Tim Ellsworth

President Bush has asked the Supreme Court to overturn an appeals court decision that declared a ban on partial birth abortion to be unconstitutional.

Tim Frisby isn’t your typical college football player. For one thing, he’s old enough to be most of his teammates’ father.

At age 40, Frisby is living out his dream as a member of the South Carolina football team. He spent 20 years in the military and is now pursuing his degree, but he was also a talented enough football player to play for the Gamecocks. Last weekend, he caught his first pass as a college football player, and he’s hoping for more to come.

It’s an enjoyable story to read. Thanks to Misawa for the link.

Saw this posted at www.lucianne.com with the caption “Stuck on stupid” and laughed my you-know-what off.

I guess Grandma did get run over by a reindeer. What are the odds?

With Notre Dame pinned deep in its own territory to open Saturday’s game against Washington, Notre Dame coach Charlie Weis faced a difficult decision. On one hand, the Irish were at their own 1-yard-line following a fumble recovery, and a pass play was risky.

On the other hand, a few days earlier Weis had promised a dying boy, 10-year-old Montana Mazurkiewicz, that he’d run whatever play Montana wanted him to at the start of the game. Montana had called for a “pass right.”

Weis fulfilled his promise to Montana and ran a pass play to the right. Quarterback Brady Quinn completed the pass to Anthony Fasano for a 13-yard gain.

Unfortunately, Montana wasn’t able to see the play. He died of a brain tumor at his home the day before.

Before his death, Weis paid a visit to Montana, whose family lives in South Bend, Ind. Weis and Montana talked football, and Weis gave him an autographed ball before telling Montana he could call the first play in Saturday’s game.

The story is touching, and worth a few minutes of your time to read.

Police in St. Louis are trying something innovative in their efforts to fight prostitution in the city. They’ll be sending postcards to the homes of people arrested for picking up a prostitute.

“Thanks for your visit,” the postcard begins. “The city of St. Louis, its residents and your neighbors would like to remind you that lewd, lascivious and/or suggestive behavior (including but not limited to prostitution, solicitation and street demonstration) are a violation of city ordinance and state law.”

“If my wife got it,” said Police Chief Joe Mokwa, “I think she would be waiting for me with topics for conversation at the dinner table.”

A high profile court case, being dubbed Scopes II, begins today in federal court in Harrisburg, Pa. The issue at stake is whether a high school board can require its biology students to hear about alternatives to the theory of evolution, such as intelligent design. That’s what the Dover, Pa., school board voted to do, and it set off a frenzy from evolution supporters scared to death that students might actually see the flaws in evolutionary theory.

Some parents in Dover are thrilled with their school board’s decision.

“But 11 other parents in Dover were outraged enough to sue the school board and the district, contending that intelligent design - the idea that living organisms are so inexplicably complex, the best explanation is that a higher being designed them - is a Trojan horse for religion in the public schools.”

Of course, it’s perfectly OK for the religion of naturalism to be taught in schools. And yes, naturalism is a religion.

The legal battle came to a head on Oct. 18 last year when the Dover school board voted 6 to 3 to require ninth-grade biology students to listen to a brief statement saying that there was a controversy over evolution, that intelligent design is a competing theory and that if they wanted to learn more the school library had the textbook “Of Pandas and People: the Central Question of Biological Origins.” The book is published by an intelligent design advocacy group, the Foundation for Thought and Ethics, based in Texas.

All this furor over what amounts to a one-minute statement students will hear in their biology classes. Evolutionists are so outlandishly paranoid they’re willing to spend thousands of dollars to protest a one-minute statement. Seems to me that evolutionists wouldn’t be so threatened if they had any confidence at all in their belief system, no?

I’ve added Jeff Rushing’s blog, Thanks for Noticing Me, to my links. Jeff and I went to college together many moons ago, and now he’s working for CNN. If I remember correctly, I helped him get a job at The Jackson Sun, so he owes me big time. He also drafted for me the first year I was in my fantasy baseball league (I was out of town for the draft), and did an admirable job.

One of Jeff’s recent posts is an e-mail exchange between him and a girl who a friend wanted to set him up with. Suffice it to say, that relationship didn’t work out too well. You’ll enjoy the correspondence, and the rest of Jeff’s blog. He’s a funny guy.

My blogging has suffered this week for a few reasons:

1. Things at work have been crazy. We’re getting ready for Bob Dole’s visit on Tuesday, and Chuck Colson was on campus last night. This morning I had the honor of driving him to the airport and was able to conduct a brief interview en route. You can read it here.

2. I was sick for a couple of days. Nothing major, just a fever and lack of energy. I think I’m all recovered now. But for a while, all I wanted to do was sleep.

3. I’ve spent a lot of time writing some stories from my trip last weekend to New Orleans. So far, Baptist Press has run three of my stories — here, here and here. I should have a couple other stories next week. The girl in the picture above is Breanne, one of the hurricane victims who left a disaster relief shelter with a few new stuffed animals. She lost all her toys in the storm.

4. I also wrote a story about Matt Murton of the Chicago Cubs, who I interviewed during my trip to Chicago last month. You can read it here.

So, that’s why I haven’t posted as much this week as I usually do. I didn’t even have time to write a column this week. I had intended to address the situation with the Washington Nationals suspending their chapel leader in more detail, but it hasn’t happened yet. Maybe next week.

A month ago, Chris Carpenter had the Cy Young Award all but locked up. He’s thrown it away in September.

After tonight’s outing in which Carpenter gave up nine runs, Dontrelle Willis of the Florida Marlins is now the pitcher most deserving of the Cy Young Award in the National League. He’s got one more win than Carpenter, and thanks to the beating the Brewers laid on Carpenter tonight, Willis’ ERA is also much better. Nice choke job by Carpenter.

By a 13-5 vote, the Senate Judiciary Committee approved John Roberts as the next Supreme Court chief justice. Not surprisingly, one of the five who voted against him was Dick Durbin (who was joined by Dianne Feinstein, Joey Biden, Teddy Kennedy and Chuckie Schumer).

Durbin is such an unprincipled weasel (Yes, I know Feinstein, Biden, Kennedy and Schumer are, too, but I used to live in Illinois so I’m singling out Durbin). It makes me glad I don’t live in the Land of Lincoln anymore, so I don’t have to claim him as one of my senators.

Fans at Atlanta Braves games were the worst about washing their hands after visiting the restroom, according to a recent study.

Findings indicated that at Turner Field, 37 percent of men left the bathroom without washing, and 16 percent of the women did.

Take a bow, Braves fans, for being uncivilized and downright disgusting. Of all the places where you ought to wash your hands after using the bathroom, a sports stadium should be at the top of the list.

The French government is trying to encourage parents to have more kids by providing financial incentives to parents.

Just what we need — more French.

The Roman Catholic Church has taken a stand against homosexuality, as the church will ban homosexuals from becoming priests.

Interesting development that will have some serious ramifications.

September 16, 2005

Dear Daniel,

Sometimes it’s the small things in life — like rocks — that bring us the most joy.

I’m in Slidell, La., tonight, covering some stories about Hurricane Katrina and its aftermath. The Gulf region down here is in shambles. The fierce hurricane winds blew down countless trees, many of them smashing houses and cars as they fell. Traffic has been a nightmare. Thousands of people are without homes. And I have yet to see the worst of Katrina’s destruction.

All evening I’ve been listening to stories about how the hurricane has affected people, and sometimes it gets depressing. The magnitude of the damage is colossal, and I sympathize for so many people who have lost everything they owned. Some of them have even lost loved ones. It truly is a tragedy that will affect this country for years.

As I was getting ready to go to sleep, I reached into the pockets of my shorts to pull out my keys – but also felt something else. Out of my pocket I pulled a rock. Just a rock, some might think. There are millions of them in the world. No big deal.

But this rock is a special rock, because a special boy gave it to me. The other night when we were out walking the dogs, you stopped as you often do to explore the grass, the flowers, the trash, the bugs, the leaves, the dirt and whatever else you might find on the ground. You picked up a rock and headed straight for me – “Here daddy. Here daddy,” you said.

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