Three months after the fact, and several weeks after it went around the blogosphere, the Washington Post finally picked up with a prominent story on Rev. Sun Myung Moon’s coronation ceremony in the Dirksen Senate Office Building. In front of more than a dozen lawmakers:

The Korean-born businessman and religious leader then delivered a long speech saying he was “sent to Earth . . . to save the world’s six billion people. . . . Emperors, kings and presidents . . . have declared to all Heaven and Earth that Reverend Sun Myung Moon is none other than humanity’s Savior, Messiah, Returning Lord and True Parent.”

Jeff Gorenfeld has offered in depth coverage and footage of the event.
Of course many of the legislators are now claiming they didn’t know what was going to transpire at the ceremony. I suppose that’s possible, but event organizer Archbishop George A. Stallings Jr. responds thusly:

“You’d have to be deaf, dumb and blind to not know that any event that is sponsored by the Washington Times . . . could involve the influence, or the potential presence, of the Reverend Moon,” he said.

And accounts of the event don’t offer much about attendees walking out in protest.
I don’t know about you, but I’d like to know in a more timely manner when our representatives are involved in this type of weirdness.

The Financial Times reports that Halliburton may not be profiting from the Iraq war as much as had been popularly thought . . . at least not yet. A combination of higher costs to perform contracts and withheld payments on disputed bills have placed a “financial strain” on the corporation.
I imagine it’s rather costly to maintain a small security army to facilitate the work projects.

Speaking of pictures, there’s some pretty good ones from the flight of SpaceShipOne here. Well, at least of the take off and landing; you can’t really see much of it as it sours way up there.

I didn’t note this earlier, but a couple weeks ago I posted a few more pictures in the Resonance photo gallery. Highlights include astronomy, agriculture, ferocious felines, nature’s devastation, and the Mecca of college basketball.
Some of you may recall that I got a digital camera last month. At the time I thought that digital photography was simple: you merely point, shoot, and download your perfect shots into the computer. Well, it can be that simple, but get the most out of your pictures there’s a lot more to learn.
First, you’ve got to purchase equipment you need and/or can afford (my rule of thumb: photographic equipment costs two to three times as much as I think it should cost).
Then, you’ve got to figure out how to use the equipment. White balance? Aperture? Depth of field? These terms aren’t intuitive to me. You’ve got to figure out what all the camera settings are and how to bring your subject and the lighting together for a good shot.
That’s it, right? Wrong. Your picture is only partially done. Time to touch it up with post processing software. I received Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0, and, having never used Photoshop, I’ve found another learning curve to be conquered there.
Suffice it to say, all of this is overwhelming to try to master all at once. I’ve found the Digital Photography Review forum to be quite helpful. But I’m taking things in slowly . . . and having a little fun along the way.

Where do people come up with this kind of stuff? Do they not think everyone can come up with weird questions?
I ask my Republican friends: what would they rather see happen–Kerry elected and bin Laden caught, or Bush reelected and bin Laden still in the wind. If they’re all honest, they would say they would rather see Bush reelected.