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THE JANUARY 13 (OLD STYLE), 1736 EDITION OF THE PENNSYLVANIA GAZETTE, UNDER THE CELEBRATED DIRECTION OF BENJAMIN FRANKLIN, featured on its front page "The Drinker's Dictionary," a glossary of some rather colourful terms used in colonial Philadelphia (or so Mr. Franklin hath it) to explain why someone was drunk.

Read it for yourself:

Nothing more like a Fool than a drunken Man.
Poor Richard.

'Tis an old Remark, that Vice always endeavours to assume the Appearance of Virtue: Thus Covetousness calls itself Prudence; Prodigality would be thought Generosity; and so of others. This perhaps arises hence, that Mankind naturally and universally approve Virtue in their Hearts, and detest Vice; and therefore, whenever thro' Temptation they fall into a Practice of the latter, they would if possible conceal it from themselves as well as others, under some other Name than that which properly belongs to it.

But DRUNKENNESS is a very unfortunate Vice in this respect. It bears no kind of Similitude with any sort of Virtue, from which it might possibly borrow a Name; and is therefore reduc'd to the wretched Necessity of being express'd by distant round-about Phrases, and of perpetually varying those Phrases, as often as they come to be well understood to signify plainly that A MAN IS DRUNK.

Tho' every one may possibly recollect a Dozen at least of the Expressions us'd on this Occasion, yet I think no one who has not much frequented Taverns would imagine the number of them so great as it really is. It may therefore surprize as well as divert the sober Reader, to have the Sight of a new Piece, lately communicated to me, entitled

The DRINKERS DICTIONARY.

A
He is Addled,
He's casting up his Accounts,
He's Afflicted,
He's in his Airs.

B
He's Biggy,
Bewitch'd,
Block and Block,
Boozy,
Bowz'd,
Been at Barbadoes,
P***'d in the Brook,
Drunk as a Wheel-Barrow,
Burdock'd,
Buskey,
Buzzey,
Has Stole a Manchet out of the Brewer's Basket,
His Head is full of Bees,
Has been in the Bibbing Plot,
Has drank more than he has bled,
He's Bungey,
As Drunk as a Beggar,
He sees the Bears,
He's kiss'd black Betty,
He's had a Thump over the Head with Sampson's Jawbone,
He's Bridgey.

C
He's Cat,
Cagrin'd,
Capable,
Cramp'd,
Cherubimical,
Cherry Merry,
Wamble Crop'd,
Crack'd,
Concern'd,
Half Way to Concord,
Has taken a Chirriping-Glass,
Got Corns in his Head,
A Cup to much,
Coguy,
Copey,
He's heat his Copper,
He's Crocus,
Catch'd,
He cuts his Capers,
He's been in the Cellar,
He's in his Cups,
Non Compos,
Cock'd,
Curv'd,
Cut,
Chipper,
Chickery,
Loaded his Cart,
He's been too free with the Creature,
Sir Richard has taken off his Considering Cap,
He's Chap-fallen,

D
He's Disguiz'd,
He's got a Dish,
Kill'd his Dog,
Took his Drops,
It is a Dark Day with him,
He's a Dead Man,
Has Dipp'd his Bill,
He's Dagg'd,
He's seen the Devil,

E
He's Prince Eugene,
Enter'd,
Wet both Eyes,
Cock Ey'd,
Got the Pole Evil,
Got a brass Eye,
Made an Example,
He's Eat a Toad & half for Breakfast.
In his Element,

F
He's Fishey,
Fox'd,
Fuddled,
Sore Footed,
Frozen,
Well in for't,
Owes no Man a Farthing,
Fears no Man,
Crump Footed,
Been to France,
Flush'd,
Froze his Mouth,
Fetter'd,
Been to a Funeral,
His Flag is out,
Fuzl'd,
Spoke with his Friend,
Been at an Indian Feast.

G
He's Glad,
Groatable,
Gold-headed,
Glaiz'd,
Generous,
Booz'd the Gage,
As Dizzy as a Goose,
Been before George,
Got the Gout,
Had a Kick in the Guts,
Been with Sir John Goa,
Been at Geneva,
Globular,
Got the Glanders.

H
Half and Half,
Hardy,
Top Heavy,
Got by the Head,
Hiddey,
Got on his little Hat,
Hammerish,
Loose in the Hilts,
Knows not the way Home,
Got the Hornson,
Haunted with Evil Spirits,
Has Taken Hippocrates grand Elixir,

I
He's Intoxicated,
Jolly,
Jagg'd,
Jambled,
Going to Jerusalem,
Jocular,
Been to Jerico,
Juicy.

K
He's a King,
Clips the King's English,
Seen the French King,
The King is his Cousin,
Got Kib'd Heels,
Knapt,
Het his Kettle.

L
He's in Liquor,
Lordly,
He makes Indentures with his Leggs,
Well to Live,
Light,
Lappy,
Limber,

M
He sees two Moons,
Merry,
Middling,
Moon-Ey'd,
Muddled,
Seen a Flock of Moons,
Maudlin,
Mountous,
Muddy,
Rais'd his Monuments,
Mellow,

N
He's eat the Cocoa Nut,
Nimptopsical,
Got the Night Mare,

O
He's Oil'd,
Eat Opium,
Smelt of an Onion,
Oxycrocium,
Overset,

P
He drank till he gave up his Half-Penny,
Pidgeon Ey'd,
Pungey,
Priddy,
As good conditioned as a Puppy,
Has scalt his Head Pan,
Been among the Philistines,
In his Prosperity,
He's been among the Philippians,
He's contending with Pharaoh,
Wasted his Paunch,
He's Polite,
Eat a Pudding Bagg,

Q
He's Quarrelsome,

R
He's Rocky,
Raddled,
Rich,
Religious,
Lost his Rudder,
Ragged,
Rais'd,
Been too free with Sir Richard,
Like a Rat in Trouble.

S
He's Stitch'd,
Seafaring,
In the Sudds,
Strong,
Been in the Sun,
As Drunk as David's Sow,
Swampt,
His Skin is full,
He's Steady,
He's Stiff,
He's burnt his Shoulder,
He's got his Top Gallant Sails out,
Seen the yellow Star,
As Stiff as a Ring-bolt,
Half Seas over,
His Shoe pinches him,
Staggerish,
It is Star-light with him,
He carries too much Sail,
Stew'd
Stubb'd,
Soak'd,
Soft,
Been too free with Sir John Strawberry,
He's right before the Wind with all his Studding Sails out,
Has Sold his Senses.

T
He's Top'd,
Tongue-ty'd,
Tann'd,
Tipium Grove,
Double Tongu'd,
Topsy Turvey,
Tipsey,
Has Swallow'd a Tavern Token,
He's Thaw'd,
He's in a Trance,
He's Trammel'd,

V
He makes Virginia Fence,
Valiant,
Got the Indian Vapours,

W
The Malt is above the Water,
He's Wise,
He's Wet,
He's been to the Salt Water,
He's Water-soaken,
He's very Weary,
Out of the Way.

The Phrases in this Dictionary are not (like most of our Terms of Art) borrow'd from Foreign Languages, neither are they collected from the Writings of the Learned in our own, but gather'd wholly from the modern Tavern-Conversation of Tiplers. I do not doubt but that there are many more in use; and I was even tempted to add a new one my self under the Letter B, to wit, Brutify'd: But upon Consideration, I fear'd being guilty of Injustice to the Brute Creation, if I represented Drunkenness as a beastly Vice, since, 'tis well-known, that the Brutes are in general a very sober sort of People.

Try these out some Saturday night after quite the drinking jag....  

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NOW THAT THE RELIGIOPOLITICAL RIGHT, LONGTIME DROOGS AND MALACHIKS OF THE GOP, IS FACING THE RATHER OBVIOUS PROSPECT of having to reassess themselves in the face of serious losses across the board in Indecision 2008, Right Wing Watch notes where it may have only just begun, and less than 12 hours after Barack Obama was declared winner of Indecision 2008, Presidential division:

It has been less than twelve hour since the historic election that saw Barack Obama become President-elect of the United States and the Democratic Party widen its margins in the House and Senate, and while we are still months away from them actually taking office, the Religious Right is already warning that their first order to business will be to presecute Christians:

Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council, believes Senator Obama was elected, in large part, because the church in America has failed to address sin in its own ranks and also in society.

Perkins says Christians should pray for and return to a biblical model of holiness and righteousness. And believers in America, he adds, should prepare for persecution.

(Memo to Mr. Perkins: How do we know the "biblical model of holiness and righteousness" you're asking Christian Americans to pray for isn't really the same one which held high carnival in apartheid South Africa, complete with all manner of Afrikaner hubris and arrogance as was perverted to justify the enforced racism @ the heart of apartheid? And what exactly prevents your acknowledging as much--money from your droogs among "the Four Hundred"?)

Tony Perkins"We are going to see, I think, unprecedented attacks against our faith through measures like the hate crimes [legislation] to the Employment Non-Discrimination Act," he says. "We're going to see attacks on innocent human life through the Freedom of Choice Act, trying to erase all the gains that have been made in the pro-life movement. And I think even our freedoms are going to come under attack."

And before that happens, other right-wing leaders are rallying the troops to launch their own right-wing attacks with Father Frank Pavone, National Director of Priests for Life, declaring that Obama has already "failed miserably":

"Americans have made a grave mistake in electing Barack Obama to the presidency," Fr. Pavone wrote. "He said during the campaign that he does not know when a human being starts to have human rights. How can one govern from that starting point of ignorance? Governing is about protecting human rights; to do it successfully, you have to know where they come from, and when they begin. The President-elect has already failed that test miserably."

Fr. Pavone sounds a note of defiant confidence, declaring that the pro-life movement is winning in the culture and that "a new chapter of the pro-life movement has just begun. ...We will keep marching toward that pro-life America we seek, and won't stop until we get there."

For its part, the Christian Defense Coalition has announced its own "The Birmingham Letter Project" which they plan to use to "challenge the radical pro-abortion policies of President-elect Barack Obama":

"We will be coming to Washington, D.C., as President-elect Obama is sworn in, to boldly stand as public and prophetic witness for life. As the pro-life community, we will not go silently into the night and allow the violence to continue. Instead, we are issuing this national call for the pro-life community to come to the streets of our nation's capital and be a prayerful voice for those who have no voice."

As for the "conservative movement" that was so badly damaged by President George Bush, Phyllis Schlafly declares that they are already in the process of rebuilding:

"I think we’re going to be looking for new leaders who express conservatism across the board – whether its sovereignty, limited spending, limited government, cuts in spending, cuts in taxes, the social issues – to simply reject these groups who are trying to muscle into the driver’s seat of the Republican Party, such as the multinationals with their ‘free-trade globalism’ agenda ... We have about 30 very good members of Congress who are destined to become good leaders.”

(Memo to Ms. Schlafly: How do we know these "30 very good members of Congress***destined to become good leaders" aren't really cast in the same mold as Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Tojo, Mao Zedong, "Eternal Leader" Kim Il Sung, Pinochet and/or Verword? And how do we know they're not secretly alcoholics, drug addicts, sex fiends, psychopaths or even emotionally unstable?)

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ALL IN ALL, SUCH DICTATES THE NEED TO REMAIN ALL THE MORE VIGILANT AND WATCHFUL of attempts by the GOP to win favour and influence policy by associating with the weird and unwholesome, among other Dregs of Society.

As well as encouraging the GOP's rank-and-file (especially so those among the socioeconomically-marginalised) to so disassociate themselves and consider creating a Secular-Progressive movement for once.

more the engrish!

THERE CAN BE NO MISTAKING THE FACT THAT YESTERDAY, AMERICA WAS VOTING FOR THE 44TH PRESIDENT OF THIS ANTIENT AND PECUILAR among the world's soverign nations to succeed George Bush fils; the 22nd Amendment to the United States Constitution, limiting the President to two consecutive four-year terms, saw to that.

And that a man of colour, by name Barack Hussein Obama, winning the Presidency by virtue of the Electoral College (which is what really matters, as opposed to the popular vote, which was rather close all last evening) was triumph in itself. Especially when it became clear that Ohio and Pennsylvania, two states whose 43 combined electoral votes John McCain needed all the more badly to ensure victory, instead became his Achilles heel thanks to new voters from especially the ranks of the young, the Lower Classes and National Minorities ... and Obama's offering a more positive message of serious change for once after eight long years of His Fraudulency's delusory concept of Unitary Executive Privilege (read: autocratic rule) threatening to reduce our Constitution to what His Fraudulency himself once referred to right after 9/11 as no better than toilet paper and our soverignty likely being compromised by the "New World Order."

And which John McCain, (un)consciously, sought to maintain the status quo of "staying the course"--even if it meant the "New World Order" eventually compromising Our Antient and Pecuilar Soverignty and Soverign Identity as a Pecuilar Among the Nations.

Hence explaining my using as the title of this "morning after" piece an Engrish variation of "it's morning again in America" which The Great (Mis)communicator used as theme for a 1984 campaign commercial.

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ON THE OTHER HAND, THOUGH, YOU HAVE THE FORCES OF NEOCONSERVATIVE/FASCISTI THOUGHT likely to be driven all the more to paranoia mode under an Obama/Biden Administration, and especially so the kind as targets in particular the poor, undereducated or homeschooled, easily-led and socioeconomically-marginalised (not to mention using that last point as a Badge of Honour).

In case you'd like a preview, consider this analysis from Media Matters for America just prior to the election:

Since October 16, several media figures--including author Jerome Corsi, Fox News contributor Ann Coulter, radio hosts Mark Levin and Bill Cunningham, author Hilmar von Campe, and Townhall.com columnist Laura Hollis--have compared Sen. Barack Obama to Adolf Hitler or the Nazis.

• In an October interview with Gentleman's Quarterly magazine, responding to the question, "What's been the most interesting reaction to your book?" Jerome Corsi, author of the debunked and discredited book, The Obama Nation: Leftist Politics and the Cult of Personality, asserted: "This whole cult of personality is a miscalculation. We should have learned in the last century that a cult of personality was very dangerous--left or right, Hitler or Stalin. It didn't work out very well."

• On the October 30 edition of Fox News' Hannity & Colmes, Coulter asserted: "With one association after another that is beyond the pale with Barack Obama, I feel like we are talking to the Germans after Hitler comes to power saying, 'Oh, well, I didn't know. I had no idea he was going to be like this.' " As Media Matters for America has documented, Coulter has repeatedly likened Obama to Hitler.

• On the October 29 edition of ABC Radio Networks' The Mark Levin Show, Levin asserted that Obama is "really into these big German-like events that he creates in this country, isn't he? Have you noticed that?" Curtis Sliwa, WABC radio host and CEO and founder of the community activist organization Guardian Angels, responded: "I am telling you, and he comes out and it's almost as if the crowd stands in unison, and I'm saying to myself, 'Oh my God, the Olympic Stadium, Berlin, 1938,' " to which Levin replied: "Yeah, we've seen this. It's scary." Sliwa then asserted: "And the only thing missing is he's not standing up in an open car."

• On the October 28 edition of Clear Channel's The Big Show with Bill Cunningham, referring to Sen. John McCain, Cunningham asserted: "Maybe it's his age, or maybe it's his lack of eloquence. Whatever it is, the guy just doesn't have the same verbal skills of someone like a Barack Hussein Obama. Of course, Adolf Hitler had great verbal skills, too, and he led the country of his country to disaster."

• Von Campe, author of the book Defeating the Totalitarian Lie: A Former Hitler Youth Warns America, wrote in an October 28 WorldNetDaily column headlined "Humanity's insurrection against God": "Socialist Hitler destroyed free society in a few months. Socialist Obama is close to his steppingstone."

• In her October 16 column headlined, "Time to Use the 'C' Word," Hollis wrote: "And we are being lured into the same noose that has ensnared so many millions of hapless souls, despite reams of pages of history. We express horror at the Hitler Youth in little matching uniforms singing 'Hitler will save us, Hitler is our Lord,' but then we smile and laugh as we see grade schoolers in matching blue t-shirts singing, 'Obama's gonna save us.'"

As Media Matters for America has documented, conservative pundits have repeatedly made comparisons between Obama and Hitler or the Nazis.

Not Only That: There's also clear and present likelihood for the GOP, in trying to rebuild themselves from the debacle of Indecision 2008 built around an ongoing Cult of Personality based on The Great (Mis)communicator and Sarah Palin trying to become Evita reincarnate @ the GOP's expense just to whip up shame among the Great Unwashed, associating themselves with weird and unwholesome elements as include the ilk of racists, white supremacists, Elmer Gantry types among the pseudoreligious, nativists, even xenophobic isolationists--all funded, no doubt, by "the Four Hundred" in substantial measure (howbeit taking great pains to avoid any suggestions as could "cause scandal") seeking to maintain their "antient and pecuilar rights, privileges and powers entitled them under the unwritten law, the Natural Law, the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God" towards the "winning of hearts and minds" among the Archie Bunker/Alf Garnett crowd to the Greater Republican Agenda.

Said agenda, on closer inspection, being on the same par as Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini and Dr. Hendrik Verword omnibus, whose lives will likely be studied by the GOP's "inside of the inside" in preparing a litmus test of ideal candidates for midterm elections in Indecision 2010 and the next Presidential elections, Indecision 2012.

And which could produce an agenda which may be all the more disastrous to the point where the Republican Party's founders @ that little white schoolhouse in Ripon, Wisconsin back in 1854 would barely recognise it for what they had created.

Hence, my advice to GOP rank-and-file, especially if you still value the classical Republican agenda: Resign posthaste. And if you seriously value Republican values and beliefs such as were evolved back in Ripon, consider launching a new party based on Secular-Progressive articles of faith, even if it means scaring Bill "No-Spin Zone" O'Reilly to the point of his having an apoplexic fit on the set. Live. On camera. (Especially if it emerges from whispers in certain circles that Mr. O'Reilly had a few drinks before going to air, and took great pains to avoid suspicions by way of "detoxifying" herbal teas produced by Church of Scientology-affiliated front companies.)

*************

US NEWS AND WORLD REPORT HAS ANNOUNCED THAT THEY WILL BE "GOING VIRTUAL" EARLY NEXT YEAR (AS IN ENDING INK-ON-PAPER PUBLICATION) in an effort to deal with heavy losses as forced them to shift from weekly to fortnightly publication. (They will, however, continue having a print presence, howbeit as monthly consumer guides which will bear the US News and World Report imprint.)

Let's just hope that the long-established conservative rival to Time and Newsweek in the newsmagazine department, in joining The Christian Science Monitor and The Capital Times among the ranks of mainstream gazettas "going virtual" after years of print publication (with a continuing weekly print presence), doesn't fall to the same level of pseudojournalism tending closer to ideological rants and screeds serving a perverted form of conservatism as the likes of WorldNetDaily, NewsMax, Accuracy in Media, the Media Research Center and NewsBusters, all deserving targets of the especially thorogh and conscientious analysis of ConWebWatch and the interrelated ConWebBlog--both of which should be regular reading among all Right-Thinking Americans needing to understand the latest in Neoconservative propaganda and doublethink.

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WITH THE LIKELIHOOD OF HIGH-SPEED PASSENGER RAIL BETWEEN CHICAGO, MILWAUKEE AND THE TWIN CITIES ALL THE MORE SO within measurable distance, something as may be worth thinking about vis-a-vis Amtrak and the Canadian Pacific Railway as successor to the Dakota, Minnesota and Eastern:

As appeasement to such in the Rochester area who may be concerned about the impact of increased freight traffic through the Clinic City--in particular the likes of hazardous or dangerous cargoes, as well as coal trains from the Powder River Basin fields of Wyoming--might I be one to suggest where Amtrak might want to have one or two trains from Chicago and Milwaukee routed to Rochester, with particular benefit to Mayo Clinic patients who can't endure air travel for medical reasons.

Not to mention looking into the possibility of having the Rochester station located so that such could be connected to the Mayo Clinic's pedestrian subway and skyway network in beautiful downtown Rochester--even more so if it were designed as a Ground Transportation Centre to also serve intercity buses, airport shuttles, Rochester City Lines local and commuter buses and a proposed light-rail line to the Rochester airport. 

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SO MUCH FOR REASONABLE DOUBT, THAT PREFERRED TOOL OF CONSERVATIVE ZEALOTRY AND TRUE BELIEF in "winning of hearts and minds" among especially the weak-minded and easily-led: Can there be such a thing as "unreasonable doubt"?

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IN ANY EVENT, YOUR CORRESPONDENT LEFT HIS FLAT RATHER EARLY (6:45 THIS MORNING, TO BE PRECISE) this Election Day to make sure he was among the first to cast his vote in this most crucial Election of Elections.

As he was preparing to cash his vote, he noted where the election officials @ the polling station assigned his address, in view of the heavy crowds likely to show as the day wore on, made a back table available for voters to cast their ballots in the interest of saving time.

Isn't this more of a threat to "electoral purity and integrity" than all the platitudes Fox Prolefeed and their droogs have been spewing about "voter fraud" and suchlike to call for further kerbing electoral franchise to such being essentially restricted to white male Low Church Christians owning real property freehold (and on clear title)?

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IF YOU HAVE ALREADY VOTED--thank you for serving your civic and patriotic duty.

If not--vote.

So what stands otherwise in the way, aside from the obvious bars to voting such as undischarged criminal records and fear of being "outed" for voter registry documents somehow "not in proper form"?

(Remember this: If you're in the queue @ your polling station when the official closing time comes up, you have the legal right to cast a ballot nonetheless. Be sure to check with local election officials.)

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JUST AS "ONE SWALLOW DOES NOT A SUMMER MAKE," OR SO THE PROVERB HATH IT, one shouldn't read too much about the traditional "first-in-the-nation" result from Dixville Notch, New Hampshire just after midnight: 15 votes for Obama; six for McCain.

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WHY IT PAYS TO SERIOUSLY SWITCH OVER TO PAPER BALLOTS OUTRIGHT FOR ELECTIONS HENCEFORTH: Breakdowns of touch-screen voting machines in several precincts in and around Richmond, Virginia just after the polls opened prompted election officials to switch over to emergency paper ballots almost immediately.

This as voters in Virginia, Texas and one or two other states were getting text messages on cell phones of dubious nature "advising" that Democratic voting would be moved to tomorrow to ease pressure on voting stations; such, IIRC, is Voter Intimidation and illegal under pain of penal sentence.

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SOMETHING WORTH CONSIDERING FOR FUTURE ELECTIONS WHERE A PAPER BALLOT IS CALLED FOR: Adopting the Australian practice known as "party preferential" balloting, where voters choose candidates based on a numeric value which has 1 as first preference, 2 as second such, and so on.

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AND COULD IT BE THAT THE RELIGIOPOLITICAL RIGHT IS IN "WISHFUL THINKING" MODE ALL THE MORE this election of elections?

Right Wing Watch has these observations:

So it look like Rev. Rob Schenck has put together a rather simple and straightforward explanation regarding "God's Word on How to Vote." Based on his reading of Deuteronomy, Chapter 17, verses 14 – 20, Schenck explains how Old Testament rules regarding Israelite kings and his horses and wives should guide Christian voters today.

Here are the verses Schenck sites and explains: 

14 “When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, ‘I will set a king over me like all the nations who are around me,’ 15 you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman. 16 “Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the LORD has said to you, ‘You shall never again return that way.’ 17 “He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself.

18 “Now it shall come about when he sits on the throne of his kingdom, he shall write for himself a copy of this law on a scroll in the presence of the Levitical priests. 19 “It shall be with him and he shall read it all the days of his life, that he may learn to fear the LORD his God, by carefully observing all the words of this law and these statutes, 20 that his heart may not be lifted up above his countrymen and that he may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left, so that he and his sons may continue long in his kingdom in the midst of Israel.

Schenck has released an accompanying podcast in which he goes through and explains what all of these verses mean, such as when the Bible talks about horses, it means power and when it talks about not sending people back to Egypt, it means that the king doesn't seek earthly solutions but rather "points the people Heavenword to God ... [and is] someone who can direct the people toward our ultimate help, which comes from the Lord."

Not being a Biblical scholar, I guess I don't have much to say about Schenck's interpretation of these passages, but I did want to highlight his interpretation of verse 20, which proclaims that the king "may not turn aside from the commandment, to the right or the left."  

Here is Schenck's explanation:

Now somebody made a political joke about this and said that must mean we have to vote for independents. Ha ha, very funny, no. But there is something here about someone who sells out to a political ideology on one extreme or the other, right or left. We’re looking for someone who stands on principle even against political pressure to cave into ideological platforms, parties, and so forth. This is someone who does what is right for the country and resists the temptation to capitulate to political pressures and political pressure groups.

Hmmm ... so Christians shouldn't vote for someone who "sells out" to an extreme idology, someone who caves into ideological platforms, or capitulates to political pressure groups?  Interesting, since that is exactly what John McCain did in order to win the support of the Religious Right. 

Thus, at least according to Schenck, Christians clearly cannot vote for McCain.

So who would Rev. Schenck rather have "right-thinking Christian Americans" vote for, Chuck Baldwin of the Constitution Party?

No wonder the entire world sees....   

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WITH SO MANY GAZETTAS FROM MAINE TO HAWAII ENDORSING BARACK OBAMA OVER JOHN McCAIN FOR THE PRESIDENCY in tomorrow's oh-so-crucial elections, you may want to know about the McCain/Palin ticket's biggest (and yet most unlikely) supporter.

We'll let Dave Zweifel, Editor Emeritus of The Capital Times (cyberspace, via Madison, WI), explain for you:

Nicholas Kristof, one of the New York Times' op-ed columnists and an expert observer of world trouble spots, remarked last Sunday that al-Qaida has endorsed John McCain for president.

It was a bit of useless information, except for one glaring fact. The terrorist organization that is responsible for causing death and destruction at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon figures that if McCain becomes president, the U.S. will continue George Bush's Iraq policy, thereby making it easier for al-Qaida to recruit more members.

If the American military begins to withdraw from Iraq, a policy favored by Barack Obama, the anti-U.S. sentiment would cool down and the numbers of young men and women willing to blow themselves up for the cause would diminish.

That isn't just Kristof's theory. Richard Clarke, the former White House counterterrorism director, and Joseph Nye, the former chairman of the National Intelligence Council, both said they weren't surprised that al-Qaida prefers McCain.

"From their perspective, a continuation of Bush policies is best for recruiting," Nye said.

"In contrast, an African-American president with a Muslim grandfather and a penchant for building bridges rather than blowing them up would give al-Qaida recruiters fits," the columnist wrote.

Kristof compared the McCain policy of staying in Iraq indefinitely to some of the blunders we've made in other parts of the world, including the catastrophe we know as Vietnam.

There it was an exaggerated fear of communism that led us to a disastrous occupation that tore our own country apart.

Now we have an exaggerated fear of "Islamofascism" that causes us to overreact and damage our own interests, Kristof said. In Somalia, for instance, we became alarmed that an Islamist movement was taking hold among the political factions there, so we jumped in on the side of Ethiopia, giving it a green light to invade. The result has been a humanitarian crisis that some claim is worse than Darfur.

The result has been yet another region furious over U.S. involvement. Islamic militancy and anti-Americanism are rampant, further assisting terrorist recruiters.

McCain, Kristof claims, would amount to four more years of "blindness to nuance in the Muslim world."

And that, he adds, would be a tragedy for Americans.

Which makes you wonder, then, whether supporting John McCain is one with supporting International Terrorism, howbeit discreetly.

Not to mention unwittingly. 

more the engrish!

FIRST OFF, A COUPLE OF CHANGES YOU MAY WANT TO MAKE A NOTE OF if you're something of a regular to this blog:

• The background music has been dropped.
• The BlogRush widget has been removed inasmuch as they are now winding up operations (and if you have a BlogRush widget on your blog, please remove same ASAP).
• On the side, as if to more than compensate for the preceding, there's now a signup box for my proposed e-newsletter, which will be an adjunct of as much this blog as my e-boutique, The Exaggerator Collection; as soon as reasonable numbers can be collected, I hope to launch same. (I should note also @ this time that the RSS feed for this blog can also be subscribed to by e-mail, or even incorporated into your own site or blog.)

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MEMO TO FORMER MEMBERS OF MYROOMIE.NET: You may have received an e-mail recently announcing where they have been acquired by BlogWeekends, who invites you to join them and pick up where MyRoomie left off when technical faults began plaguing them.

Equally interesting is where BlogWeekends has a 120x90 thumbnail banner swap, in the tradition of MyRoomie; for best results in creating a thumbnail of your blog for this purpose, BlogWeekends recommends your using Thumbalizr.com, saving the thumbnail (@ 120 pixels, using the customisation tool) to your hard drive, then transferring same to the files section of your blog account.

Therefore it waits for what?

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WHEN JOHN McCAIN SPAKE OF "CREATING NEW WEALTH" IN RESPONSE TO BARACK OBAMA'S "SPREADING THE WEALTH" CONCEPT the other day, Your Correspondent had to wonder if he was sounding like some class of a "make money fast" (MMF) mountebank of the kind targeting the McCain/Palin campaign's weird, unwholesome and socioeconomically-marginalised groupies.

Same unaware that they will have more to lose under a McCain/Palin Presidency in the face of all they love to claim about a New Golden Age of Empowerment, Self-Reliance, Personal Responsibility, Thrift based on Cash Economy and a Wholesome and Simple Home Life awaiting ... not to mention being all the more open to exploitation by swindlers and mountebanks promising all manner of panaceas promising "a new happier life" and "as much income in a month as others earn in a year" which turn out being anything but.

Especially when it emerges that they're being targeted for the likes of Ponzi schemes, "make-work/fake-work" Mickey Mouse and "cashflow gifting" scams in guises such as "Æroplane," "Dinner Party," "Pit Stop" or some other permutation on the "Friends Helping Friends" theme (and in particular such using PayPal to avoid suspicions in some circles).

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SO, WITH THE PROSPECT OF LONG QUEUES AND ALL MANNER OF SECURITY CHECKS EXPECTED TO BE IN PLACE TOMORROW, Your Correspondent feels it best to remind all of you to be vigilant @ your designated polling station for all form and fashion of vote suppression, intimidation and "caging" likely to be carried out by well-meaning, howbeit weird and unwholesome, elements claiming to act in the name of "protecting electoral purity and integrity."

As well as problems with certain voting machines of the touch-screen variety known to "flip" votes or otherwise lack a "paper trail" for the sake of checks and balances.

If so encountered, freecall 1-866-OUR-VOTE posthaste to speak to a trained Election Protection volunteer. Or, if you have access to the Information Stuporbahn, file an online report.

And speaking of flaws with touch-screen voting machines, BradBlog has the following worthwhile item for such jurisdictions using the notoriously-flawed Diebold or Premier touchscreen termini as itself uses the GEMS programme:

Just in time for the elections, the Pima County, Arizona, Election Integrity Committee has developed computer tools to examine election databases created by the Diebold/Premier system. The EI group is offering to examine data from any jurisdiction in the country that uses Diebold's faulty GEMS (Global Election Management System). GEMS will tabulate about half the nation's votes on November 4th...

Last year, the Pima County EI group won a groundbreaking legal case which gave it access to all the county’s computer-generated databases since 2002. Recently, computer programs were completed to examine the databases. They have already revealed problems and inconsistencies that warrant further examination. For example, they found that a few dozen memory cards from optical ballot scanners were uploaded twice, causing changes in vote counts. (A document by Tom Ryan gives more details about the capabilities of these tools and possible problems they have uncovered.)

The programs search for such things as unusual increases in vote tallies, changes in configuration information, and similar indicators that could point to vote flipping or other inappropriate activity. They go through the election from start to finish --- from the Logic and Accuracy tests to the early voting and election day counting to the final wrap up. The results can then be displayed in a spreadsheet.

Anyone interested in more information should email ElectionIntegrity@earthlink.net.

This program isn’t a magic bullet that will prove an election has been rigged. By pinpointing specific problem areas, the results allow investigators to focus on the portions of the GEMS database where possible election fraud is most likely to have occurred.

When the Pima County EI group won access to GEMS databases dating back to 2002 in a court ruling, it was also granted access to all databases from future elections. As a result, it’s likely that Pima County will have the most carefully monitored elections in the nation.

Election Integrity groups outside of Pima County that suspect election fraud have a huge hurdle in front of them – gaining access to the GEMS databases. Hopefully, the newly available tools will encourage them to put pressure on local officials to make the data available.

The long term objective of the Pima County EI Committee is to distribute the programs widely, but currently the data examination is only being done in Tucson. The programs are still evolving in their scope and sophistication, and the analysis team in Tucson is still learning how to use the tools to maximum advantage. Years of work has given the team a familiarity with the GEMS systems that usually isn’t available elsewhere.

This PDF goes into more detail about the computer tools. The Pima County EI group can provide more information, including technical details about the GEMS databases. Please email questions to ElectionIntegrity@earthlink.net.

(Hence, election judges in such areas afflicted by Diebold/Premier's GEMS software flaw will want to download the PDF haste posthaste for the sake of "electoral integrity and purity.")

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AND SO MUCH FOR THE "ACORN VOTING FRAUD" AND "COMMUNITY ORGANIZER" DISTRACTIONS THE GOP HAS TRIED PUSHING as "winning of hearts and minds" canards earlier in the campaign cycle--last Thursday's edition of Comedy Central's Daily Show had the following report deflating same:

(Especially interesting is the admission that the whole thing about "voter registration fraud" is nothing but a distracting "side issue" towards the greater GOP article of faith known as "divide and conquer" which targets especially the Lower Classes and others too dependent upon Fox Prolefeed for their informational requirements.)

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SPEAKING OF "DIVIDE AND CONQUER," the one element as is especially fond of the possibilities inherent in such a devious and @ once dangerous strategem and device would have to be Neo-Confederacist types believing that so-called "Confederate Southern Americans" (as in whites resident in, and/or otherwise descended from, such whites resident in the Confederate States of America during their soverign existance concurrent with the Civil War--especially such of Scots or Scots-Irish descent) are entitled "as of right" to a "natural right of self-determination" as a soverign pecuilar (cf. certain Afrikaners down South Africa way otherwise out of touch with Reality seeking to establish Die Volkstaat Orania as an Afrikaner Homeland within soverign South African territory).

All the while invoking the Balfour Declaration as precedent, howbeit with risk of these respective claims to "self-determination" being held as suspect (inasmuch as the Balfour Declaration's principle of Jews being entitled to a soverign "national home" in Palestine was based on valid religiohistorical claims and precedent).

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STAYING IN ISRAEL FOR THE NONCE, the Israeli Government's announcement that it would withdraw funding for what are technically illegal Israeli Jewish settlements in the Palestinian West Bank ("outposts," as the Israelis prefer to call such) could be, IMHO, a "blessing in disguise" for the Jewish National Fund's ongoing Blueprint Negev initiative, aimed @ reclaiming the Negev Desert area of southern Israel through sustainable agriculture in the kibbutz stylee and constructing several new settlements and kibbutzim.

One obvious aim of Blueprint Negev, as has been a long-cherished dream of the Zionist movement, is to ease the pressure on the Jerusalem-Tel Aviv-Haifa region of northern Israel as translates into high housing prices for especially such emigrating to Israel and making aliyah under the Law of Return.

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AND IS IT JUST ME, OR ARE THERE PARTISAN MOTIVES FROM THE KULTURKRIEG ELEMENT ESPECIALLY behind a new report suggesting that teenagers watching TV shows containing sexually-suggestive language, themes or story lines are all the more likely to risk having a nine months' dropsy than those watching supposedly "wholesome" programmes? 

WOULD ANY OF YOU LIKE TO SEE AN E-NEWSLETTER ON AN OCCASIONAL BASIS, as would cover not only developments with this blog ... but also Your Correspondent?

Please let me know.

I'd like to launch same @ the earliest opportunity.