Grant us peace in our day.

While the two men walked on farther toward Sodom, the LORD remained standing before Abraham.

Then Abraham drew nearer to him and said: "Will you sweep away the innocent with the guilty?

Suppose there were 50 innocent people in the city; would you wipe out the place, rather than spare it for the sake of the 50 innocent people within it?

Far be it from you to do such a thing, to make the innocent die with the guilty, so that the innocent and the guilty would be treated alike! Should not the judge of all the world act with justice?"

The LORD replied, "If I find 50 innocent people in the city of Sodom, I will spare the whole place for their sake."

Abraham spoke up again: "See how I am presuming to speak to my Lord, though I am but dust and ashes!

What if there are five less than 50 innocent people? Will you destroy the whole city because of those five?" "I will not destroy it," he answered, "if I find 45 there."

But Abraham persisted, saying, "What if only 40 are found there?" He replied, "I will forebear doing it for the sake of the 40."

Then he said, "Let not my Lord grow impatient if I go on. What if only 30 are found there?" He replied, "I will forebear doing it if I can find but 30 there."

Still he went on, "Since I have thus dared to speak to my Lord, what if there are no more than 20?" "I will not destroy it," he answered, "for the sake of the 20."

But he still persisted: "Please, let not my Lord grow angry if I speak up this last time. What if there are at least 10 there?" "For the sake of those 10," he replied, "I will not destroy it."

The LORD departed as soon as he had finished speaking with Abraham, and Abraham returned home.

And pretty soon

my heart was singing...
Roll, roll me away, I'm gonna roll me away tonight
gotta keep rollin, gotta keep riding,
keep searching tell I find what's right.
And as the sunset faded, I spoke to the faintest first starlight
And I said, Next time... next tiiiiiime, we'll get it RIGHT!


--Seger again.

Player(s) to watch.

Defensive end Kenechi Udeze:

Udeze's original contract has two seasons left. Yet, once the bonus money is paid, all power in the NFL goes to management. There's a sense around the Vikings that Udeze must make an impact in 2007 or he could be down the road.

Big year, sir?

"I look at as every year as a big year," he said. "That's why I work so hard in the offseason to prepare."

Udeze has such belief in his work ethic that, when the Sporting News asked him recently to name the hardest-working Viking, he chose himself. "Hey, I had to toot my own horn; I've always had to do that," he said. "I was a guy who wasn't offered a scholarship at USC right away. I had to convince them."

Receiver Troy Williamson:

"I have seen a change in his demeanor and a change in his personality," coach Brad Childress said. "He would be the first to tell you that it was rock bottom last year, but you can either stay and wallow around or you can pick yourself up and work to get better. He decided to do the latter. He is never going to be Dale Carnegie or anybody like that, but you can see his enthusiasm and his excitement because he knows he is improving as well."

...
Williamson engaged in a rare and extended banter Friday with reporters, laughing and challenging questions while at times sounding downright boastful. When a reporter noted he should be considered among the NFL's seven fastest receivers, Williamson said: "They might want to change that. It shouldn't be seven."

Williamson ran the 40-yard dash in 4.3 seconds prior to the 2005 draft. After a moment, he added: "It should be like No. 1 or 2. I'll pretty much say I can run with anybody in the league."

A reporter then asked Williamson who should be No. 1 if he is No. 2. Williamson finally cut lose. "No," he said. "I'm No. 1. You decide who No. 2 is." The speed, of course, will do Williamson little good if his eyes and hands can't catch up. There was an audible groan at Minnesota State Mankato, Friday morning when he dropped that first pass. "Big surprise," one fan shouted.

Williamson, however, was more proud of the catch he made on the next play than he was disappointed about the drop. "I might drop a ball here and there, but I want to come back and catch the next one," he said. "That's really what it's all about. ... I've got a mindset now that you've got to have a short memory. A lot of things happen in one football game.

"It's going to be a good year for me. I've got the confidence in myself that I'm going to make that happen."

True story.

Preventative maintenance: asking questions.

By Curt Brown, Anthony Lonetree and Chris Havens
Star Tribune

State investigators began weighing Friday how much a Hugo company's actions contributed to the apparent drowning of two workers during a sudden downpour that left them trapped in the labyrinth of storm sewers deep below St. Paul's streets.

City Council members called for a review of the city's sewer safety procedures to see what can be learned from the death of Dave Yasis, 23, of Maplewood, and the apparent death of Joe Harlow, 34, of Plainview, Minn.

"St. Paul is not the only city in America that has sewers," Council President Kathy Lantry said. "There is a nationwide lesson to be learned from our tragedy."

Ramsey County sheriff's deputies found the body of Yasis about 6 p.m. Friday near where the storm sewers spill into the Mississippi River, Cmdr. Joe Paget said. The sheriff's water patrol resumed searching for Harlow about 7 a.m. today.
...
Fast-rising, thigh-high, pressurized rainwater began filling the tunnel about 3:30 p.m., according to Kraft and St. Paul Public Works officials. Two workers were hoisted up a 100-foot shaft at Avon and Edmund, but rushing water prompted six others to head more than two blocks north in the tunnel to an exit near Victoria Street, Public Works spokeswoman Natalie Fedie said.

Four of those six men climbed more than 15 stories up a ladder escape, then noticed two of their co-workers were missing. Fedie said the workers, identified by relatives as Yasis and Harlow, were the last in the line of six.

Something is stirring out there... The polls show record levels of discontent. The logic for permanent engagement in the Middle East is far less cogent than it was only a year ago. And the capacity of Americans to throw their own elites overboard will be tested in the next two years.

I do not know where this is headed. A new isolationism? A new liberal hegemony? More of the same? But I have a feeling that those of us in the Beltway may be among the last to see it coming.

Remember those colorful hometown alert flags? More fear for folk

Personally, I though it all smelled a bit cheesy from the beginning...

According to the TSA bulletin, her checked bags contained two ice packs wrapped in duct tape, and filled with clay -- not the normal blue gel used to keep items cold.

Weiss, who is Jewish, was carrying a report on Muslim Americans because she works to promote interfaith understanding. Weiss said she had the ice to treat a bad back from a childhood injury.

"I was astonished when the San Diego people … had a problem with this," Weiss said, "because I have been traveling with these for 20 years and never had a problem before 9/11 and after 9/11, never had a problem."

She said the ice packs did not have duct tape, but that she had been using them for close to two decades and she used clear tape to repair holes on them. "After 15 years there were a lot of pieces of tape on my ice packs," she said.

You know, the funny thing is I suspect most people don't really understand terrorism. How it works:

Try to think like somebody who wanted to do the most with the least. They don't have to plan Attack One post-9/11 if they can get their opponent to overreact and let their simple deed throw off our gameplan.

If you have faith in the Constitution and the American people, you don't go off half-cocked and bring more troubles upon yourself than the other little guy ever could hope to inflict himself.

Because that, friends, is exactly how the post 9/11 game is being played out.

And my eyesight is still very keen.

'Cause everything you do...

Comes back in time to you:

...it seems as if the final battle between the rule of law and the Bush administration is approaching.

We have to change our fate
Before it gets too late...

Remember how long it took for those U.S. soldiers tugging on the Saddam statue to take him down? No doubt in my mind, none whatsoever, that one day Karl Rove will be brought down.

Maybe not today, maybe he'll slip out tomorrow, but in time...

Faith in your fellow man.

It has been widely reported by the AP and others that Spc. Bryan O'Neal, who was at Tillman's side as he was killed, told investigators that Tillman was waving his arms shouting "Cease fire, friendlies, I am Pat (expletive) Tillman, damn it!" again and again.

But the latest documents give a different account from a chaplain who debriefed the entire unit days after Tillman was killed.

The chaplain said that O'Neal told him he was hugging the ground at Tillman's side, "crying out to God, help us. And Tillman says to him, `Would you shut your (expletive) mouth? God's not going to help you; you need to do something for yourself, you sniveling ..."

Rare post on the ongoing war...

This is why you keep asking questions. Too many nice guys, too many jokey jokes passing, not asking themselves: What happened on your watch?

Go Tillman family.

"The medical evidence did not match up with the, with the scenario as described," a doctor who examined Tillman's body after he was killed on the battlefield in Afghanistan in 2004 told investigators.

The doctors — whose names were blacked out — said that the bullet holes were so close together that it appeared the Army Ranger was cut down by an M-16 fired from a mere 10 yards or so away.

...
In his last words moments before he was killed, Tillman snapped at a panicky comrade under fire to shut up and stop "sniveling."

Lots of dumbfucks out there.
That's why you especially hate to lose stock like Tillman.

Tillman's mother, Mary Tillman, who has long suggested that her son was deliberately killed by his comrades, said she is still looking for answers and looks forward to the congressional hearings next week.

"Nothing is going to bring Pat back. It's about justice for Pat and justice for other soldiers. The nation has been deceived," she said.

Say what you will, but she's no Cindy Sheehan this one.
Not raising those men. I don't see "shrill"in the copy...

But how will it play in Peoria?

Christians United for Israel tour.

Special appearances by Sen. Lieberman and Tom DeLay.

Fwiw, my niece really enjoyed these books:

In the Bartell household, however, Junie B. Jones continues to be girla non grata.

“But that’s O.K. I’m reading a really good book about a boy whose parents think some of his video games are inappropriate,” Mollie said. “It’s called ‘Diary of a Wimpy Kid.’ ”

Mary and Martha.

That theme week ended briefly on the Mary/Martha parable. A balance -- take the best lot and keep on learning, but help out around the household... be a good hostess when you can but don't miss the real things, isn't that's the story's worth? Since I personally lean heavier on the Mary side, it was a good time to clean the bathroom mirrors here.* More Martha. Windex vinegar=good stuff.

No windows yet though. Otherwise I'd put up a shot outside the office window here. They're open. No rain, so brown lawn as far as the eye can see. And the bugs noising all day. The trio of bunnies living around the corners under the overgrown bushes... don't tell me the weather doesn't affect us all.

My theory was sealed about 10 minutes ago when a bird bonking into the window lifted my head. Bounced right up though...

I hope we get rain soon.







------------------
*Takes a picture sometimes to notice it. :)
Happy Friday, in advance.

It takes a little time, some times...

SOFIA, Bulgaria, July 24 — After more than eight years in jail in Libya, five Bulgarian nurses and a Palestinian doctor stepped off the French presidential plane here in Bulgaria’s capital early this morning where they were greeted by crying relatives and Bulgaria’s top officials.

They were accompanied by the European Union’s foreign affairs commissioner, Benita Ferrero-Waldner, and the wife of France’s president, Cécilia Sarkozy, who had helped secure their release and had flown with the medical workers from Libya.

In a press conference at the airport terminal, standing in front of the nurses, Bulgarian foreign minister, Ivailo Kalfin, said that the Bulgarian president, Georgi Parvanov, had pardoned the medical workers, thus ending all their legal liabilities, to the emotional applause of the waiting crowd.
...

Libya’s foreign minister said that Libya and the European Union agreed to develop a “full partnership” after the release of the medical workers, with the Europeans promising help for Libyan hospitals and infrastructure.

In Brussels, the European Commission president, Jose Manuel Barroso, said today the European Union would now move to normalize trade and political ties with Libya.

“We hope to go on further normalizing our relations with Libya, our relations with Libya were in a large extent blocked by the non-settlement of this medics issue,” Mr. Barroso told reporters.

Under Pressure...

Vick Told to Stay Out of Training Camp

By DAVE GOLDBERG
AP Football Writer

NEW YORK (AP) -- Michael Vick was ordered by commissioner Roger Goodell on Monday to stay away from the Atlanta Falcons' training camp until the league reviews the dogfighting charges against him.

"While it is for the criminal justice system to determine your guilt or innocence, it is my responsibility as commissioner of the National Football League to determine whether your conduct, even if not criminal, nonetheless violated league policies, including the Personal Conduct Policy," Goodell said in a letter to the quarterback.

Hmm ... the tally board says this is my 666th post. I was watching it approach, thinking, what the heck am I gonna say for that one?

Sometimes, you just have faith ... and the material provides:

LOCAL E-MAIL STORY PRINT STORY
MON., JUL 23, 2007 - 10:13 AM
Atheist Hitchens will speak in city
DOUG ERICKSON

Not one to play it safe, the Freedom From Religion Foundation said Friday it has booked verbal bomb-throwing British-American author Christopher Hitchens as a keynote speaker for its annual convention this October in Madison.

"Whatcha dog's name?"

Digger! (c'mon. I can't be the only one with that Fisher Price commercial still stuck in the craw.)

Now this one...


she was no digger. A mouser, maybe. She could sniff out the trunks in the woods nestling field mice, and maybe she'd get one -- in her prime -- before they scattered under fallen leaves. We also had a live-trap for mice in the garage.

That was the sporting chance they were afforded: you opened the box with her a few feet away, giving them a chance to run. Lots of times, they made it. And no. You wouldn't see the same mouse back in the box twice.

But that was her feral side. Mostly, she was a lap dog:
Runt of the litter, lab/collie mix, seventh-grade confirmation gift to me from my cousin-sponsor, who had a place up in Spooner. So a country dog, perfect size for our household. Mine, but truth be told, she was my parents' dog, who kept her when I went off to college and beyond. She's buried by the side of the house now, nine or ten years gone.

Because she was trained right -- by us, no paid training -- she could go off leash without taking off (it amazes me how many dogs do that), and would chase the ball down the driveway right up to the sidewalk but come to a dead stop before entering the street. At the end, my parents took her in to be put down -- it was time, I think she was almost 19. Dry food, lots of long walks, inside attention.

If you've had a dog like that, you don't forget her. That's why Michael Vick's alleged crimes are drawing such outrage in what can often be an outrageously cruel world.

"Nothing specific to Vick, just in general, dogfighting is flat-out wrong. Period. Regardless of who it is and who's involved," said Robert Ferguson, Green Bay Packers' veteran wide receiver. "That's cut-and-dried, black-and-white. It's against the law. It's what every civilized person in America should think about. If I could bring you some pictures of dogs who've been in dogfights, you'd understand.

"Anytime you get a high-profile guy like (Vick) involved in something as serious as dogfighting, of course it's going to heighten the awareness."

Ferguson said he has always had neighbors in his Green Bay-area subdivision ask about his pit bulls and whether they were dangerous. He believes the breed is unfairly singled out as being aggressive and mean, and he hopes in the wake of the Vick case, people blame the men who trained the dogs rather than the dogs themselves.

"People way up here in Green Bay are now thinking because it's a pit bull, because Michael Vick's name is involved, that they're fighting dogs," Ferguson said. "I have to explain to them, it's not the breed of dogs that fight, it's the people.

"Anyone in my neighborhood will tell you - the only thing my dogs will do is lick you to death. I walk 'em every day and they're social. They're like any other dog. I think any dog will bite. Not just a pit bull, any dog. A labrador will bite you. A chihuahua, a little Taco Bell dog, will bite you. It's the way you bring a dog up and how you raise him."

New life... revisited.

Remember this one? Seen again here?

Bloom where you are planted, drink in the sunshine (and mineral-rich well water), and all that...

Here they are today:

In your time, the innocence will fall away.
In your time, the mission bells will toll.
All along, the corridors and river beds...
There'll be signs, in your time.

Towering waves will crash across your southern capes
Massive storms will reach your eastern shores
Fields of green will tumble through your summer days
By design, in your time.

Feel the wind, and set yourself the bolder course
Keep your heart, as open as a shrine
You'll sail the perfect line.

And after all the dead ends and the lessons learned
After all, the stars have turned to stone...
There'll be peace across the great unbroken void
All benign, in your time.
You'll be fine,
In your time.




~Bob Seger
----------------------------

Just as with nations, so it is with individuals as well: it is possible to become overcome by alien powers, to feel as if one is ruled by an occupying force. The powers of cynicism and despair are real. They do not disappear at a command or by putting on a cheery face of optimism. Both Jesus and Dr. King knew this because neither of them were strangers to cynicism and despair. But Jesus gave us these two splendid images for hope: the mustard seed and the leaven in the loaf. I believe he knew, and wanted us to know that hope does not need to look on the bright side of things to be powerful and effective.

All hope requires is the recognition that something somewhere within us, or within our world is growing quietly, imperceptibly, is germinating. We may not yet have the eyes to recognize it. We may yet feel occupied by an alien power. Yet we trust that it is there, that it is growing, and that it is transforming us from within. Therefore, let us be alive and pregnant with hope. And let us wait for the new that is already happening with great patience and great attentiveness and anticipation. For that is the kingdom of heaven that Jesus said is already at work within you.

Let us pray: Grant us grace, O God, to wait patiently for the new within ourselves, within our world, that is already at work transforming and renewing. And grant us the courage to help bring it to birth when the time is ripe. Amen.

-----------------

*Please call upon your powers of imagination this week to expand understanding beyond the literal. No, no "Bong hits 4 Jesus" message here. Just working with some rich story material, and my boss tells me we're going with a theme week on the blog. Gotta listen to the boss, afterall. (But remember, points off for literal readings.)

And happy Monday all.
Friday'll be here before you know it................

"And who is my neighbor?"

The neighbor is the one who shows mercy. The answer found in the story is not how to know your neighbor, but how to become one.

RIP.

The way we worship booze abuse in this town, it's sad. Not that consuming excessive amounts of alcohol impairs judgment or leaves a trail of vulnerables in its wake. Nope. Can't address that while the good times are rolling, and the bar registers are ca-chinging.

Let me be so PC then as to say I personally think when they get the perpetrator here, alcohol should be charged as an accomplice in this crime. Even without knowing all the details, I don't think it would have happened had she been cold sober. Not blaming the dead victim, just acknowledging

So many of the incidental connections to alchol and crime we sweep under the rug: It's legal; what can you do? Shame more of the mature, responsible drinkers go along with the drink glamour and cheerleading, instead of just keeping quiet and enjoying their simple, mature pleasures without hype.

Just say no to glamorizing the Boozy Excesses Lifestyle: How to Save a Life

Friday funnies.

Eugene Volokh of UCLA Law wonders online about the sexual orientation of those law review citations. Are lesbians over-represented in 2 of 6 women; and hey, why are so many of them found in the sports world anyway?

Lesbians are also often said to be overrepresented in other fields (chiefly athletic, in my experience, though not only that)...

Hmm... now he's got me wondering about his experience. Luckily, a helpful commenter steps up to set Eugene straight:

This leads to the conclusion that your data is not suggestive of anything, and that as a matter of statistics this would be proven as your sample size increased.

I can't tell that if that's a sample size joke or not: If you're serious, come back and let's talk when your numbers have grown a bit bigger.

There was no indication about why the pope felt it necessary to release the document, particularly since his 2000 document summed up the same principles. Some analysts suggested it could be a question of internal church politics, or that it could simply be an indication of Benedict using his office as pope to again stress key doctrinal issues from his time at the congregation.

I'm opining that he's just a John Roberts fan, similarly taking back the helm and setting sight on a more familiar point. No need for a 5-4 vote here:

It was the second time in a week the pope has corrected what he says are erroneous interpretations of the Second Vatican Council, the 1962-65 meetings that modernized the church.
...
Benedict, who attended Vatican II as a young theologian, has long complained about what he considers the erroneous interpretation of the council by liberals, saying it was not a break from the past but rather a renewal of church tradition.

In the latest document — formulated as five questions and answers — the Vatican seeks to set the record straight on Vatican II's ecumenical intent, saying some contemporary theological interpretation had been "erroneous or ambiguous" and had prompted confusion and doubt.

YAY. We're still winning!*

"I ask you this question: If America is going in the wrong direction, where is the rest of the world going? Where is Russia going? Where is England going? Where is France going? Where is Africa going? If we are going in the wrong direction, the rest of the world is falling off a cliff."

----------

Here's yesterday's NYTimes story on Mr. Guiliani's weekend trip to Daytona:

"This is my first live Nascar event,” he told the crowd.

When he was mayor, Mr. Giuliani was not shy about indulging in such New York treats as the opera or expensive Italian restaurants. But he now finds himself on different terrain as he runs for president, and so he has started educating himself on the sport that claims some 75 million fans who skew distinctly Republican. To that end, he told reporters that he had just finished reading “The Female Fan Guide to Motorsports.”

“This is embarrassing,” Mr. Giuliani said.

The book was given to him by the author, Betsy Berns, a Giuliani fund-raiser, perhaps with the hope that the man who had once playfully dressed in women’s clothes for a campy skit might be comfortable with a Nascar tutorial for the ladies. Mr. Giuliani also had his wife, Judith, there to give him pointers. Mrs. Giuliani grew up near a track in Pennsylvania, and she said she had been to her fair share of races.

Mr. Giuliani seemed to strike a chord with the crowd. As the couple made their way around Daytona International Speedway, looking at cars and talking with drivers and fans, they were greeted with shouts of “Rudy!” Of course, as one fan said, Rudy is a fun name to yell after a few beers.

"Grace is Easier than Brute Force"
to get the puck past your opponent:

If you're not familiar with underwater hockey, you might have a few questions. Like, do the players wear pads? And if so, where? The answers are swimming around this weekend at the University of Minnesota Aquatic Center, where 20 club teams from around the country are taking part in the national underwater hockey tournament. This is not the usual way the State of Hockey plays its game.
...
Unless a lot of glass swimming pools are specially built, underwater hockey might not have much of a future as a spectator sport -- most of the action occurs on the bottom.

But clearer views are available. Ben Erickson, organizer of the local Minnesota Loons club and the tournament's director, pointed out the three underwater cameras and the digital video recording area under the empty grandstand. Feed from the cameras was also being shown on a large full-color screen.

The game itself is low-tech: Six players from each team scramble for the puck and try to slide it into goals placed on the pool's bottom. Referees wearing orange vests float above the play and signal to a land-based ref if something egregious happens, such as aiming the puck at someone or, Erickson jokes, the placing of a finger in a snorkel.

"We Gotta Do What the Authorities Say"
By Chris Riemenschneider, Star Tribune

Apparently, even Prince isn't enough of a king in Minneapolis to bend the laws. The rock legend's much-anticipated return to First Avenue nightclub was unplugged by police early this morning after it went almost an hour past the required 3 a.m. closing time.

"We gotta do what the authorities say," Prince told the sold-out crowd, which waited around until 2:45 a.m. for the singer to take the stage where he filmed his 1984 film "Purple Rain." It was his first performance there since 1987, and it was cut short at just over an hour.

Minneapolis Police Sgt. E.T. Nelson, who watched from across the street as fans filed out of the club, pointed to the many officers working overtime due to the event. More than 20 officers, including four on horseback, had worked to block off the streets surrounding the club and Target Center, the site of his sold-out concert a few hours earlier.

"I think it's very arrogant of him to think he can hold us here like this," said Nelson, who did not believe an exception should be made for the homegrown Rock and Roll Hall of Famer. "The law is the law for anybody."

...
First Avenue has a late-night permit with the city, which is given to some clubs to stay open till 3 a.m. as long as they stop serving liquor at 2 a.m. There is a chance the venue will be fined for going overtime, Nelson said. However, that was the only incident from any of the three Prince events, he added.

"The crowd has not presented us with any problems," Nelson said, "and neither has First Avenue -- other than the fact that it should have closed at 3."

Cause you know you got it...

We'd be remiss here at Subsumed without noting the recent Wimbledon accomplishment of -- and shouting out a hearty congrats to -- Center Court Lady Venus Williams. I love strong women. Winners too.

Williams, 27, joined the company of Martina Navratilova, Steffi Graf and Billie Jean King as the only players in the Open era since 1968 to win at least four Wimbledon titles after a 6-4, 6-1 triumph over Marion Bartoli. The six-time Grand Slam champion from Palm Beach Gardens committed just 12 unforced errors against 29 winners in an hour and 30 minutes. She became the lowest ranked player, at No. 31, to win the world’s most prestigious tennis tournament after sitting out several months with a left wrist injury.

Dating myself, but while I don't remember the Chris-and-Jimmy tennis days, I do remember America worshipping, in a sweet way, Chris Evert Lloyd. My friend Tonya played tennis. Her family was into the game during the years of the two women's "rivalry" where their records were about evenly matched for a time with Martina's game eventually coming to dominate. We liked Chris Evert and her classy cuteness, but you couldn't deny early Martina Navratilova's skills and serves. She was the better. When you shut off the t.v. and went out to play your own game, it was Martina you wanted to be. Her game was just more solid in the clutch -- on the court, rather -- when that frustration wasn't on display.

Now you look at this Venus. Her build, her game. And young. Been down so she's probably not taking any Grand Slam wins as fluke, not that she ever did but you know how it is when you're young...

Enough looking back. But don't you wish that more young American women either played tennis, or hung out with friends that did, so they could be following Venus Williams the way we did Chris Evert and Martina Navratilova? Family career management issues aside, it would be nice to hear more about her than Paris Hilton, and the young movie star and singer gals.

WIMBLEDON, England — It was more than appropriate that Venus Williams won the first women’s prize money equal to men’s at Wimbledon, $1.4 million. No active player took on a more prominent role to help bring it about.

Venus kept up the pressure in press conferences here last year and wrote guest editorials. She thanked the All-England Club, along with pioneer Billie Jean King, after winning her fourth Wimbledon title today.

-----------------------
I just really love this quote:

Undercover for much of the past two years with injuries, No. 31 Venus reemerged from Palm Beach Gardens serving thunderballs to become the lowest-ranked Wimbledon champion since computer rankings began in 1975.

"I feel fantastic," Williams said. "My sixth Slam. I want some more."

Remember Martina's career record though... Number 9, number nine:

Today, Navratilova made history when she became the first player to win nine Wimbledons. Hitting 32 winners and committing just nine unforced errors, Navratilova rolled to a 6-4, 6-1 victory in the final over Zina Garrison, who had upset Graf in the semis.

"I knew I had one more in me," said the 33-year-old Navratilova. "There were no glitches this time. Everything came up nines." The victory improved her Wimbledon singles record to 99-9.

Here's what Navratilova said of Williams after the win:

"With her reach, I'm glad I never had to play her. She's too long."

At 6-feet-1, Venus towered over the 5-6 Bartoli, who was playing in her first major final.

-------------
Best, it sounds like everybody had fun playing the game.

Perhaps because the sun finally emerged from the clouds and the temperature was suddenly in the 70s -- ball kids held umbrellas at changeovers to provide shade -- both finalists needed medical timeouts with Williams up 3-0 in the second set.

Bartoli had her left foot treated, while Williams got down on the court to have her left leg worked on. The American played the rest of the way with a thick bandage under her white spandex shorts, which she began wearing in the second round because the skirt she planned to use was too big.

"She's a fighter," said her boyfriend, golfer Hank Kuehne. "She's one of those people that definitely has the ability to elevate her game. ... If that's on one leg, then she's going to do that."

As the break stretched to 10 minutes, Bartoli went to the baseline, then noticed that bored fans were doing the wave. Clearly enjoying her first Grand Slam final, she joined right along, raising her arms.

After the next point, a fan shouted, "Come on, Tim!" -- the familiar rallying cry for Tim Henman -- and Bartoli, who was about to serve, dropped her arms to her side and laughed. Then she turned and wagged a finger.

Holiday Sunday lyrics:

I have seen him in the watchfires
of a hundred circling camps,
they have builded him an altar
in the evening dews and damps;
I can read his righteous sentence
by the dim and flaring lamps;
his day is marching on.

Connecting Dots... Compare and Contrast.

More than 10 percent of the land included within the official jurisdiction of the settlements is owned privately by Palestinians, as is 70 percent of the land the settlements control outside their official boundaries, said the report, whose findings were published today in the Haaretz newspaper.

According to Dror Etkes, who prepared the report with Hagit Ofran of Peace Now, the official data show how the government has taken West Bank land beyond the needs of the settlements in order to prevent Palestinian construction there and to add a zone of separation between the settlers and the Palestinians.

But once an area is closed to Palestinians, settlers have seized adjacent Palestinian lands, often privately owned, without being stopped by the army, which is the legal sovereign in the occupied territories.

“There is a pattern of a failure to enforce the law on the settlers,” Mr. Etkes asserted. “But the lack of enforcement isn’t an accident. It became another tool to achieve the military goals of the occupation, which is to allocate the land and hold it.”

Say I wonder if the Palestinians have practical legal standing to pursue their grievances... kidding.* An attempt at timely legal humor.
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In other news,

Today the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit held that none of the plaintiffs in American Civil Liberties Union v. National Security Agency have standing to challenge the program and dismissed the case. Judge Batchelder wrote the opinion for the court. Judge Gibbons delivered a separate concurring opinion, and Judge Gilman dissented. I can virtually guarantee that this is not the last we have heard of this case.

Acknowledging, of course, that the American legal system and the Israeli legal system vary in their protections and thus their strategies in pursuing terrorist suspects. So no assassinations from the air here. Personally, never did think that was a successful strategy worth pursuing. If you want chaos to reign, sure. But at some point in time, you look around and wonder where the opposing leaders are for you to negotiate with... and then you remember the assassinations from above, no trials -- ticking time bombs all.

Related news of "skirmishes" today:

In the fighting, Imad Ghanem, a cameraman from Hamas’s television station, Al Aksa, was wounded, and then shot at least twice in the legs as he lay sprawled on the ground. His legs were later amputated in the hospital and he is in critical condition.

Maj. Avital Leibovich, an army spokeswoman, said today that “many times Hamas takes militants with them and gives them cameras, like this person, who is not in our perspective a regular journalist, but a militant like the others.” She said he wore no vest identifying him as a journalist, and that at other times, such cameramen have also been armed and used their weapons. She said that in the gunfire, “it was not clear who shot” Mr. Ghanem in the legs.

The International Federation of Journalists today condemned the shooting. “This is a vicious and brutal example of deliberate targeting of a journalist,” said Aidan White, the group’s general-secretary. “The Israeli authorities must investigate this case and bring to justice those responsible.” Mr. White added: “This man was carrying a camera, not a gun. He was no threat to Israeli forces.”

Major Leibovich said that no investigation had been ordered.

Maybe legal protections, not playing politics with justice, are worth a little something after all? The warriors already know how mixing politics with their trade doesn't help the cause -- the backside to that "United We Stand" jingo. Now it appears (to be) justice's time on trial...

Back to the news in America today:

Judge Batchelder's opinion goes through the complaint claim-by-claim, explaining her reasons why the plaintiffs either lacked standing for each claim in light of this alleged injury or why the plaintiffs lost on the merits (or both). I am no expert in standing doctrine, but based on my quick read I tend to think this was the right approach and that the result seems correct.

Judge Gibbons' opinion argues the standing issue more broadly, reaching the same result as Judge Batchelder. Judge Gilman dissented, arguing that the attorney-plaintiffs had alleged sufficient harm to have standing. Judge Gilman then reaches the merits of the case, concluding that "the Bush Administration's so-called 'Terrorist Surveillance Program'" violates FISA and rejecting the "inherent authority" claim.

(Oh, and in case you're wondering at home, yes, the four opinions issued in this case do neatly match a political narrative. Judges Batchelder and Gibbons were appointed by Republicans, Bush Sr. and Bush Jr, respectively; Judges Gilman and Taylor were appointed by Democrats, Clinton and Carter.)

The trouble with mixing justice and politics: you never know when they're deciding on the merits or if they're taking care of their own. Lots of the latter going around, and while it might be a family value today, it doesn't really help anyone down the line when they get that "Over-Rated" chant going... You want performance, "who's your daddy?" doesn't cut it out there. Even if your daddy's somebody today. Isn't that the crux of the country's troubles now -- too much cronyism, not much efficiency or effectiveness? And forward looking? Nevermind gas or growth in the Pacific Rim, how's your water supply being managed where you're at? That's the key to life right there, folks.
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*Thanks to those who would point me to previous Israeli Court rulings on the legality of the barrier fence being constructed in certain areas. Familiar with those. Just not the kind who gets too excited about a score or two when the game's still being played and it looks like a one-sided blowout, for whatever reason. The quality of the game suffers. And there's nothing sadder than finding out you're over-rated, especially during the big game. Too late then.

A picture.

Worth 1,000 words...
but only half the story.


I think sometimes when the technology's exceptionally good, we tend to forget that last bit. Seeing what's not there, or missing what's right out of camera range. For the record, our site was nearby, complete with a well fed fire. And coffee.

Morning mist,
Namekagon River.
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