Steven Latimer

Tomorrow morning, I anticipate being on Capitol Square for the "Save the Chaplains" rally, honoring the six Virginia State Police chaplains who were forced to resign for publicly praying in "Jesus name." Eighty-six Virginia clergy requested that Governor Tim Kaine reinstate the chaplains, but the governor personally refused.


Now, I'm all for having a wall of separation between church and state, but this is just ridiculous.

This event is being put on by Gordon James Klingenschmitt, who had something similar happen to him when he was a U.S. Navy Chaplain. More information on this event can be found at www.prayinjesusname.org

With any luck, I'll have photographs and a write-up posted sometime Saturday evening.

I am predicting that John McCain will win Tuesday's presidential election by a slim margin. I base this on several factors, however chief among them are the following:
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First, John McCain has been gaining on Obama over the last few days, reports Dick Morris and Eileen McGann of Newsmax. Since McCain has been eating into Obama's lead recently, this is likely to continue for the next few days, if not into Election Day. Advantage: MCCAIN
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Secondly, Barack Obama's partial Muslim heritage, ties to nutty Chicagoans, and penchant for socialism has resurfaced in the past few days. These do not help Obama's campaign. Advantage: MCCAIN

You may have noticed that I have stopped making week-by-week predictions for the NFL games this season. This is for a variety of reasons.

This is the first time I have ever done something like this, and it wasn't as fun as I thought it would be. There are many people who know more than I do on this subject matter anyhow, and are better qualified in my judgement.

[Week 6 Record: 6-7; Overall: 52-35 (.598)]

With respect to today's post "Lee the Student," I would be completely remiss if I did not give a hat tip to Lee Vogler.

On Saturday it rained off and on in Richmond. Once I got back inside it naturally stopped raining. I peeped out of my window and found a rainbow ensconced in an overcast sky and photographed it.

Afterward, I chased the rainbow to its terminal point so I could get the leprechaun's pot of gold. Sadly, due to the increased value of gold, demand is higher, so someone already took it by the time I arrived.

Chad Johnson can't wear the football jersey he'd like to unless he compsenates Reebok, which he has elected not to. Starting next season he can wear his new legal name of Chad Ocho Cinco on his jersey, reports FOX Sports.

But will they call him that?

Home in Newport News for VCU's Reading Days - colloquially known as Fall Break - I observed a pumpkin sitting atop our front porch (a common Halloween paraphernalia). I asked my mom if I could carve it and she said no, because if I do, the pumpkin will rot, and we want it to keep until Thanksgiving.

On Wednesday evening, the Libertarian Party presidential candidate Bob Barr gave an address at Christopher Newport University's Yoder Barn Theatre to about 100 people. Making a joint appearance with Virginia's US Senate candidate Bill Redpath, Barr discussed his campaign, current events, and fielded questions along with Redpath.

Barr said that he does not feel that Sarah Palin is qualified to be Vice President of the United States because someone who could have to unexpectedly step into the presidency has to have more experience than she does. Since I feel favorable to Palin, this stuck out. I thought about asking Barr during the Q&A session how his running mate, businessman and Vegas oddsmaker Wayne Allyn Root, is qualified to be Vice President, however I decided to be nice and stay mum on the subject. (After all, how relevant is Root?)

What follows are some pictures from the event. I don't think I have to say this, but ... enjoy!

On Monday, the Washington Redskins signed former MVP Shaun Alexander to back up the Redskins' number two running back, Ladell Betts, who is injured. Betts typically backs up Clinton Portis.

People waiting in a line wrapped around several times to get in

Would make more sense to say "Sane Americans Reject A Hussein Obama." Oh, well.

Hank Williams, Jr. of Monday Night Football fame butchers our National Anthem

Crowd whipped to a frenzy

Gov. Palin at podium, Hank Williams in football jersey. Todd Palin seated at right.

Me, after the rally ended. I am squinting because it was very sunny with little cloud cover. (Incidentally, this produced a minor sunburn.)

Former Governor Jim Gilmore and US Senate candidate meets and greets rallygoers to remind them there is also a US Senate race that will coincide with the Presidential election

This picture speaks for itself.

NOTE: This is only a sampling of the pictures I took. For the rest, view my public album here.

Left to right: me, Michael Dubay, Kevin Latimer

In case you missed it, Bill Redpath, the Libertarian Party candidate for U.S. Senate, spoke at VCU this past Wednesday evening. My friend Rick Sincere happened to be in town that night, and he took video of Redpath's appearance, which can be found in one organized location here.

(hat tip to Rick)

Just goes to show you that neither John McCain nor Chris Buckley are conservative.

(h/t Gonzalo Aida)

New York Jets over Cincinnati
Miami over Houston
Chicago over Atlanta
Minnesota over Detroit
Carolina over Tampa Bay
Indianapolis over Baltimore
New Orleans over Oakland
Washington over St. Louis
Denver over Jacksonville
Green Bay over Seattle
Dallas over Arizona
Philadelphia over San Francisco
New England over San Diego

(Week 5 Record: 11-3; Cumulative Record: 46-28)

So wrote American writer Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. It is in this spirit that I announce that I have resigned from the VCU Student Body Senate.

I never intended to be in the Student Senate. But in early 2006, Tyler Bass - a friend of a friend who was running for Student Body President at the time - encouraged me to run for Student Senate. Tyler inspired me, and on a whim I ran and I won.

For the next two years and some change, I was in essence Tyler's protege. (After Tyler lost his race, he did some journalism work, and then graduated.) Tyler was no longer here, but his ideas lived on in the form of me - ideas that propelled me myself to run for Student Body President last Spring. Ideas that matter like budget transparency and openness - and a distaste for snobbish elitism.

The two acts I am proudest to have engineered while on Student Senate are the VCU Freedom Act and the "VCU, Bring a Conservative!" Resolution.

I wrote the VCU Freedom Act, which requested that the University place Veterans Day on the University's calendar. VCU - among all public universities in Virginia - had the largest enrollment of student veterans, yet VCU was the last public university in the state to place Veterans Day on their calendar. After a good bit of hemming and hawing, the VCU administration decided to reference the November 11 observance on its calendar; see VCU's Fall 2009 calendar.

When concerns arose over a lack of diversity in the guests VCU paid to bring, my "VCU, Bring a Conservative!" Resolution asked the University to host and sponsor a notable conservative speaker. I can't say this resolution accomplished the said goal, but it seemed to add diversity to the speakers list.

Many have asked why I have suddenly decided to resign my Senate seat. Truthfully, there are several reasons. Time is one consideration. Another is that I have come full circle. The Senate continues to address issues that it seems like have already been addressed long ago. I won't be a part of an organization that goes in circles. Electing new, different leadership to the SGA Executive Branch is the best chance to truly solve problems.

But that's a different topic for a different day.

Tennessee over Baltimore
Carolina over Kansas City
Chicago over Detroit
Green Bay over Atlanta
Indianapolis over Houston
San Diego over Miami
New York Giants over Seattle
Washington over Philadelphia
Denver over Tampa Bay
Arizona over Buffalo
Dallas over Cincinnati
New England over San Francisco
Pittsburgh over Jacksonville
New Orleans over Minnesota

(Week 4 Record: 8-5; Cumulative Record: 35-25)

In last night's US Senate debate, I was very impressed by Jim Gilmore's clarity of thought, and his conservative credentials.

On the unconservative Wall Street bailout (which Mark Warner supports), Gilmore said this:

I am strongly opposed to asking America’s hard working families to cover the bets of the Wall Street high rollers and insiders who exploited flaws in government regulations to make personal fortunes and devastate our economy. [...] Requiring taxpayers to cough up $700 billion without providing them any additional assurances for their own financial security is wrong. [...] Maybe Mark Warner finds it easy to take more and more of the taxpayers’ money, but I do not.

On other issues, Gilmore expressed his opposition to amnesty for illegal aliens, as well as the unconservative court case Roe v. Wade. His opponent, Mark Warner, came out in full support of both.

This intercourse between the two was--and will be--the campaign's only live, televised debate. Virginia may very well no longer be considered a "red" state for the time being, but Virginia's denizens are still fundamentally conservative at heart. They have a conservative mindset; conservativism is still "in" here.

This being said, let's see if anything happens now that the debate is over.

Much to the perpetual amusement of the effervescent Nancy Grace, it appears that OJ Simpson will finally be heading to the slammer, where he belongs.

Honestly, who saw this coming? I thought the guy was invincible!