First Door on the Left

Asia’s Death Toll Rises Above 60,000 and the leader of the free world, the President of the United States, cannot even be bothered to make a brief public appearance and offer our country’s condolences.

“He’s doing some biking and exercising as he normally does, taking walks with the first lady, and thinking about what he wants to accomplish in the second term.” (source)

Why should he be bothered? Those people didn’t vote for him. Hell, most of them probably aren’t even Christians!

It’s hard work being the preznit.

I’ve heard that he’s scheduled to make a short statement sometime later today… four days after the fact! I hope he isn’t inconvenienced too much.

I respect the office. I wish there were some way I could respect the man in it.

As the Tsunami Death Toll Climbs to 52,000, U.S. Adds $20 Million to Earthquake Relief, bringing our total pledge to $35 million.

We are currently spending $177 million per day on George Bush’s invasion of Iraq. His second inauguration will cost in excess of $100 million. Yet we are only able to scrape together $35 million to help the victims of the worst natural disaster in our lifetime.

Compassionate conservatism at work.

Update: Byron has some links to bloggers who are at the scene.

Update: The General brings us yet another shining example of compassionate conservatism at work.

Update (again): I may have overestimated the cost of the inauguration. Most estimates I can find put it in the range of $30 to $40 million, not including the cost of security.

Recently I read in right-wing weblog (I forget which) that Illinois Senator-elect Barak Obama is the rising star of the Democratic party and Ohio Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell is the rising star of the Republican Party.

The rising star of the Republican party apparently believes he is above the law…

Ohio Official Refuses Interview Over Vote

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) – The secretary of state, who declared President Bush the official winner in Ohio, is seeking a court order to keep himself from being interviewed as part of a court challenge of the Nov. 2 vote.

Secretary of State Kenneth Blackwell claims his deposition is not required, and accused 37 voters challenging the election of “frivolous conduct.”

The court challenge cites irregularities including long lines, a shortage of voting machines in minority precincts and problems with computer equipment.

Mr. Blackwell, in addition to being the government official in Ohio responsible for the election, also served as a chairman of the Bush-Cheney campaign. Katherine Harris held the identical positions in Florida in 2000.

Florida gave the election to Mr. Bush in 2000; Ohio gave it to him in 2004.

Like it or not, there are questions about the legitimacy of the voting process in Ohio. If indeed those questions are without foundation, I can see no reason why Mr. Blackwell should fear answering them. If he is a rising star, this is the time for him to shine and put those questions to rest. This is not the time for him to go into hiding.

As we sat around the dinner table last evening discussing world events over steaming cups of coffee, the question of “Why would a perfect God create such an imperfect world?” inevitably arose.

22,000 Dead, Millions Homeless in Asia

COLOMBO, Sri Lanka (AP) – Rescuers piled up bodies Monday along southern Asian coastlines devastated by tidal waves that obliterated seaside towns and killed more than 22,000 people in 10 countries. With thousands missing and the death toll expected to climb far higher, aid agencies and nations rushed to help millions of people left homeless or without clean water.

Hundreds of children were buried in mass graves in India, and morgues and hospitals struggled to cope with the catastrophe. Somalia reported hundreds of deaths, some 3,000 miles away from the earthquake off Indonesia that sent tsunamis raging across the Indian Ocean.

The International Red Cross reported 23,700 deaths and expressed concern about waterborne diseases like malaria and cholera. Jan Egeland, the U.N. Emergency Relief Coordinator, said millions of people were affected – by lost homes, polluted drinking water, destroyed sanitation – and that the cost of the damage would “probably be many billions of dollars.”

I am sure that somebody out there can find the answer in scripture. Please don’t. I am not up to a challenge to my agnosticism today.

If you are in a position where you can help out, please do. Mark your donation for the International Response Fund.

Right now I’m just waiting for the right to find some way of blaming this on the left, or vice versa. No doubt it will be forthcoming shortly.

Since I showed you Sunshine the other day, I thought it only fair that Giorgio make an appearance here as well.

That’s our boy.

The s/o doesn’t think this is a very good picture… says it looks like he is telling me to go to hell or planning evil things to do to me.

He probably is.

I think he’s a Republican.

The weblog world today is alive with the news that Reggie White is dead.

NFL Defensive Great Reggie White Dies

May he be remembered for the homophobe he was.

From a speech he delivered before the Wisconsin Legislature:

The Bible repeatedly warns that without repentance judgment is inevitable. Righteousness exulted a nation, but sin is a reproach to many. America is not big enough to shake her fist in the face of a holy God and get away with it, and as I read this I want to explain something. I’m going to read this and then I want to explain something.

As America has permitted homosexuality to establish itself as an alternate lifestyle, it is also reeling from the frightening spread of sexually transmitted disease. Sin begets its own consequence, both on individuals and nations.

Let me explain something when I’m talking about sin, and I’m talking about all sin. One of the biggest ones that has been talked about that has really become a debate in America is homosexuality.

Now, I believe that one of the reasons that Jesus was accused of being a homosexual is because he spent time with homosexuals. I’ve often had people ask me, would you allow a homosexual to be your friend. Yes, I will. And the reason I will is because I know that that person has problems, and if I can minister to those problems, I will.

But the Bible strictly speaks against it, and because the Bible speaks against it, we allow rampant sin including homosexuality and lying, and to me lying is just as bad as homosexuality, we’ve allowed this sin to run rampant in our nation, and because it has run rampant in our nation, our nation is in the condition it is today.

Sometimes when people talk about this sin they’ve been accused of being racist. I’m offended that homosexuals will say that homosexuals deserve rights. Any man in America deserves rights, but homosexuals are trying to compare their plight with the plight of black men or black people.

In the process of history, homosexuals have never been castrated, millions of them never died. Homosexuality is a decision. It’s not a race. And when you look at it, people from all different ethnic backgrounds are living this lifestyle, but people from all different ethnic backgrounds are also liars and cheaters and malicious and backstabbers.

I wish somebody would point out to me the passages in the Bible where it says that Jesus spent time with homosexuals, because I haven’t been able to find them. My reading of the Bible seems to indicate that Jesus spent time with anybody who wanted to spend time with him. I do not recall a single passage where Jesus asked “Are you gay or straight?”

Whenever somebody tells me that homosexuality is a choice, my first inquiry of them is when they chose to be heterosexual.

Mr. White did say one thing in his famous speech that many evangelical Christians need to reflect upon. I hope he had time to think about it before he died.

God made us different because he was trying to create himself. He was trying to form himself, and then we got kind of knuckleheaded and kind of pushed everything aside.

George W. Bush and the Republicans fooled a lot of people in the November election. These people have nothing to be ashamed of… they were fooled by masters. What they will have to be ashamed of is if they allow themselves to continue being fooled.

Take the upcoming battle over Social Security, for example. Gene Lyons writes:

Bush backers made a sucker?s bet

Bush prevailed in November largely because many Americans simply cannot believe that their president would deliberately mislead them about matters of life and death.

Consider, however, Bush?s doomsday pronouncements about the impending bankruptcy of Social Security. They?re sheer fiction, contrived to conceal this administration?s own fiscal recklessness?the combination of tax cuts for the wealthy and runaway spending that has increased federal outlays some 29 percent since his 2001 inauguration.

After pledging during the 2000 campaign to set aside $2.6 trillion of the projected surplus in a Social Security “lockbox,” Bush has, instead, produced swelling deficits. Now he promises strict “fiscal discipline.” Do not hold your breath.

Click on the headline to read the entire article.

Be informed in ’05!

Santa’s work is done for another year. Time to catch a little shut-eye.

I do believe that Blog Explosion is telling me to quite surfing and go to bed. A few clicks ago, it awarded me 25 mystery credits. Just now it gave me another 50. That’s 75 mystery credits in about 3 minutes!

So once more I’ll say…

Here is my first posting of a picture taken with my new camera. It’s still Friday, so I guess this qualifies as “Friday cat blogging.”

I was in the middle of kitchen cleaning earlier this afternoon when Sunshine decided she should probably supervise the proceedings…

(Yes, Mom, I know that cats should not be on the kitchen counters.)

As I said, I was cleaning. The kitchen does not normally look like this! The gate below the sink is because the cabinet doors are open to keep the pipes from freezing and we needed some way to keep the kitties out.

Any picture-taking pointers appreciated! (I’m new at this digital photography business.)