Tilikum was likely "playing" ... and the accident, although tragic, but was the inevitable culmination of Dawn Brancheau's beautiful life!

Tilikum should certainly not be "put down" as we do with so many of God's creatures from unborn fetuses to civilian non-combatants in Afghanistan

Dawn Brancheau, the whale trainer who died on Wednesday, was from all accounts an amazing and loving person. She loved "her" whales and surely, would be the first to plead the case of Tilikum, the "killer" whale who grabbed her ponytails and dragged her to a drowning death on Wednesday. Returning Tilikum to an anonymous pod in the oceans--or outright killing him at SeaWorld (or elsewhere away from public scrutiny)--would add another (admittedly lesser) tragedy to the sad tragedy on Wednesday.

Save the Whales!
And while we're at it, we might question the concept of capturing and imprisoning wildlife in very cramped quarters while requiring them to play "games" and look "cute" in their cages, tanks and the center rings of various circuses worldwide.

Rahm Emanual and his "political" advice to Barack Obama wins again!

It's not that the American people -- and even small businesses -- don't see the Public Option as a "plus"

Yesterday, the White House and President Obama's most recent health care bill ideas/proposals to Congress proved my worse fears - that there was never any intention by the President (a.k.a. Rahm Emanual) to support the public option.

Yesterday's health care bill not only signals an end to the public option, but even the tiniest possibility that we will see health care costs go down for (1) those who have no health care insurance, (2) those who have insufficient health care insurance and (3) those who have what appears (today) to be marginally sufficient health care insurance.

Good work, Rahm! You've moved Barack Obama to putting politics and the belief that decimating the health care reforms will get "something" passed over the desires of the American people once again.

I thought we were through with Dick Cheney's grandiose advice in the Oval Office when George W. Bush handed over the keys to the private Oval Office latrine to Barack Obama more than a year ago.

Barack: Consider presenting the Public Option to the American people before Thursday and in the spirit of bipartisanship, donate Rahm Emanual to Rush Limbaugh's, Bill O'Reilly's and Sean Hannity's advisory staffs.

Tiger Woods Likely to Apologize on Friday ,,, and from There, Who Knows?

Is my One-time All-time Sports Hero Tiger Woods Returning? Or Simply Limping into a Corner in the Back of the Classroom?

Timing is everything.

Well, not really ... SINCERITY is everything! As someone said on TV this evening, his climb back to the summit of Mount Integrity may be beyond his greatest feats on the golf course ... and probably impossible this side of his (and all of our) Judgement after the Final Resurrection.

But there is good news! Christ's forgiveness given on the cross 2000 years ago ... is available to us all, thanks be to God!

Just ask someone who's been there (not the Resurrection quite yet, but the pit of sin's deep abyss) and believes ... today!

Valentine's Day Greeting from our Top Commander: "Off to a good start!" --- Except for the 12 civilians from 1 family who were accidentally killed!

US Marines Entering Marjah in the Helmand Province of Afghanistan

NATO rockets killed 12 Afghan civilians on Sunday (Valentine's Day) ... and the second day of an offensive designed to impose Afghan government authority on one of the last big (where have I heard that before?) Taliban strongholds in the country's Helmand province.

From what we've been told, the dead were all members of the same family--probably scared to death of the horrendous noise of war--while hunkering down in their own home.

How many more, Mr. President, before we've avenged the attacks on 9-11? No one wants peace in the world more than I do, sir, but after losing more of our own military in Iraq and Afghanistan since 9-11 than the total number of our own who were killed on 9-11, I'd say we've gotten "even" by this time ...

Is Osama bin Laden in Marjah? Somehow, I doubt it ... anymore than Al-Quaida was in Iraq until after we invaded it during "Shock and Awe."

I say that it's time to quit!

How long after the Vietnam fiasco were we back stocking our shelves at WalMart with goods labeled "Made in Vietnam"? We sure got "even" for that Gulf of Tonkin incident [sic], didn't we? We still haven't counted all the US Marines, Army, Navy and Air Force personnel who were lost during that holocaust, have we? I've heard numbers between 58,000 and 60,000 and as for the number of Vietnamese who were killed ... we'll never know!

Can a Gorgeous Smile, Curvatious Body and Empty Head be Harmful to Our Country? In Her Own Words, "You Betcha!"

Former Governor of Alaska and Would-You-Believe, Vice Presidential Candidate, Sarah (Aw shucks!) Palin at the "Tea Party"

Sarah Palin delivered the keynote speech at the first--and hopefully, the last--National Tea Party Convention.

Listening to her speech (Golly gee and Tennessee!) at about midnight last evening after I returned from a shopping jaunt to Olympia, I was awed by both her good looks (sorry, but I’m human and 75 years old) and the seamlessness of all that I heard during CNN’s interviews with attendees last evening (Friday night here in Seattle) and her stunning (it really was!) ability to pop out red-meat (new buzzword) talking points for nearly every racist teabagger in the crowd earlier this evening.

Democrats and Liberals be hanged (well, she would say “hung,” of course!) and may the Republican Party plow ahead with her memorable words, “How's that hopey changey thing workin' out for ya?”

“The government that governs less, governs best!” she said at one point and my mind immediately raced back to the imagery of George Bush praising his man on-the-spot, Brownie after New Orleans had sunk under water—or the TV scenes of George Bush reading to children for an additional 15 minutes after he heard that terrorists were attacking New York City—and later, the Pentagon—on 9-11-2001. And even after that, where was our leader as he was racing about in the air for much of that same afternoon? How about ZERO GOVERNMENT, Sarah?

Yeh right, Sarah … you might have done well not to have ranted about terrorism for the larger part of your talk—only managing to stuff even more foolish gibberish, hate and anxiety in the hearts of the less educated folksy-wolksies who listened to your speech while goggling at your (admittedly nice) crossed legs.

After it was over (whew!), Bob Shrum perhaps summed it up best: "More masterful exercise - masterful, in paranoid politics. She came across to me as a merchant of hate with an ‘oh gosh’ smile."

I also happened to notice the racial mix of the attendees. Isn't there a single African American in Memphis?

When answering the question "how do you see the future of the Tea Party movement?" Palin responded "this is the future of the country."

As my brother, Richard said when he first looked into my shabby house seventeen months ago, I can only think those same words:

“OH MY GOD!!”

In Answer to Serenissima's Comment!