his conservative views doused him with salad dressing.

"Stop the bigotry!" the demonstrator shouted as he hurled the liquid Thursday night during the program at Western Michigan University. The incident came just two days after another noted conservative, William Kristol, was struck by a pie during an appearance at a college in Indiana.

After he was hit, Buchanan cut short his question-and-answer session with the audience, saying, "Thank you all for coming, but I'm going to have to get my hair washed."

The demonstrator, identified by authorities as a 24-year-old student at Kalamazoo Valley Community College, was arrested and faces a misdemeanor charge of disturbing the peace. He was released on a $100 cash bond, pending his April 14 arraignment.

"He could have faced a felony assault charge, but Pat Buchanan decided to not press that charge," university spokesman Matt Kurz said.

Give Pat some serious credit for taking the high road and not having a felony charge appear on this guy's record. Is there a reason the police didn't release the guy's name, or that the AP didn't report it? For that matter, how come we don't know the type of dressing? From the picture, I'm guessing ranch, although it could be creamy Italian or even blue cheese.

The Lord found this funny. I'm laughing, but not quite as much -- even at the similar tale of Bill Kristol getting hit with a pie (I guess liberals are getting better with their aim -- I think a similar attack on Ann Coulter last year actually missed). Keep in mind, a similar effort by someone on the right to, say, egg Jesse Jackson might be classified as a hate crime, or be written up as part of an effort to intimidate the left (and probably be blamed on John Ashcroft).

Is it funny? Sure, it's funny -- but it's also indicative of the lack of intellectual thought that takes place among the student left on college campuses. I don't agree with Pat Buchanan on a number of issues, but I know that I can find better ways to make my point than tossing salad dressing on him.

Try Not to Walk, Either

Miss Wheelchair Wisconsin was stripped of her title last week... and you'll love the reason...

Ms. Wheelchair Wisconsin has been stripped of her title because pageant officials say she can stand -- and point to a newspaper picture as proof.

Janeal Lee, who has muscular dystrophy and uses a scooter, was snapped by The Post-Crescent newspaper standing among her high school math students.

"I've been made to feel as if I can't represent the disabled citizens of Wisconsin because I'm not disabled enough," Lee said Thursday.

Well, that makes sense. Let's not encourage a woman in a wheelchair to make an effort to overcome some part of her disability.

Pope John Paul II

Somehow, the New York Times had prepared an article about Pope John Paul II where they had the criticisms ready to go... but had trouble tracking down someone to praise him. I'm not kidding. Check out Powerline, and the screen grab they captured of the article. And people wonder why I call it a dishrag.

Just once, I'd like to think that the mainstream media is capable of gracefully covering a story without pandering to its own biases... or at least admitting to those biases upfront.

My own admittedly insufficient comments about this great man can be found here. A reasonable liberal perspective on the Pope can be found here. Personally, I like Charles Krauthammer's words...

I am not much of a believer, but I find it hard not to suspect some providential hand at play when the white smoke went up at the Vatican 27 years ago and the Polish cardinal was chosen to lead the Catholic Church. Precisely at the moment the West most desperately needed it, we were sent a champion. It is hard to remember now how dark those days were. The 15 months following the pope's elevation marked the high tide of Soviet communism and the nadir of the free world's post-Vietnam collapse.

It was a time of one defeat after another. Vietnam invaded Cambodia, consolidating Soviet hegemony over all of Indochina. The Khomeni revolution swept away America's strategic anchor in the Middle East. Nicaragua fell to the Sandinistas, the first Soviet-allied regime on the mainland of the Western Hemisphere. (As an unnoticed but ironic coda, Marxists came to power in Grenada too.) Then finally, the Soviets invaded Afghanistan.

And yet precisely at the time of this free-world retreat and disarray, a miracle happens. The Catholic Church, breaking nearly 500 years of tradition, puts itself in the hands of an obscure non-Italian -- a Pole who, deeply understanding the East European predicament, rose to become, along with Roosevelt, Churchill and Reagan, one of the great liberators of the 20th century.

John Paul II's first great mission was to reclaim his native Eastern Europe for civilization. It began with his visit to Poland in 1979, symbolizing and embodying a spiritual humanism that was the antithesis of the soulless materialism and decay of late Marxist-Leninism. As millions gathered to hear him and worship with him, they began to feel their own power and to find the institutional structure -- the vibrant Polish church -- around which to mobilize.

And mobilize they did. It is no accident that Solidarity, the leading edge of the East European revolution, was born just a year after the pope's first visit. Deploying a brilliantly subtle diplomacy that never openly challenged the Soviet system but nurtured and justified every oppositional trend, often within the bosom of the local church, John Paul II became the pivotal figure of the people power revolutions of Eastern Europe.

This man loved freedom, loved peace, and loved the poor. Could he have done a better job as a leader for the Chruch? Yes. But this only proves that he was human -- when we weigh his contributions to humanity against his errors, we find a man whose example we would all do well to follow.

20 Years -- And It's Still Unforgettable

In case you thought I forgot... April 1, 1985. A date that every Villanova alum knows by heart.

I wasn't an alum back then -- I was ten years old and had no affiliation with the school, other than the fact that I lived in the Philadelphia area. But what i recall about it was that I was a sports nut (big shock), I loved college basketball (what a revelation) and I was growing up in a part of the country where Big East basketball games were on TV all the time.

I didn't know enough to respect the idea that the Big East was less than a decade old. As far as I was concerned, Georgetown had always been the big dog on the block, along with St. John's and to a lesser extent Syracuse. I figured that these schools were just as good as the big-name schools in other conferences, like North Carolina and Kentucky and UCLA. Okay, I knew those schools had all these national titles, but why was the Big East any different?

Back then, I rooted for everyone in the Philly Big Five, but Villanova most of all, since they received the most coverage and had the best teams. Penn had made a Final Four run in 1979, but I was too young for that. The 'Nova teams with John Pinone were the first that I really recall as a kid, and I watched the Big East religiously.

It's funny -- the conference as a whole wasn't all that strong. U Conn was nothing -- seriously, Calhoun didn't take the job there until 1986, and the team didn't become a consistent winner until the early 1990's. Seton Hall was a joke. Providence was an annoying team, but Pitino only took over there after the 1985 season. BC was nothing special. Ditto Pittsburgh until Paul Evans' arrival in the mid-80's, and even then, they only got famous for destroying backboards.

To me, the conference consisted of Georgetown, Syracuse and St. Johns, with Villanova and BC fighting to join the top tier. Hell, for the first ten years, the only teams to win the Big East Conference Tournament championship were those first three schools. Nova made a couple nice runs to the conference title game, but we never reached a point where we hit the jackpot. As a kid, my big memory of Villanova and the Big East was that the top three would consistently beat us, either by agonizingly close margins (Syracuse and Georgetown) or wipe the floor with us (St. John's and Chris Mullin used to kill the Wildcats).

By the time 1985 rolled around, Georgetown was the defending national champion and the most fearsome team in the land. They lost only two games in the regular season -- once each to St. John's and Syracuse, naturally. St. John's spent most of the season trading the #1 ranking with the Hoyas. Villanova was good, but lost their two games with Hoyas by a combined total of nine points, including an OT loss at the Spectrum.

I hated the Hoyas. I think just about everyone either loved them or hated them -- there wasn't an in-between. Patrick Ewing and his teammates ticked off opposing fans in a fearsome way. It's not like loathing Duke or Carolina, where it's about loathing the pedigree as much as the team. But Ewing's teams stuck fear into the opposition in a way that's hard to describe -- even the early 1990's UNLV teams weren't this intimidating. The closest reference point might be the 1985 Bears.

So then the NCAA tournament hits, and the 'Cats, who squeaked in at 19-10, begin their improbable run...

The Wildcats opened with a 51-49 victory over ninth-seeded Dayton - at Dayton. Villanova then got by top-seeded Michigan, 59-55; fifth-seeded Maryland, 46-43; second-seeded North Carolina, 56-44; and another second-seeded team, Memphis State, 52-45.

Take a look at that run. The first three games were decided by nine points. Hell, beating Dayton at Dayton was as impressive as knocking out UNC in the regional final (that UNC team had lost Jordan and Perkins from the year before). The players they beat included guys like Len Bias at Maryland, Antoine Joibert, Gary Grant and Roy Tarpley at Michigan, Brad Daugherty and Kenny Smith at UNC, Kirk Lee at Memphis.

Meanwhile, Georgetown smoked everyone they faced; only Georgia Tech stayed within single digits. The Hoyas ripped #2 St. John's in the national semifinal. They were going to be anointed one of the great teams in college basketball history on April Fool's Night, when they won their second straight title. Ewing would ride off to the NBA with three Final Four appearances and two titles.

If you don't know what happened that night, you probably quit reading a while ago. But if you need a refresher, catch HBO's Perfect Upset. I begged my parents to stay up and watch that game, and to this day it's one of my lasting sports memories -- right up there with the 1980 Miracle on Ice the Eagles' Super Bowl victory (okay, I'm making the last one up).

Hey, that night makes up for everything else -- the ODU loss, phone card scandals, the entire Steve Lappas era -- everything. Even the UNC loss -- as Luke Winn of SI noted, we got hosed by referee Tom O'Neill's call, but miracles don't happen every time. That's why you cherish them more when they do happen.

20 years. When I was in school, I used to mock the bookstore for selling paraphenalia based on that night. Now I wish I'd bought more of it.