Headline AP: Jet Headed to Morocco Diverted to Maine

Headline AP: AP Poll: Do-Not-Call List Effective

Headline WISC Madison Wisconson: Was Jesus Into Hip-Hop?

Co-author of Jesus and Hip-Hop Prophets, Rev. Alex Gee, will be in Middleton tonight speaking about the connection between faith and hip-hop culture, and the role that hip-hop has in social consciousness. Following his presentation, Rev. Gee will sign copies of the book.

“Hip-hop intrigues me because it has blurred the cultural and socioeconomic lines,” Gee said. “It knows no color, sex or zip code. Hip-hop is a voice for disenfranchised people and is doing what the church was intended to do. Hip-hop often sounds angry and ‘in yo face,’ but its role is to prick our social consciousness.”

“Hip-hop is doing what the church was intended to do”? I’m not sure what hip-hop is doing, but is it doing this?

Matthew 28:18-20: 18And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying, “All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth. 19Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, 20teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.” Amen.

Adam might get a job at the Pittsburgh Zoo

Headline Pittsburgh Post-Gazette: Zoo may reverse policy and give animals names

I’ve always hated it when a sports team has a lead and instead of trying to win the game by doing what it has done up to that point (scoring more than the opponent), they instead try to not lose the game (keeping the opponent from scoring). They call this a prevent defense because you are trying to prevent the other team from scoring. It is particularly a problem in football and hockey. Baseball isn’t really as susceptible to this strategy. But it very often backfires. They become so conservative on offense that they practically guarantee they will not score, and they become so passive on defense they allow the other team to chip away.

In politics, I’ve also never understood why conservatives who get to Washington seem to think that if they drop the conservative principles and give the liberals what they want, the liberals will all of the sudden start to like them. Instead, they give away the store to the liberals, tick off their base of support, and get no love back from the liberals. But they keep trying it over and over again, in the hope that this time it will work.

The Washington Times reports that the Bush administration tried to gain the liberal love with the Medicare drug bill that was recently passed into law: Medicare reform backfires on Bush

Originally promoted as a market-oriented reform by its Republican supporters, the final bill proved to be an unsatisfying compromise, said Mr. Haislmaier, a visiting fellow in health policy at the Heritage Foundation

“The idea was that adding a new drug benefit would buy liberal and elderly support for transforming Medicare from a bureaucratic, provider-centered program into a true, consumer-driven program,” he said. “But what they ended up with was a hugely expanded government program with virtually no reform.”

Conservative ire might have been an acceptable political cost if, as some strategists had expected, the Medicare bill boosted support for Mr. Bush and the Republican Party among older voters. But that hasn’t happened — in fact, the opposite has apparently been true, as retirees seemed to heed Democrats who denounced the bill.

“So far, the health care gamble hasn’t paid off for the president,” Mr. Haislmaier said.

The irony of it all is that the people who are condemning Bush from the left have unsuccessfully proposed similar bills in the past, and so, when they condemn Bush’s bill, they are condemning themselves.

Under the provision, “we cannot even allow the government to use its bargaining power to bring down the costs of prescription drugs for all seniors,” said Mr. Edwards, who is seeking the Democratic presidential nomination.

That provision “doesn’t make sense,” said the Democratic front-runner, Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry.

In fact, Mr. Kerry, along with Sen. Edward M. Kennedy, Massachusetts Democrat, sponsored a bill with a similar provision in 2000, and a similar measure was endorsed in the House by Democratic Reps. Dennis J. Kucinich of Ohio, John D. Dingell of Michigan and Henry A. Waxman of California.

The prevent defense rarely works, and the liberals will never love a Republican, even if he gives them what they want.

Headline National Review: Only A Trillion

The Congressional Budget Office added a trillion dollars to its forecast of the total budget deficit for 2004-13. — The Economist, January 24-31

A trillion dollars! Actually, the phrase that came into my mind on reading that was: “Only a trillion?” Not because of any wish that the CBO had been more generous in the upgrade of their forecast, but because Only a Trillion was the title of a book by the late Isaac Asimov, one of those numberless collections of essays on science and math he turned out through the 1960s and 1970s. Asimov explained the title as follows:

After considerable computation one day recently I said to my long-suffering wife: “Do you know how rare astatine-215 is? If you inspected all of North and South America to a depth of ten miles, atom by atom, do you know how many atoms of astatine-215 you would find?”

My wife said, “No. How many?”

To which I replied, “Practically none. Only a trillion.”

(I like to imagine Mrs. Asimov reacting to this information in the style of my own patient spouse, with something like: “That’s nice, dear. Did you put out the garbage?”)

Headline USA Today: Most economists credit Bush’s tax cuts in rebound

Headline Washington Times: DNC won’t heed Kerry’s call to end ‘AWOL’ attacks

Mr. Kerry said Sunday that from now on he’d leave the questioning of Mr. Bush’s service record to reporters.

“The president has to speak for his own military record,” Mr. Kerry said.

The <sarcasm>Right Wing Conspiracy controlled press</sarcasm> has been only too willing to carry the water for Kerry who is far too nice of a person to ever attack that evil, liar, AWOL, deserter, fascist President Bush.

Opinion Journal shares this interesting fact about government spending on Education

Federal spending on K-12 education will top $41 billion in 2004. Add in state and local spending, and the figure rises to a record half-trillion dollars. That’s double the amount spent in 1990 and a third more than the $375 billion the U.S. will spend on defense this year.

Remember that education spending has doubled in 13 years next time you hear people tell you that all we need to do to fix the problems with the schools is to spend more money. We already spend too much. The problem is not the lack of money.

CNet News has info on ways to alter your car’s performance by hacking your engine’s computer.

An increasing number of car owners are using computer chips or software downloads to get better performance from their cars.

The possible benefit of hacking your car engine is increased power. In some cases, it can result in better gas mileage, but most hacks that increase the power will decrease the miles per gallon.

But be aware that there are some small potential disadvantages that can go along with this increased power:

• Dirty exhaust
• Failed state emission inspection
• Voided warranty
• Burned out engine

The article gives an example of a man who gained 18 horsepower in his Volkswagon Jetta at the cost of 10 miles per gallon and a clouds of black smoke following him everywhere he went. Another man got 40 more horsepower from his Porsche 944 Turbo at the cost of a $7,000 engine repair bill.

Hey, if you want an omelet, you’ve got to break a few eggs.