Not Good. What I'm hearing about the elections so far is not good -- people voting in Maryland say the system has become more computerized and technological - and less mechanical. This gives the appearance of multiple possibilities for fraud. Voting machines in Montgomery County, a Democratic stronghold, have a header that say the voter is casting a "Democratic" vote.

I'm sure we'll be hearing stories about failures, mistakes and allegations of fraud and intimidation. I've already indicated I think that if the Maryland Governor's race is close, you're going to see votes coming in for KKT that will reek of 3 week-old crab cakes.

Not good -- this is not good. More later.

Update -- at just about 11 EST, Ehrlich is about 80,000 votes ahead -- too much for even the Democratic machine to overcome. I think if it narrows to about 8-10,000 votes, they may pull something, but this may be too much.

Shakin' All Over. Dang -- lots of big aftershocks in Alaska following the 7.9 earthquake yesterday. Seven to be precise. I was supposed to go to Alaska last month but begged off the trip. I heard about the 6.7 quake from the folks who went and was glad I missed it. I've been in two 7+ earthquakes in my life and don't want to experience another one. The last one in Alaska was a 4.7.

Remember a "magnitude 6.7 earthquake releases over 900 times the energy of a 4.7 earthquake - or it takes about 900 magnitude 4.7 earthquakes to equal the energy released in a single 6.7 earthquake!" From this website.

Update -- still quite a few aftershocks, including at least two over 5.0.

My predictions. Here are my predictions for tomorrow [Beware, I picked three losers this weekend: Oakland Raiders, Notre Dame, and the Asylum Idiots.]:

Senate: 51 Rep, 48 Dem, 1 Ind
House: 230 Rep, 204 Dem, 1 Ind
Governors: 27 Dem, 23 Rep, 0 Ind
Predictions: (1) Hutchinson, Cleland, Sununu, Carnahan and Mondale lose. (2) Thune wins (3) Landrieu gets 53% and avoids the Pearl Harbor run-off. (3) In a replay of 1994, KKT "wins" Maryland with an amazing delivery of votes from Baltimore. (4) Linda Lingle wins Hawai'i governorship. (5) George Gekas, Helen Bentley, Felix Grucci and Connie Morella all win close races to lead the GOP resurgence (6) James Traficant gets 30% of the vote and comes in second.

Update Did I say Traficant would get Thirty percent -- are you sure? I thought I said Thirteen percent. ;-P

Election 2k2 - the Warner Scenario The Domenecher is soliciting predictions for the November elections -- I'll be sending those along later tonight. In the meantime, here's my very far-fetched prediction (with appropriate credit to Alan Drury and Christopher Buckley).

We'll Call this the Warner Scenario (or, if you want to be dramatic, the Warner Nightmare).

Monday Evening, November 4, 2002 -- after a little Monkey Business with Elizabeth Rae Fox, the regular mistress of Sen. Edward Kennedy, Senator John Warner, or Foghorn Clegghorn, as voters in the Great Dominion affectionately call him, starts to seize and turn blue. It seems that he has a chicken-bone lodged in his throat. He flails and then collapses. Ms. Fox, not sure what to do, calls Senator Kennedy. Kennedy, who will claim much later that he thought Fox had already called for an ambulance, will advise her to do nothing -- she should secure a neck brace and appear in public as much as possible over the next day. Preferable wearing a sporty, yet conservative blue blazer.

For the next 12 to 18 hours, Kennedy is the only one ("other than that bimbo") who knows that the elegant John Warner's splendid senatorial body is cooling and he springs into action. The Democrats don't have anyone on the ballot in Virginia opposing Warner. Perhaps he can arrange a little New Jersey justice and have the ballot reconstructed to put a Democrat on the ballot. Does he have any kin currently living in Virgina? Or have those that do moved north for a few months to help Bobby's brat, KKT? Going to court might tip off the Republicans that they have a stiff on the ballot, not that they didn't know that already. He thinks the courts in Virginia aren't as reliable as those in Virginia -- they actually follow the written law down there -- not like during the 50's when he was in school and pop could make arrangements. The most votes win, so he just needs to call some friends and get a quick write-in campaign going.

Tuesday Morning -- very early, November 5, 2002 -- Kennedy gets off the telephone with another Virginia fundraiser -- why do they all go to bed so early -- it's only 3 a.m.? They all indicate they'll make calls and get out a write-in vote. He thinks he should've proposed a candidate -- he just can't remember anyone down there -- other than the fundraisers and they make too much to want to go into politics. They don't know what a babe magnet power is. Anyway, all he needs is a few hundred voters picking one good Democrat. Hell, probably all he needs is a few dozen writing in the same name to win. Besides, don't we have the Governor down there?

Tuesday Morning -- sunrise, November 5, 2002 The polls in Virginia are open. John Warner's maid let's herself in, quietly and soon realizes he's sleeping off another drunk on the floor. At least this keeps him from pawing at her, she thinks and goes to work in another room.

Tuesday Morning -- 9:30 a.m. November 5, 2002 Calls are being made across Virginia -- in Richmond, telling friends to write in Doug Wilder; in Northern Virginia, telling friends to write in Chuck Robb "or that Volvo dealer"; in Southside, telling them to write in one of the Byrds; in Charlottesville, it's Larry Sabato; at the Beach, the fundraiser likes Alan Diamondstein; in the Valley they're writing in Ralph Sampson. Meanwhile, Warner's driver is cooling his heels, waiting to drive his boss to Richmond for the big victory party.

Tuesday Morning -- late, November 5, 2002 The Warner staff discover he's dead. Someone, probably a mole, actually tips someone off at the state Republican party of this fact. Since the governor is a Democrat, he gets to appoint if they don't do something. (Just like the Wellstone Democrats, no one much cares about the former Senator -- now just a cold corpse). Perhaps we can pull a Laufenberg --you mean Lautenberg, Laufenberg was a Redskins quarterback -- whatever.

Tuesday afternoon -- November 5, 2002 "The GOP efforts to substitute perinnial Republican J. Marshall Coleman on today's ballot was rejected this afternoon by a court in Richmond. In other news, Senator John Warner, the seventh husband of Elizabeth Taylor, passed away today . . ."

Tuesday, November 5, 2002, 7:00 p.m. "Most of the polls are closing now in Virginia amidst a flurry of lawsuits, at last count 31 lawsuits had been filed from Arlington to Abington. By various court orders, the polls in Manassas, Hampton, Lee County, Suffolk, and Danville are all still open. . . ."

Tuesday late - November 5, 2002 ". . .thank you, Peter Dan, you're right, it does look like the revenge of the 'Cocoon Generatation:' Walter Monday and Frank Laufenberg are both winners and in Virginia the early write-in candidates to take the seat of John Warner are Harry F. Byrd, Jr., James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and George Washington. With the Senate appearing to be evenly split, the winner of this race could decide who controls . . ."

Thursday afternoon -- November 7, 2002 "Who is the hell is Nancy Spannaus?"

Cover Watch. Think young! Newsweek uses Olie, Arthur, Blue, et al. to attract the eye of the little shopper. Buy it Mommeee. Think younger! Time takes you inside the womb. If I'm the one making the purchase, I'd go with Time.

Note to Scheduler, Notre Dame: Never put BC on the schedule for the week following the 'Noles. Also, go back to the navy jerseys.

On the other hand, the Irish did beat Pitt.

Ancient Religions, Ancient Practices. Heh, now we learn that the traditions of that ancient pagan holiday, Halloween, stretch all the way back to the 20th Century. Sort of like Wicca.

Just War. I'm not sure how I missed this essay by Jean Bethke Elshtain on the first go around. Oh yeah, I was traveling that week.

Not Here. From now on this is a ketchup-free zone. And a Billy Joe McGuffrey -free zone.

[No links -- if I did, I'd be violating that policy. If you don't know what I'm talking about be thankful.]

Still More Riffing on the conservative songs thing. There are some really great pro-life songs out there -- most are not well known. Surprise!

Staying away from the songs already mentioned (Bodies, Unborn Child) there was one done by Gary Paxton The Big "A" = The Big "M".

You Can't Be Too Strong - Graham Parker on the album Squeezing out Sparks.

Galactic Cowboys had a great one: If I Were a Killer ("If I were a killer, I'd say I do it for the poor")

Then there's the very poignant song by Kathy Troccoli "A Baby's Prayer"

I can hear her talking with a friend
I think it's all about me
Oh how she can't have a baby now
My mommy doesn't see

That I feel her breathe, I know her voice
Her blood it flows through my heart
God you know my greatest wish is that
We'd never be apart

CHORUS: But if I should die before I wake
I pray her soul you'll keep
Forgive her Lord - she doesn't know
That you gave life to me

(you can hear it here).

My last noteable song is "I Am Human" by Andy McCarroll and the Moral Support. This was on Zionic Bonds -- the only album ever done by this group, which is too bad because it was terrific punk, even if it was Christian.

Some others:
Baby Doe - Steve Taylor, on the Meltdown album.
Planned Parenthood by Lust Control (good luck finding anything from them).
Slaughter of the Innocent by Undercover.

Boo'd Yesterday there were two things that refocused my attention on the upcoming umm, holiday(?). First, I saw Mark Byron's thoughts on Halloween. Second, we were "Boo'd."

Needless to say that amidst the concerns about the sniper, we'd pretty much forgotten this was nearly upon us.

Why's Halloween a problem? Why is Mark getting so worked up about it? Well, the Scriptures provide:

…do not let your people practice fortune-telling or sorcery, or allow them to interpret omens, or engage in witchcraft, or cast spells, or function as mediums or psychics, or call forth the spirits of the dead. Anyone who does these things is an object of horror and disgust to the LORD. …You must be blameless before the LORD your God.
-Deuteronomy 18:10b-13 (NLT)

and further we are instructed to "do not imitate what is evil but what is good." (3 John 1:11)

See also, Leviticus 20:6-7, II Timothy 2:15, 20-22. (I've tried staying away from verses like I Thes 5:22 that presuppose Halloween is, on its face, evil.)

[In some respects, I believe a lot of the discussion of the evils of Halloween can be traced back to an article written by the former rector of my current church, John W. Howe: "What is Happy about Halloween?" Christianity Today (October 21, 1977, -- not online).]

So does that mean those of us who follow the Christ must completely ignore or shun Halloween?

As you no doubt guess, my answer is no. Like this writer, "I am reluctant to give up what was one of the highlights of my childhood calendar to the Great Impostor and Chief of Liars for no reason except that some of his servants claim it as his." (Anderson M. Rearick III)

The jist of Rearick's argument is that we should mock the prideful Satan:

Should the forces of evil be mocked? Should Satan be laughed at? He most certainly should be. At the beginning of The Screwtape Letters, C. S. Lewis includes two telling quotations, the first from Martin Luther: "The best way to drive out the devil, if he will not yield to texts of Scripture, is to jeer and flout him, for he cannot bear scorn."

The second comes from Thomas More: "The devil … the proud spirit cannot endure to be mocked."

The one thing Satan cannot bear is to be a source of laughter. His pride is undermined by his own knowledge that his infernal rebellion against God is in reality an absurd farce. Hating laughter, he demands to be taken seriously. Indeed, I would say that those Christians who spend the night of October 31 filled with concern over what evils might be (and sometimes are) taking place are doing the very thing Lucifer wants them to do. By giving him this respect, such believers are giving his authority credence.

Not all believers should celebrate Halloween. For those who have been redeemed from the occult, Halloween in its foolishness may contain what was for them deadly seriousness. While their souls were in deadly peril, however, what they experienced were lies and illusions.

It is understandable that they look with horror upon what once enslaved them. Such sensitivity may be appropriate for them, but it is not appropriate for the majority of Christians. Holding their opinions as appropriate for most believers is like having a former bulimic dictate how Christians should regard church hot-plate socials.

Christians should instead celebrate Halloween with gusto. If we follow the traditional formula of having a good time at his expense, Satan flees.

I agree -- let's turn this into a day -- be creative about it -- where that insignificant worm, who's head has been crushed -- is mocked. He's a loser.

Oh, and being boo'd? It seems to be a fairly new tradition -- someone leaves a bag of candy at the front door with a note indicating you've been "boo'd" (another variation) and that you have 24 hours to boo someone else. You get a sheet of paper to stick in your front window indicating you've been boo'd (tagged) already.

We're going to do it and we'll think of some way to mock the Liar.

The Man Who Caught the Sniper. I noticed this passage at the very end of a news article about the man who identified the sniper and called the report in to the police:

One television station reported that Mr. Lantz and others had previously held a prayer vigil asking that police capture the sniper.

In today's CT Weblog, we are provided with more details:

On October 17, dozens of truck drivers from around the country gathered at a rural Kentucky truck stop. There, they prayed that the sniper would be caught. What they didn't know was that one of them would do it.

Ron Lantz, a 61-year-old trucker from Ludlow, Ky., heard the radio description of the car that police were looking last Wednesday and recognized the vehicle when stopping for the night. He called 911.

"I'm no hero. I just want people to think what I did is what I should have done," said Lantz, the men's ministry director at the Central Church of the Nazarene in Fort Wright, Ky. "It could have been any one of us."

Lantz has said he will give any reward money to the families of victims.

See Weblog for all the links.

Hymns I am becoming to appreciate as I get older. More riffing on the pop hits:

1. Precious Lord, Take My Hand, And Help Me Up

2. It Is Well with My Soul, But My Knees Hurt

3. Nobody Knows the Trouble I Have Seeing

4. Just a Slower Walk with Thee

5. Count Your Many Birthdays, Name Them One by One

6. Go Tell It on the Mountain, But Speak Up

7. Give Me the Old Timers' Religion

8. Blessed Insurance

9. Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah, I've Forgotten Where I Parked

More Riffing. There have been a ton of songs that have a political bent or theme to them -- but I'm never sure whether you can say one is more conservative or liberal. Take, for example, Bread's "This Isn't What The Governmeant" which is either a variation on Taxman or a rip-off. Is it an anti-tax song? or an anti-millionaire song? or anti-Vietnam war? Maybe its Taxman crossed with Fortunate Son.

Similarly, Ben Domenech sees Bruce Cockburn's If I Had A Rocket Launcher as a Conservative Song - despite the fact that it was pro-Sandinista, anti-contra piece. This is underscored on the album with his paean to the Sandinistas "Nicaragua"

you're the best of what we are --
don't let them stop you now
nicaragua

An effective, if unintentional rejoinder to Rocket Launcher might be Steve Taylor's "I Blew Up The Clinic Real Good"

And, in the spirit of continued riffing, one really shouldn't overlook some of Taylor's songs which occasionally mesh with conservative values and movements. For example, his Over My Dead Body, written in Warsaw in 1984 is a wonderful contrast to the Leninist Cockburn:

After the Nazis we were baited by the Russian bear
Our "liberators" wanted Poland for a thoroughfare
I was a victim of December 1981
I took a final beating from the blunt end of a Russian gun

You plant your missiles while our people wait in line for bread
You hang an army tank above us by a bloody thread
You bought our government they crawl like bleating sheep to you
We know from history that human life is cheap to you

CHORUS
Over my dead body redemption draweth nigh
Over my dead body I hear a battle cry
Try and blow out the fire--you're fanning the flames
We're gonna rise up from the ashes 'til we're ashes again

You make a mockery of all that we hold sacred here
you drive us underground in hopes that we will disappear
we seek our sanctuary where the altar candle burns
our dignity's a legacy the cross of Jesus reaffirms

After the Nazis we were baited by the Russian bear
Our "liberators" wanted Poland for a thoroughfare
Rise up my brothers don't despair the Iron Curtain's rod
Someday we'll draw the string assisted by the hand of God

I was a victim of December 1981
I took a final beating from the blunt end of a Russian gun
You made a memory--the memory will multiply
You may kill the body but the spirit--it will never die

[The liner notes indicate this song was "Dedicated to the memory of Grzegorz Przemyk, a Polish youth killed by government police in Warsaw, May, 1983"]

Finally, since my stream of consciousness has jumped to dwell on the incomparable Steve Taylor, consider his rejoinder to the Bob Jones conservatives, which, as I indicated below, are at the very best inconsistent:

We don't need no colour code
We don't need no colour code
Take your rules and hit the road
We don't need no colour code
Judgment Day is goin' down
Better burn your cap and gown

White man speak with forked tongue
White supremists eat their young
Bigotry is on the loose
Ignorance is no excuse
I know Jesus loves that man
Even with a Greenville tan

Riffing on the Conservative Pop Hits, which, for some reason causes me to think of Charles Dickens -- was he a liberal or a conservative? How about this passage from Chapter 10 of Little Dorrit:

The Circumlocution Office was (as everybody knows without being told) the most important Department under Government. No public business of any kind could possibly be done at any time without the acquiescence of the Circumlocution Office. Its finger was in the largest public pie, and in the smallest public tart. It was equally impossible to do the plainest right and to undo the plainest wrong without the express authority of the Circumlocution Office. If another Gunpowder Plot had been discovered half an hour before the lighting of the match, nobody would have been justified in saving the parliament until there had been half a score of boards, half a bushel of minutes, several sacks of official memoranda, and a family-vault full of ungrammatical correspondence, on the part of the Circumlocution Office.

This glorious establishment had been early in the field, when the one sublime principle involving the difficult art of governing a country, was first distinctly revealed to statesmen. It had been foremost to study that bright revelation and to carry its shining influence through the whole of the official proceedings. Whatever was required to be done, the Circumlocution Office was beforehand with all the public departments in the art of perceiving--HOW NOT TO DO IT.

Through this delicate perception, through the tact with which it invariably seized it, and through the genius with which it always acted on it, the Circumlocution Office had risen to overtop all the public departments; and the public condition had risen to be--what it was.

It is true that How not to do it was the great study and object of all public departments and professional politicians all round the Circumlocution Office. It is true that every new premier and every new government, coming in because they had upheld a certain thing as necessary to be done, were no sooner come in than they applied their utmost faculties to discovering How not to do it. It is true that from the moment when a general election was over, every returned man who had been raving on hustings because it hadn't been done, and who had been asking the friends of the honourable gentleman in the opposite interest on pain of impeachment to tell him why it hadn't been done, and who had been asserting that it must be done, and who had been pledging himself that it should be done, began to devise, How it was not to be done. It is true that the debates of both Houses of Parliament the whole session through, uniformly tended to the protracted deliberation, How not to do it. It is true that the royal speech at the opening of such session virtually said, My lords and gentlemen, you have a considerable stroke of work to do, and you will please to retire to your respective chambers, and discuss, How not to do it. It is true that the royal speech, at the close of such session, virtually said, My lords and gentlemen, you have through several laborious months been considering with great loyalty and patriotism, How not to do it, and you have found out; and with the blessing of Providence upon the harvest (natural, not political), I now dismiss you. All this is true, but the Circumlocution Office went beyond it.

Because the Circumlocution Office went on mechanically, every day, keeping this wonderful, all-sufficient wheel of statesmanship, How not to do it, in motion. Because the Circumlocution Office was down upon any ill-advised public servant who was going to do it, or who appeared to be by any surprising accident in remote danger of doing it, with a minute, and a memorandum, and a letter of instructions that extinguished him. It was this spirit of national efficiency in the Circumlocution Office that had gradually led to its having something to do with everything. Mechanicians, natural philosophers, soldiers, sailors, petitioners, memorialists, people with grievances, people who wanted to prevent grievances, people who wanted to redress grievances, jobbing people, jobbed people, people who couldn't get rewarded for merit, and people who couldn't get punished for demerit, were all indiscriminately tucked up under the foolscap paper of the Circumlocution Office.

Numbers of people were lost in the Circumlocution Office. Unfortunates with wrongs, or with projects for the general welfare (and they had better have had wrongs at first, than have taken that bitter English recipe for certainly getting them), who in slow lapse of time and agony had passed safely through other public departments; who, according to rule, had been bullied in this, over-reached by that, and evaded by the other; got referred at last to the Circumlocution Office, and never reappeared in the light of day. Boards sat upon them, secretaries minuted upon them, commissioners gabbled about them, clerks registered, entered, checked, and ticked them off, and they melted away. In short, all the business of the country went through the Circumlocution Office, except the business that never came out of it; and its name was Legion.

Of course, it continues. You can read more on line here.

More: Chesterton on Little Dorrit.

Cover Watch. I prefer the Newsweek cover although I like the web's choice of a headline "Descent into Evil" over the actual cover title "The Sick World of the Sniper." Time's cover features the world going to pot. Errr, I mean "The Politics of Pot" or "How the people who brought you medical marijuana have set their sights on lifting the ban for everyone." So, in twenty years, tobacco will be banned and Maui Wowie will be sponsoring the World Series?

Conservative Rock is, of course, an oxymoron. Rock and roll is meant to be a rebellious evolutionary art form, therefore the idea that it can be conservative or "classic" is self-defeating or self-negating. However, the Bruce Bartlett address that got several of these discussions started (I'll attribute Ben Domenech, where I first read of it) expressly mentions "Conservative Pop Music" not Rock -- Rock and Roll can be a subset of Pop music (or an intersecting set).

Barlett's criteria are interesting -- but it's what makes his list, in my opinion, a failure. The first and second are related: he looks to what is expressed by the lyric, not the person singing the lyric. Fair enough. Were the Beatles political conservatives or liberals? On the basis of Taxman, mentioned by both Bartlett and Domenech, conservative. But I doubt you'd find any of the fab four doing fundraisers for the Tories. However, these two criteria aren't the main problem -- the main problem is the third criterion: he limited himself "to songs that made Billboard’s Top 40 chart after 1955." This is why, in my continuing opinion, Ben's list is far superior to Bartlett's.

Before I continue, I'd like to echo the comments made by Charlie Murtaugh -- Barlett's inclusion of "'Sweet Home Alabama,' which basically endorses segregation and makes excuses for Watergate." Lynyrd Skynyrd's song was on its face reactionary to Neil Young's "Alabama" and "Southern Man" In the first of these, Young sang of

Alabama, you got the weight on your shoulders
That's breaking your back.

and he continues

Oh Alabama.
Can I see you and shake your hand.
Make friends down in Alabama.
I'm from a new land
I come to you and see all this ruin
What are you doing Alabama?
You got the rest of the union to help you along
What's going wrong?

I would hope my conservative friends would see these as conservative sentiments -- are they anti-conservative?

Southern Man, written and recorded earlier, I will acknowledge, is more incidiary, yet it begins

Southern man better keep your head
Don't forget what your good book said
Southern change gonna come at last
Now your crosses are burning fast

Is there a problem with a call to temperance, a reliance on the Bible, a warning about cause and effect (personal responsibility -- isn't that a conservative virtue?)

However, and now I've gone off on a tangent, there are other rock songs that are out there that should be considered for inclusion on these lists -- I'll put a few up in the days to come.

Goodbye Senator. I will miss Senator Wellstone greatly, even though I would never vote for him. He was someone who was very true to his principles, and, although I disagreed with him strongly, admired him nonetheless for keeping his hand to the plow and not looking back. I have not been able to watch any TV lately and when I turned on "Public" radio they were in the middle of a pledge drive and had completely jettisoned any regular programming. Nevertheless, I imagine that the tributes will come from both sides of the aisle and that they will be heartfelt. He was the kind of opposition you would want -- someone who gave the very best and challenged every argument.

Normal. I stopped and got gas on the way home from work. Everyone was smiling and visibly relieved. The lady who pulled in behind me actually did a little twirl right behind her car after she got the gas going -- like Maria (Julie Andrews) at the opening of "The Sound of Music."

NFL Power Rankings. I've been having major problems with Blogger since last night. Posting this now -- assuming it doesn't crash like last time. I will post the introductory explanation and source links tomorrow.

	No.	Team	Cu.	Hi	Lo
	1	Saints	2.13	1	7
	2	Packers	2.75	1	5
	3	Broncos	3.88	1	6
	4	Chargers	4.38	2	11
	5	Eagles	5.13	1	8
	6	Dolphins	6.25	2	9
	7	Raiders	7	6	8
	8	Bucs	7	3	10
	9	49ers	7.38	3	9
	10	Bills	11.88	8	18
	11	Steelers	12.13	10	14
	12	Patriots	12.25	6	17
	13	Colts	12.63	10	15
	14	Cardinals	14.13	10	25
	15	Ravens	14.88	11	18
	16	Chiefs	16	13	19
	17	Jaguars	17	13	19
	18	Falcons	17.13	12	25
	19	Giants	19.75	18	23
	20	Rams	19.88	17	23
	21	Browns	21.13	20	24
	22	Cowboys	22.88	21	25
	23	Titans	23	20	26
	24	Bears	23.13	18	27
	25	Panthers	24.25	21	26
	26	Redskins	25.13	22	27
	27	Jets	27.25	25	29
	28	Lions	27.25	23	30
	29	Seahawks	28.63	27	29
	30	Vikings	29.75	27	31
	31	Texans	31	30	32
	32	Bengals	31.88	31	32

On the run. Had to stop by Home Depot tonight to make a return (lot's of visible security there, btw). My wife gave me a big kiss and wished me well -- in part a joke and in part serious. We're all jumpy around here -- I guess you'd have to be here to know how it is. The bus driver who was shot had just picked up some tickets last week from someone I work with. Another victim was a family friend of a different co-worker. As I indicated before, I've driven by those gas stations and streets where the shootings have taken place. Even the Ashland shooting -- that's a frequent stopping place on the trip back from my parents (although we generally go to the BK or Taco Bell or just stop to use the bathrooms at Cracker Barrel).

Design Changes. I did a conversion of my browser and wiped out all my bookmarks -- this helped me to realized that I haven't done an update of my links on the left. There are a number of blogs I visited pretty regularly that were in my bookmarks but aren't on the left. Therefore, I would appreciate it if you could leave me your blog cite in the comments or send me an email and I'll try and get things updated. Thanks!

Jesus Lived! Well, of course, says the orthodox Christian. Moreover, He Lives. It's a matter of faith, but also strong probability -- it's only the modern self-blinded skeptics that really doubt He lived.

Anyway, today there was a press conference in D.C. by Biblical Archaeological Review, indicating an ossuary held by a private collector featuring an Aramaic inscription, "James, son of Joseph, brother of Jesus." The BAR has confirmed that the relic is 2,000 years old. Here is the Christianity Today article.

Regrettably, or perhaps not, the ossuary contains no bones.

Something about this reminds me of one of my favorite stories:

It seems that back in the 1950s a team of Roman Catholic archaeologists conducting a dig in Jerusalem stumbled on the bones of Jesus and became convinced that indeed these were the bones of Jesus. Obviously, this was for them a horrifying discovery.

So they called up the pope to notify him that the bones of Jesus had been found. And the pope decided that this was a matter of such terrible ecumenical concern that he was going tohave to convene an ecumenical council. And he asked his advisers, "Who's the greatest living Protestant theologian?" And he was told it was Paul Tillich.

So the pope called up Tillich on the telephone, explained that the bones of Jesus had been found. There was a long silence on the other end of the line.

And finally Tillich said, "So then, he really did live."

Sniper News?. You may have heard that there has been an arrest (or arrests) of one or two men in the Richmond area and the seizure of a white van. There is a press conference scheduled for 1 pm (EDT) that will be carried live on the internet by WTOP radio.

Update For the record, this did not pan out.

VeggieTales. We took, let's see, four adults, three students, five children, and three infants to see Jonah this weekend. I'd say it was so-so. The visuals were great. It had one tremendous song, the gospel "Second Chances" performed by Anointed. [Here's an .mp3 clip] and one horrible song (because it's so catchy and so mindless): Billy Joe McGuffrey (and the Chris Rice with all 12 verses is even worse). But overall, I thought the story tended to drag a little and tended to be a little lacking in the humor and zaniness that is a trademark of the best VeggieTales videos.

BTW, if you see the movie in the theater, be sure to stick around for the Credits Song.

Football. So I'm sitting there watching the Redskin game yesterday and they show that Shannon Sharpe had 214 receiving yards and 2 TDs and I think "I wonder who the sap was that had to play against that guy [in the Blogger Bowl 2K3 fantasy league]." Turns out that I'm that sap and there goes my winning streak. Congratulations to Ellis Domenech, coach (I don't like to think of us as being "owners") of the Liberty City Diablos. Unfortunately, I got far too many points from LaDainian Tomlinson (39 carries, 153 yards, 2 TDs) and not enough from Rod Smith. (I'm a Raider fan.)

I'm wondering what the Chargers need to do to get some respect -- they have a bye next week and then play the Jets, so going into Week 10 against the Rams they should only have one loss. That kicks off the rough part of their schedule -- following the Rams they play the 49ers, Dolphins, Broncos, and Raiders. Nevertheless, I'm sure I'm not the only one thinking that had Snyder stuck with Marty the 'skins wouldn't have stopped using Stephen Davis in the 3rd Quarter (24 carries for 91 yards). The Redskins averaged 4.3 yards per rush attempt versus 3.1 yards per pass attempt.

More. The Redskins challenged the officials rulings twice yesterday and lost both times. However, there was an earlier call* that they should've challenged that would've been upheld. Patrick Ramsey brought his arm forward to pass and then brought the ball back in almost immediately after, GB stripped the ball from his grasp. Pursuant to the "Tuck Rule" (NFL Rule 3, Section 21, Article 2 Note 2):

When Team A player is holding the ball to pass it forward, any intentional forward movement of his arm starts a forward pass, even if the player loses possession of the ball as he is attempting to tuck it back toward his body. Also, if the player has tucked the ball into his body and then loses possession, it is a fumble.

In the play in question, Ramsey had "started a forward pass" and then attempted to bring it back in but had not made contact with his body yet -- that (body contact) is the operative fact that turns off the period in which ball is considered to be a pass and not a fumble if separated from the passer. (But see note 3, that attempting to recock the arm also turns off that metaphysical period.)

-----
* For those die-hard 'skins fans who want to check the tape, it occured with about 2 minutes left in the 3rd; 3d and 14 at Wash 37 -- the "fumble" was recovered by Nate Wayne.

Cover Watch. Love v. War. We're living in a Time of War -- al Qaeda is showing a new resurgence. Newsweek pins its hopes on Nirvana. Kurt's Dead.

Ps. 10. My daughter was struck by how Psalm 10 seemed to apply to our situation here with the sniper. Here is the translation (NLT) she was using:

Psalm 10

1
O LORD, why do you stand so far away?
Why do you hide when I need you the most?
2
Proud and wicked people viciously oppress the poor.
Let them be caught in the evil they plan for others.
3
For they brag about their evil desires;
they praise the greedy and curse the LORD.
4
These wicked people are too proud to seek God.
They seem to think that God is dead.
5
Yet they succeed in everything they do.
They do not see your punishment awaiting them.
They pour scorn on all their enemies.
6
They say to themselves, "Nothing bad will ever happen to us!
We will be free of trouble forever!"
7
Their mouths are full of cursing, lies, and threats.
Trouble and evil are on the tips of their tongues.
8
They lurk in dark alleys,
murdering the innocent who pass by.
They are always searching
for some helpless victim.
9
Like lions they crouch silently,
waiting to pounce on the helpless.
Like hunters they capture their victims
and drag them away in nets.
10
The helpless are overwhelmed and collapse;
they fall beneath the strength of the wicked.
11
The wicked say to themselves, "God isn't watching!
He will never notice!"
12
Arise, O LORD!
Punish the wicked, O God!
Do not forget the helpless!
13
Why do the wicked get away with cursing God?
How can they think, "God will never call us to account"?
14
But you do see the trouble and grief they cause.
You take note of it and punish them.
The helpless put their trust in you.
You are the defender of orphans.
15
Break the arms of these wicked, evil people!
Go after them until the last one is destroyed!
16
The LORD is king forever and ever!
Let those who worship other gods be swept from the land.
17
LORD, you know the hopes of the helpless.
Surely you will listen to their cries and comfort them.
18
You will bring justice to the orphans and the oppressed,
so people can no longer terrify them.

No Sniper News. No further attacks, which is good news, but no further leads, which is not. I drove to Occoquan yesterday to get gas on the way home -- it's just about 5 extra miles out of the way and gas prices are at least a dime a gallon cheaper. The gas stations are right off I-95, just about 20 miles north of the F'burg killings and 8 miles SE of the Manassas murder. So naturally, it was on my mind. I kept thinking is it worth it to save a buck and a half? I pulled into the Shell and surveyed the perimeter and thought where would be the best place to take a shot from? There's a KFC sitting on a hill overlooking the 2-3 gas stations in the area -- it has easy access to 95. No one there -- I'll take my chance and gas up.

I told an old friend of mine about it last night and he didn't laugh at all -- he said he does the same thing. His comments have weight -- his job is as a sniper for the Secret Service. We talked a little more -- he didn't say much -- he really can't.

Another lady said that the homecoming game for her son's High School has been moved to Charlottesville -- they're going to bus both teams down and have busses for the students as well. My nephew, a freshman had his homecoming game cancelled, but the dance will go on, under tight security. We're going to have a party for my daughter tomorrow, we're planning on taking a group of 5 and 6 year olds to a movie theater to see Jonah -- but are having second thoughts -- the primary theater we were going to go to is about 2 miles from the scene of the Manassas shooting.

I don't think anyone is overreacting -- I thought so when my co-workers lined up for cipro shots last year (my work uses the same post office as the Senate, so we received authorization from the government for the shots). If you think I am, please drop me a line or leave a comment.

Rosary. For those of us who look askance at the practice of praying the rosary, Peggy Noonan has a good article and an explanation of the announcement from the Vatican implementing a major change. I first heard about the announcement from Peter Sean Bradley -- but didn't understand the meaning.

Vegan? I got the latest copy of Scientific American in the mail yesterday. Flipping through it late last night I came across an article about a new order of insect, the Gladiator, or Mantophasmatodea. What caught my eye, however was this item from "An Order is Born," a sidebar:

Powerful mandibles are evidence of a carnivorous lifestyle. Most grasshoppers and walkingsticks are vegans.

Wha?

Back when I was in school (admittedly closer in time to Carl Linnaeus) we distinguished carnivores and herbivores. So when did grasshoppers become vegans?

According to vegan.com,

Q. Where did the word vegan come from?

A. A shortened version of "vegetarian," the word "vegan" was coined in the 1940s by a vegetarian society in England to distinguish members who chose to consume absolutely no products derived from animals.

Moreover,

Q. What is a vegan?

A. By definition, a vegan (most commonly pronounced VEE-gun) is a person who does not eat animal products, including meat, fish, seafood, eggs, and dairy. But veganism is more about what people choose than about what they avoid. For example, vegans demonstrate respect for all life — their own, the planet's, and the animals' — not only by eating plant-based foods, but also by choosing nonfood items (such as nonleather shoes) that are produced without animal byproducts. Many vegans also go out of their way to choose cosmetics and personal care items that do not contain animal byproducts and are not tested on animals.

Granted, grasshoppers do not wear leather birkenstocks, nevertheless, I don't think they give a flip about animal byproducts.

Kathy Ireland on abortion.

"Is it all right for the government to allow the murder of an innocent human being? The evidence I see tells me the unborn is a human being. From the moment of conception, a new life comes into being with a complete genetic blueprint. The sex is determined. The blood type is determined."

The whole article, including much of the discussion can be found here, as well as a similar discussion from Patricia Heaton.

Cumulative Power Ratings. There is a large handful of attempts to rank the teams in the NFL, as is done with college football. Here is my attempt to bring them together. I'm combining the ESPN, CNNSI, TSN, War Room, Sports Central, Sagarin (USA Today), CBS, and AP index or ratings into one cumulative list. I've also include a teams high and low from the different list. Sticking this on a spread sheet is very easy -- translating it into HTML tables is, well, interesting. We'll see if this works:

It didn't work -- I'm trying something else. That didn't work either. How about plain old ASCII:
No.__Team_______Cumulative__Hi__Lo
1___Dolphins_______1.62_____1____4
2___Raiders________3.25_____2____5
3___Bucs___________3.75_____1____7
4___Broncos________4.88_____2___10
5___Saints_________5.12_____2____9
6___Packers________5.62_____2____8
7___49ers__________6.62_____4____9
8___Eagles_________7.38_____1___10
9___Chargers_______8.62_____7___15
10__Colts__________9.25_____6___11
11__Patriots______12.00 ____7___15
12__Jaguars_______12.62____11___15
13__Chiefs________12.88____10___16
14__Bills_________14.75____11___21
15__Steelers______15.88____11___19
16__Cardinals_____16.00____11___25
17__Ravens________17.12____14___20
18__Bears_________18.25____13___22
19__Falcons_______19.75____12___25
20__Cowboys_______20.12____15___26
21__Giants________20.75____16___25
22__Panthers______21.38____16___25
23__Redskins______22.88____18___27
24__Rams__________23.38____19___26
25__Titans________23.50____21___27
26__Browns________24.12____21___26
27__Seahawks______27.12____26___28
28__Vikings_______28.75____27___31
29__Jets__________29.00____28___31
30__Lions_________29.12____25___31
31__Texans________30.62____30___32
32__Bengals_______31.88____31___32

10-15-02. An admonition (“Swap stories and save gum wrappers. That’s what you’re here for. Glean what you can from the day; pass it along. Don’t worry that it’s too trivial or meaningless.”) and an observation (“There are times when the world seems absolutely mad, and that was one of them.”) in last weeks Bleat are the springboard for what follows.

I took the day off from work today to catch up on things left undone from my trip to North Carolina last week for work. The morning was very nice since my wife took the little ones, leaving me with my oldest to work on school together. We covered the Punic Wars, discussing the strategies of Hannibal and Scipio Africanus. Of course, we discussed Cato and the motto of one of my favorite blogs, which led us into her Latin studies. Before long, the kids were back and our time together was at an end -- she went on to geometry and I to other tasks.

First, I put our baby in the crib, then I took Sarah, age 6 and Joe, age 4, to WalMart to pick up a few things. I had made a CD of some of our favorite songs -- Joe loves Chuck Berry's "Too Much Monkey Business" and Sarah's eyes lit up when the Kate Taylor cover of Satellite Sky (by Mark Heard) came on "My favorite song -- Joe, it's my favorite song!"

~0~
It can't be easy for my children
I'm hollow before my time
It looks like a desert here to me
Where is the promise of youth for my child?

Where are the faraway kingdoms of dreams?
We've been to the moon and there's trouble at home
They vanished in the mist with Saint Nicholas
They lie scattered to the ghettos and the war zones

~0~

Then we pull into the parking lot at WalMart and I tell the kids we're going to play a game and run in a zig-zag fashion up to the door. I get out of the car first and survey the perimeter -- no Astro Vans -- before letting the kids out and making the dash for the doorway.

Our shopping done, we play the same game going back to the car. We do the same game at Radio Shack.

Then, it's on to home to clean the gutters and hook up the coax to the antennae.

At home, I take all the kids onto the roof for the first time (all except Ems, that is, who is still asleep). My wife comes out and takes pictures ("In case you ever decide to divorce me -- this way, I'll get custody of the kids"). The kids are thrilled. We live in a ranch house with a pretty flat roof -- but for them, it's like being on top of the Space Needle or the Washington Monument. The only break in the frolic is the sound of the helicopters -- was this a Lawrence Kasdan film?

Pretty soon it was time for Sarah and Joe to go to choir -- which overlapped softball. I told my wife not to worry, there would be no softball today. Soon enough, I got that phone call. The message this time, however, was that there would be no softball until the sniper was caught.

Dickens was right -- it is the best of times and the worst of times.

I want to stand out in the middle of the street and listen to the stars
I want to hear their sweet voices
I want to feel a big bang rattle my bones
I want to laugh for my children
I want the spark to ignite
before they find out what it means to be born
into these times

Why, Why, Why, I say Why, Mama, Why?
Why can't I sleep in peace tonight underneath the satellite sky?

Cover Watch. Newsweek goes with the more sensational aspect "Tarot Card Killer" Time looks at how to stop it: "The Science of Catching a Killer."

He Who Has Stalled. Leahy continues to stand in the doorway, blocking the consideration of Michael McConnell and Miguel Estrada. See this WaPo editorial taking him to task.

Count Every Run. Channeling the spirit of Al Gore, I can tell you that the wrong team is playing in the NLCS -- sure the Giants may be ahead of the Cardinals right now, two games to zip, but they shouldn't be there -- the Braves should be there. Now, mind you, I'm no Brave partisan, in fact the lateness of this post betrays the fact that I'm an A's fan -- I've been in such a funk, I totally missed this story.

Until now.

The Giants did not beat the Braves in their five game series -- yes, it was close, but the Braves clearly outscored the Giants:

__Game--1---2---3---4---5-------Total Runs
Braves----5---7--10--3---1-----------26
Giants-----8---3---2--8---3-----------24

We must put a stop to this series -- we need to let every run count! The Braves should be there, not the Giants.

In addition, I understand that the Cardinals are contemplating withdrawing and letting the Yankees play in their stead -- perhaps if they knew their true opponents should be the Braves, they wouldn't have to Torch their playoff hopes.

Sane. Ben notes that the Beltway Sniper has struck again in Virginia at an Exxon in F'burg (one I drove by yesterday afternoon). At the conclusion, he observes "Oh, I hope he's sane." The short answer, without even having apprehended the guy (yes, I'm profiling -- send Stormin' Norman after me), I can tell you that he is legally sane, at least as far as Virginia is concerned.

Basically, you have several versions of the insanity defense. The traditional, so-called the M'Naghten rule, holds there is no conviction if the defendant's had no idea what he was doing was wrong. The typical example is where someone killed thinking they were carving pumpkins instead of killing a person with a knife.

There was second component adopted to supplement this rule, generally known as the 'irresistible impulse' test holds the defendant has to have a mental disease which keeps him from controlling his conduct.

A more lenient or permissive standard came in the early 1950s, the Durham rule, that holds the defendant is not criminally responsible if his actions are the product of a mental disease/defect. If I remember correctly, it was this rule which was applied to John Hinkley.

About a decade after the creation of the Durham rule, the American Law Institute ("ALI") proposed a Model Penal Code (again, this is all rough recollection -- I may have dates wrong, but I'm pretty sure about the substance). Starting with M'Naghten, ALI lowered the insanity standard from an absolute knowledge of right from wrong to a substantial incapacity to appreciate the difference between right and wrong. It also incorporated some elements from the irresistible impulse test.

Virginia, if I remember correctly -- it's been a long time since the bar exam and I don't do criminal work -- follows M'Naghten and 'irresistible impulse.' The fact that this sniper has logically taken steps to elude the police and has resisted any impulse to kill at a time when apprehension is possible shows that the killer is legally sane. This killer is a sociopath, in that he follows no moral code but for purposes of the law, he is sane.

In addition, both Virginia and Maryland have the death penalty, but the District does not. Only one of the shootings has been in the District (Pascal Charlot, 72). If the suspect is apprehended in Virginia, I can guarantee that he will be charged with a capital offense. If apprehended in Maryland, I'm not sure -- the current administration has ordered a moratorium on the death penalty -- and Kathleen Kennedy Townsend has pledged to continue that (now this appears to be an unwise move, politically -- will she have the courage of her convictions?). However it could be that the moratorium is just on the imposition of the penalty and not the seeking of it.

In other news... Singer Tim McGraw has a song out that is causing a mild stir because of his reference to abortion. Specifically the song references a decision ''not to have a child.''

In other news, Andrea Yates is said to be making progress in her treatments, having cut back on her antipsychotic medication to just a quarter of what was originally prescribed. In addition, she has decided to take up writing country western songs and has written one about her decision "not to have any children."

Programing Note. Busy week ahead, probably not much posting. See you next week.

Jonah. Not a bad opening -- playing on 940 screens, Jonah grossed a projected 6.5 million. (This compares to $37.5m on 3357 screens for Red Dragon or 10.1m on 3022 screens for Tuxedo). See all the movie sales here.

Congratulations Twins. Y'all played a great game today. Best wishes for the remainder of the playoffs.

No Rotten Tomatoes Here. I'm a parent, which means I am subjected to the repetitious, be it songs, complaints, meal requests, jokes, or videos. Welcome is that which doesn't get tiring after the first 10K repetitions. This is why I hate Barney and love VeggieTales.

I know, you might think, well isn't VeggieTales religious -- isn't that why you like them? Fair objection -- that does give them, if not a leg up, at least a crack in the door. Nevertheless, religious claptrap and junque can be more annoying than the non-religious, if it is, well, a piece of crap.

VeggieTales is different -- I like singing "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything" for the 27th time in one day. The videos are equal parts of Sunday School, cartoons, and Monty Python, with some great songs.

Anyway, all that is preface to the Ken Turan review of the VeggieTales movie Jonah in the LA Times (he likes it, he likes it!):

. . . this animated retelling of the familiar Old Testament story is playful, high-spirited and unmistakably amusing. It's nice to see that a sense of humor and a sense of values don't inevitably have to cancel each other out.

Unfortunately, Jonah doesn't open in this area for another two weeks.

Strike. The WaPo Writers Guild is engaging in another of it's byline strikes -- meaning they are all captioned "By a Washington Post Staff Writer" instead of naming the writer. The funny thing is how easy to tell who writes what -- and not by writing style but by the slant the writer puts on it. They were joking about it the other day on a local sports radio show -- "yeah, that's Michael Wilbon." It's the same with the front page, as well. I'd love to see the columnists do this -- it's rare to see a Richard Cohen column that doesn't use "I" in the first seven words.

More Smart Judges. From the Schwartz book mentioned below, is this note about Judge Learned Hand on Chief Justice Earl Warren:

In fact, Hand questioned Warren's perspicacity from the start. Before long, he was calling Warren "that Dumb Swede," "Pontifex Maximus," and "Judex Maximus."

"As to the 'Chief,'" Hand wrote in 1959, "somebody is writing for him better than at the beginning, though the results are ------."[sic]

Schwartz Inside the Warren Court at 138.

Moses supposes . Well, since last night, I keep thinking of Danny Kaye:

Moses supposes his toeses are roses, but Moses supposes erroneously. For Moses, he knowses his toeses aren't roses, as Moses supposes his toeses to be.

Sports. I am very surprised that the Cardinals have beat both Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling -- although you can't pin the loss on Schilling.

ESPN has a nice little run down on the 15 best baseball games of the past MLB season. This is the one I would want to see (even though my A's lost).

Last -- a good note about the Wild West -- the AFC West Division -- in the WaTimes this morning.

In Defense of Moses. A day or two after publicly agreeing with Eugene Volokh, I write to disagree (in part). In response to this Fox article, quoted only partially here, Eugene responded.

"Jesus set the example for love, as did Moses. I think Muhammad set an opposite example," Falwell says in an interview on the CBS program 60 Minutes. [from Fox]

[Eugene:] Hey, I'm no Biblical scholar, but wasn't Moses involved with that whole smiting of the first-born thing, plus of course a wide variety of biological warfare? And weren't there lots of other figures in the Old Testament -- figures who are generally viewed quite positively -- who were also "violent [men], . . . [men] of war"?

Now one can surely argue that their violence and warmaking -- even including the killing of innocent civilians, and not just as collateral damage but as a tool for creating terror (cf. the smiting of the first-born) -- was acceptable, because it was God's will, or because there were special circumstances that made it acceptable. But I take it that Muslims would say the same about Muhammad, no?

I have nothing against religious figures using religiously founded moral arguments, or even theological arguments, in debate about political issues. But this particular religious argument strikes me as highly unpersuasive; and I suspect that it will be unpersuasive to many deeply committed and theologically knowledgeable Christians as well as to secularists like me.

While I'd like to call myself a "deeply committed and theologically knowledgeable Christian," I know that wouldn't be accurate. I do have a mind for trivia and on that basis, I'll challenge what Eugene wrote.

Moses was violent -- it's recorded that he killed an Egyptian early in his life -- then went to live in exile for about 40 years (Moses' life, if I recall, breaks down into three periods of 40 -- the last was that wandering stuff -- better Realtor maybe?).

However, taking the Scriptures at face value, I believe this is the only person Moses killed. The rest of the time he was a messenger or agent of the Lord who did the killing or destruction. To be fair, you could objectively state that Moses was the one who turned the Nile into blood, killing the fish, and was responsible for the boils, among others (I'm not going to go through the whole list). Similarly, you could say that Aaron was responsible for the plague of the frogs or the gnats. But the flies seem to be the Lord's doing.

Ultimately, it is the slaughter of the first born that everyone remembers -- as that is the worst of the plagues. This one is the one that G-d clearly takes responsibility for:

So Moses said, "This is what the LORD says: 'About midnight I will go throughout Egypt. 5 Every firstborn son in Egypt will die, from the firstborn son of Pharaoh, who sits on the throne, to the firstborn son of the slave girl, who is at her hand mill, and all the firstborn of the cattle as well. (emphasis added)

In the description of the event it is clear that the Lord is responsible for the killing:

At midnight the LORD struck down all the firstborn in Egypt, from the firstborn of Pharaoh, who sat on the throne, to the firstborn of the prisoner, who was in the dungeon, and the firstborn of all the livestock as well. Pharaoh and all his officials and all the Egyptians got up during the night, and there was loud wailing in Egypt, for there was not a house without someone dead.

In sum, my point is that I don't think you can charge Moses with being a killer of the first born. But as I noted above, Moses was violent, and therefore, Falwell's reliance on him is misplaced.

Where I am in strong agreement with Eugene is when he writes "there lots of other figures in the Old Testament -- figures who are generally viewed quite positively -- who were also 'violent [men], . . . [men] of war'?" The best example is that little shepherd boy, David, about whom there was a popular song that went like this:

"Saul has slain his thousands,
and David his tens of thousands."

David is a guy who would be known as a man after God's own heart. There are better examples of peace in the Scriptures -- perhaps Daniel -- but Moses wasn't necessarily a killer in the David mold.

But maybe I'm just straining at a gnat or trying to remove a speck instead of my own log.

More. In the comments, Kaimi Wenger references the destruction of the 3,000 Israelites who were worshiping the golden calf Aaron had made, Exodus 32:26-28. Last night, that occurred to me, but I remembered it differently. I always thought the ground opened up and swallowed them all up. That must be another passage. This one is very brutal:

Moses saw that the people were running wild and that Aaron had let them get out of control and so become a laughingstock to their enemies. So he stood at the entrance to the camp and said, "Whoever is for the LORD, come to me." And all the Levites rallied to him. Then he said to them, "This is what the LORD , the God of Israel, says: 'Each man strap a sword to his side. Go back and forth through the camp from one end to the other, each killing his brother and friend and neighbor.' " The Levites did as Moses commanded, and that day about three thousand of the people died. (vv 25-29, emphasis added)

Drive My Car. Kevin's looking for the best driving song. Here's my list:

1. Radar Love -- Golden Earring
2. Hot Rod Lincoln -- Commander Cody et al.
3. Autobahn -- Kraftwerk
4. Fun, Fun, Fun -- Beach Boys
5. 60 to Zero (the full 19 minute version -- Neil Young
6. Whipping Post (Live version) -- Allman Brothers (if that isn't 'road-related' -- is that a requirement? -- then perhaps Ramblin' man)
7. Born to Run -- Bruce
8. Jungleland -- Bruce
9. Racing in the Street/Thunder Road (Live from NJ 1978) -- Bruce
10. Dead Man's Curve -- Jan and Dean
11. No Particular Place to Go -- Chuck Berry
12. Wipe Out -- Surfaris
13. Born to Be Wild -- Steppenwolf
14. My Bike -- Ghoti Hook (hey, it's my kids all time favorite driving song -- got to have something for the under-age -- something besides "the wheels on the bus" that is...)
15. Train Kept A Rollin' -- Aerosmith (yeah, but it's not about a train, either...)

Smartypants. Stuart Buck (the nerve of the guy taking a few days off to work at his job!) did leave an excellent article at TCS asking who's the smartest Supreme (I always favored Mary Wilson, but that's another story). Actually, it's more of a cautionary tale -- do we always want the smartest?

And who's to say who is the smartest? Lawrence Tribe is considered to be a pretty smart dude. But quite a few years back in a lengthy WaPo story he admitted that he changed majors when he realized that, although he was smart enough to do higher math (I mean really higher math -- like elliptic curves and modular forms), he would never be in the Andrew Wiles class. This way he could make more money. Smart move.

Meanwhile, Kaimi Wenger tries to backtrack from this off-hand comment:

I don't think Thomas has shown himself to be a particularly good Justice, and if Estrada turns out to be Thomas-like, I think a court would be the worse for it. Even most conservatives don't really like Thomas. (Sure, they tolerate him because he votes right, but don't tell me they wouldn't generally prefer an opinion from Scalia or Kennedy, or maybe Rehnquist.)

I can't disagree more. Thomas has been brilliant -- you may not agree with him -- but his opinions are very thought-provoking, consistent, and well-grounded. In some ways, he reminds me of a conservative John Paul Stevens -- both tend to take a different approach than a linear left-right approach. On the other hand, Kennedy lacks any form of consistency or brilliance. It is this which tends to make the charges that his clerks are the real intellect and not only the drafters of the opinions, but also the masters who cast the vote, not the puppet Kennedy (wasn't that implied in the Nation article?).

So who's the dumbest justice? Probably Kennedy, but that doesn't mean the guy's actually dumb, it's just the others have greater intellect. At least he's above the Charles Whittaker class of justice.

The late Bernard Schwartz writes that Whittaker used to leave the Supreme's conferences crying because Felix Frankfurter "used words in there that I'd never heard of." One time Frankfurter circulated a one page joke opinion in a pornography case. According to Schwartz (I think these are from his book Superchief) Whittaker sent a note advising FF that he was joining his per curiam.

Update. Right author, wrong book. My source for those stories was Inside the Warren Court by Schwartz with Stephan Lesher, 1983, at 137-8. This book is a shorter, more popular version of Superchief, both of which are excellent and worth tracking down, in my opinion.

Intersection. Last night, my daughter and I were discussing Frankenstein by Mary Shelley. At the same time my wife was reading an Aesop's fable to the little ones -- they wanted to know what a Satyr was. Then I picked up "The Transhumanists," the next article on my stack, written by Wesley J. Smith. Strange juxtaposition, huh?

Carnahan Gambit. It's really folly for the Dems to try to vitiate a state law to put a different candidate in place of the Torch. It seems to me the Governor should designate a replacement then the Torch and the replacement should campaign together. The Torch stays on the ballot, like the late Mel Carnahan did in Missouri, with the understanding that, if elected, he will step down and the governor will appoint the replacement. Of course, everyone understands that the real drawback is that the Torch wouldn't step aside if elected.

Update. Eugene Volokh likes this idea -- although he arrived at it separately from me.

Happy Birthday Chief. Today is William Hubbs Rehnquist's birthday. He and James Earl Carter were born on the same day in 1924.

For the record, and in order of seniority on the bench, the other Justices are Stevens (82), O'Connor (72), Scalia (66), Kennedy (66), Souter (63), Thomas (54), Ginsberg (69), and Breyer (65).

Back when Sandra Day O'Connor was first appointed there was a joke going around town:

All the Justices (Brennan, Marshall et al.) went out to dinner together and the waiter took Justice O'Connor's order: "I'll have the steak"
"How would you like it done?"
"Medium"
"And the vegtables?"
"They can order for themselves."

Day of Rest. On Friday there was this story about changes by the SoBaptists with respect to observing "the Lord's Day." I confess that this is the hardest commandment for me to observe, not insofar as worship goes -- I love going to church (although it is not as peaceful and reflective and refreshing as it was before children). My problem is with the injunction to refrain from work.

Last Sunday I spent the afternoon and evening doing work on my laptop -- that is work for my job -- while the TV was on so I could catch the games. Is that work? Earlier this year, I was talking with my Dad on the phone and mentioned that I needed to go mow the lawn. He said, "Aw, Will, on Sunday?" Is it work? I actually like mowing the lawn -- I sit around all day and this is refreshing to my body. But yes, it is work.

Here's an article on the subject that emphasizes the positive aspect of setting aside a day of rest:

We would do well to heed three millennia of Jewish reflection on the Sabbath commandment. Not good are work and commerce and worry. To act as if the world cannot get along without our work for one day in seven is a startling display of pride that denies the sufficiency of our generous Maker. To refrain from working—not every day, but one in seven—opens the temporal space within which glad and grateful relationship with God and peaceful and appreciative relationship with nature and other people can grow. Refraining from work on a regular basis should also teach us not to demand excessive work from others.

Sports. Right now, on the eve of October, all is right in the sports world, from a personal standpoint. My Raiders are undefeated, my A's have clinched the Western Division title and will be playing the Twins in the playoffs starting Tuesday. In college football, I follow Notre Dame and it looks like Ty Willingham has brought them back.

I like the A's chances of making it to the World Series -- but the Twins should not be underestimated -- neither should the Angels. In the senior circuit, it's hard to see anyone overcoming the D'backs dynamic duo. It's hard to believe the Rocket is still pitching -- I mean I saw him pitch to Bo Jax at Fenway back in 1986 -- several lifetimes ago.

Here's an interesting article about how the Raiders game could impact the ALDS.

Barring about 8 field goals from Jason Elam, my Blogger Bowl 2K3 team should finish the weekend undefeated. (This despite the fact that I benched Shaun Alexander -- in the first three weeks he netted me the grand total of 12 points -- the same as my TE Jeremy Shockey.)

Newsweek is young and blue. Time has a headache. Last week's Time cover story is still the better choice: Abraham the Patriarch.

Estrada 24/7. Much of this comes straight from Howard Bashman's incomparable appellate law blog. One of the most important pieces of testimony (not in a legal sense) comes from an e-mail from someone interviewed by the Estrada hit-squad looking for dirt. Please read this.

Law Professor Jeff Cooper would banish Miguel Estrada forwith, sua sponte, ipse dixit, post haste, hocus pocus. Kidding aside, it's a pretty argument for wanting to deny Estrada a seat on the bench. Usually law professors are a bit more erudite -- perhaps it's an off day for him -- he must've been flumoxed by a blonde 1L today and is in a bit of a mental funk. In any event, you need to get out of your coop a bit more, Jeff.

Last, I love Stuart Buck's suggested next Judicial nominee. What a great hearing that would make. I could never be a nominee for anything facing this committee -- It would take me all of, oh about 10 minutes before I was doing a Sam Kinison"Well at least I didn't have to CHEAT in law school you @*$%# moron. I never got DRUNK and KILLED anyone..." etc.

No, they're not all bad -- Senator Feinstein, although having a one-track mind on abortion, would probably be a fine judge -- and, well, there must be someone else on the Democratic side of the aisle who's also temperate and judicious. I just can't think of anyone else.

Hearing Update. Based on the tone of the questions so far, I'd guess that the Leahy gang has decided to tie the knot on this one. The tone of the questioning is markedly different than that of the McConnell hearing -- the committee resumes at 2:00.

I heard the questioning from Schumer, Leahy, Kennedy, and Feinstein and snatches of Kohl (I think). Schumer and Kennedy dwelt on the request for the committee for all attorney work product from the Soliciter General's office. This request has been opposed by every living former Soliciter General going back to Archie Cox under Kennedy. Frankly, this request is really unheard of and I'm surprised to see them pushing it so intently. Listening to the two of them yammer on I could see that this was nothing more than laying a pretextual foundation for rejecting Estrada.

Leahy has focused on Estrada's background, trying to say that he's wealthy, elitest, and speaks English well. Bizarre. Sen. Feinstein (D-Planned Parenthood) spent her period of questioning to extract pledges of fealty to the Most Holy Sacrament of Abortion on Demand. Kohl and Feinstein also spent a little time on the Lopez case -- striking down a federal law as being outside the commerce clause.

Feinstein and another Senator (don't recall) also raised a curious report as to whether Estrada dissuaded a person from seeking to clerk for Justice Kennedy because that person was "too liberal." Estrada denied this. In her questioning, Feinstein identified the source of this claim as coming from the Nation magazine and read the first paragraph aloud:

Perhaps the most damaging evidence against Estrada comes from two lawyers he interviewed for Supreme Court clerkships. Both were unwilling to be identified by name for fear of reprisals. The first told me: "Since I knew Miguel, I went to him to help me get a Supreme Court clerkship. I knew he was screening candidates for Justice Kennedy. Miguel told me, 'No way. You're way too liberal.' I felt he was definitely submitting me to an ideological litmus test, and I am a moderate Democrat. When I asked him why I was being ruled out without even an interview, Miguel told me his job was to prevent liberal clerks from being hired. He told me he was screening out liberals because a liberal clerk had influenced Justice Kennedy to side with the majority and write a pro-gay-rights decision in a case known as Romer v. Evans, which struck down a Colorado statute that discriminated against gays and lesbians."

I also interviewed a young law professor and former Justice Department attorney who told me a very similar story. "I was a clerk for an appeals court judge," the professor told me, "and my judge called Justice Kennedy recommending me for a clerkship with him. Justice Kennedy then called me and said I had made the first cut and would soon be called for an interview. I was then interviewed by Miguel Estrada and another lawyer. Estrada asked most of the questions. He asked me a lot of unfair, ideological questions, a lot about the death penalty, which I told him I thought was immoral. I felt I was being subjected to an ideological litmus test. Estrada was being obnoxious. He was acting like it was his job to weed out liberal influences on Justice Kennedy. I was never called back by anyone."

[BTW, the author of this article is Jack Newfield and this passage may be found here.] It should be surprising that two Democratic senators would rely on rank hearsay to smear a nominee -- but the rules have changed, haven't they?

The other interesting moment was when Estrada explained his meeting with three representatives from the PRLDEF -- he indicated that one was trying to get him to commit to prejudging cases in a way that s/he favored -- when Estrada failed to do so this individual said that they decided who was Hispanic enough and that he didn't meet the criteria -- something to which Estrada took offense at and told this person so.

Afternoon Update The hearing started a little late -- Estrada started the session by seeking to clarify his response on the question raised by the Nation article set forth above. It was pretty clear that Schumer and Estrada weren't communicating very clearly -- Estrada was seeking to clarify and Schumer was getting angry with him and has indicated he will come back to this matter on the second round for questioning.

Finally, Senator Hatch is raising the sane suggestion that Estrada be allowed to confront his accuser. Schumer is way out of line on this -- It's interesting that he and his cronies have been raising the issue of fairness of process and intimating that Estrada will not be fair, but yet they are unable to adhere to the basic priniciples of being allowed to confront his accuser. Schumer should be ashamed of running a "Star Chamber" proceeding -- the reference was raised just now by Hatch.

Hearing today. Later this morning, will start the hearings on a slate of Judicial candidates including Miguel Estrada (finally). This will be broadcast over the internet here.

Sports West. Down to the wire, the Jints are gaining on the D'backs and may actually overtake them for the lead. The A's may back into the AL West Division Title, if the Angels keep losing-- and the M's may be the Wild Card. I love Baseball.

Sports Report. The Rams, Jets, and Steelers, all play-off teams last year, are a combined 1-7, having been outscored 129-240. San Diego, Carolina and NO are 6-0, having outscored their opponents 233-115. The top ranked quarterback in the NFL is sitting on the Browns bench (Kelly Holcomb 111) (and is available in the blogger bowl waiver pool -- I cut him yesterday).

The A's magic number is 4.

And very sad news -- Pittsburgh Steelers Center Mike Webster passed away at age 50.

Pass This. It's time to pass the Sudan Peace Act -- sponsored by (from left to right) Sens. Harkin, Feingold, Lincoln, Cleland, Lieberman, Collins, Bunning, DeWine, Grassley, Brownback, Santorum, Sessions, among others. In the House by Sheila Jackson-Lee, Pelosi, Lantos to Armey, Wolf, Chris Smith and J.C. Watts.