I rarely agree with Catholics...

I have to applaud John Dear's article in the Catholic Reporter titled, "The Only Diet for a Peacemaker Is a Vegetarian Diet." He makes arguments based upon Jesuit thinking that fall flat for me, but his thinking related to vegetarian lifestyle and its positive effects on agricultural sustainability, the environment and my ethical well being hit the mark. I'll be sure to give up meat for Lent next year if the Catholic Church stays this progressive.

Bill O'Reilly Might Be the One True Path to God

The one true church continues its one true path to public relations purgatory. The real theological quandary centers around the question of why the intermediaries between God and man can't keep their grubby fingers off the children, and why the church continues to fund a campaign of mass-pedophilia.

A new intelligence report questions the decision to steer the war on terrorism into Iraq. This comes on the tails of lawmakers being unable to derive an exit scenario for the pullout in Iraq. Following afterward, the all-night session in Congress failed to produce a pull out plan. Our efforts have created a stronger and more able enemy that is a threat to homeland security. Summarizing all the findings, we had no business in Iraq, we can't get out of Iraq, and no part of the government can do anything to fix the situation.

If the efforts in Iraq are completely failing, it would be remiss if the failures in Afghanistan weren't mentioned. Bush aides are describing the efforts in Afghanistan against al-Qaeda as failures. They describe the war on terror with the same terminology that historians describe the Bush Presidency.

Robert Sheer describes the Bush reign as imperialistic and misguided, calling him America's second King George. The only positive thing in the U.S. is that our monarchs are limited to an eight-year period of control.

Everybody's favorite neo-con cowboy Bill O'Reilly has picked a new opponent: the blogosphere. O'Reilly characterizes left-leaning blog the Daily Kos as a bastion for hate speech, and goes after JetBlue Airlines, a company that sponsored a Daily Kos event. If satirical political discourse qualifies as hate speech, it would only be fair if Bill O'Reilly steps down alongside the Daily Kos. Imagine what would happen if people kept track of the hateful, stupid things O'Reilly said in the past.

An airplane crash in Brazil has claimed more than 200 victims. Bill O'Reilly blamed the crash on the plane's liberal bias.

NFL superstar/walking controversy Michael Vick has been indicted on charges stemming from an investigation into his involvement in dog fighting. Vick was allegedly consulted before a wounded dog was coated in water and electrocuted. The stories are so brutal that Vick, the Falcons and Home Depot should expect a vicious PETA protest at their doorstep in the next few weeks.

In stories of the bleeding obvious, steroids and drugs were found in Chris Benoit's system before he murdered his wife and son. In other news, water is wet and Yao Ming is tall.

In entertainment news, funny man Jon Lovitz beat the crap out of crazy man Andy Dick. If Lovitz has trouble breaking back into show business, they will probably be casting for a new season of the Ultimate Fighter on Spike TV soon. I predict that a Jon Lovitz/Tim Meadows would be a great mixed martial arts competition finale.

Battling Defeat

Well, I'm back from the Windy City. Pitchfork was great. I'll have pictures of me enjoying Powerhouse Sound, Grizzly Bear and Battles up soon. I ate well. Zealous and Michael are fantastic. I will also post these pictures and reviews of these restaurants soon. I'll get this all ready for your enjoyment soon.

The USA Today starts off with the military requesting vehicles made to withstand the increasingly deadly improvised explosive devices in Iraq years ago, but Robert Gates and his predecessors at the Pentagon decided there were more important considerations to make in Iraq. The mounting evidence to the contrary finally forced Gates to change his mind. The Department of Defense and its protocol are the only type of oversight that makes the NFL's policy on concussions look humane.

Pakistan's longstanding truce is in jeopardy, and the government may have lost the tenuous agreement they had with tribal leaders. Al Qaeda is establishing control in Pakistan, and a U.S. plan to quash the problem with a torrent of money is being met with great skepticism. The problems in Pakistan may stream across the border and create greater problems for our troops fighting the "war on terror" in Afghanistan. It isn't like things have been going well since we packed up and sent half of the troops' support to fight unprepared in Iraq.

U.N. inspectors have confirmed that North Korea has shut down a controversial nuclear reactor. Kim Jong-il still reserves the right to antagonize and annoy anybody who will stand around and listen to his ramblings.

The Democrats are running away from the Clinton years much like every Presidential candidate is running from the current Bush administration. Candidates are advocating an economic policy that supports the people more than big business. Since I am a person and not a big business, I support it. When I get in an upper tier tax bracket, I reserve the right to reconsider.

The Los Angeles chapter of NAMBLA (a.k.a. the Catholic archdiocese) is coming under more fire after their record $660 million dollar settlement to victims of priest-driven molestation. The Cardinal was slated to testify in the law suit brought against the Los Angeles archdiocese, but he quashed that chance by reaching the costly settlement. I wonder how the churchgoers feel about financially supporting a religious order's taste in young boys and irresponsible sex.

The threat of crushing royalty rates were stopped at the last minute with the future of independent internet radio hanging in the balance. Keep track of this issue before internet radio starts to sound like stale commercial radio. Your grandmother's playlist looks a lot like the Clear Channel playlist.

Finally, the Boo Birds finally got their due when Philadelphia lost their 10,000 baseball game, becoming the first team to reach that dubious distinction. Much like a Philly fans in the postseason, I'm sure that ownership celebrated by drinking themselves into oblivion.