There is an undeniable and delicious irony (or tragic irony, depending on whether you’re looking at it from the left or the right) in the resignation of Randall Tobias as Director of U.S. Foreign Assistance and U.S. Agency for International Development Administrator.

The Left deridingly calls Tobias “the abstinence czar” because of his efforts to push abstinence to help reduce the incidence of AIDS, and the Left hates abstinence because it gets in the way of feelings, so they’re positively giddy about the news.

The Tennessee Guerrilla Women, who peddle “Panties for Peace” on their blog, had this to snark:

And just two days ago Bushie was praising Tobias for his work on the HIV/AIDS epidemic in Africa. Randall Tobias — aka the Bush AIDS Czar — is infamous for bashing condoms and praising abstinence while allegedly getting massages from call girls and working to alleviate the AIDS epidemic.

As a commenter over at The Blotter asks:

So did Tobias wear a condom when he didn’t have sex or not?

Tobias is a Christian, a Republican, a white male and a believer in abstinence. No wonder they hate him so. Nevertheless, he was able to make a good point on the subject of abstinence:

Tobias, who was in Berlin for the Global Business Coalition on HIV/AIDS’ 2004 Awards for Business Excellence, said that promoting abstinence and monogamy are “far more effective” than distributing condoms for preventing the spread of HIV, according to Agence France-Presse. “Statistics show that condoms really have not been very effective,” Tobias said, adding, “It’s been the principal prevention device for the last 20 years, and I think one needs only to look at what’s happening with the infection rates in the world to recognize that has not been working.” (emphasis added)

Without offering a peep of sound rebuttal, the incorrectly named AmericaBlog said the Tobias/Bush position on abstinence is an “outrageous view” that “is widely criticized by thinking people.” These “thinking people” believe in their hearts (or perhaps their pants) that abstinence is a false road simply because they cannot imagine an individual having the power to not yield to lust — so it’s no wonder they are so gleeful that Tobias yielded to his.

Given all this, Tobias had no choice but to resign. He would be utterly ineffective if he attempted to continue his efforts — the “He’s lying” signs would be replaced with something much, much worse.

And what exactly is he lying about, by the way? Obviously, abstinence is healthier than unprotected sex and anyone who says otherwise is lying. The Bush policy, despite the Left’s lies to the contrary is “ABC,” abstinence first, being faithful second … and in third spot, condoms. The “Bushies” are not in support of unprotected sex.

Whatever. Let’s not let facts get in the way of a good roll. Speaking of being on a roll, over at HuffPo, Roy Sekoff says self-righteously:

I really don’t give a damn what Tobias does in his down time; it’s the endless hypocrisy of the holier-than-thou crowd on the right I can’t stomach.

Sekoff apparently has no problem with the hypocrisy of the Left: Al Gore’s energy consumption, “man of the people” John Edwards’ mansion and haircuts, Bill Clinton’s over-sized Bible, billionaire George Soros’ demands for wealth redistribution, Sheryl Crow, who just made millions from Clairol hawking their latest noxious chemical bath for hair suggesting we use one square of TP to save the planet.

Nonetheless, a sad good riddance to Tobias. He let bad personal decisions harm the Administration he served, so you’ll not find a word of defense here at C-SM. You will find, however, a word of compassion. Like Lt. Col. William H. Steele, and like millions of other men, Tobias folded under the unrelenting onslaught of sexual temptation forced on us by the sex, porn and lust industries (and that includes ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox).

It’s too bad he didn’t seek help; if he did, he would still be doing important, meaningful, life-saving work instead of struggling to save his marriage and his self esteem.

A few days ago, I wrote this:

I’m a firm believer in the idea that God placed most of us here for a very small task. Perhaps we open the door for someone one day instead of barging through, and that little action starts a cascade that saves someone (temporally or eternally).

There’s a very nice passage on this subject in the post, God Called, by Laurie Kendrick. We pick up midway through a point God was making:

God: But that’s not what you needed. That’s not what Madolyn Welsh needed, either.

LK: Madolyn Welsh? My college roomate?

God: If you wouldn’t have been you, you wouldn’t have gone to the University of Texas, moved into the dorm and you wouldn’t have roomed with Madolyn. When her mother was killed in that car crash that fall, you wouldn’t have been there to help her. That was a very difficult time for Madolyn. She needed you and you needed to be there. And the fact that you were there made a difference. It saved her life. Saved yours too. Remember? You were having a very tough Freshman year.

LK: I remember. And what would the alternative have been?

God: You don’t want to know.

LK: Wow.

God: We’re talkin’ real “It’s A Wonderlife Life” stuff. One life affects so many others in ways you aren’t aware of.

LK: I’m glad I was there for Madolyn.

God: And be glad she was there for you. It wouldn’t have worked in any other way. Did you know she went on to become a doctor. A surgeon. She saves lives everyday and you helped make that possible.

Besides getting into free will, predestination and why bad things happen to good people, God even explains Sanjaya.

That should make you click even if that other theological stuff doesn’t.

hat-tip: Sigmund, Carl & Alfred

Where’s GLAAD? They’re apparently too busy preparing for tomorrow night’s Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation Media Awards to take note of some very real — as opposed to their usual perceived outrages — threats against lesbians.

Also mum: The ACLU, Human Rights Watch (both too busy bashing the U.S.) and the entire state of Massachusetts (taking off for a gay wedding). But BBC has the story:

A Nigerian lesbian who “married” four women last weekend in Kano State has gone into hiding from the Islamic police, with her partners.

Under Sharia law, adopted in the state seven years ago, homosexuality and same-sex marriages are outlawed and considered very serious offences. (Sing along with me, “Everybody, let’s get stones!”)

The theatre where the elaborate wedding celebration was held on Sunday has been demolished by Kano city’s authorities.

Lesbianism is also illegal under Nigeria’s national penal code. …

Islam says a man can take up to four wives if he is able to support them.

“As defenders of the Sharia laws, we shall not allow this unhealthy development to take root in the state,” the Hisbah’s deputy commander Ustaz Abubakar Rabo told Nigeria’s This Day newspaper.

Mr Rabo told the BBC’s Focus on Africa programme that if the women were found guilty of lesbianism they faced one of two punishments.

For a married woman the offence would be considered adultery for which the punishment is death by stoning. A single woman would be caned.

For moral and societal reasons, I’m all for not letting lesbian or gay marriages take root, but stoning or caning? Only Islam forces its beliefs on others with such brutality.

The gay community, dominated as it is by Libs, has not been completely silent on the issue, but you have to dig pretty deep into the GLAAD site to find only a little exposure of what goes on behind the Allah Curtain — and when you find it, it’s decidedly strange, like this story:

Human Rights Watch: Iranian Teens Were Hanged for Rape, Not Gay Sex But Questions Remain
by Rex Wockner

The two male teenagers hanged in Mashad, Iran, July 19 were executed not for having sex with each other, as has been reported, but for raping a 13-year-old boy, Human Rights Watch is claiming.

The New York Times and the Times of London separately reported the same thing.

Mahmoud Asgari, 18, and Ayaz Marhoni, 19, allegedly raped the boy at least 14 months prior to their executions, meaning at least one, and perhaps both, of them were minors at the time. …

So, if they were hanged for rape instead of being gay, is Sharia all right with the gay community? And if they were hanged for being gay, what’s’ GLAAD to do about it? The organization’s Web site is full of solicitation for funds and calls to action — but its Muslim/Arab American page includes no calls to action against Islam’s inhumanity to gays.

It’s a tough trap for the gay/lesbian/whatever community: Speak out against Islamic extremism and align with all the Bush-buddies, or let the Islamists kill the gays and keep your liberal banner waving proud.

Decisions, decisions …

My only other post so far today was at 7:34 a.m., almost 12 hours ago — highly unusual. Blame it on the California Coastal Commission.

I have a client that has been trying for 4 1/2 years to get a hearing before the Commission. The staff asked for study after study forcing delay after delay. Twice we’ve been scheduled, only to be postponed, once because staff wasn’t ready and once because … well, I’d best not say, but it had nothing to do with our team’s willingness to proceed.

Now, we’re scheduled to appear in May, and my client has asked his core consulting team (three biologists, two engineers, one flood expert, one lawyer, two Coastal Commission lobbyists, one groundwater hydrologist and me) to be available for meetings from 8:30 to 5 every week day until our hearing on May 10.

“We’ll see about weekends, based on how well we’re getting through everything,” he joked (I hope) when setting up the meetings.

Even after 4 1/2 years, there is enough to do that we’re challenged to get it done before the hearing.

What are we proposing that takes so long and requires so much? A nuclear power plant? The dredging of virgin reefs? The creation of a massive new harbor?

No, just one residential neighborhood.

If we get approval of the number of homes I expect we’ll end up with, the cost of preparing for our Coastal hearing will add perhaps $25,000 to the cost of each home — on top of the $125,ooo per home in public benefits and infrastructure improvements the developer has already agreed to pay in order to get approved.

And you wonder why homes in coastal California are so expensive!

Anway, expect light blogging on weekdays for the next couple of weeks.

Four of the five major Dem candidates for Prez — Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton, Barack Obama, Chris Dodd and Joe Biden — voted yesterday to change history by voting to, for the first time ever, tell the enemy months in advance the day we will lose a war, then each hopped onto his or her own deluxe private jet and carbon-footprinted their way to South Carolina for the first Dem Prez debate.

No word on Edwards. He may have driven to the debate from his 25,600-square-foot workingman’s shack and carbon smudge. He usually uses a jet owned by Dallas trial lawyer (natch!) Fred Baron, who is also the finance chairman (natch!) of his presidential campaign, according to Newsday.

Granted, the GOP Prez crew flies in private jets all the time, too, but they don’t step off their jets to hypocritically attack global warming and profess their eagerness to to shackle the economy in the name of battling our true enemy, not AQ but CO2.

Interestingly, in all the debate reports I’ve read this a.m., global warming isn’t mentioned. If Al Gore thinks he can ride into the White House (which may emit a bit less death-gas than his Tennessee spread) on the global warming ticket, he’d best ask himself whether the horse he’s riding is named Fringe Issue.

Quiz time: Name the Dem Prez candidates in this NYT photo:

I got all but one … Mike Gravel … and I admit I was unsure whether he or Chris Dodd was Chris Dodd.

Gravel, only slightly less obscure than the newest Dem Prez candidate, Jim Gilmore (scroll waaaay down) had the best crazed Dem line of the night:

Indeed, on this listless stage, it fell to Mr. Kucinich and his equally long-shot rival in the race, Mike Gravel, a former senator from Alaska, to stir the drink. Mr. Gravel at one point loudly belittled the four senators on stage who had earlier in the day voted in Washington for a bill that would set timetables for bringing troops home from Iraq, but that would continue financing their efforts.

What should be done instead? “A law making it a felony to stay there,” Mr. Gravel thundered, as Mrs. Clinton and Mr. Obama stared quizzically at the unfamiliar man sharing the stage with them. (NYT)

Wow. Out-Kuciniching Kucinich. Quite a feat.

I may not know how to write ‘em … my entry into this week’s best post picks from Watcher of Weasels scarfed up one second-place vote … but I know how to pick ‘em, with my #1 and #2 choices coming in … #2 and #1. Here’s the skivvy:

First was one of the better question-raisers about Climate Change, going all the way back to the creation of the Earth to make good points, Earth Day by Done With Mirrors.

I really liked Bookworm’s Presidential Power and Criminal Terrorists that answered every question I have about how to handle terrorist detainees in Guantanamo. Even, “Why not just line ‘em up and shoot the *************?”

Rounding out this week’s winners: Helots by Eternity Road, On Winners and Losers — Harry Reid and Defeatism by Joshuapundit, One Day Has Passed by The Glittering Eye, Into Every Life, Some Reid Must Fall by Big Lizards,

Reid and the Dems: Cowardly, Immoral Jellyfish by Right Wing Nut House, Cohen Must’ve Got Lost by Soccer Dad, Quota Baseball by The Colossus of Rhodey, and yours truly, Kevin Granata: Virginia Tech Hero.

It was the same deal on the Non-Council entries, the #1 and #2 were my #2 and #1.

The Big White Lie by City Journal, Where Kurdistan Meets the Red Zone by Middle East Journal, Getting the Message by The Mudville Gazette, A Failure of Doctrine, Not of People by Winds of Change, A Time for War by Treppenwitz,

We Get the Government We Deserve by The QandO Blog, NY Times Public Editor Examines Paper’s Duke Coverage by TalkLeft, “To Jaw-Jaw Is Always Better Than To War-War.” by Wizbang!, Chomskyite Billionare Pleads Oppression by Diary of an Anti-Chomskyite and Why the Liberal Media Whores Out for Terror by Breath of the Beast.

There was not a bad entry among them. If you’re looking for some good reading, spend some link-clicking time here.

Alec Baldwin, found profoundly guilty of vicious verbal child abuse in the phone message he left his 11 year old daughter (here, here), wants out of his 30 Rock obligations so he can, according to CNN, “devote his time to the issue of ‘parental alienation.’”

Wait a minute! Even from a man who gives weirdness a dirty name, that’s an jaw-dropper of a quote.

Isn’t “parental alienation” about him? Isn’t he supposed to be thinking about his daughter? Didn’t he mean to say he wanted out, “so I can devote my time to repairing my relationship with my daughter Ireland, who for obvious reasons thinks I’m an incredible jerk?” Instead, he’s identified a depersonalized “issue” to concentrate on, leaving his daughter and himself out of it.

I wonder what color the rubber wrist bracelet will be … yellow?

Back to the matter at hand. Baldwin wants out of 30 Rock. He shouldn’t have to ask; he should have been canned the day after the tape of his voicemail to Ireland was made public.

Did NBC, the network that brought us the Cho “manifester” and calls it good journalism despite the universal retching heard from psychologists familiar with the minds and motivations of mass killers, happily take Baldwin up on his offer?

What do you think?

You’re right:

NBC, however, quickly shot down the idea. The actor has become a key asset for the freshman sitcom, stealing the show as an oily but charming network executive overseeing a “Saturday Night Live”-type program.

“Alec Baldwin remains an important part of ‘30 Rock.’ We look forward to having him continue his role in the show,” NBC said in a statement Wednesday.

If I had ever seen the show, I would stop watching it. I hope millions do, driving down its ratings to the point that NBC drops it. In the meantime, here’s NBC’s contact us page. Go ahead — be verbally abusive.

Wooo Wooo Warmie, the global warming psychic, has a new mystical revelation: Any minute now, you will hear Warmies saying they are “shocked.”

How does Wooo Wooo know? Because he read this:

WASHINGTON (AP) The government declared two swaths of the country critical to the nation’s electricity grid Thursday, pushing for construction of major power lines in southern California and along the East Coast.

The Department of Energy proposed two “national interest electric transmission corridors,” the first of their kind under a 2005 law that could overcome local objections in order to relieve bottlenecks in the electricity grid.

The current grid “is aging and stressed. Simply put, it is no longer adequate to meet the demands of the 21st century,” said Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman. He also said the government would take a more aggressive role in energy projects opposed by local groups.

“The parochial interests that shaped energy policy in the 20th century will no longer work,” he said.

The proposed Southwest corridor would be composed of seven counties in southern California, three in Arizona and one in Nevada.

The mid-Atlantic corridor would run north from Virginia and Washington, D.C., and include most of Maryland, all of New Jersey and Delaware and large sections of New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

The proposed corridors were announced a day after some House Democrats criticized the 2005 law’s possible effects.

The law gave the federal government greater say on where high-priority transmission lines should be built. If states and regional groups fail to build such lines, the government could order them built.

Warmies and Greenies, like all Libs, are perfectly fine with the federal gov usurping state’s rights on issues like air quality, water quality, abortion and what gets taught in school — but allow the feds to mandate that power lines be built over local opposition and … well, they’re “shocked.”

Greenies have hated power lines for years, calling them growth-inducing. As if that’s a bad thing! Even if past growth has stressed out the grid to the point of collapse, they will focus on the new growth that supposedly will follow the lines. Yeah, that’s what I do.

“Look, Hon! A new power line! Let’s buy a house right here!!”

Now Warmies will join the fray, saying that new power line corridors won’t be necessary because we’ll all be shifting to solar, wind and biofuel so we’ll be able to meet our own tiny carbon footprints with our own energy, sans grid.

I have tucked away in a box somewhere a book called Earth, Energy and Everyone that was published by leftyorgan Rolling Stone in 1975. It detailed all the alternative sources of energy and predicted that we would be off oil entirely by 2000 — in part because oil would be scarce, and in part because these new technologies were so attainable.

Wrong on both counts, and it’ll be wrong for a long time to come. The grid is efficient. The grid is cheap. The grid makes volumes of energy needed for industry available. The grid separates us from Third World hell holes.

So of course the Greenies and the Warmies will fight against it.

Here’s a tragic story, worthy of the attention of a new Shakespeare:

BAGHDAD (AP) - A senior U.S. officer has been charged with nine offenses, including aiding the enemy and fraternizing with the daughter of a detainee while he commanded a military police detachment at an American detention facility near Baghdad, the military said Thursday.

Army Lt. Col. William H. Steele was accused of giving “aid to the enemy” by providing an unmonitored cell phone to detainees.

Steele was the commander of the 451st Military Police Detachment at Camp Cropper, a U.S. detention center on the western outskirts of Baghdad, when the offenses allegedly occurred between October 2005 and February, military spokesman Lt. Col. James Hutton said. …

The other charges included unauthorized possession of classified information, fraternizing with the daughter of a detainee, maintaining an inappropriate relationship with an interpreter, storing classified information in his quarters and possessing pornographic videos, the military said.

Steele also was charged with improperly marking classified information, failing to obey an order and failing to fulfill his obligations in the expenditure of funds, the military said.

What a complete fall from grace! One can assume that Steele, having attained the rank of Lt. Col., was passionate about his military career and his country, and spent years in dedicated service. He was willing to put his life at risk for his country and obviously had made sacrifices to be where he was.

No comfy life in the suburbs, no going to the game with buddies on Saturday, no easy job in the corner office; instead, Steele opted to serve. Close the curtains on Act One.

In Act Two, we begin to see Steele’s fatal weakness manifest itself, as he begins to make a bad decision here, is forced to cover up a small error there. A cycle of lies, secrets and self-recrimination follows.

As Act Three opens, Steele has sworn to himself that he can change his ways and he does; he’s strong and focused and worthy again. But then the detainee’s daughter enters the scene.

Alluring, shapely and possibly available, his focus tragically shifts from his desire to change to his desire to see her change into something more comfortable. She keeps him awake at night; she poisons his thoughts.

As the act unfolds, he makes his fatal mistake, providing the phone. He gets sloppy because his mind is lustily involved elsewhere, and forgets to return files. Then he tries to cover it all up by not following a direct order from his superior officer. And everything crashes.

Steele falls far, from warrior to traitor, and we leave him at the final curtain alone in his cell in Kuwait, torn between feelings of guilt and failure … and thoughts of her.

What was Steele’s fatal weakness? It lies in one of the minor charges against him, “possessing pornographic videos.”

Steele didn’t fall for money or false allegiances. He fell to lust, a sex addict whose addiction caused him to make a series of bad choices and live a life of secrets and lies.

Lust fueled by pornography destroyed Lt. Col. William Steele as it does millions of greater and lesser men every year. What he didn’t know is that there is a life free of this addiction.

For Christian men, visit Celebrate Recovery. There should be a Celebrate Recovery group at a church near you. Here are the program’s workbooks. And here’s a message from Pastor Rick Warren on addiction and recovery.

Any concerned man or concerned wife should also read Out of the Shadows by Dr. Patrick Carnes, the premier secular work on the subject.

For it is God who works in you to will and to act according to His good purpose. (Phil. 2:13 NIV)

Update: True to form, a porno spam-bot latched onto this post and posted a comment with links to porn sites. I’ve deleted it, of course, but it shows the lengths the porn industry goes to suck in new addicts and to get more money out of those it’s already ensnared.

It was a big week for Harry Reid in this week’s Watcher’s Council nominees, with three Council members picking his “All is lost! We’re losers!” quote as a launching point:

Into Every Life, Some Reid Must Fall - Big Lizards
On Winners and Losers — Harry Reid and Defeatism - Joshuapundit
Reid and the Dems: Cowardly, Immoral Jellyfish - Right Wing Nut House

Bookworm entered an excellent piece on one of the major sideshows of the war: how to handle detainees: Presidential Power and Criminal Terrorists. Soccer Dad chimed in with another war-related theme, writing on Israel and its enemies in Cohen Must’ve Got Lost.

On Virginia Tech, I submitted Kevin Granata: Virginia Tech Hero and The Glittering Eye filed One Day Has Passed.

Done With Mirrors noted Earth Day with a well-researched piece on the history of global warming and cooling and its political implications.

A fascinating piece on race and sports, Quota Baseball, was filed by The Colossus of Rhodey, while The Education Wonks filed a story on excellence in another endeavor, Boy Scouts, in Merit-Based Success: James Calderwood.

Rounding out a great week of nominations were Helots, Eternity Road’s musings on Sparta’s successes and our failures, and The Problem With Political Speech Limitation by Rhymes With Right, on political campaign contributions.

The Watcher’s Council nominees for non-Council blog posts of note were:

1. Where Kurdistan Meets the Red Zone - Middle East Journal (my nominee)
2. The Big White Lie - City Journal (which I wrote about last week)
3. Getting the Message - The Mudville Gazette
4. NY Times Public Editor Examines Paper’s Duke Coverage - TalkLeft
5. Chomskyite Billionare Pleads Oppression - Diary of an Anti-Chomskyite
6. A Time for War - Treppenwitz
7. A Failure of Doctrine, Not of People - Winds of Change
8. “To Jaw-Jaw Is Always Better Than To War-War.” - Wizbang!
9. Who’s in Denial? - News Bloggers
10. Hillary Losing Critical Constituency - Captain’s Quarters
11. The Mainstream Media: Islamist Facilitators - Family Security Matters
12. Why the Liberal Media Whores Out for Terror - Breath of the Beast
13. We Get the Government We Deserve - The QandO Blog
14. Cho Inspired Drivel - Dodgeblogium