It's Pascha Baby!

For you less religious Christians, that's Easter. Not to be confused with Ester... who is pretty much unrelated to this holiday. Due to the cross referencing with a Pagan fertility celebration, in order to get the Pagans to play along with the whole Christ thing, colorful eggs and bunnies were incorporated into the traditions... this led to a whole new meaning of "the 2nd cuming." Thanks to Halmark and Cadbury, it now approaches devil worship with statues of chocolate idols and a bunny who lays chocolate eggs who may or may not be related to the goose who laid golden ones.

The Pope took advantage of the extra press given to him today to call for peace in Iraq, the Holy Land and Tibet. After bragging about converting a prominent Muslim newspaper editor, he denounced "selfishness, injustice, hatred and violence" between individuals and peoples and said, "these are the scourges of humanity, open and festering in every corner of the planet, although they are often ignored and sometimes deliberately concealed, wounds that torture the souls and bodies of countless of our brothers and sisters." Meanwhile the speech I gave this morning on twitter simply stated "Eggs Found: 0 Saviors Killed: 1" and did not get nearly as much press... likely because I am Jewish.

In regards to peace in the Middle East, Dick Cheney said it will require "painful concessions." When asked by Steinberg For Congress Field Reporter Kristin B. for further details, the Vice President said that peace talks would take place while hunting for quail.

Despite it being Easter, God decided to plague mankind a little this weekend. First floods poured into the midwest, then rockets struck inside the Green Zone in Baghdad, and an Arkansas meatpacking plant exploded. But the people who the media seem to think are really suffering this weekend appear to be the prisoners who eat nutraloaf. In case you were wondering, it's a mixture of cubed whole wheat bread, nondairy cheese, raw carrots, spinach, seedless raisins, beans, vegetable oil, tomato paste, powdered milk and dehydrated potato flakes... it's not only a complete meal, but it's also a tool for behavior modification! One Corrections Commissioner stated, "It's commonplace in other states as a way of providing nutrition in a mechanism that dissuades inmates from throwing feces, urine, trays and silverware... It tends to have the desired outcome... Once the offender relents, we stop with the nutraloaf. That's our goal, to protect our staff and not have them subjected to behavior that the average Vermonter would find incomprehensible." I've eaten prison food in Virginia... its better than some high school cafeterias... but if this stuff works perhaps we should feed it to kids instead of sending them to detention?

And because my friend in China asked, and since my blog is already blocked there anyways... "The flagship newspaper of China's ruling Communist Party called Saturday for efforts to 'resolutely crush' anti-government demonstrations by Tibetans." This coming as China accused the Dali Lama of orchestrating riots to ruin the Beijing Olympics. Of course... how come the U.S. didn't see it sooner... the Nobel Peace Prize winner is trying to overthrow communism... single handedly. Perhaps China needs to stop smoking the smog?

And a sad farewell this weekend to a beloved authur... C. Clarke that is. Michael Hinman of SyFy Portal remembers him as "More Than A Carbon Based Biped," Phil Plait of Bad Astronomy is "incredibly sad," and Guido Fawkes notes that "God winked at him."