Seach Me

So the Supreme Court overruled a Federal Court decision and now the Police can use a dog to search your car if you pulled over for any minor traffic violation. I have to admit I'm a little confused here. Every new clean water regulation is a sign that our country is becoming the next USSR, but allowing searches without a warrant or even probable cause is a ok in the world freest nation? If I remember history correctly, the one thing the Founding Fathers were most concerned with was too much government intrusion into the lives of citizens. The Bill of Rights sets out to keep the Feds from grabbing too much power from the citizens. Where are all the anti-big government voices?

Judge this!

I would like to say that Randy Jackson II never says anything insightful or even valuable when he judges the contestants on American Idol. He is a complete waste, and if I may, a bit of a dork.

Attacks Relief Plan?

Dubya 2: It's the sequel only a slim majority of us asked for, but it starts Thursday anyway. Advance word: Mandate!

Politics, yes. So's this, excerpted here:

"President Bush came under fire from some social conservatives [Sunday] for saying he will not aggressively lobby the Senate to pass a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage during his second term.

Prominent leaders such as Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, and many rank-and-file Bush supporters inundated the White House with phone calls to protest Bush's comments in an interview published Sunday in The Washington Post. 'Clearly there is concern' among conservatives, Perkins said. "

The article goes on to state that, "The president is sensitive to the concerns of social conservatives and has tried to reassure them [since Monday] that he remains as committed as ever to outlawing same-sex marriage, according to White House officials. Privately, some Bush advisers say the president is uncomfortable picking divisive political fights over abortion and same-sex marriage that cannot be won."

Yet pick them the president did 'til Sunday, because for him the fight over these issues was won in November. Fooled me too, Tony, strange bedfellows though we are.

I find myself almost inexplicably disappointed.

Please welcome the New Kid on the Block

Please welcome Mike3000 as Hydrablog's newest member. We think he adds that Donnie Whalberg toughness to the group, in start contrast to McLieberman's tiny blond haired kid.

And to all the cynics out there, we didn't add him to spur lagging t-shirt and poster sales, this kid's legit.

The Evolution of Bias

In college, I went to hear a speaker who was making the argument that the theory of evolution had become a religion. Its proponents, he explained, attempted to shout down all dissent crying scientific heresy. The speaker never alluded to creation, God or even Pat Robertson. Yet when he finished he was forced to suffer angry question after angry question asking why he wanted to establish a theocracy. It was clear that none of the inquisitors had even heard the talk and were only there to head off a possible threat to their what...their faith?

These are interesting times, the Men of Science say they dethroned the oracles so that we all could be freed from the tyranny of religious ideas. Now it's clear it was really just a game of King of the Hill, and the Men of Science have found those thrones to be just as pleasurable as the oracles did...and just as corrupting.

If you never realized that evolution may be wrong, then the New Millennium Oracles have done their work well. The theory of evolution is just that; a theory. There is much of value in it, as well as many holes and shortcomings. Just what you would expect from one possible description of how life came to be. The leadership of the people of Georgia want to underline the fact that this is a theory. Feel free to question their motives. Feel free to assume their biases as you pay heed to your own. But please do read the words of the sticker they want to add to their scientific text books: "This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered. " Every word is either true or good advice for anyone interested in science.

How a statement of fact, coupled with an appeal to intellectual prudence, can be seen as an unconstitutional promotion of religion by the state is quite curious. But one man, who happens to be a judge, has determined the following: advising people against putting too much faith in a possible truth is not acceptable. It is not acceptable because that would promote religion. In other words, discouraging faith is advocacy of faith.

War is peace. Freedom is slavery. George Orwell is somewhere grinning.

Amerikan Show Trials

Is there anything more creepy then a congressional public hearing? It's like watching a group of 13 year old boys attempt to impress the only good looking girl at the party. Posing and posturing should be left to vacuous cover girls and UN leaders. I expect substance from my elected officials which is why caring about politics is such a losing proposition. Alberto Gonzales has had to sit in front of God and everyone and field questions meant to imply that George Bush's America is unkind to terrorists. Don't get me wrong, a reasonable concern for the rights of everyone, even terrorists, is what makes American's so great. But reasonable does not describe the concerns of the ring leaders under the Capitol Hill Big Tent. In fact, reasonable is not even an expectation. Political points are all that matter. How can American's peek in on this impossible display of puffery and not worry for their republic? No wonder American's are devouring "reality television"; they have been driven there by our politics of the surreal.