I'm posting at PantsDailyOn.com now (not that I'm posting more there, but when I do post, it'll be there).

The L.A. Fishwrapper Times goes all positive on Christianity.  It seems a whole lotta Black actors have gotten together on a dramatized version of the Bible.  Sounds like it could be pretty good, if they stick closely to their source material.  

    Last January, in the parking lot of the West Angeles Church of 
    God in Christ, Robi Reed had a moment that propelled her career 
    toward evangelism.

    After the Sunday service, Reed, a veteran casting director whose 
    credits include "Antwone Fisher" and "Malcolm X," walked up to 
    fellow churchgoer Denzel Washington and asked after his family. 
    The longtime friends exchanged pleasantries until Reed casually 
    mentioned her latest project. "I'm producing and casting an audio 
    Bible with an African American cast. It's the Old and New Testaments."
    Reed remembers that Washington interrupted her, saying, "I have 
    to do it."

Started with a couple of people getting together after church.  Sounds like a promising start.

    Washington was the first A-list star of more than 200 celebrities—
    including Samuel L. Jackson as God, Angela Bassett as Esther, 
    Blair Underwood as Jesus and Cuba Gooding Jr. as Judas

Samuel l. Jackson is great and all, but couldn't they have gotten James Earl Jones for that part?

    Reed was grateful when some cast members confided that they 
    had longed for a faith-based project. She didn't just hear it from 
    gospel stars such as Kirk Franklin and Shirley Caesar; she heard it 
    from rappers Faith Evans and Heavy D., and actor Cuba Gooding Jr. 
    She marvels, "Cuba has a strong love for God. I had no idea." At 
    the end of his recording session, he opened up. "He said, 'God is 
    everything. He's the reason I'm here, the reason I have my life, 
    my career.' "

When doing a dramatization of a Bible story (let alone the whole Bible), I think it's good to have faithful Christians involved.  Otherwise you end up with Noah's Ark.

    During a 40-minute telephone chat, words pour from the Oscar 
    nominee (Angela Bassett) as she explains that taking on the role 
    of Esther for "The Bible Experience" was an easy choice.

Esther, a young virgin, played by a 48 year old?  Eh, I suppose...the voice of ten year old Bart Simpson is provided by a 49 year old (as of tomorrow) actress.  Doesn't matter so much when it's just voice work.

    And if there ever is a film version, she'll be the first in line.

Er, now we have a problem.  Maybe she should shoot for the role of Vashti.

    In 1992, he (Blair Underwood) directed, executive produced, co-wrote 
    and starred as Jesus in "The Second Coming," a short film in which 
    Christ comes back to earth as a man of color. Fourteen years later, 
    he says, "The Bible Experience" allowed him to portray Jesus as a 
    man rather than a deity.

"A man rather than a deity"?  I'm starting to think I'm not gonna want to buy this.

    Like Bassett, Underwood attends church regularly, but his is a more 
    private spirituality. He wants to understand what Jesus meant and 
    to learn how the Bible applies to his life without getting bogged down 
    in dogma. "I think religion can be very divisive," he says. 

    As an adult, (Tisha) Campbell-Martin (who narrates the part of Mary 
    Magdalene) says, she's determined to weave aspects of many faiths 
    into her life. She's building her dream home with a prayer room that 
    overlooks a garden. It will have an altar, pillows on the floor, fresh 
    flowers and loads of reading material. "I have the Torah here. I have 
    the Bible. I have Buddhist books. The underlying message is love and 
    understanding yourself and being awakened by your own spirituality."

They said there are over 300 artists involved.  I wonder what percentage of them were actual Christians.  If too many are like these two, I sense another Noah's Ark.  If they have Judas palling around with Esau, I'll be howling.

From the L.A. Fishwrapper Times:

    The aide was identified by other congressional officials as
    Larry Hanauer. The officials, who spoke on condition of 
    anonymity because of a pending investigation into the leak, 
    said Hanauer had held positions with the departments of 
    Defense and Homeland Security before joining the professional 
    staff of Democrats on the House intelligence panel about two 
    years ago.

Of course, this wasn't the first (alleged) leak of intelligence coming from a Democratic operative and probably won't be the last.  I guess faced with the choice between having intelligence and leaking it, the Dems have chosen the latter.

Mama Sheehan will have to wait until next year for her chance at the Nobel Peace Prize.  Oddly, I'm having trouble finding the anti-American messages of the Nobel winners for peace or literature this year.  Maybe next year? 

Actually, it looks like even the illegals we've already got (some 12-30 million, depending on who's doing the estimating) don't want to the do the jobs Americans don't want to do.

    Farmers of all types of specialty crops, from almonds to 
    roses, have seen the immigrant labor supply they depend 
    on dry up over the past year. Increased border security 
    and competition from other industries are driving migrant 
    laborers out of the fields, farmers say.

Hugh Hewitt interviewed Bob Woodward's former coworker Thomas Edsall yesterday and, among other things, hammered Edsall on Woodward's credibility.  When asked about Woodward conducting an interview with a deceased Bill Casey, Edsall proposed the following:

    Thomas Edsall: Yeah, but let me explain...say
    something. I think Bob Woodward may well have gone
    into the hotel room. He leans over the bed to try to
    say something to this body that's there. He leans on
    the chest as he asked this question of whatever it
    was. And when a body is like that, out comes air. and
    he goes (groan). And when Woodward hears that, because
    that's what he wants to hear, as the quote that he
    puts into Casey's mouth, and he may well be convinced
    that what he wrote is true.

I couldn't help but think of the scene in Princess Bride, where a "nearly dead" Westley is taken to Miracle Max for resuscitation.  Max's cure only works in cases in which there's a noble cause.  To ask the "nearly dead" Westley what his noble cause is, Max pumps air into Westley's lungs, asks the question, then presses on Westley's abdomen.  Westley's noble answer is "true love," but Max hears what he wants to hear (a la Woodward, according to Edsall's fanciful explanation:

    But that's not what he said. He distinctly said "to
    blave." And, as we all know, "to blave" means "to
    bluff." So you're probably playing cards, and he
    cheated —

Maybe Casey said "true love," too.  True love, to blave, I believe.  Yeah, that's it.

From Newsday: 

    A lower Manhattan college is investigating how a
    paperback copy of the Quran from the campus 
    library ended up in a public toilet, school officials 
    said Tuesday.

That's just wrong.  If you're gonna dump a Qu'ran in the john, it should a) be your own copy, not a library copy, and 2) you shouldn't plug up the campus plumbing...find a porta potty.

That's it, Mitch!  I've taken you off my measly blogroll.  How the heck did my moniker become offensive?  I know bloggers take pride in posting in their pajamas, but most of us have real jobs, and have to put our pants on...daily.

   Comment Submission Error

It's got to be time to stop adding teams to the American Basketball Association.  What other excuse can there be for adding a team named "Ripknees"?

    When asked about the name, Billy answered, "When I was a
    kid, My Dad used to kill time on road trips by telling us 
    "ripknee" stories. Ripknee was an imaginary hero, like 
    Underdog, who wore ripped jeans and would use his "golden 
    knee" to save the world. We all ran around with rips in our 
    jeans as kids, especially the knee, hence the name.

I wonder if they'll let me in with my Ripbackside jeans.  I did kinda fix 'em.

What a lame name.  And I'll still probably go, 'cuz I'm cheap (hence the patched jeans), and I'm thinking it'll be cheaper than a Timberwolves game.

These kids could have American celebrities naming them. 

    Kofi, Spike and Blade will be among the pupils arriving at
    primary schools in four years time, new research reveals.

I wonder how many of those Kofis were born on Friday (and I'm hoping they were all boys, since Kofi means "boy born on Friday").

    The secretary general of the United Nations, a reformed
    blood-sucker...

He isn't still...?  Nevermind.