The Daily Brief

As usual, they give the most objective reporting of any UK daily:

And it was a Democrat senator, Carl Levin, rather than the Republican committee chairman, Norm Coleman, who gave him the hardest time as Mr Galloway sought to turn the tables on his inquisitors, leaving him no closer to clearing his name than when he took his seat in front of the sub-committee of the Senate’s homeland security and government affairs committee in Washington.

Of course, those of us immersed in the blogosphere have known Galloway is corrupt from scalp-to-sole for at least two years. But it’s nice to see him finally getting skinned in the MSM.

BusinessWeek reports on contemporary Evangelical churches employing practices straight from the American business community:

With such low barriers to entry, the number of evangelical megachurches — defined as those that attract at least 2,000 weekly worshippers — has shot up to 880 from 50 in 1980, figures John N. Vaughan, founder of research outfit Church Growth Today in Bolivar, Mo. He calculates that a new megachurch emerges in the U.S. an average of every two days. Overall, white evangelicals make up more than a quarter of Americans today, experts estimate. The figures are fuzzy because there’s no common definition of evangelical, which typically refers to Christians who believe the Bible is the literal work of God. They may include many Southern Baptists, nondenominational churches, and some Lutherans and Methodists. There are also nearly 25 million black Protestants who consider themselves evangelicals but largely don’t share the conservative politics of most white ones. Says pollster George Gallup, who has studied religious trends for decades: “The evangelicals are the most vibrant branch of Christianity.”

The triumph of evangelical Christianity is profoundly reshaping many aspects of American politics and society. Historically, much of the U.S. political and business elite has been mainline Protestant. Today, President George W. Bush and more than a dozen members of Congress, including House Speaker Dennis Hastert, are evangelicals. More important, the Republican Right has been fueled by the swelling ranks of evangelicals, whose leaders tend to be conservative politically despite their progressive marketing methods. In the 1960s and ’70s, prominent evangelicals like Billy Graham kept a careful separation of pulpit and politics — even though he served as a spiritual adviser to President Richard M. Nixon. That began to change in the early 1980s, when Jerry Falwell formed the Moral Majority to express evangelicals’ political views. Many of today’s evangelicals hope to expand their clout even further. They’re also gaining by taking their views into Corporate America. Exhibit A: the recent clash at software giant Microsoft.

As they thrive, though, there are growing tensions, with some mainline Protestants offended by their conservative politics and brazen marketing. “Jesus was not a capitalist; check out what [He] says about how hard it is to get into heaven if you’re a rich man,” says the Reverend Robert W. Edgar, general secretary of the liberal National Council of Churches.

Especially controversial are leaders like Osteen and the flamboyant Creflo A. Dollar, pastor of World Changers Church International in College Park, Ga., who preach “the prosperity gospel.” They endorse material wealth and tell followers that God wants them to be prosperous. In his book, Osteen talks about how his wife, Victoria, a striking blonde who dresses fashionably, wanted to buy a fancy house some years ago, before the money rolled in. He thought it wasn’t possible. “But Victoria had more faith,” he wrote. “She convinced me we could live in an elegant home…and several years later, it did come to pass.” Dollar, too, defends materialistic success. Dubbed “Pass-the-Dollar” by critics, he owns two Rolls Royces (RYCEY ) and travels in a Gulfstream 3 jet. “I practice what I preach, and the Bible says…that God takes pleasure in the prosperity of his servants,” says Dollar, 43, nattily attired in French cuffs and a pinstriped suit.

I’ve just been watching an interview with that idiot, Robert F. Kennedy jr. on Cavuto. He was pushing the idea that we must give up our SUVs in favor of hybrids (ignoring the fact that the Lexus RX400h is an SUV as well as a hybrid).

Among the nonsense this Buffoon was spouting included the proposition that drilling in ANWR would have only a .02% increase in the nation’s oil reserves, and then only after 10 years, while an increase of 1 mpg in CAFE standards would be the equivalent of IMMEDIATELY doubling currently exploited Alaskan oil. As for the former, (whether or not the figure is correct, which I haven’t checked) it is a disingenuous mixing of terms. The fact that ANWR would have only a small effect on the nation’s oil supply is that, in today’s marketplace, that supply is indifferentiable from the world’s oil supply. The energy/enviro nazis play this down. but that fact gives lie to the whole concept of “energy independence.” In order to achieve such a goal, we would need a nationalized petroleum industry, with the capability to supply greater than 100% of the nation’s requirements. As for the later, it should be obvious that any effect from a change in CAFE standards would not be seen until a significant portion of the national fleet is replaced by newer models; it wouldn’t be felt for years.

Specifically on the matter of hybrids, RFK jr., parrots the conventional assumption that they will become a major portion of the fleet within a few years. But a more thorough analysis places that assumption in great doubt. First, despite a substantial price premium (about $5000) over equivalent conventional vehicles, industry insiders widely agree that the market leaders, Toyota and Honda, are at best realizing a near-zero marginal profit on every hybrid vehicle they produce. However, this price premium doesn’t pay for itself in increased fuel economy, especially since most owners report far lower fuel economy than EPA estimates

Second, long term maintenance costs are sure to be higher than equivalent conventional vehicles. Besides the limited lifetime of the battery packs, the massive increase in the complexity of these vehicles just means there’s more to go wrong. Long term owners are sure to find that, just when they’ve saved enough on fuel to recover their initial investment, they start getting hit with 4-figure repair bills.

The first two points have not been lost on the general consumer. Which brings us to the third: rather than a massive portion of the overall market, J.D. Power and Assoc. predicts that hybrid sales will top-out at only about 3%. At that rate, it is doubtful that Toyota and Honda, to say nothing of later entrants into the marketplace, will never achieve profitability with hybrids. And, free of government subsidies or mandates, it’s unlikely production will continue.

I recieved this via email today. Whether Ann simply wants to “say ‘HI'”, or wants WO3 Kevin for something else, I don’t know. 🙂 But I tend to think the best of people initially. So, perhaps you can lend a hand.

do you know how I could email:Chief Warrant Officer 3 Kevin Sargent, utilities operations and maintenance technician, Headquarters Company/1st Engineer Brigade, Ft. Leonard Wood, Mo.

I just wanted to say HI. I knew him way back when he was stationed in Hawaii.

The new IBM Business Consulting commercials, themed after a medival English king’s court are gut-busters. I love the one about the “white paper”.

This from Axcess News:

April 19, 2005 (AXcess News) Atlanta – Six-time winner of cycling’s version of the Super Bowl, the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong, has said he plans on retiring from professional cycling after this year’s Tour de France.

Armstrong, now 33-years-old, has survived testicular cancer and won that year’s Tour de France, even though his health was lagging. But age is something the cyclist cannot overcome and so Armstrong said he would retire from professional cycling this year.

Armstrong said he would spend more time with his children, five-year-old Luke and three-year-old twin daughters, Grace and Isabelle, once he hangs up his racing gear.

Some say the last act of a true champion is knowing when to step down gracefully, rather than being so wedded to the adulation that one holds on, hoping for that one next glory. Here’s to Lance Armstrong – as always, a true champion.

The total cost of simply collecting the income tax – the money paid to all the accountants, lawyers, and tax preparers, plus the time required of all the taxpayers, as well as the cost of the IRS itself, is estimated at over $140 billion per year.

I am curently engaged in the very simple guilty male pleasures of scarfing some cheap (5-5-5 deal) Domino’s pizza, and watching Our Man Flint on Fox Movie Channel. Grunt-grunt. 🙂

I don’t know, as I was writing my privious post. But I just inadvertently watched my first episode of The Red-Green Show. And I don’t understand: Is this supposed to be funny on its own merits, or funny because it’s a send-up on shows which aren’t funny in the first place? I don’t get it.

Almost a decade-and-a-half ago, I was one of the heralds for an instrumental ensemble called Bela Fleck and the Flecktones. Well, I don’t think they’ve ever made “America’s Top Forty.” But anyone with a hint of musical sense know I wasn’t wrong.

Well, now I saying, put you musical stock in Latin guitar stylists Strunz and Farah. I’ve just watched them on my local PBS station. And I have to say that I haven’t been left this speechless since the first time I saw Bela Fleck.