At the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, IN near a display of Studebaker electric cars from the turn of the 20th century was a quote from one of the Studebaker brothers, Clem I think. Unfortunately, I can't remember the exact quote but it was along the lines of "Electric cars are better because they're quiet and don't stink and don't frighten horses." This was circa 1904.

Studebaker made electrics into the 'teens, later than many companies, but discontinued them when electric starters made the internal combustion the easier, cheaper alternative that electric cars couldn't compete with. What's really a tragedy is that for the past 105 years we've been running from what Clem Studebaker saw so clearly in the early days of the passenger auto.

Smart, funny and a mess in a way I can relate to (well, the depression angle anyway--my parents divorced when I was in my mid-30s and Elizabeth Taylor was not involved, that I know of).

You've got to love someone who rose above what was a defining role in Princess Leia to have one of movie's best lines ever ("You're right, you're right, I know you're right") to memorably hilarious cameos in Austin Powers and Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back.

Carrie, I love ya no matter what!

This has been a problem for centuries, as I'm sure Ms. Kissling well knows--going all the way back to Pope Gregory the Great's assumption of temporal power in central Italy in the seventh century in the face of the collapse of effective civil government in Rome and its environs. One of Gregory's later medieval successors even floated the idea of the papacy giving up all its temporal authority in exchange for ultimate spiritual authority. That worked about as well as you might expect.

So the short answer to Kissling's question in the headline is that the Vatican is one of the last few fragments of a medieval state left in Europe, and given the track record of the Catholic Church toward outside pressure, and given that the Vatican, since the dissolution of the Papal States in 1860 has always wanted it both ways, none of what Kissling said should be surprising.

In fairness, not many religious fundamentalists are down with this alteration of biblical text. One of them (and I'm sorry I can't remember who) said that what Spawn of Phyllis and others at Conservapedia are doing is not substantively different than what the Jesus Seminar has been doing for years to reconstruct what they believe is the "Gospel According to Jesus."

If the Pharisees=Elites thing is any indication, than these people are even bigger idiots than expected. Actually, a better contemporary substitution would be "religious conservatives" because the Pharisees interpreted the Mosaic Law more conservatively than their rivals in "the elite," the Sadducees.

Personally, when Andrew Schlafly and Co. get to the epistles, I'd love to see what they will do with 2 Peter 2:1, which is very apropos:

But there were also false prophets among the people, just as there will be false teachers among you. They will secretly introduce destructive heresies, even denying the sovereign Lord who bought them - bringing swift destruction on themselves.

That's from the NIV traslation, FWIW.

I have to disagree with you in this instance. Though I do not have a problem with Obama's being awarded the Peace Prize--I do think the Nobel Committee's reasoning as they themselves expressed it is sound--I also think it is possible to have an honest disagreement and civil debate about Obama's merits as a Peace Laureate at this point in his career.

And if Limbaugh, Beck, and others (John Bolton comes to mind) were disagreeing from that place (as I believe you are, Glenn), then yes, using this play from the GOP book would be out of bounds. However, most of the wingnut noise machine are not coming from an honest place, and so I can't join the swoonfest over descending to the GOP's level. Turning the other cheek only works when the person slapping you can be reasonsed with.

The Republicans--or at least the few remaining grownups left in the party--know that the only way to keep Snowe's seat in Republican hands is to keep Snowe in the seat. Even if she lost a primary to a more ideologically pure candidates, the voters of Maine would almost certainly defeat such a candidate in a landslide.

So all the Red Staters can do is engage in a juvenile bit of political theater.

Or, more properly, what did Jesus do, according to the New Testament? Jesus' ministry took place during the reign of Tiberius, a man not known for his benevolent rule. Effective, yes; but even if you discount Suetonius's rather lurid accounts of his sexual deviancy, Tiberius was not the sort of ruler Jesus approved of. Yet, he did not pray for the death of the Jews' ultimate oppressor, he in fact preached respect for civil authority.

As did Paul, who was probably ultimately executed by Nero.

Perhaps Rev. Drake and those who are praying for Obama's death should consider: if Jesus and the Apostles could put up with leaders like Tiberius, Caligula and Nero--not to mention their local puppets like Herod Agrippa--can they not put up with Obama for (at most) 8 years?