VACATION

And about time too. Will return 10/27.

Vatican offers swap deal to regain site of Last Supper

The Vatican is hoping to regain control of the Room of the Last Supper in Jerusalem, one of the most sacred sites in Christianity....

The Upper Room, where the Last Supper is said to have taken place, is held by Christians to be the place where Jesus broke bread and drank wine with the disciples on the eve of his Crucifixion and also where the Holy Spirit descended on the disciples at Pentecost.
....
Il Messaggero, the Rome daily, said possible reciprocal gestures include the return to Jewish control of the 12th-century synagogue in Toledo, which, after the suppression of Judaism in Spain in the 15th century, became the Church of Santa María La Blanca.

I see this as a good thing. Jews and Christians becoming more united and sharing mutual holy places. Now, it's the Muslims turn to remove that golden dome and get out of the The Temple Mount.

In Muslim tradition, the place is also identified as the "furthermost sanctuary" (Arabic, masjid al-aksa) from which the Prophet Mohammed, accompanied by the Angel Gabriel, made the Night Journey to the Throne of God (The Koran, Sura Al-Isra’ 17:1).

Yeah. Right. Dr Sina says:

Whoever has been the author of the verse 17:1, was not aware that Masjid ul Aqsa did not exist during the time of Muhammad and he could not have made his trip to heaven from a place that did not exist.

And answering islam says:

These preceding factors make it highly improbable to date Sura 17:1 to the time of Muhammad. This passage could have only been written sometime after the erection of Masjid al-Aqsa. This is further substantiated by the fact that Masjid al-Aqsa contains no early references to the supposed night journey. This is a strange omission since Muslims claim that Masjid al-Aqsa was erected in commemoration of this alleged event. The inscriptions that do mention the night journey are later additions made by Abdul Hamid II in 1876, nearly eleven centuries later.

Life-and-death flu

From Charles Krauthammer:

While official Washington has been poring over Harriet Miers' long-ago doings on the Dallas City Council and parsing the Byzantine comings and goings of the Fitzgerald grand jury, relatively unnoticed was perhaps the most momentous event of our lifetime -- what is left of it, as I shall explain. It was announced last week that American scientists have just created a living, killing copy of the 1918 ``Spanish'' flu.

This is big. Very big.

Not only has the virus been physically re-created. But its entire genome has now been published for the whole world, good people and very bad, to see.

Today didn't start well for me. Upsetting news on the home front, granddaughter not doing well in school, daughter quit her job, and then I read this.

Time to start living in the words like a hermit!

What a great tv ad!

I wonder if anyone has the guts to put this on American airwaves?

Bill, Keep Talking!

Clinton calls the Iraq war "a quagmire" and warns "it could go wrong."


"The administration . . . decided to launch this invasion virtually alone and before the U.N. inspections were completed - with no real urgency, no evidence that there was any weapons of mass destruction there," he complained to ABC's "This Week."

I regret ever having voted for him.

George Clooney

But while he thinks it's dangerous for actors to go public with their politics, Clooney still defends his left-leaning views, saying, “It's pretty hard to find a time when liberals were on the wrong side of an issue."

Oh really? Hard to find a time when liberals were on the wrong side of an issue? Here's more:

Clooney: Hollywood Liberals Should Shut Up Already

Let's review. Where is the left on Iraq? Oh yes. Wrong war in the wrong place at the wrong time

And now? Iraqi charter gains wide backing

The poll of 3,625 Iraqis, conducted Sept. 14 to 19, showed 79 percent in favor of the draft constitution and 8 percent opposed. The remainder did not respond.

And of course, the initimitable Hitchens: Letter to the Left

How can so many people watch this as if they were spectators, handicapping and rating the successes and failures from some imagined position of neutrality? Do they suppose that a defeat in Iraq would be a defeat only for the Bush administration?

Well George, apparently you are a maroon.

Bicycle sales boom in US amid rising gas prices

Well duh, However, I am betting it is not just gas prices. What do you want to bet that there are some other influences:
1. Lance Armstrong wins the Tour de France a record seven times. Against all odds. Interest in his success is at a fever pitch and highly promoted at the Discovery Channel to go biking.
2. The President has sparked new interest as the nation's cyclist in chief and called the most fit President in modern history.
3. Blog favorite Charles Johnson on www.littlegreenfootballs documents his rides and inspires (at least this) poster.

Back in the Saddle?

Snorty worthy!

Saddam is arguing through his lawyers that he could be back in power a year from now. How? A leading member of Saddam's defense team tells FOX News contributor and former Coalition advisor Dan Senor that when Saddam airs the dirty laundry of America's foreign policy over the past several decades, the U.S. will be so embarrassed, it will have no choice but to cut a deal returning him to power.

I don't think so Bubba. "Expose" away. Feel free. Enjoy yourself.

BWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

WE don't run things there. Iraqis do. They have voted, they are establishing their own Constitution. They don't want us there, and they don't want YOU regardless of what we might or might not have done in the past.

Moron.

Iraqis will run Iraq.

Do we manage Japan? Or Germany? Or any other country we have beaten? Nope. And it won't happen this time either. We can't even get Puerto Rico to join the US as a state.

You embarrass yourself, not the US.