• Pelosi Issues Columbus Day Apology for Italians
• Bush Touts Benefits of Artificial Life Creation
• CIA May Threaten Detainees with Senate Hearings
• Craig Stays, C-Span Adds Senate Restroom Cams
• Bush Vows to Win ‘War on Science’
• ACLU Defends Limbaugh, Sharpton Demands Reid Apology
• Hillary Takes 33-Point Lead, Obama Jumps to GOP
• Dull Fred Thompson May Hire Political Stunt Double
• ‘Phony Vets for Truth’ Join Reid Attack on Rush Limbaugh
• Schumer: SCHIP Should Cover All Un-Aborted Kids

• Post-Holiday Sale Slashes Price On Iraq War
• Wealthy Senators to Cover 0B Medicare Drug Gap
• Bush to Issue Bonds to Buy Back Iraq Timeline Votes
• Republican Senators Push ‘Virtual Tax Cut’
• Senators Take Out 0 Billion Homeland Equity Loan

163 responses so far ↓

• 1 MargeinMI // May 14, 2007 at 6:21 am

  God Bless America!

• 2 Maggie // May 14, 2007 at 6:36 am

  Good Morning Marge,

  I haven’t a clue what this post means.
  Scott has some more “slpaining” to do.

• 3 Maggie // May 14, 2007 at 6:37 am

  push

• 4 camojack // May 14, 2007 at 6:51 am

  Speaking as a member of the UAW…well, maybe I’d best not.

  Maggie:
  Check out all the links…

• 5 JamesonLewis3rd // May 14, 2007 at 7:01 am

  I’ve been a diehard Chrysler-product fan since I was a kid. Ah, the stories I could tell…..

  I wish I would have had a few bucks to put in my bid.

• 6 Darthmeister // May 14, 2007 at 7:31 am

  Sounds like a deal to me … now I have this waterfront property …

• 7 tomg // May 14, 2007 at 7:34 am

  Its hard to keep a full brain in a hemi head.

• 8 Ms RightWing, Ink // May 14, 2007 at 7:48 am

  Morning all

  The local news said Chrysler was bankrupt because of heavy labor costs. Then the newsman said the union was pleased with the deal with this unknown group of buyers. Ya, duh, because the union was not kicked out.

• 9 tomg // May 14, 2007 at 7:59 am

  Maybe Chavez will nationalize it and provide fuel, while Castro provides health benefits.

• 10 Fred Sinclair // May 14, 2007 at 8:21 am

  Dodge Pick-up wih 225 slant six has, (personal opinion) as of today, yet to be bested.

  Heirborn Ranger

  p.s. Algore now forcasting Thursday snow flurries for New Orleans - - Is he back from Venus or Mercury or wherever he goes with his little tinfoil hat for his most judicious pronouncements? Looking in the dictionary, I can’t find the place where it says that theories equal facts.

  The Liberal Left tells us that Darwin’s theory is fact and now they say that Algore’s theory of “manmade” global warming is also fact - yet it won’t wash. Darwin’s theory of evolution and Algore’s theory of “manmade” global warming stand diametrically opposed. You might have one or you might have the other but it’s impossible to have both at the same time.

  Like fire and water, the left have boxed themselves into a corner with no hidey hole for escape, they’ve created an impossibility!

• 11 RedPepper // May 14, 2007 at 8:32 am

  Speaking of alGore, maybe he should buy Chrysler. Once he owned the company, he could sell carbon credits based on his promise not to build any more automobiles!

  OK, so maybe the price is a bit steep, but he could ask Sheryl Crow & her Hollywood friends to chip in …

• 12 conserve-a-tips // May 14, 2007 at 8:53 am

  Scott: “Genius! By seemingly embracing the cliches of the vest, he is underscoring its excruciating banality. Now is the time on Sprockets vhen ve dance.” Dieter

  Maggie, have I confused you even further?

  As old as this is, I am wondering if it has been switched to unleaded or better yet, biofuel. Oh yes, and how ’bout the engine? Does it need a rebuild? ‘Cause I heard that it isn’t firing on all cylinders.

• 13 tomg // May 14, 2007 at 9:04 am

  The 2000 of these built is worth about 10% of the entire company now.
  http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y103/Niftee50ees/2007%2003-10%20Niftee50ees/?action=view¤t=Image244.jpg
  I know which I’d rather have.
  Yes, the weekly “drive-in’ in Spring TX is quite amazing - click on “view all”

• 14 Shelly // May 14, 2007 at 9:04 am

  Scott, you didn’t mention financing. Or would that be the long term liabilities?

  Fred, I had just that conversation with my sons yesterday. How can the same people who insist that Intelligent Design is a fantasy, that only evolution can make sense, now fear that a miniscule rise in temperature is such an imminent threat to all living things?

• 15 Darthmeister // May 14, 2007 at 9:14 am

  I wonder if there is a rebate clause? The MSRP seems awfully steep to me.

• 16 Darthmeister // May 14, 2007 at 9:31 am

  Shelly and Fred, that does bring up an interesting question indeed. If the material universe and the eco-system of this planet is as fragile as the Global Warmists claim, then how was it possible for the climate on planet Earth to have been stable enough over a 540 million year period beginning with the so-called Cambrian Explosion to have delicately nurtured life as well as evolve it? The evolutionists would probably claim life thrives on environmental challenges. But this begs the question, how was the material universe able to randomly maintain such a narrow band of environmental factors conducive to carbon-based lifeforms OVER A 540 MILLION YEAR PERIOD? Think about it, 540 MILLION years. And man has supposedly ruined this planet’s environment in less than a hundred years? Buwahahahahahahahaha! What numbskullery.

  The sheer force of nature in its spewing volcanoes, variations in solar output, the rapid changing of the earth’s magnetic field, asteroid and cometary impacts would have had orders of magnitudes greater potential to drastically change Earth’s climate over a 540 million year period than the puny efforts of man.

  Either evolution is true and Global Warming is false, Global Warming is true and evolution is false, or both are false … they both can’t be true, at least not to the skeptic.

• 17 Ms RightWing, Ink // May 14, 2007 at 11:36 am

  I too, am a MOPAR gal. I’ve owned many of the vehicles including a custom race set-up Valliant, a couple of K-cars, Dodge Dart, 64 Dodge Polara, 2 door hardtop with a built up 383 ( our show car), a Sportsman van (identical to the one in the movie Cars) and many more. Besides that I owned many, many cars from an Opel to a Simca, Renault to a Early 2 cylinder Honda car, but mostly Fords and a few 544 Volvos.

  Every time I had a Chevy I nearly died in them, so GM is off limits. If I drove again I would by me a MOPAR any day, I love Fords but they give to much money to gay causes so never again shall I buy one.

• 18 conserve-a-tips // May 14, 2007 at 11:41 am

  Shelly and Darthmeister and Fred: There is another aspect of this that can be thrown into the mix. There are those who say that Global Warming is true, but they are not sure if it is man-made or not and so either way, we must be afraid (very afraid) because of this rise in temperature (and never mind why the rise in temperature). To those I say, “But if evolution is true, then man will evolve in order to adapt to that differing temperature. He will shed more hair and possibly get thicker skin or grow a shell - who knows? But man will evolve and the fittest will survive to form a more efficient and hardy human being. Tough luck for the rest of you. But heh, that’s how evolution works.”

• 19 conserve-a-tips // May 14, 2007 at 11:47 am

  Oh and Darthmeister: Re #15 ~ This is previously owned we’re talking about - you know - USED - Rode hard and put up wet. There are no rebates available for used items. Therefore, the only rebate you will get is if the union agrees to a pay cut. As far as the MSRP is concerned, it has been my experience that if you show the salesman some cash, he will usually knock off about $1000. That would help, don’t ya think?

• 20 A Culture of Money - And Other Interesting Links // May 14, 2007 at 12:35 pm

  […] Scrappleface is poking fun at Chrysler. […]

• 21 tomg // May 14, 2007 at 1:48 pm

  You can test the effects of man-made CO2 by reducing output at outrageous cost and relative detriment to the U.S., or you can test the effect by burning only coal and gaining energy independence. Lets test by running at CO2 redline instead of reducing to idle.

• 22 Darthmeister // May 14, 2007 at 2:04 pm

  OBO?

  Nice touch Scott. Probably needs a tune-up, too.

  What I want to know is what’s going to happen to the 2008 425HP 6.1L Hemi Challenger.

• 23 its-just-me // May 14, 2007 at 2:16 pm

  Well, we have a ‘53 Power Wagon that works fairly well…
  But that’s the only Dodge I’ve ever heard of (granted, I only know a few people who actually own Dodge products) that isn’t a complete lemon - and that may be due to work done on it in the past 50 years.
  Who knows what it was like new (but they just don’t make stuff like they used to).

• 24 gafisher // May 14, 2007 at 2:21 pm

  “Handyman’s Special,” apparently.

• 25 Fred Sinclair // May 14, 2007 at 2:29 pm

  If there was any validity to the theory of evolution then c-a-t has it nailed, humans and all other forms of life would adapt. I doubt that we will duplicate the heat on Mercury, but if Earth moved one inch closer to the sun every hundred years, then yes in a matter of a few hundred trillion years, we might be in Mercury’s orbit. That’s the only way I can think of that would incrase our global heat.

  Human contribution to global warming is about the same as one grain of sand contributes to all of the worlds beaches and deserts. i.e. Not Much. I suspect that the Algoreites are all active members of The Flat Earth Society and are equally convinced that America putting a man on the moon is nothing but a giant hoax.

  They also probably believe that the extermination of Jews by the Nazis was a hoax, and even if true, in their minds, are probably rooting for the Islamofascist to finish what Hitler started.

  Heirborn Ranger

• 26 conserve-a-tips // May 14, 2007 at 2:34 pm

  Fred, you forgot that space ships/shuttles poke holes into the ozone layer like a rip in a piece of cloth, according to these folks. I don’t know why they can’t figure out that God can get out his sewing kit and do a few whip stitches in there. Oh yeah. They don’t believe in God. Never mind.

• 27 Fred Sinclair // May 14, 2007 at 3:26 pm

  From prior thread - -

  Dictionary

  religion |riˈlijən| |rəˌlɪdʒən| |riˌlɪdʒən| |rɪˌlɪdʒ(ə)n|
  noun
  the belief in and worship of a superhuman controlling power, esp. a personal God or gods : ideas about the relationship between science and religion.
  • details of belief as taught or discussed : when the school first opened they taught only religion, Italian, and mathematics.
  • a particular system of faith and worship : the world’s great religions.
  • a pursuit or interest to which someone ascribes supreme importance : consumerism is the new religion.

  This is what the dictionary has to say about religion.

  What the dictionary omits is a fact that although it’s universally true is not thought about by most people. When I was in the military I was asked “What religion are you?” - Now, I knew that they had a space to fill in on some form and I was supposed to answer “Baptist, Catholic, Methodist, Presbyterian, etc. or at the least, Protestant, Catholic or Jewish”.

  I couldn’t answer any of those, because I had been well taught by my father and the scriptures. I would answer, “I have no religion, I am a Christian.” because I would not lie just so they could fill their blank space. So on my dog-tags it read “CHRISTIAN”.

  What is omitted in the dictionary is the fact that all religions, 100% with zero exceptions, have one thing in common. Whether it’s throwing one’s first born into the fire, sacrificing virgins on an alter (with grooves cut into it for the blood drainage) frenzied dances around a fire, forswearing alcohol, tobacco, gambling, swearing, dancing, movies, etc. they are all a system whereby man is seeking god. Trying by some action (or lack of action) to appease some angry god in hopes that he will look favorably upon them and not stomp on them with drought, floods, earthquakes, volcano eruptions, etc.

  By contrast, Christianity stands 180 degrees away from all other “spiritual efforts” because uniquely, in Christianity, God is seeking man. “Come on, I love you, so much that I gave my Son for your salvation. Just believe in me. Accept my Son and the sacrifice He made for all the world, for all of your sins, past present and future.”

  Unfortunately, some Christian churches have twisted and perverted God’s Word and turned Christianity into a religion. “Do this, don’t do this and that. Live a “good” life, do all the do’s and don’t do the don’ts and maybe, just maybe you’ll rack up enough points to deserve heaven because if you screw it up and don;t live just exactly like we tell you to, then you won’t earn your right to heaven and you’re going to spend all of eternity roasting in the horrendous fires of hell.”

  That Christ paid the penalty for your sins is no invitation to live it up with a lifestyle of wanton debauchery. The apostle Paul wrote that where sin did abound, grace did more abound. “What shall we say then, let us sin more that grace may much more abound? God forbid!

  We as Christians are to follow the example of Jesus, In his letter to the Christians in Rome (Rom. 6:4) Paul stipulates that without a change in your lifestyle, your Christianity is nothing but smoke and mirrors (phony). Charles Sheldon, in his wonderful little book, “In His Steps” tells of some church members who pledged that for one year they would do nothing without first asking themselves “What would Jesus do?” and then, letting the chips fall along with the complications, endeavor to do it.

  A Sunday School teacher in a church in Holland, Michigan thought it a great idea and on her own had little bracelets made for the kids in her class, with the letters WWJD, I know because I got an envelope with twenty of the bracelets to give away for free to anyone who asked what the bracelet’s letters stood for - the idea caught on commercially and went around the world and you can even still buy them in stores - but that Sunday School teacher has yet to make a dime from them, in fact except for some concerned donations, she would still be out the cost of the first few she ordered made.

  So I will have nothing to do with religion, as all religions teach salvation by works or by some means other than God’s Grace. Romanism and Mormonism have that in common, as both are bon-a-fide religions.

  Eph. 2:8 For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:
  Eph. 2:9 Not of works, lest any man should boast.
  Eph. 2:10 For we are his workmanship, created in Christ Jesus unto good works, which God hath before ordained that we should walk in them.

• 28 Fred Sinclair // May 14, 2007 at 4:17 pm

  Part 2 -

  Just awoke, I sleep in 1 - 2 hr. stints around the clock.

  The salvation by way of “works” folks like to go to the “Faith without works is dead” verse without looking at the context. Rom. 6:4 basically says that without a lifestyle change, you’re all smoke and mirrors. The works are an outward manifestation of an inward condition.

  The apple blossom, producing a healthy, desirable piece of fruit, is not the tree. An apple tree with rotten, diseased root structure will produce undesirable gnarly, twisted, ugly, fruit that no one wants. Such a tree requires a tree surgeon to cut away the undesirable rot and disease. The restored root system will automatically begin producing the desirable fruit with no effort on the part of the blossom.

  Too many people, to keep up appearances, tie plastic fruit in place. The plastic fruit would be likened to man’s works. Phony, without life, dead, without the ability to produce more fruit. There is too many Plastic Christians out there, they look good on the outside but are dead, unable to reproduce.

  All too often when fruit inspectors look for the Christian’s fruit, they recite a list that is actually fruit of the spirit. As an apple tree produces it’s fruit - apples. a peach tree - peaches, etc. the fruit of a Christian is more Christians. II Tim. 2:2 “And these things that thou hast learned of me; the same commit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach others also.” (teachers teaching teachers to teach teachers….) - Personal Evangelism, as in that person you meet at the lunch counter at Denny’s, Bob Evans or Steak and Shake, The dentist or doctors waiting room - ask a plastic Christian, “How many people have you personally led to Christ?” and you’ll just get a blank stare.

  I use our MAX bus system to get to these places and witness (I use the F O R M method) and my wheelchair is no problem.

  Heirborn Ranger

• 29 JamesonLewis3rd // May 14, 2007 at 6:58 pm

  B. Hussein Obama is too funny.

• 30 Harry Daschle // May 14, 2007 at 7:43 pm

  I place the blame for Chrysler’s downturn on the “Dr. Z” commercials. I know after seeing a couple of them I vowed to never buy a Chrysler again.

  It is not because he is German though, I think the VW commercials with the German who “unpimps the ride” is harlarious!

  It is just that Dr. Z is lame! Not just lame, but President Chirac lame, or Al Gore lame!

  That makes sense, —doesn’t it?

• 31 Ms RightWing, Ink // May 14, 2007 at 8:13 pm

  My mother always never told me to mix religion and cars in public.

• 32 Godfrey // May 14, 2007 at 8:13 pm

  Hank: “Either evolution is true and Global Warming is false, Global Warming is true and evolution is false, or both are false … they both can’t be true, at least not to the skeptic.”

  Hm…that’s a bit of a false dichotomy. Global temperature is a relatively stable thing in terms of the extremes that can be found elsewhere in the universe. Life as a whole has shown that it can survive the degree of climatic fluctuation in question, even if certain species cannot.

  …how was the material universe able to randomly maintain such a narrow band of environmental factors…

  Intelligent design is not necessary to explain the survival of life on a planet such as earth; nor is it necessary to explain how life exists in such a rare, conducive environment in the first place. It could not exist anywhere else.

  In other words climatic stability doesn’t necessarily require divine manipulation; if some degree of stability didn’t exist we human beings wouldn’t be around to discuss the matter.

  Shelly: “How can the same people who insist that Intelligent Design is a fantasy, that only evolution can make sense, now fear that a miniscule rise in temperature is such an imminent threat to all living things?”

  That’s relatively easy to address since it involves a bit of a mischaracterization on your part. The stakes, according to the GW hand-wringers, don’t include the obliteration of all life…they merely include the potentially catastrophic upset to the current ecological balance that would result from a widespread temperature change. This happened during the last period of drastic change (ice age) and such a period will most certainly occur again. The question is whether man is causing the balance to tip or whether it is a natural occurence.

  By the way, hello everyone in Scrappleville! Hope life is treating you well!

• 33 Ms RightWing, Ink // May 14, 2007 at 8:50 pm

  oops. My mother always told me never to mix religion and cars in public

  sigh

• 34 JamesonLewis3rd // May 14, 2007 at 9:04 pm

  Is Almighty God “manipulating” the climate?

  No.

• 35 da Bunny // May 14, 2007 at 9:35 pm

  I love my Jeep Grand Cherokee. It’s the best vehicle I’ve ever owned, and I think Chrysler’s styling on many of their current products is hard to beat. Daimler’s ownership and mismanagement of the Chrysler Group has taken what had been a promising collaborative effort and turned it into a disaster. I only hope that the new owners of the company can turn things around…and soon!! I love the Jeep line, and would like to buy another one sometime in the future.

• 36 Laughing@You // May 14, 2007 at 9:57 pm

  Good ol’ Godfrey. Too bad he couldn’t pass your religion test. Of course, I disagree with some of his views, but that doesn’t make him my enemy, nor should disagreeing with you make him God’s enemy; who knows, maybe even the opposite.

  Go with God anyway, Godfrey. You’re a smart man … faint praise not intended.

• 37 Godfrey // May 14, 2007 at 10:35 pm

  JL3: “Is Almighty God “manipulating” the climate? No.”

  Um…and you know this how?

• 38 Fred Sinclair // May 15, 2007 at 4:08 am

  God Free - I’m happy to see you’re back, I was afraid you had found yourself a hidey hole. I always am on the lookout for a good clean joke, cartoon or silliness. You’re soooo silly!

  I admit, it took me awhile to figure you out, such silliness could only be contrived. Then it cleared up. You were so smitten by Scott’s satire that you began to post your own satire.

  The reality has to be you are a hard core Christian Conservative. If you were to write that you hate Bush that automatically translates to the fact that you worship Bush as a sub-god second only to Jesus. If you write that you disagree with any of Bush’s policies, we can know that you will support his policies to your last drop of blood. - like Roland and Oliver, you’re willing to fight to the end in support of everything he says and everything he does! WoW that’s a pretty high compliment - you’re a very deeply buried mole in the liberal’s camp annd your cover is your silliness.

  Sorry if I’ve blown your cover or “outed you” but your silliness was just too much, no one is capable of being that silly except by design. Keep up the good work and we’ll keep it here among your fellow Scrapplers. Gee, you’re good. I salute you, Sir! Your silliness is so convincing that I’m still laughing.

  Please overlook my comment about you being a Christian Conservative, that is of course a redundancy, Since all Christians are by nature, Conservatives - Which is why the term “Christian Democrat” is the ultimate oxymoron.

  Heirborn Ranger

• 39 JamesonLewis3rd // May 15, 2007 at 4:24 am

  RE: #36~~

  Jeremiah 33:3

• 40 Fred Sinclair // May 15, 2007 at 6:31 am

  MainStreamMedia is getting weirder, if that’s possible. They are talking on NBC about 3 American Soldiers kidnapped in Iraq by Al Quida. How many times have we been told “THERE IS NO AL QUIDA IN IRAQ!!” so they must have been kidnapped by the boogymen - right?

  Now the ex-mayor of New York City says that as President, he will support and promote real gun control laws; with his support of homosexual “rights” and abortion, I don’t understandwhy he’s not honest enough to run as a Democrat??? Oh, yes, as a RINO, he can count on the RINO’S vote as well as the Democrats. Clear as mud.

  Heirborn Ranger

• 41 conserve-a-tips // May 15, 2007 at 7:01 am

  L@Y, isn’t it interesting that you can disagree with Godfrey but that doesn’t make him your enemy and yet, if we disagree with you, that makes you our enemy, according to you? According to you, because we so totally disagree with you, it means we hate you. Puts me in mind of my former spouse/alcoholic ~ if I said anything contrary to his way of thinking or doing, to him, it meant that I didn’t support him or care about him. How sad.

  And please show me in scripture where it says that those who deny God’s very existence are not His enemy. Surely you know that there are only two allegiances in this existence, either to God or to Satan. There is no “purgatory” of alignment. You either are or you aren’t for God and if you aren’t, then you are directly aligned with Satan and his schemes whether you want to acknowledge Satan’s existence or not. There is a price to pay for that.

  I suppose that you’ve never had anyone in your life call you to account on anything. You’ve never had anyone punish you for doing wrong because they loved you and did not want you to do it again. I suppose you never had any adult in your life hold you accountable for not giving them proper respect. I suppose that you have never witnessed a judge condemning a man to die because he did something so horribly wrong that he could no longer be among society. I say that, because you evidently have no concept of The God whose love encompasses holding you accountable for proper honor and behavior and who disciplines in love. I say that because you evidently have no concept of The God who judges men concerning their covering or lack thereof, of Christ and either condemns them to death or gives them freedom, not because He is mean, but because He is just and loves man. If that is truly the case, then I feel sorry for you, because your arrogance and your snideness will get you nowhere with The One who really counts.

  Much of what you post on here is apostasy and the scripture deals directly with those who spread such lies. It is hard teaching, but it is truth. And you can misconstrue these comments as my hating you, but the truth is that I don’t and don’t even entertain the concept.

• 42 Libby Gone // May 15, 2007 at 7:41 am

  D.O.D.G.E
  drips oil drops grease everywhere.

• 43 Ms RightWing, Ink // May 15, 2007 at 8:06 am

  Morning all.

  Going to suffer through Gobel Warming, by George. Weather man says it is going to top out in high 80’s today and only 60 tomorrow.

  Help me Mr Wizard Gore. I don’t want to be a climatologist anymore

• 44 Rock Slatestone // May 15, 2007 at 8:37 am

  By 2010 democrats hope to have one of these cars in every home, though the only color available will be black.

  Republicans believe this is just a move to have Americans more dependent upon the government.

• 45 Darthmeister // May 15, 2007 at 8:37 am

  Godfrey, welcome back.

  Relatively stable? Could that be something on the order of + or - 20 degrees centigrade? The Global Warming chicken littles are claiming the sky is following over 1.3 degrees centigrade and the end of life as we know it if temperatures climb another 5 degrees centigrade. Remember, we’re talking a purported 540 MILLION years! Given how water vapor and CO2 are greenhouse gases (and thank goodness for greenhouse gases or average temperatures would be -15 centigrade) and volcanoes randomly spewing out millions of tons of the stuff throughout the supposed 540 MILLION years of life on this planet, it would be an incredible miracle to expect temperature variations on this planet to remain as stable as they have over that enormous period of time. Whether you realize it or not, you’re engaging in an awful lot of rationalization yourself. Think about it, basically you’re arguing the reason temperatures have been relatively stable for 540 MILLION years is … well, because temperatures have remained relatively stable over 540 MILLION years because if they didn’t we wouldn’t be here and since we are here then we know that they’ve remained relatively stable for 540 MILLION years. Circular reasoning.

  And given the sheer randomness and the very complex factors which went into creating Earth’s atmosphere and climatological niche, how have temperatures remained relatively stable throughout the last 540 MILLION years given the relatively fragility of Earth’s climate? 540 MILLION years is an awful loooooooooong time for any kind of nominal atmospheric stasis to take place. Just my two cents.

  How’s the family? Saturday my wife and I will be heading out toward Montana to visit some friends from way back and then we’ll head down to Yellowstone. After traveling two days on I-90 we’ll be making a stop at Mt. Rushmore on the way in to Bozeman, Montana. It will be our second time there but my first time at Yellowstone.

  I’m taking some of my toys with me. My friend Doug says there a plenty of places to plink under the wide open skies of Montana … doh!

  We thought we’d try to make Glacier National Park but apparently they have less than 30 miles of 52 miles plowed out of the main road through the park … plus its another 700 mile roundtrip from Bozeman. We’ll be content with Yellowstone and other National Parks to the south. We’ll come back along I-70 through the flatlands. We should get back late Memorial Day.

• 46 JamesonLewis3rd // May 15, 2007 at 9:03 am

  RE: #44~~
  Darthmeister~~

  Hope you have a safe, enjoyable trip.

• 47 RedPepper // May 15, 2007 at 9:21 am

  Good morning, everyone! Darth, enjoy your trip. Godfrey, nice to see you back ; where you been hiding, anyway? Ms RW, don’t suffer! Enjoy the warmth! Beats freezing …

• 48 Darthmeister // May 15, 2007 at 9:30 am

  A point of clarification, Godfrey. I think we both agree global warming, global cooling and climate change have always been a part of Earth’s natural climate cycles. And as we are generally agreed upon here the real question is whether man is the culprit in the latest bit of “global warming.” As some scientific studies have indicated, if natural water vapor is taken into account (water vapor accounts for 80% of “greenhouse gases”) mankind contributes less than .14 percent - that’s point one four percent - to “climate change”. Negligible.

  The greenhouse effect is a good thing because that’s what moderates temperatures on Earth otherwise the nights would dip well into the -80 to -100 degree range while daytime temperatures would be in the mid 100s. And as we all know the planet Earth has gone through any number of global warming and global cooling cycles, some of which have been fairly rapid.

  However, I find it difficult to accept that a complex fluid system like Earth’s atmosphere can remain relatively stable over a period of 540 MILLION years given that it is in some respects an open system - open to solar energy and somewhat open to magmatic activity. Asteroidal collisions, Earth’s vulnerability to Oort cloud mavericks and cometary impacts, increases in cosmic radiation levels due to novae and supernovae going off in the stellar neighborhood over the last 540 MILLION years, combine these threats with the contention that evolutions occurs slowly over a period of eons it doesn’t make sense. Novel lifeforms would have to evolve over a period of decades and centuries to survive such large-scale random natural disasters, not millions of years.

  The one legitimate point Global Warmists make is if the environment changes significantly enough life cannot evolve fast enough to adapt. Evolutionist have postulated various mass extinctions down through history, but it seems to me that over a 540 MILLION year period, just on the basis of unforseen, random cosmic events that astronomers see “out there” virtually every year, the fragility of Earth’s eco-system would have been totally compromised any number of times … but then it just didn’t happen that way because we’re still here, right? If just one supernovae went off within a 100 light year radius of Earth, it would have destroyed everything down to bacteria. In our galaxy supernovae occur about once every century. That means there should have been 5,400,000 supernovae in our galaxy alone since the Cambrian life explosion.

  BTW, have you taken the Global Warming Test?

• 49 RedPepper // May 15, 2007 at 9:55 am

  Darthmeister: Why worry about global warming anyway, when you should be concerned about the Yellowstone Supervolcano ?

  I do hope it behaves at least until your vacation is over …

• 50 Darthmeister // May 15, 2007 at 10:49 am

  I heard about that RedPepper and it did get me thinking. They say there have been tremors in the area the last few months/years. If the cost of gasoline won’t keep me away from Yellowstone then I guess I won’t a little thing like the threat of a supervolcano keep me away.

  Here’s an interesting book about a past mass extinction which raises just as many questions as it attempts to answer.

  BTW, I wasn’t saying supernovaes have anything to do with climate change. It’s the cosmic radiation and neutrinos sleeting through our atmosphere which would cause genetic and organic damage to living organisms. The Milky Way Galaxy is 100,000 lightyears in diameter and about 600 lightyears thick on average. If you take the volume of space of this oblate spheroid, take the 100 lightyear spherical volume of space affected by supernovae explosions, even if most of those 54,000,000 supernova were to occur in the galactic core if just ten percent (5,400,000) were randomly spread throughout the rest of the Milky Way I understand our stellar neighborhood would have experienced at least one supernovae the last half billion years and maybe as many as three! Ouch!

• 51 JamesonLewis3rd // May 15, 2007 at 11:03 am

  Happy Anniversary!

• 52 Fred Sinclair // May 15, 2007 at 11:10 am

  Darthmeister - global warming test - 10 for ten, but then anyone who listens to Rush regularly cannot help but ace the test.

  btw - do you think when gas hits $10.00 per gal Anwar will be opened? Colorado shale oil will begin being tapped? New refineries will be built? Or it won’t make any difference?

  Heirborn Ranger

• 53 Laughing@You // May 15, 2007 at 11:25 am

  “L@Y, isn’t it interesting that you can disagree with Godfrey but that doesn’t make him your enemy and yet, if we disagree with you, that makes you our enemy, according to you?”

  Interesting? Snider than usual this morning, I see.

  Like many of you, Godfrey has told me he doesn’t like me. But when he has chosen to ask, or answered me on the issues, unlike most of you he has been fair. I don’t ever recall him sarcastically loading a question the way you seen always to do.

  When you here find anything you disagree with you try to tear it down. You never seen to look for areas of agreement to build on, I think Godfrey does that.

  You all seem to have a list of definitions for everybody, and rules to match. Most of you seem to think you know it all.

  I can tell you with certainty that many (NOT ALL) of the things you ridicule as “Liberal”, most Democrats oppose too.

  Wow, to my great relief I am neither your former spouse, nor an alcoholic. I’ve heard that stuff from you before, yet you offer spiritual critique of Mormons, what did Jesus say about forgiveness, and communion with Him?

  Gosh, you have no idea how un-Christian they make most of you look. I have serious differences with LDS too; but I like them, and I could also vote for a Moron.

  Regarding Godfrey’s soul: He has repeatedly told you, he doesn’t not believe in God! For crying out load, he calls himself God Free. If you care about Godfrey, and you believe in the redemptive power of The Almighty, let The Lord plow before you try to hammer seeds into the hard ground. You don’t have to be Christian to be a good citizen.

  But, I really have to strain to see some of you as either.

• 54 Laughing@You // May 15, 2007 at 11:54 am

  Gee whiz, I meant to say Mormon, it was not intentional it was an error. I could never vote for anyone like Dubyah

  LDS, please forgive me.

• 55 Ms RightWing, Ink // May 15, 2007 at 12:27 pm

  Darthmeister

  Now you are trudging through my old beaten paths. I should have never left Montana, sigh. Ohio is the armpit of America and once you get into the pits it is hard to get out.

  Glacier National Park is mighty cool even if you don’t get to go through the hole in the sky. You may be lucky enough to see a grizzly sow and her cubs this time of year-through a pair of binoculars or course

• 56 Ms RightWing, Ink // May 15, 2007 at 12:31 pm

  Someone to pray for

  http://www.newsnet5.com/news/13323326/detail.html

• 57 JamesonLewis3rd // May 15, 2007 at 1:19 pm

  Fred Thompson is way cool.

• 58 Fred Sinclair // May 15, 2007 at 1:37 pm

  L@Y - With George W.’s grades in college making him a moron in your mind, and since his grades are significantly higher than those of John F, Kerry (who, by the way, served in Viet Nam) and since George W. is a qualified jet pilot, while JFK can only fly planes he folds out of paper, just where on your moron scale is John?

  Sub-moron I suspect?

  Heirborn Ranger

• 59 its-just-me // May 15, 2007 at 2:04 pm

  What? Kerry served in Viet Nam?

• 60 JamesonLewis3rd // May 15, 2007 at 2:10 pm

  Excuses, excuses.

• 61 Ms RightWing, Ink // May 15, 2007 at 2:20 pm

  re:55

  To late, Jerry Falwell died

  http://www.newsnet5.com/news/13323326/detail.html

• 62 Godfrey // May 15, 2007 at 2:40 pm

  Hank: Thanks, it’s good to be back. I’ve definitely missed the discussion on Scrappleface and elsewhere. RedPepper, to answer your question: I’ve been working on a film project and that tends to take a lot of time. Juggling that and the need to spend quality time with my teenage daughter (read: drive her places) make it so that I really can’t justify going online much, if at all. Plus I recently acquired a new girlfriend…you know how that goes.

  Anyway, Hank, regarding the notion that I am applying circular reasoning; I should have been clearer. What I meant was this: the only environment in which a conscious entity could evolve to the degree that it could contemplate its own existence is an environment conducive to life. It may sound a bit tautological at first blush but it’s really not. As rare as this life-supporting environment may seem in the grand scheme of things, the fact remains that we couldn’t have evolved in any other environment…so it’s not particularly surprising that we find ourselves here. To put it differently, such an environment is extremely rare in the universe but it is-by definition-quite commonplace to us.

  As for the likelihood of life surviving in some form for over 540 million years (i.e. since the Cambrian Explosion), I think it’s worth noting that the potential dangers you noted (particularly an impact event) might have actually been beneficial to certain forms of life. Some catastrophic events may cause the destruction of entire ecological systems but in so doing allow other animals to gain an ecological advantage and flourish (as in the case of the K-T boundary, when dinosaurs gave way to smaller life forms like mammals). Given the vastness of the geological time scale and the hardiness of life in general (think cockroaches) I don’t find it surprising at all that life has survived.

  I agree, of course, that climate change is and has always been part of the equation. I have yet to see convincing evidence that mankind is to blame for the latest changes…but I also haven’t seen convincing evidence to the contrary. So I prefer to keep an open mind on the subject.

  As for Yellowstone, I have to admit I’m a bit envious, even in light of the near certainty of an imminent death-by-volcanic-eruption. In other words I’d die for a good vacation right about now.

  Fred: I’m happy that my return finds you well and I’m equally happy that you find it an occasion for some measure of gladness. Even a comic genius such as yourself occasionally needs a foil.

  Laughing: I’d be surprised if you could show me the thread where I specifically said I don’t like you (or anyone else for that matter). You’ve stimulated your share of discussion in Scrappleville, albeit sometimes in a manner too surly for my taste.

  Thanks to the generous and inimitable Mr. Ott, we all have a place at this table.

• 63 Darthmeister // May 15, 2007 at 2:47 pm

  Ms RightWing,we’re taking binocs and a digital camcorder and camera. Hope to get some decent shots. RedPepper’s link is pretty interesting. We might have to take some asbestos underwear … or just take our chances.

  It’s kinda weird thinking about what may be happening just several miles beneath your feet.

• 64 woodnwheel // May 15, 2007 at 3:07 pm

  Ms. RightWing, Ink: Of course it’s not too late to pray for Dr. Falwell’s family and the entire Liberty U. community. I have a friend who’s a professor there, and while I haven’t heard from him yet, as soon as I heard about Dr. Falwell’s passing I sent him a note to tell him I was praying.

• 65 Laughing@You // May 15, 2007 at 3:19 pm

  Well Fred,

  Dumbyah’s grades don’t seem much like bragging about, but if I recall correctly they higher than those of John F. Kerry. How significantly is ubjective, but as I recall it wasn’t much.

  But, then, I don’t think you can ever be really sure what’s real and what’s not Dumbyah.

  What with cronyism, endowments, scholarships, and maybe the passing of cash, things may not have been as recorded.

  You can never know for sure if your man ever actually flew an airplane. In fact I’m not even sure they had planes in the “Champaign Squadron”.

  But one thing is sure; if America had invested the cost of Dumbyah’s training in another man, it would have likely yielded greater returns to the nation, and provided some young person with a career he might not otherwise have been able to afford.

  John Kerry let all us Democrats down by not demanding accountably in Ohio and else where.

  That said: I don’t care with his papers say his thought processes don’t work well, and he either is too lazy or too stubborn to learn, and he is also clearly delusional.

  Yes Kerry must have had this great long term plan to become a Commie, and take over America by going to Viet Nam.

  I doubt Dumbyah ever had a plan about anything in his life; he did understand “daddy get me this”, and “keep me away from the bad men.”

  My Pet Goat

• 66 Darthmeister // May 15, 2007 at 3:28 pm

  But it is tautological … it begs the question, Godfrey. It’s a “must have happened because it happened”. Whenever I’ve researched this question over the last thirty or so years, the evolutionary reasoning usually devolves to argument by prestigious jargon (throw in a bunch of multi-syllable scientific words) or argument by familiarity (as if the theoretician was actually there) or reductive fallacy (oversimplification) or argument from authority (we know it to be true because some expert(s) said it was), or argument by intuition (the argument just feels right and appears logical given what we think we know).

  I admit I’m guilty of falling victim to any of these fallacies at one time or another because of the sheer complexity of the physical systems we’re talking about. I’m not a scientist, just a layman, but when I see the supposedly “objective” scientific community falling pray to the latest “explanation” which decades down the road often turns out to be in profound error, I for one don’t see the scientific community having any kind of monopoly on special insight in the questions of cosmic and human origins … they weren’t there either when it happened.

  For example, how many theories about the dynamics of the ring system around Saturn had to be thrown out the window after the Voyager spacecrafts put the scientists right there to see for themselves what was really happening:

  “The discoveries of the Voyager spacecraft instantly outdated and changed all the astronomy and science books about our solar system and its planets.”

  And if we had a time machine to go back and actually observe species coming and going in relation to environmental change and stress, we might find out just how terribly wrong evolutionary connect-the-dot theories of origins may have been.

• 67 RedPepper // May 15, 2007 at 3:41 pm

  Godfrey #61: I too am a skeptic on the question of man’s responsibilty for recent climate phenomena ; OTOH, the consumate hypocrisy of the left regarding this issue is unquestionable! Starting with their “Don’t expect us to change our behavior; that’s for you lowly peons!” attitude (go load up on some more carbon credits, Al … your footprint is showing!).

  Of course, “global warming” does give you a pretext to tell your daughter to use her bicycle more …

• 68 nicholas johnston // May 15, 2007 at 4:18 pm

  It can’t be worth that much. Since Consumer Reports downplayed The Mercedes and the BMW what is Daimler worth now?/

  I’m angus the scot and I’m happy to be back!

• 69 Maggie // May 15, 2007 at 5:19 pm

  Angus,
  How are you these days? It has been a long time since we’ve heard from you.
  Welcome back.

• 70 JamesonLewis3rd // May 15, 2007 at 5:45 pm

  Captain Ed gave me a good laugh regarding Fred Thompson’s reply to Moore’s challenge.

• 71 Shelly // May 15, 2007 at 6:13 pm

  James, Thompson’s clip and Captain Ed’s response are fabulous. Thank you so much for sharing those, I’ve watched the clip more than once already.

  Godfrey, you’re still missing my point. If global warming is a threat to some polar bears - and Al Gore goes far beyond this with cities under water, etc. - because the temperature has risen 0.6 degrees over the course of a century, why can’t the bears just evolve out of danger?

• 72 its-just-me // May 15, 2007 at 6:54 pm

  talk about global warming… I’m a believer - it’s already been over 100F here…

  Wait - it’s ALWAYS that hot here in May.

  What I don’t get is why life would evolve in the first place. It’s strange that simple organisms would transform into more and more complex beings, when the rest of matter seems to decay into simpler forms.

• 73 its-just-me // May 15, 2007 at 7:00 pm

  talk about your global warming - I’m a believer..
  It’s already been over 100F here.

  Oh, wait - it’s ALWAYS over 100 here in May…

  What I don’t get is why life would evolve in the first place. It’s strange that simple organisms would become more and more complex, when the rest of matter seems to decay into simpler forms.

• 74 Darthmeister // May 15, 2007 at 7:57 pm

  RedPepper, I’d like to put my carbon(-based) footprint on Goracle’s backside!

• 75 Darthmeister // May 15, 2007 at 8:00 pm

  JL3rd. Fred Thompson takes on Michael Mooron … buwahahahahaha. Like the good Captain said, pitch perfect!

• 76 Laughing@You // May 15, 2007 at 9:36 pm

  So Noah,

  Let me see if I understand what you’re saying; you have are built this gigantic thing here, because it going to rain, and flood the land, way over roof, even taller than the mountains? Anybody here seen any rain? Who told you that? Was it Algore? He invented rain you know?

  How many of each unclean animal did Moses take on the Ark?

• 77 JamesonLewis3rd // May 15, 2007 at 10:03 pm

  Nice try.

• 78 Ms RightWing, Ink // May 15, 2007 at 10:21 pm

  Fun night at the Astoria Bunker. The 12th floor had a fire in one of the apartment. The fire department came and had to bust down the walls between the livingroom and the patio.

  Curiosity got the best of me so I went outside and inquired from the fireman which apartment was burning. He told me and after I found out I told a bunch of guys standing around out back. It turns out that one of the fellows who was watching from outdoors lived in the apartment.

  Poor guy threw his 12 pack of Diet Rite on the ground and took off. Boy is he in trouble since he left a cancer smoldering on his patio and the high winds ignited something which in turn started the fire.

  First time the local fire boys had to fight a high rise “far.” Oh well, it will give the nit wits something to talk about.

  So what is new with the rest of ya

• 79 Ms RightWing, Ink // May 15, 2007 at 10:23 pm

  er, left a “cancer stick” on the patio

• 80 Ms RightWing, Ink // May 15, 2007 at 10:28 pm

  GAYS NOT HAPPY AGAIN. FALWELL DIES AND THE HISSY FITS BEGIN ALREADY

  “But not all the comments were positive. Matt Foreman, executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force, said that “unfortunately, we will always remember him as a founder and leader of America’s anti-gay industry, someone who exacerbated the nation’s appalling response to the onslaught of the AIDS epidemic, someone who demonized and vilified us for political gain and someone who used religion to divide rather than unite our nation.”

  sigh

  Comments taken from Channel 5 News, Cleveland, Someplace or other

• 81 Darthmeister // May 16, 2007 at 8:57 am

  Ohio Democratic lawmaker’s brush with armed thugs changes his views about conceal carry.

  Liberals are always great about taking stands against Americans’ rights under the Second Amendment … that is until they have a pistol shoved in their face by some thug. Welcome to the reality-based community, sir!

• 82 Darthmeister // May 16, 2007 at 9:03 am

  Also, a culture of self-defense, something which was clearly lacking at Virginia Tech. How do normally intelligent adults get herded like cattle to slaughter? They’re lied to by liberal society that it is better to acquiesce in the face of stronger opponent than it is to resist such evil. The nature of crime in general has become more deadly the last few decades, it’s about time decent Americans understand this and determine in their own souls that they won’t be the next victim. Fight back, we’ve had enough this cowering before evil.

• 83 Fred Sinclair // May 16, 2007 at 9:24 am

  OFF TOPIC:

  GEE, I NEVER KNEW

  BUTTER vs OLEOMARGARINE (aka Oleo - aka Margarine)

  Do you know the difference between margarine and butter?
  a.. Both have the same amount of calories.
  b.. Butter is slightly higher in saturated fats at 8 grams compared
  to 5 grams.
  c.. Eating margarine can increase heart disease in women by 53% over
  eating the same amount of butter, according to a recent Harvard
  Medical Study.
  d.. Eating butter increases the absorption of many other nutrients
  in other foods.
  e.. Butter has many nutritional benefits where margarine has a few
  only because they are added!
  f.. Butter tastes much better than margarine and it can enhance the
  flavors of other foods.
  g… Butter has been around for centuries where margarine has been
  around for less than 100 years.

  And now, for Margarine …….
  a… Very high in trans fatty acids…
  b.. Triple risk of coronary heart disease..
  c.. Increases total cholesterol and LDL (this is the bad
  cholesterol)
  d.. Lowers HDL cholesterol, (the good cholesterol)
  e.. Increases the risk of cancers by up to five fold…
  f.. Lowers quality of breast milk …
  g.. Decreases immune response…
  h.. Decreases insulin response.
  And here is the most disturbing fact….
  HERE IS THE PART THAT IS VERY INTERESTING!
  Margarine is but ONE MOLECULE away from being PLASTIC… This fact
  alone was enough to have me avoiding margarine for life and anything else
  that is hydrogenated (this means hydrogen is added, changing the molecular
  structure of the substance).
  YOU can try this yourself: purchase a tub of margarine and leave it
  in your garage or shaded area. Within a couple of days you will note a
  couple of things: no flies, not even those pesky fruit flies will go near it
  (that should tell you something) … it does not rot or smell differently.
  .because it has no nutritional value, nothing will grow on it…
  even those teeny weeny microorganisms will not find a home to grow.
  Why? Because it is nearly plastic.
  Would you melt your Tupperware and spread that on your toast?
  Share This With Your Friends…..(Butter them up.)

• 84 JamesonLewis3rd // May 16, 2007 at 9:32 am

  Another distinction:

  Butter — delicious.
  Margarine — gak.

• 85 Libby Gone // May 16, 2007 at 10:11 am

  Yumma, Butter!
  I remember making it in 2nd grade, each of us had to shake the jar for so many minute and at the end of the day we enjoyed it on saltines!
  It’s all I use for my culinary disasters!

• 86 RedPepper // May 16, 2007 at 10:15 am

  Fred: Margarine is a near-perfect illustration of The Law of Unintended Consequences. People were so convinced for so long that it was good for you!

  It’s not nice to fool Mother Nature …

• 87 Fred Sinclair // May 16, 2007 at 10:45 am

  JL3RD / LIB-B-GONE / RedPepper:

  I like the part in the last line “(Butter them up)” - I’ve never heard anyone say - “Margarine them up”.

  I use butter for everything for cooking and eating, except for when I use olive oil (which I buy in gallon tins).

  With all of the things “they” say is bad for you and then reverse themselves a few years later….I’m waiting for Krispy Kreme Doughnuts to be classified as a health food (they’ll get around to it - wait and see).

  Heirborn Ranger

• 88 its-just-me // May 16, 2007 at 11:12 am

  Re #82 -
  I hope everyone read the linked article - you GO girl!

  Yes, Darthmeister, it’s more politically correct to be a victim.
  If everyone thought for/took care of themselves, the libbies would be obsolete, and we can’t have that, can we?

• 89 JamesonLewis3rd // May 16, 2007 at 1:32 pm

  I suppose this lowlife cretin wants some cheese with his whine, too.

• 90 Libby Gone // May 16, 2007 at 1:42 pm

  Yea Fred,
  Olive Oil! and I’m not talking about Popeyes anorexic girlfriend! Hey I guess we have reached the point of the thread to exchange recipes!

• 91 Laughing@You // May 16, 2007 at 3:53 pm

  Yo Godfrey,

  About your 62:

  Does this mean we’re “Buds” now?

• 92 Laughing@You // May 16, 2007 at 4:02 pm

  Hey Rev Jim,

  “lowlife cretin” is that a fundamentalist term for the one The Good Sheppard left the ninety and nine to save?

  “Bring in the sheaves”, I see.

• 93 JamesonLewis3rd // May 16, 2007 at 4:02 pm

  The Democrat party as dictators.

• 94 JamesonLewis3rd // May 16, 2007 at 4:03 pm

  Update on #92.

• 95 JamesonLewis3rd // May 16, 2007 at 4:04 pm

  I mean #93.
  

• 96 Laughing@You // May 16, 2007 at 4:05 pm

  Ops,

  That should be “Bringing”, ha, ha what do you expect from another low life cretin? ha, ha

• 97 The Great Santini // May 16, 2007 at 4:34 pm

  ♪ ♪ ♪ IN A CHRYSLER ♪ ♪ ♪

  [Tune: “In the Ghetto”, music and lyrics by Mac Davis, performed by Elvis Presley; © 2007, Santini Parody Serenades]

  [Verse]
  As red ink flies…
  In a cold and gray Stuttgart junkyard
  Daimler-Benz crashed, loud and hard
  In a Chrysler
  (In a Chrysler)
  And the euros cry…

  ‘Cause if there’s one thing
  Mercedes don’t need
  It’s a money-pit partner
  That financially bleeds
  Like Chrysler
  (Like Chrysler)

  [Bridge]
  Daimler’s in a real tight squeeze
  Competin’ with the Japanese
  Plus Koreans, pretty soon the Red Chinese
  Smart Krauts
  Worried about bankruptcy
  More liability
  Iacocca has no clout
  Can’t arrange a fed bailout…

  [Verse]
  Angst, sturm und drang…
  As Daimler’s shareholders rage and wail
  Management opts for a fire sale
  Of Chrysler
  (Of Chrysler)
  The fat lady sang…

  Fritz ain’t insane…
  Daimler hawks its high-end wares
  Free of tanking market shares
  From Chrysler
  (From Chrysler)
  Auf wiedersehen…

  [Bridge]
  Desperate to dump Dodge™ and Jeep™
  Daimler sold out on the cheap
  To a hedge fund superstar
  Daimler’s mantra: “Wunderbar!”

  [Verse]
  UAW mourns…
  Union featherbedding’s tossed
  Plus staggering pension, healthcare costs
  Spawn of Chrysler
  (Spawn of Chrysler)
  Daimler-Benz reborn…

  Merger is undone…
  Mercedes goes on with the show
  No K-Car/Yugo fiasco
  In a Chrysler
  (In a Chrysler)
  Gotterdammerung…

  [Tag]
  Hopes of Cerberus rise…
  On a future New York City morn
  A buyer-sheep steps up, gets shorn
  In a Chrysler
  (In a Chrysler)
  Hey, buy-low-sell-high…

  (In a Chrysler)
  (In a Chrysler….)

• 98 Fred Sinclair // May 16, 2007 at 4:51 pm

  From my pastor - I believe this includes fear of liberals

  Facing Your Fears

  Jill confides that the recent spate of lay-offs at her husband’s company makes her fear that he’s next, and so she hasn’t been sleeping well. The mother who’s recently heard of a young boy’s death obsesses that one of her sons may be next. The woman in her mid-twenties is consumed with fears that she’ll never marry. The pregnant Sheila, who’s miscarried before, so fears the possibility of losing this child that she’s practically immobilized.
  How should a Christian deal with her frequent fears? How does she counsel and stabilize herself when assaulted by a crippling dread about what might happen in days to come? What is the biblically prescribed tranquilizer for the calming of our worried heads, when faced with the prospects of emotional paralysis?
  “God is our refuge and strength, A very present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth should change, And though the mountains slip into the heart of the sea; Though its waters roar and foam, Though the mountains quake at its swelling pride” (Psalm 46:1-3).
  The urged strategy in handling our fears is not to statistically dispel them: “Oh, the odds are against that calamity’s ever happening.” It’s not to sentimentally disqualify them: “Oh, your heavenly Father would never let such a bad thing happen.” And it’s not to forgetfully suppress them: “Oh, just refuse to think about it.” Instead the urged strategy is to courageously face them. That’s right – face our fears head on.
  The Psalm calls me to boldly entertain the possible prospects of my home being buried, our business going up in flames, my town being leveled in a quake, my children being swept away in a flood, and my spouse being killed in the wreckage. I may shrink back from this approach to dealing with my fears, claiming it’s too negative, or morbid, or pessimistic. But this is not morbid pessimism. It’s godly realism. These things may indeed happen! And it’s not for us to traffic in deception or evasion or suppression, but in reality, honesty, and integrity. Charles Spurgeon, whose sermon on Psalm 46 is entitled “Earthquake but not Heartquake”, well summarizes its thesis: “This is the doctrine of the Psalm: Happen what may, the Lord’s people are happy and secure.”
  Though our world may collapse all around us, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (Psalm 46:1) He will never leave or forsake us. He’ll be our shelter in the quake, our rock in the flood, our friend in the flames, “Therefore we will not fear”.
  Our true consolation is found when we face head on the absolute worst case scenario of what may indeed happen. Then in the midst, we reckon His promise of His presence as “our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.”

  Heirborn Ranger

• 99 Ms RightWing, Ink // May 16, 2007 at 5:18 pm

  Oh man, Santini, I don’t know what to say about you anymore. You hit a 12 on the one to ten scale

• 100 Fred Sinclair // May 16, 2007 at 5:41 pm

  Santini - as usual, I’m happy to agree totally with Lady RightWing, Ink - a 12 at least.

  Heirborn Ranger

• 101 The Great Santini // May 16, 2007 at 5:45 pm

  Ms Righty-

  Many thanks for the kind words. My German is quite rusty-like Chrysler, y’know.

  Heh.

• 102 The Great Santini // May 16, 2007 at 5:49 pm

  Heirborn Power Ranger™-

  See # 101 to Ms Righty, and same to you.

• 103 Beerme // May 16, 2007 at 6:06 pm

  Great parody again, Santini, Sir!
  My first car was a Fury. It’s probably still running today…

  As for the best of the line, Tomg, I’ll offer the Japanese Dodge Stealth as one of ‘em.

  From the link: The Stealth R/T Turbo is the most often talked about model in the media. With an impressive list of standard equipment and features, its quite easy to see why. Over various production years, this model is or has been a twin turbo charged, twin inter-cooled, all-wheel driven, four-wheel steered assembly of metals, plastics and leather with triple mode electronically controlled suspension and dual mode active exhaust. Depending upon year, it pumps out between 300-320 horsepower with between 307-315 lb-ft of torque and there is still room for the kids!

  Oh, and welcome back Godfrey!

• 104 Fred Sinclair // May 16, 2007 at 6:21 pm

  TGS - “Power”? where did you get that? I have no power. The only power I ackowledge is the Power of God the Father, His Son, Jesus and His Holy Spirit. Now that’s POWER!!! Certainly not with Fred Sinclair, Heirborn Ranger

• 105 JamesonLewis3rd // May 16, 2007 at 6:56 pm

  America-What a country!

• 106 Liger // May 16, 2007 at 9:50 pm

  Boy, what a performance by the repubs last night. Makes you proud to be the party of reagan, eh?

  Love always and forever.

  Liger

• 107 Laughing@You // May 16, 2007 at 10:31 pm

  Fred,

  98’s pretty good, thanks.

  Let those Democrats come, I’m more than ready ready, the sooner the better!

  I hope you all are watching the Gonzo action, next week could be real big.

  Reverend Liger:

  Thank’s for stopping by. Please, don’t be a stranger.

• 108 Harry Daschle // May 16, 2007 at 11:36 pm

  Maybe what Chrysler needs is a government bailout?

  OK, I know, it’s already been done. But you know how history repeats itself!

  I have always been a fan of “R.A.M.” Trucks!

• 109 JamesonLewis3rd // May 17, 2007 at 4:05 am

  It’s “the worst form of terrorism” and
  
  “It is something that has assumed xenophobic proportions,” they said in unison.

• 110 Darthmeister // May 17, 2007 at 5:56 am

  Islamophobia Is Worst Form of Terrorism …
  … according to radical Muslim fundamentalists. That would be like saying Naziphobia is the worst form of terrorism. It’s interesting how Muslim fundamentalists once more attempt to use left-wing “multi-culturalism” in order to promote their taqiyya in disarming the western man in defending himself against Muslim depradations. They try to make us out to be the bad guy when its very clear that its Shia Muslims murdering Shia, Shia Muslims murdering Sunnis, Sunnis murdering Shia, Muslim Palestinians slaughtering one another, Muslims murdering Jews, Muslims murdering Christians … Hindus … Buddhists … Atheists … Animists … or whatever fill-in-the-blank infidels.

  The problem isn’t “Islamophobia” the problem is radical Islamism itself and Muslims want to blame us for it! So who do Muslims blame when Palestinian Muslims (Hamas) murder Palestinian Muslims (Hezbollah) in their tribal civil wars? Why it’s America’s and Israel’s fault! And the American left will general agree! Moonbats.

• 111 Darthmeister // May 17, 2007 at 6:02 am

  Actually the Palestinians are involved in a three-way hate a trois. Hamas Muslims murder Fatah, Fatah Muslims murder Hezbollah, Hezbollah Muslims murder Hamas … or any variation thereof. Yes, Islam is clearly a 21st Century religion of peace.

• 112 RedPepper // May 17, 2007 at 7:03 am

  JL3, Darth: Don’t forget, we did publish those cartoons! And, the Pope said insulting things.

  This is clearly all our fault …

• 113 JamesonLewis3rd // May 17, 2007 at 7:30 am

  

• 114 JamesonLewis3rd // May 17, 2007 at 7:31 am

  Alas!

• 115 camojack // May 17, 2007 at 7:55 am

  And now for something completely different…

  The (Canada) National Post’s series on scientists who buck the conventional “wisdom” on climate science. Here is the series so far:
  Climate change: The Deniers

• 116 tomg // May 17, 2007 at 8:03 am

  Beerme Re: 93
  The Stealth looks great from behind. Guess I’m a car butt guy. The Stealth is right up there with late 60’s Mopar for the horizontal lines I love.

  Oh Lord, won’t you buy me, a Mercedes Benz
  I’d sell it, on E-bay, to buy Mopar rear ends
  With a 383, and a 727A
  And out to the straight roads, coyotes clear outta my way

• 117 tomg // May 17, 2007 at 8:24 am

  Oh Lord, won’t you buy me a color TV
  I’d cheer for the Charger in Bullitt, and the General Lee
  That ‘Cuda in Vanished (?) And the Dukes girl’s behind
  I’m off track again, must be my state of mind

• 118 Darthmeister // May 17, 2007 at 8:58 am

  Grand Inquisitor Henry Waxman and Karl Rove.

  Waxman has long proven himself to be little more than a despicable, vile, partisan hack always on a fishing expedition … which means he’s imminently qualified to be a left-wing Grand Inquisitor.

• 119 Shelly // May 17, 2007 at 9:00 am

  Such patriots, those Dems…

  http://web.mac.com/ryskind/iWeb/Site/The%20Ryskind%20Sketchbook.html

• 120 JamesonLewis3rd // May 17, 2007 at 9:07 am

  The world is going mad-human “cybrids”.

  Heaven help us.

• 121 Darthmeister // May 17, 2007 at 9:18 am

  camojack, excellent links.

  tomg, if I wasn’t a Mopar man from way back I wouldn’t have known a 727 torqueflite from an A904. Loved your ditty, btw.

  I owned a 1968 four-speed ‘Cuda Formula S with the 340 LA block (first year) twisting a set of 3.91 gears in the back. Dual exhaust, dual point distributor, with a Carter AVS 650 CFM carb.

  On a set of old bias ply F60 tires it could run high 13s and low 14s in the quarter mile. It was trapping in the quarter mile between 103 to 105 mph which meant it was probably putting out close to 360 horses. Strictly a straight line car with zero cornering performance even with torsion bar suspension. No airconditioning and 14 mpg on the highway with 104 octane if I was lucky

  I figure if I had some modern DOT drag radials back then the car probably would have run low 13s bone stock. It was a big block killer because the Cheby 454s, 427s, 396s and Mopar 383s, 440s, and Hemis would be spinning their way through first gear and part of second while I would get about a two to three car jump which couldn’t be made up in a quarter mile.

  About the only stock legal car that would beat me at the local Houston dragway was a ‘68 Ford Torino with a 427 ci running on what we called “cheater slicks” - that day’s equivalent to DOT drag radials but in a bias ply. I would run in the E Stock NHRA class and he was running in C Stock so he usually ended up beating me for the Stock Eliminator crown except for the one time he was disqualified because what little tread pattern on the tires had worn off his “cheater slicks”. Even then the guy was only running 13.8s.

• 122 JamesonLewis3rd // May 17, 2007 at 9:37 am

  I just love the smell of tyranny in the morning.

• 123 Ms RightWing, Ink // May 17, 2007 at 10:19 am

  Darthmeister

  You memory is way good. I would have to take a two week leave of absence to recall all my cars and what powered them. But I can sit and wish I had all of the cool cars back, even my Chevies.

  The worse car I ever owned was my English Ford (1964?) Darn thing was a parts pig. One of the fastest for the size and weight was my Opel Rallye. It was only a 1900 four cylinder but would give any stock 289 Mustang a run for its money.

  www.adclassix.com/a4/69buickopelrallye.html -

• 124 RedPepper // May 17, 2007 at 10:30 am

  Beerme, are you here this morning?

  This one’s for you ;

  Whipped For Two Beers .

  “We were on an outing with family and friends, six or seven in the evening, and were having a barbecue and enjoying ourselves. Altogether I drank two beers. The police happened to drive by,” Mamandy said.

• 125 tomg // May 17, 2007 at 11:27 am

  Ms RightWing, Ink - I remember those. Had two friends with them in about ‘75 - one with the first auto-reverse cassette player I had seen.
  Darthmeister - Unfortunately my fast cars were as a passenger for the most part. My peak driving speed was in the 383 (low compression) with the aluminum-housed 727 in a 66 Newport. That was on 2004 flying towards the blimp port coming back from Lake Jackson. Straight and empty.
  Starting to pay attention to cars again, now that my son bought this:
  http://s4.photobucket.com/albums/y103/Niftee50ees/2007%2005-12%20Niftee50ees/?action=view¤t=Image089.jpg

• 126 Libby Gone // May 17, 2007 at 12:39 pm

  Showing my age, my first car was my Moms used ‘75 Ford Torino. Stock except for the mags I got from my uncle by working for him. I loved that car, still do. Unfortunately the impulse of spring break caused me to sell it to a friend who prompty installed it under someones front porch.

• 127 JamesonLewis3rd // May 17, 2007 at 2:28 pm

  Okay. Memory lane, eh.

  My first car, purchased in 1965 for $50, was a ‘53 Chevy.

• 128 JamesonLewis3rd // May 17, 2007 at 2:32 pm

  I was working full-time at the Burger Boy Food-O-Rama on East Broad Street across from the Town & Country Shopping Center. I had just received a whopping $0.25 raise to $1.25 per hour.

• 129 JamesonLewis3rd // May 17, 2007 at 2:40 pm

  Hear that?

  It’s a thundering stampede of illiterate, unskilled Mexicans heading this way.

• 130 TouchyFeely // May 17, 2007 at 4:52 pm

  Once enacted, this amnesty bill will be an irreversable disaster. We should all know the consequences of this travesty - before hand.

  Since right-wing Americans don’t seem to be willing to protest in the streets (many have jobs, after all) my only suggestion, as I sit here jaw agape, is to stop ALL discretionary spending. And I mean ALL. Email all your friends. No dining out, no new shoes, no new cars. Send a message that the crooks in Washington will hear.

• 131 RedPepper // May 17, 2007 at 5:07 pm

  JL3, TouchyFeely: Perhaps Karl Rove has told President Bush that, with his approval rating in the low 30’s, it can’t possibly get any worse. Perhaps he thinks that’s so.

  Mr. President … you have another think coming …

• 132 JamesonLewis3rd // May 17, 2007 at 5:45 pm

  Indeed.

• 133 JamesonLewis3rd // May 17, 2007 at 5:57 pm

  Bolton versus the Beeb.

• 134 Darthmeister // May 17, 2007 at 7:19 pm

  tomg,

  The fastest I’ve ever gone was in a former police car that was a 1968 383 Magnum Fury III with something like a 2.31 hiway rearend. A school chum of mine had it (he later owned a 1970 440 6-pack Challenger which ran 12.90s in NHRA A-Stock class on L-60 radial Firestones. It was awesome!) and we were out cruising around when he got a wild hair and nailed it. The second shift of the 727 happened around 100 mph and we got it up to 145 mph before we ran out of straight-away. Those things were shaped like bricks so I think the thing was both aerodynamically and horsepower limited. I think the 383 magnum was rated at about 365 horses. But the car felt pretty solid though Ricky said the front end was getting pretty light with all the air being shoved underneath the car at 145. It was pretty cool watching the speedometer wind up (actually down) when we past 100 mph.

• 135 Darthmeister // May 17, 2007 at 7:25 pm

  Ms RightWing,

  Those Opels always surprised me. There were a couple on the street back in early 1970s and they would take out any American in-line six cylinders, even the vaunted 225 slant six.

  My friend Ricky’s dad was a real Mopar nut and he bought a 1965 225 slant six wagon (I forget the model) and he built the engine big-time. It had something like 11.5:1 compression, a 450 CFM four barrel and a lot of other Direct Connection goodies. Yes, Direct Connection was around back then.

  The wagon also had the push-button three speed automatic with a manual valve body and I kid you not, he was running 14.90s in the quarter with that thing. He’d be blowing stock V-8s away at the strip.

• 136 Ms RightWing, Ink // May 17, 2007 at 7:32 pm

  I had three of these beauties in the early 70’s when I worked for a Volvo dealership. I was a certified (big deal) Volvo inventory specialist.

  Every time a despondent Volvo owner came around I would offer him about $100 and soon I had three of the neat vehicles but my land lady was not happy with three of them in her driveway.

  One Volvo was the runner, the other not bad and the third was a parts car-but I should have allowed my friends to rebuild all three. All I did was clean ‘em up after they came back from the body shop.

  The picture is just an Internet photo.

  http://volvoadventures.com/544JimBarrett13.jpg

• 137 Ms RightWing, Ink // May 17, 2007 at 8:07 pm

  Then my neighbor built one of these babies. His was a kit car with a Ford Twin Cam engine. I did many laps (time trials) at Nelson Ledges road course, in NE Ohio.

  Another Internet picture. I have a ton of slides from my racing days but no slide projector. I had my hands on a Bell and Howell at a second hand store a couple of months ago but the owner sold it when he was suppose to hold it for me.

  My little Nikon Nikormat got a good workout back then.

  http://madmotors.com/images/seven.gif

  When we wanted to go straight we went to this place in West Salem, Ohio. Good ol Dragway 42

  www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYXcXE0lru8 -

• 138 Ms RightWing, Ink // May 17, 2007 at 8:25 pm

  Darthmeister

  I was a MOPAR babe since I started driving in ‘64.

  http://www.carsclassic.com/stock/Active_Car_Photos/64%20Dart%20Conv%20L%20Front.jpg

  If this was a creamy white then this would be the car I learned to drive in. Slant six, push button transmission and baby blue bucket seats. But my dad was a stinker about letting me put the top down. He would check the top to see if there was any wrinkles in it.

  sigh, He eventually let me ride with the top down but living in a small town he found out every time some guy honked at me. It was a great car to cruise the burger stand while the Volvo really wasn’t a cool ride back then.

• 139 Ms RightWing, Ink // May 17, 2007 at 8:26 pm

  I’m done. Time to go knit or something ladylike. Recipes maybe

• 140 JamesonLewis3rd // May 17, 2007 at 9:04 pm

  I spent a few afternoons here back in the day-had a friend with a ‘63 or 4 Bel Air (or was it a Biscayne? Uh-oh, there goes the brain cell) with a 283 that was pretty fast.

  I never raced, but I love to spectate. I’m still grinning from my recent first trip to the mecca of NASCAR, the Daytona 500.

• 141 camojack // May 18, 2007 at 5:54 am

  My second car had a “slant six”…and I owned several of ‘em, through the years. Cooling and electrical system problems were common, but those engines were great…

• 142 onlineanalyst // May 18, 2007 at 7:03 am

  I rode in a Datsun “Z car” …but the experience was only temporary.

  Back to lurking…

• 143 Darthmeister // May 18, 2007 at 7:45 am

  How would you like a $500,000 winning lottery ticket and then be told it’s a misprint!

  I’ve always said it would be a miracle if I ever won the lottery … since I never buy the tickets in the first place.

  The definition of state-backed lotteries … a tax on the gullible. But it is true, someone is going to win big on any given drawing.

• 144 myword // May 18, 2007 at 8:35 am

  Darthmeister - your link in # 118

  Republicans are such wusses!!!!!! They cave to the Dims when they are a majority and they cave to
  the Dims when they are the minority. When are they going to get a spine. The Dims
  would investigate Mother Theresa for operating a business without a license for her work with the
  poor if she were a Republican. I’m sick to death of the Republicans for not sticking together. What
  idiots!

• 145 Maggie // May 18, 2007 at 9:08 am

  Do you think Scott has been abducted by illegal aliens?

• 146 Fred Sinclair // May 18, 2007 at 9:12 am

  The only way I would ever win a lottery would be if there was a drawing to see who would be first for the headsman’s axe.

  If there were 10 million and one tickets and I bought 10 million of them; that one other ticket would be found to be the winner!

  Actually I am a winner in the lottery game. Insofar as I still have all of the dollars I would have lost over the years if I had been fool enough to buy into their game.

  WoW! I am a WINNER after all. That’s pretty cool.

  Heirborn Ranger

• 147 Maggie // May 18, 2007 at 9:24 am

  Fred,
  I know what you mean.
  You walk into a 7-11 store and hand them a dollar and say “here, you keep it! I don’t want it.”

• 148 Fred Sinclair // May 18, 2007 at 9:46 am

  Camojack - personal opinion - the #1 greatest engine in automotive history is/was the Dodge 225 slant six #2 the Ford 352 cu in V-8.

  #3 I know very little about. In 1955, I was stationed at Sheppard AFB, TX - an NCO friend bought a wreck at the local police auction, sold the car for parts - fifty bucks and kept the engine, which was a “Police Interceptor” whatever that engine was, he installed it in his new 1956 Crown Victoria Ford and was “proud” of every ticket he got. Scared me silly to ride with him, but I was 18 years old and pretty dumb - somehow we both survived, but I’ll never forget that car.

  Heirborn Ranger

• 149 Fred Sinclair // May 18, 2007 at 9:59 am

  From today’s CWA

  Liberals React to the Passing of Dr. Falwell
  The graduation of Dr. Jerry Falwell to glory has given occasion to many to drop all pretense of tolerance. Comments by liberals, homosexuals, and God-haters in general, in publications and online forums may be cruel and disgusting but Matt Barber, CWA?s Policy Director for Cultural Issues, says their venom simply highlights the godly life of Dr. Falwell. He adds that, while hurtful, these comments should serve to remind us of the spiritual nature of the culture war and that those who hate God will hate us as well.

  Heirborn Ranger

• 150 JamesonLewis3rd // May 18, 2007 at 10:48 am

  If the world hates you, keep in mind that it hated me first.~~John 15:18

  Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you.~~1John 3:13

• 151 JamesonLewis3rd // May 18, 2007 at 11:10 am

  Time for playing games, apparently.

• 152 Ms RightWing, Ink // May 18, 2007 at 11:13 am

  I made two loaves of bread and spent the morning out at the driving range hitting golf balls-three buckets to be exact.

  I think my womanhood is returning after a day of grease talking, only problem is I didn’t get a chance to talk about racing about in my friends Formula Ford, Mini Cooper (the original) and bragging rights on nearly 20 other cars I owned.

  Early stories in the cafe, if I remember told of the horrors of International pick-em up trucks, except for my 53 International which was way cool.

  I think my most exciting vehicle (let er roll) was a Japanese monster that sorta looked like this. Mine was more cool with the white mag wheels

  http://www.cruizers.com/images/brochures/fj40/cruiser4.JPG

• 153 Laughing@You // May 18, 2007 at 11:25 am

  Isn’t gluttony a sin?

  Isn’t it inconsistent with the Christianity to accept huge sums of money ($73 million) from Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s Unification Church (Moon’s wife is Christ you know?)

  http://www.jesus-is-savior.com/False%20Religions/Moonies/jerry_falwell_and_myung_moon.htm

  Last night it was reported on MSM that he had $40 million in life insurance, wow on a 73 year old man, wonder what that cost? I bet Thomas Road, or the poor, won’t see much of that.

  Just look what Jerry did for America! My favorite bumper sticker was: “The Moral Majority Is Neither”.

  I have an autographed copy of his book “Aflame for God” inscribed: “To my dear friend with gratitude to God for all you mean to me.”

  Jerry Falwell
  Phil 1:6

  Look for it on eBay soon.

  I look forward to seeing that fat, hateful, “Grinning Possum” again some day.

• 154 conserve-a-tips // May 18, 2007 at 11:26 am

  Hi guys. Been a bit under the weather. I had tests at the hospital on Tuesday and I didn’t really realize who I was until yesterday. That anesthesia stays in your system a long time!! I feel like I could leap tall buildings today, but since Oklahoma doesn’t have any really tall buildings, except a couple of banks in downtown OKC, I think I’ll just stay put close to the couch. Haven’t gotten the results back, but I take no news as good news.

  I have just called both of our representatives at the Capitol and yelled. The secretaries gave me this runaround of, “Well, the Congressman hasn’t read the bill yet, but he is against amnesty.” I told them, “Well, I HAVE read the bill and it IS amnesty and I will be watching the vote, as will many others.” I have a call into our Senators as well, but I know how they will vote. They are both against this. Call yours and get the word out to all of your friends. This thing is going to split the country and as far as I am concerned, the president and the Republicans are toast. Just my humble opinion. OK, too much activity here!!

• 155 Ms RightWing, Ink // May 18, 2007 at 11:30 am

  Now what did I do with the crochet needle.

  Now I must admit there was about 10 years of being married off and on to a motor head, but it seemed like it was always my money that went to the car lot. sigh

• 156 Ms RightWing, Ink // May 18, 2007 at 11:40 am

  It is rare that ever reply to a crouching troll but I just read the link. All sorts of secret conspiracy meetings. Ewww, I just love secret meetings, like the ones that say we planted explosives in the Twin Towers.

  Give us more. I love the suspense.

  What so many libs think is we loved and hung on to every word Falwell said. I had the pleasure of meeting him, in of all places, a Perkins Restaurant outside Chicago.

  I liked much of what he said and paid little attention to the rest. He was not “my” spiritual leader.

• 157 Darthmeister // May 18, 2007 at 12:41 pm

  Despite the view that Jesus was some dirt poor itinerant preacher, there is good Biblical and extra-biblical scholarship which strongly suggests Jesus and his ministry actually handled rather large sums of money. And the cash flow probably swelled when word got out Jesus was claiming to be one with God the Father and in fact was the Messiah.

  It was a tradition in that day for the common people to support traveling rabbis like Jesus with a freewill offering. Historical evidence strongly suggests it was Judas Iscariot who was the treasurer of Jesus’ ministry funds which probably went to widows, the poor and supporting the disciples and Jesus as they traveled about the countryside. What we do know is money meant very little to Jesus, it was a tool to advance his ministry and to help those who couldn’t help themselves.

  Also, other than Joseph and Mary having to be bedded down in a barn during the census at the birth of Christ because of the sheer number of people in Bethlehem, there is nothing to suggest they were paupers. Joseph was gainfully employed as a carpenter or a stonemason (a translation subtlety) who if proficient was capable of earning a very nice living approximating what we would call blue-collar middle-class. It’s pretty clear whatever their financial status, they lived humble, productive lives and on occasion would travel to Jerusalem to shop and visit the temple.

  BTW, the Unification Church is a cult. All money is the same color, green. It’s not made “dirty” by who earned it or who gave it but rather how its being put to use. Like Billy Graham once said, “It’s not a sin to make a million, but it is a sin to keep it all to yourself.” Money is only a tool. It’s not money which is the root of all evil, but rather the Bible says its the love of money which is. A poor man who lusts after money has fallen in a far greater sin than a rich man who uses his money to build businesses which employs hundreds if not thousands of other people and then gives cheerfully from his own profits to the church and whatever other charities of his choice.

• 158 Darthmeister // May 18, 2007 at 1:08 pm

  I’m with you Ms RightWing. The libtards are always stereotyping Christians. Jerry Falwell wasn’t my spiritual leader though I agreed with many of his biblical teachings that I heard from time to time.

  It’s like Ted Haggard. I never heard of the man until the liberal media went ballistic and was making claims about how much of the evangelical world he supposedly represented. In my experience Christians are often very local.

  Unlike libtards who go ga-ga over charismatic personalities like Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, the Hollyweird crowd, et al, conservative Christians are generally pretty reserved about playing follow-the-leader despite the ignorant stereotypes engaged in by left-wing moonbats. The trolls still continue to engage in their self-imposed ignorance by thinking we somehow are enamored with President Bush when what we are doing is supporting what we see to be a very necessary war on jihadism for the sake of the American republic while at the same time we are appalled when President Bush signed off on “education reform”, the McCain-Feingold Campaign finance reform, the various enlargements of federal entitlement programs, and now this abomination of “immigration reform”. President Bush is not what you call a “process conservative”, but at the same time he’s willing to fight a war against Islamofascism which liberals are clearly unwilling to fight because they seem incapable of connecting the dots that we see.

  But just look at the world of socialism/collectivism/liberalism. Liberals virtually worshipped the ground FDR’s wheelchair rolled over. Joe Stalin was a respected socialist/communist icon as was Lenin, Ho Chi Minh, etc. In my experience Christians are very independent minded people, notice how everyone has a slightly different understanding of Scripture and there are many, many national Christian leaders and not just one or two? By contrast liberal collectivists are by their nature given to the herd mentality. Note how the liberal Dhimmiecrats always stick together and circle the wagons when one of their own is in trouble, but Republicans will throw their own under the bus if they see it may political benefit them.

  That’s why its my continued belief when the real Anti-Christ is revealed, the secular liberal will automatically flock to such a charismatic personality while conservative Christians will be repulsed the same way we were repulsed by Bill Clinton and sHrillary. As a result we’ll be hated even more for not supporting such a magnetic world leader who will bring peace and prosperity to the weary world … you know, peace will guide the planets and love will steer the stars! Such will be the cover “ministry” of the Anti-Christ as he attempts to gain mastery over the world.

• 159 tomg // May 18, 2007 at 1:26 pm

  My first car was a ‘63 Belvedere slant six, unfortunately without the apparently optional passenger floorboard - a NY car
  Ms RW - saw the long FJ40’s on Venezuela - loved them. Road in an aluminum Lotus7 - cool, but wanted a bicycle flag on it to be noticed! Had one of the Dart convertibles, too - a ‘65 GT with small block V8 and Hurst shifter - and also very little top, much rust, sideswipes on both sides, & 213K miles! Used it to haul driftwood for bonfires on the Surfside, TX beach. My brother had a Cortina - sounds like your in-need-of-many-parts Ford.
  Darthmeister - I’ll second the 145 (140 actually) riding in a GTX - I could feel the light front end. The Chrysler went 120+ limited by the speedometer and the fact that my right shoulder had just been partially separated in a rugby match. No wait, that was the reason I was flying. The wisdom of youth.
  Even my little racing sailboat was made by Chrysler in Plano TX - a 1978 Buccaneer. I think the boat business went out with the government bail-out.

  And… can’t we get these illegals to take jobs in Mexico that Americans won’t do?

• 160 Shelly // May 18, 2007 at 1:30 pm

  Completely OT, but to add my $0.02, I also agree with Scott at Powerline:

  “I have long admired John McCain and wanted to like him as a presidential candidate. I’ve been rereading his remarkable memoir Faith of My Fathers in the hope that the time might come when I could pay tribute to his manifest gifts. I’ve reserved judgment on the relative merits of the three major Republican candidates. Never mind.

  Usually a presidential candidate waits at least to secure his party’s nomination before he reaches beyond (sells out) his party’s base. It seems to me that for those of us who have kept an open mind on Senator McCain, hoping that he might pay us that minimal respect, the time has come to check out on his candidacy. Claiming paternity of the prospective immigration amnesty along with Senator Kennedy and others today, Senator McCain has saved me the traditional buyer’s remorse. Pending further developments, I’ve narrowed the field of acceptable Republican candidates. I’m opting for Anybody But McCain.”

• 161 tomg // May 18, 2007 at 1:31 pm

  Ouch - “on” and “Road” = “in” and “Rode”.
  When spell-check is not enough.

• 162 kajun // May 18, 2007 at 5:56 pm

  I wouldn’t give $7.40 for a Chrysler.

• 163 Fred Sinclair // May 18, 2007 at 7:29 pm

  At least Ann Coulter got it right! - Heirborn Ranger

  JERRY FALWELL — SAY HELLO TO RONALD REAGAN!
  May 16, 2007

  No man in the last century better illustrated Jesus’ warning that “All men will hate you because of me” than the Rev. Jerry Falwell, who left this world on Tuesday. Separately, no man better illustrates my warning that it doesn’t pay to be nice to liberals.

  Falwell was a perfected Christian. He exuded Christian love for all men, hating sin while loving sinners. This is as opposed to liberals, who just love sinners. Like Christ ministering to prostitutes, Falwell regularly left the safe confines of his church to show up in such benighted venues as CNN.

  He was such a good Christian that back when we used to be on TV together during Clinton’s impeachment, I sometimes wanted to say to him, “Step aside, reverend — let the mean girl handle this one.” (Why, that guy probably prayed for Clinton!)

  For putting Christ above everything — even the opportunity to make a humiliating joke about Clinton — Falwell is known as “controversial.” Nothing is ever as “controversial” as yammering about Scripture as if, you know, it’s the word of God or something.

  From the news coverage of Falwell’s death, I began to suspect his first name was “Whether You Agree With Him or Not.”

  Even Falwell’s fans, such as evangelist Billy Graham and former President Bush, kept throwing in the “We didn’t always agree” disclaimer. Did Betty Friedan or Molly Ivins get this many “I didn’t always agree with” qualifiers on their deaths? And when I die, if you didn’t always agree with me, would you mind keeping it to yourself?

  Let me be the first to say: I ALWAYS agreed with the Rev. Falwell.

  Actually, there was one small item I think Falwell got wrong regarding his statement after 9/11 that “the pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians — who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle — the ACLU, People for the American Way, all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say, ‘You helped this happen.’”

  First of all, I disagreed with that statement because Falwell neglected to specifically include Teddy Kennedy and “the Reverend” Barry Lynn.

  Second, Falwell later stressed that he blamed the terrorists most of all, but I think that clarification was unnecessary. The necessary clarification was to note that God was at least protecting America enough not to allow the terrorists to strike when a Democrat was in the White House.

  (If you still think it isn’t Christ whom liberals hate, remember: They hate Falwell even more than they hate me.)

  I note that in Falwell’s list of Americans he blamed for ejecting God from public life, only the gays got a qualifier. Falwell referred to gays and lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle.

  No Christian minister is going to preach that homosexuality is godly behavior, but Falwell didn’t add any limiting qualifications to his condemnation of feminists, the ACLU or People for the American Way.

  There have always been gay people — even in the prelapsarian ’50s that Jerry Falwell and I would like to return to, when God protected America from everything but ourselves.

  What Falwell was referring to are the gay activists — the ones who spit the Eucharist on the floor at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, blamed Reagan for AIDS, and keep trying to teach small schoolchildren about “fisting.”

  Also the ones who promote the gay lifestyle in a children’s cartoon.

  Beginning in early 1998, the news was bristling with stories about a children’s cartoon PBS was importing from Britain that featured a gay cartoon character, Tinky Winky, the purple Teletubbie with a male voice and a red handbag.

  People magazine gleefully reported that Teletubbies was “aimed at Telebabies as young as 1 year. But teenage club kids love the products’ kitsch value, and gay men have made the purse-toting Tinky Winky a camp icon.”

  In the Nexis archives for 1998 alone, there are dozens and dozens of mentions of Tinky Winky being gay — in periodicals such as Newsweek, The Toronto Star, The Washington Post (twice!), The New York Times and Time magazine (also twice).

  In its Jan. 8, 1999, issue, USA Today accused The Washington Post of “outing” Tinky Winky, with a “recent Washington Post In/Out list putting T.W. opposite Ellen DeGeneres and Anne Heche, essentially ‘outing’ the kids’ show character.”

  Michael Musto of The Village Voice boasted that Tinky Winky was “out and proud,” noting that it was “a great message to kids — not only that it’s OK to be gay, but the importance of being well accessorized.”

  All this appeared before Falwell made his first mention of Tinky Winky.

  After one year of the mainstream media laughing at having put one over on stupid bourgeois Americans by promoting a gay cartoon character in a TV show for children, when Falwell criticized the cartoon in February 1999, that same mainstream media howled with derision that Falwell thought a cartoon character could be gay.

  Teletubbies producers immediately denounced the suggestion that Tinky Winky was gay — though they admitted that he was once briefly engaged to Liza Minnelli. That’s what you get, reverend, for believing what you read in The Washington Post, The New York Times, Time magazine and Newsweek. Of course, Falwell also thought the show “Queer as Folk” was gay, so obviously the man had no credibility.

  Despite venomous attacks and overwhelming pressure to adopt the fashionable beliefs of cafe society, Falwell never wavered an inch in acknowledging Jesus before men. Luckily, Jesus’ full sentence, quoted at the beginning of this column is: “All men will hate you because of me, but he who stands firm to the end will be saved.”

  COPYRIGHT 2007 ANN COULTER
  DISTRIBUTED BY UNIVERSAL PRESS SYNDICATE
  4520 Main Street, Kansas City, MO 64111

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