A380

The world's biggest airliner, Airbus A380, a 555-passenger superjumbo twin deck aircraft, takes off to make its maiden flight at the Toulouse-Blagnac airport in southwestern France, April 27, 2005. Photo by Jacky Naegelen/Reuters

He Did It...

he cut his damn hair

Earth Day

Happy Earth Day! Anyone remember last earth day?

Let's Poke It With A Stick

What IS it?

Go George, Go...

Voinovich Known to Put Principles Before Party

- The Ohio Republican holding up John R. Bolton's nomination as U.N. ambassador has also broken ranks over spending issues.




By Richard Simon, Times Staff Writer

WASHINGTON - The maverick tendencies of Republican Sen. George V. Voinovich are no secret.

The former Ohio governor and Cleveland mayor has challenged President Bush and party leaders on numerous issues. But Tuesday, when Voinovich held up Bush's nomination of John R. Bolton as United Nations ambassador, even his Capitol Hill colleagues were stunned.

"I've heard enough today that I don't feel comfortable about voting for Mr. Bolton," Voinovich told the rest of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, expressing concern about reports that the nominee had bullied subordinates.

"I think one's interpersonal skills and their relationship with their fellow man is a very important ingredient in anyone that works for me," he said. "I call it the kitchen test. Do we feel comfortable about the kitchen test? I've heard enough today that gives me some real concern about Mr. Bolton."

Voinovich had been expected to support the nomination - and still may - but he pushed for a delay in order to get more information about the nominee's character and behavior.

"Who would have expected Sen. Voinovich to do what he did today?" said Sen. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, who was widely regarded as the Republican most likely to cause trouble for Bolton.

Voinovich is less inclined than some GOP mavericks, like Sen. John McCain of Arizona, to part ways with his party. Still, the Ohioan ranked eighth among Senate Republicans in breaking ranks with the majority of his party on votes in 2004, doing so about 12% of the time, a Congressional Quarterly analysis found.

"Sen. Voinovich is not a showboat, but he is always willing to stand up for things he believes in even if it goes against the party line," said Robert L. Bixby, executive director of the Concord Coalition, a budget watchdog group.

Voinovich, a self-described deficit hawk, resisted Bush's 2003 tax cuts until he got what he wanted: a bill with a net cost of no more than $350 billion. And he supported an unsuccessful drive to reinstate budget rules that made it harder to cut taxes by requiring that they be offset with spending cuts or increases in other taxes.

He often goes to the Senate floor to push for spending restraint, even if it means challenging his own colleagues.

"The bitter truth is that, regardless of which party is in control, Congress has never shown an appetite for fiscal restraint," he said in a speech on the Senate floor last month. "We are always much more likely to spend like drunken sailors than to save our constituents' money the way we would save our own."

In 2002, he drew national media attention when he boycotted a Capitol Hill hearing where a member of the Backstreet Boys, a teen-oriented singing group, testified about coal mining. Complaining about the use of celebrities to draw attention to issues, he said, "We're either serious about the issues or we're running a sideshow."

Voinovich's staff sought Tuesday to play down any differences between the senator and the president. "This is not a 'no' vote" on Bolton, his spokeswoman, Marcie Ridgway, said. "This is him hearing concerns and saying we need to clear the air."

"The senator," she added, "believes in this president and is a strong supporter."

But Democrats, in considering who among the moderate Republicans might be persuaded to support their case against Bolton, knew Voinovich was a possibility, a Democratic staffer said.

That's because the Ohio lawmaker also sits on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, where "he has been a stickler on management issues and the way subordinates are treated," the staffer said. "He gets really incensed at jerks."

Voinovich's questioning of Bolton's nomination is certain to make him a target of heavy lobbying by the White House and fellow Republicans.

But he is in a particularly strong position to be independent: Unlike Chafee, another moderate with qualms about the nomination, Voinovich, 68, does not need the party's support for a reelection campaign in 2006. He was reelected to a second term in 2004 with 64% of the vote.

And he has weathered heavy lobbying before.

When Voinovich was slow to back Bush's tax cuts, he was the target of a television ads in his home state that pictured him next to the French flag at a time when France was opposing the U.S. war in Iraq.

Voinovich said then that the tax issue paled in comparison with other challenges he had faced during his lengthy political career.

"If I ever get to the Pearly Gates," he said, "I'm going to say that I was the mayor of Cleveland."

Times staff writer Janet Hook contributed to this report.



I'm glad someone in Washington still has the balls to say what he thinks and not give a damn what his party thinks. I mean if a man doesn't have his principles, what does he have? I'm glad to see that the big shots in DC haven't corrupted you.

Faith of The Heart

It's been a long road getting from there to here
It's been a long time, but my time is finally near
and I can feel the change in the wind right now
Nothing's in my way
and they're not gonna hold me down no more
No they're not gonna hold me down

Cause I've got faith of the heart I'm going where my heart will take me
I've got faith to believe I can do anything
I've got strength of the soul and no one's gonna bend or break me
I can reach any star, I've got faith, I've got I've got I've got faith... faith of the heart

It's been a long night trying to find my way
Been through the darkness, now I've finally had my day
and I will see my dream come alive at last I will touch the sky
And they're not gonna hold me down no more no they're not gonna change my mind

Cause I've got faith of the heart I'm going where my heart will take me
I've got faith to believe I can do anything
I've got strength of the soul and no one's gonna bend or break me
I can reach any star, I've got faith, I've got I've got I've got faith... faith of the heart

I'm going where the winds so cold, to see the darkest days
But now the winds are free...only winds have changed
I've been to the fire and I've been to the rain
But I'll be fine cause I've got faith… faith of the heart

Cause I've got faith of the heart I'm going where my heart will take me
I've got faith to believe I can do anything
I've got strength of the soul and no one's gonna bend or break me
I can reach any star, I've got , I've got I've got I've got faith....faith of the heart
faith of the heart I'm going where my heart will take me
I've got faith to believe and no one's gonna bend or break
I can reach any star, cause I've got faith, cause I've got faith, faith of the heart

Rock, Paper, Scissors

I understand that Scissors can beat Paper, and I get how Rock can beat Scissors, but there's no fucking way Paper can beat Rock. Is Paper supposed to magically wrap around Rock leaving it immobile? Why the hell can't paper do this to scissors? Paper can't beat anybody, a rock would tear that shit up in 2 seconds. When I play rock/ paper/ scissors, I always choose rock. Then when somebody claims to have beaten me with their paper I can punch them in the face with my already clenched fist and say, oh I'm sorry, I thought paper would protect you...asshole

Society Is In Trouble

Are our schools out of control?
Wednesday, April 13, 2005
Regina Brett
Plain Dealer Columnist

Chairs flying, fists flying, what happens next?

On Monday, an assistant principal at South High School was knocked unconscious by a flying chair. Last week, a boy's jaw was broken during a gang fight at Glenville.

What will it take to make Cleveland schools safe? The CEO of schools and her boss, the mayor, need to figure that out fast.

I just interviewed 30 Cleveland teachers. They all said the kids are out of control. Suspensions and expulsions are discouraged because the numbers will look bad to the folks downtown. No consequences means the kids run wild.

Few teachers will let me publish their names. After I wrote about Collinwood High School, the teacher who invited me got a written reprimand. After I wrote about vandalism at Glenville, the district demanded the names of all the tradesmen and threatened their jobs.

A teacher at Albert B. Hart, a K-8 school, called her school a zoo. Kids have thrown carrots, Jell-O, candy, chalk and crayons at her. In March, a boy threw a juice bottle at her, clipping her above the eyebrow. It covered her with juice and left her head throbbing. The boy ran. The students blocked the exit and she heard them say, "What else can we do to her?"

Scared, she ordered them all out and locked the door. They pulled on the door and screamed at her. She hasn't been back. She heard that the boy who threw the bottle was not expelled.

A teacher at South High has been hit by a trash can, empty plastic bottles and by a kid who rammed into his chest. "This is the most out-of-control situation I have ever seen," he said.

Barnaby Linet is on medical leave from East Technical High School. Last year, kids smashed his door window with a chair and sprayed the fire extinguisher at him. The chemical burned his eyes. He went to the emergency room. The next day, he was scolded for leaving. What happened to the student?

"Nothing," he said.

In September, a kid threw a bottle of liquid soap at him. What happened to that student?

"Nothing," he said.

In November, kids smashed the emergency exit light, and threw the battery at his door while he was teaching. It sounded like a brick. He's on leave for anxiety and depression.

A teacher at Robert Fulton told me that a fourth-grade teacher was punched in the face last month. While she was out on assault leave, three teachers couldn't get her class under control. They had to call the police.

The art teacher there was assaulted breaking up a fight. The woman tore her rotator cuff. Another teacher was tripped on purpose by a student, injuring his groin area. The boy wasn't suspended.

A teacher at East High was hit twice. After teachers broke up a fight, a boy slapped her. When a girl went to slap a boy who rubbed up against her, she hit the teacher by mistake. The teacher hasn't returned. The doctors call it post-traumatic stress.

A teacher at Collinwood has the same diagnosis. Hers came from being lunged at, from seeing kids bloodied in fist fights, from seeing her classroom destroyed, from hearing a student threaten, "I'm gonna get you, you white-trash skinny bitch."

At Union Elementary, a kindergartner threatened a teacher with scissors and a teacher's aide was hurt when a child pushed her, injuring the aide's back.

"It really scares me where we're headed," a teacher there told me.

It should scare us all.

Sam's Club's Got A Plastic Problem

I have determined that Sam's Club is EVIL. I signed up for a membership yesterday and bought a membershipt. While going through the membership signup the guy says "Kevin, you've been pre-approved for a Sam's Club Credit Card. Would you like to accept the offer, decline the offer or deal with it at a later date?" I told the guy that I didn't want a credit card and that I would be on my merry little way. He told me that since I was going to be shopping at the club that day, that I could just pay for my membership when I checked out at the register. About 45 minutes later when I get to the register, the cashier gives me my total and tells my that my credit card can't be used at Sam's Club. Now, I'd be fine with it if it was an American Express or JCB or Diner's Club or something obscure like that. IT'S A VISA. How do you not take VISA? That's like not taking cash. So I find out the hard way that Sam's only takes the Sam's Club Card, the Wal-Mart Card and DISCOVER. Now, this is what floored me. DISCOVER!? Who the HELL carries a Discover card? I sure as hell can't even GET a Discover card and in my 2 years of retail have never seen more than two on any given day. NOT THAT POPULAR A CARD but VISA!? Come ON people. I have a feeling that the only reason Sam's even takes the Discover is because of the co-branded Sam's Club Discover Card. You can't not take the Sam's Club Discover AT Sam's Club. This is complete and utter bullshit. I've bought multiple items on Sam's website with my mom's membership with what but Mastercard or Visa. So my question to anyone out there is why Sam's only takes their own cards in the store but will take anyting online. Better yet, why are we allowed to use cash if it isn't tied to Sam Walton in some form or another?

Il Divo

No me abandonas asi
hablando sola de ti
Ven y devuelveme al fin
la sonrisa que se fue
Una vez mas
tocar tu piel
e hondo suspirar
Recuperemos lo que se ha perido

Chorus
Regresa a mi
Quiereme otra vez
Borra el dolor
que al irte me dio
cuando te separaste de mi
Dime que si
Ya no quiero ilorar
Regresa a mi
No puedo, vida

Extrano el amor que se fe
Extrano la dicha tambien
Quiero que vengas a mi
y me vuelvas a querer
No puedo mas
si tu no estas
Tienes que ilegar
Mi vida se apaga

Chorus

No Me abondonas asi
hablando sola de ti
Devuelveme la pasion de tus maso

Regresa a mi
Quiereme otra vez
Borra el dolor que al irte me dio
cuando te separaste de mi
Dime que si
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Il Divo are four exceptional young men with formally trained voices who take popular songs, old and new, to another level where the historic rift between pop and classical music is finally healed. The band were formed after a worldwide search which took more than two years. Consisting of an American, Frenchman, Spaniard and a Swiss, Il Divo spent the first half of 2004 in London rehearsing and recording. Some of their songs will be familiar like "Nella Fantasia" (based on Gabriel's Oboe from Ennio Morricone's penned score of The Mission) and a unique and powerful version of Toni Braxton's "Unbreak My Heart". The four principles share the lead throughout, combining to deliver choruses whose awesome power is matched by their tonal delicacy. Passion and restraint they show to be an irresistible aphrodisiac. Reflecting the multi-national character of the group, the songs are not all sung in English but drift between Spanish, English and Italian. However they are worded, all use the emotional Esperanto of love."

Jack Johnson

So, a few weeks ago, I came across some Jack Johnson. He's pretty cool. Marshall doesn't like him but I do. I think he's cool like I just said before. It's a laid back type of music that's kinda soothing which leads me to another post for the day...

Hotel California

On a dark desert highway, cool wind in my hair
Warm smell of colitas rising up through the air
Up ahead in the distance, I saw a shimmering light
My head grew heavy, and my sight grew dimmer
I had to stop for the night
There she stood in the doorway;
I heard the mission bell
And I was thinking to myself,
'This could be Heaven or this could be Hell'
Then she lit up a candle and she showed me the way
There were voices down the corridor, I thought I heard them say...

Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely place (such a lovely place)
Plenty of room at the Hotel California
Any time of year, you can find it here

Her mind is Tiffany-twisted, She got the Mercedes Benz
She's got a lot of pretty, pretty boys, that she calls friends
How they dance in the courtyard, sweet summer sweat.
Some dance to remember, some dance to forget
So I called up the Captain, 'Please bring me my wine'
He said, 'We haven't had that spirit here since 1969'
And still those voices are calling from far away
Wake you up in the middle of the night
Just to hear them say...

Welcome to the Hotel California
Such a lovely Place (such a lovely face)
They livin' it up at the Hotel California
What a nice surprise, bring your alibis

Mirrors on the ceiling, the pink champagne on ice
And she said 'We are all just prisoners here, of our own device'
And in the master's chambers, they gathered for the feast
They stab it with their steely knives, but they just can't kill the beast
Last thing I remember, I was running for the door
I had to find the passage back to the place I was before
'Relax' said the nightman, We are programed to receive.
You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave.

The Last Resort

She came from Providence, the one in Rhode Island
Where the old world shadows hang heavy in the air.
She packed her hopes and dreams like a refugee,
Just as her father came across the sea.

She heard about a place people were smilin',
They spoke about the red man's way, how they loved the land.
And they came from everywhere to the Great Divide
Seeking a place to stand or a place to hide.

Down in the crowded bars out for a good time,
Can't wait to tell you all what it's like up there.
And they called it paradise, I don't know why.
Somebody laid the mountains low while the town got high.

Then the chilly winds blew down across the desert,
Through the canyons of the coast to the Malibu
Where the pretty people play hungry for power
To light their neon way and give them things to do.

Some rich man came and raped the land, nobody caught 'em,
Put up a bunch of ugly boxes and, Jesus, people bought 'em.
And they called it paradise, the place to be,
They watched the hazy sun sinking in the sea.

You can leave it all behind and sail to Lahaina
Just like the missionaries did so many years ago.
They even brought a neon sign 'Jesus is Coming',
Brought the white man's burden down, brought the white man's reign.

Who will provide the grand design, what is yours and what is mine?
'Cause there is no more new frontier, we have got to make it here.
We satisfy our endless needs and justify our bloody deeds
In the name of destiny and in the name of God.

And you can see them there on Sunday morning
Stand up and sing about what it's like up there.
They called it paradise, I don't know why.
You call some place paradise - kiss it goodbye.

Finally, Sanity

Teresa Heinz has chimed in on the debate over whether evolution should be taught in high schools to explain life on Earth, as opposed to religious concepts such as creationism.

She came down on the side of teaching evolution, saying that in no way conflicts with her personal religious faith.

"I believe God did create us, and that evolution was his tool. I see no contradiction at all between science and religion -- none," she said during a speech Thursday night at an event in Pittsburgh.

"The purpose of science is to teach science and not religion," she added.

Heinz, a Roman Catholic, said only God "could create such a complex and beautiful thing" as life.

"I'm glad to be back in Pittsburgh," she said. "It's an honor always to be working in Pittsburgh."

She and her husband, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., used the Pittsburgh region as a key staging area in Kerry's presidential bid as the Democratic nominee against President Bush.

Heinz, chairwoman of the Howard Heinz Endowment and the Heinz Family Philanthropies, gave the keynote address kicking off "Pittsburgh 2005: Health and the Environment," a three-day conference in Shadyside.

The event, held at the University of Pittsburgh Cancer Institute, is a regional meeting of the Collaborative on Health and the Environment in Pennsylvania.

The issue of teaching evolution in public schools, long a subject of contention, heated up again in October when a school board in a rural southcentral Pennsylvania community, Dover, mandated the teaching of "intelligent design."

The concept holds that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by an unspecified higher power. Critics called the change in the ninth-grade biology curriculum a veiled attempt to require public schoolchildren to learn creationism, a biblical-based view that credits the origin of the species to God.

Schools typically teach evolution, the theory that Earth is billions of years old and that life forms developed over millions of years.

Heinz told about 300 participants at the conference that just as scientists are attacked when they offer evidence of global climate changes, teachers and school board members are being intimidated for teaching evolution.

"This abandonment of science is happening...without any fanfare at all," she said.

David M. Brown can be reached at dbrown@tribweb.com or (412) 380-5614.

Oh, EPA When Will You Ever Learn?

WASHINGTON -- The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday canceled a controversial study using children to measure the effect of pesticides after Democrats said they would block Senate confirmation of the agency's new head.

Stephen Johnson, as EPA's acting administrator, ordered an end to the planned study, a reversal from the agency's position just a day earlier when it said it would await the advice of outside scientific experts.

The aim of the study, Johnson said, was to fill data gaps on children's exposure to household pesticides and chemicals. He suspended it last November after ethical questions were raised by scientists within the EPA and by environmentalists.

Over the study's two years, EPA had planned to give $970 plus a camcorder and children's clothes to each of the families of 60 children in Duval County, Florida, in what critics of the study noted was a low-income minority neighborhood.

EPA also had agreed to accept $2 million for the $9 million "Children's Health Environmental Exposure Research Study" from the American Chemistry Council, a trade group that represents chemical makers.

"I have concluded that the study cannot go forward, regardless of the outcome of the independent review," Johnson said. "EPA must conduct quality, credible research in an atmosphere absent of gross misrepresentation and controversy. I am committed to ensuring that EPA's research is based on sound science with the highest ethical standards."

Sen. Barbara Boxer, D-California, had joined with Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Florida, in demanding the study's cancellation as a condition for confirming Johnson's nomination by President Bush.

"I am very pleased that Mr. Johnson has recognized the gross error in judgment the EPA made when they concocted this immoral program to test pesticides on children," Boxer said. "The CHEERS program was a reprehensible idea that never should have made it out of the boardroom, and I am just happy that it was stopped before any children were put in harms way." Boxer added that she would continue to oppose any testing of toxins on humans.

On Thursday, the agency said it would await a report from a science advisory panel, a process that spokesman Rich Hood said could take until May, before deciding the study's fate.

Johnson, an EPA employee for a quarter-century and the first person with a science background to be nominated to lead the agency, has been acting administrator since Mike Leavitt left the agency in January to become secretary of the Health and Human Services Department. He was nominated in March.

The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, which met on Wednesday to hear from Johnson, said Friday it would meet again next week to consider his nomination.

Thought For The Day

This is a pretty fine litte diddy if you ask me. It's so true, people come up with some really friggin stupid ideas, myself included at times.

A True Life Van Wilder

Wisconsin Weekend Package

DOUG ERICKSON

Associated Press

WHITEWATER, Wis. - At the off-campus house Johnny Lechner shares with three other UW-Whitewater students, the stairway to his attic bedroom is lined with photos dating back to his freshman year.

Lechner has lost track of many of the buddies that posed with him at these long-ago fraternity parties and homecoming parades. They have moved on to new lives careers, wives, children, mortgages - and that's just not Lechner's scene.

"I could have should have graduated many years ago, but I keep passing on the real world's invitation," said Lechner, 28, who is in his 11th year as a student in the University of Wisconsin System, the last 10 at UW-Whitewater. He's taken a full course load every semester except the current one, in which he's taking seven credits.

Lechner has completed 234 college credits, about 100 more than needed to graduate and so many that he's now paying the so-called "slacker tax."

System students who exceed 165 total credit hours or 30 more than their degree programs require - whichever is higher - pay double tuition. The Board of Regents instituted the surcharge this school year as a none-too-subtle hint that a state-subsidized education has its limits.

The slacker tax doubles full-time tuition at UW-Whitewater (12-18 credits) to $4,816 a semester. With the surcharge, Lechner is paying $2,810 per semester for his seven-credit load.

It is a measure of Lechner's campus notoriety that many classmates call the slacker tax "The Johnny Lechner Rule." While he doesn't mind being known as "That guy who has been in college forever," Lechner declines to take credit for the regents' sweeping policy change.

"I doubt they'd do all that work just for me, but I believe I'm the most extreme example of a student who's continued to go to school," he said.

After graduating from Waukesha North High School in 1994, Lechner went to UW-Waukesha for a year, then transferred to the 10,000-student UW-Whitewater. Most of his friends were attending colleges in Milwaukee and Madison.

"I wanted to go to a school where I knew no one. I wanted to discover who I was."

Turns out he's someone who likes to sleep in, play basketball, write songs and party two or three nights a week.

"I've fallen into some sort of a comfort zone here," he said. "I think deep down inside I have a fear of getting into the next phase of my life."

His middle-class parents pitched in financially for the first two years. Now he owes $30,000 in student loans but otherwise pays as he goes, using money earned as a waiter at the Janesville Olive Garden.

The per-credit surcharge he's paying is a bitter pill, but he reasons that it's comparable to the tuition he'd pay out of state. His major has zigged and zagged over the years, with stops at health education, theater and communications. He even tried women's studies.

"I think they'll end up kind of balling it all together as a liberal studies major, with a lot of emphasis areas," he said. He hopes to one day work with troubled youth.

He has a B average over 11 years and recently made the dean's list with a 4.0 grade-point average for a semester. He has been involved in almost every campus activity possible, from founding the Men Against Sexual Assault and Violence group to winning the 2003 Big Man on Campus contest, a pageant-like event that includes a swimsuit competition.

He volunteers with numerous organizations, including Habitat for Humanity, the UW-Whitewater Prairie Restoration Project and Camp Getaway for inner-city Chicago children with AIDS.

Until a few weeks ago, he was planning to graduate this spring.

"Then I came up with this crazy idea. I wanted to be student body president."

Lechner is now campaigning on a platform of bringing a 24-hour restaurant to Whitewater. He has two opponents, Brain Wolfe and David Jackson. Students vote next Wednesday and Thursday.

Regardless of the outcome, Lechner said he'll be back for a 12th year. He's pretty sure it will be his last.

"You can imagine that my family has been waiting a long time for me to graduate."

Like many parents, John and Shelle Lechner always hoped their son would attend college. It didn't dawn on them that he might never stop.

"People talk about how it takes some kids five or six years to graduate. I should be so lucky," said John Lechner, an operations manager for an engineering firm.

Last year, a letter from UW-Whitewater intended for his son came to his Waukesha home, Lechner said. Because the two share a name, the older Lechner opened it. "It said. We have no more courses to offer you. You've taken everything you can take.'"

Lechner said he's proud that his son stuck it out in college and is paying his own way, but disappointed that it has taken so long. Perhaps his son doesn't want to make the same mistakes as his now-divorced parents, who married young and rushed headlong into adulthood, he said.

"He doesn't want to move on to a profession and real-world problems," Lechner said. "And as long as he's in school, the loans don't get called in. I think that has something to do with it."

Shelle Lechner of Pewaukee, a convenience store manager, said she likes that her son has used his college time to pursue his dreams, including a songwriting career. He has self-financed five acoustic-guitar CDs and performs widely.

"He's an adult. He's paying for college himself. I don't have a right to tell him to get a job," she said. "He's doing what he wants to do, and he's happy. I couldn't ask for a better kid."

Johnny Lechner successfully avoided advisers for most of his college career, and UW-Whitewater officials didn't push the issue. They're pushing it now.

Lechner's latest adviser, newly assigned to him this year, is Richard Brooks, a genial man who is nonetheless putting the hammer down.

"It's time," said Brooks, a 25-year staff member and chairman of the department of philosophy and religious studies. "Johnny has come to see that getting a degree and moving on is in his best interests."

Lechner's case is unusual in that he bucks the stereotype of the perpetual student who isn't very bright, Brooks said.

"If you look at his transcripts, he's really a very good student. He's actually taken some classes over again, even though he got a B."

Lechner, standing nearby during this interview, smiles and shrugs. "I didn't realize I'd taken them before."

One of them was speech. "Usually a class people hate," Lechner said.

He knows some people might look down on his decision not to grow up. Asked when his college career will cross the line from amusing to pathetic, he answers, "Probably three years ago."

Pressed as to why he's still in college, Lechner says, "It's the lifestyle. It's being laid back, going with the flow. If I had a better answer, I'd tell you."

Sophomore Jenny Zinda, 20, hangs out with Lechner and said she doesn't think of him as old. Zinda was in fourth grade when Lechner was a college freshman.

"Some girls say it's weird that he's still here, but the bottom line is they all want him," Zinda said. "Everyone knows him and there's a certain excitability about being friends with and dating Johnny Lechner."

Senior John Koskinen, 22, Lechner's best friend, estimates that eight out of 10 students know Lechner or have heard of him. Last year, Lechner even had a car in the homecoming parade with the sign, "Been in college for 10 years."

"He's one of those people in life who actually has the guts to do what makes him happy," Koskinen said. "He's one of the happiest people in the entire world, and if you reach that level of happiness, why not keep doing it?"

Idiota

See, this is why philosophy is right about the philosopher king...The idea that the smart should rule the idiots:

PUT YOURSELF in Mike Bolesta's place. On the morning of Feb. 20, he buys a new radio-CD player for his 17-year-old son Christopher's car. He pays the $114 installation charge with 57 crisp new $2 bills, which, when last observed, were still considered legitimate currency in the United States proper. The $2 bills are Bolesta's idea of payment, and his little comic protest, too.

For this, Bolesta, Baltimore County resident, innocent citizen, owner of Capital City Student Tours, finds himself under arrest.

Finds himself, in front of a store full of customers at the Best Buy on York Road in Lutherville, locked into handcuffs and leg irons.

Finds himself transported to the Baltimore County lockup in Cockeysville, where he's handcuffed to a pole for three hours while the U.S. Secret Service is called into the case.

Have a nice day, Mike.

"Humiliating," the 57-year old Bolesta was saying now. "I am 6 feet 5 inches tall, and I felt like 8 inches high. To be handcuffed, to have all those people looking on, to be cuffed to a pole -- and to know you haven't done anything wrong. And me, with a brother, Joe, who spent 33 years on the city police force. It was humiliating."

What we have here, besides humiliation, is a sense of caution resulting in screw-ups all around.

"When I bought the stereo player," Bolesta explains, "the technician said it'd fit perfectly into my son's dashboard. But it didn't. So they called back and said they had another model that would fit perfectly, and it was cheaper. We got a $67 refund, which was fine. As long as it fit, that's all.

"So we go back and pay for it, and they tell us to go around front with our receipt and pick up the difference in the cost. I ask about installation charges. They said, 'No installation charge, because of the mix-up. Our mistake, no charge.' Swell.

"But then, the next day, I get a call at home. They're telling me, 'If you don't come in and pay the installation fee, we're calling the police.' Jeez, where did we go from them admitting a mistake to suddenly calling the police? So I say, 'Fine, I'll be in tomorrow.' But, overnight, I'm starting to steam a little. It's not the money -- it's the threat. So I thought, I'll count out a few $2 bills."

He has lots and lots of them.

With his Capital City Student Tours, he arranges class trips for school kids around the country traveling to large East Coast cities, including Baltimore. He's been doing this for the last 18 years. He makes all the arrangements: hotels, meals, entertainment. And it's part of his schtick that, when Bolesta hands out meal money to students, he does it in $2 bills, which he picks up from his regular bank, Sun Trust.

"The kids don't see that many $2 bills, so they think this is the greatest thing in the world," Bolesta says. "They don't want to spend 'em. They want to save 'em. I've been doing this since I started the company. So I'm thinking, 'I'll stage my little comic protest. I'll pay the $114 with $2 bills.'"

At Best Buy, they may have perceived the protest -- but did not sense the comic aspect of 57 $2 bills.

"I'm just here to pay the bill," Bolesta says he told a cashier. "She looked at the $2 bills and told me, 'I don't have to take these if I don't want to.' I said, 'If you don't, I'm leaving. I've tried to pay my bill twice. You don't want these bills, you can sue me.' So she took the money. Like she's doing me a favor."

He remembers the cashier marking each bill with a pen. Then other store personnel began to gather, a few of them asking, "Are these real?"

"Of course they are," Bolesta said. "They're legal tender."

A Best Buy manager refused comment last week. But, according to a Baltimore County police arrest report, suspicions were roused when an employee noticed some smearing of ink. So the cops were called in. One officer noticed the bills ran in sequential order.

"I told them, 'I'm a tour operator. I've got thousands of these bills. I get them from my bank. You got a problem, call the bank,'" Bolesta says. "I'm sitting there in a chair. The store's full of people watching this. All of a sudden, he's standing me up and handcuffing me behind my back, telling me, 'We have to do this until we get it straightened out.'

"Meanwhile, everybody's looking at me. I've lived here 18 years. I'm hoping my kids don't walk in and see this. And I'm saying, 'I can't believe you're doing this. I'm paying with legal American money.'"

Bolesta was then taken to the county police lockup in Cockeysville, where he sat handcuffed to a pole and in leg irons while the Secret Service was called in.

"At this point," he says, "I'm a mass murderer."

Finally, Secret Service agent Leigh Turner arrived, examined the bills and said they were legitimate, adding, according to the police report, "Sometimes ink on money can smear."

This will be important news to all concerned.

For Baltimore County police, said spokesman Bill Toohey, "It's a sign that we're all a little nervous in the post-9/11 world."

The other day, one of Bolesta's sons needed a few bucks. Bolesta pulled out his wallet and "whipped out a couple of $2 bills. But my son turned away. He said he doesn't want 'em any more."

He's seen where such money can lead.

Copyright © 2005, The Baltimore Sun

Someone who is too dumb to know that a $2 exists, is real and is still legal tender when they're the manager of a store needs to be taken out back and shot.

Wow

Now, I'm on the Jesus bandwagon but this my friends is a little extreme:

KIBBUTZ MAANIT, Israel (Reuters) - A Texas oilman is using his Bible as a guide to finding oil in the Holy Land.

John Brown, a born-again Christian and founder of Zion Oil & Gas of Dallas, can quote chapter and verse about his latest drilling venture in Israel, where his company has an oil and gas exploration licence covering 96,000 acres.

"Most blessed of sons be Asher. Let him be favoured by his brothers and let him dip his foot in oil," Brown quotes from Moses's blessing to one of the 12 Tribes of Israel in Deuteronomy 33:24.

Standing next to a 54-metre (177-ft)-high derrick at Kibbutz Maanit in northern Israel, Brown said the passage indicated there is oil lying beneath the biblical territory of the Tribe of Asher, where the agricultural community is located.

Geological surveys and an attempt by an Israeli-based company to find oil at the same site 10 years ago, a venture he said was abandoned for lack of funds, led Brown to pick the spot where new drilling will begin this week.

Brown said he raised money for "Project Joseph" from fellow evangelical Christians in the United States.

"From the investment standpoint, they certainly hope to have a return of the money," he said. "But the basis of it is Genesis, chapter 12."

In that passage, God promises to shower blessings on those who bless the "great nation" sired by the Hebrew patriarch Abraham.

God At Work

So, tonight I went to a memorial mass for Pope John Paull II at The Cathedral St. Louis Basilica. It was a beautiful service, full of somber pageantry. The music was beautiful, the readings and homily poignant and appropriate. There was some crazy man who burst out in the middle of Archbishop Raymond Burke's Homily but was escorted out of the sanctuary. On, the way home Dan Fox was complaining about some girl that he had gone out on a date with and called her a bitch and then proceded to blame Jesus for taking her away from him as she is a youth group leader at a Catholic Church. He said he "want[ed] to fight him and crucify him again." This kid is special and has some serious issues.

Later tonight, I asked Dan Lewis to come down to my room because I wanted him to read the Quicunque Vult also known as The Creed of Saint Athanasius. The creed is a very eloquent version of the Apostle's and Nicene creeds:

Whosoever will be saved, before all
things it is necessary that he hold the Catholic Faith.
Which Faith except
everyone do keep whole and undefiled, without doubt he shall perish
everlastingly.
And the Catholic Faith is this: That we worship one God in
Trinity, and Trinity in Unity, neither confounding the Persons, nor dividing the
Substance.
For there is one Person of the Father, another of the Son, and
another of the Holy Ghost.
But the Godhead of the Father, of the Son, and of
the Holy Ghost, is all one, the Glory equal, the Majesty co-eternal.
Such as
the Father is, such is the Son, and such is the Holy Ghost.
The Father
uncreate, the Son uncreate, and the Holy Ghost uncreate.
The Father
incomprehensible, the Son incomprehensible, and the Holy Ghost incomprehensible.
The Father eternal, the Son eternal, and the Holy Ghost eternal.
And yet
they are not three eternals, but one eternal.
As also there are not three
incomprehensibles, nor three uncreated, but one uncreated, and
one
incomprehensible.
So likewise the Father is Almighty, the Son Almighty, and
the Holy Ghost Almighty.
And yet they are not three Almighties, but one
Almighty.
So the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost is God.
And yet they are not three Gods, but one God. So likewise the Father is Lord, the Son Lord, and the Holy Ghost
Lord.
And yet not three Lords, but one Lord.
For like as we are
compelled by the Christian verity to acknowledge every Person by
himself to
be both God and Lord,
So are we forbidden by the Catholic Religion, to say,
There be three Gods, or three
Lords.
The Father is made of none, neither
created, nor begotten.
The Son is of the Father alone, not made, nor
created, but begotten.
The Holy Ghost is of the Father and of the Son,
neither made, nor created, nor begotten,
but proceeding.
So there is one
Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Ghost, not three
Holy Ghosts.
And in this Trinity none is afore, or after other; none is
greater, or less than another;
But the whole three Persons are co-eternal
together and co-equal.
So that in all things, as is aforesaid, the Unity in
Trinity and the Trinity in Unity is to be worshipped.
He therefore that will
be saved is must think thus of the Trinity.
Furthermore, it is necessary to
everlasting salvation that he also believe rightly the Incarnation of our
Lord Jesus Christ.
For the right Faith is, that we believe and confess,
that our Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is God and Man;
God, of the
substance of the Father, begotten before the worlds; and Man of the Substance
of his Mother, born in the world;
Perfect God and perfect Man, of a
reasonable soul and human flesh subsisting.
Equal to the Father, as touching
his Godhead; and inferior to the Father, as touching his
Manhood;
Who,
although he be God and Man, yet he is not two, but one Christ; One, not by
conversion of the Godhead into flesh but by taking of the Manhood into God;
One altogether; not by confusion of Substance, but by unity of Person.
For as the reasonable soul and flesh is one man, so God and Man is one
Christ;
Who suffered for our salvation, descended into hell, rose again the
third day from the dead.
He ascended into heaven, he sitteth at the right
hand of the Father, God Almighty, from
whence he will come to judge the
quick and the dead.
At whose coming all men will rise again with their
bodies and shall give account for their
own works.
And they that have
done good shall go into life everlasting; and they that have done evil into
everlasting fire. This is the Catholic Faith, which
except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved.

So, here's the kicker. Dan and I start to talk about the different songs we sing at church and "Christ Our Lord is Risen Today" comes up we start to talk about it. As I reach my hand for the computer, to play the song, it starts playing. No, I hadn't touched it nor did I know what song was about to play. This my friends is what we call God at work. The little things. That was CRAZY. I leave you with the lyrics to the version on Hymns Triumphant Volumes I & II:

Christ, the Lord, is risen today,
Alleluia!

Sons of men and angels say,
Alleluia!

Raise your joys and triumphs high,
Alleluia!

Sing, ye heavens, and earth, reply,
Alleluia!

Lives again our glorious King, Alleluia!

Where, O death, is now thy sting?
Alleluia!

Once He died our souls to save,
Alleluia!

Where thy victory, O grave? Alleluia!

Love’s redeeming work is done, Alleluia!

Fought the fight, the battle won, Alleluia!

Death in vain forbids His rise,
Alleluia!

Christ hath opened paradise,
Alleluia!

Goodbye, John Paul II

Laura and I join people across the Earth in mourning the passing of Pope John Paul II. The Catholic Church has lost its shepherd, the world has lost a champion of human freedom, and a good and faithful servant of God has been called home.

Pope John Paul II left the throne of St. Peter in the same way he ascended to it -- as a witness to the dignity of human life. In his native Poland, that witness launched a democratic revolution that swept Eastern Europe and changed the course of history. Throughout the West, John Paul's witness reminded us of our obligation to build a culture of life in which the strong protect the weak. And during the Pope's final years, his witness was made even more powerful by his daily courage in the face of illness and great suffering.

All Popes belong to the world, but Americans had special reason to love the man from Krakow. In his visits to our country, the Pope spoke of our "providential" Constitution, the self-evident truths about human dignity in our Declaration, and the "blessings of liberty" that follow from them. It is these truths, he said, that have led people all over the world to look to America with hope and respect.

Pope John Paul II was, himself, an inspiration to millions of Americans, and to so many more throughout the world. We will always remember the humble, wise and fearless priest who became one of history's great moral leaders. We're grateful to God for sending such a man, a son of Poland, who became the Bishop of Rome, and a hero for the ages.
- President George Walker Bush, April 2, 2005

Freedom consists not in doing what we like, but in having the right to do what we ought.
-Pope John Paul II (1920-2005)