Seal of King Zedekiah's minister found in J'lem dig

By ETGAR LEFKOVITS

A seal impression belonging to a minister of the Biblical King Zedekiah which dates back 2,600 years has been uncovered completely intact during an archeological dig in Jerusalem's ancient City of David, a prominent Israeli archeologist said on Thursday.

The seal impression, or bulla, with the name Gedalyahu ben Pashur, who served as minister to King Zedekiah (597-586 BCE) according to the Book of Jeremiah, was found just meters away from a separate seal impression of another of Zedekia's ministers, Yehukual ben Shelemyahu, which was uncovered three years ago, said Prof. Eilat Mazar who is leading the dig at the site.

The excavation at the City of David, which is located just outside the walls of the Old City near Dung Gate, has proven, in recent years, to be a treasure trove for archeologists.

"On the one hand it is so unexpected to find such a fragile bulla in such harsh conditions of excavation, while on the other hand it was logical to find precisely here the bulla of Gedalyahu ben Pashur - only meters away from the place where we found the bulla of Yehukhal ben Shelemyahu - since these two ministers are mentioned side by side in the Bible as having served together in the kingdom of King Zedekiah," Mazar said.

The first bulla was uncovered inside an impressive stone structure, which Mazar believes is the Palace of David, while the second bulla was found at the foot of the external wall of the same structure, under a tower that was built in the days of Nehemiah.

Both of the bullae with the names of the two ministers, measuring 1 cm. in diameter each, were found among the debris of the destruction of the First Temple period.

The letters are in ancient Hebrew and are very clearly preserved, Mazar said.

Both ministers are mentioned in the Book of Jeremiah (Jeremiah 38 1-4) along with two other ministers when they came to King Zedekiah demanding the death of the prophet Jeremiah for preaching to the besieged city to surrender.

Mazar said it was "absolutely fantastic" to have uncovered the seals "complete and in perfect condition" after 2,600 years, affording scholars a clear read of the names that were impressed on them.

"It is not very often that such a discovery happens in which real figures of the past shake off the dust of history and so vividly revive the stories of the Bible," she said.

The archeologist, who rose to international prominence for her excavation that may have uncovered the Biblical palace of King David nearby, has been at the forefront of a series of back-to-back Jerusalem archeological finds, including the remnants of a wall from the Biblical prophet Nehemiah, also in the area.

Other Biblical-era bullae were previously found a quarter century ago at the City of David site. In 1982, the Israeli archeologist Yigal Shiloh discovered a cache of bullae in a nearby site, including one with the name of Gemaryahu ben Shaphan - mentioned in the Bible as a minister and scribe during the reign of King Jehoiakim (608-597 BCE).

The current dig is being conducted on behalf of the Shalem center, a Jerusalem research institute, and the right-wing City of David Foundation, and was carried out under the academic auspices of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

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Build a civilization of love in the face of a culture of death, Cardinal Ouellet tells Knights

Quebec City, Aug 5, 2008 / 10:14 am (CNA).- As he opened the Knights of Columbus’ annual convention on Tuesday morning, Cardinal Marc Ouellet, the Archbishop of Québec, called on the fraternal organization to react to the increasing secularization of society by more strongly promoting “a culture of life and a civilization of love.”

Two thousand five hundred delegates and their families joined Cardinal Ouellet to celebrate the opening Mass of the Knights of Columbus convention in Québec City, Canada with some 80 bishops from around the world.

Cardinal Ouellet began his homily by welcoming the congregation to “the city of Champlain and Laval, a city of explorers and saints, the cradle of Evangelization in North America, a Eucharistic city which has hosted some weeks ago the 49th International Eucharistic Congress.”

In their midst, the cardinal informed the congregation, was a work of art meant evoke the arks of the Old Testament, which traveled throughout Canada in preparation for the International Eucharistic Congress.

“The presence of the Ark of the New Covenant in our midst symbolizes the renewed Eucharistic commitment we are invited to promote in the life of the Church. The great success of the Congress was due to the prayer and involvement of many actors and benefactors, among which -- I tell you sincerely -- the Knights of Columbus were the most committed organization at all levels.”

Cardinal Ouellet then turned to the challenge being witnesses to the Catholics faith in a society that is becoming increasingly dominated by a culture of death.

“Against violence, hatred, addictions, despair,” the Primate of Canada said, “the love stemming from the Eucharist is able to foster hope, reconciliation and peace.”

Examples of this loving witness can be found in the examples of Jean Vanier, Nicolas Buttet, Marguerite Barankitse and Bl. Father Frederic Janssoone for inspiration to live out this love, he added.

The Knights are called to play a unique part in this mission, Cardinal Ouellet pointed out. “As an international Catholic Fraternity, the Knights of Columbus have a special role to play in witnessing the love of Christ in today’s world under the wise leadership of Pope Benedict the XVI.”

This witness is not always popular, he said, pointing to the encyclical Humanae Vitae, which “despite the cultural opposition to this Church teaching, we are called to revisit this document and to realize how prophetic it was and still is.”

Giving this witness requires Catholics to grow “in holiness on the personal level and to be present as a social body on the public scene, particularly by promoting the values of the family, among which the sacredness of human life from the moment of conception to the last breath of natural death.”

Cardinal Ouellet admitted that, “It is not easy to embody those values in today’s context, especially in Canada where the culture of death is making further steps of domination by rewarding publicly an activist of abortion,” he said, referring to the recent granting of Canada’s highest honor, the Order of Canada, to Henry Morgentaler.

In times such as these, Catholics must “wake up and to hear the word of the Lord: ‘Do not be afraid’ when the storm hits the boat, ‘come to me’ and ‘hold firm my hand,’ the hand of the Church.”

When we hear of sad events in the world, Cardinal Ouellet encouraged the congregation, don’t be of “‘little faith’ but of a new faith commitment to hold firmly the Church teaching on human life and love and to engage with courage the cultural challenges by promoting more strongly a culture of life and a civilization of love.”

• Build a civilization of love in the face of a culture of death, Cardinal Ouellet tells Knight
• Knights of Columbus must help change society with ‘new politics,’ says Carl Anderson
  

Pope Benedict working on draft encyclical during Bressanone vacation

Rome, Aug 5, 2008 / 03:48 am (CNA).- Pope Benedict XVI is continuing to vacation with his brother in the northern Italian town of Bressanone, where he is reportedly drafting a new encyclical...

• Pope Benedict working on draft encyclical during Bressanone vacation
• Very, Very Good...
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Father Robert J. Levis, PhD, celebrates his 60th Jubilee of Ordination to the Priesthood

From Padre Giovanni Trigilio:

"Father Bob Levis celebrated Mass of the Extraordinary form of the Roman Rite on Saturday, August 2nd, at St. Ann Church, Erie, PA. A packed church came to offer thanks to God for six decades of priestly service (and many more to follow) given by this unsung American hero. The former Director of the Pontifical Center for Catechetical Studies is also professor emeritus at Gannon University and president emeritus of the Confraternity of Catholic Clergy. He was one of the founding fathers of the same CCC and hosted several television and radio series on EWTN. Father Levis is best known and beloved, however, for his consistent, staunch orthodox preaching and teaching and for his indefatigable defense of the Magisterium and the Roman Pontiff amidst a culture and climate of dissent, apathy, scandal, irreverence, infidelity, et al.

I first met my mentor while in minor seminary. Before the Catechism (1992) existed, Father Levis had his graduate students do linear critiques on the various catechetical textbooks being used in parochial school and CCD programs across the USA. Using the General Catechetical Directory and the National Catechetical Directory as a litmus test, they demonstrated the horrible deficiencies in most religion books at that time. Dogmas such as Original Sin, Real Presence, Sacramental Grace, Immaculate Conception, Papal Infallibility, etc., were conspicuously absent from some or all grade levels. Children were not taught all seven sacraments or that Jesus Christ was one Divine Person with two natures, human and divine. Almost everything their parents and grandparents had been taught at the same age level by the infamous Baltimore Catechism were now deemed 'too complicated', 'too technical', and of course, 'too traditional'. Memorization was seen as draconian since experiential formation was seen as superior to catechetical formation. Ironically, those same kiddies were being asked to memorize elements from the Periodic Table, States and their capitals, and all the Presidents in order. Learning the Ten Commandments in order, on the other hand, was seen as being 'pre-Vatican II'

Many of my generation remember when we went from Baltimore Catechism content to butterflies, clouds and balloons. While my parents learned O Salutaris and Tantum Ergo, I had to learn the insipid Kumbaya. I received my First Holy Communion on the tongue from the altar rail. By the time I graduated from eighth grade, however, the second graders were receiving in the hand and while standing. Deo Gratias, I met Father Levis who introduced me to the National and General Catechetical Directories and to Denziger's Enchiridion Symbolorum. I had clandestinely studied the 1917 Code of Canon Law on my own while in minor seminary and remember a professor once saying the next edition will be radically different. I graduated from college seminary the same year the 1983 Code was promulgated and eagerly awaited the upcoming 1992 Catechism. Father Levis got a copy of the French edition and was asked to give comments to help the American bishops at their next national conference meeting. While vindicated by both golden treasures of JP2, no one recognized that orthodox priests like Levis had remained faithful all along and never deviated one iota from the deposit of faith. The same could not be said of many of his contemporaries who dissented from Humanae Vitae, who advocated women's ordination, who embraced every liturgical innovation and abuse while disdaining every legitimate rubric.

When my vocation was being tested (on numerous occasions), it was Father Levis who preserved and saved me. I would not be a priest today were it not for his example, support, advice, prayers and friendship. It took me three seminaries and three dioceses to finally get ordained a priest in 1988 but had it not been for the tireless role model Father Bob exemplified, I would probably be doing talk radio today and nothing else.

Though he has never received any ecclesiastical honors or offices, he has always been a good, holy and devout priest. His orthodoxy is only outdone by his compassionate, priestly heart. He alone would visit my little brother Michael (who was wheelchair bound from Muscular Dystrophy) once a month to bring him Holy Communion and hear his confession. Fr. Levis drove through blizzards and snowstorms to anoint people their own pastors neglected. He always has time for divine mercy. The only time you would ever find him not wearing his Roman Collar was when he was on his sailboat, the Scrimshaw. A twenty-six footer, he would sail Lake Erie but usually take a small crew of potential seminarians or some uncommitted agnostics or a fallen away Catholic or two. While in the middle of a great lake, he would hear confessions, teach the faith and save souls as a true FISHER OF MEN. I was his worst first-mate since I could not swim and committed a mortal sin of boating: one time I had one foot on the boat and one foot on the dock and two began to separate. "Fall in" he said "and I'll fish you out." "I CAN'T SWIM!!!" He stood there incredulous and replied, "well, I'll bless you as you go under and preach a good sermon at your funeral Mass."

All kidding aside, having Father Levis at my ordination and vesting me and then at my First Mass the following day, was a great honor and joy for me. He asked me to preach at his 50th anniversary, which was the same year as my 10th. Imagine, a ten year ordained priest preaching at Golden Jubilarian! What an honor. I was asked again this year to preach at his 60th as I just celebrated my 20th. I expect my mentor to preach my Silver anniversary and seeing what good shape he is, had better prepare another sermon for his Diamond Jubilee fifteen years from now. In the meantime, I ask all of you to pray for Father Levis and to thank God He blessed the Church with such heroes. Vilified, shunned, ignored, persecuted, ridiculed, ostracized, maligned, misquoted, misunderstood, harassed and harangued; nothing could stop this priest from being the Alter Christus he was ordained to be so he could act in persona Christi to teach, to sanctify and to lead. I have heard many attack his character, his reputation and his honor yet I have only witnessed solid orthodoxy, manly piety and a huge, generous priestly heart. When my mother had to bury her second and third child and then her beloved husband of 39 years, only Father Levis and Mother Angelica could console her with their solacing words of wisdom. If I could be at least 1/10th the man and the priest Father Robert Levis IS and HAS BEEN for over 60 years, I would be grateful. I could never follow in his footsteps but I will do my best to emulate his example and his priestly zeal."

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Scorpion kebab, anyone? It's fast food Beijing style...

By Geoffrey Wansell
Last updated at 11:29 PM on 03rd August 2008

There is a Cantonese saying that the Chinese eat everything that flies, except aeroplanes; everything with four legs, except tables; and everything that swims, except submarines - and visitors to Beijing's fast-food market during the Olympic Games will be left in no doubt of that...

Laid out in trays and boiling in cauldrons are everything from goat lungs with red peppers to scorpion brochettes, seahorses on skewers, iguana tails, dung beetles and silk worms on a stick, by way of fried sparrows, grilled snake and turkey vulture schnitzels...

I'll stop there

Last Ice Age happened in less than year say scientists

Published Date: 02 August 2008

By angus howarth

THE last ice age 13,000 years ago took hold in just one year, more than ten times quicker than previously believed, scientists have warned.

Rather than a gradual cooling over a decade, the ice age plunged Europe into the deep freeze, German Research Centre for Geosciences at Potsdam said.

Cold, stormy conditions caused by an abrupt shift in atmospheric circulation froze the continent almost instantly during the Younger Dryas less than 13,000 years ago – a very recent period on a geological scale.

The new findings will add to fears of a serious risk of this happening again in the UK and western Europe – and soon...

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Favre Returns to Packers

"Sixteen years after Brett Favre came to the Packers, he is returning for a seventeenth season. He has had a great career with our organization and although we built this year around the assumption that Brett meant what he said about retiring, Brett is coming back. We will welcome him back and turn this situation to our advantage..."

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Update:

Source says Packers contacted Vikings about trade for Favre

"GREEN BAY, Wis. — The Green Bay Packers welcomed back quarterback Brett Favre from the reserve-retired list Sunday knowing full well that they've already taken the first step toward trading him to the Minnesota Vikings...

The contact by the Packers was termed "a feeler" in the event Favre rejected the multimillion-dollar marketing and promotional agreement offered by Green Bay.

"They thought he would agree to it," the executive said. "Evidently, he didn't agree to it..."

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Pope sends greetings to China before Olympics

BRESSANONE, Italy -- Pope Benedict XVI sent greetings to China on Sunday before the Olympics and said he hoped the Games would offer an example of coexistence among people from different countries.

He said he will follow the Olympics, which open Friday, with a sense of "deep friendship" and expressed hope the sports can represent "a pledge of brotherhood and peace among people."

Benedict spoke during the traditional Angelus prayer in Bressanone, a town in the Italian Alps where he is vacationing.

"I follow with deep friendship this great sporting event -- the most important and awaited on a world level -- and I wish that it offer the international community a valid example of coexistence among people of different background in the respect of common dignity," the pope told the faithful gathered in Bressanone.

Benedict sent his greetings to China, organizers of the Games and the athletes, expressing hope that "each can give their best in the true Olympic spirit."

Benedict has made the improvement of relations with Beijing a priority of his papacy.

China's officially atheistic Communist Party forced Chinese Catholics to cut ties with the Vatican in 1951, and the two sides have not restored formal relations. Beijing sees the Vatican tradition of the pope naming his own bishops as interference in the country.

China appoints bishops for the state-sanctioned Catholic church. Still, many of the country's estimated 12 million Catholics worship in congregations outside the state-approved church and often are arrested or harassed.

Benedict sent a special letter to Catholics in China last year, praising the underground church, but also urging the faithful to reconcile with followers of the official church.

In his Sunday's address, the pontiff mentioned the only saint from the area where he is on vacation -- a missionary who went to China in the 19th century and died there in 1908. The pope made the comment in Ladino, the third language of this corner of German-speaking northern Italy.

The Angelus was the pope's first public appearance of his vacation. It drew some 9,000 people, some dressed in local costumes.

The pope has been working on a new volume of his book about Jesus as well as on speeches for his trip to France next month, said the Vatican spokesman, the Rev. Federico Lombardi.

Benedict said the visit to Bressanone allows him "to go back into my past and at the same time walk toward the future." The pope visited the town a dozen times when he was a cardinal, often in the company of his brother, Georg, who has joined him.

Benedict will return to his summer retreat at Castel Gandolfo outside Rome on Aug. 11.

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Pope Benedict XVI, center foreground in white, leaves the seminary where he is vacationing, in background, on his way to the Angelus prayer in Bressanone, near Bolzano, northern Italy, Sunday, Aug. 3, 2008. The pontiff sent Sunday his greetings to China before the Olympics and said he hopes the Games offer an example of coexistence between people from different places. Meeting the faithful Benedict said he will follow the Olympics with a sense of deep friendship and hopes the sports can represent 'a pledge of brotherhood and peace among people.' At right, Bressanone Bishop Wilhem Egger; At second-left in background, Benedict's secretary, Monsignor Georg Gaenswein; at letf partially visible, the pontiff's personal bodyguard, Domenico Giani (AP Photo/Alberto Pellaschiar)

Pope Benedict XVI strolls in a garden with his brother Bishop Georg Ratzinger during his annual holiday in Bressanone, northern Italy July 31, 2008. REUTERS/Osservatore Romano (ITALY)

Pope Benedict XVI sits on a garden bench during his annual holiday in Bressanone, northern Italy July 31, 2008. REUTERS/Osservatore Romano (ITALY)

This photo released by the Vatican newspaper L'Osservatore Romano, Friday, Aug.1 2008 shows Pope Benedict XVI, center, flanked at left by his brother, Father Georg Ratzinger, and by his personal secretary Georg Gaenswein in Bressanone, near Bolzano, Italy, Thursday, July 31, 2008. The Pontiff is spending his Alpine vacation in this mountain resort of the Dolomites where he will remain until August 11. The 81-year-old pontiff has two scheduled appearances, on August 3 and August 10, to deliver the Sunday noon Angelus prayer. (AP Photo/L'Osservatore Romano, HO)

Catholic cardinal denounces 'social revolution' against Christianity

Madrid, Aug 1, 2008 / 06:59 pm (CNA).- During the inauguration of a summer course on modernization in Spain, Cardinal Antonio Cañizares of Toledo denounced the existence in Spain and the Western world of a social revolution aimed directly at undermining the Christian roots of the West.

During his remarks, Cardinal Cañizares denounced the existence in Spain of a plan presented as a “modernization” movement, but that “in reality seeks to modify the social and cultural reality of Spain, transforming its identity.”

“This social and cultural project aims to construct a secular society without any moral or religious reference, attempting to impose nihilist thought and deliberately eliminating everything Catholic from public life,” the cardinal said.

While such a plan is present in the West in general, “it is especially intense in Spain,” he added, where it is supported by “powerful and sometimes dark forces, present everywhere from the media to schools.”

The promoters of this plan “have made the Catholic Church their target,” as they see her and the family as the main obstacles to their plans. “Thus the Church is presented as the enemy of democracy and modernization, opposed to science and progress, against freedom, the enemy of happiness or the promoter of division, confrontation and violence…in an effort to isolate religion to private life,” the cardinal stated.

“The silencing of God is the fundamental event of our times,” he continued. “There is nothing else that compares in terms of its radicalism and serious consequences.”

In the designing of this new society, Cardinal Cañizares explained, relativism plays an important role, since “nothing can be said to be definitive, it is at the center of a society that constantly doubts itself. There is no law, only rights that are restricted or broadened according to the will of whoever is in power. In all of this is the concept of man as a being autonomous of the will of God, who counts for nothing.”

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Obama Says Tire Pressure Is the Key to Energy Independence

By Ken Shepherd

"There are things you can do individually, though, to save energy," Obama said. "Making sure your tires are properly inflated - simple thing. But we could save all the oil that they're talking about getting off drilling - if everybody was just inflating their tires? And getting regular tune-ups? You'd actually save just as much!"

Yes, Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) actually suggested on the campaign trail that inflating your tires will save as much oil as can be procured by expanding domestic oil drilling, a suggestion that is downright laughable and mathematically impossible (see below the page break for more on that).

So where are the mainstream media on this?

• Tirelessly Pro-Obama: MSM Ignore Dumb Obama Comment
  
• Obama Says Tire Pressure Is the Key to Energy Independence
  

Cheech & Chong - Born In East L.A

• Praying in Front of the Cross

• Mass for French Soldiers (WWI)

• Pope Paul VI

• Greek Rite Catholic Clergy in Italy

• Pius X at his Desk

• Cardinal Wojtyla

Catholic Pictures

The Holy Bible: Catholic Action Edition

My new bible (purchased used, in almost-new condition):

The
Holy Bible
Catholic Action Edition

Confraternity Text
Genesis to Ruth, Psalms, New Testament

Douay-Challoner Text
Remaining Books of Old Testament

Copyright, 1953, by
Catholic Books, Inc.

Nihil Obstat
Bernard L. Rosswog, O.S.B., S.T.D.
Censor Librorum

Imprimatur
†Vincent G. Taylor, O.S.B., D.D., LL.D.
Abbot-Ordinary,
Diocese of Belmont Abbey Nullius

The Other Inventor of Radio

Ann Coulter

The story of Rush Limbaugh reminds me of a movie you wouldn’t believe could ever happen in real life. Forging his own path against all odds and under constant attack, in the end, the hero triumphs!

I knew about the prominent Limbaugh family before I ever heard of Rush. I clerked for a federal appeals court judge in Kansas City after law school, and every lawyer in the Midwest has heard of the Limbaughs–the Limbaugh judges, the Limbaugh lawyers, the Limbaugh courthouse.

But Rush spurned the law, spurned college and went on radio. He wanted to be on radio, so that’s what he did. He was a conservative, so that’s what he was.

As obvious as it seems now that Rush would be a huge success on radio, it was far from obvious for many years. He was fired repeatedly, until, eventually, his distinctive brand of conservative talk radio that no one believed would work, worked.

When Rush came along, it’s not just that there was no conservative talk radio to speak of. AM radio was dying. And the idea of a national show three hours a day at a time of day when Republicans are at work must have seemed ludicrous to even his friends.

But the moment Rush became a huge success, liberals said he was just in it for the money!

Yes, what surer path to fame and fortune than announcing that you are a conservative and taking on the entire mainstream media while being repeatedly fired?

Perhaps some of Rush’s imitators are in it for the money, but when Rush was coming up, there was absolutely no reason to believe three hours of conservative talk radio was the path to big bucks. (Judging from Air America radio, liberals sure aren't going into talk radio for the money.)

This is why I have a rule: Never trust a conservative public figure who hasn’t been fired, at least once, for being a conservative. Apparently, we can trust Rush!

By being the first and the most successful public conservative, Rush made it leagues easier for those of us who followed him. Among other things, he flushed out liberals and forced them to deploy all their idiotic talking points against him. By now, we’ve heard the same denunciations so often, we can lip-sync liberal attacks on us.

But when Rush started out doing conservative radio, there was no Fox News, there were no other national conservative talk-radio hosts, there was no Drudge Report. Rush just had to stand there taking bullets by himself.

And he had no shortage of critics, on the left and a few envious souls on the right. They’ve never changed, even as Rush became more and more popular and other conservatives followed Rush into various branches of the media and they too became more and more popular. Luckily, Rush's critics have tended to disappear when their newspapers fold or their columns get cancelled, but new ones always pop up spouting the same drivel.

Back in 1991, The Syracuse, (N.Y.) Post-Standard unleashed almost all of the standard liberal clichés against conservatives in a single editorial denouncing Rush. I have categorized them here:
1. His shtick is getting tiresome. “By next year at this time, we may be saying, ‘Rush who?’"

(Actually, by that time the following year people were saying “They're paying Rush Limbaugh how much?" and asking ,“The Syracuse Post-what?”)

2. Thinking conservatives reject him. “He bills himself as a conservative, although thinking conservatives, after an initial chuckle or two, should want to put as much distance between him and themselves as possible.”

(That would explain the 22 million listeners every week, the top-selling newsletter, and the two No.1 bestselling books.)

3. He makes personal attacks! “His favorite technique for discrediting an idea with which he disagrees is to make petty personal attacks against the people who espouse that idea.”

(Yes, who can forget Rush's bestselling Book "Al Franken Is A Big, Fat Idiot"? Wait –that wasn’t his book? What liberals mean by a “personal attack” is any comment about a liberal. )

4. He’s mean. “He is not a nice man, and he doesn't pretend to be. . . . And he's nasty.”

(This would explain the legions of female callers who breathlessly call Rush every day, cooing, gushing, and all but proposing to him over the airwaves. Of course, if by "nice" liberals mean "someone who cares about what liberals think," then they’re right: Rush is not nice, not nice at all. Neither am I!)

5. He’s a fraud who just does it for the money. “Limbaugh admits he's in it for the money.”

(This is as opposed to newspaper editors and reporters who work pro bono.)

6. He’s not as good as [fill in the blank] “Plainly, he's no Edward R. Murrow.”

(And yet, he’s inexplicably more popular than Murrow was.)

7. He’s more like these other losers. “Limbaugh reminds us of Morton Downey, Jr., the celebrated TV hatemonger of a few years ago.”

(Really? Okay, name one similarity. Besides the fact that Rush Limbaugh and Morton Downey, Jr. are both more popular than the Syracuse Post-Standard.)

Even writing a cliché, The Syracuse Post-Mortem couldn’t get it right. They missed liberals' famed “fact-checking” of conservatives and the deft counterargument: “he’s stupid.” So, I’ll add two more from the standard attack on conservatives:

8. He gets his facts wrong! A 1994 article in Newsweek claimed to have found a study showing that “Limbaugh often disdains facts.” Among the examples was this quote from Rush: When "the [black] illegitimacy rate is raised, the Rev. Jackson and other black leaders immediately change the subject."

But according to Newsweek: “For years, Jesse Jackson and others have decried ‘children having children.’"

(Say, wasn’t there a story recently about Jackson threatening to cut someone’s “n--s off”? Oh yes, I remember now! That was what Jackson said he wanted to do to Obama for talking about the black illegitimacy rate.)

9 He’s stupid! Or as Ken Bode put it in a 1993 New York Times article: “Mr. Limbaugh is not hobbled by intellectual consistency.”

(22 million listeners a week.)

Attacks like these gave the rest of us something to aspire to! Conservatives, if you’re not being called a mean-spirited has-been, who’s in it for the money, engages in personal attacks, gets his facts wrong and plainly is “no Edward R. Murrow”–you ’re not doing it right.

Liberals have had nearly two decades to come up with some fresh libel of conservatives, but it’s always the same thing. Thank you, Rush Limbaugh! This has been a big help.

Like Jerry Seinfeld’s mother, who can’t understand why everyone doesn’t love Jerry, my mother is constantly perplexed by any criticism of me. I always tell her: “Remember how much you love Rush Limbaugh, Mother, and think of all the terrible things they’ve said about him. Notice how no one ever criticizes Rich Lowry.

This always works, but it makes me wonder: What did Rush tell his mother?

Ann Coulter is Legal Affairs Correspondent for HUMAN EVENTS and author of "High Crimes and Misdemeanors," "Slander," ""How to Talk to a Liberal (If You Must)," "Godless," and most recently, "If Democrats Had Any Brains, They'd Be Republicans."

• The Other Inventor of Radio
• The Bush Family Calls Rush