"Fed Sock". That's how those who work for the nefarious Federalist Society refer to their organizations. I'd hoped to go to the convention in town this week -- but work calls.

Of course, this is an extremist group of right-wing attorneys who routinely get together and sing of the glories of the Fatherland and plot how to bring down the government of the people. We won't be satisfied until every male is armed, every female is pregnant, and Corporations can operate with child labor to dump toxic chemicals in the streams and lakes of America.

Actually, no.

I joined nearly two decades ago as a person who favored the repeal of the 2nd Amendment and supported most of the so-called leftist agenda, just because it was a place where one could discuss and debate a wide cross-section of ideas, one of which was Roe v. Wade. If anyone questioned certain orthodoxy in the groups on the left from a perspective that was not on the left, that person was immediately suspect. So I kept quiet about Roe. But I also had concerns about affirmative action and welfare -- and just raising these questions immediately made you out to be anti-poor or racist. Nevermind, for example, that my problem with affirmative action was caused by an African-American client who was seeking access to public housing. Because of his race, he was put on a waiting list and told it would be about 2 years before a space opened up. At that time -- the early 1980's -- a white family would only have to wait at most three months for a space. The reason? The public housing project had to be racially mixed. I had similar doubts about welfare when I began meeting clients who were third (going on fourth --their kids) generation welfare. Ulitmately, I sided with Daniel Patrick Moynihan opposed to welfare reform and am thankful that I was wrong.

My point is that, yes, FedSoc is a conservative legal organization. Yet it is one that allows and nutures the free exchange of ideas and is a lot more welcoming of liberals than liberal organizations are of conservatives. One small example, the faculty advisor of the FedSoc chapter at American U is Jamin Raskin, former counsel to Ralph Nader. Would a chapter of the NLG choose a Lino Graglia to head their organization?

See here for Eugene Volokh's defense of the Fed.Soc.

No secret handshakes -- no payments from Israel or South Africa or the Weathy Industrialists -- no midnight rituals.

Programming Note. I may be tied up for a week or two -- I'll try to post the Power Rankings next week -- but that might be it for awhile.

The Other Poindexter. John Poindexter has been in the news, again. Yet, I believe if you really want to know about this guy, you have to know about his wife, Linda, a woman who entered the ministry in the Episcopal Church. And then gave it all up to become a Roman Catholic.

Daughter of Blithering Idiot. My daughter, age 13, took this quiz and wants everyone to know she's definitely TJ. Just with better fashion sense:

Which Founding Father Are You?

She's also Washington, D.C. for the quiz below.

Seattle?


Congratulations, you're Seattle, the Emerald City.
What US city are you? Take the quiz by Girlwithagun.

Tucks and other controversial plays. It's been building up for, oh, I don't know how long...

I saw a replay of the "tuck" fumble during last week's game.

Then another.

And another during MNF.

Of course, ESPN is reliving this and other controversial rulings, in part, because it's their game of the week. The worst ruling, in my mind is still the US-USSR basketball re-re-replay. The one that haunts me, however, is the immaculate deception. Once I got a pristine videotape from NFL films of that play and ran it fram by frame and I swear you could see the ball bounce [as in off the turf] before Franco Harris' hands grasp the ball. Of course, it's out of the frame. I'd love to see the original film of this -- like the Zapruder film, if you look "beneath" the sprocket track, I'm convinced you'll find the missing evidence. The ball bouncing off the grassy knoll.

In the meantime, here's what Eric Allen had to say about the play and here's a column about it's impact on the current Raiders.

More Effective Commentary. According to the National Council of Churches (motto: "...communions of faith joining hands and voices to express the love of Christ and the hate of Republicans") the "hateful and destructive" Jerry Falwell is responsible for the death of Christians in Muslim countries. This, according to "the governing body of the NCC, whose 36 member denominations comprise 50 million adherents."

Jerry Falwell "put[s] at increased risk the lives of thousands of Christian missionaries and humanitarian aid workers, as well as their Christian partners abroad who are engaged in heroic efforts to be peacemakers and bridge-builders in difficult and dangerous circumstances." Moreover, he "create[s] ideal conditions for breeding terrorism among those who may not understand that he does not represent the majority of Christians or Americans."

They sure sound a lot like the Iraqi Foreign Ministry, below, don't they?

Effective Business Correspondence. Ya gotta love a letter that has this as it's opening sentence:

You may recall the huge clamour fabricated by the President of the United States administration, in the biggest and most wicked slander against Iraq, supported in malicious intent, and spearheaded in word and malevolence, by his lackey Tony Blair, when they disseminated the claim that Iraq had perhaps produced, or was on its way to produce, nuclear weapons, during the time when the United Nations inspectors had been absent from Iraq since 1998.

Pithy, Polite, Persuasive.

Cumulative Power Ratings. The Pack is back! For the first time, we have a consensus number one pick and it's the Green Bay Packers. Here's the average of the main media power rankings (or indexes) into one cumulative list:

	No.	Team	Cu.	Hi	Lo
	1	Packers	1	1	1
	2	49ers	2.75	2	4
	3	Saints	3.88	2	11
	4	Bucs	5	2	9
	5	Broncos	5.38	3	9
	6	Eagles	6.38	2	8
	7	Steelers	6.5	4	10
	8	Falcons	8.25	5	10
	9	Patriots	9.38	5	12
	10	Chargers	9.88	7	16
	11	Raiders	10.5	5	15
	12	Rams	12.88	8	17
	13	Dolphins	13.88	8	19
	14	Bills	14.25	11	21
	15	Chiefs	15	10	19
	16	Colts	16.38	14	22
	17	Titans	16.75	11	23
	18	Giants	17.14	15	21
	19	Jets	18.38	14	22
	20	Ravens	19.88	17	22
	21	Jaguars	20.13	14	24
	22	Browns	20.63	18	23
	23	Redskins	22.25	19	23
	24	Cardinals	24.63	20	28
	25	Panthers	25.25	24	28
	26__	Seahawks____	25.38__	24__	27__
	27	Lions	27.38	26	30
	28	Cowboys	27.88	26	30
	29	Bears	28.25	25	30
	30	Vikings	29.38	27	30
	31	Bengals	31.25	31	32
	32	Texans	31.75	31	32

Sources: ESPN, TSN, War Room, Sagarin (USA Today), CBS, AP, CNNSI, and Sports Central.

Randy Barnett. There are a few notes here and there -- the Professor, most noteably -- mentioning Randy Barnett as an ideal candidate for the Supreme Court.

I should write more about this -- these are some preliminary thoughts. Randy Barnett (like Roger Pilon) begin their theory of Constitutional Interpretation based on the limits of enumerated rights. Personally, I find this appealing and persuasive. However, this is not where the Court is now, either on the "right" or the "left." Therefore, to nominate a Barnett or Pilon could burn up a tremendous amount of political capital.

For example, with Barnett he has theory of unenumerated rights is that there is a general presumption of liberty that places the burden on the federal government to show that its regulatory activity is consistent with the the Constitution:

At the national level, the government would bear the burden of showing that its acts were both ‘necessary and proper’ to accomplish an enumerated function, rather than, as now, forcing the citizen to prove why it is he or she should be left alone. At the state level, the burden would fall upon state government to show that legislation infringing the liberty of its citizens was a necessary exercise of its ‘police power’ – that is, the state's power to protect the rights of its citizens.

--Randy E. Barnett, A Ninth Amendment for Today's Constitution, 26 VAL. U. L. REV. 419 at 426. (1991) .

Oh, what the heck, I'll have to come back to this.

He is evil. I used to be a liberal -- I was proud of it. I can not get over, however, how the left deludes itself and twists the language to support its own agenda. Ben Domenech had a brief syllogism that included the phrase "Bill Moyers is evil." Yeah, right, I thought, how is he going to prove this. So I clicked on the link and found Pope Moyers writing

It includes using the taxing power to transfer wealth from working people to the rich.

It includes giving corporations a free hand to eviscerate the environment and control the regulatory agencies meant to hold them accountable.

Wha...?

Transferring wealth? -- umm, Bill look, I'm opposed to regressive taxation and corporate welfare -- those are values that I didn't lose when I left your brand of liberalism, but it's the statists like you that favor giving government control over private wealth and spending decisons. Eviscerating the environment? When did you get a Michael Moore sized lobotomy?

Of course your main concern was the first one on your list:

That mandate includes the power of the state to force pregnant women to give up control over their own lives.

Try this on for size: The power of the state to force business owners to give up control of their businesses to protect a fictious protected animal?

Why, Saint Bill, do you believe the state has the power to seize money and property from private individuals, but is powerless to intervene when a defenseless voiceless person's life is at state?

Ben's right -- Bill Moyers is evil.

Victory. Last night's win by my Raiders was sweet. Jerry Rice is, without a doubt, the greatest wide-out to ever play the game. Rod Woodson keeps surprising me as well -- his interception and return was definately the turning point in the game. And what can you say about Rich Gannon and the O-line? Magnificent.

IMHO, Referee Mike Carey is the best in the business today -- there were only two officiating problems: (1) Shannon Sharpe caught the ball that they ruled was a dropped pass, although this may be one of those instances, like the Tuck rule, where they had to rule the way they did. (2) That whole foul-up with the clock on the Raiders first possession of the second half -- the officials were too slow to spot the ball after a measurement, then they reset the clock for five seconds instead of 25 and neglected to tell Gannon.

Next up, New England (speaking of the tuck rule).

Oh yeah, (update), I forgot about the ruling on the sideline pass that cost Gannon the record of thirty straight completions to open the game. This was a pretty minor play in the context of things, although much later in the game the MNF crew showed that the sideline pass, which had been caught and ruled out-of-bounds, was a good, i.e., valid, catch -- it was in bounds. You know when they go back during the week and review film, the NFL will make corrections to statistics related to yards rushing and so on. I wonder if they would make a change on this -- it doesn't affect the outcome of the game, but it does alter the record book. I think that, after further review, they determine this was a valid catch, they should put it in the books as 30 straight completions. Either that, or they should stop using the film to alter game statistics. (Although, I acknowledge there is a qualitative difference between yards rushing and number of completions.)

What if someone steals your thumb? I really love the Atlantic magazine -- it's one of the few I subscribe to. The September issue had an article with a number of wonderful sidebars on security. One section dealt with the current facination with biometrics:

Biometrics—"the only way to prevent identity fraud," according to the former senator Alan K. Simpson, of Wyoming—identifies people by precisely measuring their physical characteristics and matching them up against a database. The photographs on driver's licenses are an early example, but engineers have developed many high-tech alternatives, some of them already mentioned: fingerprint readers, voiceprint recorders, retina or iris scanners, face-recognition devices, hand-geometry assayers, even signature-geometry analyzers, which register pen pressure and writing speed as well as the appearance of a signature.

* * *

Smart cards that store non-biometric data have been routinely cracked in the past, often with inexpensive oscilloscope-like devices that detect and interpret the timing and power fluctuations as the chip operates. An even cheaper method, announced in May by two Cambridge security researchers, requires only a bright light, a standard microscope, and duct tape. Biometric ID cards are equally vulnerable. Indeed, as a recent National Research Council study points out, the extra security supposedly provided by biometric ID cards will raise the economic incentive to counterfeit or steal them, with potentially disastrous consequences to the victims. "Okay, somebody steals your thumbprint," Schneier says. "Because we've centralized all the functions, the thief can tap your credit, open your medical records, start your car, any number of things. Now what do you do? With a credit card, the bank can issue you a new card with a new number. But this is your thumb—you can't get a new one."

I heartily recommend the full article and the sidebars. (Oh, what the heck I'll put in this long quote from one of the sidebars:

Surprise, when it happens to a government, is likely to be a complicated, diffuse, bureaucratic thing ... It includes gaps in intelligence, but also intelligence that, like a string of pearls too precious to wear, is too sensitive to give to those who need it. It includes the alarm that fails to work, but also the alarm that has gone off so often it has been disconnected. It includes the unalert watchman, but also the one who knows he'll be chewed out by his superior if he gets higher authority out of bed. It includes the contingencies that occur to no one, but also those that everyone assumes somebody else is taking care of. It includes straightforward procrastination, but also decisions protracted by internal disagreement. It includes, in addition, the inability of individual human beings to rise to the occasion until they are sure it is the occasion—which is usually too late. (Unlike movies, real life provides no musical background to tip us off to the climax.) Finally, as at Pearl Harbor, surprise may include some measure of genuine novelty introduced by the enemy, and possibly some sheer bad luck.)

Like I said, read the whole thing.

War Plans? My wife said she heard that the NY Times published a leaked copy of the Iraq War Plans in today's paper. When I checked on-line I didn't see anything about this. Does anyone know anything about this. I also skimmed Instapundit and didn't see anything. Let me go check the Judds or Kevin or one of the other blogs.

Update. Not even Sgt. Stryker has anything about it. Maybe there was nothing.

More. Here it is.

Cover Watch. Newsweek magazine wins hands down. In fact this cover is so cool, I'm planning on going to the newsstand just to buy a copy for the cover. Time has something similar, but the Time cover seems sort of smirky. The Time caption is "How they aced their midterms."

Curiously, and I know I don't normally throw U.S News and World Report into the mix, however it has a cover story on Menopause -- very surprising to go so soft against the backdrop of such a major news story.

Clarification. Howard Bashman has this succinct note up correcting two mistakes in a NOW press release:

The article quotes the president of the National Organization for Women as saying, "Roe v. Wade hangs by a single vote. Tipping the balance of the Supreme Court with one more extremist justice would ensure the loss of abortion rights for generations." That quotation contains two serious errors by my count. First, the vote on today's U.S. Supreme Court to uphold Roe v. Wade is 6-3, not 5-4. (When Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg replaced Justice Byron R. White on the Court, the vote to uphold Roe increased from 5-4 to 6-3.) Second, if Roe v. Wade were overruled by the U.S. Supreme Court -- a prospect that is not especially likely -- abortion would not thereupon become illegal throughout the United States. Rather, each State would then be entitled to enact laws regulating the availability of abortion, or not, as it saw fit.

The second point is one I tried making below. Please see also, Orrin Judd's comments in response to that post.

Idiots of the World, Untie! I was disappointed that Amendment 2 to the New Mexico Constitution did not pass. This would have removed the language from the state constitution prohibiting idiots from voting. Of course, this just makes me all the more happy to live in Virginia where we not only have an idiot for Senator, but for Governor as well.

BTW, I have to say that the NM Secretary of State, Rebecca Vigil-Giron, is the most atypically beautiful SOS I have ever come across.

Cumulative Power Ratings. Continuing my attempt at combining the main media power rankings from these site: ESPN, CNNSI, TSN, War Room, Sports Central, Sagarin (USA Today), CBS, and AP indexes or ratings into one cumulative list. It's interesting to me to see the clusters you get from this. Also, if I were to really play with this, I'd include standard deviations -- the AP list is the most divergent -- in the meantime, I'm including team highs and lows from the different lists.

	No.	Team	Cu.	Hi	Lo
	1	Packers	1.38	1	3
	2	Broncos	2.5	1	5
	3	Eagles	3.5	1	6
	4	49ers	4.5	4	6
	5	Saints	4.88	3	11
	6	Bucs	5.88	2	8
	7	Steelers	8	6	10
	8	Chargers	8.38	5	15
	9	Falcons	10	9	11
	10	Patriots	10.13	5	14
	11	Dolphins	10.63	7	16
	12	Chiefs	12.38	7	17
	13	Raiders	13.13	9	16
	14	Bills	13.25	10	18
	15	Rams	13.88	7	19
	16	Titans	17.13	12	24
	17	Giants	17.5	14	23
	18	Redskins	18.5	15	22
	19	Colts	19.38	16	24
	20	Browns	19.63	17	22
	21	Ravens	20.13	16	24
	22	Cardinals	21.38	17	30
	23	Jets	22.5	16	27
	24	Jaguars	23.63	21	26
	25	Panthers	25.25	23	29
	26	Lions	25.5	22	27
	27	Cowboys	26.88	25	29
	28	Bears	28	25	30
	29	Seahawks....	28	26	30
	30	Vikings	29.13_	28	30
	31	Texans	31.13	31	32
	32..	Bengals	31.88	31__	32__

[A Thousand Thank Yous to Mark Byron for the tablesizer macro.]

Natch! (Actually, I was hoping for James Madison.)

Which Founding Father Are You?

Good bye Dick.
Ben D has a short note up about Dick Gephardt stepping down as Minority Leader. Like Ben, I lack a visceral hatred of Dick -- I think it's because he is an effective representative of the loyal opposition. He fleshes out that concept, like a Henry Hyde does for the Republicans. He can be partisan and infuriating -- but when push comes to shove, he'll try to make a policy work, even if he hasn't supported it. This is opposed to Tom Daschle, who is clearly Eddie Haskell's evil twin.

I'm not sure whether Dick was very effective as minority leader -- he didn't gum things up as much as Daschle did -- but I think he would've been effective as Speaker of the House. On the other hand, Daschle is more effective being in a sniping minority leader type position.

Update. Martin Frost is talking about running. I was very impressed with him in the Iraq debates. Moreover, he's right to be "very uneasy about the party moving sharply to the left" under Nancy Pelosi, which would guarantee the Democrats becoming a "permanent minority party."

Good-bye Roe? One theme I'm seeing and hearing in the comments of those whining about the Democrats losses yesterday is "Say good bye Roe v Wade. . . . Now, let the bloodletting begin." (expressed by Paul A'Barge here).

Lay aside the unintended irony that an end to abortion on demand = bloodletting. Lay aside the fact that the GOP tend to back navel-gazing judges like Souter and Kennedy ("At the heart of liberty is the right to define one's own concept of existence, of meaning, of the universe, and of the mystery of human life." Planned Parenthood of Southeastern Pa. v. Casey (91-744), 505 U.S. 833 (1992)). Lay aside the impact that stare decisis will have on the Court. Let's imagine what would happen if Roe were over-ruled.

I know, the next day old men who look like Jesse Helms and William Rehnquist will be roaming the streets looking for women to force them to bear children. Robert Bork will be lurking around alleys with coat-hangers stuffed inside his coat. Of course, it won't be long before a woman will have to make the daily walk to markets with picture signs because women are no longer allowed to read. It won't be long before the monthy ritual of praying that the Commander will make her pregnant.

Really?

No. At worst, if you believe in the unfettered access to abortion on demand is that now politicians will actually have to take a stand. If they say they are opposed to abortion, they will have to come up with a plan to curtail, regulate, or ban it -- in their jurisdiction only. This last element -- that it will be a local or statewide ban is something pro-abortion conservatives or constitutionalists will be insisting on -- asking, as they have for so many other issues -- where does the Constitution give Congress the power to regulate abortion? And the Rehnquist conservatives on the Court, if they are consistent, will follow the line of cases they've cautiously began establishing and strike down Congressional restrictions. (That is, if Congress were to get a majority in both Houses to proceed with a regulation, something I'm dubious of).

So what does that mean? It means some states, perhaps Louisiana and Utah, will sharply curtail abortion. Some others may end third term abortions and place limits on second term abortion -- in other words, it will be pretty much like the legal limits employed by France in those states. In the other states -- including New York and California, the most liberal (meaning non-existent) abortion laws in the world will go unchanged.

What it would mean is that the fiction that the U.S. Constitution guarantees the right to an abortion will itself be extinguished.

Votes Count. In South Dakota, they are now reporting all 844 precincts in and the margin of victory for Johnson is 528 votes -- less than one voter per precinct.

I don't know if this includes the absentee ballots. Oh, and the Libertarians gave their 3,071 to Kurt Evans.


______________________ TOTAL _ PERCENT _ PRECINCTS ___ TOTAL
_______________________VOTES _ OF VOTE _ REPORTING _ PRECINCTS

U S SENATE
(L) EVANS KURT _______ 3071 _____ 1 _______844 ____ 844
(D) JOHNSON TIM _____167477 ____ 50 ______ 844 ____ 844
(R) THUNE JOHN ______166949 ____ 49 _______844 ____ 844

Out of Ashes. It looks like Connie Morella is going to lose her House seat. If I were a Democrat, I don't know that this is necessarily good news -- she could go after Barbara Mikulski's seat in the Senate in 2004. That would be interesting...

We Did It!!!! I'm feeling very celebratory -- we beat the tax increase. And my prediction about Sununu losing is off the mark. It looks like the Leahy Lynch mob is out of business.

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.