“Lord, give me the strength to accept the things I can not change… or a vintage Browning Automatic Rifle, and 5000 rounds of ammo.”

School officials in Denver mulled whether teacher Jay Bennish violated school policy requiring teachers to present balanced viewpoints in class. Bennish told his Overland High School students that President Bush's  SOTU speech "sounds a lot like the things that Adolf Hitler used to say."  I pity the poor administrators who were forced to make a black-white decision, for maybe the first time in their lives.  Had they asked me, I 'd have counseled them to pretend that Bennish had compared Martin Luther King to Adolph Hitler, and go from there.  Instead, and possibly influenced by Bennish's SBL's  threat to sue if he was fired, they reinstated him with full pay and a kiss on his ass.  The student who taped his classroom rant received death threats, and will not be able to return to that school. One of the first things D.C. residents did after gaining Home Rule  was elect a bunch of ex-cons, scamsters, and street hustlers,  one of whom was Marion Shepilov Barry, Jr. to office.  He was eventually elected Mayor, where he served until  until a FBI sting operation nailed him on dope charges in 1990.  After his release from prison,  the good citizens of DC again elected him to the City Council, and then Mayor.  In 1999 he was arrested for failure to pay taxes on $534,000,   put on probation, ordered to pay the taxes and fines, and undergo periodic drug testing. Almost immediately he tested  positive, and U.S. Magistrate Judge Deborah A. Robinson mulled whether he had violated terms of his probation, and would go back to jail.  I pity Judge Robinson for having to make such a hard decision, but she did manage, deciding earlier this week that ''that repaying such a sum is burdensome enough.''  Wheeeeeeee.