Today's plantings

(48) Snapdragon 'Rocket Mix'

(1) Clematis 'Ernest Markham'

(1) Ostrich Fern

Attacking with 1e4

Attacking with 1e4 (2001) by John Emms

Densely packed with detailed chess analysis, the book focuses on attacking eight defenses:

Sicilian (1 e4 c5 2 Nc3)
e5 (1 e4 e5 2 Bc4)
French (1 e4 e6 2 d3)
Caro-Kann (1 e4 c6 2 c4)
Pirc (1 e4 d6 2 d4 Nf6 3 Nc3 g6)
Modern (1 e4 g6 2 d4 Bg7 3 Nc3 d6 4 Be3)
Scandinavian (1 e4 d5 2 exd5)
Alekhine (1 e4 Nf6 2 e5)

Lots of interesting advice.

Hugo Chavez

Presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani, whose law firm represents an American subsidiary of a Hugo Chavez-controlled oil company, said Tuesday that the socialist Venezuelan president is dangerous to U.S. interests.

- AP/Forbes (read full story here)

Pat Robertson was right.

Breaking free

Across the country, on secular campuses as varied as Colgate University, the University of Wisconsin and the University of California, Berkeley, chaplains, professors and administrators say students are drawn to religion and spirituality with more fervor than at any time they can remember.

University officials explained the surge of interest in religion as partly a result of the rise of the religious right in politics, which they said has made questions of faith more talked about generally.

- NY Times (read full story here).

Could these be steps toward breaking free from the tyranny of the left?

Brown Thrasher

There was a Brown Thrasher (Toxostoma rufum) in the yard this morning, which is unusual for us.

Curved bill, long tail, reddish brown above, light below, about the size of a Blue Jay.

It was feeding on the ground, scattering debris with its bill as it looked for insects.

BirdsofOklahoma.net has a good picture here.

Gates of Vienna t-shirts

Interesting shirts (here) that say:

"At the siege of Vienna in 1683 Islam seemed poised to overrun Christian Europe. We are in a new phase of a very old war."

The Religion of Peace

Sheik Ahmad Bahr, acting Speaker of the Palestinian Legislative Council, declared during a Friday sermon at a Sudan mosque that America and Israel will be annihilated and called upon Allah to kill Jews and Americans "to the very Last One".

- The Jerusalem Post (read full story here)