Shall we play a game?

OK, David gave me an idea for a weekly post in which everybody will be able to participate. It's called "Name That Movie"...here's how it goes. I post a movie quote every Thursday night or Friday AM and you guys name the movie. If you are the first one to post the correct answer, you may leave one of your own favorite quotes and let's see who knows their movie line trivia best.

I'll start it off with an easy one...well sort of easy. I'll even leave a clue.

"Gentlemen, you can't fight in here! This is the war room."

The movie is one of the best, perhaps only, satirical cold war movies ever. It was filmed in black and white to heighten the drama.

OK, whoever gets it first, leave your own quote but don't make it too easy. We here at TRR like a challenge.

You have to love half-witted beauty pageant contestants

This illustrates the point I've been trying to make for months, that all Muslims are suffering because of the actions of a few radicals, because they don't speak out. This rationalization for Muslims' failure to condemn terrorism, makes absolutely no sense, but what do you expect from a 19 year old, beauty queen?

Stereotyping is leading to terror, says first Muslim Miss England Last updated at 10:34am on 31st August 2006

The first Muslim to be crowned Miss England has warned that stereotyping members of her community is leading some towards extremism.
Hammasa Kohistani made history last year when she was chosen to represent England in the Miss World pageant.
But one year on, the 19-year-old student from Hounslow feels that winning the coveted beauty title last September was a "sugar coatingî for Muslims who have become more alienated in the past 12 months.
She said: "The attitude towards Muslims has got worse over the year. Also the Muslims' attitude to British people has got worse.

"Even moderate Muslims are turning to terrorism to prove themselves. They think they might as well support it because they are stereotyped anyway. It will take a long time for communities to start mixing in more.
"People may feel I am just a sugar coating on the situation. I am a symbol to show it's not really that bad.

Miss Kohistani said: "Tony Blair addressed Muslims in particular, telling them that they need to sort out the problem within. That was a huge stereotype of the Islamic community. Even the more moderate Muslims have been stereotyped negatively and feel they have to take actions to prove themselves.

She said that moderate Muslims are turning to terrorism to prove themselves? Prove themselves to be what? Terrorists? Yeah that'll really endear them to the rest of the population. So that means that if you divide the immigrant Muslim population into three groups, radical jihadists, moderate Muslims, and Western assimilated Muslims, that two thirds of them cannot be trusted not to become terrorists? Tony Blair was exactly right in saying that it's the entire Muslim community, not just a token few, who needs to verypubliclyy condemn these extremists in their midst. Only then will the non-Muslim community in which they reside begin to see them as allies in the war on Islamofascism. If they continue to sit on their hands and say nothing when terrorists strike, they will be rightly viewed as terrorist sympathasizers, and treated accordingly.

Separated at birth...

You all know I'm generally a fan of the President because of the way he has handled the war on terrorists. Iraq specifically I have some problems with, and his economic policies are horrible from a conservative point of view, but on average I like the man.

Having said that, check out this link. These are some funny pictures. It'll be an excellent break in the day and good for a laugh or two...

http://www.bushorchimp.com/

Dopey parents

You just know that these two idiot parents set their kid up for this just so they could make a big dramatic, public stand against Bush...

Court OKs Wearing Anti-Bush Shirt at School
A U.S. student who sued school officials after he was made to censor his T-shirt that labeled President Bush "Chicken-Hawk-In-Chief" and a former alcohol and cocaine abuser won an appeal Wednesday to wear the T-shirt to school.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of Zachery Guiles, who through his parents claimed his free speech rights had been violated when school officials made him put duct tape over parts of his T-shirt that showed a Bush image surrounded by cocaine, a razor blade, a straw and a martini.

The T-shirt read "George W. Bush" and "Chicken-Hawk-In-Chief" with a picture of the president's face wearing a helmet superimposed on the body of a chicken.
Story Continues Below

The back of the T-shirt showed lines of cocaine, a martini glass and smaller print that accused Bush of being a "Crook," "Cocaine Addict," AWOL," "Draft Dodger" and "Lying Drunk Driver."

I'm sorry but middle school is not the place for incendiary, political soapboxing. These two flower children pretending to be parents, are trying to relive their dope-smoking, America-hating, halcyon days of their youth during the sixties, and they're disgracefully using their kid to do it.

This is a text-book example of how liberals foist their anti-establishment agenda on the American population. All they have to do is find a sniveling, sympathetic, Carter-appointed judge who will rule in their favor and BAM...their idiotic, subversive ideas become acceptable as part of the national political dialogue.

Hopefully some patriotic kid who wants to be a Marine will beat him up and take his shirt.

Those crazy Canucks...

Sounds like there are some hijinks afoot at Air Canada...

Pilot locked out of cockpit after in-flight toilet break Aug 30 5:18 PM US/Eastern

An Air Canada Jazz pilot who left the cockpit of his passenger jet to use a back washroom moments before landing found himself locked out upon his return, an airline official told AFP.
The pilot eventually busted into the cockpit and safely landed the Bombardier CRJ-100, but not before alarming some 50 passengers who watched him bang on the door and talk frantically with the cockpit through an onboard telephone for several minutes, according to local reports.

The first officer had remained on the flight deck, but was unable to open the jammed door, forcing the crew to remove it from its hinges with only 30 minutes remaining in the flight from Ottawa to Winnipeg, she said.
The first officer could have landed the jet himself and passengers were not in danger, she added.

No explanation for the door jam was given.
"It's a very rare occurrence," Stuart said. "To the best of our knowledge, it's the first time we've encountered this problem in-flight."

The door seemed jammed because the first officer had locked it from the inside as a prank. The question is was it a prank on the pilot or a prank on the crew and passengers? These days and times, there is not much humor for joking aboard air liners.

If that plane had been somewhere in the U.S., the second the passengers saw the pilot locked out and frantically trying to talk the person on the other side into opening the door, they would have broken down the cabin door and killed anybody on the other side. And they would have been justified in doing so.

I don't buy the whole door jamming thing.

Even crazy liberals can do something nice once in a while

I heard that Ol' Ted Kennedy actually did something for which he deserves credit. It seems that a group of about 20 troops from Massachusetts were returning from Iraq, and were faced with a 20 hour bus ride from Indiana home to Mass. Apparently Kennedy spent his own money and paid for them to fly home saying that no combat soldier should have to endure a bus ride that long to get home.

Good for Ted! I have to give credit where credit is due. That was a totally cool thing to have done.

"But Ed", you smugly point out, "He only did it for the political points it would score with voters."

Possibly. But he's a politician. Politicians of both parties don't go to the bathroom without some degree of political calculation. That being said, I don't think the soldiers care what his reasons for doing it are, and I have to give him the benefit of the doubt here and assume that he had the best of intentions in paying their way home. If he scores some political points for it...so what? He deserves credit for doing something good for somebody.

See, even I can be nice to a liberal when he does something worthwhile and decent. And I even chose a flattering picture of him.

It's what pasty, inept, bureaucratic losers do...

This is so typical of disgraced, former bureaucrats that I hesitate to even comment on it but here it is...

'Brownie' Blames Bush, Chertoff for Katrina
Former FEMA Director Michael Brown, who lost his job because of Hurricane Katrina, said Tuesday his biggest regret a year later is that he wasn't candid enough about the lack of a coherent federal response plan.
"There was no plan. ... Three years ago, we should have done catastrophic planning," Brown said, charging that the Bush administration and his department head, Michael Chertoff, "would not give me the money to do that kind of planning."
As levees broke down at Katrina's strike against New Orleans and people were forced from their homes, Brown said he sought futilely to get the 82nd Airborne Division into the city quickly.
Appearing on NBC's "Today" show, he was asked about positive statements he had made at the time about how Washington would come through for the storm victims, rather than leveling with the country about how bad the situation actually was.
"Those were White House talking points," Brown replied. "And to this day, I think that was my biggest mistake."

Seriously, did anybody expect anything more honorable from "Brownie"? Anybody in government who gets canned because of incompetence and failure, automatically runs to the fawning, agreeable press (this rule applies only when Republicans hold the reins of power) and blames the bosses for their own ineptitude.

I have never understood the logic of the President of the U.S. micromanaging local disaster relief. It was never Bush's job to call in the Guard, order buses to La., have supplies flown in, get the people out of the disaster, or any of it. It was squarely the responsibility of, in order or priority: Mayor Ray Nagin, Governor Kathleen Blanco, FEMA head Michael Brown, Homeland Security Secretary, President Bush. When the first three people in the chain of command fall completely and utterly on their faces, how can anybody expect the National Command Authority to take charge, within hours, of a local weather disaster? But that's what everybody expected down there...here's three reasons why:
1. Ray Nagin crying racism before the storm even hit because it's what all race pimps do to cover their own failures. 2. The people of NO expecting the goverment to save them rather than save themselves because leaders like Ray Nagin had fostered the notion of dependence and entitlement.
And 3. the Bush-hating media seizing the opportunity to tag Bush, and by extension all conservatives, as racists, by gleefully stoking the fires of racial division and resentment among the survivors when there was none.

It'll be interesting when the next hurricane hits that town to see how the same leaders handle the situation on their second try.

Are you a geek?

Go to this site and take the geek test to see how nerdy you really are...

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10790555/

I'm probably a big geek compared to most and I only scored 50%.

Server troubles...

Sorry for the lack of posting yesterday and today but the host server at e-blogger is running very slowly and it's difficult to log on at times. Stay tuned, it should be back up to speed soon.

Ed

Soon to be resident of the rubber room at the laughing factory

Seriously, was there ever any doubt?

BOULDER, Colo. - Prosecutors abruptly dropped their case Monday against John Mark Karr in the unsolved slaying of JonBenet Ramsey, saying DNA tests failed to put him at the crime scene despite his "repeated insistence" that he killed the 6-year-old girl.

"The warrant on Mr. Karr has been dropped by the district attorney," public defender Seth Temin said outside the jail. "They are not proceeding with the case."

Nobody thought this moron had anything to do with the case other than a creepy, morbid obsession with little-girl murder victims. I think Patsy did it out of jealousy that her daughter was a more popular pageant contestant at 7 than she was as an adult. Any mother who dresses her daughter up like a hooker at that age, at any age, is clearly unbalanced and in need of pharmaceutical intervention. The father covered it up either because he didn't know for sure or because he had lost his daughter and didn't want to lose his wife as well.

Or it could just have been a random thing by some guy who followed them home from a pagaent and will never be solved?

Whatever, I'm glad it'll soon be off the news.

Paper tiger with blue hats

Tell me, after reading this, how the situation in south Lebanon is different in practice, than how it was 6 months ago...

UN will not stop Syria sending weapons to Lebanon By Harry De Quetteville and Michael Hirst
(Filed: 27/08/2006)
The United Nations peacekeeping force to be deployed in Lebanon is facing further criticism after the admission that its forces will not even be allowed to intercept shipments of arms to Hezbollah from Syria.

Speaking in Brussels before heading to the region, Kofi Annan, the UN Secretary-General, confirmed that the 15,000-strong force will not meet Israeli demands to police the routes used by the militia to smuggle missiles from Syria.
"Troops are not going in there to disarm - let's be clear," he said. Instead, the Unifil force will only carry out interception missions if asked by the Lebanese government - which has made no such request. Syria, meanwhile, accused by Israel of re-arming Hezbollah during the recent conflict, has said the deployment of any UN forces near its border would be considered a "hostile act".

Mr Annan's disclosure of more limits on the UN force's remit will act as a further blow to its credibility as a peacekeeping force. It is already devoid of any mandate to disarm Hezbollah of its existing weapons, and now appears powerless to stop the militia re-arming. Critics point out that new stocks of weapons and missiles could end up being used against the Unifil troops themselves, should their mission go awry and end up in clashes with Hezbollah fighters.

This is just pure idiocy! And what would one expect from an organization and corrupt, incompetent, and toothless as the U.N.?

In six months Hezbollah will have been re-armed and will start lobbing Kaytusha rockets into northern Israel again, while the blue-hatted baby-sitters do what exactly? Seriously, what is the purpose of the U.N. forces presence if not to insure that Hezbollah does not re-arm and pose a threat to Israel? The article says the U.N. has to have the Lebanese government's permission but Hezbollah is entrenched in the Lebanese government. That request will never be made. Israel should never have caved to international pressure and stopped the bombing until Hezbollah was damaged to the point of not being able to recover for years.

Explain to me again why we are subsidizing, with taxpayer dollars, an organization who is almost always opposed to what is in the best interest if the U.S. and it's allies?

Good!!!

I can't believe some parents let their kids out of the house dressed the way they do. This should happen at every school...

HAMMOND, Ind. (AP) - Classrooms were a little less crowded at Morton High School on the first day of classes: 128 students were sent home for wearing the wrong clothes.
Fed up with inappropriate outfits, the principal suspended the students for one day Wednesday, minutes after doors opened at the school. Those suspended represent more than 10 percent of the 1,200 total students.
The offending attire - including baggy pants, low-cut shirts, tank tops and graphic T-shirts - are banned from classrooms. Students were also cited for cell phone use.
"This was the worst year I've seen in a long time," said Principal Theresa Mayerik. "It's gotten out of control, and we needed to send a message that we're not messing around."
The Hammond school usually has 20 dress code violations a day.
Mayerik said the infraction would be removed from students' records in 12 weeks if they had no other in-school violations.
School board members said they support Mayerik and the mass suspensions. "I'd be supportive if half the school was sent home, because 99 percent will get the message our schools are for education," board president Rebecca Ward said.

High school is not the place to be making a fashion statement. It's for learning and preparing for college. Uniforms are an excellent idea and it wouldn't bother me in the slightest if all schools went to them. If not uniforms, then certainly a draconian punishment policy would quell the offenders' desire to dress like they're in the hood, or walking the red light district. It's incredible to me what kids get away with wearing to school these days.

What a dingleberry!

I just have to rip on this guy...

By The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) - First dancing, then rapping. What will Kevin Federline do next? Looks like the 28-year-old husband of singer Britney Spears will be shuffling over to the small screen, where he will appear in an episode of "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" on CBS this fall, People magazine reported.

"It's the first time I've actually had a speaking role," he told the magazine.
Federline started filming this week in Los Angeles. He will play a menacing, arrogant teen who harasses investigators Nick Stokes (George Eads) and Warrick Brown (Gary Dourdan) on a job.

So K.Fed will play a menacing, arrogant teen on CSI...in other words it'll be a cameo.

Here we go again...

Ray "Chocolate City" Nagin is already complaining that the city of New Orleans is not ready for a hurricane and that the government has let the poor, huddled masses down yet again. Look closely at the most likely storm track for Ernesto...it could head directly for east of NO...the worst side to be on. I wonder if the buses will be running this time around...

Ernesto, packing 60 mph winds, could be near hurricane strength by Sunday. Still, it was too soon to predict whether it would hit the United States, said Michael Brennan, a meteorologist with the U.S. National Hurricane Center in Miami.
"People should pay attention, especially people on the Gulf coast," Brennan said. "We're in the middle of hurricane season and it's a good time for people to update their hurricane plans."

Yeah, I would say that's it's a good idea to update your hurricane plan...seeing as how the last one was the singular greatest example of unfathomable, human failure combined with the incompetence of the wretched, state leadership in the history of the civilized world. I will be watching very closely to see who manages to save themselves from Ernesto, should it be advised. I predict that if the levees wash away again, the same people who got stranded waiting for somebody to save them, get stranded in the flooded city again. Of course it'll be all Bush's fault again as well.

My Tom Cruise limerick...

Now Tom had to prove he's not gay
So with Katie he went all the way
No one's seen the kid
In his house it is hid
I guess it's true what they say

"In the pudding there lies all the proof"
On Tom the blogs like to goof
A baby named Suri?
He really should hurry
Or his orientation we'll spoof

A nation of orchids...

Look, I'm all for kids being safe and all that jazz, but isn't this going a bit too far?

Some playground equipment and games are coming under fire from people who think they put children at risk of hurting their bodies and minds...jungle gyms, merry-go rounds, and monkey bars.
In school districts across the country, grade-school students are forbidden to play contact sports during recess. In Cheyenne, Wyo., and Spokane, Wash., the ban even includes the first playground game most children learn first: tag. And even on the playgrounds themselves, changes have been afoot that make any new parent wonder if his or her kids are skipping around in an alien landscape.
Gone are the gravel-carpeted, spidery, rusting metal constructs that the kids of the 1960s and 1970s hung, spun and jumped from. They've been replaced by rubber mats, foam-covered equipment, simplified forms and Day-Glo colors.
"If children are the most precious commodity we have, then we don't understand why people don't make the play areas safe for children to grow up on," said Donna Thompson of the National Program for Playground Safety, based in Cedar Falls, Iowa. "Getting hurt on a playground is not a rite of passage to be an adult."

Sorry Donna, but that's exactly what it is. Where do you think kids learn that they are not delicate, hot-house flowers, that they don't have to be the best at everything, and that their self-esteem does not need to be stroked every waking moment? Where is Donna's common-sense parenting which allows her kids to learn some of life's lessons the hard way? Donna's children will grow up to be sensitive, delicate, and timid adults who cannot deal maturely with the slightest adversity because they will never have had to do so as kids. Donna will always have been there to pave their way, to make their world free of the slightest risk. I find busy-body, book parents like Donna to be wholly insufferable!

Play that involves touching can also easily degenerate into aggressive physicality, some say, and those games that involve using other children as targets almost invite bullying.
The furor over dodgeball a couple years ago may have been good for a couple yucks from the likes of Ben Stiller and Vince Vaughn, but it's no laughing matter for the schools that still ban it, or for the National Association for Sport and Physical Education based in Reston, Va. Spokeswoman Paula Keyes Kun pointed out that the group's position opposing dodgeball in physical education programs hasn't changed.
"Dodgeball does provide a means of practicing some important physical skills like running, dodging, throwing, and catching. However, there are many activities that allow practice of these skills without using human targets or eliminating students from play," the NASPE official dodgeball position paper states.
"The students who are eliminated first in dodgeball are typically the ones who most need to be active and practice their skills. Many times these students are also the ones with the least amount of confidence in their physical abilities. Being targeted because they are the 'weaker' players, and being hit by a hard-thrown ball, does not help kids to develop confidence.
"Some kids may like it, like the most skilled and most confident. But many do not! Certainly not the student who gets hit hard in the stomach, head, or groin. And it is not appropriate to teach our children that you win by hurting others," it continues.

But others say the devotion to safety may be come at the price of losing some of childhood's magic.
"The newer playgrounds all look the same. It's boring, for kids and parents," said Mindy, a 33-year-old communications consultant and mother of two in Cincinnati, Ohio who asked that her last name not be used. "I've also noticed new signs at playgrounds that state the 'recommended age' for each playground. I guess cities need to protect themselves, but where have common sense and good judgment gone? It's an unfortunate reflection of a sue-happy society where parents are more concerned with the 'what-ifs' when they should be concentrating more on supervising their children."

Skinned knees, bumped heads, and twisted ankles are part of growing up and realizing that you are capable of handling difficulties in your life. On the rough-and-tumble playground kids learn that competition is a healthy, strengthening part of life, that they can suffer a stumble in life and survive, and most importantly, that their self-esteem does not have to be a function of their performances? These concepts are introduced on the playground but they translate into mature, personal, psycho-social management skills in adulthood. Sure there are a few safety risks associated with old-school playground games and paraphernalia, but I would rather assume the rather small risk of an accident in return for having my kid grow up psychologically well-rounded, confident, and able to deal with life's disappointments and setbacks.

Who cares?

This story illustrates why Israel, and by extension the U.S., cannot claim a victory in Lebanon in any shape or form over the terrorists...

Inquiry Opened Into Israeli Use of U.S. Bombs
By DAVID S. CLOUD

WASHINGTON, Aug. 24 — The State Department is investigating whether Israel’s use of American-made cluster bombs in southern Lebanon violated secret agreements with the United States that restrict when it can employ such weapons, two officials said.

The investigation by the department’s Office of Defense Trade Controls began this week, after reports that three types of American cluster munitions, anti-personnel weapons that spray bomblets over a wide area, have been found in many areas of southern Lebanon and were responsible for civilian casualties.

This touchy feely way of conducting a war is driving me crazy. Israel is one of the good guys, Hezbollah is one of the bad guys. Shouldn't we want Israel to employ whatever means are at her disposal to defeat the enemy? Since when do we demand that our military and that of our allies, prosecute a sensitive, concerned, moral war on Islamic terrorists?

Surely when these cluster bombs were sold to Israel, it was with a wink and a nod for the benefit of the sniveling State Department bean-counter in attendance. What possible use for cluster bombs could the State Departmentl imagine besides dropping them on somebody? It's like giving a 5 year old a lolly-pop and then saying, "Don't lick it". C'mon, fighting terrorists is what Israel does.

And from a purely economic standpoint, we should encourage our allies to use the weapons we sell to them. It creates jobs back home. The more Israel bombs the terrorists in Lebanon, the more bombs we have to make to replace them.

The dumbest thing I've ever seen...

Puppy purse the ultimate accessory for pooch lovers

You have absolutely got to be kidding me!

Look at that stupid dog...our cat has hacked up furballs bigger than that.

What's wrong with a leash so the dog can get some exercise too?

This whole pretty-girl obsession with toy dogs that Paris Hilton popularized is really getting on my nerves. I'm glad I'm married already because these girls who walk around with these stupid little dogs in their purses, under their arms, and now on their butts, really annoy me to the point of being a deal-breaker in a relationship.

Trouble in the cat box...

This situation could get real bad, real fast...

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, if he ever became the supreme decision maker in his country, would "sacrifice half of Iran for the sake of eliminating Israel," Giora Eiland, Israel's former national security adviser, told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday.

The 49-year-old Iranian president, he said, "has a religious conviction that Israel's demise is essential to the restoration of Muslim glory, that the Zionist thorn in the heart of the Islamic nations must be removed. And he will pay almost any price to right the perceived historic wrong. If he becomes the supreme leader and has a nuclear capability, that's a real threat."

This nutcase should be careful stating that he would be willing to sacrifice half of his own country, Iran, to destroy Israel. Israel might just give him the chance. There is no way Israel would or should, let Iran complete the process of building a deliverable nuclear weapon, given the direct threats he has voiced toward the destruction of Israel. The fact that he's a religious zealot means, in international diplomatic terms, that he is willing to do the unthinkable in the name of Islam. Mamoud Ahmadinejad is nothing more than a terrorist with credentials...which is the most dangerous kind.

Israelis admitting this week that they were tired of war and tired of defending themselves will be viewed by the Arab street as weakness and vulnerability. Iran is stalling for time by agreeing to talks about it's nuclear program. It is a very real possibility that if allowed to produce a weapon, they will use it. There is no evidence to suggest that they won't. Only Israel can stop it and they certainly should.

He picked the wrong marine at the wrong 7-11...

I just love reading stories like this. It makes me want to join up...

A man who had just been released from jail was sent right back Monday after police say he picked the wrong store to attempt a robbery.

"A thiry year old man was in line at a 7-Eleven, 2175 E. 9400 South, just before 8 p.m. When he got to the counter he asked the female clerk for a carton of cigarettes ", said Sandy Police Sgt. Victor Quezada. "But after he received them he walked out without paying", Quezada said. "The clerk told another female clerk who followed him outside the doors and told him to stop. Instead, the man turned around and punched the clerk in the face", Quezada said. James Sjostrom was standing in line right behind the man who took the cigarettes and saw the entire thing unfold. "He just turned and clocked her," Sjostrom said. "He pounded her face. It was pretty vicious." That's when Sjostrom went after the man who assaulted the store clerk. As he went outside, Sjostrom said he saw the man standing over the clerk, who was kneeling over on the ground, as if he were going to punch her again. When the man saw Sjostrom coming at him, he took a swing at him, too. But the attacker quickly found out he was no match for the bulky Sjostrom. Sjostrom is a former Marine who taught hand-to-hand combat and currently teaches a course on Russian kettlebells, or the martial art of strength training, at the Sports Mall in Murray. "I grabbed him, threw him on the ground, put his hands behind his back, sat on him and waited for the cops to come," Sjostrom said. In just a matter of a few seconds Sjostrom had the man pinned. When the man realized he had no chance, Sjostrom said he became "pretty quiet." "Anybody would have done the same thing," he said. "Another guy in the store said he was in the Army and asked if I needed any help."

With a grin, Sjostrom replied to the man, "The Marines got here first." The would-be thief refused to tell police who he was. They figured it out, however, when they found his release papers from the Salt Lake County Jail still in his pocket. The man had been released from jail on another assault arrest just hours earlier, Quezada said. Although police don't normally encourage people to go after bad guys themselves, in this case, "The guy did something that was great," he said. The female clerk who was punched suffered a cut above her eyebrow. She was treated at the scene by paramedics and released.

Years ago, I lived in a Southside apartment, not the safest part of town. Early one morning my neighbor was getting into his car when two thugs pulled up next to him with guns. The passenger got out and tried to carjack my neighbor. He already had the motor running and instead of turning over his car, he popped it in Drive and ran up the 3 foot embankment, onto the sidewalk, into the barrage of bullets the perp was firing at him and ran over the thug. Not surprisingly, the other guy made a hasty escape, leaving his degenerate buddy on the sidewalk. What the perps didn't know was that their would-be victim was a Marine and wasn't in the mood to be robbed. My neighbor showed me his car as he recounted the story and there were bullet holes everywhere...but none in him.

Lesson: He didn't lose his head, he relied on his training and he remorselessly kicked crime's butt!

I love Military-Dude-Kicks-Criminal-Dude's-Butt stories even more than I love Wild-Animal-Eats-Stupid-Human-For-Dinner stories.

An interesting read...

Avid RightRant reader "David" sent this to me yesterday. I've known him for something like 26 years and he has similar ideas and perspectives about the world to my own. As you'll see, he's also a pretty good writer. Have a look at this essay he wrote about the the world right now and America's role in it...

Divided we fall

As the 1960’s yielded to the 1970’s, Coca-Cola transitioned from its noble motto, “It’s the Real Thing” to the mushy anthem “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke” At about the same time, a British musical group, Brotherhood of Man, gained international recognition with the song “United We Stand”. This song reached number 13 in the United States and number 10 in the U.K. I mention this song not because it’s a great song nor am I particularly fond of it but instead because I can still hear them singing the chorus:

For united we stand

Divided we fall

And if our backs should ever be against the wall

We'll be together, together, you and I

And I can still remember the visualization I had when I heard this song as a ten year old child. The image was of a group of people literally lined up against a wall – all standing with their backs against the wall. One by one they would fall as the words “Divided we fall” were sung. The wall was constructed of concrete masonry units (CMU’s) commonly referred to as cinder blocks. The wall was painted light gray, I suppose, so as not to detract from the multiple hues of the skin, clothing, and hair standing in front of it. Maybe I’m cynical having been exposed to too many Coca-Cola commercials as they portrayed their version of hope and the future. While my first glimpse of mushiness was presented pleasantly enough - after all, who doesn’t like Coke – it certainly wasn’t by accident.

The soundtrack for these commercials featured the song “I’d Like to Buy the World a Coke”. As Bill Backer, the creative director on the Coca-Cola account later wrote, as he sat in a fogged-in airport, about his inspiration in his book The Care and Feeding of Ideas (New York: Times Books/Random House, 1993):

In that moment . . . [I] began to see a bottle of Coca-Cola as more than a
drink. . . . [I] began to see the familiar words, "Let's have a Coke," as . . .
actually a subtle way of saying, "Let's keep each other company for a little
while." And [I] knew they were being said all over the world as [I] sat there in
Ireland. So that was the basic idea: to see Coke not as it was originally
designed to be—a liquid refresher—but as a tiny bit of commonality between all
peoples, a universally liked formula that would help to keep them company for a
few minutes.

Ah the Wonder Bread years; If life were only so simply and the world so benign. To many, this mushiness is seen in their mind’s eye as a groups of friends singing Kumbaya as they toss back a few of the world’s soft drink – “a tiny bit of commonality between all peoples…” - A soft drink providing the warp and weft of peace and harmony.

The rest of the story is omitted. What is not said is Coca-Cola (Coke) and virtually all other soft drinks are chocked full of high fructose corn syrup, a product of heavily subsided corn crops and cheap alternative to sugar. Also there is no mention of soft drinks as a contributor to obesity and the general decline of health in the United States. But soft drinks are not the root cause. No, the root cause 95% of the time is laziness and a lack of self-respect. So now we have Coca-Cola, the “boon” of culture, fueling the political machine through the entanglements of farm subsides, “[keeping] each other company for a little while” (or at least until death), topped with a mushiness so dangerous if left unchecked it will destroy the world.

It is due to this mushiness we find we cannot identify our enemy. It is due to this mushiness we cannot roll back crime in the United States. And it’s because of this mushiness we have 400 channels of television garbage brought into our house. We embrace modern-day “experts” whose only “credence” is derived by their celebrity status while we denounce the true experts and academics in general. Global warming supplants chemistry, physics, and mathematics. People magazine replaces encyclopedias and good old-fashioned reading of fiction or non-fiction. High School sports trump High School academics and special education is always for those who need help catching up!

There is hope. A segment, a minority of the population is hearty enough to ward off the mushiness of the world. But this dichotomy, the hearty and the rest, create a seam, a division in the world. And this division is the front line of the war against mushiness. On one side there are the victims of mushiness (some unwittingly) and those that use mushiness to promote their world view. Currently the latter are referred to as terrorists but could just as easily be the next rogue super power or hegemon wannabe.

Lining up on the other side are those that value freedom, understand responsibility and the true price of peace. They do not fall prey to the bait-and-switch pricing technique of appeasement. They are not indifferent or lazy for they have the most difficult but noble job. Their job requires a bifurcated use of resources to simultaneously defeat the agents of mushiness while enlightening the victims of mushiness. Eliminate the former; reclaim the latter to create a united nation. We must stand united against mushiness or it will be used against us to destroy the world.


For united we stand

Divided we fall

And [] our backs [are] against the wall [!]

We'll be together [?], together, you and I [?]

Feel free to leave comments for David if you have them. I'm sure he would appreciate your feedback.

It's OK to kill people...as long as you're being cool while doing it

Normally I would be against a law that restricts otherwise legal behavior but this seems to be the right way to handle personal behavior from a public safety standpoint...

ATLANTA — Drivers who cause a wreck while yakking on a cellphone will face a fine of up to $500 under a law that took effect Tuesday in DeKalb County, Ga.
The law, likely the first of its kind in Georgia, sanctions drivers whose "improper" usage of a mobile phone was a "contributing factor" in a collision causing death, injury or damage.
"It has the potential to change the way tens of thousands of drivers go about their business, even if they're simply passing through on the interstates and state highways that cross the county line." said a state lawmaker.

Then there was this interesting study I read about which certainly supports Georgia's decision to punish stupid drivers...

A study has shown that motorists who talk on cell phones while driving are as impaired as drunk drivers.
An unexpected finding: While some of the participants crashed in a virtual vehicle while sober and chatting, none of them crashed while drunk.
The study supports previous research that has revealed the risks of using cell phones, including the hands-free variety, behind the wheel.
"We found that people are as impaired when they drive and talk on a cell phone as they are when they drive intoxicated at the legal blood-alcohol limit," said Frank Drews, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Utah.
Previous studies have suggested as many as 2,600 people are killed each year in accidents involving drivers on cell phones. About 10 percent of drivers say they sometimes talk on cell phones while driving, and that figure is growing.

Look, everybody has a cell phone these days...even teenagers who don't really need them. They just have them to be cool like their friends. Teens already think they're adults and invincible and they do the stupidest, risky things to endanger themselves, their friends, and others. Making them, or their parents, and anybody else who doesn't have the sense to put the phone down, pay a heavy, punitive fine for screwing up behind the wheel, makes perfect sense.

The problem is that when you're driving and talking on the phone, what's in your mind's eye is what you're talking about with your friend, not what's in front of you. I have experienced hanging up the cell phone in the car and then trying to remember how many red lights and green lights I negotiated during the conversation, and being shocked to realize that I could not. I literally had no memory of any traffic situation during the phone call.

I would not be in favor of [cell-phone-usage-while-driving] constituting sole justifiable grounds for being pulled over and ticketed, but if you are too stupid to use a phone and drive and it causes you to wreck, you should have to pay a fine for that. This law strikes just the right chord with me...punish the consequences of behavior not the otherwise legal behavior itself. It's exactly like people who own Pit bulldogs, it's legal to own one but when he bites somebody, it's your responsibility and you deserve punishment for not behaving responsibly.

The chickens come home to roost in LA...

Finally, a self-absorbed, Hollywood airhead feels repercussions for opening his yap about stuff other than movies...

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Paramount Pictures is severing its 14-year-old ties to Tom Cruise's production company because of his off-screen behavior, the chairman of the studio's parent company said on Wednesday in an interview with the Wall Street Journal.

They were reacting to a USA Today/Gallup poll in which half of those surveyed registered an "unfavorable" opinion of the actor. Many cited his off-screen behavior during the past year, including his outspoken defense of his religion Scientology and his blunt criticism of psychiatry and actress Brooke Shield's treatment for postpartum depression.

I'm always amazed that Hollywood stars are shocked, shocked when faced with a fan base that will not go see their movies, or buy their albums because of their ridiculous political, religious, or public policy rantings. It's the free market at work baby! If you act stupid, consumers no longer want what you're selling...it's that simple.

Maybe some of the other tinsel-town dopes will think twice about using their pie-holes for things other than eating pie and reciting lines. They are highly paid court jesters. They exist solely to entertain us. When they grow tiresome and we no longer find them entertaining, we watch a different court jester. Hopefully from now on, "Shut up and act." is an appropriate statement to live by if you're an entertainer.

The end of the world as we know it...

After last weeks downgrading of the predicted severity of the 2006 hurricane season, you just had to know that weather "scientists", desperate to remain relevant, would offer dire warnings for the future...

Hurricane chief: Megadisaster 'is coming'
Tragedy worse than Katrina is not a question of if, but when, he says

"I don't know whether that's going to be this year or five years from now or a hundred years from now. But as long as we continue to develop the coastline like we are, we're setting up for disaster."

So coastal development is responsible for mega-hurricanes. And all this time I thought it was George Bush and man-made global warming.

Isn't this sort of like breathlessly warning that at some point, possibly a million years from now, a mega-asteroid may hit and destroy Earth, or that a mega-tsunami will hit the coast of the U.S. sometime in the next 5,000 years, or that Ben Affleck may, in the next 50 years or so, make a successful movie?

Seriously, this bureaucrat idiot is counseling us not to develop the coastline because of the possibility, however remote, that a mega-hurricane might, at some point in the future, strike? Preposterous!

We already have a system for developing the coastline. We dont' need the nanny-state dictating private land development policy...it's called the free market. If a land owner judges that the rewards of developing his coastal land outweigh the risks of destruction by a hurricane, then let him develop it. The timing of the next mega-hurricane will be the judge of his wisdom.

The Human Guinea Pig...

I just got back into work. I've been donating my body to science all morning. The pay for these studies is not bad but the suffering almost makes it not worth it. I had to do a glucose tolerance test, among other tests, which requires a 10 hour fast prior to the blood draw, so I haven't eaten anything since 7:00 or so last night.

Man, I missed my coffee this morning! My wife sat on the couch enjoying hers while we watched the news and I drank water....yuk!

Gotta take care of a few things here but then I'll check out the happenings today and post some stuff.

Great commentaries lately by loyal readers David and Reid by the way. You two guys just might have to be subs for me when I'm out. We'll talk later.

Ed

What's a greeniac to do?

Dire predictions about the looming hurricane season have fallen further than attendance at a Dixie Chicks' concert...

(21 August 2006) What a difference a year makes. After the record-breaking 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, the 2006 season is now below normal (on par with Al Gore's IQ). Part of the reason for the slow season is that tropical western Atlantic sea surface temperatures (SSTs) are running about normal, if not slightly below normal.

The hopes and dreams of U.S. coastal devastation longed for by Bush-loathing environmentalists seems to have been erased faster than Ned Lamont's political career.

The cooler SSTs in the Atlantic are not an isolated anomaly. In a research paper being published next month in Geophysical Research Letters, scientists will show that between 2003 and 2005, globally averaged temperatures in the upper ocean cooled rather dramatically, effectively erasing 20% of the warming that occurred over the previous 48 years.

10 years worth of Republican Party induced global warming was erased in just the last 2 years. It's amazing what global industrialization and unfettered capitalism can achieve to spite the best efforts of backwards, dooms-day miscreants like Al Gore.

Global Warming? The slow hurricane season and the cooling sea surface temperatures might be somewhat surprising to the public (only to the liberal public, conservatives know better). Media reports over the last year have suggested that, since global warming will only get worse, and last year's hurricane activity was supposedly due to global warming, this season might well be as bad as last season. But it appears that Mother Nature might have other plans.

How depressing do you suppose this news is to Al Gore? His whole reason for living just disappeared faster than a bowl of Percocets at Farrah Fawcett's house. (I stole that)

David has a clue...too bad most Americans don't...

I got this from alert reader David who seems to grasp the current geo-political situation we're facing a tad better than the average American. I would encourage you to take it to heart, think about it, and then forward it to your friends who take this radical, Islamic-jihadist threat too casually in that they think their way of life is not under assault...

Now I lay me down to sleep…

Finally, President Bush has named our enemy by attaching the term “Islamic Fascists” to those who seek to eliminate us. We cannot defeat an enemy we are unwilling to name and up until now we have allowed political correctness to coerce us into calling WWIII the Global War on Terror and our enemies were heretofore referred to as terrorists or some other generic and misleading appellation. Because we will not name or admit who we are fighting or what’s at stake, it is impossible to unite Americans much less ask them to contribute dollars whether through taxes or bonds. Ask yourself: Where are the sacrifices of the American public to win this war? Is there rationing of anything? Where are the war bond posters? The politicians are unwilling to ask for support and the general population is satisfied with the magnetic, feel-good “ribbons” stating “Support our troops” affixed to their automobile. It’s ironic that those who “support our troops” are the same ones who think nothing of the gasoline they are burning while doing so. We must come together as a nation to defeat this common enemy. Failure to do so will place us in the history books along side Spain, France, and the rest of the shameful scourges. It remains to be seen if the President’s latest epiphany is too little too late. Can he rally this country back to greatness or will we wallow in our own self-inflicted destruction?

The situation does not look promising. Today President Bush was in the news promising manpower and dollars to rebuild Lebanon. Say what? First, we didn’t destroy Lebanon and should not feel obligated in any way to help rebuild and certainly not for free. Second, Lebanon is still overrun with Hezbollah so Israel has accomplished nothing in the Global War on Terrorism. They are being painted as the bad guys and the United States has reined them in just when progress was forthcoming. The recent clash between Israel (the West) and terrorism (Hezbollah) is just a continuation of hostilities. It’s not new nor is it a “crisis” as the media portrays it. It’s only a single battle in the World War being waged by Muslims on Christians.

For once I feel like we’re on the losing side. Not because we don’t have the ability to win but because we simply don’t have the will. Most Americans are unaware or indifferent to the fact we are at war. The war hasn’t affected them directly save a spike in energy prices. Meanwhile we continue to lose momentum against the Muslims and we are silently and frightening being overrun by Mexicans (and others). If and when we wake up America will be far different than the one we remember or thought we were living in. Maybe Americans will sit and take notice when pages of People magazine show nothing but Hispanics and the text (for those that can still read) will be in a bewildering, indecipherable language.

I think the next time I see one of those “Support our Troops” magnets I’ll ask the driver exactly how they are supporting the troops. Or what do they recommend to others do to show support. I’m betting most will not be able to venture much farther than to provide directions to the convenience store where they purchased their magnet. Sadly if these magnets had existed in 1941-1945 we would have probably lost WWII. Convinced by the magnet on their car they were supporting the troops, the presses for the Rosie the Riveter posters would have screeched to a halt, war bonds would have gone unsold, and sacrifices such as rationing lifted.

The impending residue of the United States – the greatest nation in the world – creates a maddening, helpless feeling as this country slips from greatness and begins its decent into the history books. It was great at the top and history told us it wouldn’t last forever. But to watch the disintegration of a once great nation is unbearable. As a parent you strive to prepare your children for a better world or at least a future where they might be able to make a contribution. Instead my biggest challenge is what night while I’m tucking my children into bed, as we say our prayers and I look into their hopeful eyes, what night do I attempt to brace them for their future? I think we’ll change our prayers first.

Mon Aug 21, 02:36:05 PM CDT

Nicely put D.

Paying the school-yard bully

I know this sounds heartless and uncaring but, how is it the American taxpayer's responsibility to rebuild Lebanon, when it was Iran-financed Hezbollah who caused it to be destroyed? Iran funnels something like 300million annually to the Hezbos, plus whatever the get from Syria and certainly from the Saudis. If those countries care as much about the Lebanese as they pretend to, why are they not financing the rebuilding? Because they couldn't care less about the Lebanese people, they are just using Lebanon as a platform from which to attack Israel.

Politicians always think they can buy good will like they buy votes. I am not in favor of this scheme by Bush to get the terrorists to like us...

WASHINGTON - President Bush on Monday announced $230 million in humanitarian aid for Lebanon and called for quick deployment of an international force to help uphold the fragile cease-fire there.
“The need is urgent,” Bush said.
“The international community must now designate the leadership of this new international force, give it robust rules of engagement and deploy it as quickly as possible to secure the peace,” the president told a news conference.

“The United States will do our part,” Bush said. While the U.S. does not plan to contribute troops, it will help logistical support, command and control help and intelligence.
He said it was “the most effective contribution we can make at this time.”

Bush also said the United States would work on another U.N. resolution making the rules of engagement clear for an international peacekeeping force.
“There will be another resolution coming into the United Nations giving further instructions to the international force. First things first will be to get the rules of engagement clear,” Bush said.

Bush also said his administration was pledging an additional $230 million to help the Lebanese rebuild their homes and return to their towns and communities.
The Lebanese government has estimated that the damage from the war will cost $3.6 billion to repair. A donors conference on humanitarian aid is set for Aug. 31 in Stockholm and a second meeting may be held to address LebanonÂ’s shattered infrastructure.

The idiotic cease-fire has already been broken...and by Hezbollah. No country wants to send troops, under the incompetent command of corrupt UN officials, to an active war zone. Iran and Syria are already re-arming Hezbollah and Bush wants to rebuild the roads and bridges as soon as possible, making it far easier to get arms into south Lebanon to be used against Israel. Just because the infrastructure rebuilding gets underway, doesn't mean that the war is over. Hezbollah still stands(with the support of the Lebanese government I might add), Iran still is this close to having nuke capability right next door, and the fighting continues as Israel retreats. What in the world is Bush thinking? This isn't over by a long shot.

"But Ed", you whine, "the suffering and destitution in Lebanon is unimaginable. Surely we (the U.S.) should be providing aid and comfort to the Lebanese people. We have so much, and they have so little, and if we can win the hearts and minds of the Arab street by giving them money, then the tide will turn in our favor and they will see that we are not the Great Satan."

Are you nuts? As long as we are not a Muslim country, we will always, always be the Great Satan to radical Muslims. Their kindness cannot be purchased. That is the stupidest notion I've ever heard. Besides, you don't rebuild a city in the middle of a war. What makes you think this war is over, because the idiot Kofi Annon called for 15,000 corrupt "peace-keepers"? The only "peace-keepers" willing to go there are from countries who don't recognize Israel's right to exist. And why is it the responsibility of the American taxpayer to rebuild Lebanon? Sure, send some food and medicine, but pouring money into Lebanon will not, as George Bush naively thinks, make the Islamo-fascists like us. They will take our money, buy weapons with it, and then attack Israel again in a few months or years...that is if they don't attack us...and with weapons our money bought. When are our politicians going to learn that you cannot buy loyalty, gratitude or pleasantness from terrorists? It's like paying the school-yard bully not to beat you up every day. We cannot simply be nice to the Arab world and hope it causes them to like us, and stop being mean to us.

I've said it before and I'll say it again; it's going to take at least one more 9/11, maybe more than that depending on who's in the White House, to convince Washington that we are under attack by a relentless enemy who cannot be reasoned with, and that partisan bickering and the politicization of the war on Islamic terrorists serves only to divide us and make us more vulnerable.

Our response to the next terrorists attack on the U.S. must be ruthless and extreme bordering on barbaric, for it to be anything but a sign of weakness and an invitation to attack again. Israel's mistake was listening to peace-at-any-cost globalists like Bush and Jimmy Carter, and stopping the demolishing of Hezbollah before it was totally destroyed. If that had meant incurring the wrath of the UN anti-semites by going into Syria and expanding the theater of war....who cares?

Ed takes a field trip to the DMV....UGH!!!

So all the vehicles in my family were due to be renewed in July. I got the green forms in the mail and renewed them all online, hoping to avoid another disastrous, depressing trip to the local DMV satellite local. Well the renewal for only one car came back. Here it is August 21 and two of my family members are driving around with expired tags.

As much as I rail about government incompetence, you would think this bungling of my tag renewals wouldn't upset me so much. But now, I have to leave work and stand in those infernal lines, with people who mostly come across like unemployed meth-heads.

At the satellite DMV where I go, there are like 30 windows, but rarely more than 3 women working them, and the line is always 40 people long. I stand there and observe the utter incompetence, lackadaisical attitude, and total disregard the miserably unhappy tellers have for the customers.

And what's the deal with having to make out your check to a guy? I can't remember the guy's name but you actually make your check out to an individual.

I would be blogging more this morning as I would have had some breaks between experiments but now, I'll be totally wasting time correcting their error. Maybe there will be some characters or bums or something there to entertain me while I wait. I'll post an update when I get back.

UPDATE: Well it went a little better than expected. The line was only about 15 long, 5 out of a possible 25 windows were open instead of the usual 3, and the person I got was atypically pleasant, competent, and even offered a smile....obviously it's her first day on the job. She'll soon become jaded and bitter like all the rest.

Mommy, those goats are being mean...

You all know I love a good story about wild animals being wild animals and shocking some stupid human who expects them to act like cats. Well here's another one...

A birthday party went horribly wrong yesterday when a goat at the Winnipeg Zoo was killed by its herd in front of the birthday girl.
Terry Geiger and her boyfriend had taken Geiger's daughter, Angie, and a friend to the zoo for the six-year-old's birthday when two Alpine ibex goats started fighting in the enclosure in front of them.

"At first it was entertaining," Geiger said. "It was like watching the Discovery Channel but it just got worse and worse."

As the two goats went at each other, one was thrown off an incline and knocked out. As the goat came to it was attacked over and over by several other goats until the whole herd was chasing and knocking into it. The goat was knocked out three different times in the 20 minutes it took zookeepers to arrive, Geiger said.

Angie told her mom it was the worst day of her life as zookeepers finally hauled the mauled animal away in a wheelbarrow. Zoo officials could not immediately confirm the animal's death.

How dare those captive zoo animals traumatize that little girl and ruin her birthday party! Don't the stupid goats know they exist to be loved and adored by all the little children? They should be more docile, fuzzy, and cute.

See this is what happens when Disney and Pixar humanize animals in their movies. Kids grow up thinking that animals have the same sensibilities and consciences that humans do. Then when the real animal does something he is naturally supposed to do, like attack a competing herd animal, the kid gets upset like she witnessed some sort of atrocity.

So much to do, so little time

Man, I've been jammed up in the lab all day.

I had to process two spinal cords I dissected out of mice yesterday, do some experiments with some people here in the lab, and get a new Apple computer set up on my desk...I don't even know how to use Apples. You're never too old to learn I guess.

I haven't had time to read the news today much less write on it. Did I miss anything good? Hopefully I'll get back on track tonight and over the weekend.

Feet first......

Either this guy is incredibly stupid, or somebody had it in for him...

TUESDAY, Aug. 15, 2006, 9:32 p.m.By Bob Purvis
Man killed in wood chipper accident

A 30-year-old man was killed this afternoon when he was sucked into a wood chipper while trying to shake loose a piece of wood that had jammed it.The man owned a tree service company working in the 8900 block of 26th Ave. in Pleasant Prairie, according to a Pleasant Prairie Police Department press release.The man was using his foot to clear debris that had jammed the wood chipper around 5:20 p.m. when his foot became entangled in the machine, witnesses told police.His coworkers tried to rescue him from the intake, but he was pulled into and through the wood chipper, according to the release.The incident remains under investigation by Pleasant Prairie detectives, the Kenosha County Medical Examiner's office and officials from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.Police withheld the man's name while they attempted to notify his family.

This is the stuff of which nightmares are made. I got nauseated reading this story......FEET FIRST!

The guy I feel sorry for is his buddy who had to watch it all. No amount of therapy or alcohol will rid him of the horror.

Every American must do his/her part to combat terrorism...

It seems that TSA officials have decided that in the wake of the emerging possibility that women are just as suspect as potential terrorists as men, gel bras will no longer be allowed on flights as they violate the new "liquid and gel" ban put in place in the wake of the attempted UK plot.

Airport security has always been a hassle for women because underwire bras cause the metal detectors to go off. Now, gel bras are banned as well. I guess women have no choice now but to travel braless.........I mean of course, in the interest of national security.

Eye of newt and toe of frog?

I've been loosely following this story for a while and though I personally believe in taking advantage of modern medicine at every opportunity, certainly I have to recognize the rights of a family to take responsibility for their own health care. That being said, there must be limits set by the State concerning treatment and parental neglect issues where minors are involved, but where are they?

ACCOMAC, Va. - A 16-year-old cancer patient's legal fight ended in victory Wednesday when his family's attorneys and social services officials reached an agreement that would allow him to forgo chemotherapy.

Under the decree, Starchild Abraham Cherrix, who is battling Hodgkin's disease, will be treated by an oncologist of his choice who is board-certified in radiation therapy and interested in alternative treatments. The family must provide the court updates on Abraham's treatment and condition every three months until he's cured or turns 18.

Last summer, the teen was diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease, a cancer of the lymphatic system considered very treatable in its early stages. He was so debilitated by three months of chemotherapy that he declined a second, more intensive round that doctors recommended early this year.

He since has been using the Hoxsey method, the sale of which was banned in the United States in 1960.
After Abraham chose to go on the sugar-free, organic diet and take liquid herbal supplements under the supervision of a Mexican clinic, a social worker asked a juvenile court judge to intervene to protect the teen's health.

Last month, the judge found Abraham's parents neglectful and ordered Abraham to report to a hospital for treatment as doctors deem necessary.

Lawyers for the family appealed, and an Accomack County Circuit Court judge suspended that order and scheduled a new trial to settle the dispute.

Abraham is still on the Hoxsey method, but Stepanovich stressed that the family hasn't ruled out other possible treatments, such as immunotherapy or radiation treatment in small doses.

All right, after reading this story, one hugely important question stands above all else in my mind.....what in the name of Englebert Humperdink kind of idiotic name is Starchild? Seriously, is it a surprise to anybody that this family of flower children chose homeopathic therapy from Mexico for their gravely sick kid?

"But Ed", you whine, "how can you so heartlessly ridicule a child struggling for his life?"

Unbunch your shorts, my ridicule is directed at his nutty parents. It is still a ridiculous name whether he's sick or not. That being the case...the other issue this story presents is how much latitude and creativity does a family have when deciding on the proper treatment for their minor child's disease, and when should the State step in and treat the child with modern medicine over the objections of the parents?

Here's my take; obviously if the kid were 18, this point would be moot. An adult may stupidly decline treatment for himself as he wishes. If the parents were going to allow Starchild to be treated with peyote by a native-American shaman for instance, or incantation therapy made popular by the local Wicken sisters club, then absolutely the State should take responsibility for the minor. But that's not the case here. The kid and his family are open to immunotherapy, which is promising, and radiation is as modern a treatment for cancer as there is. I think the judge ruled correctly here in that the parents are pursuing alternative and unconventional cancer treatment options but have not ruled out more traditional therapies. If they were withholding treatment altogether in the hopes of faith-healing or because they didn't believe in medical intervention in disease processes as a stupid point of their religious beliefs, then the State has a responsibility to supersede the wishes of the parent and minor child to do what's in the best interest of the patient.

Bruno Kirby

I was bummed to hear about this...

LOS ANGELES - Bruno Kirby, a veteran character actor known for playing the best friend in two of Billy Crystal’s biggest comedies “When Harry Met Sally” and “City Slickers,” has died. He was 57.
Kirby died Monday in Los Angeles from complications related to leukemia, his wife Lynn Sellers said in a statement Tuesday. He had been recently diagnosed with the disease.

I had not even heard that he was sick.
One of my favorite roles of his was in The Freshman with Matthew Broderick and Marlon Brando. For me, he always stole scenes from much more well known actors. What an excellent comedian!

Finally, somebody gets it!

Looks like the Brits got religion over this terror plot to blow up 10 airplanes...

Muslims face extra checks in new travel crackdown By Ben Webster, Transport Correspondent

THE Government is discussing with airport operators plans to introduce a screening system that allows security staff to focus on those passengers who pose the greatest risk.

The passenger-profiling technique involves selecting people who are behaving suspiciously, have an unusual travel pattern or, most controversially, have a certain ethnic or religious background.
The system would be much more sophisticated than simply picking out young men of Asian appearance.

Well what do you know? Who would have thought that profiling the passengers who pose the greatest risk would be the most prudent method of ferreting out terrorists?

But it would cause outrage in the Muslim community because its members would be far more likely to be selected for extra checks.

Who cares of the Muslim community is outraged? Seriously! If they truly are peace-loving, not blood-thirsty,
good-citizen types, then they should be just as scared of flying as the rest of us. It is a fact: with only a few exceptions, almost all terrorists in the last 20 years have been radical, Islamo-fascist Muslims. It is only reasonable to look at the travelers who fit the description a little more closely.

Look for the unassimilated British Muslim community to take to the streets in protest over this very wise ethnic profiling policy. I only wish the politicians in the US had the guts to do something like this here.

Prima donna athletes annoy me...

It's football season so there will probably be regular sports stories that I cover here, in addition to the political and current affair stuff. Most often they will have to do with issues peripherally associated with an athletic program, ridiculing my Auburn friends(I'm a UGA fan), or deriding an unproven player who thinks he's worth more than he is...like prima donna Matt Leinart...

FLAGSTAFF, Ariz. (AP) - Even though Matt Leinart may have lost millions when he returned to Southern California for his senior season a year ago, he's still plenty rich now.
He also has some serious catching up to do with the Arizona Cardinals.
The 2004 Heisman Trophy winner ended a two-week holdout late Monday night and signed a six-year contract that guarantees him $14 million. It could also bring the rookie quarterback up to $51 million.
He was the last of this year's first-round picks to sign.

Pretty boy got his butt handed to him by Texas and Vince Young for the national championship and he goes 10th in the NFL draft and was the third QB taken behind Young and Jay Cutler of Vanderbilt...that's right, a guy at Vandy was better than him. On what basis do he and Lee Steinberg figure Leinart can hold out for more money, the recommendation of whatever Hollywood starlet he dated last? It's incredible the arrogance of these athletes! They've been told since they were 5 that they are God's gift to football(and in Leinart's case, God's gift to women too). It makes being a fan not that much fun anymore. What if Matty-boy falls on his face as a pro like so many other wonder-kids have done? Does he have to pay some of his money back? How does he figure he's worth 14million guaranteed? He hasn't even taken a snap. If he's a terrible QB, does his salary go down accordingly?

I hope he fails miserably as I hope all rookie hold-outs do every year. Prove your worth to the team and then negotiate for millions more.

Look, there's no bigger proponent of the free labor market than me. I am in favor of negotiating the highest salary you can, but when the employer has no proof of your worth to him, how can you dare not show up for work and demand more money? My problem with Matt Leinart is not economic-based, it is principle-based. If he's as good as he thinks he is, why not show up for work at the league minimum, with the agreement that if he performs on the field, he may then renegotiate for whatever salary he wants at the end of the season? That seems like the most reasonable system of management/labor negotiation for rookies I can think of.

Anybody got a better plan? Let's hear it.

More fun with FEMA...

This tidbit illustrates perfectly the abject, miserable incompetence that has seized the federal government's releif agency...and the federal government in general...

Prompted by a WAFB 9NEWS INVESTIGATION, FEMA said Monday it will replace locks on as many as 118-thousand trailers used by victims of hurricanes who are living in trailers provided by the government agency.FEMA says some keys could open as many as 50 different locks. At two FEMA trailer parks in Baton Rouge, our investigation revealed residents who were able to open not only their trailers, but also trailers of other individuals parked only a few spaces away.

The fact that there are still people living in FEMA trailers, and haven't gotten on with their lives, is incredible to me. I get that entire towns were destroyed and may remain wastelands not to be repopulated any time in the near future. I get that people lost literally everything including their land(in terms of it's usability). I get that the jobs from those towns do not exist any more for thousands of people but COME ON!. Why are there at least 118,000 families still living off the taxpayers in FEMA trailers? What are they waiting for? Move to a new city. Get a different job. Start a new life. How long are people willing to do nothing to help themselves, while they wait for the government(fellow taxpayers) to take care of all their needs? Apparently the disappointing answer to that question is still unknown as the meter is still running on Katrina leftovers.

I used to believe that one cannot overstate the ingenuity, determination, and rugged individualism of Americans. It's what this country was built on. Dismayingly, Katrina dingleberries show that dependence, laziness, and entitlement are qualities difficult to overrstate as well.

the problem with college athletics...

With all the attention Maurice Clarett's arrest has brought on the problems associated with college athletics, I thought it would be interesting to get some different opinions regarding the "student athlete", his role at his institution, and the controversial issue of whether student-athletes should be paid, and how.

First let's lay down a couple of givens: First, the men's football programs, and ACC men's basketball, underwrite all other sports teams at that university or college. Without men's football, there would be no sports other than at the club level. Second, college scholarship athletes are forbidden by the NCAA from working other than in institutional work-study programs which are limited. Third, elite athletes are surrounded constantly by unscrupulous alumni, agents, and bettors telling them how much they are worth and offering them obscene amounts of cash. Fourth, let's not delude ourselves into thinking that the elite athletes are in school for any reason other than to go pro at some point...they aren't and everybody knows that. The athlete, his parents, the coaches, the administration, and the fans know it. He's there to win games, and while he's not winning games he can kill time by attending class until the next game. Finally, any solution would have to be workable at all NCAA governed institutions big and small.

The big question: Given that these student-athletes bring in millions of dollars to the university, is it appropriate to offer them some sort of financial incentive since they are in a very real sense a university employee? Popular reader to this blog "Reid", chimed in earlier with this suggestion which prompted this post...

The NCAA allows each school to state a value for a scholarship (ex: $40,000 for a four year ride at Alabama). Then each scholaship athlete is given an account at the university credit union. These students write checks for tuition, housing, etc. They can purchase new or used books at the U book store, this gives each student some spending freedom. Each week or twice a month, the athletic department issues a paycheck to these athletes at some $/hour rate. Hours "worked" are based off of practice time, game time, off season workouts, and most importantly study hall time. This allows an institution the flexibiliy to spend funds " in season" and decrease expenses in the off season. It also allows the student to learn budgeting, how to balance a checkbook, financial decision making, etc. The football program still funds all minor sports, but this system eliminates all the neglecting of minor sports. Partial scholarship people are reduced by the percentage of scholarship. Simple, easy to manage by the member institutions, and good for the athletes.

Tell me why this will not work?

If any of you have ideas about solving the problems with big-time college athletics, I'd love to hear them and we can discuss.

Liberalism in America on display in S.F...

If you want to see liberals showing their true colors and behaving badly, as usual, you need go no further than this anti-America, anti-Israel, anti-Bush rally in San Francisco over the weekend. It was an example of the vile anti-semitism on display by the liberal vermin in this country. That the Jewish-American community continues to side mostly with democrats confounds me. If you want to see more of the rally, check out this link where more of them are posted.

http://www.zombietime.com/stop_the_us_israeli_war_8_12_2006/

The depraved loathsomeness of liberals in America knows no bounds.

Here we go again...

Give me a break! So the world trusts the incompetent and corrupt blue-hats at the U.N. to keep the peace between the Israeli's and Hezbollah?

UNITED NATIONS -- NewsMax/AP -- The U.N. Security Council adopted a resolution Friday that calls for an end to the fighting between Israel and Hezbollah, and authorizes the deployment of 15,000 U.N. peacekeepers to help Lebanese troops take control of south Lebanon as Israel withdraws.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said the United States would increase its assistance to Lebanon to $50 million, and demanded other nations stay out of its affairs. "Today we call upon every state, especially Iran and Syria, to respect the sovereignty of the Lebanese government and the will of the international community," Rice told the council.

Look, the longer the Israeli's fight the Hezbollah terrorists, the better off they will be in the long run. Here's what's going to happen: The ridiculous keystone U.N. cops will form a buffer to keeps Israel from annhilating Hezbollah, and Hezbollah will be re-armed and re-manned by Iran via Syria, only to attack Israel again in a few years, if not sooner.

Seriously, 15,000 U.N. troops? Whose troops exactly? Will they have guns? Will they use force to prevent Hezbollah from firing Kaytusha rockets at Israel? At what cost? For how long? Will they prevent Hezbollah from reforming into a fighting force again? The answer to these questions better be the right ones or Israel is right back where they started before those soldiers were kidnapped.

What a collosal waste of Israeli and Lebanese lives all this will have been if Hezbollah is allowed to exist either as a part of the Lebanese government or as an independent terrorist militia.

From the standpoint of the global war on terrorists, this deal sounds like unadulterated lunacy!

Touch the shell...you die!

I know this isn't supposed to be a funny story but it sort of is...

A graduate student from the University of Central Florida is missing after he was pulled underwater by a large sea turtle, according to Local 6 News.
Officials said the man vanished Thursday afternoon about three miles north of the Sebastian Inlet and 400 yards out to sea, sheriff's officials said.
The student was apparently tagging turtles as part of a UCF research project.

"The person was onboard a Boston Whaler with other students when a large turtle pulled the victim underwater," Local 6's Bob Frier said.

I would be interested in hearing the eyewitness account of how a slow-swimming, 700lb sea-turtle leapt out of the ocean, grabbed a man with his what...beak, and dragged him into the water. That turtle doesn't need to be tagged...he needs to be in the circus.

With all the Gore-esque efforts to Save the Turtles, Save the Whales, Save the Three-Finned, Speckled Ridge Newt, how many times would you imagine any single turtle(they live like 120 years) has been captured and tagged?

I'll bet this turtle had had enough of the tagging and said to itself, "Self, if this idiot college student tries to stick that stupid box on my shell for the umpteenth time, I swear, I'll drag him to the bottom of the ocean and let the phytoplankton feast on him".

If idiot-Al would stop flying all over the world in his ozone-destroying Leer jet telling everyone to stop destroying the ozone, I'm quite sure the turtles, whales, and newts will be just fine.