The Bethie Bee

Sister Toldjah reports that rumors are out that Fidel Castro is dead. Don’t get your hopes up too much…

I always hate getting excited over anyone’s death, but let’s face it…this could be a very good day for humanity.

One of my favorite professors, Paul Kengor, wrote this wonderful tribute to Caspar Weinberger. My conscience bothered me for linking to that horrid AP story yesterday, and I felt it necessary to point out some of the great contributions Weinberger made to our nation.

Here’s one of my favorite lines from Kengor’s column:

I had interviewed Weinberger a number of times over the years. In one of our conversations, the Berlin Wall came up: “I want you to do me a favor,” Weinberger told me. “As a professor, as a speaker, as a writer, any time that the Berlin Wall comes up in one of your discussions, I want you to ask the crowd this question: In which direction did those East German guards face?… The answer: East.”

Perhaps that is one of my favorite parts of the article because, having taken several classes from Kengor, I know when the Berlin Wall comes up…he does ask that question. But more importantly, that line shows why Cap Weinberger and the other cold warriors’ fight was so important, and what a great debt of gratitude the world owes them. As Kengor explains,

More than any other secretary in the Reagan Cabinet, Weinberger made that collapse possible. In so doing, he helped free millions from Budapest to Bucharest, from Warsaw to Moscow.

I hate to link to this story, because its first paragraph is in such poor taste, but here you go anyway.

Here’s one nice thing contained in that story:

“His legacy is a strong and free America, and for this and for a lifetime of selfless service, a grateful nation thanks him,” former first lady Nancy Reagan said Tuesday.

This made me laugh:

According to the James Dellinger’s Post on the Capitol Research Center’s GreenWatch Blog, if you live in Colorado, and your cat eats a Preble mouse, you can be fined for it by the Feds. As Dellinger puts it,

This is just another example of the perverse realities currently allowed under our 1973 Endangered Species Act to save a mouse thats not going extinct.

I needed to look on this Elementary School website today for something at work, and what I saw really cracked me up–this school is using a Grateful Dead Bear as its “Bruin” mascot on the website. As one of my co-workers said, “the bear is dancing like he accepted one of those brownies.”

I can’t help but wonder whether the person who did this is some hippie public school teacher am (not unlikely) or has just been living under a rock for 30 years and thought this was just a cute little bear with a flower. Either way, its not saying a whole lot for our public school teachers. Although, I’ll admit, I hope that its the first option, because if whoever created this website is that stupid, its a little scary.

I wonder if this school has a copy of Jerry Garcia’s kids book, A Teddy Bear Picnic, in their library. If not, I almost want to send them a copy.

Anyway, it made me laugh, something I desperately needed at work today.

“Gov. Jennifer Granholm will sign a bill requiring abortion providers to give pregnant women the option to see ultrasound images of their fetuses, a spokeswoman says.”

The key word in that last sentence is “option” which, as Matt at GOP Bloggers points out, is also known as choice. And yet, while this is really a bill about choice, those who hold that word so dear are still angry. Kary Moss, executive director of the ACLU of Michigan even said that the bill is one of the “small, incremental steps … all designed to put up barriers” to legal abortion.

I like this bill, anything that makes a woman consider her choice a bit more deeply is great by me. However, this isn’t going to end abortion, and I don’t understand why pro-choicers are so upset about it. Aren’t these the people who are usually saying they want to reduce the numbers of abortions, that they don’t like the idea of abortions, but that they hate back-alley abortions even more, etc?

Just goes to show what a misnomer “Pro-Choice” really is.

Jason McElwain, the autistic high school basketball manager who caught the nation’s attention and a slew of movie offers from his recent 20-point performance for Greece Athena High School outside of Rochester, NY, today caught the attention of the President George W. Bush. And while, commenting on the weather, Jason’s mother said “”I thought it would be warmer,” President Bush’s greeting was about as warm as could be.

According to the Rochester Democrat and Chronicle’s Breaking News Blog:

Also in the line were Greece Athena basketball sensation Jason McElwain — J-Mac — his parents Dave and Debbie McElwain and his basketball coach, Jim Johnson.

The President then met Father Joseph Champlin of Syracuse, who founded the Guardian Angel Society, a non-profit organization which benefits the Cathedral School in Syracuse. Champlin was given the President’s Volunteer Service Award.

After the award was made under the shelter of the wing of Air Force One, the president walked toward the media staging area arm-in-arm with Jason McElwain. “Do you mind if I call you J-Mac?” Bush said. “You can call me George W.”

Bush said of J-Mac’s 20-point performance for Greece Athena that it “touched the heart of citizens across the country. I saw it on TV and I wept.”

The president and J-Mac embraced and J-Mac received a bookmark and tie clip with the presidential seal. Coach Johnson gave Bush one of the sticks bearing J-Mac’s face that was used at the Greece Athena game in which Jason played. The president waved it and smiled as he entered his limousine to leave for Canadaigua.

Jason said said he was surprised by the attention he received from the president. “I thought it would be real quick,” he said.

I know this is long overdue, but I just wanted to make mention of something very important that’s going on in Western New York. Even if you’re not from the Buffalo area, I think this is an interesting story about what happens when grown-ups (especially unions) throw hissy fits.

This story from The Buffalo News explains what’s going on pretty well. Here’s a basic summary:

They were frustrated over not getting the full pay hike promised them in return for a series of concessions, including one-officer patrol cars.
So some Buffalo police officers say they found a way to help the city make good on its contractual obligation. They would write parking tickets to make the money the city owes them - and draw attention to their plight at the same time. “For me and the guys I’ve talked to, it’s about trying to generate some revenue for the city and trying to get what is owed to us under this contract,” said Brendan Kiefer, a highly decorated officer in the Ferry-Fillmore District.

And thus was born the 2-month-old parking ticket blitz that pits the police department against motorists.

Look, I’m not opposed to enforcing the law…but this is something different entirely. This is sheer bullying; and it’s certainly not helping the reputation of a city that’s already becoming a ghost town.

Ben Stein’s commentary on the Oscars in The American Spectator. Here’s my favorite exerpt:

The idea that it is brave to stand up for gays in Hollywood, to stand up against Joe McCarthy in Hollywood (fifty years after his death), to say that rich white people are bad, that oil companies are evil — this is nonsense. All of these are mainstream ideas in Hollywood, always have been, always will be. For the people who made movies denouncing Big Oil, worshiping gays, mocking the rich to think of themselves as brave — this is pathetic, childish narcissism.

The brave guy in Hollywood will be the one who says that this is a fabulously great country where we treat gays, blacks, and everyone else as equal. The courageous writer in Hollywood will be the one who says the oil companies do their best in a very hostile world to bring us energy cheaply and efficiently and with a minimum of corruption. The producer who really has guts will be the one who says that Wall Street, despite its flaws, has done the best job of democratizing wealth ever in the history of mankind.

Ok Hill, go ahead and wear your anger as a badge of honor…we all know how well the angry persona worked out for Howard Dean.