A November 6, 2006, Los Angeles Times op-ed by someone named Peter C. Boulay blares the title, "Will Catholicism OK Condoms?" Because of errors in fact and misleading information, the article appears to be just another cheap slap at the Catholic Church by the Times.

The column suggests that the Catholic Church is possibly readying to allow for the use of condoms in "situations in which there is potential for HIV infection." Besides the fact that such an allowance by the Church is quite unlikely, Boulay argues that if the contraception "rule" is changed, the result is a challenge to "the entire contraception doctrine, to the doctrine of papal infallibility and even to the church's abortion rules."

After years of "holidays" being used to describe the Christmas season, some cracks in the politically correct dam have begun to open as some retailers like Wal-Mart and Macy's are beginning to use the term "Merry Christmas.

Ironically, as the Associated Press reports this news, it can't retrain its political correctness:

This holiday season, Wal-Mart isn't trumpeting big bargains only. It's also bringing "Christmas" back into its marketing, after several years of playing down the term.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc.'s Christmas cheer seems to be a hot trend this season as several other retailers including Kohl's Corp. and Macy's, a division of Federated Department Stores Inc. , are also stepping up their Christmas marketing. The moves respond to mounting criticism from religious groups that staged boycotts against Wal-Mart and other merchants after they eliminated or de-emphasized "Christmas" in their advertising.

"We learned a lesson from that. Merry Christmas is now part of the vocabulary here at Wal-Mart," said Linda Blakley, a Wal-Mart spokeswoman.

Wal-Mart said Thursday that it will launch its first Christmas-specific TV ad in several years, feature Christmas shops, previously called Holiday Shops, and increase the number of seasonal merchandise labeled "Christmas" instead of "holiday" by 60 percent.

Macy's is adding Christmas signage in all of its department stores and Kohl's is playing up Christmas this year in its TV, print and radio advertising, according to Vicki Shamion, a Kohl's spokeswoman.

New York Times reporter Neil MacFarquhar, who covers Islam in America, on Friday celebrates Minnesota Democrat Keith Ellison, the first Muslim elected to Congress.

During the campaign, the Power Line blog took the lead in exposing Ellison's past affiliation with the Nation of Islam and its anti-Semitic leader Louis Farrakhan.

But MacFarquhar, who went to elementary school in Libya and was once the Times' bureau chief in Cairo, disposes of the controversy in two sentences and frames it as Ellison being "attacked on religious grounds."

In his culture column earlier in the week, Brent Bozell looked at the new NBC hit "Heroes" and how it draws in youngsters, but might carry a few too many sleazy adult twists for a young-skewing superhero series:

People who do a lot of business travel find themselves killing time by watching a lot of airline movies. Since the flying public includes a lot of children, the movie studios courteously provide the airlines with the movies edited for sex, language, ultra violence, and the like. And here’s the curious thing: I’ve never watched one of these movies and concluded at the end that it was cheapened by a lack of “gritty” (and I’m being kind here) material. Never in my life have I met a fellow passenger who suggested as much.

On Thursday’s “Scarborough Country,” the host admitted that MSNBC looped the Dittocam video of Rush Limbaugh gesticulating like Michael J. Fox to make it look like it went on longer than it did (hat tip to NB reader ‘DG”, and audio link here with comments by Limbaugh):

I mean, the thing is, he moved around for a couple of seconds, and as you and I have both said, we all screw up, we all make mistakes. This guy talks three hours a day. We made a mistake -- and I`ll say it right here. We made a mistake. When I was out in Las Vegas doing a show, we actually ran that on a loop for probably five, ten seconds, making it look like he was doing it for a longer than he did. And we weren`t alone, of course. When we came back and found out it had happened... we didn`t do it again.

Here was Limbaugh’s comment about this Friday:

Well, sports fans, we knew if the Democrats won back Congress, even though history has shown this typically happens during the second year of a president’s second term, liberal media members would be shouting from the rooftops about how extraordinary and unprecedented a victory it was. Of course, such sentiments coming from a shill like the New York Times’ Paul Krugman is certainly no surprise. However, it should make for good laughs on a Saturday (emphasis mine throughout):

But we may be seeing the downfall of movement conservatism -- the potent alliance of wealthy individuals, corporate interests and the religious right that took shape in the 1960s and 1970s. This alliance may once have had something to do with ideas, but it has become mainly a corrupt political machine, and America will be a better place if that machine breaks down.

It is important for the reader to remember what Krugman said here, because, true to form, he is going to contradict it later: “the potent alliance of wealthy individuals, corporate interests and the religious right that took shape in the 1960s and 1970s.” Krugman continued:

Coupled with the win of Daniel Ortega in Nicaragua, it seems with the Democratic victory that the world may be falling into a new Bolshevist Dark Age.

Some might argue the above characterization as a bit harsh, but it is entirely accurate.

According to WorldNetDaily.com article titled “Meet The New Speaker“, Speaker-apparent Nancy Pelosi has had ties to the Progressive Caucus in the House of Representatives.

At one time on the organization's website were song lyrics reveling in the fact that when the Communist Revolution came, guns and knives would be used against the "Bourgeoisie", a Marxist blanket term invoked to confiscate the property and savings of the middle class.

I hope those voting for the Democrats will enjoy the higher taxes, the swarms of immigrants pouring into their neighborhoods, the slaughter of innocent children in the name of ghoulish experimentation, and the increased regulation of their private economic affairs (in other words, things will continue pretty much as they were before only at an accelerated rate).

A few weeks ago, Amy Ridenour decried the Washington Post obituary writers for writing a bitter obituary for ex-Congresswoman Helen Chenoweth, a "militia-friendly" and "extremist" conservative from Idaho who arrived in Washington with Newt Gingrich's new majority in 1994. She noted a communist spy from Vietnam drew a kinder obituary. That happened again Friday with the death of "charming" and "avuncular" East German spymaster Markus Wolf.

Markus Wolf, 83, who helped to oversee the growth of East Germany's espionage network and once wrote that he wanted to be remembered for "perfecting the use of sex in spying," died of undisclosed causes Nov. 9 at his apartment in Berlin.

Original Caption:

Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., speaks to reporters after voting in Chappaqua, N.Y. on Tuesday, Nov 7, 2006. Clinton is running against Republican challenger John Spencer, a former mayor of Yonkers.

Landed at the Balad base 40 miles north of Baghdad about 11 PM local time Friday night. Smooth ride but after we touched down the crew let us know that “the flaps had decoupled.” Not quite sure what that means but some things are better not to know until after you land. Quick stop by the media HQ where at midnight two airmen, in honor of Veterans’ Day, marched back and forth in front of a memorial to veterans, a display reminiscent of the sentinel at the Tomb of the Unknown Solider.

View video here.