Study reveals U.S. students are Commie idiots

A recent poll shows that a large proportion of high school students want government control of the press:

Apparently the First Amendment ought to be made required reading in U.S. high schools. A new survey of 112,003 students released today finds that one in three say the press ought to be more restricted -- and 36% think newspapers should get "government approval" before stories are published.

This is troubling, but not quite surprising. This is an age when so many kids take a government bus to a government school, where they receive their federally-subsidized breakfast, lunch, condoms, and faulty "education." With so much of their lives run by the government, is it any wonder they immediately look to government to rule the marketplace of ideas, too?

Mattsapundit finds secret NK instant messages

The Mattsapundit Cryptology Deparment, hidden in a bunker deep beneath the Astrodome, has been working day and night for months. Million-dollar supercomputers and Caltech math whizzes have been cracking algorithms, and we've finally done it. We've deciphered Kim Jong Il's instant message conversations, including banter with President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Saddam Hussein, and more! Here's a peek, back when Kim thought Sen. Kerry won the presidency:

License2KimJongill:	Congratulations!
License2KimJongill:	I knew you would win!
License2KimJongill:	535 electoral votes, wow
JFKpart2:	Yes, it was quite a victory
License2KimJongill:	So how many electoral votes did Bush get?
JFKpart2:	About...three
License2KimJongill:	Wow
License2KimJongill:	That's only three more than I got, and I didn't even run
License2KimJongill:	That means I, Kim Jong Il, almost tied President Bush in the American election! My subjects will be most pleased.

[Hat-tip: Mary]

Hillary Clinton collapses during speech in NY

Quick, somebody get this woman some socialized medical care:

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton collapsed Monday during a speech on Social Security, a radio station reported. Colleen DiPirro, president of the Amherst Chamber of Commerce, told WBEN-AM radio that Clinton told the crowd she was feeling weak and had had a stomach virus. Clinton started to speak then collapsed, DiPirro told the radio station. Clinton, 57, was treated by an emergency crew at the scene and declined to be taken to a hospital, the radio station said.

It could not immediately be confirmed if the collapse was due to a bolt from a righteous God.

Dean continues descent into madness

Howard Dean's shellacking in the primaries really screwed him up:

"I hate the Republicans and everything they stand for, but I admire their discipline and their organization," the failed presidential hopeful told the crowd at the Roosevelt Hotel, where he and six other candidates spoke at the final DNC forum before the Feb. 12 vote for chairman.

Shoot, at least he's honest. Wait, no he's not:

We can talk about our faith, but we cannot change our faith," he said, echoing themes he sounded in his presidential bid. "We need to be people of conviction."

This conviction comes from a man who changed religions because his church wouldn't let the city build a bike path on their property.

CBS suddenly develops sense of propriety

As we reported over a week ago, the CBS executives asked to resign are still in the employ of that news organization, and they're considering suing CBS. And the response from the Black Eye Network?

A spokesman said, "CBS refuses to comment on speculation."

LST reader Bill Foss put it best:

I guess CBS only refuses to comment on speculation unless they can run it as a news story slamming the president during an election campaign.

Heh.

Christians work against N. Korean oppression

During the Cold War, millions of American Catholics prayed for the conversion of Russia. Now, Christians are turning their attention to another Godless, communist nation:

Word has spread like wildfire of the Christian underground that helps fugitives to reach South Korea. People who lived in silent fear now dare to speak about escape. The regime has almost given up trying to stop them going, although it can savagely punish those caught and sent back. “Everybody knows there is a way out,” said a woman, who for obvious reasons cannot be identified but who spoke in front of several witnesses.

The regime is fighting to save itself from subversion. Its agents kidnapped Kim Dong-shik, a South Korean missionary, from the turbulent Chinese border town of Yanji in 2000. Last week the South Koreans demanded a new investigation: the clergyman has never been seen again. The secret police cannot staunch the word of the gospel. Two of our party turned out to be Christian businessmen who had come from China carrying wads of cash. Korean-language Bibles have been smuggled in by the hundreds.

Recently, we've seen an attempt on Kim Jong Il's life, power struggles within the North Korean regime, and more publicity about the dictator's personal excesses even as his people starve to death. One day, the residents of that impoverished "workers' paradise" will be free to worship a free land. Let us pray that day comes soon.

Chron publishes 'defense of Saddam Hussein'

It's been a while since I've publicly called anyone a worthless, low-down scumbag. I've been saving those words for Ramsey Clark:

So let me explain why defending Saddam Hussein is in line with what I've stood for all my life and why I think it's the right thing to do now.

Here's a hint: It's because Clark is a devoted anti-Bush nut with a completely whacked sense of justice. (He wants to free Saddam and put President Bush on trial.)

Both international law and the Constitution of the United States guarantee the right to effective legal representation to any person accused of a crime. This is especially important in a highly politicized situation, where truth and justice can become even harder to achieve. That's certainly the situation today in Iraq. The war has caused the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqis and the widespread destruction of civilian properties essential to life. President Bush, who initiated and oversees the war, has manifested his hatred for Saddam, publicly proclaiming that the death penalty would be appropriate. The United States, and the Bush administration in particular, engineered the demonization of Saddam, and it has a clear political interest in his conviction.

We didn't have to demonize Saddam Hussein. He already was a demon. Ramsey Clark is going to stall and obfuscate just like Slobodan Milosevic, in an attempt to free one of history's most evil men. And then, when it's all said and done, the Iraqi people will try Saddam, find him guilty, and hang him high. Despite Clark's shameless efforts, justice will be done.

Update: Qatari puts Al-Jazeera on auction block

For sale: One Islamofascist propaganda machine. Serious inquiries only.

The pressure has been so intense, a senior Qatari official said, that the government is accelerating plans to put Al Jazeera on the market, though Bush administration officials counter that a privately owned station in the region may be no better from their point of view. "We have recently added new members to the Al Jazeera editorial board, and one of their tasks is to explore the best way to sell it," said the Qatari official, who said he could be more candid about the situation if he was not identified. "We really have a headache, not just from the United States but from advertisers and from other countries as well." Asked if the sale might dilute Al Jazeera's content, the official said, "I hope not."

The official then ran off to dig up some more Osama Bin Laden tapes to beam around the Arab world. Update: JihadTV just might be a good investment. The Arab satellite channel is right up there with Starbucks in brand impact. Great.

[Update hat-tip: Little Green Footballs]

British playwright rips Texas as 'Third World'

Nearly every time I read the Houston Press, I come across something that makes steam shoot out of my ears. This time was no different:

Award-winning British playwright Kay Adshead has a new production on London's equivalent of Broadway that features, among other locales, a postapocalyptic Houston. Before the premiere, she wrote a piece for The Guardian about her three years in a Midtown condo here, saying, "More than once we have traveled on the bus as virtually the only non-amputees on board." Also, oddly enough, "Sexual tension buzzes around Houston with the mosquitoes."

Houston "was not at all what I was expecting...I was expecting a kind of city or state on the cutting edge of technology. I was imagining great prosperity," she says. "And I found Texas a kind of Third World country, really."

This is a town that routinely dispatches men into outer space, and it's where the finest doctors cure the uncurable. It's home to massively successful businesses -- from energy to airlines to computers, but it's still a town where people can live big on the cheap. I guess that's Third World Class.

Archbishop consecrates site for new cathedral

The construction of a new cathedral is long overdue for Houston's Catholics:

Despite overcast skies and chilling winds, more than 1,200 Roman Catholic clergy and laity turned out Sunday to celebrate a ground blessing for a new $32 million cathedral for the Archdiocese of Galveston-Houston. The event was celebrated with choirs, a brass ensemble and a colorful procession of robed clergy, altar servers and teens carrying banners. Work is scheduled to begin immediately on the 1,820-seat cathedral, with completion in 28 months. "I am so grateful that so many of you are here to ask God, with me, to place his particular blessing upon this square block upon which will be built the Co-Cathedral of the Sacred Heart," Archbishop Joseph A. Fiorenza said.

A brand-new cathedral for a brand-new archdiocese. Sounds good to me!