D Souza

A Baltimore federal court judge ordered six absent defendants yesterday - including one from Maryland - to shut down Internet businesses that the Federal Trade Commission claims are part of a vast $100 million "scareware" scheme that tricked more than a million people into purchasing useless security software by making them think their computers were under attack. "The evidence in this case is quite overwhelming," said U.S. District Judge Richard D. Bennett. He also extended a freeze on the defendants' assets and signed an order requiring them to show why they shouldn't be held in contempt of court for missing the hearing and ignoring an earlier restraining order.

I thought the question was simple enough, but apparently it was the only stupid one asked during a debate between Congressman Benjamin Cardin and his 3rd District opponent, Pat McDonough, on WCBM Wednesday.After asking Cardin why the disaster predicted by liberals when welfare reform took effect Oct. 1 hadn't occurred, I thought I'd be fair and ask McDonough to handle a hot one."The phrase 'rational discrimination' has been coined by the right side of the political spectrum," I began. "Basically, it says whites are perfectly justified in fearing young black men because they're the ones who commit the most robberies.

God's struggle with mammon is eternal, but any time the Nasdaq falls 75 percent, the Big Guy gets the upper hand. Bruce Wilkinson's 2000 best seller, The Prayer of Jabez (Multnomah, 96 pages, $9.99), was a commercially clever shellac job of religious sentiment over the idea that you deserve a Lincoln Navigator in your driveway, a perfect devotional for the bull market. This confusion of salary with salvation, hundreds of years old, is not always bad. As German sociologist Max Weber and English socialist economist R.H. Tawney showed long ago, the idea that earthly and heavenly blessings go together was important to the economic growth of Protestant Europe after 1520.

now playing "2016 Obama's America" (PG). Documentary based on Dinesh D'Souza's book, "The Roots of Obama's Rage. " TownMall Cinemas (1:15, 4:15, 7:15 p.m.) "The Campaign" (R). In this political comedy, a multi-term congressman (Will Ferrell) commits a major public gaffe before an election, prompting a challenge by an inexperienced regular citizen. With Will Ferrell, Zach Galifianakis, Jason Sudeikis, Katherine La Nasa, Dylan McDermott, John Lithgow, Dan Aykroyd and Brian Cox. TownMall Cinemas (1:50, 4:50, 7:50 p.m.)

This editorial appeared Dec. 18 in the Orange County (Calif. Register.WITH the United States about to mainline the addictive narcotic of a government-administered health-care system, we should look at the person who will stick that rusty old needle into the bulging vein of our national body politic. Donna Shalala has been nominated to head the $590 billion-per-year Department of Health and Human Services.In his best-selling book, "Illiberal Education," Dinesh D'Souza detailed the cult of political correctness Ms. Shalala, the chancellor of the University of Wisconsin, has fostered.

It's almost cool to be gluten-free. More national brands are offering gluten-free versions of their popular products, cookbooks for celiac disease sufferers are available at your local bookstore and now allergy-friendly bakeries - such as Sweet Sin Bakery in Waverly - are available at your doorstep. But it hasn't always been that way. Jules E.D. Shepard of Catonsville was diagnosed with celiac disease in 1999, what she calls "the dark ages of cooking gluten free." At the time of her diagnosis, Shepard was an avid baker, whipping up cupcakes for friends and classmates.

How, people ask me, can I be against black-white marriages and relationships?Plain old human cussedness, I suppose. I am not a nice guy, at heart. I don't watch "The Wizard of Oz" without rooting for the wicked witch. That little tart Dorothy did drop a house on witchie-poo's sister. That fleabag Toto was a pest.But I have other reasons than a post-40 drift into curmudgeonhood for my opposition to black-white unions. They range from the trivial -- white people have screwed us enough already -- to my unshakable belief that such unions do not promote brotherhood but actually contribute to white supremacy.

Meet 27 combines elements of a classic corner bar, arty cafe and university town health-food restaurant. Depending on your outlook, Meet 27 is either a category-buster chimera or just plain incoherent. If for now I've decided to gaze upon it with awe and kindness, it's because that Meet 27 exists at all is an astonishment. Meet 27 opened a few weeks back in the Remington space where Two Sisters Grille came and went. It's right next door to Sweet Sin, the gluten-free bakery owned by Richard D'Souza, who is one of the partners in the new bistro.