First came "Joe the Plumber." Now comes "Joe the Journalist."

That is, if Republican state senator Bruce Patterson of Michigan has his way. You see, "Bruce the State Senator" seems to think state-licensed journalists is a grand idea. 

"He is introducing legislation that will regulate reporters much like the state does with hairdressers, auto mechanics and plumbers," reports FoxNews.com.

"Real journalists have always resisted being licensed," writes Jack Lessenberry.

On the other hand, projecting into the future, a kind of "Ministry of Truth" at local, state, and national levels may pay very well to help save the world from whatever distracts or threatens state power.

On the other other hand, as a counter offer, Glenn Reynolds wonders: "How about requiring that all sitting legislators pass a test on the constitution? And maybe an IQ test, too."

"Now that's a bill I could get behind," concludes Noel Sheppard at Newsbusters.

Related
Obama "Determined to Federalize News Industry"
Journalists Who Don't Kiss Obama's Feet
Anderson Cooper and the Crisis of Journalism

"Australian public opinion has made history," writes Peter Hartcher at the Sydney Morning Herald. "We have the distinction of becoming the first people in the world to name China as the world's leading economic power -- even before the Chinese themselves."

Mark Tapscott writes at the Washington Examiner:

Release of the Federal Trade Commission's working paper on "reinventing journalism" makes it clear that there is no more time for diplomacy about this issue: Barack Obama is determined to federalize the news industry just as he has banking, autos, and health care.

Tapscott is editorial page editor of the Washington Examiner.

Hat tip: Red State

At Newsmax:

German President Horst Koehler resigned Monday in a surprise move after being criticized for reportedly linking military deployments abroad with the country's economic interests -- creating a new headache for Chancellor Angela Merkel. . . .

He said in that broadcast that, for a country with Germany's dependency on exports, military deployments could be "necessary . . . in order to defend our interests, for example, free trade routes."

That was taken by many as relating to Germany's unpopular mission in Afghanistan, although his office later said that he was referring to anti-piracy patrols off the coast of Somalia. Germans are often uneasy about deployments abroad, given the country's militaristic past, and the mission in Afghanistan makes many particularly uncomfortable.

Michelle Oddis writes at Human Events:

At a time when President Obama’s relationship with the military is already on shaky ground, his decision to take a vacation with his family in Chicago rather than pay his Memorial Day respects at Arlington National Cemetery further proves his apathy toward our armed forces, according to some veterans.

"The President seems to demonstrate almost weekly just how, at least to me, little he cares about this country and our history and our heritage," retired Marine Lt. Col. Orson Swindle told HUMAN EVENTS.

"He seems almost to resent it, which is the most mind-boggling thing in the world, because without a country like America Barack Obama could not be President. He seems to dislike our institutions . . . and that’s a sad, sad thing," said Swindle, a decorated Vietnam prisoner of war and Sen. John McCain’s cellmate in Hanoi.

"Five female news presenters at the pan-Arab Al-Jazeera satellite television channel have resigned over conflicts with management over dress code and other issues, a journalist there said on Sunday," reports AFP.

AP reports:

Forced to disclose backstage political bargaining, President Barack Obama's embarrassed White House said on Friday it had enlisted Bill Clinton to try to ease Rep. Joe Sestak out of Pennsylvania's Senate primary with a job offer.

Nothing wrong with that, the White House said. Oh, yes, there was, Republicans countered.

Columnist and radio talk show host Ellis Washington writes at WorldNetDaily:

The Soviet Story was a revelatory "documentary on progressivism." In a revealing excerpt, George Bernard Shaw, the famous playwright and literary critic, was filmed in the early 1930s openly defending Hitler, mass murder and genocidal eugenics. The documentary explains liberals' love affair with fascism, saying: The left supported Hitler not because he deceived them. They knew Hitler would kill. He said he would. In fact, it was why they supported him.

The progressive movement has always been filled with socialist and liberal intellectuals who love to praise depraved tyrants like Mussolini, Lenin, Stalin and Hitler as men of action who, unlike the bureaucrats in our democracies, could get things done. Remember Stalin apologist Walter Duranty, a foreign correspondent for the New York Times Times who during the ghastly purges in the Ukraine in 1932-33, where over 7 million people were starved, Duranty heartlessly rationalized, "In order to make an omelet you have to break a few eggs."

At Newsmax:

Kneeling to pick up tar balls on an oil-fouled beach and listening to "heartbreaking stories" of loss, President Barack Obama personally confronted the spreading damage wrought by the crude gushing into the Gulf of Mexico -- and the bitter anger that's rising onshore. . . . 

Early in the morning in advance of the president's arrival, hundreds of workers clad in white jumpsuits and rubber gloves hit the beaches to dig oily debris from the sand and haul it off. Workers refused to say who hired them, telling a reporter they were told to keep quiet or lose their jobs.

"Cicero," the pen name of a military officer, writes at American Thinker:

The federal government appears to be becoming more a parasite than a protector to the several states that organized its creation. . . .

Louisiana and Arizona are suffering abuses and usurpations at the hand of a distant central government that cares not for the safety and happiness of their people, nor does it care to execute the few inconvenient responsibilities assigned to it in an inconvenient and forgotten Constitution. This is a distant central government indifferent to all matters beyond its own expansion and continued election, a government so engorged that it cannot move with alacrity or decisiveness.

Arizona and Louisiana may find themselves at the spearhead of movements by many states -- states fighting the health care mandate, states fighting federal confiscation and retention of land, states fighting EPA carbon regulation, states grappling with their own immigration problems, states starting to realize that "help" from Washington is anything but helpful, states that may start to realize that taking matters into their own hands may be only means left for securing the Republic and preserving liberty.

"The policy director at a George Soros-funded, Marxist founded organization calling itself Free Press has just taken a key State Department position," reports WorldNetDaily. "Free Press Policy Director Ben Scott has been named a policy adviser for innovation at the State Department."

According to WND, "Free Press is a well-known advocate of government intervention in the Internet."

In addition, "Scott authored a book, The Future of Media, which was edited by the founder of Free Press, Robert W. McChesney. McChesney is an avowed Marxist who has recommended capitalism be dismantled."

Peter Winn reports at CNSNews.com:

Elena Kagan, President Barack Obama’s choice to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens on the Supreme Court, is best known for moving Harvard Law School away from the 100-year old "case-law method" of legal study.
 
But in the process, critics say, she moved the nation’s premier law school away from requiring the study of constitutional law towards the study of the laws of foreign nations and international law.

From the Los Angeles Times:

An earlier version of this story termed the effort "successful." Officials clarified that neither government nor BP officials had declared the effort a success yet. They caution that only after the cementing is complete and the well is sealed can the top kill be called successful.

Related
"Top Kill" Effort Succeeds in Blocking Oil Leak, Says Admiral

"Engineers have succeeded in stopping the flow of oil and gas into the Gulf of Mexico from a gushing BP well, the federal government's top oil spill commander, U.S. Coast Guard Adm. Thad Allen, said Thursday morning," reports the LATimes.

Mike Riggs writes at The Daily Caller:

Last week, Nina Easton, the Washington editor of Fortune, wrote a column about the SEIU and National People’s Action. The two progressive groups had sent roughly 500 protesters to Easton’s Chevy Chase neighborhood on May 16th to picket the front yard of Bank of America’s Greg Baer. Easton had just put her 2-year-old son down for a nap, and stepped outside to ask the protesters to quiet down. They didn’t. Easton wrote a column. And now she’s become the target of the SEIU and Media Matters for America.

Update: Nina Easton was just on "America Live," anchored by Megyn Kelly.

Related
Union "Klansmen" Terrorize 14-Year-Old Boy
Obama Thugs Storm Private Home

"I think that I have the mainstream record,” said Republican U.S. Senate hopeful Sharron Angle, who is "running in a tough GOP primary to take on Democratic Sen. Harry Reid," reports The Daily Caller.

The most important "mainstream," of course, is not merely that of where the current majority of any particular group of people stand, be they Americans, Germans, Italians, or Russians, and so on. As history shows, some "majorities" and some "mainstreams" are toxic and not worthy of human consumption.

For the question of freedom over against tyranny, so well framed by author and radio talk show host Mark Levin, the crucial point is whether one's politics reside within the defining and liberating center of the American mainstream -- that is, within the vision-for-freedom as set forth in the Declaration of Independence (as written, not merely "living") and in the U.S. Constitution (again, as written, and not merely "living").

It is in this sense that the Tea Party phenomenon, as an expression of a New American Resistance, may be part of a movement that "can win the culture war" against the forces of secularism, oppression, and indignity.

Any senatorial candidate, therefore, who affirms in philosophy, principle, politics, and practice the historic and defining American mainstream merits serious consideration.

On this view, an extremist such as Sen. Harry Reid would need to find a new day job. The sooner the better.

Don't Ask, Won't Tell

Mike Levin writes at Liveshots:

A team of Justice Department attorneys reviewing the new immigration law in Arizona has recommended that the U.S. government challenge the state law in federal court, but the recommendation faces an uncertain future and tough scrutiny from others in the Justice Department, sources with knowledge of the process tell Fox News.

Staff attorneys within the Justice Department recently sent higher-ups the recommendation. At the same time, the Justice Department's Civil Division, which oversees the majority of immigration enforcement issues for the department, has drafted a "civil complaint" that would be filed in federal court in Arizona, sources said.

The draft complaint challenges the Arizona law as unconstitutional, saying it is illegal because it impedes federal law, according to the sources, who would not offer any more details about the draft complaint or the arguments made in it.

Liveshots is a FoxNews blog.

"Allusions to Hitler are incessantly and recklessly employed concerning the Arizona immigration law SB1070," writes Eileen F. Toplansky at American Thinker.

"The name-callers merely prove, yet again, how a disregard for history leads to hysteria but not to any real solutions to a genuine security problem," Toplansky argues.

According to the writer's footnote, Toplansky was "active in the 1970s writing campaign to free Russian Jewish refuseniks" and "continues to speak out against tyranny."

A GOP candidate "in rural Idaho faced an eve-of-election accusation of plagiarising a famous speech by his ideological foe President Barack Obama," reports the UK Telegraph.

These kinds of unethical practices, if true, damage Vaughn Ward as a political figure, and they harm those who, like Sarah Palin, have supported him. 

And mystery writer/screenwriter Roger Simon at Pajamas Media likes the direction -- and pace at which -- they're moving.

Related
How the New Resistance Can Win the Culture War

Hat tip: Big Hollywood

If a Democratic member of Congress is to be believed, there's someone in the Obama administration who has committed a crime -- and if the president knew about it, analysts say it could be grounds for impeachment," reports WorldNetDaily.

"Support for repeal of the new national healthcare plan has jumped to its highest level ever," Newsmax reports.

"A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 63 percent of U.S. voters now favor repeal of the plan congressional Democrats passed and President Obama signed into law in March."

Lawmakers in the Tennessee House of Representatives "voted 67-27 in favor of a measure brought by state Rep. Joe Carr, R-Lascassas, that commended Arizona for having 'the initiative and the courage ... to protect their citizens and the borders of our great nation,'" reports Tennessean.com.

Hat tip: Greg Webster at Facebook

"Reminiscent of the white-hooded Ku Klux Klan showing up to terrorize families in their homes, the Service Employees International Union (SIEU) and a Chicago group called National Political Action showed up at the Maryland home of Greg Baer, deputy general counsel for corporate affairs at Bank of America last Sunday," Connie Hair writes at Human Events.

"The White House has yet to denounce the muscle flexing by their SEIU buddies whose purpose was to intimidate the senior bank executive and make him an example to all those who might oppose the Democrats’ new finance bill now headed for conference with the House and Senate," Hair notes.

"Baer wasn’t home that Sunday but his 14-year-old son was home alone. And frightened."

Something is wrong in a country when political allies of the president can, with impunity, invade private property and send a 14-year-old boy cowering inside a locked bathroom.

And by the way, you may have noticed: The formerly mainstream press isn't exactly on top of this story. That's because it no longer accepts a vision of life that respects truth, objectivity, and the dignity of the individual, and has instead given itself over to varieties and diversities of political passions, bigotries, and stereotypes.

America the free, America the exceptional, awaits -- no, demands -- a politics and media of truth, so that we might move forward in liberty and dignity on the basis of Constitutional and Declarational norms.

How long before we hear screams in the night, Mr. Obama? 

Related
Obama Thugs Storm Private Home

"After two cases of alleged criminals going door-to-door to take surveys, Alabama Sen. Richard Shelby said Monday that the U.S. Census Bureau must do more to prevent hiring census takers with a criminal background," reports FoxNews.com.

"In a letter to Commerce Secretary Gary Locke sent Monday, Shelby wrote that when he asked Locke during a Senate hearing last year about guidelines to disqualify applicants, including sex offenders and people who've committed crimes against children, he was told the measures would ensure 'each applicant is an acceptable risk to collect census information from residents of a community as a representative of our government'."

"That grainy, sleazy undercover video of Sarah Ferguson selling access to Prince Andrew!

"It's making Beltway clutch at our pearls," exclaims Julie Mason at Beltway Confidential.

"Gingrich was a revolutionary until he got power," writes Joseph Farah at WorldNetDaily. "Then he became the politician, again. Ask most members of the freshman class of 1994 who betrayed the 'Republican Revolution' and they will tell you Gingrich did."

"Revered by some Jamaicans as a Robin Hood but accused by U.S. prosecutors of running a dangerously violent global drug ring, Christopher 'Dudus' Coke has set the island on a knife's edge," reports AFP.

You might say midterm House Democrat freshmen are running for their political lives -- away from El Presidente Obama, according to a report at Newsmax.

"Joseph Squires was sentenced to a total of 22 months," reports the UK Independent.

By why?

All around us are 60s radicals, secularists, and sexual "progressives" who espouse "no boundaries" and "'love' without limits."

So please, somebody stand up for this man's transpecies communication rights.

Like, dude. Who died and created an absolute line of demarcation between animal existence and the human being?

Or are we all transpeciesphobists?

What say you, San Francisco?

"Two of the three Americans held for months in an Iranian prison have become engaged and plan to marry after they are released, according to their mothers," reports the UK Telegraph.

Happy couple Shane Bauer and Sarah Shourd expect to get hitched as soon as they untie the knot. 

"President Barack Obama’s nominee to head the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which runs Medicare, is a strong supporter of the government-run health care system in Britain," reports CNSNews.com.

That nominee would be Donald Berwick, who in a 2009 interview on Comparative Effectiveness Research said, "The decision is not whether or not we will ration care -- the decision is whether we will ration with our eyes open."  

Andrea Tantaros writes at FoxNews.com:

This past Sunday [May 16], in one of the most aggressive and offensive intimidation tactics to date, hundreds of members of the largest union -- the SEIU -- stormed the front yard of Bank of America deputy general counsel Greg Baer’s home. The angry mob had bullhorns, signs and even broke the law by trespassing to bully Baer’s teenage son, the only one home at the time, who locked himself in the bathroom out of fear.

"If you think the unions are working alone, think again," Tantaros writes.

"These protests, the ones storming Wall Street bank lobbies and now the private homes of bankers, are likely being carefully coordinated with the White House to increase their profile against the financial fat cats and help pass disgraced Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd’s financial regulatory bill," she writes.

"Remember, when the White House visitor records were finally made public, it was SEIU boss Andy Stern who was the most frequent guest."

In "What's Really Behind the SEIU's Bank of America Proests?," Nina Easton recalls that the intimidations of that Sunday were preceded by "a peaceful, sun-crisp afternoon" during which her toddler was "finally napping upstairs." And then, suddenly, "my front yard exploded with 500 screaming, placard-waving strangers on a mission to intimidate my neighbor, Greg Baer."

Baer, Easton continues, "is deputy general counsel for corporate law at Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500), a senior executive based in Washington, D.C. And that -- in the minds of the organizers at the politically influential Service Employees International Union and a Chicago outfit called National Political Action -- makes his family fair game."

If Baer and his family can be targeted by allies of Barack Obama, who in America might be next? Who in principle in Barack Obama's America can count their families safe? 

If private homes and properties can be targeted by allies of the current regime, while police stand by and do nothing, who in America can escape the intimidations of community-organized anger, especially when bused-in "neighbors" have friends in "high places"?

What does this direct action ("get in your neighbor's face") tell us about the current regime occupying the White House in Washington, D.C.? Are we possibly witnessing the rise here in America of private armies and shirts brown and black that we know about in the not distant history of Germany and Italy? And how should America -- the mainstream of America as defined by the Declaration and Constitution -- respond? 

"I was offered a job," Democrat Rep. Joe Sestak told NBC's David Gregory on "Meet the Press" yesterday. 

The point of the job offer was to induce Sestak to drop out of the Pennsylvania Democrat primary against Sen. Arlen Specter, who lost.

"Someone in the White House is in deep legal trouble," writes Rick Moran at American Thinker, "the kind that gets you sent off to jail."

Raymond Tallis writes at Timesonline:

Craig Venter, the flamboyant US molecular biologist and entrepreneur, has been at it again. Not content with first-equal position in the race to give a complete description of the human genome, he has now announced that his team have created the world’s first synthetic life form. The editor of the journal Artificial Life has described this as “a defining moment in biology”. Dr Venter himself has claimed that his success has changed his “view of the definition of life and of how life works”.

Well, he would do, wouldn’t he? Before we get too excited, we should note that he has not actually “created artificial life”, as the headlines proclaim. He has synthesised DNA from basic chemicals; but lone DNA is not life. More, much more is needed. In this case, it was provided by an existing bacterium whose usual humble duty is to cause mastitis in goats. Into this the DNA was inserted. Yes, the resulting minute organism was new life but nearly all of that new life was taken off the shelf from nature.

J.P. Freire writes at Beltway Confidential:

This time it is actual clear-cut stealing, not just cushy benefits -- the General Services Administration inspector general reports that employees of the Federal Protective services used government purchase cards to buy gold coins, flat-screen televisions, and even gym memberships."

Steal the wealth.

Spread the wealth.

Lack of accountability.

Yeah, that sounds like Washington.  

England football star David Beckham said "he was 'humbled' by the bravery of British troops on a surprise visit to Afghanistan," reports the UK Telegraph.

According to the Telegraph, Beckham said:

"I have nothing but admiration for these young men and women and it makes me very proud to be British.

"I've wanted to visit Afghanistan for a long time and I hope that in some small way it helps remind everyone at home what an amazing job they are doing out here in very difficult conditions. I feel very humble."

His comments, and a photo of him testing a heavy machine gun, place him in stark contrast to "Hanoi Jane" Fonda, who was photographed posing happily on a Communist anti-aircraft gun used to down U.S. pilots during the Vietnam War.

Here is a YouTube video explaining in strong language how avowed socialist Jane Fonda earned the name, and may be forever remembered in history as, Hanoi Jane.

"Broader newspaper archival searches have continued to turn up claims by Attorney General Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut that he was a Vietnam War veteran, even though he did not serve in the war," reports Raymond Hernandez at the New York Times.

Related
White House Stands Behind Blumenthal
Beyond Blumenthal and the Party of Liars

Barack's strategery? "Ride the wave of anti-incumbency," writes Carol Lee at Politico.

Before Obama & Co. head very far down that road, they may want to avail themselves of Larry Elder's "It's Not 'Anti-Incumbency,' But 'Anti-Liberalism'."

"The founder of the group Jews for Jesus has died after a long battle with prostate cancer," reports AP. "Moishe Rosen was 78."

The AP quotes Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs: "I have not heard anything from the [White House] political shop that would lead me to believe anything other than our continued support."

Related
Beyond Blumenthal and the Party of Liars

Writing at American Thinker, Bruce Walker asserts that Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal did not merely "mispeak" about his service "in Vietnam."

"Richard Blumenthal did more than lie about his military service," Walker writes. "He lied about lying. This is a special moral pathology of the left."

It does seem true that the left, which embraces an ethical relativism that says the ends justifies the means, has also therefore embraced lying as an acceptable political tactic. 

However, as I suggest in "Lies, Veterans, Memories, and Blumenthals," by no means does the left have a corner on lying.

In matters of religion, spirituality, politics, science, academia, ministry, entertainment, etc., etc., where there is power, fame, image, legacy, reputation, resumes, and money at stake, it will serve you well to follow the Creator's admonition to free-thinking people everywhere: "Test everything."

This humane and Biblical realism about imperfect human beings grasping after leadership is one of the blessings of liberty and stands at the foundation of liberty. The truth, and demanding the truth, is what will set you free.

Related
Francis Schaeffer, the Religious Right, Cultural Decline, and Aping the World

But John Morton, who leads the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), says the "feds may not 'process' illegals arrested" by the states, reports WorldNetDaily.

"I don't think the Arizona law, or laws like it, are the solution," Morton says.

And "Spanish newspapers have finally called out the U.S. President for choosing a failed model for a 'Green Economy'," writes David Freddoso at Beltway Confidential.

Furthermore, writes Larry Elder in a column on the recent elections, Newsweek may spout, "We're all socialists now," but American voters say, "No . . . . We are not."

"As Mexican President Felipe Calderon ripped Arizona's new law clamping down on illegal immigrants in front of Congress on Thursday, Democrats and White House officials rose to their feet to cheer," according to a report at FoxNews.com.

Among those reportedly applauding the president of Mexico were "Attorney General Eric Holder and Homeland Security Janet Napolitano -- two officials who have confessed to not even reading the law."

It is of little surprise that this performance "isn't sitting well with officials from states along the border." 

"Bertrand Delanoë, the art-loving Mayor of Paris, had some explaining to do last night," reports the UK Timesonline. "A masked man had just climbed into the Musée d’Art Moderne and helped himself to five masterpieces -- including a Picasso, a Matisse and a Modigliani."

According to the Times, "The Pink Panther-style raid, which netted works insured at €100 million (£85.4 million) was one of the biggest art thefts in decades. Christophe Girard, Mr Delanoë’s Deputy Mayor in charge of Culture, was flummoxed."

"The 18ft high posters of the Nazi leader advertise a line of clothing for young people and adorn street corners and bus stops in Palermo, Sicily's biggest city," reports the UK Telegraph.

"The Hitler poster was a tongue-in-cheek way of encouraging young people not to follow the crowd in their fashion choices," according to the Telegraph.

It seems that dashing self-described Vietnam war veteran Richard Blumenthal (otherwise known as the attorney general of Connecticut) "may have helped organize a Toys for Tots drive as a member of the Marine Corps Reserve, according to the New York Times," writes George Neumayr at American Spectator.

"This task, among other stateside ones, became in Blumenthal's telling over the years 'service in Vietnam.' He says now that he simply misspoke -- that he meant to say he served 'during' the Vietnam war, not 'in' the Vietnam war."

"Oops!"

Said the lawyer.

After being presented with the videotape.

A friend of mine once asked whether a certain famous household name would "lie through his teeth" about a certain matter -- the pretended authorship of a book that would help his PR image as a great Christian intellect, for example.

Well, given the design of the human body, there really isn't much of an alternative. One could try smoke signals, I suppose. But this may upset the rhythm of an awards dinner, religious conference, or Capitol Hill press event.

The physiological fact is that most lying requires a "lying through one's teeth." And sometimes, unfortunately, a bigger audience and a bigger lie make for a more effective "lying through one's teeth."

This technique is not quite a trade secret known to assorted conmen in politics, science, religion, journalism, and bus terminals.

In fact, the next time you want to see that kind of practice on display, simply watch a member of the federal government swear allegiance to protect and defend the U.S. Constitution. No one is saying everyone who takes the oath these days is lying, but one might not be in the wrong to conclude that the truth-tellers in this instance are in the minority.

What's the answer?

For a good start, try this: "Test everything." That is, practice a healthy and humane skepticism rooted in truth about who we are as imperfect creatures (by choice) nevertheless striving for wholeness and perfection because we are, after all, still created in the image of God.

We are broken, yes, but not destroyed. Marred, yes, but not pieces of junk to discard.

And so, in politics, religion, ministry, science, schooling, and car sales: Test everything. Examine what is said and what is done. Do not accept anything "on faith" -- that is, on the basis of that weakened, nonbiblical concept of "faith" acceptable to the ACLU and privatized religious circles today. Instead, maintain your critical distance and follow the evidence wherever it leads.

Testing everything is essential to who you are as a human being, created in the image of God -- a God, by the way, who is a verifiable public figure who puts a premium on human brain power and freedom of thought.

And so also, a proper critical distance is essential to living freely and with dignity in what is now a broken world. As you may have noticed, it is a world full of imperfect people, some of whom want to control every aspect of your lives and don't mind applying requisite doses of propaganda, violence, and oppression to get the job done.

By way of contrast, in their Judeo-Christian realism, rooted in history, the Founders understood the fallibility of man. And certainly we should understand that nothing magical happens just because a guy or gal with a smile, honest eyes, and a great handshake occupies the White House, sits on Capitol Hill, stands behind a pulpit, carries a Ph.D. around, wears a white coat, or has "written" 27 books.

"Test everything" won't guarantee perfection in an imperfect world, but it will open the door to what thinker Francis Schaeffer called "substantial healing" in our daily lives, including our political lives.

In the struggle against those who "lie through their teeth" to advance their agendas, a critical distance that leads to substantial healing in human freedom beats magical thinking every time.

It's one of the "blessings of liberty" from the One who gives the blessings that the federal government does not have and, therefore, can never ever give. This is one way you know, for all of the pie-in-the-sky promises of a secular Heaven on earth of "equality," the government is not God and nobody's Savior. 

One could say or suggest otherwise, but that would be to lie through one's teeth.

"The Pentagon’s 'Don't ask, don't tell' policy will be nothing but a memory by year's end, Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) declared Wednesday," reports The Hill.

"Britain's first ever television advert for abortion is to be aired next week despite a ban on the commercials and campaigners threatening a legal challenge," reports the UK Telegraph.

From AFP:

A Pakistani army major has been arrested in connection with the failed bombing earlier this month in New York's Times Square, The Washington Post reported.

"There was a bit of buzz today about the possibility of [former NY Gov. Elliot] Spitzer stepping in as a sub for CNN's Campbell Brown," writes Celeste Katz at the Daily News. "But the former gov has said it's not happening."

OK. But something else could be happening.

For there also is buzz about Spitzer's joining the panel of a "'head-butting debate' show," which would not be the same as "subbing" for short-termer Brown.

CNN is "considering bringing in disgraced former New York Gov. Eliot Spitzer" as part of a "'head-butting debate' show," reports the Washington Examiner.

Did you know that Campbell Brown has been CNN's news anchor at 8:00 p.m. eastern?

That's why she's quitting. 

AP reports:

Confronting soaring frustration over illegal immigration, President Barack Obama on Wednesday condemned Arizona's crackdown and pushed instead for a federal fix the nation could embrace. He said that will never happen without Republican support, pleading: "I need some help."

In asking anew for an immigration overhaul, Obama showed solidarity with his guest of honor, Mexican President Felipe Calderon, who called Arizona's law discriminatory and warned Mexico would reject any effort to "criminalize migration."

"Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan has expended a great deal of intellectual energy searching for a rationalization that would preserve freedom of speech for viewpoints she likes while imposing government controls on speech she does not like," writes editor and columnist Terry Jeffrey.

"Back in 1984, when the late Jeane J. Kirkpatrick gave her famous 'Blame America First' speech to the Republican National Convention, liberals at least waited for something bad to happen before blaming America," writes columnist Michelle Malkin.

"Today, Obama Democrats have now mastered the treacherous art of the pre-emptive global apology. Foggy Bottom is crammed with so many 'human rights' zealots embarrassed by the country they serve that the State Department mission statement should be replaced with a condolence card."

Malkin notes that "Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor Michael Posner is probably not the first Obama State Department official to badmouth America in front of foreign delegations. He was just dumb enough to get caught."

Roll the Videotape: In this Fox News interview, we learn that Assistant Secretary of State Philip Crowley joins Obama administration standouts Eric Holder and Janet Napolitano in criticizing the Arizona immigration law that they have not read (or reviewed "in detail," as Napolitano nuances it).

"What's going on here?" asks the Fox interviewer. 

Indeed, what is going on? How would you describe the Obama administration?

a) Amateur Hour -- Think, keystone politicians

b) Ideology Hour -- That is, an aggressive political machine devoted to imposing its message instead of serving the American people on the basis of the rule of law (as written, and read). Let us be clear: Taking time to read the "misguided" Arizona immigration law simply distracts Obama's lockstep army from the political need of the moment to push America in whatever direction demanded by their great leader.   

c) Radical Hour -- That is, an extremist movement demonstrating what it means to live under a "living" Constitution with "living" law, rejecting the defining and enduring American mainstream as set forth by the Declaration (as written) and U.S. Constitution (as written), and replacing the good rules for freedom with the bad rules for statism, secularism, and enslavement to greed, power, and control snarling out of Washington, D.C.

The choice for Americans who prefer freedom and dignity over against unfreedom and indignity becomes clearer not just with each passing day, but with each passing interview with members of this sad joke of an arbitrary and dangerous regime currently occupying the White House.

The November elections are beginning to look more and more like D-Day, June 6, 1944 -- a days of days when Allied forces hit the beaches to begin liberating a continent from the bootheel of oppression and darkness.

Philip Klein writes:

The difference between a Jewish liberal and a Jewish conservative is that when a Jewish liberal walks out of the Holocaust Museum, he feels, "This shows why we need to have more tolerance and multiculturalism." The Jewish conservative feels, "We should have killed a lot more Nazis, and sooner."

What's more important, asks Lloyd Marcus, the color of your skin, the color of Obama's skin, or your commitment to Christ?

That's the word from CBS's Bob Schieffer, of the formerly mainstream media.

Lisa Richards writes at News Real Blog:

Tolerance for actual racists has run amok in America.  Lockstepping to leftist philosophical ideology, no matter how wrong, dangerous, idiotic, or racist, has infected America in high proportions.

Islam, the most xenophobic religion on earth, attacked America on 9/11, massacring over 3,000 human beings, but the atrocity is meaningless to leftists, who cater to racist religions and organizations, while repudiating protection and preservation of America.

The latest slap in the face by government leftists comes from New York City: the Islamic organization Cordoba Initiative wants to build a 13-story Islamic mosque two blocks from Ground Zero, the section of New York City attacked by Islam.

"The left pretends to be the biggest champion of free speech," writes Bruce Walker at American Thinker.

In fact, the "left is utterly wedded to thought control," Walker argues. "Like all sibling totalitarianisms, the left in America is addicted to power and repelled by truth."

From Tom Tancredo, in a column at WorldNetDaily:

Examples abound of how the mainstream media intentionally ignore and downplay the dangers from America's real enemies, the Islamic jihadists and Reconquista radicals, while painting conservatives as extremists.

Fortunately, most Americans are not duped by this biased news coverage and continue to demand secure borders and strong measures against Islamic terrorists.

Related
How Formerly Mainstream Media Have "Reported" on the Tea Party Movement

This cartoon by Michael Ramirez spotlights why the services of the attorney general of the United States are no longer required and Mr. Eric Holder has "got to go."

It would be nice to have government in Washington that read, respected, and obeyed the laws of this land, as written -- beginning with, let us say, the Declaration of Independence and the U.S. Constitution. 

This is what good public servants are supposed to do.

Bad public servants, however, have not the time for such trifling. Bad public servants view the Declaration and Constitution as distractions.

This is why not only Mr. Holder but also the entire unconstitutional Obama regime has got to go.

The American people must uproot this regressive weed and replace it with the Tree of Liberty once again planted in the soil of freedom.

Related
How the New Resistance Can Win the Culture War

Roger Hedgecock writes at Human Events:

The left excoriates the "fascism" of the Arizona law (SB 1070) requiring immigrants to carry proof of legal status or risk being turned over by state law officers to federal authorities. 

Arizona residents of every ethnic background want other Americans to know how violent and out of control life in Arizona has become because the federal government will not enforce its own immigration law.

Related
Hey, Obama, Show Us Your Papers
Illegal Immigrant Arrested for Sexually Assaulting 6-Year-Old Girl

Extremist "Educator" Suzan Hebson Strikes Again: "The school official who nixed an Illinois girls high school basketball team trip to Arizona once supported a controversial program that required students to attend a 'freshman advisory' class where" so-called "gay upperclassmen shared stories of their high school experience with new students," reports Fox News. 

Here is a Facebook page calling for the firing of Hebson, who is the District 113 assistant superintendent in Highland Park, IL.

The Facebook page supplies the contact information below and asks concerned citizens to "keep the comments civil . . . please!"

District 113 Superintendent
George Fornero
District 113 Asst. Superintendent
Suzan Hebson
433 Vine Avenue
Highland Park, IL 60035-2099
(224) 765-2000
shebson@dist113.org

Pamela Geller writes at Human Events:

The Community Board for New York City’s financial district last week unanimously approved the construction of a 13-story mosque and Islamic cultural center right across from Ground Zero. . . .

The very idea of building a mosque at Ground Zero is a manifestation of Islamic domination and expansionism. The location is no accident. Just as it was no accident that the Al-Aqsa Mosque was built on top of the Temple in Jerusalem.

And what about the Hagia Sophia, the ancient cathedral of the church of Constantinople, which was the grandest church in Christendom at the time it was built in the 6th century and for 1,000 years thereafter? It was converted to a mosque in 1453 when the Muslims conquered Constantinople. Now it is a museum, but Islamic prayers are allowed in it while Christian prayers are not. It is now, of course, the Aya Sofya mosque -- they didn’t change the name, just Islamified it.

"Free Americans are not taking this lying down," Geller concludes. "Stop Islamization of America, the new group I have started with bestselling author and Islam expert Robert Spencer, is planning a rallies at Ground Zero on D-Day, June 6, and again on September 10 to say: No 9/11 Mosque!"

In "Mystery of Barack Obama Continues," Steve Baldwin writes at the Western Center for Journalism:

Everywhere one looks into Obama’s background, we find sealed records, scrubbed websites, altered documents, deception and unanswered questions.

Can anyone imagine for a second if John McCain or George Bush had blocked access to his school, medical, and birth records?  It would have been headlines but as with everything else concerning Obama, the media has given him a pass on this.

Of all these marvels, the latest mystery and probably most perplexing is that of Obama’s social security number. It appears that Obama has multiple identities in term of possessing numerous social security numbers. . . .

All told, there are 49 addresses and 16 different Social Security numbers listed for a person whose name is spelled “Barack Obama.” In some cases, the middle initial “H” is listed.

If you were to expand the search to include closely related names such as: “Barac,” “Barak,” and “Barrack” Obama, you would find more than a dozen additional addresses and Social Security numbers. . . .

[T]he one Social Security number Obama most frequently used, the one beginning with 042, is a number issued in Connecticut sometime during 1976-1977, yet there is no record of Obama ever living or working in Connecticut. Indeed, during this time period Obama would have been 15-16 years old and living in Hawaii at the time.

Hat Tip: Lynn Campbell

One's responsibility to prove you are lawfully inside the borders of the United States, say, in Arizona, has met with charges of racism. Contra the "misguided" views of Obama on these matters, I as a naturalized citizen would offer a few comments.

I grew up in Germany, Kentucky, Ohio, Florida, and Georgia, and have always enjoyed the diversity of life, including racial diversity.

Without a doubt, the most virulent racist I ever met was working at a magazine in Washington, D.C. She was black. Fanatical. Narrow-minded. One big guilt trip.

And there was also a black guy in a car speeding down Massachusetts Avenue on Capitol Hill, encouraging me to "move my white ---" as he flew by. He kept on driving, so I can't really say I got to know him very well.

This was during a time when I intervened to stop two black guys from pounding the horse-hockey out of another black guy. In the middle of the road. Cars stopped. The two were ramming the guy's head onto the pavement of New York Avenue time and again. Eventually a plainsclothe detective arrived waving a gun and arrested the attackers.

In its rejection of the Creator, and by exchanging the good created diversity of color with the bad diversity of idolizing color, liberal ideology has laid the groundwork for not just more racism but actual race warfare.

Secular statists would be more than happy to use the crisis of race antagonism bred by liberalism to justify the continued growth of the current unconstitutional, anti-Declarational regime in Washington, D.C., to which both major parties have contributed.

Arizona is just another offshoot of this disease. Rather than deal with the legitimate issue of protecting one's borders from an illegal invasion, it appears that some folks have had their minds polluted with racist categories and stereotypes.

A body -- whether national or physical -- that does not protect itself from invasion will die. Resistance to death is good -- it is part of the essence of who we are as created in the image of God.

Accusations of racism, blah, blah, blah, are attempts to get people to let down their God-given protections against sin, death, and decay. Only fools will listen to such rubbish. As in Nehemiah's day, a wise man will join with others, under God, to protect each other even while they rebuild the walls.

Related
Crying "Racism!" to Divide and Conquer
Racism! Racism! And Oh by the Way: Racism!
How to Have a Race War
How the New Resistance Can Win the Culture War

Note: "Hey, Obama, Show Us Your Papers," slightly edited for publication here, first appears in Facebook.

As this interchange available at YouTube reveals, the answer a Hamas-supporting UC San Diego student eventually gives a couple of days ago is more ominous than a mere "No."

There is more on this "confused, chilling cold-blooded woman" at The Anchoress at First Things.

Hat tip: Reader of The Pearcey Report

"The 20-year-old illegal immigrant arrested for sexually assaulting a 6-year old girl at an Albuquerque gym on Tuesday had been accused of raping children before," reports KRQE.com.

"After he was arrested, he told police he liked to touch children."

Here is news video on the arrest of Juan Gonzalez.

"Police realized that Juan Gonzalez is an illegal immigrant when on Tuesday night they asked for an ID and it indicated that he was a Mexican national," reports Jim Winchester of KRQE.

A "shop owner was stabbed at least eight times for just $200 by four youths who arrived and fled on bicycles," reports the New Zealand Herald.

"A woman appeared in court today charged with the murder of a faith healer who promised his clients he could solve their problems by sacrificing a camel," reports the U.K. Independent.

Apparently, the faith healer, a Mr. Jabbi, "had come to the UK from Gambia and had taken up spiritual healing to earn money.

"He promised people he could rid them of evil spirits, often claiming he would order a camel to be sacrificed in his native country in return for large sums of money."

There are many reasons to follow the Creator's admonition that free thinkers created in His image "test everything."

This is one of them.

Many more abound in religion, science, education, and, oh yes, politics.

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The Evil Religious Presidents Do

"Thieves have stolen a cross in the Mojave Desert that honored American war dead, less than two weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the religious symbol to remain on federal land," reports AP.

The culprits are probably members of the Tea Party, some might say. Trying to claim victim status and deflect attention away from their other racist friends in the movement, some might say. Time to round up the usual suspects, inspector Obama.

"Police officers have been given the right to take days off to dance naked on the solstices, celebrate fertility rituals and burn Yule logs if they profess pagan beliefs," reports the U.K. Times.

"The Pagan Police Association claimed yesterday that it had been recognised by the Home Office as a 'diversity staff support association' -- a status also enjoyed by groups representing female, black, gay, Muslim and disabled officers."

Yes, there will dancing in the streets and sacred groves. But all may not be well, according to the Times. For "there is unease in policing circles that the widening definition of diversity is creating a morass of organisations based on religion, gender and sexual orientation that appear to emphasise division."

"It has taken the keen eye of a Queensland University of Technology physicist to spot a 99-year-old mistake in the Oxford English Dictionary," reports Marissa Calligeros in the Brisbane Times.

"The world premiere of the abortion industry exposé Blood Money has been delayed by what its producers say was the pressure that pro-abortion activists put on the owner of the theatre where the film was to feature," reports LifeSiteNew.com.

Blood Money trailer: "Our goal was 3-5 abortions from every girl between the ages of 13 and 18."

Here is the Blood Money website.

The fascist barbarism known as abortion-on-demand must end.

May this exposé of that ugly, grisly, dehumanizing, and immoral business contribute to the death of abortionism.

Readers of The Pearcey Report and Pro-Existence, not to mention "Friends of Rick" in and out of Casablanca, might enjoy knowing your always thankful editor and publisher is quoted by Bob Unruh in "Alarm Bells Sounding Over Kagan's Agenda," published yesterday evening in WorldNetDaily.

For the full context of the quotes, please see "Grounds to Reject Elena Kagan Nomination to the Supreme Court."

"In her undergraduate thesis at Princeton, President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court, Elena Kagan, lamented the decline of socialism in the country as 'sad' for those who still hope to 'change America'," reports Aaron Klein at WorldNetDaily.  

"Titled 'To the Final Conflict: Socialism in New York City, 1900-1933,' Kagan opined that infighting caused the decline of the early socialist movement. She asked why the 'greatness' of socialism was not reemerging as a major political force."

Under the category of nice but not germane regarding Obama's pick for the High Court comes this from Mark Sherman at AP: "Solicitor General Elena Kagan would be the first person in 38 years to join the Supreme Court without first serving as a judge. She's had a year as perhaps the next best thing."

OK. But let us also be aware of a set of basic questions that should lay a baseline for deciding whether Kagan is qualified to serve on the U.S. Supreme Court.

Questions such as this: Does Kagan stand in the enduring definitional mainstream of American thought and practice? Or is she outside of the mainstream that really matters?

That is, does she affirm the Constitution and the Declaration, both as written and not as merely "living" documents that can be essentially rewritten by creatures of the federal government as they see fit and as opinion polls or gun barrels seem to allow?

And does she affirm, along with the Founders, the centrality of the Declaration's Creator who is the basis of unalienable rights and the giver of the "blessings of liberty"?

And does she affirm the federal government as a limited enterprise authorized by "We the People" under God and limited in its authority to the precise wording of the Constitution and Bill of Rights?

If Kagan affirms in thought and practice these basics, then she operates philosophically within the liberating mainstream of the enduring meaning of the American ideal.

If she does not, then she is an individual outside of the American mainstream.

And to the degree that she is outside of that enduring mainstream, she would to that degree be an open door to (or advocate of) extremism against freedom and the rule of law rooted ultimately in the existence and character of the Creator from whom human beings receive their freedoms, responsibilities, and unalienable rights.

Kagan's life story, personal character, judicial temperament, and professional background matter much.

But their importance pales in comparison to basic questions regarding whether she understands and accepts the enduring American mainstream and its Founding rules for freedom. Or whether she is a kind of Obama court crony, a "judicial community organizer" estranged from that mainstream and yet another extremist move away from freedom and toward its opposite. 

If the evidence shows Elena Kagan is a radical outside of the enduring American mainstream, she should not be confirmed, for no one who rejects the rules of freedom should sit on the High Court, whose purpose is to protect freedom under the rule of constitutional law.

Barack Obama's selection of Elena Kagan is a strategic and teachable moment in U.S. history. After she is confirmed -- or not -- Americans will have moved either a step toward or further away from freedom and dignity under God.

It's hard to have a "shining city on a hill" when courts in the city are dark to liberty.

"The old Religious Left has long championed virtual open borders and slammed national sovereignty as idolatrous," writes Mark Tooley at Frontpage.

"Now the new Evangelical Left is chiming in with its own sentimentalization of illegal immigration, identifying Jesus Christ Himself as an illegal immigrant."

Aaron Klein will appear on the Fox Business Network at 5 p.m. Eastern to discuss The Manchurian President: Barack Obama's Ties to Communists, Socialists, and Other Anti-American Extremists.

Brenda J. Elliot and Aaron Klein are coauthors of the book, which is currently no. 16 at Amazon.

Crying racism is a tactic to divide and conquer. Its power, however, relies on the presence of a worldview that secularists such as Obama, Sharpton, Democrats, and corrupted Republicans depise: The historic Judeo-Christian worldview.

It is that verifiable worldview -- where men and women are created as unique individuals equal in worth, significance, and dignity in the image of a personal God -- which gives an adequate moral and philosophical basis for rejecting racism and embracing liberating diversity within the circle of creation.

If Obama and the secularists are successful in removing Christians and Christianity from the public square, they will have removed the basis for decrying the racism they say they detest.

If Obama and the secularists succeed, they will have opened wide a door to a host of new racist demons, perhaps more powerful than anything Martin Luther King and his generation had to face, because now the racism will have an unchecked ideological home in the White House, on Capitol Hill, and across sectors of the political culture at large.

We will see the growth and development of white racism, red racism, black racism, brown racism, and so on -- as people seek to find some way of organizing and protecting themselves from arbitrary power in government and elsewhere, in a divided society that has lost its constitutional moorings based on the Declaration worldview of a Creator who gives the "blessings of liberty."

The chaos of murder, kidnappings, drugs, and unrest in Arizona is just the lastest flashpoint. The turmoil we see bespeaks a troubling recipe for race division and even race warfare.

Meanwhile, in the background stands an ever-growing federalistic state ready to "help" -- that is, to use such a crisis or series of crises to impose secularized, arbitrary controls over a people who once considered themselves blessed in freedom and dignity under God instead of housed, fed, and taken care of by the state.

Every step forward on the basis of racist tactics of divide and conquer is a step backwards for race relations in America. If Obama and gang succeed, freedom in America fails.

A people and a nation become what they behold.

Related
Racism! Racism! And Oh by the Way: Racism!
How to Have a Race War
How the New Resistance Can Win the Culture War

Dominique Pastre writes at Fox's Row 2, Seat 4: 

After meeting with the president on Wednesday to discuss the [Supreme Court] vacancy [that arises from the retirement of Justice John Paul Stevens], Utah Republican Orrin Hatch blasted Mr. Obama for being "selective" about what he wants justices to defer to Congress. 

"He wants them to use values that are not within the Constitution to strike down legislation that he does not like, but wants them to ignore values that are in our written Constitution to uphold legislation that he does like," Hatch said in a speech at the Cato Institute.  

"Judges, just like presidents and senators, take an oath to support and defend the Constitution, not core constitutional values."

The only truly living Constitution is the real one, the written one, the one with words that have meaning, the point of which is to defend a government and Declaration way of life based on a real and verifiable Creator who is the giver of the "blessings of liberty" and the only adequate basis for "unalienable rights."

It's not up to any Washington politician to impose upon a free and dignified people his private views on what constitutes the Constitution's "core values."

Please, Mr. Obama, uphold the constitutional Oath of Office (Art II, Sec 1, Clause 8). No more, no less.

Instead of serving up liberal gobbledygook about "core constitutional values," please simply "preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution of the United States."

Please, Mr. Obama, uphold the constitutional Oath of Office. No more, no less.

That character, and not the mere pigmentation of your skin, would be truly historic.

"Former New York Giants star Lawrence Taylor has been arrested in conjunction with a rape investigation in suburban New York, according to local authorities," writes Dan Graziano at NFL Fanhouse.

"LoHud.com, the website for The Journal News, reported that the alleged victim in the case is a 15-year-old girl from New York."

"The Rev. Franklin Graham, who last month was officially 'dis-invited' by the Army to speak at a National Day of Prayer ceremony at the Pentagon for statements he made about Islam, said he will not back down in preaching the Gospel as he sees it," reports CNSNews.com. 

"'We’re living in a time where we cannot compromise, we cannot back up, we cannot retreat,' Graham said Wednesday during a live Webcast from the Washington, D.C. offices of the Family Research Council," according to CNSNews.

Related
Prayer at the Pentagon
Franklin Graham: Obama "Giving Islam a Pass," Warns of Persecution

"The question has to be asked, now that a second YouTube video has surfaced in which Michelle Obama refers to her husband as 'a Kenyan'," writes Thomas Lifson at American Thinker.

"The arrest of a street preacher has renewed concern over religious freedom for Christians in the UK," reports Jenna Lyle in Christian Today.

"Dale McAlpine, 42, was arrested in his home town of Workington, in Cumbria, last month after he mentioned homosexuality as one of a number of sins listed in the Bible, alongside idolatry, blasphemy, fornication, and drunkenness," Lyle writes.

Among the concerned is "commentator and author Peter Hitchens," who "warned that British society was moving closer to the point where a person could be prosecuted for saying in public that homosexual acts are wrong," Lyle continues. Peter Hitchens is the brother of noted atheist Christopher Hitchens.

"The Public Order Act of 1986," Peter Hitchens is quoted as saying, "was not meant to permit the arrest of Christian preachers in English towns for quoting from the Bible. But it has. The Civil Partnerships Act 2004 was not meant to force public servants to approve of homosexuality. But it has.

"The Sexual Offences Act of 1967 was not meant to lead to a state of affairs where it is increasingly dangerous to say anything critical about homosexuality. But it did."

Lyle concludes her report with this assessment from Hitchens: "We have travelled in almost no time from repression, through a brief moment of mutual tolerance, to a new repression."

Related
Christian Preacher Arrested for Saying Homosexuality a Sin

Lachlan Markay writes at Newsbusters:  

An online conservative radio group has started a petition site called Respect the Great Game to get Major League Baseball to drop Keith Olbermann as a contributor to its website.

The administrators of the Respect the Great Game site ask: "Why does Major League Baseball allow an individual who relishes hate speech to be associated with it?" They include a video compilation of some of  Olbermann's more colorful rants to illustrate their point.

Olbermann, a former sports broadcaster for ESPN, Fox, and NBC, is "a gifted speaker with a respectable grasp of the great game," according to the site, "but his nightly tirades on MSNBC are often aimed at the very people that fill the stands of baseball parks across our great land."

"Virgil Goode has joined the Constitution Party," writes W. James Antle III at American Spectator.

Mike Riggs at Daily Caller begins his analysis with NYC Mayor Mike Bloomberg's unfortunate comment that the would-be bomber could have been someone "that doesn't like the healthcare bill."

Lawrence Meyers at Big Hollywood comments on a recent Pew survey which found that only 33% said Hollywood "was having a positive effect" on the "way things are going in the country."

Fifty-one percent said Hollywood "was having a negative effect."

Perhaps not entirely surprising, TV "viewership is sharply declining," Meyers writes, "and box office admissions have been flat to down for the past several years."

Andrea Billups writes at Human Events:

Even as the Rev. Al Sharpton is being touted as the Obama Administration’s latest -- and increasingly connected -- ally on race relations, some are wondering if his presence on the scene of the Arizona immigration debate is hurting more than helping as heated battle lines over the state’s tough new law are drawn everywhere from Facebook to talk radio to state legislatures.

"Dale McAlpine was charged with causing 'harassment, alarm or distress' after a homosexual police community support officer (PCSO) overheard him reciting a number of 'sins' referred to in the Bible, including blasphemy, drunkenness and same sex relationships," reports the U.K. Telegraph.

According to the Telegraph, "The 42-year-old Baptist, who has preached Christianity in Wokington, Cumbria for years, said he did not mention homosexuality while delivering a sermon from the top of a stepladder, but admitted telling a passing shopper that he believed it went against the word of God."

The police allege that McAlpine "made the remark in a voice loud enough to be overheard by others and have charged him with using abusive or insulting language, contrary to the Public Order Act."