I took my camera on a bike ride yesterday evening. I rode the ride currently listed as the “Anchor Park” route here. The route starts in Anchor Park (Farragut), skirts Fort Loudoun Lake, goes past Fort Loudoun dam, into Lenoir City, and back. Distance: 24 miles.
You can’t beat a good bike ride on a warm summer evening.
The pictures are posted in the photo gallery.

Our national security faces a new threat, now that the Federal Marriage Amendment has been voted down:

“I would argue that the future of our country hangs in the balance because the future of marriage hangs in the balance,” said Sen. Rick Santorum, R-Pa. “…..Isn’t that the ultimate homeland security, standing up and defending marriage?”

So we had four days over this, for what?

In the end, Frist and White House strategist Karl Rove couldn’t decide whether they really wanted to pass the measure or merely have a vote they could campaign on. The result is that they got neither.
Rather than seek an up-or-down vote on a toughly worded version of the amendment, Frist and his allies (led by Sen. Rick Santorum of Pennsylvania) allowed discussion of a second, milder one. But since that one (which would leave latitude to the states) might actually pass, Democrats opted to mount a filibuster. As a result, the central (and only) vote turned out to be on a motion to shut off debate�a harder vote to use in an attack TV ad.

But I’m sure Congress didn’t have much other business to take care of, so this was worth it.
Score another one for the terrorists liberal Democrats. Thanks to the media hype and our nation’s political leaders, we now live in an environment where everything is referred to in terms of terrorism.
Via SayUncle.

There’s a legal adage that goes something like this:

If the law is on your side, pound the law.
If the facts are on your side, pound the facts.
If neither is on your side, pound the podium.

As The Daily Show pointed out last night, that’s what Bush seems to have resorted to . . . literally. Take a look at these excerpts from his speech Monday at Oak Ridge:

America is safer because of your service at Oak Ridge.
. . .
Today, because we acted to liberate Afghanistan, a threat has been removed, and the American people are safer.
. . .
Today, because we’re working with the Pakistani leaders, Pakistan is an ally in the war on terror, and the American people are safer.
. . .
Today, because Saudi Arabia has seen the danger and has joined the war on terror, the American people are safer.
. . .
Today, because America and our coalition helped to end the violent regime of Saddam Hussein, and because we’re helping to raise a peaceful democracy in its place, the American people are safer.
. . .
Today, because the Libyan government saw the seriousness of the civilized world, and correctly judged its own interests, the American people are safer.
. . .
We have ended one of the most dangerous sources of proliferation in the world, and the American people are safer.
. . .
Today, because America has acted, and because America has led, the forces of terror and tyranny have suffered defeat after defeat, and America and the world are safer.

We might be safer these days, or maybe we aren’t. It’s hard to tell. So what is the criteria the president is using to reassure us that we are safer? The number of times he can repeat himself? Perhaps he thinks that by pounding the podium enough times he will discourage al Qaeda and they will opt not to attempt any more terrorist attacks.
See, that’s one of the major problems with this whole “war on terror.” Since there aren’t many meaningful gages with which we can measure the government’s performance, officials can make all sorts of claims, issue warnings, change color codes, and the public won’t know the difference. We’ve ratcheted trust in government to a higher plane.

Kevin Drum makes a great point here regarding the pre-war intelligence problems in Iraq: they had become irrelevant by the time Bush launched the invasion. Once the UN weapons inspectors went in, the faulty intelligence became a moot point because we could verify it directly:

The fact is that by March 2003 we didn’t have to rely on CIA estimates or on the estimates of any other intelligence agency. We had been on the ground in Iraq for months and there was nothing there. There was nothing there and we knew it.
Did the CIA screw up? Probably. Did it matter? No. George Bush invaded Iraq in March 2003 not because he was convinced Iraq had WMD, but because he was becoming scared that Iraq didn’t have WMD and that further inspections would prove it beyond any doubt. Facts on the ground have never been allowed to interfere with George Bush’s worldview, and he wasn’t about to take the chance that they might interfere with his war.

I’m not sure that Bush knew the weapons weren’t there, but it’s pretty clear that he didn’t care whether they were or not. If he did, he would have invested a lot more into the UN inspections, rather than treating them as a distraction.

Ernie The Attorney quotes guitarist Chris Cortez, who offers a little perspective on life:

My general philosophy is one where we embrace things that bring us together and reject what separates us. Race and religion, gay or straight, republican or democrat, nationalism. These are examples of differences. In the overall scheme of our evolution, it’s what we have in common that moves us forward. The differences become scapegoats for the little minds who need to blame someone for their own failures.

Okay, I don’t exactly come to this with clean hands. But I like to think that my criticisms of politicians center on incompetence and partisan craziness, and that I don’t just spew out the “X group is bringing on the end of civilization,” like you hear on radio and elsewhere these days.
Anyway, we now return to regular programing.