I think the “topic posts” might be easier.  I can do them throughout the day and not spend forever at it.  The Thursday Thirteen is up, as is today’s Wednesday’s Hero.  Lindsey is in Iraq, so please remember him in your prayers with the other brave heroes who are protecting our freedom.  My mother is down with some nasty bug.  Maggie & Raymond came today and helped me unload the boxes of antiques, and goodies shipped back from everywhere.  I am still awaiting one more box.  Maggie’s gift is in it.  The great thing is I FINALLY finished tidying up the last of the renovation.  IT IS DONE, FINISHED, CAPUT.  OVER. CLEAN!  (for awhile).  I moved the Levenger Book Buggy into the entry library and left the old director’s chair in the dining room where Josie put it when Mike brought in that 70lb box of glassware.  The chair actually looks good in the dining room, so there it stays.  It makes the entry library “finished” and un-cluttered.  Besides, the Book Buggy obscures the litter box!  I have maybe 2 more ‘piles’ of stuff to sort through on the dining room table and I’m completely finished with all my summer work!

Last night Rumsfeld ratted out Bat (BRAT) Masterson who was sitting on my 18 year old asparagus fern, perched like a bird hatching an egg.  That was one annoyed cat when I made him move.  Rumsfeld went to the poodle parlor today.  Then, I discovered at least 2 three months old kittens in the carport.  They are going to stay in the carport!

A MINI RANT
These past two days have given us all ample proof “Conservatives” are out of control and have nothing to do with Reagan’s version of conservatives. Anti-immigration conservatives are also shameless, disgusting, and have no moral conscience.  After ignoring the atrocious murders in Newark, they pounced like vultures in a feeding frenzy after learning the perps were illegal.  There is this huge outrage over the judge releasing an illegal on bond.  BUT they are perfectly happy with the Border Patrol allowing an indicted murder to continue to work.  Funny how these things work.   Let’s have a little consistency.  They are also IGNORING the story of a “Legal” Canadian immigrant who molested a 10 year old little boy for 2 years.  I guess because the pedophile is WHITE and CANADIAN it’s okay.  I don’t know about you, but these people are starting to disgust me.

The idiots at National Review  are so against Lindsey they are now making fun of him for wearing a side arm while serving ACTIVE DUTY in Iraq.  It’s a war zone STUPID.  Soldiers wear guns.  Thanks to Palmetto Scoop for the ‘scoop’ on the story.

Will some of Romney’s investments come back to haunt him?  Same thing holds true with some of Thompson’s lobby efforts.

If Immigration is such a big deal in SC, why did so few show up at a town meeting the other night?

Is Romney taking his immigration cues from Pat Buchanan?

Ages ago I told you the GOP in Colorado is in trouble.  Liz Mair has more today.

Why is a border agent who is charged with murder still on the job?
“…Nicholas Corbett is charged with slaying an illegal immigrant on January 12th by shooting him. The Border Patrol says it's normal to keep an accused offender on duty while awaiting trial.  A Tucson lawyer who has defended Border Patrol agents, however, says that's not the case. Several Arizona law enforcement agencies say they either fire officers accused of felonies or immediately place them on leave….”

How Chuck Schumer and his Dem cohorts could kill the fashion industry!
“…The result is the fashion industry's most sacred concept: the trend. Copying makes trends, and trends are what sell fashion. …

By allowing the copying of attractive designs, current law fits well with the industry's basic mission--to set new fashion trends and then convince us to chase them. …This, in turn, makes the early adopters want a new style, because nothing is less attractive than seeing your carefully chosen clothes on the backs of the hoi polloi. In short, copying is the engine that drives the fashion cycle.

Schumer's bill would kill that engine. …

 To understand exactly how the Schumer bill would affect fashion innovation, it helps to review one basic point about copyright law: It does not simply prohibit "exact" copies. Rather, copyright law makes unlawful any use of a copyrighted work that results in a new work that is "substantially similar" to the old. And the standard for substantial similarity is quite low--over many years, in a large number of cases, federal courts have found copyright infringement in the case of books, photographs, music, and other media where no one would mistake the second work for the first.

If Schumer's bill passes, …That's not good for creativity; it's just a distraction. And it's an especially silly distraction in the fashion industry, where every new fashion draws inspiration from fashions that came before. The entire industry engages in recycling, recontextualizing, and reinvigorating the past.

Recognition of this fact is one of the reasons fashion design remains, after 218 years of intellectual property law, largely unprotected in the United States. Of the many previous fashion design bills introduced in Congress, not a single one has ever been enacted. And the industry itself is divided on the current bill; while the New York-based Council of Fashion Designers of America is supporting it, the Los Angeles-based California Fashion Association is lobbying against it.

There's no doubt that some apparel designers suffer because of excessive copying. But the industry as a whole is doing terrifically well--it is a $350 billion a year industry--as Schumer himself noted while promoting the bill. Upsetting the fashion industry's successful model of creativity makes little sense. It's a cure that is worse than the disease.”