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I WOULDN'T QUITE KNOW IF THIS IS IN POOR TASTE IN THE WAKE OF THE OUTRIGHT COLLAPSE OF LAKE DELTON IN THE WISCONSIN DELLS REGION this morning by way of a freshet caused by the recent heavy rains in the region on some nearby lowlands, draining same into the Wisconsin River ... and same further @ risk in case of the Mirror Lake Dam downstream collapsing (already, it's said to be weakened by the late rains, with water overunning the top).

You can see actual TV footage of a lakeside home collapsing into the floodwaters and a slideshow of the devastation, thanks to Channel3000.com (the website of Madison's WISC-TV), in case you don't believe me.

The Visitor and Convention Bureau hath it that the Lower Dells Boat Tours, Original Wisconsin Ducks, Dells Army Ducks and the Tommy Bartlett Show are closed until further notice; all other distractions (including the major waterparks) are still open. (In fact, they've been receiving phone and Internet enquiries nonstop since the news of Lake Delton's collapse broke on the wires.)

Donations for the relief effort can be made through the American Red Cross or The Salvation Army; cash donations are preferred rather than "in-kind" such (e.g., used clothes and non-perishable groceries), which will only take up valuable warehouse space.

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I WOULDN'T QUITE KNOW IF THIS IS A RATHER APROPOS PICTURE IN LIGHT OF CRUDE OIL HAVING PEAKED ON FRIDAY @ $139/BBL. on the NYMEX, especially considering where:

• major oil-consuming nations (including we "morally superior" Americans) are calling upon oil exporters (OPEC and otherwise) to increase production and bring down prices within measurable distance;
• some market watchers are wondering if Hunt Brothers behaviour may be partly to blame for the current high cost of oil and gas, with "supply and demand" being nothing more than an official platitude to avoid attracting suspicions;
• OTR truck drivers in Spain have begun an indefinite period of industrial action to protest rising fuel prices, parking their rigs by the side of major expressways and blocking toll plazas near the Franco-Spanish border; and
• the South Korean government, notwithstanding public protests over the reintroduction of American beef imports over fears about "mad cow" disease and citing the danger of socioeconomic instability caused in large part by high fuel prices, announcing direct tax relief to the working classes (as in a rebate worth between US$200-300) and reductions in business tax rates to stimulate spending in the face of such uncertainty.

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STICKING WITH THE WORKING CLASSES FOR THE NONCE, THE ZEALOTS AND TRUE BELIEVERS IN DENATIONALISATION OF STATE SOCAL SECURITY want them to see such as "healthy," "beneficial" and "encouraging healthy respect for self-reliance and personal responsibility" which was "held to contempt" in the "failed and failing" State system.

Unfortunately, such a target audience is unlikely to understand the mechanics of the equities markets as are all the more essential to a denationalised system short of anti-Semitic conspiracy theories and stereotypes commonplace in Producerist propaganda--let alone recognise the fact that they will be all the more unlikely to see realistic benefit @ retirement from a free-market-based system and model.

Which will likely be put down to fees, commissions and advertising and marketing expenditure essentially affecting actual returns--not to mention tacitly endorsing mismanagement, fraud, waste, inapproriate investment policies (especially such inconsistent with the Prudent Man Rule), general mismanagement and other travesties likely to be excused by Self-Regulatory Codes of Good Practice expected to apply in a denationalised system of Social Security.

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WITH MAJOR STORMS TRANSLATING INTO FLOODING ACROSS THE MIDWESTERN STATES (AND @ LEAST EIGHT CASUALTIES ENSUING), not to mention unseasonably early Heat Advisories and Excessive Heat Warnings across the Northeast Corridor, expect certain weird and unwholesome religious as are obviously in their cups to claim that such are "signs of Divine Judgement upon Our Beloved America" that He is Withdrawing His Special Blessings Upon America for Straying From His Holy and Sacred Will and Prophecy.

Methinks the flooding in Indiana especially could be a sign of Divine Judgement for imposing undue and unreasonable let and/or hinderance upon the electorate by requiring photo-bearing identity documents of voters as "merely a formality***to prevent voter fraud" as never existed except in the intemperate ignorance of the Dark Satanic Mills of Conservative Propaganda and Propagandists.

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THE RELIGIOPOLITICAL RIGHT MUST BE RATHER FOND OF THAT SINGSONG-SOUNDING MEME OF "CHRISTIAN PERSECUTION!" as a campaign tool in Indecision 2008 for "winning of hearts and minds" among the Religiopolitical Right's target audience of the vulnerable, weak-minded and easily-influenced, usually "white trash" from the lowest depths of the working classes not otherwise expected to advance much beyond mininum-wage work.

Even with denationalised Social Security.

Come to think of it, Rev. Rod Parsley seems to be rather fond of playing this rather reechy-sounding meme as a propaganda weapon, as per Right Wing Watch:

Shortly after Sen. John McCain publicly rejected the endorsements of John Hagee and Rod Parsley, Parsley released his own statement rescinding his endorsement and then sort of disappeared from sight.  Sometime since then, Parsley apparently decided that he had a bit more to get off his chest and so he released a video on his Center for Moral Clarity website in which he reiterated many of the points he made in his initial statement but added some attacks on what he claimed were the "politically vicious and misguided" hit-squads who exposed his radical views, claiming that his views on Islam are “very much in the mainstream” and insisting that he made a “clear distinction between Muslim terrorists and the vast majority of peaceful Muslims.” 

Of course, Parsley is on record having told his congregation and massive TV audience that "America was founded in part with the intention of seeing this false religion [Islam] destroyed" and "Islam is an anti-Christ religion that intends through violence to conquer the world," as well as writing that so-called "Muslim extremists" are really "mainstream believers who are drawing from the well at the very heart of Islam."

[Transcript follows:]

I’d like to take a few moments and respond to the recent media reports regarding my statements in the book “Silent No More” about Islam.  It doesn’t surprise me that, as I continue to engage the culture with a thoroughly Biblical worldview that political hit-squads have begun to describe some of my views in the most ominous and extreme terms. I expected that opponents of that worldview would try to make a connection between myself and the extreme views of other ministers such as the Rev. Jeremiah Wright. This is what we’ve seen play out over the past few days. Certainly, I’m disappointed with those in the media who have misrepresented my views for political gain and who have lied in pursuit of political power.  It’s a sad moment in American politics; one of the many in the recent election cycle.   

My views on Islam, which have come under such scrutiny and misrepresentation, are very much in the mainstream.  Anyone who has read the entire chapter on Islam in my book “Silent No More” understands that what I have said is echoed from the White House to the State Department, from leading universities to the pulpits of our nation. I believe that radical Islam is one of the greatest threats to Western civilization and that conflict has roots in our American history.  I have always, and I will continue, to make a clear distinction between Muslim terrorists and the vast majority of peaceful Muslims who are appalled at the bloody results of suicide bombers and mass murders. Once again, I unapologetically denounce those who spread death in the name of Allah while I continue to believe peace-loving Muslims need the full of all Christians, and Christians must provide understanding, cooperation, and friendship to peace-loving Muslims throughout the world who share our desire for democracy and peace.

I understand that the raw truth of the pulpit cannot survive untempered in the political sphere. Still, I believe that clergy of all faiths should be able to speak into the lives of our political leaders without every doctrine and statement of those religious leaders being transformed into political weapons by the politically vicious and misguided.

Could we have some proof about Rev. Parsley's notion of America having been founded "with the intention of seeing this false religion [Islam] destroyed" based on valid historical science, especially considering where Islam wasn't too widely known in the Western world @ the time of the first European settlements in Jamestown and the Popham Settlement?

(That last one, founded under the same Parliamentary charter which esablished Jamestown, Virginia, was located near where the Kennebec River in present-day Maine empties into the Atlantic. Unlike Jamestown, the Popham Settlement barely lasted a year thanks to hostile First Nations, the severely cold winter and the deaths in the interim of the two most significant promoters thereof.)

IT'S PROBABLY JUST ME, BUT JUDGING BY WHAT COULD BE SIMILARITIES OF APPEARENCE BETWEEN THE SCION xB AND THE LONDON TAXI TXII (subject to certain inherent differences of styling), would it be possible to imagine a fleet of Scion xB's serving as taxicabs in major cities or "shoobie trap" resorts, doing much the same job as a London Taxi?

Or, for that matter, imagining the possibility of the London Taxi TXII's diesel engine modified to burn cheap, stinking chip oil from shoobie-trap restaurants fond of serving especially fried food refined into an excellent biodiesel.

And speaking of taxicabs and biodiesel, for those of you looking for worthwhile reading on either or both of these subjects (and help this weblog @ the same time):

(Come to think of it: How many taxicabs are there in the "morally superior" United States as run on cheap, stinking chip oil?)

RECENT ITEM FROM THE RIGHT WING WATCH BLOG of People For the American Way about the trials and tribulations of the so-called "Catholic League" in seeking support from the Religiopolitical Right vis-a-vis Roman Catholics:

Pope Benedict's visit to the United States is long over, but the Washington Times continues to doggedly report on one particular angle: the many thousands receiving communion at the pope's masses included a handful of Democratic politicians, who, like the majority of American Catholics, are pro-choice.

While this seems like the season for picking over politicians' personal religious lives, the Right has been trumpeting this point of contention for a number of years to use as a wedge between liberal candidates and faith. In particular, John Kerry's communion became a public issue in 2004.

In 2008, none of the major presidential candidates are Catholic. But that just means the Right has to get more creative.

Last week, Catholic League President Bill Donohue tried to jump on the Rev. Wright bandwagon with his own brand of religious policing, attacking not Barack Obama's faith, but that of his Catholic advisory council: "If these are the best 'committed Catholic leaders, scholars and advocates' Obama can find, then it is evident that he has a 'Wright' problem when it comes to picking Catholic advisors." Donahue's beef? Many of Obama's Catholic backers disagree with him on abortion, stem-cell research, and school vouchers.

The advisors complained, bringing up the existence of other moral issues besides the ones that fit the Republican platform: war, poverty, etc. Donohue responded, calling it "shocking" that one could set political priorities on par with abortion.

And then, seeing a chance to attack Obama instead of his advisors, Donohue promptly compared the senator to Hitler (for opposing a graphic bill designed by abortion opponents to establish personhood for the fetus):

"It is so nice to know that Obama thinks abortion 'presents a profound moral challenge.' Is infanticide another 'profound moral challenge'? To wit: When he was in the Illinois state senate he led the fight to deny health care to babies born alive who survived an abortion. That, my friends, is not a moral challenge—it's a Hitlerian decision."

Methinks I can recommend a good source for some "proper Catholics" that the Religiopolitical Right can count on for Catholic support--in and around Necedah, Wisconsin, itself a major center of Old Catholicism in the United States as doesn't quite sit well with the mainstream Roman Catholic Establishment.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel noted recently how the Juneau County village became proof of the saying that "G-d wants spiritual fruits, not religious nuts:"

Dating back nearly 60 years ago, Necedah, a village of about 900 people set in the rock formations of central Wisconsin, has been the site of several unusual religious goings on.

It started on Nov. 12, 1949, when Mary Ann Van Hoof, a farm wife and mother of eight, said the Virgin Mary appeared to her outside the village.

Over more than 20 years, Van Hoof said she was visited by the Virgin Mary, a hundred saints and a Russian czar. Their messages to her began simply: "Pray, pray, pray hard."

But as time went on, the messages coming through Van Hoof became diatribes on subjects ranging from doomsday and communism to the dangers of food additives and music by the Beatles.

Over the years, crowds as large as 100,000 people traveled to the site, and some followers have devoted their lives to the Necedah apparition.

The site is not approved by the Catholic Church, as are more famous Marian locations such as Lourdes, France, and Fatima, Portugal.

Indeed, the Catholic Church condemned it almost immediately, saying the apparitions were false, and in 1975 issued an order forbidding shrine followers from receiving sacraments in Catholic churches.

But that did not deter Van Hoof, who died in 1984, and her followers.

The community was thrust back into the spotlight in 1998 with the arrest of Jeffrey L. Maas on charges of stealing religious statues.

Believing an asteroid was going to destroy most life on Earth, Maas constructed a modern day Noah's Ark in the woods, packing it with stolen religious statues and other items for Armageddon survivors.

Twenty-nine statues were recovered from Maas' Town of Necedah shed. He was placed on probation for 10 years after pleading guilty.

The arrest of Maas put a spotlight on another strange case, the unsolved slaying of Father Alfred Kunz of Dane, who knew Maas and other shrine pilgrims. Kunz, 67, was found with his throat slit on March 4, 1998, at St. Michael Catholic School in the village of Dane.

Kunz, a conservative Catholic priest, was periodically drawn into the circle of shrine followers - not as a public devotee, but through friendships and consultations about canon law. Kunz and the group shared, at least to some degree, a distaste for what they considered the liberalization of the Catholic Church in the last several decades, and they appreciated old practices such as the celebration of the Latin Tridentine Mass.

The case remains unsolved.

Which has Your Correspondent wondering if it must be something in the water and/or soil around Necedah as attracts the Ultrajectine brand of Catholicism and those who follow it.

And which makes it especially attractive among the Religiopolitical Right's "hard core."

RECENT REVELATIONS THAT NEW YORK CITY'S EMERGENCY COMMUNICATIONS RADIO NETWORK WAS SUBJECT TO GROSS DEFICENCIES DURING THE UNFORTUNATE EVENTS OF 9/11, not to mention the powers that be unwilling to fund further upgrades just to keep taxes down just to create "real" jobs (preferably, to the Club For Growth crowd, unskilled and labour-intensive) just to create social stability and order, has Your Correspondent suggesting that emergency services start considering using cellular and wireless telephony as a means of communications.

Especially where two-way "push-to-connect" functions are available, such as on the Sprint network.

Those agencies interested can start their search below (and it might not hurt to ask about government-agency discounts), knowing all the while that Your Correspondent and this weblog benefit from any ensuing sale: