New AP poll: 60% of Americans are wrong about Bush, and God probably doesn't like them much, either.

"Almost six in 10 — 57 percent — said they do not think the Bush administration has high ethical standards and the same portion says President Bush is not honest, an AP-Ipsos poll found. Just over four in 10 say the administration has high ethical standards and that Bush is honest."

God, God, God, weapons of mass destruction, God, founding fathers, God, imminent danger, God, God, bring it on, God, faith, 9-11, God, Iraq, Al Queda, God, pro-life, etc., etc...

"Whites, Southerners and evangelicals were most likely to believe Bush is honest."

I'm negligent and I screwed something up--now where's my tax credit?

From today’s Wall Street Journal: "Businesses are lobbying to strip language from a Senate tax bill that would bar deductions for punitive damages and parts of government settlements."

A letter to Senator Charles Grassley, the Finance Committee Chairman, from several organizations (the American Gas Institute, American Petroleum Institute, Edison Electric Institute, and the U.S. Oil and Gas Association among them) outlined a few "costs" which would no longer be tax-deductible if the Jumpstart Our Business Strength (JOBS) Act passes:

Royalty settlements.

Farm costs incurred to comply with food safety and pollution control directives.

Costs incurred to address recommendations by OSHA.

Automobile manufacturer costs associated with safety recalls.

Costs incurred by food establishments made at the recommendation of health inspectors.

Aircraft maintenance and upgrades resulting from FAA safety inquiries.

Am I oversimplifying things, or do most of the above appear to be normal business costs due to governmental regulations and oversight? If I built a car with exploding gas tanks, I wouldn’t expect to be able to deduct the costs to replace the tanks. I guess I’m just not thinking like Big Business.

State code says that I need to have two functional headlights on my car. Because they're required by governmental regulation and not personal choice, maybe I can deduct the cost of the bulb the next time one blows up. And why can't I deduct the cost of my fuel and time the next time I go to the DMV to renew my license? After all, I don't need the license--the government does.

Waaaah. Shut up and pay your taxes, like the people who work for you do.

Pat Robertson reinstitutes Old Testament law, speaks for God, etc...

After Dover, PA voters removed their school board members for trying to introduce "intelligent design" into the curriculum, Pat Robertson had this to say:

"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: if there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God, you just rejected Him from your city," Robertson said on his daily television show broadcast from Virginia, "The 700 Club." "And don't wonder why He hasn't helped you when problems begin, if they begin. I'm not saying they will, but if they do, just remember, you just voted God out of your city. And if that's the case, don't ask for His help because he might not be there," he said.

Number 1: Isn't one thing Christians are taught that God will help anyone in their time of need, regardless of their Naughty Record?
Number 2: I learned about evolution when I went to school. I learned about "intelligent design" when I went to church. I don't find that there's an inner conflict, or that I'm any less moral as a person because I learned about both. Hmm...I think I know why that is--because I didn't pay too much attention to either! I believe in carbon-14 dating, electron microscopes, dinosaurs, and God, whom I learned about on my own. Spirituality is not trademarked by conservative Christians.
Number 3: When did this vengeful, Old Testament God reappear? If God really wanted to take out people who wrong him, even in this inconsequential way, well...who'd be left alive? Maybe Pat has a copy of God's own sentencing guidlines. Apparently not all sins are equal.
Number 4: What would Jesus say to this asshole? Oops--is it a sin to call Pat Robertson an asshole?

France.

I happened to catch a glimpse of Fox News this morning and found the morning crew discussing the current riot situation. The guy on the right--the one who always looks as though he's been backed into a corner one too many times by high school punks--said that he considers the riots to be "terrorism." I'd like to know whether he felt the same way about the rioting in Cincinnati, or L.A., or the civil rights/disobedience acts of the '50s and '60s, etc. (imagine that for a second--a white Republican Fox News broadcast in the 1960s). Could it be that he considers it terrorism because...the rioters are Muslim? If Al Queda is down to throwing rocks and bottles, then we're probably close to winning the "War On Terror."

Unrelated, except for the location of the subject matter, is the fact that I'm tired of France-bashing. Andy Rooney, Bill O'Reilly, and the mindless Bush-bots that have "Boycott France" bumper stickers need a reality check. France is not the problem. One problem that France doesn't have is a growing discontentment among her people, who are demanding an answer to the question of why over 2,000 of their citizens have been killed in Iraq. There are thousands upon thousands of French war dead in cemetaries throughout France and elsewhere in Europe. The stereotypical surrendering Frenchman problem wasn't with the soldiers, it was with the leadership--which, if nothing else, is something that we have in common. To penalize France for demanding more evidence of the existence of weapons of mass destruction--evidence which has yet to appear--is ludicrous. I'm sure that Billy Bob's decision to not purchase a nice Bordeaux to enjoy with his supper is really hurting the French.

Sanitized, for your viewing comfort...

The polished aircraft cargo deck and neatly draped flags make these scenes seem a bit sterile or plastic, but for some odd reason to me this intensifies rather than lessens the impact of what's being displayed. It certainly seems more real to me than a body count clicker, and much more depressing.

Petroleum product price-gouging is funny...

The head of the Federal Trade Commission said a federal price-gouging law "likely will do more harm than good."

"While no consumers like price increases, in fact, price increases lower demand and help make the shortage shorter-lived than it otherwise would have been," FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras told the hearing.

"That's an astounding theory of consumer protection," replied Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore.

Also...

Chevron's O'Reilly attributed the high energy prices to tight supplies even before the hurricanes struck. He said his company is "investing aggressively in the development of new energy supplies."

Note that he said "new energy supplies," not "new energy sources" or "alternative fuels."

Name that Hippie...

I love this snippet from a book that I started to re-read today:

"We have a condition now which is called "a national emergency." Though the legislators and politicians may rant at will, though the newspaper tribe may rave and spread hysteria, though the military clique may bluster, threaten, and clamp down on everything which is not to their liking, the private citizen, for whom and by whom the war is being fought, is supposed to hold his tongue....
I believe with John Stuart Mill that "a state which dwarfs its men, in order that they may be more docile instruments in its hands even for beneficial purposes, will find that with small men no great thing can really be accomplished." I would rather my opinions and appraisals be proved wrong--by the emergence of a new and vital spirit. If it takes a calamity such as war to awaken and transform us, well and good, so be it. Let us see now if the unemployed will be put to work and the poor properly clothed, housed and fed; let us see if the rich will be stripped of their booty and made to endure the privations and sufferings of the ordinary citizen; let us see if all the workers of America, regardless of class, ability or usefulness, can be persuaded to accept a common wage; let us see if the people can voice their wishes in direct fashion, without the intercession, the distortion, and the bungling of politicians; let us see if we can create a real democracy in place of the fake one we have been finally roused to defend; let us see if we can be fair and just to our own kind, to say nothing of the enemy whom we shall doubtless conquer over."

The words are Henry Miller's, in his preface to "The Air-Conditioned Nightmare," circa 1940 or '41. Although history may have proved Mr. Miller's pre-WWII sentiments a bit off the mark, I don't think this section of the preface is a bad thing to ponder today.

WARNING: THIS VEHICLE SHOULD NOT BE DRIVEN BY A LUNATIC...

I think it's very interesting--and a little disturbing--that Jeep felt the need to include the following disclaimer on the latest commercial for the Jeep Commander, which shows a family sightseeing beneath the sea from the safety of their SUV: Fictionalization. Vehicle not suitable for underwater use.