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Why?!?

Why Would She Admit It???

A freelance writer is suing celebrated author Stephen King because she claims to be the real Annie Wilkes from King’s best-seller "Misery."

That’s according to a report Tuesday posted on "Celebrity Justice" online, which obtained a copy of the lawsuit filed by Anne Hiltner of New Jersey.

According to "Celebrity Justice," Hiltner claims "invasion of privacy" in the suit because the book’s main character, "Psycho Nurse Wilkes," is a caricature of her.

Why would she admit this?  Hmmmm…she also says the psychic nurse in King’s Animal Kingdom is based on her, claimed King’s "Riding the Bullet" was stolen from her brother’s manuscript and King plagerized her own writings for Misery.  Ah….perhaps claiming she’s Annie Wilke’s *isn’t* so far off the mark!

Did He Get Gastric Bypass, or Just Stop Eating McRibs?

Ronald McDonald has joined the diet craze, among the likes of Lindsay Lohan and Randy Jackson:  "Ronald McDonald, the colorful frontman for the fast food chain, will be slimming down in a new ad campaign that the company says is aimed at promoting a healthier lifestyle."

"To keep up with this active lifestyle, Ronald McDonald went shopping and picked out a whole new wardrobe. These new outfits complement his fun, energetic style," said Rogovin.

Ronald’s new threads include a warm-up suit, basketball, soccer, football uniforms, and a tuxedo for formal events. He will keep his red shoes. The streamlined version of Ronald is aimed at promoting a healthier lifestyle, company officials said.

Okay, it doesn’t matter to me.  Obese or healthy, Ronald McDonald is scary.  There’s just something about those evil clown eyes and pale complexion that gets me every time.  Gulp.  :::shiver:::

Why, Daddy, Why?

NEW YORKNo, illusionist-comic Penn Jillette of the Las Vegas duo Penn & Teller isn’t pulling a trick on this time: He and his wife have given their baby a name you probably haven’t heard before.

Moxie CrimeFighter Jillette was born on Friday.

Jillette said they "chose her middle name because when she’s pulled over for speeding she can say, ‘But officer, we’re on the same side. My middle name is CrimeFighter.'’

He didn’t give an excuse her first name, Moxie.

Okay "Moxie CrimeFighter" is one of the most stupid names I’ve ever heard, but I’ll cut him a little slack…at least he didn’t name her APPLE. 

Celebrity Breath Up for Auction (um, who cares?)

An enterprising celebrity spotter is offering fans the chance to buy a jar of fresh air allegedly breathed by stars Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie for close to $US15,000 (now currently over $200,000).

"Be the first to own this jar of celebrity air, which may contain air molecules that came in direct contact with Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt," the seller’s statement said on eBay.

Here’s the auction listing.  People are flippin’ nuts.

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Carnival of the Recipes #43

Songstress7 at News from the Great Beyond presents Carnival of the Recipes #43.  She did an amazing job of not only highlighting some of the best recipes on the web, she also presented a nice summary of each of us who submitted. 

I submitted my Thai Pork Tenderloin and Long Beans recipe for this week’s Carnival, and Songstress7 gave a great plug for the Cotillion as well!  Please stop over and you’ll get your saliva glands working overtime!

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The Troops of the 82nd Need You!

SondraK alerted us that our troops of the 82nd want to hear from us and need our support!  Please stop over at her site to find out how you can help!

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Stop the ACLU! Blogburst -

Anyone who reads through my site will conclude fairly quickly my lack of love for the ACLU.  As a matter of fact, I truly believe that the ACLU shakes the very foundations of the freedom I am afforded as an American.

There is a great article over at GOP USA I encourage you to read.  I think the author summarizes a number of my concerns up nicely.

For years the American Civil Liberties Union has pushed its agenda as to what the Constitution "really says," and what freedom "really means" through judicial extortion.

The ACLU’s attorneys are akin to the old "ambulance chaser" adage…targeting particular hot bed situations and finding "the offended" who are willing to have the ACLU champion their cause. 

Many who have dared to stand up against the ACLU might have won the battle in the court room, but lost the war as their organizations were driven into bankruptcy under crushing legal bills.

I think the author, Justin Darr, is right on when he says:

However, in the last few years the tide has started to turn. Alternate civil liberties groups, such as The American Center for Law and Justice, conservative radio commentators, and even some in the media, have drawn attention to the ACLU’s pattern of abuses, fanatic beliefs and outright hypocrisy. For the first time the ACLU is faced with legitimate public outcry over their tactics and slowly those who once would quietly give up their freedoms have been instilled with the will (and pro bono legal support) to fight. In addition, despite the efforts of obstructionist liberals in Congress, the court system is being given a much needed infusion of new judges who recognize that their interpretation of the Constitution should in some fashion be similar to those who wrote it. The ACLU understands its days of forcing Christianity, traditional values, and freedoms out of American public life are numbered.

The ACLU has changed their strategy, broadening the circle with their court cases by including leaders and private citizens who are leading causes against the ACLU.  The best known case of this is the ACLU’s focus on Sean Hannity and his "crossing" of the US/Mexico border while interviewing Minutemen in Arizona.

…the ACLU, which led the good fight by trying to obstruct the Minutemen and goad them into conflicts while enabling the rampant invasion of illegals into our nation, decided this was an offense that could not be tolerated. Apparently upset at Hannity’s drawing interest to the good work of the Minutemen, Arizona State Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, under the auspices of the ACLU, demanded Hannity’s arrest. 

This was not motivated due to a need to uphold immigration law.  This was "personal."  But as Darr writes, this is a larger issue than the ACLU just embarrassing Hannity.

It is indicative of a terrifying new trend from the ACLU where they are attempting to hold individual citizens legally liable for doing nothing more than thinking they are wrong. With large organizations starting to resist them, the ACLU must now found a new defenseless target unable to afford to fight them: private citizens.

There are several other cases Darr mentions that have recently presented illustrating this point:

  • In Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana, the ACLU has called for the arrest of school teachers and administrators because the ACLU does not feel they adequately exorcised all Judeo-Christian influences from their classrooms and cafeterias.
  • In San Diego the ACLU is suing five local personalities, including Rush Limbaugh sub Roger Hedgecock, because they do not like the wording they have chosen to represent the "Arguments For" section of a local ballot initiative to save the Mt. Soledad Cross.
  • In the Keystone School District in Clarion County, Pennsylvania, even after the school board caved into the demands of the Pittsburgh ACLU, the ACLU is still suing the district because they felt that some in the community still "hoped" that there would be a prayer offered at the high school graduation.

Hmmmm…isn’t hope constitutional?  Last time I checked it was.

Obviously, the ACLU’s approach is alarming, but I can tell you that slowly their "minions" are starting to lose faith, tearing up their membership cards.  An ACLU who supports criminals more than victims, protects child molesters more than the child, initiates ridiculous cases to remove Ten Commandment monuments from public land and shreds their own documents is not the ACLU most want to support, even the most liberal souls out there.  There are just some things (can you say NAMbLA?) that even the most liberal liberal will refuse to support.

Today is Stop the ACLU! blogburst day!  Please head over to Stop the ACLU! and offer up your support.  There are many involved who continue to fight the good fight and you will find substantial information about the ACLU with just one stop!

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Substitute Teacher Choking Student is Learning Opportunity?

I don’t need to make any comments on this story, as it speaks for itself:

BOSTON (AP) - The Department of Social Services is investigating a claim that a substitute teacher choked a 12-year-old boy until he lost consciousness.

The alleged incident took place last Thursday at the John Marshall Elementary School in the city’s Dorchester neighborhood, where Anthony Jackson is in the fifth grade.

According to a report in Wednesday’s Boston Herald, the teacher allegedly asked the class how long it would take for a student to black out. When students didn’t know, she began to choke the boy.

Anthony told his grandmother that the teacher held him so tightly around the neck for so long that he lost consciousness, the Herald said, and no one called for medical help after he fell to the floor. He quickly regained consciousness and was not injured, other than a slight headache.

School officials apologized to Jackson’s mother, the Herald reported. DSS received a complaint on Tuesday, prompting the investigation, agency spokeswoman Denise Monteiro said.

"We have a lot of interviewing to do," she said.

A preliminary report is due within 10 days.

School officials declined to release the substitute’s name. She has been given an administrative assignment until the investigation is complete and was told to stay away from the Marshall School and its students, school officials said.

"We take very seriously all claims of incidents involving students in schools," Boston Public Schools spokesman Jonathan Palumbo said.

Okay, so I was wrong and do need to comment on this.  How horrific, first of all, that an ADULT would think this is okay.  Secondly, in any other instance, the police would be called…this is an assault on a child.  This teacher could have KILLED him.  Okay, so someone called the DSS, but if *I* were the parent, I’d have called the cops. 

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…an Interesting Take

If you want a good read about God and evil, head over to Atlas Shrugs who shares one I really enjoyed reading.  I always love seeing the trap door open and you can almost hear it creaking this time! 

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White Trash Wednesday - Wonder Twin Powers, ACTIVATE!

I cain’t help but thunk thar is some kinda jean-etic ties here (it’s all in the eyes my Momma says!):

Please take a gander at my other cuzin’s trailers:

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Thai Pork Tenderloin and Long Beans

This is a recipe I grew up on.  My dad, who was in the Air Force, had a few tours of duty in Thailand and picked up this dish there.

2 tbsp vegetable oil (or infused Wok Oil)

8 cloves garlic, chopped

½ pound pork loin, cut into thin medallions

½ pound raw shrimp, shelled & deveined

1 pound long beans (AKA raw green beans, whole)

3 tbsp fish sauce (nam pla)

2 tsp granulated sugar

1 tsp ground black pepper

In a wok, heat oil over very high heat.  Add garlic and quickly stir-fry until light brown.  Immediately add the pork and toss with garlic until pork is light brown.  Add the shrimp and continue stir-frying for about one minute.  Add the beans and cook for at least 2 minutes (they will be very crispy - I typically cook until I start to get a bit of a wilt to the beans).  Stir in the fish sauce, sugar and black pepper.  Toss everything together and serve.  I serve with some steamed Jasmine rice (an aromatic rice that I also grew up on.  Dad had it in Thailand and won’t eat any other kind with Thai food).

Enjoy!

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Salmon Patties Recipe

Believe it or not, this is one of the few ways I can get my kids to eat fish - it is so tasty, and a favorite of my family since I was a little girl.

Ingredients:

vegetable oil (or similar light oil), enough to cover bottom of large skillet
2 6-oz cans of skinless, boneless pink salmon (or one regular size, with skin/bone removed)
10 saltine crackers, crushed
2-3 large eggs
kosher salt and pepper to taste

Instructions:

Preheat large skillet over mid to high heat. Drain the salmon and add to large bowl. Crush the crackers into the bowl. Add salt/pepper and 2 of the eggs. Mix together with a spoon. The mixture should be quite moist, but allow you to form patties. If it is still dry, add the additional egg. If the mixture is too moist to make patties, then add a couple more crackers at a time, until you reach the right consistency.

Form into patties of uniform thickness. Add oil to the skillet and then place the patties into the oil. Cook on both sides until a nice, golden brown crust forms on both sides. Remove from the skillet and drain on a couple of paper towels.

My two cents: You can serve this with most anything - typically we serve it with fried potatoes or french fries, but you can also serve it with macaroni and cheese or a nice rice dish. I’ve seen some people use a cocktail sauce for dipping, and even tartar sauce. It also makes a nice sandwich!

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The Cotillion Ball - Boop Boop Da Boop

Everyone remembers the Charleston.  A well-loved dance that originated in the early 1920s in Speakeasies during Prohibition, its energized, dynamic and vivacious moves perfectly personify the zeal of these following ladies of the ball.

Rightwingsparkle asks us a question of war, comparing the fanatical Islamic belief to that of a hornet’s nest.  She states it simply:  "This fanatical Islamic belief isn’t going away, it stung several times and will again if given the chance."

Over at sisu, Sissy is so glad sad-sack, glass-half-empty Kerry isn’t the Leader of the Free World. What does it say about his contempt for the American people when he embraces the "smoking gun" of Downing Street Memogate as "stunning, unbelievably simple and understandable"? Doh?  Amazing dance moves you have there, Kerry.

Kate from Small Dead Animals crosses the dance floor with her own take on potential chaos at next month’s G8 summit stirred by the absence of black musicians at the events staged to benefit Africans.  Kate gave us her own suggestion on how to handle the situation.

What is the difference between our Word and theirs?  Jody at Steal the Bandwagon steps us through the comparison, reminding us it is just another reason to pity the Muslims and their sad religion. Apparently they, too, have respect for their holy book, but it is seemingly nothing more than just words and sentences, grammar and syntax.  For them, no life is as sacred as the flimsy pages of a book.

TFS Magnum’s Zendo Deb brings us the story of a victim of an armed robbery - with a permit to carry a concealed weapon - who shot one of his assailants in self-defense.  Instead of a justified, self-defense shooting, a horrible instance of a child shot will be the song-and-dance of the Brady Campaign.  Whether this shooting is a tragedy, or prevented a tragedy depends on your point-of-view. 

One of our dear hostesses of the Cotillion Ball this week, our own princess, The American Princess, brings us harrowing tales of Oxfam and liberal Hollywooders who tried to fight poverty in China and all they got was a lousy bracelet

On a biblical note, The Anchoress is making like David come up against the Goliath of entrenched whack-a-doo feminism and slinging stones at a new bible translation that is "corrected" to portray Jesus as a woman

Dahling Fausta of The Bad Hair Blog foots it through a number of reviews in the New York Times and concludes that as far as the Times is concerned, some forms of class mobility are more equal than others.

Our dear Denita at Who Tends the Fires speaks of recent life events, dancing through such topics as shopping, a party with friends (and an observation in their not-so-differences), dangerous storms, the Swan Man, a surprise party and - we can’t forget - her birthday! 

We’re all quite envious of Beth at Yeah, Right, Whatever who is vacationing and exploring the hot spots of St. Louis.  She speaks of animals at the zoo and even those who break out of the zoo. Send us a postcard, dear, and many happy returns!   

As for me, I must thank our gracious web mistresses Beth, Janette and Jody for their support and enthusiasm.  They are truly Belles of the Ball!

I must now direct your attention to my lovely and talented co-hostesses our Dear Housewife, the darling Princess and all of their fine constituents.

…and now I must bid you a fond Adieu until we meet again!

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The Cotillion - The Dance, Part II

I’ll be a Hostess for the Best Party of the Week tomorrow.  Please join me, An American Housewife and The American Princess for The Dance, Part II.

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Animal Rights Whackos = Terrorists?

I think we’re onto something here (emphasis mine):

PHILADELPHIA (Reuters) - New Jersey is using an anti-terrorism law for the first time to try six animal rights activists charged with harassing and vandalizing a company that made use of animals to test its drugs.

Prosecutors say the activists, who will stand trial next week, used threats, intimidation and cyber attacks against employees of Huntingdon Life Sciences, a British company with operations in East Millstone, New Jersey, with the intention of driving it out of business.

The six, members of a group called Stop Huntingdon Animal Cruelty (SHAC), are charged under the Animal Enterprise Protection Act, amended in 2002 to include "animal enterprise terrorism," which outlaws disrupting firms like Huntingdon.

If convicted, the group and its accused members face a maximum $250,000 fine and three years in prison.

SHAC argued that the charges are a violation of free-speech rights and it is the victim of a government crackdown on dissent. "This is a frightening step in the Bush administration’s path to war on domestic dissidence," the group said on its Web site.

The defendants are also charged with interstate stalking, which carries a maximum sentence of five years in prison and $250,000 fine, and with conspiracy to engage in interstate stalking, carrying the same penalty.

Whoa, stop.  So this group is saying that the charges are a violation of free speech, huh?  Since when does committing a crime, such as stealing, trespassing, destruction of property and assult constitute "freedom of speech?"  Protesting peacefully is one thing, but these whackos are out causing harm to people and property.  They SHOULD be charged:

Their tactics included invading offices, damaging property and stealing documents. They also charged with physical assault — including spraying cleaning fluid into the eyes of employees — smashing the windows of their homes and threatening to kill or injure members of their families, prosecutors said.

The list of potential defense witnesses includes actress Kim Basinger (she joined a protest outside a Huntingdon laboratory in Franklin, New Jersey to try to stop such companies using animals to test their pharmaceutical products).

Hey - wasn’t she supposed to leave the country when Bush was elected or something like that?  Oh yeah, I forgot.  She’s an "actress."  She must have been "in character" at the time.

If you take the animals out of the picture, and just focus on the crimes by themselves, we have a bunch of hoodlums here.  If any of these whackos had their items stolen, had someone trespass on their property, or had been assulted, you can bet they’d be crying foul.  Who do they think they are to presume they are above all that?

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Carnival of the Recipes #42

Drew at Conservative Friends is hosting this week’s Carnival of the Recipes!  Stop over and have a drool, er, a look!

For those of you who like great appetizer ideas, my Taco Cheesecake recipe is part of the carnival.  It’s an awesome dip that is great served with hearty tortilla/corn chips!

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His Book is Just Too Patriotic

I was listening to the radio this morning and they had an interview with Winston Groom, probably best known for the book "Forrest Gump."  Groom has a new book out entitled "1942: The Year That Tried Men’s Souls" and received a particularly scathing review from New York Slime’s critic Patricia Cohen.  I didn’t think much of it until it was mentioned in the interview that Ms. Cohen pretty much deemed that the book was "too patriotic."  Huh? 

Now, I haven’t read the book, so I can’t profess to understand what the critic means when she refers to "terrible" writing in the review, but I find it rather amazing that anyone could conclude that a book, in particular a book that centered on the year 1942, World War II and the attack on our soil at Pearl Harbor, was too patriotic.

As I read Cohen’s review, the first clue I had about how she felt about the book was how she approached the subject matter.  I believe her words about WWII and Pearl Harbor were along the lines of "well-worn history."  The review progressively irritated me.

Groom writes in his forward "I write to the average American reader, in hopes that he or she will take renewed pride in what our forefathers dealt with, and determined to accomplish, when faced with danger of the utmost severity.'’  Good.  As an American, I should understand what is chronicled in history and what our forefathers did to pave the road to freedom.  This makes sense to me.  Not to Ms. Cohen (emphasis mine):

It is not surprising then that ‘’1942: The Year That Tried Men’s Souls'’ tends to read like a portable pep rally designed to fire up the home team for the next epic showdown. The ‘’Great Democracy'’ versus the evil Axis — or, more recently, the axis of evil.

Well, that pretty much seems to sum up how Ms. Cohen feels about President Bush and our involvement in Iraq while carrying with it a certain undertone of Anti-Americanism. 

She has a bit of an interlude in the middle, actually giving him some small accolades about his background and the history he tells.  I actually thought she might give the guy a break.  I was wrong.

Unfortunately the narrative is frequently interrupted by clunky writing, incongruous asides and relentless cheerleading.  The story is told in two dimensions with little of the ambiguity, nuance and complexity of real life. In Groom’s account, the Japanese are ‘’wild-eyed,'’ treacherous and unrepentant and their planning for Pearl Harbor ‘’diabolical.'’ Their refusal to surrender is lunatic zealotry while the Americans’ intention to fight to the end is heroic. Their imperial designs are part of a ‘’rapacious'’ and cruel plot to ‘’control most of the world'’ and squeeze America to death, while the colonial records of the Allies who already control it are glossed over. Following ‘’the tragedy of World War I,'’ Groom writes, the ‘’Western powers had actually begun agreeing to return many (but of course not all) of their overseas possessions to the native inhabitants.'’

Reading about WWII, even in school, the first thing I thought of was that America’s will to fight to preserve freedom and liberty *was* heroic.  I’m glad Ms. Cohen wasn’t in charge back then - we’d have laid down our arms, perhaps, and had a big ole group hug.  THAT would have taken care of those nice, pleasant Japanese men flying those nice little planes over Hawaii.

It goes on and on from there and she ends with the following:

And when an American officer on Corregidor says he hoped his troops could rest and receive medical attention after surrendering, Groom writes, ‘’This last observation raised perhaps the grossest example of false hopes in the history of the world.'’

Well, maybe. Unless you were hoping for a sophisticated account of the war in the Pacific.

I read a number of critic reviews on Groom’s book and none were even remotely as harsh and critical as Ms. Cohen’s and many were quite favorable.  I truly believe there was some kind of political agenda here on her part, which biased her review of the book.  Thanks to Patricia Cohen’s review, I’m buying the book to check it out for myself (perhaps Groom should give her a cut for all the books she’s going to help him sell…nah!).  Oh, and I failed to mention that Patricia Cohen is the NYT’s THEATER Critic.  Perhaps Groom’s book wasn’t nearly as entertaining to her as all the song and dance numbers "Cats" had [insert your own conclusion here]. 

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The ACLU - a Sexual Predator’s Best Friend!
Try to protect children from sex offenders, and the ACLU steps in with their "tsk tsk tsk, poor criminal" mentality (emphasis mine):
President of the Lower Chichester Board of Commissioners Rocco Gaspari Jr. believes sex offenders have the right to settle down and begin a new life, just not near the schools and playgrounds in the township where he lives.
So Gaspari and his fellow commissioners have asked township solicitor Frank Sbandi to draft an ordinance that prohibits sex offenders from residing within 2,000 feet of a school, playground or other places children congregate in Lower Chi.

As could be expected, the ACLU has strong words for such an idea.

"This is great legislation, if we’re trying to create a leper colony," said Larry Frankel, executive director of the Pennsylvania Chapter of the ACLU.

They are SEX OFFENDERS, Larry.  Would you like one in your home with your 6-year-old daughter?

But a constitutional expert with the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank, said it was "a close call" whether such an ordinance would hold up in court.

The courts will have a lot to decide on this issue. Hamilton, N.J., passed a law that, in effect, bars convicted sex offenders from its town. The same is true of two cities in Florida. Weston will consider a new law this summer, which virtually makes the entire town off-limits to convicted sex offenders. In Pembroke Pines, the law allows certain areas to remain open for sex offenders to live, but the residents of those communities are storming city hall — they want to be off limits, too.

Towns in New York and Massachusetts are considering their own limits on where sex offenders may live within their communities.

A Megan’s Law Web site, initiated by the Pennsylvania State Police in January, contains details about 6,981 sex offenders in Pennsylvania, including 13 who live or work in the Linwood/Boothwyn area. At http://www.pameganslaw.state.pa.us/, interested Internet searchers can discover an offender’s name and photo, the type of offense committed, the date of conviction, year of birth, current residence and current employer.

But Lower Chi has decided to try to take the information one step further. While no one wants to close the door on giving convicted criminals a chance at rehabilitating their lives, no one wants a pedophile next door to an elementary school, either. It just doesn’t make sense.

Whether the courts agree with Linwood or the other towns trying to keep sexual offenders away from the children in their area, only time will tell. But someone in this state needed to step up with communities in other states to test the limits of the law.

Linwood is taking a chance, a worthwhile chance. They may not succeed, but that hasn’t ever stopped this town from trying out ordinances or procedures some critics said would never fly.

Obivously there are some well educated leaders in Linwood.  More towns and cities should follow their lead.  It has been demonstrated time and time again how infrequent sex offenders are rehabilitated (I would go so far to say that the only "rehabilitated" ones are the ones still in jail, away from victims).  Allow a sex offender next to a school and it is like putting a drug addict in front of a meth lab.  It’s irresponsible and dangerous - just like the ACLU.

Update:  It’s Stop the ACLU! Blogburst Day.  Please stop by their site and offer your support.

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