Don't try to buy cigarettes on Bourbon Street

If you're a drug-dealing gang-banger who counters stiff price competition by emptying a Glock 9 into your rival vendor's head, you're sitting pretty in New Orleans. On the odd chance the city's Keystone Rambos catch you, everybody knows that District Attorney Eddie Jordan can't make the charges stick.

Likewise, if you're one of New Orleans' (ahem) "finest," you can beat the snot out of whomever you want, for whatever reason you want -- or no reason if you want -- and reasonably expect that no judge there will convict you. Oh, sure, you might get canned if the press raises enough of a stink and makes the city enough of a laughingstock around the globe. But that won't keep you from a reasonably lucrative second career as, say, security at a Crescent City strip club.

And think of the fringe benefits -- wink, wink, nudge, nudge. Know what I mean? Say no more!

But if you're an African-American retired schoolteacher, do not -- I repeat, DO NOT -- venture onto Bourbon Street in search of smokes. You are one dangerous @#+^@*!&#%#*, and the cops can legally kick your ass.

As we read in Tuesday's Times-Picayune, it's an established legal precedent:

A police officer fired from the New Orleans Police Department for the post-Katrina beating of a retired school teacher was cleared of criminal wrongdoing on Tuesday, declared "not guilty" of battery and false imprisonment by Judge Frank Marullo.

The incident on Bourbon Street five weeks after the storm received international attention, as parts of the altercation between several law enforcement officers and Robert Davis, 66, was captured by two cameramen and broadcast around the world. The tape was often referred to as the prime exhibit of the post-Katrina struggles of a police department with a long history of police brutality.

But both the defense and prosecutors said the tapes bolstered their cases.

Marullo sided with the defense, saying that instead of the brutal beating decried by prosecutors, the video showed that Davis was resisting the officers' attempts to handcuff him. Robert Evangelist, who graduated from the NOPD training academy in October 2003, didn't use excessive force, the judge concluded after Evangelist had opted not to have a jury trial.

"I don't even find it was a close call. I saw five minutes of struggling to put on the cuffs," Marullo said, of the scenes in the video that shows Davis pushed against a wall with two officers behind him and, then, on the ground grappling with four police officers, each trying to grab a different part of his body. Two of those officers turned out to be FBI agents who were helping patrol the streets of New Orleans in the weeks after Hurricane Katrina.

Davis, who was 64 years old on Oct. 8, 2005, testified that he was staying at a downtown hotel with his family after the storm and often took walks after dinner. That night, around 8 p.m., he wandered onto Bourbon Street in search of cigarettes, he testified. Confused about the time of the city's curfew, Davis said he asked a mounted police officer what time people were expected to get off the streets.

Instead of being answered by that officer, Davis was approached by Evangelist, who was on a foot patrol on Bourbon Street. Davis said Evangelist and another officer walked between him and the officer on the horse. He recalled saying outloud that the two officers were "ignorant, unprofessional and rude."

After he walked away, Davis said he recalled someone run up behind him, throw him against a wall and punch him. At that point, the officer behind Davis called him a racial slur, he said, adding, "You know I can kick your ass."

Evangelist, 37, who took the stand in his own defense, had a different recollection, denying the racial slur and saying Davis called him a swearword. Evangelist said shrugged off the insult, but thought Davis appeared intoxicated and in need of some assistance. He said the man had "bumped into" the back of a mounted police horse.

At that point, Evangelist said he put his hands on Davis to guide him out of the street and onto a sidewalk, so they could talk. Evangelist recalled that Davis elbowed him in the chest, became belligerent and would not submit to being "patted down." Davis pushed himself away from the wall he was facing and Evangelist recalled pushing back.

"He was strong," the former officer testified.

At that point, Evangelist and another officer, Lance Schilling, were trying to handcuff Davis. Schilling, who committed suicide last month, had also been charged by District Attorney Eddie Jordan's office for the beating.

Under cross examination by Assistant District Attorney Cate Bartholomew, Evangelist said one of the most memorable sequences in the videotape was Schilling striking Davis several times in the back of the neck to get him to submit to handcuffing.

Evangelist also admitted to "striking" Davis twice on the right elbow with an expandable baton and, when the retired teacher was on the ground, attempting to strike him on the right shoulder and also kicking him on the shoulder. All of these actions were taken to handcuff Davis, he said.

Two defense experts testified that the amount of force used by Evangelist was within reasonable bounds.

"My belief in watching the video is the officer had sufficient cause to escalate more quickly than he did," said Major Kerry Najolia, the director of the Jefferson Parish sheriff's training academy, who testified on behalf of the defendant. "Officers Evangelist and Schilling used a tremendous amount of restraint."

During her closing arguments, Bartholomew pointed to the severity of Davis' injuries, captured on the videotape in the pool of blood surrounding the man. An Oschner doctor testified he suffered a broken nose, as well as another broken face bone, and required multiple stitches to close lacerations on his face.

Two eyewitnesses called by the prosecution said they recalled the police officers repeatedly punching Davis in the body and face. Michael Monaghan said that as he and a friend were walking down Bourbon Street, they came upon officers beating a man. He described seeing Davis "knocked to the ground," and then multiple officers trying to get a hold of various parts of the man. One of the law enforcement officers kicked the back of Davis' head, said Monaghan, of Florida.

Debbie Clyne of Vancouver, British Columbia, who was in town working with non-profit organizations, said that when Davis was up against the wall she saw several officers punching him repeatedly. "I went up to them and yelled at them to stop," she said.

Defense attorney Franz Zibilich questioned the veracity of these witnesses, saying the things they described were not on the videotape.

"This video screams and hollers two words: those words are not guilty," Zibilich said in his closing argument.

But Bartholomew argued in her closing that what the video showed was Evangelist trying to unlawfully detain Davis with handcuffs. This amounted to false imprisonment, the prosecutor said. The beatings that Evangelist incurred were sufficient to merit a guilty verdict for second-degree battery, she added.

Bartholomew also acknowledged that the case is a politically loaded one, saying that whatever Marullo decides will be criticized. "If you find him guilty, it will signal the NOPD is corrupt. If you find him not guilty, it supports the public's contention that the NOPD can get away with anything," she said. "I ask for a fair and just verdict in this case."

REMEMBER, forewarned is forearmed in a time when New Orleans can't govern itself according to First World standards, and when that doesn't particularly trouble your national government.

Hey, let's be careful out there.

Stupid is as stupid never learns

Funny I should stumble on a post on the Boar's Head Tavern blog, praising the praise the executive director of Mars Hill Audio gave to the excellent commencement address National Endowment for the Arts chief Dana Gioia gave to new Stanford graduates on a subject Mrs. Favog and I were discussing just the other night.

(Pausing to catch my breath after that lede.)

Anyway, I was telling my lovely and patient wife that despite growing up pretty much white trash in the 1960s and '70s, I had gotten a vastly superior cultural foundation than kids today are getting. One vastly superior to even those Millennials who have lots more money than I had, much better schools than I had, lots brighter parents than I had and stunningly more advanced knowledge resources than any of us back then could have dreamed of.

For example, by the time I hit high school, I was pretty well familiar with large swaths of the popular culture of my parents' generation and before. I could tell you about Jack Benny, Fred Allen, Fibber McGee and Molly, Edgar Bergen and Charlie McCarthy, Walter Winchell and The Shadow.

"Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men? The Shadow knows!"

I had heard of -- and even seen -- luminaries like Leonard Bernstein, Beverly Sills and Vladimir Horowitz.

Today, you're shooting craps if you expect a 14-year-old to know who someone as seemingly culturally ubiquitous as Bruce Springsteen is. I know this. I have mentioned Springsteen to a room of teens and gotten blank stares.

I also had, by the time I was in high school, learned to love -- gasp! -- my parents' music: Glenn Miller, Benny Goodman, the Dorseys (brothers Tommy and Jimmy). Never did acquire my folks' taste for Lawrence Welk or Guy Lombardo, but I couldn't escape Welk's TV show every week . . . no matter how desperately my adolescent self desired to say "Adios, au revoir, auf wiedersehen . . . good night!"

AND PERHAPS that was the key. Couldn't escape. There were three networks, and much of what was on was a smorgasbord -- a little something for everyone. My parents knew enough about "my music" to hate it.

I knew enough about their music to eventually figure out it didn't all suck.

Actually, I figured that out pretty early on; I literally grew up playing my folks' old 78 RPM records. Their 45s, too. From about age four on, I was playing Hank Williams and Red Foley. Louis Jordan and Jerry Lee Lewis. Jim Reeves and Tennessee Ernie Ford.

And The King, Elvis Presley. My mother, a good 12 years' Elvis' senior, was gaga for the guy.

My generation's cultural formation wasn't all due to limited choices, however. Partly it was due to fame being based on talent or newsworthiness, as opposed to mere notoriety. As in notorious.

Dana Gioia, the NEA chairman, expanded on this point at Stanford:

I don't think that Americans were smarter then, but American culture was. Even the mass media placed a greater emphasis on presenting a broad range of human achievement.

I grew up mostly among immigrants, many of whom never learned to speak English. But at night watching TV variety programs like the Ed Sullivan Show or the Perry Como Music Hall, I saw—along with comedians, popular singers, and movie stars—classical musicians like Jascha Heifetz and Arthur Rubinstein, opera singers like Robert Merrill and Anna Moffo, and jazz greats like Duke Ellington and Louis Armstrong captivate an audience of millions with their art.

The same was even true of literature. I first encountered Robert Frost, John Steinbeck, Lillian Hellman, and James Baldwin on general interest TV shows. All of these people were famous to the average American—because the culture considered them important.

Today no working-class or immigrant kid would encounter that range of arts and ideas in the popular culture. Almost everything in our national culture, even the news, has been reduced to entertainment, or altogether eliminated.

The loss of recognition for artists, thinkers, and scientists has impoverished our culture in innumerable ways, but let me mention one. When virtually all of a culture's celebrated figures are in sports or entertainment, how few possible role models we offer the young.

There are so many other ways to lead a successful and meaningful life that are not denominated by money or fame. Adult life begins in a child's imagination, and we've relinquished that imagination to the marketplace.

Of course, I'm not forgetting that politicians can also be famous, but it is interesting how our political process grows more like the entertainment industry each year. When a successful guest appearance on the Colbert Report becomes more important than passing legislation, democracy gets scary. No wonder Hollywood considers politics "show business for ugly people."

Everything now is entertainment. And the purpose of this omnipresent commercial entertainment is to sell us something. American culture has mostly become one vast infomercial.

I have a recurring nightmare. I am in Rome visiting the Sistine Chapel. I look up at Michelangelo's incomparable fresco of the "Creation of Man." I see God stretching out his arm to touch the reclining Adam's finger. And then I notice in the other hand Adam is holding a Diet Pepsi.

When was the last time you have seen a featured guest on David Letterman or Jay Leno who isn't trying to sell you something? A new movie, a new TV show, a new book, or a new vote?

Don't get me wrong. I love entertainment, and I love the free market. I have a Stanford MBA and spent 15 years in the food industry. I adore my big-screen TV. The productivity and efficiency of the free market is beyond dispute. It has created a society of unprecedented prosperity.

But we must remember that the marketplace does only one thing—it puts a price on everything.

The role of culture, however, must go beyond economics. It is not focused on the price of things, but on their value. And, above all, culture should tell us what is beyond price, including what does not belong in the marketplace. A culture should also provide some cogent view of the good life beyond mass accumulation. In this respect, our culture is failing us.

There is only one social force in America potentially large and strong enough to counterbalance this profit-driven commercialization of cultural values, our educational system, especially public education. Traditionally, education has been one thing that our nation has agreed cannot be left entirely to the marketplace—but made mandatory and freely available to everyone.

At 56, I am just old enough to remember a time when every public high school in this country had a music program with choir and band, usually a jazz band, too, sometimes even orchestra. And every high school offered a drama program, sometimes with dance instruction. And there were writing opportunities in the school paper and literary magazine, as well as studio art training.

I am sorry to say that these programs are no longer widely available to the new generation of Americans. This once visionary and democratic system has been almost entirely dismantled by well-meaning but myopic school boards, county commissioners, and state officials, with the federal government largely indifferent to the issue. Art became an expendable luxury, and 50 million students have paid the price. Today a child's access to arts education is largely a function of his or her parents' income.

In a time of social progress and economic prosperity, why have we experienced this colossal cultural and political decline? There are several reasons, but I must risk offending many friends and colleagues by saying that surely artists and intellectuals are partly to blame. Most American artists, intellectuals, and academics have lost their ability to converse with the rest of society. We have become wonderfully expert in talking to one another, but we have become almost invisible and inaudible in the general culture.

This mutual estrangement has had enormous cultural, social, and political consequences. America needs its artists and intellectuals, and they need to reestablish their rightful place in the general culture. If we could reopen the conversation between our best minds and the broader public, the results would not only transform society but also artistic and intellectual life.

AMEN. And I, too, am missing The Ed Sullivan Show.

Race to the abyss

HOLLYWOOD (R21) -- Lindsay Lohan vaulted back into a coke spoon-length lead Tuesday over archrival Britney Spears in the Deviant Divas Death Derby, parlaying her latest arrest -- this time on DUI and felony cocaine charges -- into needed momentum to nose ahead of the Toxic singer.

Unless publication of Brit's reportedly catastrophic interview with OK! Weekly prompts the Bayou Boozehound into a celebrity suicide resulting in an upcoming tragi-biopic TV miniseries, the serious jail time that La Lohan might merit could make her narrow lead insurmountable.

Hollywood celebrity observers also note Lohan also could win the DDDD competition outright by staging a spectacular suicide -- probably a long shot so long as she remains in the secure rehab facility she checked into following the new Santa Moinica felony arrest.

Experts also note that La Lohan's swift Blow-Blotto Maneuver -- which propelled the Parent Trap and Mean Girls star past Spears, whose recent slap fight with her mother failed to safeguard her DDDD lead -- carries with it the seeds of possible defeat.

"What if the rehab takes this time?" asked one celebrity watcher who requested anonymity. "What if the little skank really sobers up, faces the music and becomes the next Kirk Cameron -- or even Lisa Whelchel for Chrissakes? That could -- that would -- be catastrophic.

"In that event, Brit could waltz to the finish line to claim the Derby title," he predicted. "Even if she actually doesn't drop dead of liver disease or a drug-induced heart attack until she's 45."

The Associated Press provided late details on Lohan's winning (she hopes) Derby strategy:

Less than two weeks out of rehab, with another drunken-driving case pending, Lohan had a blood-alcohol level of between 0.12 and 0.13 percent when police found her about 1:30 a.m., Sgt. Shane Talbot said.

Lohan attorney Blair Berk said her client had relapsed and was again receiving medical care. Her appearance Tuesday on “The Tonight Show” was canceled. TMZ.com is reporting that Lohan has entered an undisclosed treatment facility.

“Addiction is a terrible and vicious disease,” Berk said in a statement Tuesday.

Authorities had received a 911 call from the mother of Lohan’s former personal assistant, said Officer Alex Padilla. The assistant had just quit hours before, he said.
“The mother was afraid,” Padilla said. “She wasn’t quite sure what was going on so she called the police saying she wanted to make sure everything was going to be OK.”

The woman apparently didn’t realize it was Lohan who was behind her, Padilla said.

Police said the woman drove her black Cadillac Escalade into the parking lot of Santa Monica’s Civic Auditorium, about a block away from the Santa Monica Police Department, followed by Lohan driving a Denali sport utility vehicle. Authorities arrived and saw Lohan and the woman in “heated debate,” Padilla said. Lohan and the woman each had two passengers in their vehicles, Padilla said.
After a sobriety test, the 21-year-old movie star was booked on suspicion of two misdemeanor charges of driving under the influence and driving on a suspended license and two felony charges of possession of cocaine and transport of a narcotic, authorities said.

During a pre-booking search, police found cocaine in one of Lohan’s pants pockets, Talbot said.

Several hours later, Lohan was released on $25,000 bail.

Padilla said he didn’t know why Lohan was trying to catch the woman, whom he didn’t name.

MEANWHILE, the Britster could come back to win the whole shooting match if the OK! shoot was as d'oh!-K as Those in the Know say it was. TMZ.com gave us the scoop first:

According to multiple sources, Britney's behavior during the interview was "nothing less than a meltdown." She was, according to our sources, "completely out of it" during the shoot. The photos are "so bad" we've learned, that to publish them could "kill her career."

Apparently, Brit Brit's eyes rolled back in her head at one point, causing her to look half dead. Her mood, we're told, was extremely erratic. She took frequent bathroom breaks our source says, and each time she returned her mood would change. She was also completely paranoid during the entire interview, fearing at one point the ceiling was about to cave in on her. Out of control y'all!

We've also learned that Brit had some issues with hygiene on the set as well. At one point, Britney ordered up some fried chicken to munch on. We're told after she chowed down, she wiped her hands on a several thousand dollar Gucci dress that she was wearing for the shoot, staining it with grease. Yuck! One of her dogs also needed some assistance in the housebreaking department. Our on-set spy says that the dog pooped all over the floor, and Brit used (what else?) -- a Chanel dress to clean it up! How trashtastic! As for how Brit looked for the photos, another nightmare. We've learned that OK! hired two of the best hair and makeup artists in L.A. to transform the once-bald beauty into something more presentable, but she wasn't havin' none of that. She refused to let the hired help touch her, opting instead for her "skanky friends" to do her hair and makeup. No wonder she always looks so fantastic!

PARANOID? FREQUENT TRIPS to the loo? Mood change with each trip?

Has Linsday been sharing the wealth? Maybe she's just being generous toward a fierce rival. Or perhaps she's not taking the contest seriously enough, despite her obvious skill.

Tune in for continuing Derby updates on TMZ, PerezHilton, E!, Extra and Entertainment Tonight (check your local listings) as they become available.

***

NEXT STORY: Iraq blasts kill hundreds. Don't know a soldier killed in the war? You probably will sooner or later.

DEVELOPING: President Bush declares self god. Not The God, but a god. Vows to win war via telekinetics.

The Mighty Favog on Technorati

Hey! See y'all on Technorati , starting now!

Technorati Profile

The problem of being half-assed

The problem with poor people, and poor states, is they're a pain in the ass.

Oftentimes, the poor -- both the people and the political entities thereof -- are that way through nobody's fault but theirs. Yes, sometimes poverty is due to bad breaks and real injustices. But I'd bet at least 70 percent of it is because folks aren't that bright, never were taught any better or just don't give a damn.

Maybe all of the above. Though there certainly are many who would fit the sentimental stereotype of "the noble poor," many, many more are just damn pains in the gluteus maximus. They're uneducated, uncouth, unmotivated . . . and you wouldn't dare take them to a nice restaurant.

Some are strung out on something illegal most of the time. Others (oftentimes living examples of poverty and deviant social structures perpetuating and intensifying themselves) are just plain menaces to human life and public order.

Sometimes, ignorance and being no damn good can combine to provide unwitting amusement for the rest of us -- like the woman I once spied in the courthouse loudly complaining to a friend about her recent misdemeanor citation.

"What they mean nude conduct?" she asked, incredulous. "They charge me with nude conduct!"

I think the young woman -- who, I suspect, was no lady -- meant she had been cited for lewd conduct, although it may well have involved at least partial or maybe even substantial nudity.

SEEING WHY some are poor -- understandably if not rightly -- causes many to throw up their hands and adopt the fatalistic position that nothing's to be done apart from locking them up, walling them off or trying to forget they exist.

I got to thinking about this after a chance restaurant encounter with a Louisiana couple visiting Omaha from a town not far from Baton Rouge, my hometown.

We got to talking, and -- as these conversations tend to do the past couple of years -- we end up talking about the aftermath of Katrina and the iffy prospects of New Orleans being worth a damn ever again. Being a good Southern liberal, at least in the manner that would have defined Southern liberality a generation ago, I said what was needed was a WPA-style program that would have dealt with the unemployable, poverty-stricken hordes that streamed out of New Orleans and into cities like Houston, Atlanta and Baton Rouge après le déluge.

No, the husband said, those people just don't want to work. You'd better look at the news from home again, advised the wife.

I tried to argue that if, indeed, "those people" didn't want to avail themselves of an opportunity to better their education, learn a skill and go to work rebuilding their ruined city themselves, they at least ought to have the opportunity to self-select as being shiftless. In other words, they at least deserved the offer of a hand up . . . the chance to strive toward "The American Dream."

And the key word here is "strive." To be given, to use the vocabulary of faith, the grace of a second chance to remedy a third-rate education. The grace of a chance to chart a new course away from despair and toward hope. The grace of learning marketable skills, and the grace of becoming a stakeholder in their ruined communities by virtue of hard work rebuilding those communities.

Particularly New Orleans.

NAW, IT WOULD NEVER HAPPEN. Those people don't want to work, came the all-knowing reply. After Katrina, their small town ended up sheltering 65 men from the New Orleans 'hood, the couple reported, and those 65 were nothing but miscreants who pretty much held the place hostage, threatening people and stealing the Wal-Mart blind.

I have no real reason to doubt that those 65 men were, as the couple said, less than upright citizens. But to take the obvious problem that a lot of no-damn-good people emerged from an inundated Crescent City and parlay it into a given that every poor, black New Orleanian is worthless is not only racist but utterly devoid of the virtue of hope.

Such toxic fatalism denies that the dissolute can reform and the shiftless become productive. It mocks grace and denies hope its due.

Ironically, fatalism is the one thing that binds indignant middle-class, white Louisianians to the poor, black objects of their derision. Destitute minorities in the Lower 9 and Central City look at their plight, conclude it's hopeless and say "Why try harder?"

Working-class, middle-class and upper-class white folks from every nook and cranny of the Bayou State look at the struggling poor, lousy public schools, a stagnant economy and crooked politicians gaming the system, conclude it's hopeless and say "Why try harder?"

Fatalism is the haywire chromosome that worked its way into the DNA of a colonial backwater as it bounced back and forth between the French and the Spanish. The phrase "That's Louisiana for you" is the telltale symptom of the deadly defect, and it's well-learned by Louisianians about the same time they're able to use the words boudin, gumbo, jambalaya and LSU football in coherent sentences.

And les Amèricains haven't found a cure for it in 204 years. Not that they've been trying particularly hard.

See, to the rest of the United States, the perception of Third World hopelessness encompasses not only da slums a Noo Orluns but the rest of Louisiana as well. Including the nice couple in the Omaha restaurant decrying the pathetic masses Katrina expelled from the fever swamps of a dying city.

IN A COUNTRY where most people think "God helps those who help themselves" is in the Bible --somewhere in the back -- no one remembers who in that book received the most grace from Christ, then ran with it.

It was the woman at the well, a floozy if ever there was one.

It was the woman condemned to death for adultery.

It was the low-life tax collector and the untouchable lepers.

It was a bunch of uncouth and uncultured fishermen.

It was a particularly bumbling fisherman who went on to deny Him three times . . . but ended up becoming the first pope.

It was a petty street criminal being executed on the cross next to Jesus.

IN SUCH A COUNTRY -- in such a basket-case state as Louisiana -- where no one remembers any of the real losers Christ seemed to favor so, the most dangerous words in all of Christendom are "forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us."

Now that Katrina's floodwaters have washed away our illusions -- and delusions -- all our trespasses have been laid bare. The personal trespasses of a dysfunctional -- and often downright deviant -- underclass. The corporate trespasses born of societal and political neglect.

The self-righteous trespasses of those who decide "those people" are all alike and irredeemable, thereby rejecting grace as futile.

What goes around, comes around. And Judgment Day is nigh.

Casting a HARRY POTTER spell to lure you

Here are some of the early reviews of this week's Revolution 21 podcast, which isn't the new Harry Potter novel, but comes close in wonderfulness (Is that a word???):

The Revolution 21 podcast is a spellbinding romp through the musical magic that represents of the American experience. It beguiles, it enchants and it leaves the audio connoisseur totally entranced and marveling at the sheer brilliance of Revolution 21's host, The Mighty Favog.

-- Vincent Candy,
The New York Thymes

Amazing! A wonderful musical journey! I couldn't believe The Mighty Favog played that! The latest episode of the Revolution 21 podcast only confirms this program's place in the Pantheon of American culture!

-- Nola Contendre,
The Street (of Laredo, Texas)

I was enthralled by the Revolution 21 podcast and its brilliant host, the inimitable Mighty Favog, even more than I was by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

This show is a musical tour de force, and it ought not be missed by anyone who cares about the arts -- or just good tunes. Good show, old man!

-- Reg U. Lation-Tripe,
London Royal Flush

SO, THAT MAKES IT UNANIMOUS! You can't miss this go 'round of the Revolution 21 podcast.

Be there. Aloha. (And Expecto Patronum!)

Evangelicals bring 'idolatry' to a Wal-Mart near you

As a Catholic, one of the things you learn to deal with is Evangelical and fundamentalist Christians cracking on us devotees of Popery for "worshipping idols."

Statues of the Blessed Virgin and the saints in churches? Bad. Promotes praying to idols. There is only one God, and they ain't Him.

Statues of the Blessed Virgin and the saints in your front yard or flowerbed? BZZZZZZZZT! Idolatry alert! Idolatry alert! Cancel! Cancel!

AAAIIIIEEEEEEEE!

SO WHAT THE HELL is a Catholic boy like myself supposed to make of this development? Here's some of an article from USA TODAY about Tales of Glory toys:

Wal-Mart is about to bring religion to the toy aisle.

Early next month, 425 Wal-Mart stores nationwide will begin carrying faith-based toys from One2believe that target parents who would rather that their kids play with a Samson action figure than a Spider-Man action figure.

It's the first time the world's largest retailer has carried a full line of religious toys. "We're seeing interest from parents in faith-enriching toys," says Melissa O'Brien, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman.

Religious products have become a multibillion-dollar business, and the toy move comes as it targets a younger audience. Fox recently created FoxFaith, a 20th Century Fox unit to distribute family movies with Christian themes. In January, Universal Pictures will release The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything - A VeggieTales Movie, based on the spiritual characters by Big Idea.

But until now, most faith-based toys have sold successfully only in specialty religious stores, not at mass-market retailers, warns Jim Silver, editor of Toy Wishes magazine. "Once children turn 4, parents tend to get them what they want. And right now, kids are asking for Transformers."

About one-sixth of Wal-Mart's 3,300 stores will carry the One2believe line, which will get 2 feet of toy aisle shelf space, says O'Brien.

One way Wal-Mart decided where to carry them, she says: Stores that sell a lot of Bibles will carry the new line.

"We view this as an opportunity to reach that audience," she says.

But one religious leader does not consider Wal-Mart in the fold.

"They'll carry anything that sells," says David Croyle, president of FamilyLife, a non-denominational ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ. "This simply signals intelligent buying within Wal-Mart."

For David Socha, CEO of One2believe, it's a dream come true. "Our goal is to give the faith-based community an alternative to Bratz dolls and Spider-Man," he says.

The toys are based on biblical stories. For example, there's a set of 3-inch figures based on Daniel in the lion's den for about $7. A 12-inch talking Jesus doll is about $15. And 14-inch Samson or Goliath action figures are about $20.

The toys target kids from pre-school to age 12, he says, and also are sold online at one2believe.com.

HMMMMMM. Well, then. Perhaps I'd better go to the one2believe website to get some more info:

This program represents a huge opportunity for the faith community as it is the first time a worldwide retailer has opened-up shelf-space for a strong Bible-based toy product, like Tales of Glory! However, this is only a test-run. In fact, Wal-Mart will only have Tales of Glory in about 500 stores and only for a limited time (August through January). They have temporarily made the product available, and are waiting to see the response from their consumers. The success of this program is up to us… we need to take advantage of this amazing opportunity!

This is a chance to let our voices be heard. By supporting this program we can send a message to other retailers and toy makers letting them know that we, as a Christian community, are truly concerned about the toys that our children play with! We are aware of the influence that toys have on our young children’s impressionable minds, so we would like to see more God-honoring options available. It’s a “Battle for the Toy Box”!

OK, SO IT'S NOT JUST little graven images encouraging the kiddies toward inappropriate worship -- There's even a MARY DOLL, for pity's sake! -- it's a crusade to save the chirren through "God-honoring" toys and show the Godless marketplace that We Mean Business.

So if selling this stuff at Wal-Mart, this shrunken religiious statuary with movable limbs, is both God-honoring and a weapon in the Culture Wars, whats's wrong with the stuff you can see in Catholic churches for free?

If I were a cynic, I'd say that good Evangelicals think such stuff is idolatrous only until they figure out how to make a buck off it.

Who says black folks ain't equal?

I spent 20-something years in the deepest Deep South watching racist white people cut off their noses to spite their faces -- all because they couldn't abide the black man.

Or black woman.

Or black children going to school with theirs.

When I graduated from Baton Rouge Magnet High in 1979, the East Baton Rouge Parish school system was something like 65 percent white. It had 67,000 students. Baton Rouge was a majority white city.

When the federal court ordered a new desegregation plan involving busing, the white exodus began. Now, within the city limits, the population is majority black.

The school system has 45,000 students in 2007. It's 80-plus percent black. And it's a mess.

WHAT ONCE was a boomtown wasn't anymore . . . until Hurricane Katrina and the federal government did the inland state capital a dubious favor by destroying New Orleans.

It's not just the Baton Rouge school system. Noooooooooooo. Across the board, the Gret Stet can be found at the bottom of all the good rankings and at the top of all the bad ones.

And Louisianians, black and white, seem to think it's anybody's fault but theirs.

Notice that I said "Louisianians, black and white." White folks, like those bigots and rednecks I knew all too well in my upbringing, have no monopoly on racism. Neither do they have a monopoly on cutting off their noses to spite their faces.

One lesson we're learning every day is African-Americans are every bit the equal of the white man in their basic capacity for self-destructive racist leanings.

TAKE, FOR EXAMPLE, the benighted city of New Orleans, ruined and chaotic in the wake of Katrina. The murder capital of the country. Saddled with a district attorney who dropped charges against a quintuple-murder suspect, all because he couldn't find the witness.

That DA Eddie Jordan's staff couldn't find the witness speaks volumes, being that the notoriously corrupt and incompetent New Orleans Police Department found her in three hours . . . after the charges were dropped, of course.

But it is a testament to the capacity of many African-Americans to hate whitey more than they love their own lives -- or their children's -- in this Baghdad on the Bayou that Jordan came before a New Orleans City Council hearing with a contingent of backers ready to mau-mau "the racists."

If you have a strong stomach, try to read this excerpt from the Times-Picayune story on the hearing:

For a second time in a week, Councilwoman Shelley Midura asked Jordan to resign. During a tense, 2 1/2 hour hearing devoted to the district attorney's office, Midura said she voted for Jordan, but now feels his management style is costing the city lives.

"Your mismanagement has come at the expense of the families of five murdered, young, impoverished African-American teenagers," Midura said, referring to the 2006 Central City massacre case that Jordan's team dropped last week, blaming a missing eyewitness that police claimed they found within hours. "You are only one player in a massively broken system, but your mistakes have stood out in that broken system."

Jordan, the former U.S. Attorney in New Orleans elected district attorney in 2002, replied, "You are scapegoating me. You're making me solely responsible."

(snip)

Midura's reference to the line of black murder victims in New Orleans was followed by her comparing Jordan to the disgraced former district attorney in North Carolina, Mike Nifong, who ruined his career by pursuing a shaky rape case against Duke lacrosse players.

That changed the tone of the meeting and derailed further calls for Jordan's resignation.

Earlier Wednesday, political consultant Allan Katz told reporters that Richmond and Morrell planned to ask Jordan to resign at an afternoon press conference outside City Hall. Instead, the two representatives said they will "evaluate" Jordan's office and work with him.

"J. P. absolutely told me they were going to call for his resignation," Katz said. "Obviously they lost their nerve."

But Richmond said late Wednesday that he and Morrell had always wanted to give Jordan some time to improve how he runs his office before taking such a drastic step as asking for a resignation from an elected official.

"We wanted to let him know we were leaning toward it," said Richmond, in a phone interview after the council's hearing.

Richmond and Morrell said that unless they see improvements over the next few months they will also consider making a move in the state House to impeach Jordan. The state constitution provides a mechanism to file articles of impeachment against any local or state official, Richmond said, which has to be approved by the House and then sent to the Senate for a trial.

During the hearing, though, it was clear that Midura's harsh words for Jordan bolstered support for the DA from audience members, largely along racial lines.

Morrell said, "I do take issue with the comparison of Jordan to the DA in the North Carolina case. That's apples and oranges. We're talking about crime in which African-Americans are disproportionately dying in the streets."

Jordan had his supporters in the crowd inside the City Council's chambers, including a number of community activists who said there are more critical failures in the criminal justice system than any single official could be held responsible for.

"We are outraged at the scapegoating of Eddie Jordan," said Ursula Price, of Safe Streets/Strong Communities, a Central City-based group. "The one man fighting corruption in the police department is now being criticized? Why is he the first one to be on the chopping block? The resignation of one public official will not resolve the dysfunction of the criminal justice system."

Malcolm Suber, a longtime activist who is generally opposed to the entire criminal justice system, also rose to defend Jordan.

"This is a railroading of Mr. Jordan under the pretense that people care about the lives of poor black people," said Suber. "We know better. This is an attack on the black leadership. You should really look at yourselves before attacking this man."

Keith Hudson, 47, who lives in Central City, said, "I see a witch hunt. You're all used to that Connick persecution thing. Without evidence, without witnesses, sending people to prison."

Speaking to Jordan directly, Hudson added, "They're fans of Harry Connick. They ain't forgot you're black."

SORRY. This white boy ain't buying what the mau-mauers are trying to sell.

Competence -- or, in this case, incompetence -- is a colorblind measuring stick. Another factor arguing against Jordan as a) a poor, tolerant, discriminated-against black man, and b) anything other than the vilest of political hacks would be this:

In early 2005, a federal jury found Jordan guilty of racial discrimination after he -- three days after taking office in 2003 -- fired 56 DA's office staffers. Fifty-three were white.

Jordan then proceeded to hire 69 new staffers. Sixty-four were black.

Here's a tidbit from a 2005 Associated Press story on the trial, which resulted in a $3.4 million dollar award to the plaintiffs:

Among the non-lawyers, the number of blacks nearly tripled, while the number of whites in the office declined by about two-thirds. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, in a preliminary determination, found evidence of racial bias.

Veterans with years of experience in law enforcement were replaced by younger blacks, some of whom had never done police work.

One white man fired by Jordan testified that he was one of the few fingerprint and ballistics experts in the district attorney's office. The résumé of the man who replaced him showed he had little experience other than being a lifeguard and doing some office work at a law firm.

Arthur Perrot, a fired white investigator, had a perfect 24-of-24 score when interviewed by Jordan's transition team, but was fired, while a black investigator who scored 16 out of 24 was retained.

GEE, I THINK THAT EXPLAINS A LOT about why the DA's office has a hellacious backlog of cases, and about why it can't keep track of its witnesses. And why a historically-pathetic felony conviction rate in New Orleans has neared single-digit territory under Jordan.

Here's an article in City Journal that will explain a lot more about New Orleans' deep dysfunctionality as a municipality.

But, noooooo. Folks are out to get Eddie because he's black. In a city where most of the political establishment is black. Riiiiiiiight. . . .

To me -- a son of the Deep South who grew up listening my old man (and too many other white men and women) blaming everything from crime to inflation to political unrest on either "the niggers" or "them nigger lovers" -- the rhetoric in support of a racist incompetent sounds awfully familiar.

In a photo-negative kind of way.

Getting right on the Culture of Death

I once called Kathy Shaidle's public dismantling of her critics one of the more entertaining spectacles on the Internet. Well, maybe I'm about to find out how it feels, because I think this post on her Relapsed Catholic blog is way, way beyond the pale:THIS BIT OF SNARKY, mindless cruelty is a prime example of how things can go terribly wrong when one who's made a name for herself as a snarky, blogospheric misanthrope becomes a minor media celebrity in a small, cold country.

Of course, what makes it even worse is it's just riffing off of the insouciant name calling of Rush "I've got my millions, screw you" Limbaugh, who was "commenting" on Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards' poverty tour:

I got these pictures here. He's on the poverty tour. The first picture he's on a street in the ninth ward, and he's talking to a woman wearing an ACORN shirt, which is a liberal activist group. She's pointing out nothing because there's nothing there to point at. The hair looks great. He's wearing cool little blue jeans, matching little light blue Oxford, sleeves rolled up, looks cool. Black loafers. This woman that he's walking with is a tub. I mean, she is fat. This is a poverty tour. The next picture is of Edwards and his wife walking, no big deal there. She's looking at him. He's not looking at her. The next picture is Edwards watching and laughing while his wife talks to another resident of the ninth ward, another obese tub. The last picture is of Edwards, I swear when you look at this picture you will think that he's got his hand on a part of her anatomy where it shouldn't be, where the bra is but it would be hard to know because this woman is so big that... I mean, this is a poverty tour. Edwards is surrounded by fat people. I'm not making fun of them, don't misunderstand, folks. I'm just saying there's something about this that doesn't work. We may have to do our own poverty tour.

FOR THE LOVE OF GOD.

Oh, no! Limbaugh -- well-known former fatass -- wasn't making fun of portly poor people. Nooooo, he was just . . . ummmm . . . pointing out their obesity to . . . ummmmmmmm. . . .

Hell, yes he's ridiculing the obesity of poor folks in New Orleans. Hell, yes the right-wing radio blowhard is making fun of people who probably lost what little they had to the Federal Flood -- touched off when Katrina caused defective, federally built levees to collapse.

And now an obscenely rich ex-dopehead in Florida and a middle-class blogger drunk on her minor celebrity in a minor country think it's amusant to make fun of the poor.

How charming.

IT'S WELL ESTABLISHED how the Daily Kossacks of the world contribute to the Culture of Death. What I would like for Shaidle and Limbaugh to explain is how they aren't when they spew toxic waste at the near-helpless, just for kicks and bon mots.

Slavery is freedom. Hate is love. Death is life.

I am a bit unsure what requires a bigger Orwellian bent on the part of voters today -- backing the Party of Greed (Republicans) or the Party of Lust (Democrats).

Like it makes any difference. Either way you go, you get standard-issue Death.

Vote for the GOP and you get more death of our soldiers in a pointless war. More torture of "enemy combatants," to hell with treaty, law and morality. More selling out of middle- and working-class interests to the highest bidder. More illegal immigration . . . and more depressing of American blue-collar wages.

Vote for the Democrats, you get more slavish devotion to the Contraceptive Deity. You get more pandering to Muselix America -- every fruit, nut and flake with enough cash to start a hard-left interest group. More Christian-baiting from the fever swamps of the Daily Kos and Democratic Underground. More illegal immigration . . . and more depressing of American blue-collar wages.

And, of course, we'll get more death of unborn children in an attempt to render Western Civilization, literally, fruitless as we seek after the Almighty Inconsequential Climax. Not that the GOP, mind you, has been any great shakes at slowing down the Culture of Death.

Thus, we come to John Edwards' altruistic Presidential Campaign for the Poor. (Ignore that preening rich man behind the curtain!)

The North Carolina Democrat thinks it's a terrible, terrible thing what this country has done to its poor people. (So far, so good . . . but why do I feel like a shoe is going to drop?) According to CNN:

Edwards started the four-day tour on Sunday in the poor, mostly black, Lower Ninth Ward of New Orleans, whose once-submerged neighborhoods remain largely deserted.

On a brief walk through the district, he and his wife Elizabeth met Henry Phipps, 63, who lives in a government-issued trailer as rebuilds his house flooded nearly two years ago.

"You getting any help paying for it (the house)?" Edwards asked.

"Nah. I ain't getting no help," said Phipps, who said he had owned a bar and other properties before the storm and is now retired.

"We're proud of you," Edwards said.

"Working poor: two words that should never be used in combination in America," Edwards later told a few dozen people gathered at the nearby Martin Luther King Charter School.

"A lot of Americans think of people who are struggling on low incomes as people who do not want to work. And that is complete nonsense," he said.

BUT IT SEEMS Edwards -- and the other front-running Dems -- might have less than uplifting ideas about how you solve poverty in America.

As in, slicing, dicing, chemically burning and vacuum aspirating tiny poor children into oblivion -- eliminating poverty in America one teeny little socioeconomically challenged wretch at a time.

The Chicago Tribune fills us in on Edwards' Orwellian bent:

Elizabeth Edwards said Tuesday that her husband's health-care plan would provide insurance coverage of abortion.

Speaking on behalf of Democratic presidential candidate John Edwards before the family planning and abortion-rights group Planned Parenthood Action Fund, Edwards lauded her husband's health-care proposal as "a true universal health-care plan" that would cover "all reproductive health services, including pregnancy termination," referring to abortion.

Edwards was joined by Democratic candidates Sens. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.) and Barack Obama (D-Ill.) at the group's political organizing conference in addressing issues at the core of the political clash between cultural liberals and conservatives, including abortion rights, access to contraception and sex education.

(snip)

Obama, who earlier gained the endorsement of Washington, D.C., Mayor Adrian Fenty, offered the group a vision of equal opportunity for women, tying a call for improved access to contraceptives for low-income women with a call for an "updated social contract" that includes paid maternity leave and expanded school hours.

Asked about his proposal for expanded access to health insurance, Obama said it would cover "reproductive-health services." Contacted afterward, an Obama spokesman said that included abortions.

CLUNK. I told you I felt like a shoe was going to drop, here.

But you gotta love it. Only in America do you have Democrats sucking up to Planned Barrenhood, that committed advocate for the poor and downtrodden (as if), founded by bourgeois white people for the express purpose of eliminating the poor and downtrodden.

How many Planned Parenthood clinics do you find in well-off suburban areas? How many are in or close to the 'hood? Exactly.

Slavery is freedom.

And if the purpose is to "help" minority and low-income individuals, where are the accompanying Planned Parenthood food pantries? The Planned Parenthood free pediatrician? The Planned Parenthood pay-what-you-can family-practice clinics?

No, Planned Parenthood is there to make sure there are fewer children in the world. To make sure women -- particularly low-income and minority women -- can screw without consequence. Because Those People just can't control their primal urges, you know.

And this is the kind of group to which Democrats suck up. Grovel, actually.

See the picture topping this blog post? Margaret Sanger, founder of Planned Parenthood . . . getting ready to speak to a 1926 Ku Klux Klan rally in New Jersey.

Here's what she said in a 1939 letter, expounding on her group's plans to wipe out blacks:

"We should hire three or four colored ministers, preferably with social-service backgrounds, and with engaging personalities. The most successful educational approach to the Negro is through a religious appeal. We don't want the word to go out that we want to exterminate the Negro population. and the minister is the man who can straighten out that idea if it ever occurs to any of their more rebellious members."

THERE ARE LOTS MORE choice quotes by Sanger available through The Truth About Margaret Sanger blog. That blog's proprietor was able to find out all about Planned Parenthood's genocide-loving past. I was able to find out about Planned Parenthood's genocide-loving past. So do you think people like John Edwards, Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton suffer from invincible ignorance about their patrons' genocide-loving past?

Hate is love.

John Edwards can get his overcoiffed head onto every network newscast, crying Evian tears over the plight of black people in the Lower 9 . . . as he pledges fealty to the aims of a group that -- regardless of its modern-day rhetoric -- is killing poor, black and poor black babies at a rate totally consistent with Sanger's stated aim to "exterminate the Negro population"?

The man must think he's running for president of the Animal Farm. Then again, maybe he is.

Death is life.

UPDATE: The above photo is a Photoshop job. I ought to have noticed that straightaway (the lighting and contrast on Sanger isn't quite right), but I didn't. Mea culpa. The point remains, however, that she did address the Klan, and Kluxers liked the way she thought about eugenics.

Keeping track of Kristy

This past Lent, I told you about Kristy Dusseau and her yearslong struggle with a hellacious and rare cancer -- and the side effects of the treatment that saved her.

Side effects, such a sterile term that is. Side effects, which in Kristy's case meant debilitating chemotherapy. A bone-marrow transplant that saved her . . . and almost killed her. Losing her house, her job, her health, her fiancé.

Running up more than a million dollars in medical bills.

Now factor in what all of the above would do to your head. You can get up to speed here, here and here.

Well, Kristy's brother Rob -- who's been trying to raise enough money to buy Kristy a condo or to let her finish her college degree -- has been slammed at work the past few months and hasn't had the chance to do another monthly video . . . yet. But he does provide an update on his sister at www.kristyrecovers.com. Here's part of it:

Healthwise, Kristy has been doing really well. She's gained some weight and is actually starting to look like she's growing YOUNGER. That's good to see. She still has the feeding tube, but she's gone from using it 20 hours a day to once every 5 days. It leaks all of the time, whether it's being used or not, and has ruined lots of her clothing.

She sleeps a lot, gets tired after being up and around for a few hours, and has good and bad days. They've recently cut back on her steroids (she's thrilled about that), which has had her feeling ill lately as she tries to adjust to it.

Her fiancé .... well ... let's say he's fallen off a cliff, which is what Kristy would tell you if you asked her. I'm not one to judge. Really, it's something I just don't do for spiritual reasons, but that guy turned out to be a bum. His commitment to her during the first half of her illness was very commendable, and it won't be forgotten by this writer, but the guy turned into a leach onto Kristy and my family. Living with my parents, disappearing for days, drunk and disorderly all of the time, enough said about that, there's many other things but what's the point? The guy is hopefully gone for good now.

Kristy I know you really cared for Greg, but your roads have taken drastically different directions, and what he became on his path wasn't good for you. Your future spouse will be good for you, trust me on that.

Emotionally Kristy's been upset. I never reached my goal of raising enough money to purchase her a condo (which would have meant she would be eligible for a nurse). So she's living at home with mom as her nurse. That's tough on both parties involved, because of where they are in their perspective lives.

Her self image is in the gutter. Silly as it may seem, she actually thinks the fact that she can't have children will make her undesirable to men. I chuckled a bit when she told me that with tears in her eyes, and assured her that it wouldn't be a problem. Especially with men. It might be more of a problem if she were a man, but she's a very pretty young lady, and the idea of adopting makes her concern a mute one.

There's many other emotional hurdles she's climbing over right now, and she's climbing them, but I wouldn't be much help with that. I don't know what's it's like to go through something like she has. She told me she was checking out planetcancer.com and talking to people, and I hope she's still doing that. I was actually hoping she would take over this site, but that just didn't happen. She's not much of a computer fan like her brother is.

THERE WAS A BRIEF FLURRY of Internet attention focused on Kristy's plight, and the contributions rolled in for a brief while. Now, not so much so.

We Americans have the attention spans of fleas, and it's gotten worse as "progress" comes up with more and more crap to distract us from what's important. Like Kristy, who just happens to be our sister in Christ.

And she's had a damned rough go of it.

So, if you have a few bucks to spare, how about going to www.kristyrecovers.com and dropping some scratch in the kitty. Or, more importantly, drop Kristy a line just to say "Hey!" and "Hang in there!"

I mean, the Wide World of Suck could crash down upon any of our heads at any time. If it did, wouldn't you want all the help -- and friendship -- you could get?

* * *

P.S.: Hey, Kristy! Mrs. Favog had cancer some years back. We can't have kids. I still like her just fine . . . got no plans to trade her in for the new Babymaker model.

So quit yer worryin'!

With apologies to Molly the Dog

The Imperial Dog, otherwise known as Molly the Dog, is going to be upset about this post. More precisely, she would be upset about this post if she could a) read or b) had opposable thumbs, allowing her to operate the computer.

Molly the Dog can spell, however. Luckily, that's limited to E-A-T. And O-U-T. Sometimes, F-U-D (sic).

So I think I'm more or less OK in saying Harley the Dog (above), as pictured on NOLA.com, might be the cutest puppy ever. I love Molly the Dog, who hasn't officially been informed she's actually a D-O-G, but we do have to be objective about these things.

Insanity

George Bush is nuts and the general staff has no testicles. Is that clear enough for you, Skipper?

Let's start with the castrati first. From The Associated Press:

The U.S. military is weighing new directions in Iraq, including an even bigger troop buildup if President Bush thinks his "surge" strategy needs a further boost, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said Monday.

Marine Gen. Peter Pace revealed that he and the chiefs of the Army, Marine Corps, Navy and Air Force are developing their own assessment of the situation in Iraq, to be presented to Bush in September. That will be separate from the highly anticipated report to Congress that month by Gen. David Petraeus, the top commander for Iraq.

The Joint Chiefs are considering a range of actions, including another troop buildup, Pace said without making any predictions. He called it prudent planning to enable the services to be ready for Bush's decision.

NOW, LET'S TURN to the Crazy Guy in Chief as he slips into the Full Queeg and begins the search for his missing strawberries:

And Bush, asked how he can continue to prosecute a war which has lost the support of a majority of the American people said he will retire – at the end of next year – comfortable that he has hewed to “principle."

“The question now is, do we pull back and allow the polls, allow the Gallup Poll or whatever, to determine the fate of our country?’’ Bush said. “Sometimes, you just have to make the decisions based upon what you think is right…. My most important job is to help secure this country."

“Everybody wants to be loved," said Bush, leaning into the new podium of a renovated West Wing press briefing room getting its debut press conference. “Sometimes the decisions you make and the consequences don’t allow you to be loved… (When he retires) I will be able to look in the mirror and say I made decisions based on principle, not politics."

I KNOW THEY'RE WORRIED about maybe getting Vittered, but how many semi loads of Get a Clue does the Stay the Course crowd in Congress need to have dumped upon it before the right honorable Members and Sinators finally provide a veto-proof margin in favor of putting a stop to this insane expeditionary war in Iraq? That the notoriously conservative Pittsburgh Tribune-Review has called President Bush's plan to "stay the course" a "prescription for American suicide" ought to have been, even for the densest GOP lawmaker, a clock radio turned up to 11.

For pity's sake, the newspaper even went so far as to question Bush's sanity.

Meanwhile, the AP takes us back to the high pitched in the High Command:

The military must "be prepared for whatever it's going to look like two months from now," Pace said in an interview with two reporters traveling with him to Iraq from Washington.

"That way, if we need to plus up or come down" in numbers of troops in Iraq, the details will have been studied, he said.

Pace, on his first visit since U.S. commanders accelerated combat operations in mid-June, said another option under consideration is maintaining current troop levels beyond September.

There are now about 158,000 U.S. troops in Iraq, reflecting a boost of about 30,000 to carry out the new strategy Bush announced in January. The plan is focused on providing better security for Iraqis in Baghdad, but the intended effect—political reconciliation between Sunnis and Shiites—has yet to be achieved, and many in Congress are clamoring to begin withdrawing troops soon.

Pace said the administration must consider not only what works best on the battlefield but also the growing stress of more than four years of war on American troops and their families.

He repeatedly mentioned his concern about soldiers and Marines doing multiple tours of duty and the decision in January to extend soldiers' Iraq deployments by three months, to 15 months.

WHAT? Planning for an even bigger "surge" while fretting about how stressed our troops and their families might be?

That's nuts. Actually, no. The President and his True Believers are nuts, but the joint chiefs merely lost theirs somewhere along the road to ruin.

And our valiant Hessian military is going to pay the price so suburban America might not trouble its unserious mind with unpleasant things.

There's not enough money in the world

It's not enough.

The $660 million the Archdiocese of Los Angeles and its insurers will be paying in a settlement with men and women raped, groped, sodomized -- or all of the above -- by perverts in Roman collars cannot restore shattered minds and tormented souls. Cardinal Roger Mahony, now free to issue a lame and self-serving "apology," cannot even come close to restoring victims' peace of mind . . . or their lost innocence.

No amount of money and no amount of groveling can fix the violence those wicked priests and their enabling prelate have done to those poor people -- have done to the whole Body of Christ.

“I’m not so sure that we can necessarily call it justice,” said plaintiff Carlos Perez-Carrillo. Perez-Carrillo's accusations against the Rev. John Anthony Salazar go back to the 1980s, when he says the priest molested him repeatedly at St. Bernard High School in Playa del Rey.

“Mostly what I’ve gone through is being shunned by Catholics and the Catholic Church,” Perez-Carrillo said in an interview with MSNBC. “I’ve always felt that I’ve been viewed as a pariah because I actually came forward and actually denounced what was happening.”

Perez-Carrillo and other victims said they regretted that archdiocese leaders, especially Cardinal Roger Mahony, would not appear in court to acknowledge under oath what had happened to them and others over the past 70 years. Many victims accuse Mahony of having swept the abuse problem under the rug by transferring accused priests from parish to parish.

Mahony offered an apology at a news conference Sunday, but Perez-Carrillo dismissed it as inadequate.

“When you’ve been dealing with this and going through the process and dealing with spin doctoring and covering up, you’re really quite skeptical about whether an apology is genuine,” he said.

“It’s just a little bit too little and a little bit too late,” added Perez-Carrillo, whose alleged abuser, Salazar, later moved to Texas and was convicted of sexually abusing an 18-year-old man. He is serving life in prison.

Esther Miller, who has accused Michael Nocita, who later left the priesthood to marry, of having abused her at St. Bridget’s of Sweden in Van Nuys during the 1970s, insisted that “in no way does it come close to apologizing.”

But Miller, who said the trauma of her abuse led her to develop an eating disorder, said many of her fellow victims were in dire straits and had nowhere else to turn.

“Many of us have secondary issues,” she said. “Obviously, my drug of choice was food, [but] some of the other survivors have opted for alcohol addiction, for cocaine addiction.

“So now what we can do with that settlement money is to apply it do self-care and try to make our lives a little bit better.”

Mahony reiterated his apology after the hearing Monday, but he declined to comment further because “this day in particular is a day for the victims to speak.”

WHAT RECOMPENSE can there possibly be when you have a virtual mafia of gay priests, pedophile priests, horndog priests and Those Who Cover for Them which has successfully equated Jesus Christ and the Church He founded with abject evil in the minds of victims and the general public? How many millions of dollars and crocodile tears can fix that blasphemy?

There is no adequate recompense. Not in this life.

Back to the MSNBC story:

Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Haley Fromholz approved the landmark settlement Monday morning at a dramatic hearing marked by the sobs of victims and their attorneys.

The archdiocese itself is on the hook for a quarter-billion dollars, more than a third of the final settlement, raising questions about whether the archdiocese could meet its obligations without going into bankruptcy. The rest will be paid by insurance carriers, other church sources and litigation with religious orders that did not participate in the arrangement.

Mahony has promised that no funds directly relating to the church’s mission would be used. He said the archdiocese had been segregating funds to pay for the litigation for some time.

Still, archdiocese officials told NBC News, an undetermined percentage of parishioners’ offerings would be paid out to alleged victims, and they said they would likely have to sell some church property unrelated to direct ministry, such as underused hospitals.

Key to the settlement is the church’s agreement not to try to block the release of accused priests’ confidential personnel files, which it will turn over to a retired judge for review.

Some records, such as psychological examinations, cannot be released. But plaintiffs lawyers said they expected many details of alleged abuses by more than 200 accused priests would be brought to light in the months and years to come.

The father of one alleged victim, who he said was repeatedly abused as a youngster by a “dear friend,” said the release of the records was a big victory for the plaintiffs.

“We want to know that our house is clean,” said the man, who asked NBC News not to identify him to protect his child.

ONE CAN ONLY HOPE that -- with the rock lifted and the Church's clerical creepy crawlies exposed to cleansing sunlight -- some good will come of all this. One can hope that humiliation and scorn might help end some bishops', clergy's and functionaries' worship of mammon over the Messiah. Of the shadows over the Light of the World.

Maybe when the Church is poor, it will once again be holy. But will that be too late?