Sadly, No!

Here.

Bartholomew (from Bartholomew’s notes on religion) sends us a link to the Katherine Harris web site which helpfully details Katherine’s efforts to certify Florida’s electoral results following the 2000 presidential election:

In the aftermath of the 2000 election controversy, Congresswoman Harris’ leadership provided a driving impetus for election reform. In 2001, she testified before the U.S. House Administration Committee and proposed legislation that became the blueprint for Florida’s nationally acclaimed Election Reform Act. In 2002, as the momentum for election reform subsided in states across America, she successfully proposed and achieved passage of historic civil rights legislation in Florida that forcefully addresses the exclusion of persons with disabilities from full and equal participation in the electoral process.

There’s arguably a lot of material there, but our attention was drawn to this part of her biography:

She studied abroad at the University of Madrid and at L’Abri outside Geneva, Switzerland.

Now, we’ve heard of the University of Madrid, but not of a school called “L’Abri.” Given that the name means shelter in French it seemed like a rather odd name for an institution of higher learning. Which likely explains why it isn’t:

The L’Abri communities are study centers in Europe, Asia and America where individuals have the opportunity to seek answers to honest questions about God and the significance of human life. L’Abri believes that Christianity speaks to all aspects of life.

Ah, we understand now:

Fourth, the reality of the fall is taken seriously. Until Christ returns we and the world we live in will be affected by the disfigurement of sin. Although the place of the mind is emphasized, L’Abri is not a place for “intellectuals only”.

Well if there’s one person you need in any discussion of disfigurement, it’s Katherine. (Disclaimer: You’ll never get those 2MB of bandwidth back.) But people who go there are students, right?

Each branch is staffed by one or more L’Abri families and single people, called “workers”, who look after those who come and stay – “students”.

Oh, you’re that kind of “school.” Katherine did manage to pick up some useful skills there:

The other half of the day is spent in sharing the community work load. This involves your doing some practical work each day, which consists of helping with the cooking, cleaning, gardening, maintenance, etc.. We have numerous chalets to keep up, many meals to serve, and lots of grounds to care for. Your work is a help to us in running a place of this size and it will hopefully bring a healthy balance to your lives. Thursday is a day off for students who are given a packed lunch, allowing them to go off and sight see, ski, hike, etc.

What if I don’t like to do maintenance work?

If either of these two aspects of being here are problematic you should carefully and prayerfully consider whether a time here with us is the right thing for you.

Aye captain! We wouldn’t mind being able to meet a lot of single women while we’re there. You mean that can be arranged? Not only that, but these guys will be our competition? And we can kiss the dog from Frasier? Yet we always have to get back to work, don’t we? Let us pray!

Must be hard to get in we bet:

There are no prerequisites for attending L’Abri.

Well, nothing more than 45 Swiss francs per night in any case. That works out to US$37/night. Isn’t that pretty much what Harvard charges these days?

Bonus: In related news, someone had a go at Katherine. (It’s not what you think.) (Via Political Physics.)

In unrelated news, our favorite insult comic dog (Triumph) stopped by Spin Alley after the third presidential debate. Wanna see Ralph Reed get called a bitch? The answer is not sadly, no! (Also via Political Physics.) [We’ll mirror the Triumph clip tomorrow, if anyone cares.]

Tomorrow came early: 6-minute, 14MB clip of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog taking on spin alley. (Thanks to Rooftop Report.)

Pete “Of The” Du Pont, on Opinion Journal:

Mr. Kerry is against free trade because he believes America must “establish core labor rights around the world.” He would repeal Nafta and other trade agreements[.]

From the John Kerry web site (which, unlike other presidential candidates’ sites, is accessible to international visitors:)

I strongly believe that America must engage in the global economy, and I voted for trade opening from Nafta to the WTO. (link)

The United States and Mexico made commitments with the signing of NAFTA. Both countries must abide by those commitments. (link)

From The Miami Herald:

His 19 years on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee have given him experience in national security and foreign affairs, including Latin America, where a frayed relationship needs attention. He supports NAFTA and FTAA and considers Miami the region’s key financial center.

From the Seattle Post-Intelligencer‘s 20 Questions with John Kerry & George Bush:

“President Clinton was trying to move us in the right direction on job creation and on including labor and environmental standards in trade agreements. I supported him and I made the right decision. We created jobs and opened markets, but since then we have learned that we need to go even further on labor and environment standards. John Edwards and I will fight so strong and enforceable labor and environmental standards are included in the core of future trade agreements, like they were in the Jordan Free Trade Agreement.” –John Kerry

So Pete, what, exactly, is the source for your claim?

Seriously. This is the best (?) part of his latest column:

It is only now that the dinner party lion emerges to stake his claim to greatness. While others quiver with pre-election anxiety, their mood rising and collapsing with the merest flicker of the polls, he alone radiates certainty. He alone can read the internals, cross-tabs and trends, can parse Gallup and Zogby and emerge with clear answers. He alone can captivate a gathering, while men hang eagerly on his words and women undress him with their eyes.

The astounding thing is that this comes near the end of Brooks’ column:

Then, having filled the air with 45 minutes of bogus pontification and pretentious gibberish, he should sagely declare that this election is just too close to call and that it would be irresponsible to make a prediction.

Which really should read: “Then, having filled the page with 800 words of bogus pontification and pretentious gibberish…” It would be funny if Brooks weren’t such a hopeless and untalented hack. Sadly, he is, and as a result, sadly, it isn’t.

(Inspired by the shorter version of the column posted at busy, busy, busy.)

It’s not InstaPundit, it’s InstaAmber:

HOW TO CAMPAIGN IN WISCONSIN — EXPLOIT SCHOOLKIDS? […] This morning I heard a story on Wisconsin Public Radio about how schoolkids in Milwaukee have been assigned get-out-the-vote work. (The story isn’t up on the WPR website yet, but it will at some point be here.) The Milwaukee State Journal is also covering the story. […] I firmly believe that once the state compels young people to attend school, deprives them of their freedom, it owes the highest duty to them to use their time only in ways that benefit them. To see them as a source of free labor or to exploit them for any purpose that is not itself a good reason for depriving the young of their freedom is a great wrong. [Emphasis added.]

Boy that libertarian shtick never gets young, does it? Is it some sort of InstaPundit requirement that Republican voters post some libertarian dribble to give the illusion of independence? (The expert on the “faux liberal / real conservative” act is alicublog.)

In any case, we’d add that the Milwaukee State Journal article continues thusly:

Marx vehemently denies that the project is designed to encourage more Democrats than Republicans to vote. He notes that the children do not wear any partisan buttons or clothing. Nor do they use partisan rhetoric or encourage people to vote one way or another. Participation is voluntary and parents are required to give their approval.

Republicans are outraged because a get out the vote drive is targeting areas with low voter turnout. Have Democrats no shame? No shame at all?

(And as far as we can tell, it is.)

Bush site bars overseas visitors

Surfers outside the US have been unable to visit the official re-election site of President George W Bush.

The blocking of browsers sited outside the US began in the early hours of Monday morning.

Since then people living outside the US trying to look at the site simply got a message saying “access denied”.

The blocking does not appear to be due to an attack by vandals or malicious hackers, but as a result of a policy decision by the Bush camp.

The international exclusion zone around georgewbush.com was spotted by net monitoring firm Netcraft which keeps an eye on traffic patterns across many different sites.

Thanks to Blair for the link.

It’s a good thing we don’t read InstaPundit too often:

but this time I’ve got an all-star team of guestbloggers coming in: Ann Althouse, Megan McArdle, and Michael Totten

The woman who fancies herself Amber Frey, the one who fancies herself an intellectual, and the man who fancies himself a liberal. (He also has the world’s worst -and dumbest- suggestion: “Link to Michael J. Totten with the logo button.” Uh, Sadly, No!]

It’s an all-something cast, we’ll grant you that. IP has been able to use his free time to write such wonderful insights as:

. That will expand [blogs’] impact considerably. On the other hand, they’ll grow less significant, in a way, because they’ll grow more ordinary. Like other communications media, from newspapers to email, they’ll just become part of the background, and their particular thread of impact will be less noticeable.

By that logic, according to our calculations newspapers stopped being significant in 1957.

Hmm, someone isn’t being a team player:

BAGHDAD, Iraq – Iraq’s interim prime minister blamed U.S.-led coalition forces Tuesday for “great negligence” in the ambush that killed about 50 American-trained soldiers, and a U.S. airstrike in Fallujah killed an aide to Jordanian terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the military said. […]

“It was a heinous crime where a group of National Guards were targeted,” Allawi said. “There was great negligence on the part of some coalition forces. It seems there was sort of determination on doing Iraq and Iraqi people harm.” [Emphasis added, shrillness in the original.]

Time to set our keyboard on shrill.

We’ve just about recovered from last night (although Pete M. is still missing,) and fortunately for us there is much right wing nuttiness around. Indeed, there are some brand new talents out there (does the name Randall Fuller sound familiar?) so you better get ready. For something.

Faced with the difficult choice of celebrating our birthday by either blogging or getting totally shit faced, we’ve opted to do the latter.

See you tomorrow, and stop by James Wolcott’s blog when you have time.