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From today’s weekly Speaker Pelosi Press Conference under the Dome the question was: "Do you have any parting words for the current administration?" Speaker Pelosi said, "I have some, and I think I will share them with the President privately."

When the news that Missouri's Kit Bond will not seek re-election to the Senate reached RedState.com late this morning, several of my colleagues there and I all had the same thought at the same time: "Sarah." No, not Sarah Palin. She's not eligible to run in Missouri, but here in the Show Me State, we have a Sarah of our own in Sarah Steelman. And there are more than just a few similarities. Kimberly Strassel wrote a feature article about her last July in the Wall Street Journal: Ms. Steelman is clearly doing something right. Her sin is in fact...

IT took six months but finally Australian scientists found a hive of Queensland honeybees aggressive enough to mimic a heat-seeking missile. It is all part of a project to discover the tactics bees use to detect, track and intercept moving targets. It's something bees do well and unmanned aerial surveillance vehicles cannot do, despite the best efforts of overseas military researchers. "We didn't realise that Queensland would have such peaceful bees," said team leader, neuroscientist and engineer Mandyam Srinivasan. "That wasn't a problem when I worked in the ACT," said Professor Srinivasan, of Queensland University's Queensland Brain Institute and the...

Wednesday January 7, 2009 Greek Bishop Sues Homosexualist Group for Defamation By Hilary White   ATHENS, January 7, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A Greek Orthodox bishop has launched a defamation lawsuit against a group of homosexualist activists, reports the homosexual news source Pink News. The bishop is reportedly asking for 1 million Euros in defamation after the group issued a press statement denouncing him. The suit is launched against the Greek homosexualist organization, Synthesis, and activist Leo Kalovyrnas, who denounced the bishop after the latter made comments on the sinfulness of the homosexual lifestyle in a Greek newspaper.   His...

Thursday January 8, 2009 Spanish Judge Convicted of "Homophobia" for Not Approving Adoption by Lesbian Partner Barred from bench for over two years; supporters raise thousands of Euros to help his family By Matthew Cullinan HoffmanMURCIA, SPAIN, January 8, 2009 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A Spanish judge has been convicted for the "homophobic" act of failing to quickly award custody of a child to a lesbian who sought parental rights over her sexual partner's daughter.Fernando Ferrin Calamita, a Family Court judge from the Spanish province of Murcia, was removed from the bench by a tribunal of three provincial judges, who further...

Boston, MA (LifeNews.com) -- Haleigh Poutre, the girl who almost became a victim of euthanasia, has lived long enough to see her step-father and abuser Jason Strickland, jailed for more than twelve years. Poutre was the victim of child abuse and was nearly killed when Massachusetts officials gave up on her after she entered a coma.Boston media report that a judge sentenced Strickland to 12 to 15 years in state prison for participating in the abuse.Hampden Superior Court Judge Judd Carhart, who handed down the decision in December, characterized Strickland's actions as a "horrific pattern of child abuse." The...

Washington, DC (LifeNews.com) -- The family of Terri Schiavo and a leading pro-life Catholic group are set to again mark Terri's Day on March 31. The Schindler family and Priests for Life are urging people to make preparations now to mark the day and to remember the disabled woman whose former husband killed her.The groups are urging individuals, families, churches and and organizations to observe the "International Day of Prayer and Remembrance for Terri Schindler Schiavo, and All of Our Vulnerable Brothers and Sisters" -- otherwise known as Terri's Day.March 31 is the fourth anniversary of Terri's painful 13-day...

(KMOV)- A St. Louis man who was jailed and charged with making a threat about a shoe bomb was released Tuesday. Michael Shafermeyer, 30, was arrested Saturday boarding a flight at Lambert Airport Saturday. After spending 3 ½ days in jail, he spoke with News 4 to give his side of the story. Shafermeyer said he was flying to Maryland to get married and because he was anxious about the wedding and nervous about flying, he had a few drinks before getting to the airport. His friends describe him as a guy with a non-stop, quirky sense of humor. When...

The Democrats are getting straight to work on passing their agendas for Obama to approve once sworn in. And as soon as next week, the Congress will be debating a children's healthcare bill. Otherwise known as SCHIP. You'll remember that SCHIP passed the Congress twice in 2007 and it was vetoed twice. Now, we are playing a different ball game. Next Tuesday or Wednesday, expect a vote for the program, which is described by democrat lawmakers as "providing health insurance for children in families that earn too much to qualify for Medicaid but not enough to afford coverage." Why can't...

I wrote this about six months ago, but never posted it. The version I've posted here doesn't have images. A link to an html version with images is here and a PDF version of the article is hereEnjoy. Is global warming caused by human activity? Paul Drallos, Ph.D. (Physics) A great number of facts and declarations are often presented with regard to global warming and Mankind's role in it. Most of these assertions are derived from the following clear and simple line of reasoning: Fact:   CO2 is a greenhouse gas whose presence in the atmosphere can cause Earth's temperature...

The DOJ is suing the “New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense” and three of its members over what authorities allege was Election Day voter intimidation in Philadelphia. Filed yesterday in federal court in Philly, the lawsuit alleges that two men intimidated voters Nov. 4 by standing outside a polling place at 1221 Fairmount Ave. wearing party uniforms. The lawsuit seeks a court order barring party members from being deployed to, or displaying weapons at, polling place entrances. Panther Party chair Malik Zulu Shabazz told Fox News that the men were there to provide security because people wearing Nazi insignia had...

Eleven Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states will cooperate to develop a regional Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS). The 11 states—the 10 members of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) plus Pennsylvania—will work together to create an emissions-performance standard that will eventually provide incentives for energy providers to use lower-carbon fuels. In June, Massachusetts Governor Deval Patrick sent a letter to the governors of all 10 RGGI states inviting them to work with Massachusetts on developing a Low Carbon Fuel Standard that would apply to the entire region, creating a larger market for cleaner fuels, reducing emissions associated with global climate change,...

Volvo Cars is introducing an entirely new 2.4-liter 5-cylinder diesel engine in the Volvo S80. Sharing only the D5 badge and the 5-cylinder configuration with the previous generation, the new D5 is Euro-5 compliant and is more efficient than its predecessor. Featuring sequential twin turbochargers, ceramic glow-plugs and piezoelectric fuel injectors, the new engine applied in the S80 delivers 205 hp (153 kW) of power and 420 Nm (310 lb-ft) of torque, with fuel consumption of 6.2 liters/100 km (38 mpg US) and CO2 emissions of 164 g/km. The previous engine generation has undergone constant development in a series of...

Interviewer: Is there any doubt in your mind that "Pacman" Jones sent the men to shoot you? Darrian: No doubt. I have no doubt that he was instrumental in what happened that night

Obama and Spider-Man appear in comic together WASHINGTON (AP) - Spider-Man has a new sidekick: The president-elect. Barack Obama collected Spider-Man comics as a child, so Marvel Comics wanted to give him a "shout-out back" by featuring him in a bonus story, said Joe Quesada, Marvel's editor-in-chief.

Advocates and congressional leaders are renewing their effort to have the government grant temporary protected status for thousands of undocumented Haitian immigrants. Moments after being sworn in in Congress on Tuesday, Rep. Alcee Hastings, D-Miramar, reintroduced a bill to grant the temporary status that he has championed for years. He plans to meet with Obama's transition team Thursday morning and one of his top priorities will be this issue, said David Goldenberg, a spokesman for Hastings. Randy McGrorty, director of Catholic Charities Legal Services for the Archdiocese of Miami, said advocates have already met with the transition team. With a...

Nearly one in 10 Latino homeowners fell behind in mortgage payments last year, and about 3 percent said they had received a foreclosure notice, a Hispanic research group reported Thursday. The Pew Hispanic Center's survey of Hispanic adults found that 9 percent said they missed a mortgage payment or made a partial payment during the past year. Nearly half of respondents, 47 percent, indicated they were homeowners, a figure consistent with census data that shows 49.5 percent of Hispanics owned their homes in the third quarter of 2008. Among Hispanic renters, 5 percent said they had lived in a home...

I happened to be reading two books, and I was struck by their interrelationship. The first book is titled The Failure Factor: How Unelected Democrats and Big Government Republicans are Undermining America’s Security and Leading Us to War. It’s by Bill Gertz of the Washington Times. One of his major points is that our national security and survival are imperiled because so many of the hate-America “Blame America First Crowd” are the bureaucrats with a strong presence and influence in many of our government agencies, including those dealing with defense and security. These bureaucrats often think they can overrule even...

Whenever there is a decent snow storm at night, as there was in the Blue Ridge this week, the following morning reminds me of a handful of perfect days in my life, fifty years ago in Salisbury, Maryland. Salisbury was then a very small town. Located on the Eastern Shore, it was halfway between the Atlantic Ocean and the Chesapeake Bay, about 20 miles away from each. As a six year old boy, I had no comprehension of the influence of geography on weather. All I knew was, there was a sled in the front hall that had been there...

Anne Hathaway, who is currently promoting two movies, a serious-ish family melodrama Rachel Getting Married, for which she is being tipped for an Oscar nomination, and a knockabout comedy called Bride Wars, has expressed some uncertainty about Barack Obama. Her gripe is over the President-elect's decision to allow Pastor Rick Warren, a fundamentalist Christian described by some as a "hate preacher", to deliver one of the invocation speeches at his inauguration on January 20. "I expect him to explain that choice of Rick Warren," says the 26-year-old, Vassar-educated actress (pictured). "I don't get it. All my friends and I were...