So if you are reading this, please consider clicking “Follow” in the bottom-right corner of your browser window, and should I ever post again, you will most certainly be the first to know.

Link: The Next Web

I believe this bipartisan legislation is the wrong course for the country. I give credit to Congress for taking action and doing what it felt was the right thing for the economy. But using tax dollars to essentially pay for Wall Street’s mistakes is a horrible idea, and I am not at all convinced that the this bloated bailout package will even help the economic situation in the long run.

Unfortunately, the so-called rescue plan is now law, so we will have to wait and see what good (if any) will come of it.

Link: New York Times

A study mentioned in the article says that only five percent of American adults tithed last year. As a member of that five percent, I can fully appreciate the difficult decision that these tithers have made. For them, honoring their commitment to God outweighs all other priorities — including keeping the roof over their heads. I hope that if I were in the same position, I would have the faith to trust God and reach the same determination.

A lot of people probably find that kind of thinking to be crazy. While it is true that it takes a different mindset, I think it is hardly crazy for someone to consider his relationship with God to be of greater worth than a home mortgage. People put their money where their values are. And for those who value the right things, I believe that the Lord will bless them greatly for it.

Link: USA Today

This is wonderful news. I am a big fan of jQuery; I first discovered the library a little over a year ago when working on a web project that required a lot of manipulation of the DOM. Since then, I have used jQuery in practically every web application I have developed. It is a fantastic, light-weight library which makes writing JavaScript code a pleasure, and I am glad to see Microsoft appreciates it as much as I do.

Links: John Resig • Scott Guthrie • Scott Hanselman

Newman appeared in numerous movies such as Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, Cool Hand Luke, The Color of Money, and Road to Perdition. Two of my personal favorite Newman performances were his portrayal of Brick Pollitt in the film version of Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Walter Bridge in Mr. & Mrs. Bridge. And although my six-year-old son is too young to appreciate Newman’s lifetime of cinema work, he loves Doc Hudson from Cars.

The man could also make an outstanding salad dressing.

Paul Newman was a class act. He will be missed.

Link: LA Times

Link: Roll Call

Link: Fox News

Why? I don’t have a clue. The two companies do not seem to be very compatible on the surface (maybe Best Buy could bundle music subscriptions with the media players it sells). Not to mention, Napster hasn’t been “cool” since 2001.

Link: TechCrunch

But since defeating Andy Murray last night in the U.S. Open final, Federer can now claim an accomplishment that no one else can: five consecutive titles at both the U.S. Open and Wimbledon. Adding in his three Australian Open wins, and Federer is only one away from Pete Sampras’s record of fourteen Grand Slam singles titles. My bet is that he breaks that record next year.

Federer’s domination of tennis may have slowed this year, but I predict it is far from over.

Link: New York Times

In the piece, Cole attempts to draw a comparison between Palin’s conservative Christian beliefs and the beliefs of Islamic extremists — you know, the kind who are willing to detonate a bomb in the middle of a crowded marketplace in the name of their god. The claim of moral equivalence is such a stretch that it would be laughable if the author were not dead serious.

I talked about the absurdity of linking “radical” Christians with radical Muslims two years ago when Rosie O’Donnell did it on The View. While a little more refined than Rosie’s crassness, this article attacking Bible-believing Christians and specifically Governor Palin is no different.

A fair warning: click through to the article only if you think you can stomach it.

Link: Salon

Live long and prosper, indeed.

Link: Gizmodo

The most obvious example is of this is Google’s famous search engine, which holds such marketshare that no other company seems even close to catching up. Another is Google AdSense, with those ubiquitous text ads that have covered the Web and altered how people advertise online. Then there is Gmail, which was a game-changer for web-based email, and Google Maps, which completely revamped the look and feel of online mapping. Now we have Google Chrome, launched just last week, which has the chance of becoming a serious challenger to Internet Explorer and Firefox in the web browser market.

Those are just a few high-profile examples, and there are plenty more. With so many accomplishments in its first decade, I look forward to seeing what other revolutionary products Google has for us in the years ahead.

Link: Fortune

What the article doesn’t say is that most of the historians interviewed for the story — Matthew Dallek, Joel Goldstein, David Kennedy, and Doris Kearns Goodwin — are scholars known for having liberal political views, and some have even donated to the Obama campaign. That could certainly taint their objectivity on Governor Palin’s credentials, but The Politico chose to leave those details out. A single conservative — Brad Blakeman — was included in the piece, but his opinion received only two paragraphs in the two-page article. Hardly fair and balanced.

The Politico does do some excellent reporting on occasion, but this is not one of those times.

Link: Politico

Picking Palin was a fantastic decision on the part of McCain. The Republican candidate has energized social conservatives to a degree which they haven’t been at any other point during this campaign season. Sure, there was some excitement about Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson and even Mitt Romney. But now, all the conservatives have unified around one person, a woman who doesn’t just claim to have conservative principles but who actually lives out those principles.

Many who were uncertain about McCain’s conservative credentials (myself included) are now becoming truly excited about the possibility of having McCain and Palin running the country. I hope that the enthusiasm lasts all the way to Election Day and beyond.

Link: Hugh Hewitt

The story being covered is about the Alabama State Employees’ Insurance Board and its decision to charge state workers twenty-five dollars a month for single coverage health insurance beginning in the year 2010. I am an employee of the State of Alabama, so I do have a little first-hand knowledge of this situation. And I can say that most media write-ups contained multiple inaccuracies. As an example, I will use an article posted on Health.com.

In the article, it is stated that the SEIB will charge overweight workers twenty-five dollars a month. That is not quite accurate. As I stated in the last paragraph, the fee applies to everyone who has single coverage. However, the Board will be offering a “wellness premium discount” of twenty-five dollars (essentially making coverage free again) to anyone who follows certain guidelines that the Board has laid out, which can be found at this link). If you take the time to read the information about the wellness discount, observe that even employees at risk due to their health can still receive the premium discount provided that they follow a few simple steps.

The next inaccuracy in the article is where it says health insurance “is currently free for all state employees.” How I wish that were true! What the writer may have meant is that up to this point, single coverage has been free. People with families (like myself) who want to cover their spouses and children have had to pay a sizable monthly premium for years.

Next, Health.com states that Alabama is the second fattest state in the country, right behind Mississippi. While that was true for 2007, the latest data shows that West Virginia has inched its way (no pun intended) ahead of Alabama for 2008. Still not good, but slightly better than what the article says.

Finally, I want address the notion of calling the twenty-five-dollar health insurance premium a “tax”. While the State Employees’ Insurance Board is an agency of the State of Alabama, in many ways, it acts very much like any other insurance provider one might encounter. The Board certainly has no authority to levy taxes, which is solely the privilege of the Alabama Legislature. What we are talking about is not a tax; it is a premium like what is assessed by insurance companies the world over. This is the first time I have ever heard of an insurance premium being called a tax, and I am not certain whether it is ignorance on the part of the media or a deliberate deception.

In conclusion: no, obese people do not have to pay a “fat tax” in Alabama. And yes, you should be skeptical of everything you read — even relatively mundane stories like this one.

Link: Health.com

Consider this: in 2002, Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, and many more Senate Democrats voted to give authorization to President Bush to use military force in Iraq. During the primary season, Obama claimed that Clinton’s vote for the war showed that she did not have the judgment to be President. Does that mean that Senator Biden lacks judgement as well since he voted the same way? Then why did Obama name Biden as his choice for Vice President, a position which is essentially a President-in-waiting?

In addition to the initial vote for war, Obama and Biden also disagree on funding the war, whether to meet with hostile nations without preconditions, and how to deal with Iran. Add to that Biden’s controversial plan of a couple of years ago to divide up Iraq into three sections to segregate the country’s three main ethnic groups, plus Biden’s public statement about Obama’s lack of readiness to be President during a primary debate.

With all these differences, it is difficult to envision two men who could agree any less on foreign policy.

Link: Townhall.com

But it gets even better. Today, the Association of Tennis Professionals released their updated rankings, and Nadal is now officially the best player in men’s tennis. He takes the World No. 1 spot away from Roger Federer, who had dominated the ATP rankings for over four years.

Rafael Nadal, who holds the record for the longest span of time ranked at number two (160 weeks), has finally emerged from the shadow of Federer, undeniably one of the greatest men to ever play the sport (if not the greatest). This has been a long time coming, and it is now Nadal’s time to shine.

Link: ESPN

Now, it turns out that the former Alabama governor has been selected to speak at the Democratic National Convention in Denver later this month. Apparently, the conventional Democratic view is that Siegelman is completely innocent of everything he was found guilty of by a jury of his peers, and the whole indictment and conviction matter is the result of a Republican conspiracy headed up by none other than Karl Rove. I kid you not.

As I have said before, I am amazed at the willingness of the Democratic Party to overlook the reprobate (and sometimes criminal) behavior of its members. Just imagine the outrage that would ensue if the Republicans dared to put Larry Craig or Mark Foley up on stage at their convention!

Link: NewsBusters

In addition to his current inventory of five gold medals from Beijing, Phelps won six gold (and two bronze) four years ago in Athens. With a total of eleven, Michael Phelps has more gold medals than any other Olympian in history. And with three more events to compete in at these Olympic Games, he probably isn’t done yet.

Link: NBCOlympics.com

For their misdeed, the girls must write the sentence “I will not vandalize other people’s property,” a thousand times. They cannot watch television or play video games at all for six months. And they must read a “good book” for three hours every day and send Cathy a book report a week for thirteen straight weeks.

I wish that I could say that I would have shown such compassion toward the first-time perpetrators had I been in Truett Cathy’s place, but I am not so sure. Cathy was well within his right to have the girls prosecuted for their crime, but instead, he decided to teach them a valuable lesson about respecting others. We could all learn from the gracious example set forth by Truett Cathy.

Link: Atlanta Journal-Constitution