THE TENSION: The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 25 Jan.

The Decline and Fall of Western Civ.: Barbarians have Crashed the Gate

After reading: wash, rinse and repeat.

In Greenville South Carolina, dozens of WYFF 4 viewers reported seeing some strange blue lights in the night sky Wednesday. Reports came from areas near Paris Mountain and also from Gaffney.

"A blue light streaked across the sky in the Gaffney area. The light ... moved from the Greenville-Spartanburg area toward Huntersville, N.C.," Terry Coyle said. "The object had a bluish green tail about two miles long."
In Charlotte, a hovering light was seen in the sky.

However, officials say the colorful illuminations seen Jan. 9 over western Arkansas came from special military flares that slowly parachuted to the ground as part of an Air Force training mission involving A-10 aircraft pilots at nearby Fort Chaffee, a base used for testing weaponry, according to WND.

Speaking of aliens and other strange sightings, Time magazine reports that a recent poll shows Hillary Clinton is the clear front-runner (over Obama) to win the Democratic party's nomination for President in 2008, but the Republican race will be a close contest between Senator John McCain and former New York mayor Rudy Giuliani. Obviously, in the latter finding, Time was unable to poll any real Republians.

From the State that still won't let you pump your own gas, New Jersey lawmakers are ready to crack down on one perceived danger: talking on a cell phone while riding a bike, reports WCBS.

The Denver Post reports a new study indicates that most people spend more time with technology than they do with their family.

More than 80 percent of those polled said they were more dependent on their computer than they were three years ago. We all know who we are.

In more news about folks with dependency issues, Ann Coulter notes girl-power feminists who got where they are by marrying men with money or power -- Hillary Clinton, Nancy Pelosi, Arianna Huffington and John Kerry -- love to complain about how hard it is for a woman to be taken seriously. Coulter continues:

But the most urgent question surrounding Hillary's candidacy is: How will the Democrats out-macho us if Hillary is their presidential nominee? Unlike their last presidential nominee, she doesn't even have any fake Purple Hearts.

Sen. Jim Webb, who managed to give the rebuttal to President Bush's State of the Union address Tuesday night without challenging the president to a fistfight (well done, Jim!), won his election last November by portraying himself as one of the new gun-totin' Democrats.

He once opposed women in the military by calling the idea "a horny woman's dream." But -- as some of us warned you -- it appears that Webb has already been fitted for his tutu by Rahm Emanuel (news, bio, voting record).

Webb began his rebuttal by complaining that we don't have national health care and aren't spending enough on "education" (teachers unions). In other words, he talked about national issues that only are national issues because of this country's rash experiment with women's suffrage. I guess we should all be relieved that at least Webb's response did not involve putting a young boy's penis into a man's mouth, as characters in his novels are wont to do.

He then palavered on about the vast military experience of his entire family in order to better denounce the war in Iraq. As long as Democrats keep insisting that only warriors can discuss war, how about telling the chick to butt out?

Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wis., has scheduled a hearing next Tuesday in his Judiciary Committee subcommittee to explore whether Congress has the authority to cut off funding for the U.S. military campaign in Iraq. The move comes as Congress prepares to vote on a congressional resolution opposing President Bush's escalation of the war, according to The Politico.

As much as I disagree with him, I have to give Feingold credit for the fact he is actually doing something about his position on the war -- unlike other Democrats who only divisively complain, but fund the war anyway to save their political hides.

From Bloomberg, Ford Motor Co. makes record $12.7 billion loss, but may resume paying executive bonuses to boost the morale of managers battered by three rounds of job cuts and plant closings in the past five years, people familiar with the matter said.

20th Century Fox served YouTube with a subpoena Wednesday, demanding that the Google-owned viral-video site disclose the identity of a user who uploaded copies of entire recent episodes of "24" and "The Simpsons," according to The Hollywood Reporter.

And finally, researchers in Italy claim global warming is possibly linked to an enhanced risk of suicide. This seems plausible, given the psychological profile of liberals contemplating suicide who are already angry and depressed about everything else in their self-important lives.