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People who took my poll about Johnny Depp's anti-US comments should take note, and ponder what this tells us about the experience of being rich and famous:

"I am an American. I love my country and have great hopes for it," Depp said in a statement released by his Los Angeles-based publicist. "It is for this reason that I speak candidly and sometimes critically about it. I have benefited greatly from the freedom that exists in my country and for this I am eternally grateful."

... Explaining his comments a day later, Depp he had been using a metaphor that was taken "radically out of context," adding, "There was no anti-American sentiment."

"What I was saying was that, compared to Europe, America is a very young country and we are still growing as a nation," he said. "My deepest apologies to those who were offended, affected, or hurt by this insanely twisted deformation of my words and intent."

from Actor Johnny Depp Disavows Anti-American Quotes

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"The empty space or 'nothingness' in the rotunda of the Judicial Building is neither an endorsement of 'nontheistic belief' nor a sign of disrespect for Christianity or any other religion."
--U.S. District Judge Myron Thompson, as he dismissed the lawsuit by three Alabama residents to restore the Ten Commandments monument to the Alabama Judicial Building.

Some legislators take too much LDS.

People who want to live in a theocracy ought to consider moving to Utah, where the legislature checks with the church before making some of its important decisions.

SALT LAKE CITY - Hoping to clear the way for eliminating the firing squad as a means of execution, a Utah commission asked for and received a statement from the Mormon church saying it does not oppose the change. In a one-sentence statement provided Wednesday to the Utah Sentencing Commission, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints said it "has no objection to the elimination of the firing squad in Utah."

The clarification was needed, according to one commission member, because of a purported church doctrine that held that justice was not done unless a murderer's blood was shed. The Mormon statement removes a significant obstacle in Utah's effort to do away with firing-squad executions.

Commission member Paul Boyden said recent letters to the editor to newspapers indicate some in Mormon-dominated Utah still believe the firing squad is necessary for religious reasons. Commission members feared that belief could hurt the chances of the proposed change in the Legislature. "If we hadn't (asked for the church's position), this probably would have been a question among some legislators and it may have not made it out of committee," Boyden said. from Mormon Church OKs Firing Squad Change

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Ann Coulter had the gall to recently accuse columnist Maureen Dowd of harboring "sneering, PMS-induced" anger towards the Bush Administration.

Never mind that the harpy is herself one of the most shrill voices in American political discourse.

For a while now, I have been toying with the idea of starting a campaign to have people from all over this great nation flood Ms. Coulter's mailbox with bottles of Midol. I feared, though, that this would be perhaps too offensive and politically-incorrect. However, I think Ms. Coulter, by starting the whole PMS thing with her published comments, has effectively destroyed her right to whine about being harassed over her gender.

Interested parties might be amused by Thor Hesla's advice to Ann:
Ann of a thousand lays: Ten modest proposals to help Ann Coulter get a date