This better be the end of Hillary Clinton's political aspirations. What a wicked, despicable woman. 

Oh, for heaven's sake. The Left has always understood that politics is the result of culture, not the reverse. Leftists aren't stupid for working their agenda through the education establishment, entertainment media, and news media. I wish I could say the same for the Right.

Karl Rove? Seriously?

I second the suggestions above. Go because you love your parents, and despite the fact that you dislike and disapprove of your cousin.

deleted double post.... ooooeeeeeooooo

I've had several experiences since roughly 2007 (election 2008) that make me believe in demon possession. Ahem. Even the devil quotes Sacred Scripture, although usually out of context and in some way disordered.

Seriously, has anyone made it to the age of 50 without running into someone you felt was possessed by evil? I've had an up-close experience of mundane, but obviously disordered demon-like possession (I'm not claiming the charism of discernment of spirits; I have no intention of messing with this stuff.)  And once, literally, I experienced a drive-by encounter with someone I thought was demon possessed (a face and expression not entirely human).

There's a powerful story of a missionary priest in Vietnam(?) who exorcised an illiterate little peasant girl able to speak to him in Latin and several other languages. If someone else knows the story, please tell it. I won't do it justice.

As to Pope Francis? I take him at his word. One of the things I heartily approve of about our new pope is that he speaks frequently of evil and Satan. Denial of evil is one of the relativistic West's (Left's) worst features.

Yes, I can see some mid-level keeper-of-the-list in Ohio somewhere amending his search terms...

Tea Party

Patriot

Constitution

BBQ.... "very suspicious..."

Questions no one is asking:

Why is he walking like that? Is it because the crotch of his pants his between his knees? 

When he signed the book at the Anne Frank Museum -- ""Truly inspiring to be able to come here. Anne was a great girl. Hopefully she would have been a belieber," that pretty much nullified any respect I ever had for his musical talent. Yikes.

It's been some time since I read Ike's entire "military-industrial complex" address. But, as I recall, the warning about the corruption of science is a much more dominant theme, with the military-industrial complex getting a mention. 

The disturbing part about Ike's insight is that so many "scientists" don't seem to share his concern these days. Where's the skepticism? Where's the demand for evidence? The jump on the consensus bandwagon by so many supposed "scientists" is shameful and corrupting of science.

I blame secular leftism. When so many reject an unseen God, the moral animal in us attaches to some cause, some man-made way of immanetizing the eschaton. We see this over and over again with the "isms" of the secular Left: feminism, environmentalism, statism...

Michael Crichton was the last prominent public figure to offer a solution to the corrupting influence of government money. Fund competing theories equally. Sadly, I think science is already too far gone, and the nation too broke for that solution to even be feasible at this point.

Here -- have some more Kool-Aid. Grape or cherry?

We just saw it. My first comments were nearly identical to your friend's. Cumberpatch got the role because of "the voice," as Chauvinist the Elder says approvingly.

"The voice" could have been put to better use if he'd been quoting Shakespeare or other literary references like the original Khan though.

I'd give it a B. It's too bad it played sooooo heavily off the original movie plots. A reviewer on Medved (his producer?) said he realized he was watching impersonators re-enacting the original actors, which kind of taints the experience.

One of our parishioners donated a new building to contain a 24-hour adoration chapel. All the framing is up and is reading for finishing. We're invited to enter the building after all the Masses this weekend to write our favorite scripture verse on the studs before the drywall goes up, thus "anointing" the building in Scripture. I'm looking forward to it tomorrow.

What would you all say is the more dangerous trait in a politician, anyway? The tendency to lie? Or the tendency to not know what the hell you're doing?

The nice thing with the Obama administration? You don't have to choose.

That's just a picture of protesters taking poor Ambassador Stevens to Al Qaeda General Hospital, where he was later declared dead.

They're just like us. Same aspirations. Same dreams for their children.

Shut up. M'kay?

Nope. I'm anxious that the reason for the investigation is properly explained. I'm very confident the facts will speak for themselves.

These investigations are crucial, not because we're going after the president. There are no individuals being singled out and targeted. It's the opposite of what the Democrats in position of authority did to conservatives (via the IRS), to American voters (Benghazi cover-up), and even to their friends in the media.

We just want to know the truth (about government corruption) so that the necessary reforms to prevent these abuses of power may be made. 

I did not say no one should go to jail. But "who's going to go to jail" is where the investigation ends, not where it begins. It begins with being able to trust in our government_at_all.

Thanks for all the great ideas!

I'm keeping the scotch idea for when Chauvinist the Elder gets further along in her high school career and we know her teachers better.

In the meantime, I've combined some of Joan's idea (see below) with other things I've found at B&N and some gift cards. But, most important, my kids have lovely note cards on which to write lovely notes to their teachers. Thanks again.

It's a Fit&Fresh lunch bag cute enough to be a purse. With matching containers and ice pack! 

Again, these are public charter school teachers (independent parent-board, accountable only to the CDE, not the district). The teachers are dedicated to the kids and the Core Knowledge curriculum (from which Common Core is a cheap knock-off), non-union, overworked, and underpaid.

The school runs bare-bones. I know. I've been on the inside of parent fundraising efforts to fix things in our 40-year-old facility which would be considered regular maintenance expenses in the average public school.

Our teachers are not getting 5% raises. I just hope they won't leave due to the hardships imposed by the job. They could certainly do better in the regular public system. The families try to make it worth their while to stay by, at minimum, expressing gratitude.