Unfortunately, I missed World Nutella Day . . .

. . . but just because one is late to the party, doesn't mean one has to miss the party! Nutella Day was February 7; however, for many of us, every day is Nutella day. (Personally, I like my PB&N sandwiches, or just Nutella straight from the jar, though Ferrero does not recommend this: Go here and scroll to the bottom.) Anyway, I'm adding their badge to my site for the rest of February; take the time to "love yourself" and "spread the love" this month with a little choco-hazlenut goodness!

QB mismatch = Manning & Dungy triumphant

Look, I didn't even see the game yesterday (I was sick and we don't have a TV connection), and my "following" of the NFL consists of asking my parents how the Cowboys are doing until whatever point they drop out, but even I knew how this one was going to go. Even if you love, love, love your Bears - if you were putting money on this, I hope you were smart enough to separate your love and your thinking. If not, I'm sure your bookie is happy to see you today.

Goldberg: Manning Trumps Grossman

Strange bedfellows (so to speak)

Orange Lodge supports Catholics:

The trend [of "foes within Christianity and even within the realm of traditional religion . . . beginning to recognize the threat to religious freedom being imposed by the growing intolerance for traditional morality"] could not be more clearly illustrated than with the news this week that the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland, traditionally known for its mortal conflict with the Catholic Church, has officially backed Catholic leadership on the question of homosexual adoption.

The UK government has informed the Catholic Church in the UK that it will not receive an exemption from Sexual Orientation Regulations which would force the Catholic Church to permit homosexual adoption. Official Catholic teaching states that homosexual adoption does "violence" to children since they would be placed in an environment that is not conducive to their full human development.

Ian Wilson, the Grand Master of the Grand Orange Lodge of Scotland, announced publicly this week the Lodge's support in the matter for the head of the Catholic Church of England and Wales, Cormac Cardinal Murphy O'Connor. "There has to be more tolerance of the views of people of faith, and that includes the Cardinal," Wilson told The Scotsman. "Broadly speaking, the Lodge would take an orthodox, traditional Christian view of this - we see the family as a man and a woman."

But wait! That's not all!:

The leaders of the Church of England, Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and Archbishop of York John Sentamu, supported the Catholic position in a letter to British Prime Minister Tony Blair.

Also this week, Britain's Muslim Council the leading UK body representing Islam, issued a statement saying the group "fully supports the principled stand taken by the leaders of the Catholic and Anglican Churches."

The UK's Chief Rabbi Sir Jonathan Sacks, regarded as Judaism's highest authority in the UK, waded into the fray as well. Speaking of the new law he spoke of the need for respect for religion. "Jewish law is unequivocally committed," he said, "to the principle of marriage and the family: the stable association of husband, wife and child. This is at the very core of Jewish spirituality and cannot be compromised."

Well, at the very least, maybe now I should quit teasing my husband (who's half-Scots and 1/8th Ulsterite, with Orangemen in the "closet") for his "Orange" background - even though he was raised in a nice Catholic family and is an exemplary Catholic himself. P. J. O'Rourke said in "Parliament of Whores" that unintended consequences is the one piece of legislation that is always passed - this is definitely a pleasant, and unlooked for, consequence of the Church being backed into a corner by an areligious, or even antireligious, government.

Molly Ivins, RIP

Kathy Shaidle (at her new location) links to a great Florence King essay on la Ivins. God rest her, but at least we'll be spared any more of her faux-folksy-Texas crap (just like Ann Richards liked to do). As Florence says, she sure did like to gild the lily.

The Texas columnist describes herself as “a left-wing, aging-Bohemian journalist, who never made a shrewd career move, never dressed for success, never got married, and isn’t even a lesbian, which at least would be interesting.” Actually her professional Good Ole Girl number is far more interesting than mere lesbianism. An occasional commentator on the MacNeil/Lehrer News Hour, she bellies up to the gourmet crackerbarrel and delivers laid-back wisdom with the serenity of a down-home Buddha who has discovered that stool softeners really work. Watching her go through her paces is like watching Ona Munson, who played Belle Watling in Gone With the Wind, doing an imitation of Spencer Tracy playing Clarence Darrow in Inherit the Wind. That’s a lot of wind.

. . . Ivins’ own English ranges from politically correct (“yeoperson”) to Texanese (“bidness” for business, “Meskin” for Mexican) to hokeynyms (“our foundin’ daddies were about the smartest sumbitches ever walked”). She scatters the text with “Sheesh!” and “Well, poop!” and lots of “y’alls,” and practices multiculturalism complete with Yiddish misspellings (“the pièce de résistance of the whole schmear”).

And I'm waiting for an obit on Molly by Florence to appear at TAS or National Review in the next few days . . . )