Rubbing the Baptists' Fur

"I'm appalled that the Bush-Cheney campaign would intrude on a local congregation in this way," said Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

"The bottom line is, when a church does it, it's nonpartisan and appropriate. When a campaign does it, it's partisan and inappropriate," he said. "I suspect that this will rub a lot of pastors' fur the wrong way."

A Down Under View of Ground Zero

Groundbreakings, opening ceremonies, and certainly July 4th are all causes for celebration, but the Freedom Tower may be a signal that something much more sinister is afoot. For more than a century there has been a correlation between the building of the world’s tallest building and severe economic downturns.

The correlation is as follows. The announcement and groundbreaking for the world’s tallest building takes place at the end of a long boom or sustained bubble in the economy. The stocks go into a bear market; the economy goes into recession or worse. The building is completed. The economic turmoil that ensues is either severe, drawn out, or as in the case of the Great Depression, both.

Black Widow, Mustard Yellow

When she started beating the 300-pound and 400-pound men who had dominated previous events, "at first they were so surprised. They feel like they lose their pride. ... Now they know me."

Highly competitive, she did not like being underestimated and dubbed herself "The Black Widow," a kind of spider that gets its common name from the popular belief that the female devours the male after mating.

"In golf, in the other sports, the women have been trying to beat the men, but they haven't been able," she said. "I'm going to try to do it for the women. ... I really want to bring the Mustard Yellow Belt (awarded to the winner of Sunday's contest) back to America."