I was a wedding photographer tonight. It's something I do from time to time, without a particular excitement for it and without ever being especially moved in any way. Tonight was different, though.

I knew going into the wedding that my clients had been in Iraq as recently as three months ago. I offered them a discount out of respect for the noble and dangerous work they do. Honestly, I wish I could have done it for free, but at this point in my life I just can't. Maybe I will one day, but not today.

When the events and the ceremony started going, though, I found it to be an extraordinary emotional experience for me. I was thinking about how just a few months ago both the bride and groom were in a war zone, engaged, together but separate. Today, they were together. They seemed so happy. They had a sense of peace which superceded everything, like anything could go wrong with the ceremony or the weather or any kind of superficial stuff and it just wouldn't bother them. I'm sure their Christian values cause that, but I couldn't help but to reflect on the fact that they are simply grateful to be alive and that their experiences in that war zone may have changed them for the better for the rest of their lives. Simply put - they are (what we all should be) thankful to be here. One or both of them could have very easily perished in Iraq, and I think they know that. In that context, most of the problems we have here in America are quite small.

I only hope that they continue to carry out the noble military mission that they supported in Iraq at home in their marriage. By that, I mean, the military mission they served in spread freedom to a part of the world that had none. Freely entering into a marriage is a beautiful thing and is the perfect way for them to exhibit the freedom they just cultivated in the Middle East. I pray that they remember that in the years ahead which will certainly be filled with lots of joy and also a lot of very difficult times. The perseverance required to make a marriage work is sometimes portrayed as a ball and chain, or limits on our behavior, but it is actually the purest expression of love, faith in God, and freedom I can think of (other than worship, of course).

I am extremely tired right now, so I hope I've made some sense to you. I just wanted to be sure to write these thoughts down before the night erased them from my delirious mind.

Anne presents Congressman Boehner with a Louisville Slugger.

I love this story from Stop the ACLU about the double-amputee Iraq War veteran whose comments were recycled and taken grossly out of context suing Moore. I LOVE IT!! I am not the lawsuit-happy kind, but things like this are legitimate. This is what the court system is for, and, frankly it's all liberals understand. I believe more liberals should be sued so that they can grasp the reasons that conservatives are conservative. I want to sue the ACLU one day. Many practitioners of the liberal religion have no values (in any case, God isn't one of them), and they then look to the state as their God figure. The courts set forth the state's judgments and liberals respect it. They believe that the government is the solution to everything - even moral problems, despite their outspoken aversion to having morals pushed on them by government. When liberals have to shell out millions of dollars and endure embarassment over their mistakes, they might grow up and learn how to function in this most civilized society.

U.S. House Majority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) spoke on behalf of Congresswoman Anne Northup (and vice versa) in KY's 3rd District today. Rep. Northup is seeking a sixth term in office representing KY's 3rd District, which includes its largest city, Louisville.

To those of you not familiar with bluegrass state politics, Kentucky is a perfect example of old-timer Democrats realizing gradually that the Democratic Party has left them behind in favor of an ultra-liberal platform. The state has gradually gone red, almost exclusively, in national elections - although the state legislature is still dominated by Democrats, even with the Republican governor. Anne Northup appeals to conservatives and moderates in her district with her tough and sensible approach to Congress. She is running this year against an ultra-liberal former publisher of an alternative newspaper, who could possibly put up a good fight with his deep pockets. Regardless, the match reminds me of Bush vs. Kerry.

Northup's tenure is a bit of an anomaly, as Louisville is known as a fairly liberal city saturated with liberal media and a lot of wealthy leftists.

I'll post some pictures tomorrow.

There is a highly enlightened person who manages a weblog entitled Beaming Visionary. This guy is obviously the perfect example of an elitist snob who looks down upon everyone in flyover country, and thinks everyone who doesn't agree with him is simply stupid.

My entry Supreme Court Declares Atheism National Religion yielded a lengthy correction from Beaming Visionary along with a wonderful display of elitist condescension. BV is clearly unhappy. I don't know what he is so ticked off about, because the world is a beautiful place, but he's apparently taking things WAY too seriously. BV felt like he needed to inform me of why I was wrong in my passage. It's all on the comments page to that entry, but this is truly way too good to pass up. This guy actually seems like one of those people who has spent a couple years in college "learning stuff," and has since decided to go on a typing rampage to change the world. He seems like someone who would get into a political argument and then declare his credentials as a "political science major" as a reason you should shut up and listen to him and only him the enlightened one. He would probably send me a big correction on my joke headline, "Supreme Court Finds Constitution Unconstitutional," telling me why that is impossible.

What's hilarious is what he wrote on his blog about stoptheaclu.com (emphasis added) - "As I have noted, the site is operated by a bunch of profoundly uneducated, Gawd-fearing, jingoistic far-righties whose posts and personas evoke an all-too-familar mixture of horror and guffaws. As is normally the case with the lunatic fringe, these shamelessly hypocritical adult infants delete comments that render their arguments (never fact-checked and drawn from joke sources such as WorldNutDaily.com and Michelle "Every-morning-I-dig-out-my-diseased-cooze-with-an-acid-soaked-cheese-grater" Malkin. Speaking of the profoundly uneducated, I wonder what BV would have to say about Russell County, KY and Munford County, TN using the "Say No to ACLU" approach to life.

BV, I refuse to delete your comments because I want everyone to know how hateful and wrong you are. I want everyone in this country to read your posts. For that reason, I'm going to repost some of your comments on a new entry.

BV: "I know you're at an inherent disadvatage, being from Kentucky and all . . ."
Wow. You just made yourself look stupid.

"Even though I recognize that Christianity is -- along with all religions -- a world-class farce . . ."
You must have watched Agnes of God one too many times. You clearly don't know Christianity as it is supposed to be, and quite frankly, that is probably not your fault. Christians haven't done a good enough job reaching out to you and showing you what Christianity is all about and I am sorry.

"However, there are legal precedents supporting the ACLU's actions in San Diego . . ."
The simple presence of legal precedent does not mean that the ACLU's actions are right. The legal precedent may actually be wrong.

If you believe that atheism is a religion, then I guess you believe that "OFF" on your remote control represents a TV channel."
No, not exactly. Atheism is a belief system, or a disbelief system if you like. The important thing to realize here is that no matter how hard you try, there is no escape from religion or something like it. Everybody believes in something, even if they say it is nothing. Atheists want their religion to be respected in matters such as the Pledge of Allegiance and "In God We Trust," but in order to do so they would have to force stupid, ill-informed religious people to go along with the Atheism. Of course it goes back to the Constitution and its forbiddance of establishing a religion. The U.S. is not forcing anyone to be Jewish or Christian. I would recommend to Atheists that if you want to live in a nation where you can't speak of God in public or in public buildings on public property on public time - start your own nation and write a new Constitution specifically forbidding such reprehensible actions. The fact of the matter is, though, you're too fat, happy, and lazy here in the good old United States and you enjoy feeling intellectually superior. Have fun with that.

"Atheism is nothing more than the refusal of reasonable people to swallow your and other backwater morons' insistence on creating a country with rules and statutes founded on supernatural nonsense."
I have nothing left to say except that we should all pray for this guy.

I guess he really wants to be John Kerry more.

Watch MacBeth's testimony here. Didn't his description of killing the youngest son remind you of that one episode of "24" where Bauer faked the killing of the terrorist's child? Of course, Bauer was trying to save millions of people from a nuke.

Looks to me like MacBeth and his friends got some big ideas back in the 2004 election when the videos of John Kerry's Winter Soldier testimony were being played all the time.

If liberal democrats had all the power they want, that would be the type of headline we would wake up to every day.

The ACLU and others who practice the liberal religion want to bring down the Mt. Soledad National War Memorial because the cross shape reminds them of Christianity and, thus, offends them. They say it violates that impenetrable wall that our forefathers wrote about that separates Church and State! (Since when do liberals care about our forefathers' opinions - those slaveowning rapists!) Educated people know that the Constitution specifically prohibits the establishment of a national religion as well as the free exercise of religion.

For San Diego to put up a cross as part of a war memorial does nothing to establish a religion. If they wanted to do that, they might try to do something like indoctrinate schoolchildren while they're away from their parents' protection.

The secular culture is hypocritical because in their attempts to wipe out religion from the public eye, the public ear, television, our currency, government meetings, and from all form of government expenditures they are in turn trying to institute their own religion as the national religion. They want to establish their beliefs on God and impose them on the country. That is wrong and, thankfully, unconstitutional. In the long run, their efforts will prove to be a huge waste of time. However, right now the sane people of this country have a responsibility, and a challenge, to work in our everyday communities so that people truly understand this subject. Ignorant people will get swept away in the liberal religion's lies and the decisions made by their judges. The most difficult task is to ensure that judges cite the Constitution only, and not meaningless documents written by irrelevant people.

Please get involved in this fight to save Mt. Soledad. President Bush would be right to issue an executive order transferring the land to the National Park Service.

This is what some genius on Louisville Mojo thinks about liberals and conservatives:

People who think this will one day be extinct like dinosaurs if conservatives continue working as they have for the last thirty years or so. Part of this work includes encouraging people to read Shelby Steele's book White Guilt.

I am so proud of the Russell County High School seniors. They decided to interrupt the principal's opening remarks in order to stand up and recite the Lord's Prayer. (Read more about this at Stop the ACLU.) Action like this taken by 17 and 18 year-old young adults stands in such stark contrast to the idiotic protests of the 60's and 70's. It shoudn't be any surprise, though, if you look at the courageous decisions made by the USA's young people every day in terms of voluntary military enlistment and service.

Speaking of voluntary military service, we should all thank God every day for Richard Milhous Nixon and his wise decision to end the draft. In doing so, he allowed for the development of a culture in which military service, for the most part, is greatly honored. It's hard to be skeptical of military personnel when you consider that the nature of their service is not compulsory, but voluntary. And of course, the arguments that practitioners of the liberal religion put forth about the relative intelligence of military personnel is so tired, false, and insulting that all it really does is make themselves and their liberal religion look wrong.

To recap: 9/11 happens. Government takes unprecedented action to fight terrorists abroad. Government attempts to take unprecedented action to fight terrorists within USA. Practitioners of the liberal religion block attempts to fight terrorists within USA. Government bureaucrats introduce mediocre measures to fight terrorists within USA - including this fiasco outlined by Michelle Malkin on Hot Air.

U.S. Marshals on flights are a good idea. Air Marshals would be well-equipped and well-trained and well worth their monetary cost should terrorists ever try to hijack another plane. BUT, as with nearly every government program, idiotic bureaucrats have ruined it.

Part of the value of air marshals is their anonymity. The idea that an air marshal could be lurking on nearly any flight in the USA is a deterrant to terrorists. Yet, idiotic bureaucrats concluded that the Air Marshals needed to abide by a DRESS CODE. Yes, a dress code. Plus, they had to identify themselves to airline staff prior to boarding. Doesn't that reduce some of their anonymity? Wouldn't that alert terrorists waiting to hijack the plane to which passengers they needed to kill first before carrying out the rest of their jihadist mission?

It is times like this when I wish we could disband all but the most essential government offices and programs. I wish airlines who can't make profits would go out of business. The whole point of being in business is not to provide services, but to make profits. If your company can't make profits, your company shouldn't be in business. I also wish airlines could hire their own private security firms. I don't understand why airlines are different from parking lots, or any other business. They're not owned by the government, why do government bureaucrats feel like it's their responsibility to determine security procedures for the airlines? A competent, well-equipped security firm would know the minute a terrorist walked into an airport. Yet we sit in shock and watch day old surveillance tapes of terrorists in airports the day after the WTC is knocked down.

Would Congress feel different about this if United 93 had made it to Washington unhindered by heroic passengers? Today, they risk all of our lives while flying around the country in private jets. If we want to fly, we have to do so on airlines that are propped up by the government, and under security regulations that prevent security from being attained while they assure us that everything possible is being done to assure safety. There are indeed endless safety instructions regarding cabin doors, oxygen masks, what aisle you're sitting in, how to buckle your seatbelt, and everything else that is irrelevant to terrorism and the destruction of the airplane.

I prefer no security over the impression of security, and I wish they would let the airlines control their own airplanes.

I absolutely agree with Patterico's take on the Gitmo detainees trying to kill themselves. All I'm saying is, in order for liberals to understand this, we should allow the detainees to be counseled by physicians in the days leading up to their suicides, and of course the physicians should also help facilitate a torture-less death for the terrorists as well.

I'd like to make their last meals kosher.

In response to Colonel Steve's entry on wikipedia-ing your birthday, I found some disturbing news.

My birthday -11/20- (which I share with my mother-in-law), I also share with Robert Byrd, Robert F. Kennedy, Joseph Biden, and James McCarthy. That's horrible. My dad was born on 11/21, and I only missed that day by two minutes!!

Although, Robert Byrd hasn't been bad lately. I think he's feeling some pressure from a strong Republican in West Virginia - or conservative West Virginians screaming at him daily. If I remember correctly, he voted for Alito, the fence/citizenship bill, and against the bill allowing illegal aliens to keep their social security benefits accrued fraudulently and while here illegally.

I wish we could just emphasize the border itself right now, and worry about these twelve million people later. Although, I do agree with emphasizing, as the Senate did today, that English is the national language. If people don't pass the proficiency test at the citizenship hearing, though, they must not be allowed citizenship. Otherwise, what is the point of having the rules and the tests!?

Unenforced rules are something I really detest.

It doesn't surprise me that guys like Durbin and Feingold didn't vote for the border fence bill. Hugh Hewitt was surprised that that woman from Washington voted against it. I find it much more surprising that 83 Senators voted for the bill. There was one no-vote, maybe that was Boxer or Feinstein.

These guys are crazy. Look at Michelle Malkin's piece on the Senators who voted against Enforcement First. I'm proud that neither Senator McConnell nor Senator Bunning, both of KY, are not on this list. I'm glad to have the RINOs in Washington at times, but I encourage challenges to the RINOs by more conservative GOPers. These Senators truly belong at the zoo. West Virginia conservatives managed to move Senator Byrd on the judicial appointments and, something else (I think). If they can move that senile old man, surely Chafee and Collins can be affected. They need to be made to understand the fact that Conservatism is the key to re-election, not pandering.

I disagree with the current system of voting for Attorney General, Treasurer, Auditor, etc. I believe we should elect a Governor and Lieutenant Governor, who would then appoint qualified people to all of those positions. That is how it's done in D.C. I don't see why it should be different here. It strikes me that Governor Fletcher may have not been indicted if it hadn't been for the Democrat Attorney General. Of course, I don't remember details of the Patton scandals, but some of those may have been thwarted as well.

What I'm saying is: it seems to me that it would be easier for the executive branch of Kentucky's government to be effective in a different system. The current system promotes quarreling among members of the same administration who are supposed to be working together. The Attorney General should be an honest aide to the Governor - not a political opponent. I think this is probably part of the reason that Kentucky is constantly locked into political stalemates, quarrels, scandals, revenge, etc. I mean, all that will happen in politics no matter what. However, I believe we should move to a more streamlined and effective form of government. I hate having to vote on umpteen different people. I want to vote for a few people in whom I will place much trust.

Secondly, I believe that Kentucky should move its primary elections forward a month or so. In the Presidential elections, our primary is always irrelevant to the candidates and the national news because there have already been numerous primaries which have already more or less decided where the nominations are going. If Kentucky would move its primary forward, closer to Iowa and New Hampshire, it would make Kentucky more visible nationally, more important to candidates, and most importantly, it would likely encourage more political self-education by Kentucky citizens. That is absolutely crucial to the growth of this state. Kentuckians need to be confident in their knowledge and their skills, and be willing to put them on display and counter the conventional wisdom that Kentuckians are uneducated, lazy fools. Meanwhile, we need to also work to be sure that the conventional wisdom is incorrect.