Shaun Kenney

Amit Singh asks your preference between the two

in the form of an essay contest.

mummy tomb of the dragon emperor the dvd

Winner gets to test their hypothesis on 25 scratch-off tickets.

…and when Scott’s doing the asking, there’s going to be an answer:

Senator Louise Lucas’ two corporations, Victory Conference Center LLC and Victory Conference Center Hotel LLC, have filed a lawsuit against the City of Portsmouth for failing to give her access to 38 million dollars in bonds for a business venture.

She is claiming, oh wait, I’m sorry, the corporations are claiming that City Council denied her, oh wait, I’m sorry again, the corporations access to the bonds because she is, darn, I did it again, the corporations are primarily African-American owned.

Did I mention that Victory Conference Center Hotel, LLC is owned entirely by Senator Lucas and only Victory Conference Center, LLC is owned by the investors and Senator Lucas?

That’s a pretty damned hardcore strongarming tactic if you ask me. Let’s hope the MSM gets to the middle of it (before the blogosphere does anyhow).

Not quite civilization, but few things really beat Beaker singing Coldplay’s Yellow.

Jim Hoeft muses

on modernity, liberty, and it’s untimely (and perhaps exaggerated?) demise:

Long after Merchant’s Square had turned their last deadbolt, we sojourned after dinner into the colonial city. Each little house and each little window had a candle. In front of the governor’s mansion burned cauldrons welcoming guests for an evening of dancing and dining. And, the streets were as silent as the crunch of our footsteps on pea-gravel.

This got me to thinking (uh-oh, here it comes).

In this beautiful city of liberty, where a man (and woman’s) virtue is tied to self-sufficiency, individual ingenuity, and personal accountability, why (and where) have we strayed so far?

Great post, and better conversation in the comments section.

I want one of these.

Americans for Prosperity in Virginia started this campaign a week ago to record subcommittee votes for the House of Delegates. Looks as if a combination of this effort and the new 15-bills only rule in the House has effected change, as noted by the WaPo:

Americans for Prosperity, a group that supports limited government and free trade, had pushed Republicans to make the switch and submitted hundreds of signatures of those who supported a change.

“This is a great victory for government transparency and a great victory for people in Virginia,” Ben Marchi, state director for Americans for Prosperity, said today.

The rule was primarily designed to get bad legislation off the books quietly and without embarassment. Unfortunately, some of the legislation was designed specifically to do this. 

Think back to the “Motions to Recommit” in the U.S. House regarding body armor for the troops that were essentially a Catch-22. Vote for it, and it’s a vote to send the bill back to committee (a vote against the troops); vote against it, and the bill fails on the floor of the House (and troops really don’t get body armor that year).

The Democrats used the tactic masterfully in 2006 through 527s like MoveOn.org to embarrass Republicans. And because you couldn’t boil it down to a five-second clip, it sticks.

House leadership reacted with closed door meetings. Damn shame at the time. Transparency kills off so many bad things… including this deplorable tactic.

In 2007, the Democrats resorted to videotaping every subcommittee vote where they thought they could catch a contested candidate in the House of Delegates off-guard. Now, the work is done for them.

Hopefully a more skeptical electorate will be wise against the tactic, and in the end, who knows? Folks just might be a bit more knowledgeable about how their state legislature works. In 2009, too many people would love to play politics with the ignorance of others.

Lee True, Chairman of the Fluvanna Taxpayers Association, passed away today:

I have the terrible duty of telling you that our wonderful leader, Lee True, died today of a sudden and fatal heart attack. I want to assure you that his work will not die with him. We are going to continue with the FTA and try as best we can to advance the Mission and Vision that were Lee’s creations.

Our community has lost a truly good and decent fellow today.  I did not know him personally, but professionally he was about as decent and giving a person as you could have met.  There aren’t too many people who give of their time during their retirement to fight as hard as he did for taxpayers’ rights.   Lee did it all, and will be remembered.

Resquiat in pace my friend.

If you subscribe to the idea that the lowest, most base offenses create the most buzz, then this latest stunt should probably have taken the cake.

Of course, its OK to offend Catholics. The line about comparing it to offending any other group — Muslims, homosexuals in the Castro district of San Francisco, or challenging a adamantly secular viewpoint — is both valid and extraordinarily old hat.

Naturally, you can’t force anyone to be good. Even if you could accomplish this, the results would be artificial, a methodical response to right action that drains the life out of most things, be it faith or law or rules.

That images such as the Mexican edition of Playboy evoke something contrary to what typically happens in the world. There were no riots. No one was harassed. No child was expelled from a publicly-funded school.

Yet the Catholic response typically results in a respectful yet forceful condemnation, one built around an example. That it is uniquely set apart from an otherwise worldly response says more about our faith than it does about anything else.

Images like these (or at least stories about them) trouble me intensely. Setting aside the respect Catholics reserve for the Blessed Mother, the intent is disrespectful to both Catholics and women alike. Those who hate the Catholic Church (and there are many) will continue to poke, prod, cajole, criticize, offend, and provoke the faithful.

To what ends do they provoke us? Well… to behave and react as they would and do.

That Catholics do not riot at offenses such as these is a testament that — at least in the quarters where the faithful still believe — we are indeed set apart.

As Christians we have something the rest of the world wants, but easily. And because Christianity is not bought, turn on at the flip of a switch, or done in any other way other than through a little something called grace which is a gift from that all-too-forgotten being called God — too often it’s discarded for the strum und drang of things; gifts, gossip, money, investments, feelings, holiday lights, or worse just tearing something beautiful down.

So friends, take it in stride. It’s called Advent for a reason, you know.

Virginia GOP gubernatorial candidate Bob McDonnell has just unveiled his new website, and boy does it look good.

Already there are a handful of stories up. For instance, did you know that McDonnell scored a touchdown against the Titans while he played at Bishop Ireton?

Yeah… these Titans. How incredible is that?!

That’s hilarious.

(h/t to Reason and Revelation )