Just because a shooting happened in your building, doesn’t mean it is "breaking news" to the rest of us.
Memo To Bush
Bush on TV this morning:
It has now been 57 days since I requested that Congress pass emergency funds for our troops. Instead of passing clean bills that fund our troops on the front lines, the House and Senate have spent this time debating bills that undercut the troops.
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In a time of war it’s irresponsible for the Democratic leadership in Congress to delay for months on end while our troops in combat are waiting for the funds. The bottom line is this, Congress’s failure to fund our troops on the front line also mean that some of our military families could wait longer for their loved ones to return from the front lines.
57 days is an unreasonable delay?
First of all, the SENT you a bill providing supplementary funding for the troops, George. You didn’t like it.
Secondly — well — Think Progress points something out:
During the reign of the Do-Nothing 109th Congress, Bush submitted two major supplemental spending requests. Each request experienced a delay far more than 57 days with hardly a peep of anger from the Commander-In-Chief. Details below:
February 14, 2005: Bush submits $82 billion supplemental bill
May 11, 2005: Bush signs the supplemental
Total time elapsed: 86 daysFebruary 16, 2006: Bush submits $72 billion supplemental bill
June 15, 2006: Bush signs the supplemental
Total time elapsed: 119 days
Did you complain then about delays in supplemental funding for Iraq? Hell, no.
So stop your belly-aching about "delays". Nobody’s buying it.
UPDATE: Apparently, Bush also said the following at his presser this morning:
"The solution to Iraq — an Iraq that can govern itself, sustain itself and defend itself — is more than a military mission. Precisely the reason why I sent more troops into Baghdad."
Someone care to explain that to me?
Opening Day Red Sox Recap
Kansas City 7 – Bosox 1. Ugh.
Well, the bad news is we lost. The good news is that we’re tied for second in the AL East.
Schilling blogs about his performance yesterday on his blog:
Not sure where to even start. Two words sum it up best, no command. Can’t remember a game where I couldn’t make adjustments but today was certainly one of those. Not so much the secondary pitches but no fastball command is not something that happens much, if at all, over an entire game (even if the ‘game’ for me only lasts 4 innings).
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Started Dejesus off with some fastballs, which felt like they got more life as I started to throw. Got in on him for a fly ball to right. Grud worked the count to 3-1, laying off the first change at 1-1, and a FB down and away ended up middle in for a hard single to left. Had Teahan down quick and left a split up for another single 1-2 (I think). First pitch slider to Sweeney didn’t slide, bad miss. Next slider was better and he stayed on it and hit it hard to right to load the bases. Gordon worked a 7 pitch AB, and chased a good split down for out #2. A lengthy AB from Shealy, saw me go to the split 3-2 which he took for ball 4 to walk in a run. I can’t remember if I ever done that? Made a lot of mistakes inside this one AB and it ended up costing us.Overthrowing some balls when I had a chance to end the AB earlier and missing spots too badly to even get him to offer. Gload went 0-1 on a FB away and then I got in on him with a 1-0 cutter for the final out. 33 pitches, bases loaded walk, 1-1 game.
Not the start I was hoping for. Walking off the mound I knew my FB command was crap, and that I’d need to get it right fast.
I hope he keeps this up. It’s good stuff.
Flip-Flopper Flip-Flops
Matthew Dowd, the Bush advisor who pinned the term "flip-flopper" on John Kerry in the 2004 elections, had flip-flopped himself. Or, some might say, he’s come to Jesus. It’s the biggest Bush "insider" to break with Bush, telling the New York Times this weekend that "Kerry was right" about Iraq.
UPDATE: Hmmmm. Lots of disillusionment going around.
Major Environmental Victory in Supreme Court
It was close, 5-4, but the Supreme Court handed down its opinion on the controversial EPA case. The case was relatively simple: does the Clean Air Act give the EPA the authority to regulate greenshouse gases? The EPA (under Bush) said "no". States sued, saying to the EPA, "Hey. Do your job." The EPA said, "It ain’t our job".
BACKGROUND FROM THINK PROGRESS:
Some background: the case emerged in 2003 after the EPA rejected a petition calling for the federal government to restrict emissions of greenhouse gases — most notably, carbon dioxide. The EPA’s general counsel argued in a memo that “[carbon dioxide] and other [greenhouse gases], as such, are not air pollutants,” and “substantial scientific uncertainty” still exists about the effects of carbon dioxide on the environment.
The statement meant the Bush administration would not have to regulate carbon dioxide emissions under the Clean Air Act. The U.S. Court of Appeals upheld this view. (The Washington Post would later report that “two of the jurists who helped decide the case” had “attended a six-day global warming seminar…sponsored by a free-market foundation and featuring presentations from companies with a clear financial interest in limiting regulation.”)
The court had three questions before it.
–Do states have the right to sue the EPA to challenge its decision?
–Does the Clean Air Act give EPA the authority to regulate tailpipe emissions of greenhouse gases?
–Does EPA have the discretion not to regulate those emissions?
The court said yes to the first two questions. On the third, it ordered EPA to re-evaluate its contention it has the discretion not to regulate tailpipe emissions. The court said the agency has so far provided a "laundry list" of reasons that include foreign policy considerations.
The majority said the agency must tie its rationale more closely to the Clean Air Act.
"EPA has offered no reasoned explanation for its refusal to decide whether greenhouse gases cause or contribute to climate change," Stevens said. He was joined by his liberal colleagues, Justices Stephen Breyer, Ruth Bader Ginsburg and David Souter, and the court’s swing voter, Justice Anthony Kennedy.
The lawsuit was filed by 12 states and 13 environmental groups that had grown frustrated by the Bush administration’s inaction on global warming.
Opinion here (PDF)
It should be noted that the, given the tone of the opinion, the EPA is going to be hard-pressed to come with a reason NOT to address global warming.
Opening Day!
My suggestion: Let’s rack up a 12 game lead in the next few months, so we’re in a good position when everyone on the roster gets injured in July.
John McCain Is Losing It
He used to be a maverick and a straight-talker. Now he’s completely bonkers.
In recent days, he’s been touting how safe Baghdad is, even as news reports have highlighted bombings and attacks in the normally-safe green zone. For his pollyannish comments, McCain was fittingly ridiculed.
But rather than let it go, he decided to amp it up. At a press conference in the heavily-guarded Green Zone yesterday, McCain bragged about having just strolled through a Baghdad market for an hour. It was proof he said, that an American could “walk freely” in some areas of the city, just as he said last week.
What does "walk freely" mean to McCain?
McCain’s press conference was a farce. Newsweek noted, “It didn’t take the insurgents long to send their reply. Less then 30 minutes after McCain wrapped up, a barrage of half a dozen mortars peppered the boundaries of the Green Zone, where the senators held their press conference.”
Way to prove the opposite of what you intended to prove, McCain.
Chocolate Jesus Smackdown
Catholic League prez William Donahue and the "Chocolate Jesus" artist Cosmo Cavallaro go mana-a-mana. Crooks & Liars has the video and transcript.
I like the take of David Kuo, former head of Bush’s faith-based office:
Jesus’ story isn’t nice, it isn’t neat, it isn’t comfortable. It is the opposite of all of those things. In so many ways those of us who say we follow Jesus actually want a sort of "chocolate Jesus" of our own – one that is sweet, one that demands little from us, one that we can mold into our forms – perhaps politically conservative, perhaps liberal, maybe happy with just a few of our dollars given to the poor every now and again, perhaps content with those who simply say they love him and then lead lives little different from anyone else.
It is easy for some religious leaders to decry a piece of art and say – as some have (apparently with a straight face) – it is "one of the worst assaults on Christian sensibilities ever." (I suppose that genocide in Darfur is merely an "affront" to Christian sensibilities?) But instead of getting all amped up over this "art," Christians should be spending time facing the real and very challenging Jesus found in the Gospels and encouraging others to do the same. I know that is what I need to do.
The (Boring and Incomplete) Origin Of April Fool’s Day
Because you wanted to know:
The origin of April Fool’s Day remains clouded in obscurity. Basically no one knows exactly where, when, or why the celebration began. What we do know is that references to ‘All Fool’s Day’ (what April Fool’s Day was first called) began to appear in Europe during the late Middle Ages. All Fool’s Day was a folk celebration and elite participation in it was minimal (which is why it’s so difficult to trace the exact origin of the day, because the people celebrating it back then weren’t the kind of people who kept records of what they did). But what is clear is that the tradition of a day devoted to foolery has ancient roots. As we look back in time we find many ancient predecessors of April Fool’s Day.
Ancient Roots
Throughout antiquity numerous festivals included celebrations of foolery and trickery. The Saturnalia, a Roman winter festival observed at the end of December, was the most important of these. It involved dancing, drinking, and general merrymaking. People exchanged gifts, slaves were allowed to pretend that they ruled their masters, and a mock king, the Saturnalicius princeps (or Lord of Misrule), reigned for the day. By the fourth century AD the Saturnalia had transformed into a January 1 New Year’s Day celebration, and many of its traditions were incorporated into the observance of Christmas.In late March the Romans honored the resurrection of Attis, son of the Great Mother Cybele, with the Hilaria celebration. This involved rejoicing and the donning of disguises.
Further afield in India there was Holi, known as the festival of color, during which street celebrants threw tinted powders at each other, until everyone was covered in garish colors from head to toe. This holiday was held on the full-moon day of the Hindu month of Phalguna (usually the end of February or the beginning of March).
Northern Europeans observed an ancient festival to honor Lud, a Celtic god of humor. And there were also popular Northern European customs that made sport of the hierarchy of the Druids.
All of these celebrations could have served as precedents for April Fool’s Day.
Medieval Roots
During the middle ages, a number of celebrations developed which served as direct predecessors to April Fool’s Day. The most important of these was the Festus Fatuorum (the Feast of Fools) which evolved out of the Saturnalia. On this day (mostly observed in France) celebrants elected a mock pope and parodied church rituals. The church, of course, did its best to discourage this holiday, but it lingered on until the sixteenth century. Following the suppression of the Feast of Fools, merrymakers focused their attention on Mardi Gras and Carnival.There was also the medieval figure of the Fool, the symbolic patron saint of the day. Fools became prominent in late medieval Europe, practicing their craft in a variety of settings such as town squares and royal courts. Their distinctive dress remains well known today: multicolored robe, horned hat, and sceptre and bauble.
Mythological Roots
There have been quite a few attempts to provide mythological explanations for the rise of April Fool’s Day.For instance, it was once popular to attempt to christianize the celebration by locating its origin somewhere in Biblical traditions. In one such version, the day’s origin is attributed to Noah’s mistake of sending a dove out from the ark before the flood waters had subsided (thereby sending the dove on a fool’s errand). A second story tells that the day commemorates the time when Jesus was sent from Pilate to Herod and back again. The phrase "Sending a man from Pilate to Herod" (an old term for sending someone on a fool’s errand) was often pointed to as proof of this origin theory.
But there are rival mythological explanations linking the celebration to pagan roots. For instance, April Fool’s Day was often traced back to Roman mythology, particularly the myth of Ceres and Proserpina. In Roman mythology Pluto, the God of the Dead, abducted Proserpina and brought her to live with him in the underworld. Proserpina called out to her mother Ceres (the Goddess of grain and the harvest) for help, but Ceres, who could only hear the echo of her daughter’s voice, searched in vain for Proserpina. The fruitless search of Ceres for her daughter (commemmorated during the Roman festival of Cerealia) was believed by some to have been the mythological antecedent of the fool’s errands popular on April 1st.
British folklore links April Fool’s Day to the town of Gotham, the legendary town of fools located in Nottinghamshire. According to the legend, it was traditional in the 13th century for any road that the King placed his foot upon to become public property. So when the citizens of Gotham heard that King John planned to travel through their town, they refused him entry, not wishing to lose their main road. When the King heard this, he sent soldiers to the town. But when the soldiers arrived in Gotham, they found the town full of lunatics engaged in foolish activities such as drowning fish or attempting to cage birds in roofless fences. Their foolery was all an act, but the King fell for the ruse and declared the town too foolish to warrant punishment. And ever since then, April Fool’s Day has supposedly commemmorated their trickery.
The Calendar-Change Theory
The most widespread theory about the origin of April Fool’s Day involves the Gregorian calendar reform of the late sixteenth century.The theory goes like this: In 1582 France became the first country to switch from the Julian to the Gregorian calendar established by the Council of Trent (1563). This switch meant, among other things, that the beginning of the year was moved from the end of March to January 1. Those who failed to keep up with the change, who stubbornly clung to the old calendar system and continued to celebrate the New Year during the week that fell between March 25th (known in England as Lady Day) and April 1st, had various jokes played on them. For instance, pranksters would surreptitiously stick paper fish to their backs. The victims of this prank were given the epithet Poisson d’Avril, or April Fish. Thus, April Fool’s Day was born.
The calendar change hypothesis might provide a reason for why April 1st specifically became the date of the modern holiday. But it is clear that the idea of a springtime festival honoring misrule and mayhem had far more ancient roots. In addition, the process by which the observance of the day spread from France to protestant countries such as Germany, Scotland, and England is left unexplained by this theory. These nations only adopted the calendar change during the eighteenth century, at a time when the tradition of April Foolery had already been well established throughout Europe. Finally, it is not clear what evidence, besides conjecture, supports the theory. For which reason, while there’s certainly a possibility that the calendar-change hypothesis contains a germ of truth, it should not be regarded as fact.
Well, Okay. But Don’t We All?
Michael Jackson wants a 50-foot statue of himself that shoots lasers from the eyes.
Chocolate Jesus Angers Religious Right
Can’t say I’m surprised. Background on the giant chocolate Jesus in my earlier post from yesterday.
The Catholic League is upset, not only because Jesus is chocolate, but also because he has chocolate genetalia. From their press release:
NAKED JESUS—GENITALS EXPOSED—CRUCIFIED
From April 1 to April 7, the Roger Smith Lab Gallery at the Roger Smith Hotel in New York City will display a 6-foot tall anatomically correct sculpture of Jesus in milk chocolate; the figure is depicted as crucified. Artist Cosimo Cavallaro titles his work “My Sweet Lord.” A picture is available on the Internet. (Click here.)
“As I’ve said many times before, Lent is the season for non-believers to sow seeds of doubt about Jesus."
Whoa, whoa, whoa. Lent is the season for non-believers to sow seeds of doubt about Jesus? Really?
“All those involved are lucky that angry Christians don’t react the way extremist Muslims do when they’re offended—otherwise they may have more than their heads cut off. James Knowles, President and CEO of the Roger Smith Hotel (interestingly, he also calls himself Artist-in-Residence), should be especially grateful. And if he tries to spin this as reverential, then he should substitute Muhammad for Jesus and display him during Ramadan."
Is it me or does it seem that the Catholic League president William Donahue is a little, er, jealous of extremist Muslims and their head-chopping behavior?
It just strikes me as a little odd: "Be grateful we won’t cut off your heads like them Muslims. We WANT to, but our decency prevents us from doing that."
And, now that Donohue says that the Chocolate Jesus artist (Cosimo Cavallaro) wants people to show up and take a bite of His Chocolatey Goodness, his eyes have actually popped out of his head:
"The Roger Smith Hotel will rue the day it sought to declare war on Christian sensibilities"
Gee, what was it the Bible says about pride?
UPDATE: The eating festival has been "postponed".