Well, you’re right.

He is.

Alas, through a twist of time-space New Ageism mumbo jumbo magically delicious reincarnation abracadabra, he’s been brought back to NRO’s The Corner, as a woman (but still white and still Republican, so he won’t be too upset, what with two out of three of God’s favorite qualities intact).

I don’t know how Barak Obama’s parents met. But the Kincaid article referenced above makes a very convincing case that Obama’s family, later, (mid 1970s) in Hawaii, had close relations with a known black Communist intellectual. And, according to what Obama wrote in his first autobiography, the man in question — Frank Marshall Davis — appears to have been Barack’s own mentor, and even a father figure. Of course, since the Soviet Union itself no longer exists, it’s an open question what it means practically to have been politically mentored by an official Communist. Ideologically, the implications are clearer…

Time for some investigative journalism about the Obama family’s background, now that his chances of being president have increased so much.

Do the Republicans wonder why so many independents have a complete distaste for so much of what they do these days?

I mean, really, do they?

Michelle Obama and Cindy McCain, that is:

Tuesday morning seemed to bring the debut of yet another McCain-Obama flap – this time, Cindy McCain and Michelle Obama.

As she introduced her husband John McCain, the likely Republican nominee, at a campaign event, Cindy McCain told the crowd I “am proud of my country. I don’t know about you, if you heard those words earlier — I am very proud of my country.”

The comment seemed to be a response to a remark from Michelle Obama the day before. On Monday, the wife of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama told a Wisconsin audience that “For the first time in my adult life, I am really proud of my country, because it feels like hope is making a comeback… not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change.”

A couple of thoughts come to mind:

• Samuel Johnson had something to say about such banal platitudes.
  
• So did Mark Twain.
  

Maybe next CNN can wow us with some ace reporting on how a couple of kids at Mt. Spurr Elementary fought over a red bouncy ball at recess in 1980. It’d be at least as important as this story, and certainly more interesting.

CNN/Money has everything you need to know about how the government is going to stimulate the economy either too little, too late, or perhaps both.

Ann Coulter’s 2002 idiotic rambling aside*, here’s yet another example of a flawed justice system that should not be allowed to kill :

FORT COLLINS – At just after 11 a.m. Tuesday morning, Tim Masters left his imprisoned past and embraced his free future.

With a packed courtroom looking on, Judge Joseph Weatherby set aside Masters’ conviction and vacated his life sentence…

Masters spent the last nine-and-a-half years in prison for the 1987 murder of Peggy Hettrick in Fort Collins. He was convicted in 1999…

The special prosecutors from Adams County, who were assigned to Masters’ appeals process, recommended Masters’ release last week after a new DNA analysis linked DNA found on Hettrick’s body to one of her ex-boyfriends.

The finding followed hearings throughout 2007 in which Masters’ attorneys showed that the prosecution in the 1999 murder trial withheld significant information from the defense.

In this case, the system eventually worked and an innocent man walked free after losing over nine years of his life. He received a sentence of life in prison; had it been a harsher penalty, who knows, perhaps an innocent man would be dead.

But, yeah, I know, some folks really don’t much care about that so long as their own blood lust is sated.

Note: Here is more from CNN on the case.

* This should not be construed to mean that Ann has actually said anything sensible since 2002.

Everyone has heard the old aphorism “the early bird gets the worm,” but I think the 2008 election cycle is going to give us a new one:

“The indolent President-wanna-be with the somnolent campaign gets a harsh political reality check.”

Yeah, I know, it just slips right off the tongue, doesn’t it?

Political poetry, even.

On a happier note, Fred Thompson can now return to a profession where the applause and laughter are prerecorded, rather than him having to ask the audience for it.

(APPLAUSE!)

Republican Presidential contender Mike “Me and Jesus” Huckabee wants The Constitution of the United States of America to read more like his Holy Bible:

The United States Constitution never uses the word “God” or makes mention of any religion, drawing its sole authority from “We the People.” However, Republican presidential candidate Mike Huckabee thinks it’s time to put an end to that.

“I have opponents in this race who do not want to change the Constitution,” Huckabee told a Michigan audience on Monday. “But I believe it’s a lot easier to change the Constitution than it would be to change the word of the living god. And that’s what we need to do — to amend the Constitution so it’s in God’s standards rather than try to change God’s standards so it lines up with some contemporary view.”

Wow, I bet some people of color are going to be pissed that Huckabee wants them to go back to obeying their masters. You know, rather than “some contemporary view” that they are people too.

Maybe that’s why they tend to vote for Democrats.

(found via PZ Myers)

Well, thank God for that!

DES MOINES, Iowa — Just hours before Thursday night’s caucuses, White House hopeful Barack Obama did interviews on five networks and plenty of local television stations this morning, then hoarsely greeted diners at a downtown Des Moines food court.

And he faced a surprise question from one woman who asked him if he was an atheist.

“I’m a member of the Trinity United Church of Christ. I’ve been a member for 15 years,” Obama replied, adding, “Don’t read e-mails.”

E-mails have circulated in recent weeks saying Obama is a Muslim or an atheist or took his oath of office on a Quran instead of a Bible, none of which is true.

“I hated having to ask him that,” the woman, Zanetta Moore-El, said. “But I heard he was like an atheist. I don’t want a president who’s an atheist. I’m a firm believer in God. I just really wanted to make sure because I really wanted to vote for him and he has some good topics and everything.”

Zanetta Moore-El, you are an idiot of the highest order.

Shorter version of your rampant stupidity: “I really like Obama and his stance on the issues, but if he’s an atheist, then I don’t like his stance on the issues any longer.”

Your logic is astounding, Zanetta, my sweet, sweet, bigoted dullard.

As an atheist, I really don’t understand the aversion to voting for people who don’t believe in god(s). Speaking only for myself, I think I would be the most likely candidate to actually defend the right of all people to hold and practice whatever (non-harmful to others) religious beliefs they happen to hold. After all, I’m not beholden to any holy book telling me that my god is the one true god and everyone else is doomed for eternity.

You all have the right to be as silly / stupid / irrational as you like, so long as you’re not doing dumb things like killing your daughters for shaming the family, denying them basic medical care because prayer is all you need, or other such idiocy. It’s simple, really.

Hey, now that I’m 36, I’m old enough to run for President. And it’s an election year. Could this be anything but divine guidance? I think not!

Write-in candidate, y’all!

(found via Unscrewing the Inscrutable)

CNN is reporting that Obama and Huckabee lead for their respective parties in the Iowa caucuses.

If this holds true through the night, I am that much closer to just digging a hole in the ground and hiding there until America regains some clarity of thought.

Irrelevant side note: for the longest time, my Brit wife mispronounced Iowa as “eye-OH-uh.” I still think she has to put a Herculean mental effort into not doing so whenever she says it. Perhaps I shall engage her in an exciting discussion about tonight’s vote just to amuse myself.

Wow, that’s a dumb thing to do and say:

At lunchtime in downtown Boston after Christmas, the streets were thick with people dashing around to stores and going out to eat. Leah Volpe was carrying a shopping bag in one hand. And she was about to do something that might make her financial planner quit in protest — she’s pulling out money from her 401(k) so she can go to Bermuda on vacation.

“I’m going to enjoy myself,” she says “I’m only 31 so I don’t really care about retirement yet.”

That’s because you’re not very bright, dear.

If you invested your $1200 for the next 34 years at an 8% return, it would be worth over $18,000*.

At a 10% return, an assumed stock market average, it would be worth over $35,000.

If you did even better and managed to earn 12% per year, you’d have over $69,000 at age 65, without having ever added another penny.

Naturally, you’d be adding a lot of other pennies along the way, unless Bermuda beckoned you to bronze your bosoms and buns every Boston winter.

More:

Here’s an example: If you start saving $300 a month — or $3,600 a year — when you’re 25, and earn an 8.5 percent annual return and reinvest your earnings, that money will be worth $1,064,457 when you’re 65.

But if you wait until you’re 35 to start saving the same amount, you’ll only have $447, 173. If you wait until you’re 45 you’ll have even less — $174,000. Think about that. If you start when you’re 25, you’re saving for just twice as long, but earning more than eight times as much money.

The reasoning skills of such people are the single, best argument against privatizing Social Security. Don’t get me wrong: I would love to have all of my share of FICA back to invest as I see fit for my own future. However, I fear that if that were the case, I fear I might be hit with an even bigger burden toward the end of my years when the government sees fit to bail out those who could save, but did not do so.

And you know it would (heck, did you sign up for a bad mortgage deal because you thought you could work at Winn-Dixie and afford a $500,000 house with no money down and 100% financing? Well, you’re an idiot and Uncle Sam gonna come make it all better now baby).

Meanwhile, I’m 36 years old and (currently, stock market gods be honored and praised) on track to retire at age 65 with nearly $2 million. However, I’ve never been to Bermuda, so I guess Leah has that on me.

Shorter version: save for your retirement. The sooner the better. Because I would rather, given the choice, support those who really could not afford to save much rather than those who blew it all on cabana boys.

Depending on the investment calculator you use, you will get different results based upon when it the investment is compounded, when contributions are counted, etc. Regardless, the lesson is the same: don’t take money out of your 401(k) for stupid stuff.

Aye, Mrs. O’Malley, your wee babby here does have a severe case of the infant reflux with attendant rashes and an overall failure to thrive.

A pity, to be sure.

But never you mind, m’dear, as surely it will clear right up before he’s even eight years old.

Patients can be waiting up to eight years to see a consultant in a hospital outpatient clinic, new figures show. The figures obtained by The Irish Times show some 48 patients who were waiting to be seen in the outpatient department of Mayo General Hospital earlier this year had been on the waiting list since 1999.

Awesome.

Where do we sign up for such wonders of the modern medical world?

(found via Walter, who - it turns out - did not die and quit blogging for months upon months, but was instead waiting on outpatient services for carpal tunnel syndrome in Ireland)