I thought all the "activist judges" were crazy liberals.

Judge: Parents Can't Teach Pagan Beliefs (Indianapolis Star).

Protecting our freedoms and keeping the world safe for democracy.

?Threatening? T-shirt barred from TCC - Tucson Citizen

I should start keeping a log of all the times members of Congress, the Cabinet, and State legislatures call on God for help in making important political decisions. Here's the most recent, from Senator Voinovich:

"After hours of deliberation, telephone calls, personal conversations, reading
hundreds of pages of transcripts, and asking for guidance from Above, I have
come to the determination that the United States can do better than John
Bolton," Voinovich said.

Interestingly, despite God's and his friends' advice that Bolton might not be the best ambassador, he's decided to go ahead and give his tepid approval, allowing the vote to go to the Senate.

These people make my brain hurt.

Voinovich to Vote for 'Bullying' Bolton (Yahoo! news)

Setting aside my mind sense of distress at the fact of the 54th annual National Day of Prayer on Capital Hill, this is just too much for me. Tom DeLay, embattled Republican representative, gave a speech denouncing the sin of pride.

"Just think of what we could accomplish if we checked our pride at the door, if
collectively we all spent less time taking credit and more time deserving it,"
DeLay told the 54th annual National Day of Prayer gathering on Capitol Hill. "If
we spent less time ducking responsibility and more time welcoming it. If we
spent less time on our soapboxes and more time on our knees."

Ahh, such warm words from the King of Taking Responsibility.

Greater contradictions follow: "No matter what your faith, no matter what your political persuasion, your prayers for our increased humility, for our ever-humbler service to God and neighbor are needed and wanted."

Er.

I don't care if he spends the rest of his life on his knees, as long as he does it where he can't hurt anyone. Can this speech be considered his swan song? Can he just stop already? Blech.

Man, Washingtonian speech is getting trickier everyday. I love the subtlety of statments like this:

Asked if Bolton was a good choice [as ambassador to the United Nations],
Armitage replied, "It was the president's choice and I support my president."

Way to answer the question, Dick.

Bad news bears. The House Appropriations allocations aren't looking so hot. The biggest cut: I'll let you guess. Ready? Did you guess the EPA, Health and Human Services, and Education? Good job! Federal land conservation? Cut. Safe and drug-free schools programs? Cut. Energy and water programs? Cut (good thing we're trying to lessen our oil dependency). Community development block grants? Yeah, who needs those?

What I bet you didn't guess: "Among the winners are Congress itself, which would receive a 4.9 percent increase" (from the WashingtonPost).

Awesome.

You can see a break down of the allocations here, and read about it from the Washington Post here.

So, I've revived my page just in time for me to have absolutely no time to write anything on it at all. Another example of my excellent foresight. Would that I had time to really read the news these days; as it is, I just read Wonkette and pretend I'm well informed.

But if you have a question about postcolonial literary theory, I'm all over that. I can explain to you the minute workings of imperialism in E.M. Forster's novels, and maybe even throw in some stuff about Joseph Conrad, just for kicks.

Of course, I can't tell you anything about Merchant of Venice, which is problem considering I'm going to have to tell a class full of people, including my professor, something about it in a few days. Wheee!

Only five more days before this school debacle is over, and I can say it's officially summer. Ok, it would be officially summer if the temperature would just stay over 60. Boston sux.