While California is experiencing a financial meltdown, other states are suffering from some serious budget shortfalls as well. In order to reduce expenditures, those states are resorting to the early release of state prison inmates, the same as California. While early releases will result in significant savings over the short term, they will put the public at great risk and eventually cost the states far more money than they saved.
The Los Angeles Police Protective League, LAPD’s union, released some alarming crime predictions on the early release of felons. According to independent research organizations, for every 5,000 felons who receive an early release, 45,500 new crimes will be committed over a three-year period, and 9,000 of those crimes will be violent felonies. Those predictions apply to all states, not just the State of California.
LA POLICE PROTEST PROPOSED EARLY RELEASE OF PRISON INMATES
Los Angeles Daily News Wire Services
July 17, 209
The union that represents the Los Angeles Police Department rank-and-file issued a protest today against what it said was a plan by state lawmakers that would result in a "massive release of felons to achieve budget savings."
"The early release of felons from state prison is one of the `strategies' to score budget savings," the Los Angeles Police Protective League said in a statement.
"Our sources inform us that the proposed budget will result in a reduction of $1.2 billion in the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (budget). Although no one in the Legislature has made any of this public, we can safely guess that numbers like this translate into the early release of about 20,000 felons."
Citing "information from independent research organizations," the union continued:
"For every 5,000 felons who receive an early release, 45,500 new crimes will be committed over a three-year period, and 9,000 of those crimes will be violent felonies. Applied to the 20,000 felons set for release under the budget proposal, this would result in an estimated 182,000 new crimes being committed over the next three years -- 35,000 of them violent felonies!"
LAPPL President Paul M. Weber urged voters in a statement to contact legislators "and warn them of the dire public safety consequences of a mass early release of felons from state prisons..."
Saturday, July 18, 2009
Friday, July 17, 2009
JUSTICE, TEXAS STYLE
Unlike California’s "three strikes and you’re out" law, Texas juries meet out justice on the merits of each case. Take the case of Brian Keith Balentine who was just sentenced to life in prison for shoplifting five compact discs from a Wal-Mart store.
Now, before you descent into an apoplectic mode, you need to know a little bit more about poor Mr. Balentine. 25 years ago Brian and his older brother shot to death a man trying to protect his bride during a kidnapping. The newlyweds had stopped to help with what they believed was the pair’s disabled car at a highway rest stop. The bride, who was shot twice while escaping from the Balentine brothers, survived the ordeal.
The brothers were arrested, tried and convicted and received life prison sentences. Why they were not sentenced to death is beyond belief. Worse yet, Brian was released on parole in August 2006. His brother remains in prison.
Brian has been involved in at least three thefts since his release from prison. He had completed a 30-day jail sentence for a theft in Harris County just days before he stole the compact discs in the Montgomery County city of Conroe.
The authorities in Montgomery County charged Baleninte with robbery rather than theft because he had injured a Wal-Mart security officer who had tried to detain him. And because of his murder background, they charged him with first-degree robbery rather than second-degree robbery. After learning of the murder during the sentencing phase of the trial, a wise jury gave Brian a life sentence.
Brian’s parole has yet to be revoked, but when that happens as it surely will, the original life sentence is to be served consecutively with the latest life sentence. That is what the judge in Montgomery County ordered to ensure that Balentine will never again see the light of day outside the prison walls.
Balentine pleaded for leniency because, according to his reasoning, he had already paid his debt to society. Some nerve! Of course, neither the jury nor the judge were swayed by that farfetched absurd argument.
Life for five discs. OK, so you didn’t go apoplectic. But you’re either laughing or shaking your head in disbelief. Well, you go right ahead ‘cause that’s Texas justice and, by God, it works!
Now, before you descent into an apoplectic mode, you need to know a little bit more about poor Mr. Balentine. 25 years ago Brian and his older brother shot to death a man trying to protect his bride during a kidnapping. The newlyweds had stopped to help with what they believed was the pair’s disabled car at a highway rest stop. The bride, who was shot twice while escaping from the Balentine brothers, survived the ordeal.
The brothers were arrested, tried and convicted and received life prison sentences. Why they were not sentenced to death is beyond belief. Worse yet, Brian was released on parole in August 2006. His brother remains in prison.
Brian has been involved in at least three thefts since his release from prison. He had completed a 30-day jail sentence for a theft in Harris County just days before he stole the compact discs in the Montgomery County city of Conroe.
The authorities in Montgomery County charged Baleninte with robbery rather than theft because he had injured a Wal-Mart security officer who had tried to detain him. And because of his murder background, they charged him with first-degree robbery rather than second-degree robbery. After learning of the murder during the sentencing phase of the trial, a wise jury gave Brian a life sentence.
Brian’s parole has yet to be revoked, but when that happens as it surely will, the original life sentence is to be served consecutively with the latest life sentence. That is what the judge in Montgomery County ordered to ensure that Balentine will never again see the light of day outside the prison walls.
Balentine pleaded for leniency because, according to his reasoning, he had already paid his debt to society. Some nerve! Of course, neither the jury nor the judge were swayed by that farfetched absurd argument.
Life for five discs. OK, so you didn’t go apoplectic. But you’re either laughing or shaking your head in disbelief. Well, you go right ahead ‘cause that’s Texas justice and, by God, it works!
ASSHOLE COP OF THE YEAR NOMINEE
If Travis Peterson’s version of this incident is the correct one, then the Wisconsin State Trooper who chased him out of a parking lot only to arrest him for DUI once he left, gets my well-deserved nomination for Asshole Cop of the Year.
COPS FORCE DRUNK TO DRIVE, THEN GIVE HIM DUI
By Edecio Martinez
CBS/AP
July 16, 2009
MADISON, Wis. Walking to a parking lot after seeing Dave Matthews Band live in concert south of Milwaukee, an Illinois teen knew he was too drunk to drive home. So he fell asleep in his car, only to be awoken by a state trooper.
Travis Peterson, 19, of Dixon, Ill., said even though he told the officer he was drunk and sleeping it off, the trooper ordered him to leave because the lot was being cleared.
Once out of the parking lot, Peterson was arrested for drunken driving.
He was subsequently found guilty and ordered to spend 60 days in jail.
But on Wednesday a Wis. appeals court commended Peterson for doing the right thing by trying to sleep it off, and said the trial court was wrong not to let him argue that police had entrapped him.
During his trial, the state had successfully argued that people who choose to drink too much can't say they've been entrapped when stopped for drunken driving. The 2nd District Court of Appeals disagreed. "
Drinking alcohol to excess, while inadvisable and unhealthy, is not unlawful by itself," the appeals court said.
It did not address the fact that Peterson was underage. Peterson's attorney, Andrew Mishlove, said that was irrelevant given the other issues at stake.
The trooper testified he checked on Peterson's car because Alpine Valley staff thought there was a dead person in it. The trooper said he had to bang on Peterson's car window for up to seven minutes, shine a flashlight in his face and turn on the his siren and lights before Peterson woke.
The trooper said he told Peterson he would come back later to check on him. Two hours later, the trooper was asked to assist another officer who had pulled over Peterson for drunken driving.
Because Peterson and the trooper told different stories, a jury should have been allowed to determine whether Peterson had been entrapped, the appeals court said.
COPS FORCE DRUNK TO DRIVE, THEN GIVE HIM DUI
By Edecio Martinez
CBS/AP
July 16, 2009
MADISON, Wis. Walking to a parking lot after seeing Dave Matthews Band live in concert south of Milwaukee, an Illinois teen knew he was too drunk to drive home. So he fell asleep in his car, only to be awoken by a state trooper.
Travis Peterson, 19, of Dixon, Ill., said even though he told the officer he was drunk and sleeping it off, the trooper ordered him to leave because the lot was being cleared.
Once out of the parking lot, Peterson was arrested for drunken driving.
He was subsequently found guilty and ordered to spend 60 days in jail.
But on Wednesday a Wis. appeals court commended Peterson for doing the right thing by trying to sleep it off, and said the trial court was wrong not to let him argue that police had entrapped him.
During his trial, the state had successfully argued that people who choose to drink too much can't say they've been entrapped when stopped for drunken driving. The 2nd District Court of Appeals disagreed. "
Drinking alcohol to excess, while inadvisable and unhealthy, is not unlawful by itself," the appeals court said.
It did not address the fact that Peterson was underage. Peterson's attorney, Andrew Mishlove, said that was irrelevant given the other issues at stake.
The trooper testified he checked on Peterson's car because Alpine Valley staff thought there was a dead person in it. The trooper said he had to bang on Peterson's car window for up to seven minutes, shine a flashlight in his face and turn on the his siren and lights before Peterson woke.
The trooper said he told Peterson he would come back later to check on him. Two hours later, the trooper was asked to assist another officer who had pulled over Peterson for drunken driving.
Because Peterson and the trooper told different stories, a jury should have been allowed to determine whether Peterson had been entrapped, the appeals court said.
GETTING STRAIGHT
Say what?! Homosexuals not born that way? Homosexuality curable? A mental health issue? Wow, how politically incorrect!
HOMOSEXUALITY TO HETEROSEXUALITY: CAN THE TRANSITION BE MADE?
by Baruch Gordon
IsraelNationalNews.com
July 17, 2009
Is it possible for men and women who experience unwanted same sex attraction to change from homosexuality to heterosexuality? Or were such individuals born that way and efforts to change their sexual orientation are harmful?
These questions have been the subject of raging debate amongst therapists and researches, and the Summer 2009 newsletter of JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality) discusses a new study that delivers a major blow to those who maintain that homosexuality is untreatable.
JONAH Co-director Elaine Silodor Berk reports that the Scientific Advisory Committee of NARTH (The National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality) spent 18 months reviewing and documenting the professional literature to determine whether commonly stated objections to providing psychological care to those who are distressed by unwanted homosexual attractions have validity.
NARTH found such objections to be scientifically unsupportable, providing a landscape review of 125 years of scientific literature involving more than 600 studies - primarily from professional and peer-reviewed scientific journals.
Entitled "What Research Shows: NARTH's Response to the APA Claims on Homosexuality," the study concludes that over a century's worth of experiential evidence, clinical reports, and research documentation demonstrate that it is possible for both men and women to change from homosexuality to heterosexuality; that psychological intervention motivated by efforts to change sexual orientation are beneficial and not generally harmful; and that actively homosexual men and women do indeed have greater risk factors for medical, psychological and relational pathology than do the general population.
The study states, "Based on our review of 125 years of reports by clinicians, researchers, and former clients, we conclude that reorientation treatment has been shown to be beneficial--and not harmful--and therefore should continue to be available to those who seek it. ... [Moreover,] clients who seek sexual reorientation deserve properly informed and competent psychological care from therapists who use interventions that have been scientifically demonstrated as helpful for achieving this goal."
The study highlights nearly a dozen different treatment modalities and provides an exhaustive 26-page reference list for those desirous of looking at the underlying literature.
At one time, the focus of the anti-therapeutic intervention strategy of gay advocates and their allies was to simply state that people are born that way and that any form of therapeutic intervention was useless - a myth that is still widely believed by large numbers of citizens in Western society. However, recognizing that no scientific basis exists for this canard, the anti-healing camp invented three additional concerns about the ethics, efficacy, benefits, and potential harm of therapies that seek to reduce or eliminate same-sex sexual orientation.
NARTH systematically deconstructs the following three major objections, finding each of them to be false: (1) There is no conclusive or convincing evidence that sexual orientation may be changed through reorientation therapy. (2) Efforts to change sexual orientation are shown to be harmful and can lead to greater self-hatred, depression, and other self-destructive behaviors. (3) There is no greater pathology in the homosexual population than the general population. To the contrary, the monograph shows:
I. There is substantial evidence that sexual orientation may be changed through reorientation therapy.
II. Efforts to change sexual orientation have been shown to be beneficial and not shown to be harmful or to regularly lead to greater self-hatred, depression, and other self-destructive behaviors.
III. There is, in fact, significantly greater medical, psychological, and relational pathology in the homosexual population than in the general population.
JONAH compliments the principal authors of this study, Drs. James E. Phelan, Neil Whitehead, and Philip Sutton: "They have performed an immense service to the mental health profession and to the healing ministries by gathering the pertinent information documenting the lack of any credible evidence proving that anyone is born gay while simultaneously summarizing the literature showing how so many different therapeutic modalities have proven effective for those who are unhappy feeling same-sex attractions (SSA)."
HOMOSEXUALITY TO HETEROSEXUALITY: CAN THE TRANSITION BE MADE?
by Baruch Gordon
IsraelNationalNews.com
July 17, 2009
Is it possible for men and women who experience unwanted same sex attraction to change from homosexuality to heterosexuality? Or were such individuals born that way and efforts to change their sexual orientation are harmful?
These questions have been the subject of raging debate amongst therapists and researches, and the Summer 2009 newsletter of JONAH (Jews Offering New Alternatives to Homosexuality) discusses a new study that delivers a major blow to those who maintain that homosexuality is untreatable.
JONAH Co-director Elaine Silodor Berk reports that the Scientific Advisory Committee of NARTH (The National Association for the Research and Therapy of Homosexuality) spent 18 months reviewing and documenting the professional literature to determine whether commonly stated objections to providing psychological care to those who are distressed by unwanted homosexual attractions have validity.
NARTH found such objections to be scientifically unsupportable, providing a landscape review of 125 years of scientific literature involving more than 600 studies - primarily from professional and peer-reviewed scientific journals.
Entitled "What Research Shows: NARTH's Response to the APA Claims on Homosexuality," the study concludes that over a century's worth of experiential evidence, clinical reports, and research documentation demonstrate that it is possible for both men and women to change from homosexuality to heterosexuality; that psychological intervention motivated by efforts to change sexual orientation are beneficial and not generally harmful; and that actively homosexual men and women do indeed have greater risk factors for medical, psychological and relational pathology than do the general population.
The study states, "Based on our review of 125 years of reports by clinicians, researchers, and former clients, we conclude that reorientation treatment has been shown to be beneficial--and not harmful--and therefore should continue to be available to those who seek it. ... [Moreover,] clients who seek sexual reorientation deserve properly informed and competent psychological care from therapists who use interventions that have been scientifically demonstrated as helpful for achieving this goal."
The study highlights nearly a dozen different treatment modalities and provides an exhaustive 26-page reference list for those desirous of looking at the underlying literature.
At one time, the focus of the anti-therapeutic intervention strategy of gay advocates and their allies was to simply state that people are born that way and that any form of therapeutic intervention was useless - a myth that is still widely believed by large numbers of citizens in Western society. However, recognizing that no scientific basis exists for this canard, the anti-healing camp invented three additional concerns about the ethics, efficacy, benefits, and potential harm of therapies that seek to reduce or eliminate same-sex sexual orientation.
NARTH systematically deconstructs the following three major objections, finding each of them to be false: (1) There is no conclusive or convincing evidence that sexual orientation may be changed through reorientation therapy. (2) Efforts to change sexual orientation are shown to be harmful and can lead to greater self-hatred, depression, and other self-destructive behaviors. (3) There is no greater pathology in the homosexual population than the general population. To the contrary, the monograph shows:
I. There is substantial evidence that sexual orientation may be changed through reorientation therapy.
II. Efforts to change sexual orientation have been shown to be beneficial and not shown to be harmful or to regularly lead to greater self-hatred, depression, and other self-destructive behaviors.
III. There is, in fact, significantly greater medical, psychological, and relational pathology in the homosexual population than in the general population.
JONAH compliments the principal authors of this study, Drs. James E. Phelan, Neil Whitehead, and Philip Sutton: "They have performed an immense service to the mental health profession and to the healing ministries by gathering the pertinent information documenting the lack of any credible evidence proving that anyone is born gay while simultaneously summarizing the literature showing how so many different therapeutic modalities have proven effective for those who are unhappy feeling same-sex attractions (SSA)."
Wednesday, July 15, 2009
STUDENTS LOVE THOSE RADICAL PROFESSORS
Academia is infested with radical leftist professors who attempt to indoctrinate students into sharing their anti-American and anti-capitalist agenda. With the demise of Eastern European communism and China’s current transformation to capitalism, these ideologues are left only with Cuba and North Korea as examples of communism and with faint praise for semi-socialist societies like Sweden and the socialized medicine programs of Canada and Europe. Thus, these rogues have been relegated to denouncing America and capitalism, which they do with a relish.
Whenever one of these professors is attacked for their classroom activities, they are joined by non-radical faculty members, with everyone screaming that "Academic Freedom" is being attacked. And more significantly, students come out of the woodworks to defend their far-left teachers. They love the radical faculty members because those professors cater to the rebellious spirit of young college students.
The radical left in academia has a long history of teaching their students that capitalism exploits the workers and oppresses the masses, that American foreign policy is imperialistic, that our government favors the rich at the expense of the poor, that our criminal justice system is racist, etc., etc., etc. These far-left ideologues organize or belong to organizations which use the words "justice" or "peace" in their names. Back in the days of the old Soviet Union similar justice and peace groups were directed and financed by Moscow.
Since the founding of Israel in 1948, the academic left has had a love affair with the Palestinians – students are taught that the Israeli treatment of Palestinians is akin to the Nazi treatment of Jews. These professors have been in the forefront of calling for an international boycott of Israel and for the divestiture of all shares in Israeli companies and in American companies that do business with Israel which may be included in a university's investment portfolio.
An example of how students come to the defense of their professors can be found in an April 29th article by radical leftist Dana Cloud, an Associate Professor of Communication Studies. University of Texas, Austin. Writing in The Rag Blog, a "non-profit internet newsmagazine produced by activist journalists committed to progressive social change," Cloud took up the cause of Margo Ramlal-Nankoe, a professor who was denied tenure and was about to be fired.
Cloud wrote: "Opposition to scholars who expose and critique the treatment of Palestinians by Israel has been front and center in the case against Professor Margo Ramlal-Nankoe.
Margo Ramlal-Nankoe is an assistant professor seeking tenure in Ithaca College's Sociology Department. Her tenure process became a struggle when a small number of influential faculty and administrators began campaigning against her. She became a target of their negative campaign because she spoke out against sexual harassment within her department and challenged students and community members to think critically about US and Israeli policy in the Middle East. Ithaca College's Board of Trustees has denied Professor Ramlal-Nankoe tenure and she is scheduled to be fired on May 12th.
Despite the campaign being waged against her, Professor Ramlal-Nankoe's tenure review file is full of glowing letters from her students and colleagues. The Chair of the Sociology Tenure and Promotion Committee summarized the content of the numerous letters of support Professor Ramlal-Nankoe received from her students: ‘Most students tell us that working with Dr. Ramlal-Nankoe has transformed their views, their life, and/or their plans for the future’."
Here is another example from 2002. When an avowed Marxist government professor at College of the Mainland, from which I retired in 1993 and which I refer to as "College of the Marxists," was recommended for tenure, I joined several civic leaders in opposition to granting him tenure. The civic leaders were upset over his Marxist teachings and over his public opposition to the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban which followed the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and on the Pentagon.
While I agreed with those civic leaders, I took a different approach to the tenure controversy. Because those who came to the professor’s defense did so in the name of academic freedom, I submitted a well documented paper to the college’s trustees spelling out how he had violated the restraints required by the principles of Academic Freedom which were formulated by the American Association of University Professors. The principles of Academic Freedom clearly prohibit a faculty member from injecting a personal agenda into the classroom and prohibit the indoctrination students.
After several months, the trustees called for a public meeting to resolve the controversy. We were set up because their decision was already cut and dried well before that meeting. After five or six of us spoke up, dozens of students followed us with profuse praise for the professor and condemning us as reactionaries opposed to academic freedom. Those students were not just highly impressionable young kids fresh out of high school. Several students in their thirties and beyond talked about what a privilege it had been to for them to be taught by such a wonderful teacher.
While Ramlal-Nankoe’s students may not have been able to save her bacon, that was not the case at College of the Marxists. Before the end of the public meeting, the trustees voted unanimously to grant the Marxist tenure.
Some months later, while I was attending a Veterans Day ceremony, one of the trustees went out of his way to approach me and actually apologized for what the trustees had done. He told me, "I’m sorry, but we had no choice because he was so popular with the students." My response was, "So what! Hitler was very popular with the German people." His face turned a purplish red, he spun around and made a hasty retreat for the exit. Needless to say, we have not spoken since.
"Most students tell us that working with Dr. (fill in the name of any far-left professor) has transformed their views, their life, and/or their plans for the future." That’s what happens when students are indoctrinated rather than educated.
The radical ideologues in academia thrive on student popularity while relying on "academic freedom gunslingers" to fight off their critics. What really astounds me is that most college professors, college administrators and college trustees seem to be ignorant of the prohibitions academic freedom places on classroom teachers. It is obvious that few of them have ever read the AAUP’s principles of Academic Freedom.
Whenever one of these professors is attacked for their classroom activities, they are joined by non-radical faculty members, with everyone screaming that "Academic Freedom" is being attacked. And more significantly, students come out of the woodworks to defend their far-left teachers. They love the radical faculty members because those professors cater to the rebellious spirit of young college students.
The radical left in academia has a long history of teaching their students that capitalism exploits the workers and oppresses the masses, that American foreign policy is imperialistic, that our government favors the rich at the expense of the poor, that our criminal justice system is racist, etc., etc., etc. These far-left ideologues organize or belong to organizations which use the words "justice" or "peace" in their names. Back in the days of the old Soviet Union similar justice and peace groups were directed and financed by Moscow.
Since the founding of Israel in 1948, the academic left has had a love affair with the Palestinians – students are taught that the Israeli treatment of Palestinians is akin to the Nazi treatment of Jews. These professors have been in the forefront of calling for an international boycott of Israel and for the divestiture of all shares in Israeli companies and in American companies that do business with Israel which may be included in a university's investment portfolio.
An example of how students come to the defense of their professors can be found in an April 29th article by radical leftist Dana Cloud, an Associate Professor of Communication Studies. University of Texas, Austin. Writing in The Rag Blog, a "non-profit internet newsmagazine produced by activist journalists committed to progressive social change," Cloud took up the cause of Margo Ramlal-Nankoe, a professor who was denied tenure and was about to be fired.
Cloud wrote: "Opposition to scholars who expose and critique the treatment of Palestinians by Israel has been front and center in the case against Professor Margo Ramlal-Nankoe.
Margo Ramlal-Nankoe is an assistant professor seeking tenure in Ithaca College's Sociology Department. Her tenure process became a struggle when a small number of influential faculty and administrators began campaigning against her. She became a target of their negative campaign because she spoke out against sexual harassment within her department and challenged students and community members to think critically about US and Israeli policy in the Middle East. Ithaca College's Board of Trustees has denied Professor Ramlal-Nankoe tenure and she is scheduled to be fired on May 12th.
Despite the campaign being waged against her, Professor Ramlal-Nankoe's tenure review file is full of glowing letters from her students and colleagues. The Chair of the Sociology Tenure and Promotion Committee summarized the content of the numerous letters of support Professor Ramlal-Nankoe received from her students: ‘Most students tell us that working with Dr. Ramlal-Nankoe has transformed their views, their life, and/or their plans for the future’."
Here is another example from 2002. When an avowed Marxist government professor at College of the Mainland, from which I retired in 1993 and which I refer to as "College of the Marxists," was recommended for tenure, I joined several civic leaders in opposition to granting him tenure. The civic leaders were upset over his Marxist teachings and over his public opposition to the war against Al Qaeda and the Taliban which followed the 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and on the Pentagon.
While I agreed with those civic leaders, I took a different approach to the tenure controversy. Because those who came to the professor’s defense did so in the name of academic freedom, I submitted a well documented paper to the college’s trustees spelling out how he had violated the restraints required by the principles of Academic Freedom which were formulated by the American Association of University Professors. The principles of Academic Freedom clearly prohibit a faculty member from injecting a personal agenda into the classroom and prohibit the indoctrination students.
After several months, the trustees called for a public meeting to resolve the controversy. We were set up because their decision was already cut and dried well before that meeting. After five or six of us spoke up, dozens of students followed us with profuse praise for the professor and condemning us as reactionaries opposed to academic freedom. Those students were not just highly impressionable young kids fresh out of high school. Several students in their thirties and beyond talked about what a privilege it had been to for them to be taught by such a wonderful teacher.
While Ramlal-Nankoe’s students may not have been able to save her bacon, that was not the case at College of the Marxists. Before the end of the public meeting, the trustees voted unanimously to grant the Marxist tenure.
Some months later, while I was attending a Veterans Day ceremony, one of the trustees went out of his way to approach me and actually apologized for what the trustees had done. He told me, "I’m sorry, but we had no choice because he was so popular with the students." My response was, "So what! Hitler was very popular with the German people." His face turned a purplish red, he spun around and made a hasty retreat for the exit. Needless to say, we have not spoken since.
"Most students tell us that working with Dr. (fill in the name of any far-left professor) has transformed their views, their life, and/or their plans for the future." That’s what happens when students are indoctrinated rather than educated.
The radical ideologues in academia thrive on student popularity while relying on "academic freedom gunslingers" to fight off their critics. What really astounds me is that most college professors, college administrators and college trustees seem to be ignorant of the prohibitions academic freedom places on classroom teachers. It is obvious that few of them have ever read the AAUP’s principles of Academic Freedom.
Tuesday, July 14, 2009
OBAMA IS ON THE VERGE OF BECOMING ISRAEL'S PUBLIC ENEMY NO. 1
A bunch of American Jewish "leaders" met with President Obama to hear his assurances that he is a good friend of Israel. Because most of those leaders probably supported his candidacy for president, they would not have been hard to persuade. With friends like Obama, Israel doesn’t need any enemies.
Obama and his gullible audience is in denial of the fact that time after time the "moderate" leaders of the Palestinian Authority and of Fatah have made it quite clear that there will be only one state - Palestine. Obama's "vision of Middle East peace" is not the vision Palestinians have imbedded in their minds. At the rate he’s going, Obama is on the verge of becoming Israel’s public enemy no. 1.
OBAMA: PRESSURE ON ISRAEL TO COTINUE
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
IsraelNationalNews.com
July 14, 2009
U.S. President Barack Obama assured 15 leaders of Jewish American organizations of his commitment to Israel, but he also insisted he would continue to publicly press the Jewish State to conform to his vision of Middle East peace.
Hosting the Jewish delegates in the White House on Monday, Obama said that Israel needs "to engage in serious self-reflection" if it is to succeed in reaching a resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The American president repeatedly made it clear that in his view this can only mean the creation of an Arab state within Israel's current borders. He presented the "two-state solution" as a solution he wishes to promote to deal with Israel's purportedly precarious demographic situation.
President Obama also said that he will continue to press his administration's demands on Israel urgently and publicly, regardless of opposition from the Netanyahu government. Keeping American disputes with Israel from the public eye, as he claimed was done in the past, has not served the interests of peace, Obama informed his guests. He likened this decision to the open and honest conversation needed among close friends.
The hour-long meeting included the heads of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, AIPAC, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, the National Council of Jewish Women, the UJC, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Hadassah, the Orthodox Union, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the Union for Reform Judaism, the National Jewish Democratic Council, Americans for Peace Now, and the far-left J Street lobby. The president excluded from the meeting the strongly pro-Land of Israel National Council of Young Israel, a synagogue federation, and the Zionist Organization of America.
Obama and his gullible audience is in denial of the fact that time after time the "moderate" leaders of the Palestinian Authority and of Fatah have made it quite clear that there will be only one state - Palestine. Obama's "vision of Middle East peace" is not the vision Palestinians have imbedded in their minds. At the rate he’s going, Obama is on the verge of becoming Israel’s public enemy no. 1.
OBAMA: PRESSURE ON ISRAEL TO COTINUE
by Nissan Ratzlav-Katz
IsraelNationalNews.com
July 14, 2009
U.S. President Barack Obama assured 15 leaders of Jewish American organizations of his commitment to Israel, but he also insisted he would continue to publicly press the Jewish State to conform to his vision of Middle East peace.
Hosting the Jewish delegates in the White House on Monday, Obama said that Israel needs "to engage in serious self-reflection" if it is to succeed in reaching a resolution of the Arab-Israeli conflict. The American president repeatedly made it clear that in his view this can only mean the creation of an Arab state within Israel's current borders. He presented the "two-state solution" as a solution he wishes to promote to deal with Israel's purportedly precarious demographic situation.
President Obama also said that he will continue to press his administration's demands on Israel urgently and publicly, regardless of opposition from the Netanyahu government. Keeping American disputes with Israel from the public eye, as he claimed was done in the past, has not served the interests of peace, Obama informed his guests. He likened this decision to the open and honest conversation needed among close friends.
The hour-long meeting included the heads of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations, AIPAC, the Anti-Defamation League, the American Jewish Committee, the National Council of Jewish Women, the UJC, the Jewish Council for Public Affairs, Hadassah, the Orthodox Union, the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism, the Union for Reform Judaism, the National Jewish Democratic Council, Americans for Peace Now, and the far-left J Street lobby. The president excluded from the meeting the strongly pro-Land of Israel National Council of Young Israel, a synagogue federation, and the Zionist Organization of America.
AMERICANS
An old friend of mine from California sent me an e-mail about Americans that was supposedly written by an Australian dentist. Because I am somewhat suspicious of articles written about us by foreigners, I checked it out with Snopes. Sure enough, the article was not penned by an Australian.
The article itself is genuine but the author is an American law professor and his article was published as a guest column on the NationalReviewOnline in 2001. It is a really great piece though and that is why I have chosen to reproduce it in this blog.
WHAT IS AN AMERICAN?
A primer
By Peter Ferrara
Associate professor of law at the George Mason University School of Law
NationalReviewOnline
September 25, 2001
You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper there an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.
So I just thought I would write to let them know what an American is, so they would know when they found one.
An American is English…or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani, or Afghan.
An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them choose.
An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.
An American is from the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God-given right of each man and woman to the pursuit of happiness.
An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need. When Afghanistan was overrun by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country. As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan.
An American does not have to obey the mad ravings of ignorant, ungodly cruel, old men. American men will not be fooled into giving up their lives to kill innocent people, so that these foolish old men may hold on to power. American women are free to show their beautiful faces to the world, as each of them choose.
An American is free to criticize his government's officials when they are wrong, in his or her own opinion. Then he is free to replace them, by majority vote.
Americans welcome people from all lands, all cultures, all religions, because they are not afraid. They are not afraid that their history, their religion, their beliefs, will be overrun, or forgotten. That is because they know they are free to hold to their religion, their beliefs, their history, as each of them choose.
And just as Americans welcome all, they enjoy the best that everyone has to bring, from all over the world. The best science, the best technology, the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best athletes.
Americans welcome the best, but they also welcome the least. The nation symbol of America welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed.
These in fact are the people who built America. Many of them were working in the twin towers on the morning of September 11, earning a better life for their families.
So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo and Stalin and Mao Tse-Tung, and every bloodthirsty tyrant in the history of the world.
But in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.
So look around you. You may find more Americans in your land than you thought were there. One day they will rise up and overthrow the old, ignorant, tired tyrants that trouble too many lands. Then those lands too will join the community of free and prosperous nations.
And America will welcome them.
The article itself is genuine but the author is an American law professor and his article was published as a guest column on the NationalReviewOnline in 2001. It is a really great piece though and that is why I have chosen to reproduce it in this blog.
WHAT IS AN AMERICAN?
A primer
By Peter Ferrara
Associate professor of law at the George Mason University School of Law
NationalReviewOnline
September 25, 2001
You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper there an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.
So I just thought I would write to let them know what an American is, so they would know when they found one.
An American is English…or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani, or Afghan.
An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them choose.
An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.
An American is from the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God-given right of each man and woman to the pursuit of happiness.
An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need. When Afghanistan was overrun by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country. As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan.
An American does not have to obey the mad ravings of ignorant, ungodly cruel, old men. American men will not be fooled into giving up their lives to kill innocent people, so that these foolish old men may hold on to power. American women are free to show their beautiful faces to the world, as each of them choose.
An American is free to criticize his government's officials when they are wrong, in his or her own opinion. Then he is free to replace them, by majority vote.
Americans welcome people from all lands, all cultures, all religions, because they are not afraid. They are not afraid that their history, their religion, their beliefs, will be overrun, or forgotten. That is because they know they are free to hold to their religion, their beliefs, their history, as each of them choose.
And just as Americans welcome all, they enjoy the best that everyone has to bring, from all over the world. The best science, the best technology, the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best athletes.
Americans welcome the best, but they also welcome the least. The nation symbol of America welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed.
These in fact are the people who built America. Many of them were working in the twin towers on the morning of September 11, earning a better life for their families.
So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo and Stalin and Mao Tse-Tung, and every bloodthirsty tyrant in the history of the world.
But in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.
So look around you. You may find more Americans in your land than you thought were there. One day they will rise up and overthrow the old, ignorant, tired tyrants that trouble too many lands. Then those lands too will join the community of free and prosperous nations.
And America will welcome them.
Monday, July 13, 2009
LEONARD GONZALEZ, JR. AND WAYNE COLDIRON: POSTER BOYS FOR THE DEATH PENALTY
Byrd and Melanie Billings were found shot to death last Thursday in their Beulah, Florida home. The Billings were prominent business owners who had four children of their own and who had adopted 12 children, most of them with special needs. The Billings were victims of a home invasion. Robbery appears to have been the motive, although that has yet to be determined.
Leonard Patrick Gonzalez, Jr., 35, and Wayne Coldiron, 41, have been charged with their murder. Gonzalez’s father, Leonard Sr., 56, has been arrested for driving the getaway van and for tampering with evidence by trying to repaint the van. The father admitted driving his son and Coldiron to the Billings home, letting them out of the van armed with guns, and driving them away from the scene after they returned from the house.
If you’ve been reading my blogs, you know that I am a strong proponent of capital punishment. The Billings murders scream out for the ultimate punishment! Although they have yet to be convicted, Gonzalez, Jr. and Coldiron are poster boys for the death penalty. With these senseless killings that deprived 16 children of their parents, it is beyond my comprehension how anyone can be opposed to the death penalty.
Leonard Patrick Gonzalez, Jr., 35, and Wayne Coldiron, 41, have been charged with their murder. Gonzalez’s father, Leonard Sr., 56, has been arrested for driving the getaway van and for tampering with evidence by trying to repaint the van. The father admitted driving his son and Coldiron to the Billings home, letting them out of the van armed with guns, and driving them away from the scene after they returned from the house.
If you’ve been reading my blogs, you know that I am a strong proponent of capital punishment. The Billings murders scream out for the ultimate punishment! Although they have yet to be convicted, Gonzalez, Jr. and Coldiron are poster boys for the death penalty. With these senseless killings that deprived 16 children of their parents, it is beyond my comprehension how anyone can be opposed to the death penalty.
PEACE IS ONLY A MEANS TO DESTROY THE JEWISH STATE
To all you liberal American Jews and to President Obama, please take note:
FATAH OFFICIAL: "OUR GOAL IS NOT PEACE, BUT RATHER PALESTINE"
by Hillel Fendel
IsraelNationalNews.com
July 13, 2009
"Our goal has never been peace," says a Fatah official in a PA TV panel. "Peace is a means; the goal is Palestine" – meaning the conquest of Israel.
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), directed by Itamar Marcus, reports on a panel discussion on a television program of the Fatah organization broadcast this past week. Headed by Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah is considered the more moderate wing of the Palestinian Authority, compared with Hamas.
The panel discussion shows that in actuality, Fatah is no less firm than Hamas in seeking the goal of Israel’s destruction. Kifah Radaydeh, the deputy head of the Jerusalem chapter of Fatah, says openly that the PA will resume violence and terror against Israel when Fatah is "capable," and "according to what seems right."
"It has been said that we are negotiating for peace," she further stated, "but our goal has never been peace. Peace is a means; the goal is Palestine."
Radaydeh is considered a "promising and rising young force" in Fatah, according to a PMW source, "and this report will likely give her extra prominence. But we have to publicize her words in order that the truth about the PA and Fatah be known."
PMW was established in 1996 to "gain an understanding of Palestinian society through the monitoring of the Palestinian Arabic language media and schoolbooks," its website states. The organization "analyzes Palestinian Authority culture and society from numerous perspectives, including studies on summer camps, poetry, schoolbooks, religious ideology, crossword puzzles, and more. [It plays] the critical role of documenting the contradictions between the image the Palestinians present to the world in English and the messages to their own people in Arabic."
Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, writing this latest PMW report, emphasize that when Fatah refers to "Palestine," as when Radaydeh says the "goal is Palestine," the reference is to all of Israel. As proof, it is noted that the Fatah flag still shows the map of Israel under rifles.
In addition, Fatah MP Najat Abu Bakr said in a PA TV interview last year that Fatah's goal remains the destruction of Israel, but that their political plan is to focus on returning to the 1967 borders. "It doesn't mean that we don't want the 1948 borders," Abu Bakr said, referring to all of Israel," but rather that "our current political program is to say that we want the 1967 borders."
Just four months ago, senior PA official Mohammed Dahlan stressed that Fatah adamantly refuses to recognize Israel, and that even the Palestinian Authority’s recognition is only for the sake of receiving foreign aid:
"…the Fatah movement does not recognize Israel, even today... [such recognition is] required of the government but not of the Fatah, so that this government will be able to offer the necessary assistance, to carry out the necessary reconstruction, to offer assistance to the sick, to bring relief to needy families... This can be dealt with [only] by a government that has relations with the international community, one that is acceptable to the international community, in order that we can work together and benefit from the international community."
FATAH OFFICIAL: "OUR GOAL IS NOT PEACE, BUT RATHER PALESTINE"
by Hillel Fendel
IsraelNationalNews.com
July 13, 2009
"Our goal has never been peace," says a Fatah official in a PA TV panel. "Peace is a means; the goal is Palestine" – meaning the conquest of Israel.
Palestinian Media Watch (PMW), directed by Itamar Marcus, reports on a panel discussion on a television program of the Fatah organization broadcast this past week. Headed by Mahmoud Abbas, Fatah is considered the more moderate wing of the Palestinian Authority, compared with Hamas.
The panel discussion shows that in actuality, Fatah is no less firm than Hamas in seeking the goal of Israel’s destruction. Kifah Radaydeh, the deputy head of the Jerusalem chapter of Fatah, says openly that the PA will resume violence and terror against Israel when Fatah is "capable," and "according to what seems right."
"It has been said that we are negotiating for peace," she further stated, "but our goal has never been peace. Peace is a means; the goal is Palestine."
Radaydeh is considered a "promising and rising young force" in Fatah, according to a PMW source, "and this report will likely give her extra prominence. But we have to publicize her words in order that the truth about the PA and Fatah be known."
PMW was established in 1996 to "gain an understanding of Palestinian society through the monitoring of the Palestinian Arabic language media and schoolbooks," its website states. The organization "analyzes Palestinian Authority culture and society from numerous perspectives, including studies on summer camps, poetry, schoolbooks, religious ideology, crossword puzzles, and more. [It plays] the critical role of documenting the contradictions between the image the Palestinians present to the world in English and the messages to their own people in Arabic."
Marcus and Nan Jacques Zilberdik, writing this latest PMW report, emphasize that when Fatah refers to "Palestine," as when Radaydeh says the "goal is Palestine," the reference is to all of Israel. As proof, it is noted that the Fatah flag still shows the map of Israel under rifles.
In addition, Fatah MP Najat Abu Bakr said in a PA TV interview last year that Fatah's goal remains the destruction of Israel, but that their political plan is to focus on returning to the 1967 borders. "It doesn't mean that we don't want the 1948 borders," Abu Bakr said, referring to all of Israel," but rather that "our current political program is to say that we want the 1967 borders."
Just four months ago, senior PA official Mohammed Dahlan stressed that Fatah adamantly refuses to recognize Israel, and that even the Palestinian Authority’s recognition is only for the sake of receiving foreign aid:
"…the Fatah movement does not recognize Israel, even today... [such recognition is] required of the government but not of the Fatah, so that this government will be able to offer the necessary assistance, to carry out the necessary reconstruction, to offer assistance to the sick, to bring relief to needy families... This can be dealt with [only] by a government that has relations with the international community, one that is acceptable to the international community, in order that we can work together and benefit from the international community."
Sunday, July 12, 2009
A SOLDIER KILLED IN ACTION VS. THE DEATH OF A CHILD MOLESTER
While the national media wasted, and continues to waste, tons and tons of newsprint and hour after hour after hour on television covering the death of a child molester, Martha Gillis lamented the sad fact that the deaths of U.S. soldiers and marines killed in action are barely noted. Gillis, whose nephew, Army Lt. Brian Bradshaw, was killed by an IED in Afghanistan, presented the following heartfelt and tearful op-ed rendition on today’s CBS Sunday Morning television program:
A LIFE LOST OUT OF THE SPOTLIGHT
While a Nation and World Paid Tribute to a Passing Singer, a Small Town Mourned a Young Soldier Killed in Afghanistan
CBS Sunday Morning
July 12, 2009
Millions around the world will remember the day Michael Jackson died. Martha Gillis will, too - but she'll be thinking of someone else. She shares her Opinion with us now:
My 24-year-old nephew, Brian Bradshaw, died in Afghanistan on June 25, killed by an IED, but you'd never have known it from the national media.
I cannot tell you how that silence added to the pain of losing this bright, funny, thoughtful young man, whom I remember so vividly as a toddler, wandering the house in cowboy boots and hat (and nothing else).
I suspect it's a pain shared by many of the 4,000-plus grieving families whose loved ones have sacrificed their lives in two wars that have largely disappeared from the news.
When I flew West for Brian's funeral, the mayor of his small home town personally met each of dozens of flights of arriving family members. Flags flew at half-staff. Six hundred people attended the funeral service.
That is partly a testament to Brian's remarkable capacity to connect with people and leave a lasting impression - his lopsided grins were so infectious. It is also a testament to the level of caring and support the town offered to my bereaved sister and her husband.
Even the desk clerk who checked us into our hotel attended, as a simple gesture of common humanity.
Along the route from the church to the cemetery, people came out of their houses to stand with their hands over their hearts or to wave small American flags. Cars going in the opposite direction stopped. Some drivers got out to stand in respect.
To all of them, I say "Thank you. You know how to honor those who serve to protect you."
Once I left town, though, soldier's deaths once again became invisible.
Because of the incredible kindness of the people of Steilacoom, Wash., however, I wonder how many other people, in Maine or Texas or New York City, would also have honored Brian and the other soldiers who have died in the last two weeks if the media had simply let them know:
Somebody's little boy died today. Someone's little girl found out today that Daddy is never coming home.
That news is hard to bear; when the nation they died for barely notices, it's crushing.
A LIFE LOST OUT OF THE SPOTLIGHT
While a Nation and World Paid Tribute to a Passing Singer, a Small Town Mourned a Young Soldier Killed in Afghanistan
CBS Sunday Morning
July 12, 2009
Millions around the world will remember the day Michael Jackson died. Martha Gillis will, too - but she'll be thinking of someone else. She shares her Opinion with us now:
My 24-year-old nephew, Brian Bradshaw, died in Afghanistan on June 25, killed by an IED, but you'd never have known it from the national media.
I cannot tell you how that silence added to the pain of losing this bright, funny, thoughtful young man, whom I remember so vividly as a toddler, wandering the house in cowboy boots and hat (and nothing else).
I suspect it's a pain shared by many of the 4,000-plus grieving families whose loved ones have sacrificed their lives in two wars that have largely disappeared from the news.
When I flew West for Brian's funeral, the mayor of his small home town personally met each of dozens of flights of arriving family members. Flags flew at half-staff. Six hundred people attended the funeral service.
That is partly a testament to Brian's remarkable capacity to connect with people and leave a lasting impression - his lopsided grins were so infectious. It is also a testament to the level of caring and support the town offered to my bereaved sister and her husband.
Even the desk clerk who checked us into our hotel attended, as a simple gesture of common humanity.
Along the route from the church to the cemetery, people came out of their houses to stand with their hands over their hearts or to wave small American flags. Cars going in the opposite direction stopped. Some drivers got out to stand in respect.
To all of them, I say "Thank you. You know how to honor those who serve to protect you."
Once I left town, though, soldier's deaths once again became invisible.
Because of the incredible kindness of the people of Steilacoom, Wash., however, I wonder how many other people, in Maine or Texas or New York City, would also have honored Brian and the other soldiers who have died in the last two weeks if the media had simply let them know:
Somebody's little boy died today. Someone's little girl found out today that Daddy is never coming home.
That news is hard to bear; when the nation they died for barely notices, it's crushing.
Saturday, July 11, 2009
HAIL BRITANNICA'S HEALTH CARE
Sentences actually typed by qualified Medical Secretaries in the Greater Glasgow National Health Service. Nos. 17 and 21 are particularly remarkable. Courtesy of the Personnel Assessment Testing service.
1. The patient has no previous history of suicides.
2. Patient has left her white blood cells at another hospital.
3. Patient's medical history has been remarkably insignificant with only a 40 pound weight gain in the past three days.
4. She has no rigors or shaking chills, but her husband states she was very hot in bed last night.
5. Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year.
6. On the second day the knee was better and on the third day it disappeared.
7. The patient is tearful and crying constantly. She also appears to be depressed.
8. The patient has been depressed since she began seeing me in 1993.
9. Discharge status:- Alive, but without my permission.
10. Healthy appearing decrepit 69-year old male, mentally alert, but forgetful.
11. Patient had waffles for breakfast and anorexia for lunch.
12. She is numb from her toes down.
13. While in ER, she was examined, x-rated and sent home.
14. The skin was moist and dry.
15. Occasional, constant infrequent headaches.
16. Patient was alert and unresponsive.
17. Rectal examination revealed a normal size thyroid.
18. She stated that she had been constipated for most of her life until she got a divorce.
19. I saw your patient today, who is still under our care for physical therapy.
20. Both breasts are equal and reactive to light and accommodation.
21. Examination of genitalia reveals that he is circus sized.
22. The lab test indicated abnormal lover function.
23. Skin: somewhat pale, but present.
24. The pelvic exam will be done later on the floor.
25. Large brown stool ambulating in the hall.
26. Patient has two teenage children, but no other abnormalities
27. When she fainted, her eyes rolled around the room.
28. The patient was in his usual state of good health until his airplane ran out of fuel and crashed.
29. Between you and me, we ought to be able to get this lady pregnant.
30. She slipped on the ice and apparently her legs went in separate directions in early December.
31. Patient was seen in consultation by Dr. Smith, who felt we should sit on the abdomen and I agree.
32. The patient was to have a bowel resection. However, he took a job as a stock broker instead.
33. By the time he was admitted, his rapid heart had stopped, and he was feeling better.
1. The patient has no previous history of suicides.
2. Patient has left her white blood cells at another hospital.
3. Patient's medical history has been remarkably insignificant with only a 40 pound weight gain in the past three days.
4. She has no rigors or shaking chills, but her husband states she was very hot in bed last night.
5. Patient has chest pain if she lies on her left side for over a year.
6. On the second day the knee was better and on the third day it disappeared.
7. The patient is tearful and crying constantly. She also appears to be depressed.
8. The patient has been depressed since she began seeing me in 1993.
9. Discharge status:- Alive, but without my permission.
10. Healthy appearing decrepit 69-year old male, mentally alert, but forgetful.
11. Patient had waffles for breakfast and anorexia for lunch.
12. She is numb from her toes down.
13. While in ER, she was examined, x-rated and sent home.
14. The skin was moist and dry.
15. Occasional, constant infrequent headaches.
16. Patient was alert and unresponsive.
17. Rectal examination revealed a normal size thyroid.
18. She stated that she had been constipated for most of her life until she got a divorce.
19. I saw your patient today, who is still under our care for physical therapy.
20. Both breasts are equal and reactive to light and accommodation.
21. Examination of genitalia reveals that he is circus sized.
22. The lab test indicated abnormal lover function.
23. Skin: somewhat pale, but present.
24. The pelvic exam will be done later on the floor.
25. Large brown stool ambulating in the hall.
26. Patient has two teenage children, but no other abnormalities
27. When she fainted, her eyes rolled around the room.
28. The patient was in his usual state of good health until his airplane ran out of fuel and crashed.
29. Between you and me, we ought to be able to get this lady pregnant.
30. She slipped on the ice and apparently her legs went in separate directions in early December.
31. Patient was seen in consultation by Dr. Smith, who felt we should sit on the abdomen and I agree.
32. The patient was to have a bowel resection. However, he took a job as a stock broker instead.
33. By the time he was admitted, his rapid heart had stopped, and he was feeling better.
CROWD CONTROL STINKER
Leave it to those damn Jews to come up with a real stinker. Seriously though, it looks like the "skunk bomb" is a really terrific and effective device for crowd control. America’s police, please take note!
Israel has recently developed a chemical bomb for crowd control and dispersing rioters that some are referring to as the "skunk bomb."
The skunk bomb is touted as the smelliest weapon in the world, and has been developed as an alternative to using rubber bullets or tear gas for crowd control. Wired.com reports that the new chemical device emits an overpowering smell that is similar to raw sewage.
To add insult to injury, the intense smell of the skunk bomb attaches quickly to the skin and clothes and is very difficult to wash out. The stench is described as so intense, that even hardened activist and protesters who can withstand tear gas, usually turn and run after just one sniff.
The horrible smell of the skunk bomb is caused by a particularly foul smelling chemical. It is in fact an artificial recreation of the fluid emitted by skunks to scare off predators. Scientist from the Israeli Ministry of Defense analyzed the chemical compound skunks release when threatened, and used reverse engineering to create a synthetic version of the liquid.
The resulting chemical bomb has to be handled with care, and used at a safe distance to prevent back draft. The goal of the skunk bomb is to disperse protesters or rioters, though once they have been sprayed with a smelly liquid, police would likely be unable to arrest them because of the intense stench.
Israel has recently developed a chemical bomb for crowd control and dispersing rioters that some are referring to as the "skunk bomb."
The skunk bomb is touted as the smelliest weapon in the world, and has been developed as an alternative to using rubber bullets or tear gas for crowd control. Wired.com reports that the new chemical device emits an overpowering smell that is similar to raw sewage.
To add insult to injury, the intense smell of the skunk bomb attaches quickly to the skin and clothes and is very difficult to wash out. The stench is described as so intense, that even hardened activist and protesters who can withstand tear gas, usually turn and run after just one sniff.
The horrible smell of the skunk bomb is caused by a particularly foul smelling chemical. It is in fact an artificial recreation of the fluid emitted by skunks to scare off predators. Scientist from the Israeli Ministry of Defense analyzed the chemical compound skunks release when threatened, and used reverse engineering to create a synthetic version of the liquid.
The resulting chemical bomb has to be handled with care, and used at a safe distance to prevent back draft. The goal of the skunk bomb is to disperse protesters or rioters, though once they have been sprayed with a smelly liquid, police would likely be unable to arrest them because of the intense stench.
OUR FOUNDING FATHERS FOUND THE COST OF FREEDOM TO BE VERY HIGH
My friend Jay wrote, "Freedom isn't and never will be Free, there's always a price to pay!" He sent along the following facts to think about:
Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?
Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.
Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.
Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.
Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.
They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. What kind of men were they?
Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.
Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.
Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.
At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.
Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.
John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.
So, take a few minutes to silently thank these patriots for all their sacrifices. It's not much to ask for the price they paid. Remember: Freedom is never free!
Have you ever wondered what happened to the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence?
Five signers were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died.
Twelve had their homes ransacked and burned.
Two lost their sons serving in the Revolutionary Army; another had two sons captured.
Nine of the 56 fought and died from wounds or hardships of the Revolutionary War.
They signed and they pledged their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor. What kind of men were they?
Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists. Eleven were merchants, nine were farmers and large plantation owners; men of means, well educated, but they signed the Declaration of Independence knowing full well that the penalty would be death if they were captured.
Carter Braxton of Virginia, a wealthy planter and trader, saw his ships swept from the seas by the British Navy. He sold his home and properties to pay his debts, and died in rags.
Thomas McKeam was so hounded by the British that he was forced to move his family almost constantly. He served in the Congress without pay, and his family was kept in hiding. His possessions were taken from him, and poverty was his reward.
Vandals or soldiers looted the properties of Dillery, Hall, Clymer, Walton, Gwinnett, Heyward, Ruttledge, and Middleton.
At the battle of Yorktown, Thomas Nelson, Jr., noted that the British General Cornwallis had taken over the Nelson home for his headquarters. He quietly urged General George Washington to open fire. The home was destroyed, and Nelson died bankrupt.
Francis Lewis had his home and properties destroyed. The enemy jailed his wife, and she died within a few months.
John Hart was driven from his wife's bedside as she was dying. Their 13 children fled for their lives. His fields and his gristmill were laid to waste. For more than a year he lived in forests and caves, returning home to find his wife dead and his children vanished.
So, take a few minutes to silently thank these patriots for all their sacrifices. It's not much to ask for the price they paid. Remember: Freedom is never free!
TEDDY ROOSEVELT ON IMMIGRANTS
'In the first place, we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin.
But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all.
We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language. And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.'
Theodore Roosevelt, 1907
But this is predicated upon the person's becoming in every facet an American, and nothing but an American...There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn't an American at all.
We have room for but one flag, the American flag... We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language. And we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.'
Theodore Roosevelt, 1907
I AM EXTREMELY SORRY (NOW THAT I'VE BEEN CAUGHT)
"No words can adequately express her remorse and the family's regret for what happened ... She intends to cooperate fully with the police and prosecutors in their investigation of this case ... She hopes to have an opportunity in the future to apologize personally to the children, as well as to their families." That in part was the statement released by the attorney for Chelsea Steele, a 17-year-old high school cheerleader who robbed four girls between the ages of seven and eleven of the money they collected during a fund raiser.
"She is just torn up about what happened," the attorney later explained during a televised interview, "She'd like to express to the children who were involved in this and had to experience it, as well as their parents, that she is extremely sorry for what happened and wants an opportunity down the road to say that to their faces."
Remorse and regret? Yeah, remorse and regret over having been caught. Extremely sorry? Ditto! Just torn up? Yeah, because her ass is in jail. The only expression missing from those phony statements is that Steele made a "mistake." Steele's mother has contacted the victim’s families, offering to repay the stolen money if the charges against her daughter were dropped.
Lawyers for criminals from respectable families are fond of reducing a crime to a mistake. Driving drunk is a mistake. Shoplifting is a mistake. Burglary is a mistake. Joyriding in a stolen car is a mistake. Vandalism is a mistake. And an apology and restitution for those "mistakes" is supposed to make everything OK. God forbid that those "mistakes" would leave the drunk driver, the thief, the burglar, or the vandal with a criminal record.
Let's be very clear on this! What lawyers like to call mistakes are not mistakes - they are crimes, pure and simple. The only mistake the perpetrator made was that he or she got caught.
As a former law enforcement officer, I do not believe that saying I’m sorry and giving back the money makes everything OK. I may be hard-nosed, but when a person commits a crime, there must be a price to pay - and by that I don’t mean making restitution and paying for a lawyer. And that goes double for some spoiled brat from a privileged background.
Here is a report on the robbery:
CHEERLEADER ACCUSED OF ROBBINGCHILDREN
$147 stolen from pool party was to benefit a father’s struggling business
Cox Newspapers
July 9, 2009
ATLANTA — A high school cheerleader is in jail after police say she robbed children at a pool party.
Chelsea Steele, 17, was arrested after she stole a box containing $147 from a group of children, including a wheelchair-confined child, at a neighborhood pool in Marietta, Ga., according to the arrest warrant.
The children were selling T-shirts and hats to benefit a father’s struggling embroidery business when the incident took place on July 3.
After taking the cash, Steele fled the suburban Atlanta subdivision in a white Ford Taurus with three other girls, said Cobb County police spokesman Joe Hernandez. She was arrested later that night and has been in Cobb County Jail since July 4 on felony charges of robbery and a misdemeanor charge of underage possession of alcohol.
A $5,000 bond was set Wednesday, though it’s unclear whether Steele has posted bond.
Calls to her attorney were not immediately returned.
The names of the other girls have not been released because of their age. Charges against them are pending, Hernandez said.
Joe Green said his two daughters, ages 9 and 11, organized the sale of Fourth of July gear to earn summer money and help his company, JAG Designs, which has struggled in recent months.
Green’s family was grilling out with friends Friday when the unknown teens came to the pool. As he returned from his house on an errand, he saw a white car with two teen girls parked outside the pool area, and another teen holding open the gate, which locks when closed. He then saw a girl later identified as Steele talking to his children at their table, he said.
He chatted with the teen and explained why his girls were selling the merchandise, he recalled. But a few minutes after he left their side, he heard shouts that their money had been snatched.
Two children helped identify Steele, who is listed as a varsity sport cheerleader on Sprayberry High’s Web site.
Green said the worst part of the ordeal isn’t the money lost.
"We knew we’d never get the money back. The money isn’t the issue, it’s what they did to our girls.’’
"She is just torn up about what happened," the attorney later explained during a televised interview, "She'd like to express to the children who were involved in this and had to experience it, as well as their parents, that she is extremely sorry for what happened and wants an opportunity down the road to say that to their faces."
Remorse and regret? Yeah, remorse and regret over having been caught. Extremely sorry? Ditto! Just torn up? Yeah, because her ass is in jail. The only expression missing from those phony statements is that Steele made a "mistake." Steele's mother has contacted the victim’s families, offering to repay the stolen money if the charges against her daughter were dropped.
Lawyers for criminals from respectable families are fond of reducing a crime to a mistake. Driving drunk is a mistake. Shoplifting is a mistake. Burglary is a mistake. Joyriding in a stolen car is a mistake. Vandalism is a mistake. And an apology and restitution for those "mistakes" is supposed to make everything OK. God forbid that those "mistakes" would leave the drunk driver, the thief, the burglar, or the vandal with a criminal record.
Let's be very clear on this! What lawyers like to call mistakes are not mistakes - they are crimes, pure and simple. The only mistake the perpetrator made was that he or she got caught.
As a former law enforcement officer, I do not believe that saying I’m sorry and giving back the money makes everything OK. I may be hard-nosed, but when a person commits a crime, there must be a price to pay - and by that I don’t mean making restitution and paying for a lawyer. And that goes double for some spoiled brat from a privileged background.
Here is a report on the robbery:
CHEERLEADER ACCUSED OF ROBBINGCHILDREN
$147 stolen from pool party was to benefit a father’s struggling business
Cox Newspapers
July 9, 2009
ATLANTA — A high school cheerleader is in jail after police say she robbed children at a pool party.
Chelsea Steele, 17, was arrested after she stole a box containing $147 from a group of children, including a wheelchair-confined child, at a neighborhood pool in Marietta, Ga., according to the arrest warrant.
The children were selling T-shirts and hats to benefit a father’s struggling embroidery business when the incident took place on July 3.
After taking the cash, Steele fled the suburban Atlanta subdivision in a white Ford Taurus with three other girls, said Cobb County police spokesman Joe Hernandez. She was arrested later that night and has been in Cobb County Jail since July 4 on felony charges of robbery and a misdemeanor charge of underage possession of alcohol.
A $5,000 bond was set Wednesday, though it’s unclear whether Steele has posted bond.
Calls to her attorney were not immediately returned.
The names of the other girls have not been released because of their age. Charges against them are pending, Hernandez said.
Joe Green said his two daughters, ages 9 and 11, organized the sale of Fourth of July gear to earn summer money and help his company, JAG Designs, which has struggled in recent months.
Green’s family was grilling out with friends Friday when the unknown teens came to the pool. As he returned from his house on an errand, he saw a white car with two teen girls parked outside the pool area, and another teen holding open the gate, which locks when closed. He then saw a girl later identified as Steele talking to his children at their table, he said.
He chatted with the teen and explained why his girls were selling the merchandise, he recalled. But a few minutes after he left their side, he heard shouts that their money had been snatched.
Two children helped identify Steele, who is listed as a varsity sport cheerleader on Sprayberry High’s Web site.
Green said the worst part of the ordeal isn’t the money lost.
"We knew we’d never get the money back. The money isn’t the issue, it’s what they did to our girls.’’
Friday, July 10, 2009
BLACK TEENS CELEBRATE THE FOURTH
We are all aware that there are terrible hate crimes against racial and religious minorities and against gays and transsexuals. What about hate crimes against whites? Apparently there is no such thing. From the Akron Beacon Journal:
AKRON POLICE INVESTIGATE TEEN MOB ATTACK ON FAMILY
By Phil Trexler
Beacon Journal staff writer
Jully 7,2009
Akron police say they aren't ready to call it a hate crime or a gang initiation.
But to Marty Marshall, his wife and two kids, it seems pretty clear.
It came after a family night of celebrating America and freedom with a fireworks show at Firestone Stadium. Marshall, his family and two friends were gathered outside a friend's home in South Akron.
Out of nowhere, the six were attacked by dozens of teenage boys, who shouted ''This is our world'' and ''This is a black world'' as they confronted Marshall and his family.
The Marshalls, who are white, say the crowd of teens who attacked them and two friends June 27 on Girard Street numbered close to 50. The teens were all black.
''This was almost like being a terrorist act,'' Marshall said. ''And we allow this to go on in our neighborhoods?''
They said it started when one teen, without any words or warning, blindsided and assaulted Marshall's friend as he stood outside with the others.
When Marshall, 39, jumped in, he found himself being attacked by the growing group of teens.
His daughter, Rachel, 15, who weighs about 90 pounds, tried to come to his rescue. The teens pushed her to the ground.
His wife, Yvonne, pushed their son, Donald, 14, into bushes to keep him protected.
''My thing is,'' Marshall said, ''I didn't want this, but I was in fear for my wife, my kids and my friends. I felt I had to stay out there to protect them, because those guys were just jumping, swinging fists and everything.
''I'm lucky. They didn't break my ribs or bruise my ribs. I thank God, they concentrated on my thick head because I do have one. They were trying to take my head off my spine, basically.''
After several minutes of punches and kicks, the attack ended and the group ran off. The Marshalls' two adult male friends were not seriously hurt.
''I don't think I thought at that moment when I tried to jump in,'' Rachel Marshall said. ''But when I was laying on the ground, I was just scared.''
Marshall was the most seriously injured. He suffered a concussion and multiple bruises to his head and eye. He said he spent five nights in the critical care unit at Akron General Medical Center.
The construction worker said he now fears for his family's safety, and the thousands of dollars in medical bills he faces without insurance.
''I knew I was going to get beat, but not as bad as I did,'' Marshall said.
''But I did it to protect my family. I didn't have a choice. There was no need for this. We should be all getting along. But to me, it seems to be racist.''
Akron police are investigating. Right now, the case is not being classified as a racial hate crime. There were no other reports of victims assaulted by the group that night.
The department's gang unit is involved in the investigation, police said.
''We don't know if it's a known gang, or just a group of kids,'' police Lt. Rick Edwards said.
The Marshalls say they fear retaliation at home or when they go outside. They are considering arming themselves, but they're concerned about the possible problems that come with guns.
For now, they are hoping police can bring them suspects. They believe they can identify several of the attackers.
''This makes you think about your freedom,'' Marshall said. ''In all reality, where is your freedom when you have this going on?''
AKRON POLICE INVESTIGATE TEEN MOB ATTACK ON FAMILY
By Phil Trexler
Beacon Journal staff writer
Jully 7,2009
Akron police say they aren't ready to call it a hate crime or a gang initiation.
But to Marty Marshall, his wife and two kids, it seems pretty clear.
It came after a family night of celebrating America and freedom with a fireworks show at Firestone Stadium. Marshall, his family and two friends were gathered outside a friend's home in South Akron.
Out of nowhere, the six were attacked by dozens of teenage boys, who shouted ''This is our world'' and ''This is a black world'' as they confronted Marshall and his family.
The Marshalls, who are white, say the crowd of teens who attacked them and two friends June 27 on Girard Street numbered close to 50. The teens were all black.
''This was almost like being a terrorist act,'' Marshall said. ''And we allow this to go on in our neighborhoods?''
They said it started when one teen, without any words or warning, blindsided and assaulted Marshall's friend as he stood outside with the others.
When Marshall, 39, jumped in, he found himself being attacked by the growing group of teens.
His daughter, Rachel, 15, who weighs about 90 pounds, tried to come to his rescue. The teens pushed her to the ground.
His wife, Yvonne, pushed their son, Donald, 14, into bushes to keep him protected.
''My thing is,'' Marshall said, ''I didn't want this, but I was in fear for my wife, my kids and my friends. I felt I had to stay out there to protect them, because those guys were just jumping, swinging fists and everything.
''I'm lucky. They didn't break my ribs or bruise my ribs. I thank God, they concentrated on my thick head because I do have one. They were trying to take my head off my spine, basically.''
After several minutes of punches and kicks, the attack ended and the group ran off. The Marshalls' two adult male friends were not seriously hurt.
''I don't think I thought at that moment when I tried to jump in,'' Rachel Marshall said. ''But when I was laying on the ground, I was just scared.''
Marshall was the most seriously injured. He suffered a concussion and multiple bruises to his head and eye. He said he spent five nights in the critical care unit at Akron General Medical Center.
The construction worker said he now fears for his family's safety, and the thousands of dollars in medical bills he faces without insurance.
''I knew I was going to get beat, but not as bad as I did,'' Marshall said.
''But I did it to protect my family. I didn't have a choice. There was no need for this. We should be all getting along. But to me, it seems to be racist.''
Akron police are investigating. Right now, the case is not being classified as a racial hate crime. There were no other reports of victims assaulted by the group that night.
The department's gang unit is involved in the investigation, police said.
''We don't know if it's a known gang, or just a group of kids,'' police Lt. Rick Edwards said.
The Marshalls say they fear retaliation at home or when they go outside. They are considering arming themselves, but they're concerned about the possible problems that come with guns.
For now, they are hoping police can bring them suspects. They believe they can identify several of the attackers.
''This makes you think about your freedom,'' Marshall said. ''In all reality, where is your freedom when you have this going on?''
Thursday, July 09, 2009
BOOT CAMP
Letter home from a farm kid at the San Diego Marine Corps Recruit Training Center.
Dear Ma and Pa
I am well. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the Marine Corps beats working for old man Minch by a mile. Tell them to join up quick before all of the places are filled.
I was restless at first because you get to stay in bed till nearly 6 a.m. But I am getting so I like to sleep late. Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot, and shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to split, fire to lay. Practically nothing. All the guys got to shave but it is not so bad, there’s warm water.
Breakfast is strong on trimmings, like fruit juice, cereal, eggs, bacon, etc., but kind of weak on chops, potatoes, ham, steak, fried eggplant, pie and other regular food, but tell Walt and Elmer you can always sit by the two city boys that live on coffee. Their food, plus yours, holds you until noon when you get fed again.
It’s no wonder these city boys can’t walk much. We go on ‘route marches,’ which the platoon sergeant says are long walks to harden us. If he thinks so, it’s not my place to tell him different. A ‘route march’ is about as far as to our mailbox at home. Then the city guys get sore feet and we all ride back in trucks.
The sergeant is like a school teacher. He nags a lot. The Captain is like the school board. Majors and Colonels just ride around and frown . They don’t bother you none.
This next will kill Walt and Elmer with laughing. I keep getting medals for shooting. I don’t know why. The bulls-eye is near as big as a chipmunk head and don’t move, and it ain’t shooting at you like the Higgett boys at home. All you got to do is lie there all comfortable and hit it. You don’t even load your own cartridges. They come in boxes.
Then we have what they call hand-to-hand combat training. You get to wrestle with them city boys. I have to be real careful though, they break real easy. It ain’t like fighting with that ole bull at home. I’m about the best they got in this except for that Tug Jordan from over in Silver Lake. I only beat him once. He joined up the same time as me, but I’m only 5'6" and 130 pounds and he’s 6'8" and near 300 pounds dry.
Be sure to tell Walt and Elmer to hurry and join before other fellers get onto this setup and come stampeding in.
Your loving daughter,
Alice
Dear Ma and Pa
I am well. Hope you are. Tell Brother Walt and Brother Elmer the Marine Corps beats working for old man Minch by a mile. Tell them to join up quick before all of the places are filled.
I was restless at first because you get to stay in bed till nearly 6 a.m. But I am getting so I like to sleep late. Tell Walt and Elmer all you do before breakfast is smooth your cot, and shine some things. No hogs to slop, feed to pitch, mash to mix, wood to split, fire to lay. Practically nothing. All the guys got to shave but it is not so bad, there’s warm water.
Breakfast is strong on trimmings, like fruit juice, cereal, eggs, bacon, etc., but kind of weak on chops, potatoes, ham, steak, fried eggplant, pie and other regular food, but tell Walt and Elmer you can always sit by the two city boys that live on coffee. Their food, plus yours, holds you until noon when you get fed again.
It’s no wonder these city boys can’t walk much. We go on ‘route marches,’ which the platoon sergeant says are long walks to harden us. If he thinks so, it’s not my place to tell him different. A ‘route march’ is about as far as to our mailbox at home. Then the city guys get sore feet and we all ride back in trucks.
The sergeant is like a school teacher. He nags a lot. The Captain is like the school board. Majors and Colonels just ride around and frown . They don’t bother you none.
This next will kill Walt and Elmer with laughing. I keep getting medals for shooting. I don’t know why. The bulls-eye is near as big as a chipmunk head and don’t move, and it ain’t shooting at you like the Higgett boys at home. All you got to do is lie there all comfortable and hit it. You don’t even load your own cartridges. They come in boxes.
Then we have what they call hand-to-hand combat training. You get to wrestle with them city boys. I have to be real careful though, they break real easy. It ain’t like fighting with that ole bull at home. I’m about the best they got in this except for that Tug Jordan from over in Silver Lake. I only beat him once. He joined up the same time as me, but I’m only 5'6" and 130 pounds and he’s 6'8" and near 300 pounds dry.
Be sure to tell Walt and Elmer to hurry and join before other fellers get onto this setup and come stampeding in.
Your loving daughter,
Alice
Wednesday, July 08, 2009
BONEHEADED STATEMENTS AT MICHAEL JACKSON'S MEMORIAL
As you all know, it is my opinion that despite all of his musical talents, the legacy of Michael Jackson should be first and foremost that of a child molester. I just want to make some observations on the boneheaded remarks a couple of speakers made at the Jackson memorial in Los Angeles.
AL SHARPTON
Sharpton in addressing the Jackson family said: "I want his children to know there was nothing strange about your daddy, it was strange what your daddy had to deal with." He said that because the media, which he had been lambasting for doing so, continued to report on the pop icon’s bizarre behavior. I’ll give the devil his due. It was nice of Sharpton to try and make the Jackson’s children feel better. But - nothing strange about their daddy?
In a weird desire to be white, Michael Jackson underwent numerous plastic surgeries that left him looking like a macabre horror flick zombie. Jackson also enjoyed taking young boys to bed with him.
Sharpton, that huckster and hoaxter, has little credibility. He has been quick to take advantage of false allegations against white men by black women. Sharpton fed off of the Tawana Brawley assault hoax in 1987 and took up the cause of Crystal Gail Mangum, the stripper who in 2006 made false allegations of gang rape against members of the Duke University lacrosse team. Sharpton’s inflammatory rhetoric during some of the protests he has led turned into deadly violence (Crown Heights Riot in 1991 and Freddie’s Fashion Mart deaths in 1995).
CONGRESSWOMAN SHEILA JACKSON LEE
The congresswoman is best know for her "motor mouth" whenever she speaks on the House floor, in committee meetings, or anywhere else for that matter. Addressing the crowd at the memorial, Jackson Lee said: "We know people are innocent until proven otherwise. THAT IS WHAT THE CONSTITUTION SAYS."
The congresswoman doesn’t know what she is talking about. She either put her mouth in motion before she put her brain in gear or she is just plain ignorant. THE CONSTITUTION SAYS NO SUCH THING! The presumption of being considered innocent until proven guilty is a legal right the accused has in a criminal trial. That trial right was established in 1894 by a Supreme Court decision in Coffin vs. U.S.
In 1993 and again in 2002, Jackson was accused of the sexual abuse of young boys. In 1993, a 13-year-old boy accused Jackson of engaging him in acts of kissing, masturbation and oral sex. Jackson avoided prosecution by paying the family $21 million for his accuser’s silence. And then there was the 2005 trial in which Jackson was acquitted on seven counts of child sexual abuse and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent to another 13-year-old boy.
Does the $21 million payment to buy the silence of his accuser constitute a presumption of innocence? I hardly think so. Furthermore, the District Attorney of Santa Barbara County would never have gone to trial in 2005 if he had not been convinced that there was enough evidence to obtain a conviction. OK, the jury acquitted Jackson. So what! Ditto for the jury in the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
By her boneheaded statement at the memorial, one would have to conclude that in Congresswoman Jackson Lee’s mind, O.J. Simpson did not murder his ex-wife and Ron Goldman. Michael Jackson and O.J. Simpson may be legally innocent, but they are sure as hell morally guilty!
AL SHARPTON
Sharpton in addressing the Jackson family said: "I want his children to know there was nothing strange about your daddy, it was strange what your daddy had to deal with." He said that because the media, which he had been lambasting for doing so, continued to report on the pop icon’s bizarre behavior. I’ll give the devil his due. It was nice of Sharpton to try and make the Jackson’s children feel better. But - nothing strange about their daddy?
In a weird desire to be white, Michael Jackson underwent numerous plastic surgeries that left him looking like a macabre horror flick zombie. Jackson also enjoyed taking young boys to bed with him.
Sharpton, that huckster and hoaxter, has little credibility. He has been quick to take advantage of false allegations against white men by black women. Sharpton fed off of the Tawana Brawley assault hoax in 1987 and took up the cause of Crystal Gail Mangum, the stripper who in 2006 made false allegations of gang rape against members of the Duke University lacrosse team. Sharpton’s inflammatory rhetoric during some of the protests he has led turned into deadly violence (Crown Heights Riot in 1991 and Freddie’s Fashion Mart deaths in 1995).
CONGRESSWOMAN SHEILA JACKSON LEE
The congresswoman is best know for her "motor mouth" whenever she speaks on the House floor, in committee meetings, or anywhere else for that matter. Addressing the crowd at the memorial, Jackson Lee said: "We know people are innocent until proven otherwise. THAT IS WHAT THE CONSTITUTION SAYS."
The congresswoman doesn’t know what she is talking about. She either put her mouth in motion before she put her brain in gear or she is just plain ignorant. THE CONSTITUTION SAYS NO SUCH THING! The presumption of being considered innocent until proven guilty is a legal right the accused has in a criminal trial. That trial right was established in 1894 by a Supreme Court decision in Coffin vs. U.S.
In 1993 and again in 2002, Jackson was accused of the sexual abuse of young boys. In 1993, a 13-year-old boy accused Jackson of engaging him in acts of kissing, masturbation and oral sex. Jackson avoided prosecution by paying the family $21 million for his accuser’s silence. And then there was the 2005 trial in which Jackson was acquitted on seven counts of child sexual abuse and two counts of administering an intoxicating agent to another 13-year-old boy.
Does the $21 million payment to buy the silence of his accuser constitute a presumption of innocence? I hardly think so. Furthermore, the District Attorney of Santa Barbara County would never have gone to trial in 2005 if he had not been convinced that there was enough evidence to obtain a conviction. OK, the jury acquitted Jackson. So what! Ditto for the jury in the O.J. Simpson murder trial.
By her boneheaded statement at the memorial, one would have to conclude that in Congresswoman Jackson Lee’s mind, O.J. Simpson did not murder his ex-wife and Ron Goldman. Michael Jackson and O.J. Simpson may be legally innocent, but they are sure as hell morally guilty!
SOMEONE HAD FUN COMING UP WITH THIS ONE
The American Medical Association has weighed in on the new economic stimulus package.
The Allergists voted to scratch it, but the Dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves.
The Gastroenterologists had sort of a gut feeling about it, but the Neurologists thought the administration had a lot of nerve.
The Obstetricians felt they were all laboring under a misconception.
Ophthalmologists considered the idea shortsighted.
Pathologists yelled, "Over my dead body!" while the Pediatricians said, 'Oh, Grow up!'
The Psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness, while the Radiologists could see right through it.
Surgeons decided to wash their hands of the whole thing.
The Internists thought it was a bitter pill to swallow, and the Plastic Surgeons said, "This puts a whole new face on the matter."
The Podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but the Urologists were pissed off at the whole idea.
The Anesthesiologists thought the whole idea was a gas, and the Cardiologists didn't have the heart to say no.
In the end, the Proctologists won out, leaving the entire decision up to the assholes in Washington ...
The Allergists voted to scratch it, but the Dermatologists advised not to make any rash moves.
The Gastroenterologists had sort of a gut feeling about it, but the Neurologists thought the administration had a lot of nerve.
The Obstetricians felt they were all laboring under a misconception.
Ophthalmologists considered the idea shortsighted.
Pathologists yelled, "Over my dead body!" while the Pediatricians said, 'Oh, Grow up!'
The Psychiatrists thought the whole idea was madness, while the Radiologists could see right through it.
Surgeons decided to wash their hands of the whole thing.
The Internists thought it was a bitter pill to swallow, and the Plastic Surgeons said, "This puts a whole new face on the matter."
The Podiatrists thought it was a step forward, but the Urologists were pissed off at the whole idea.
The Anesthesiologists thought the whole idea was a gas, and the Cardiologists didn't have the heart to say no.
In the end, the Proctologists won out, leaving the entire decision up to the assholes in Washington ...
HOW ABOUT FUNNELLING SOME OF THOSE FEDRAL STIMULUS DOLLARS TO THE SHRINERS HOSPITALS FOR CHILDREN
Shriners Hospitals for Children are known for their free pediatric care, for their research in pediatrics, and for offering outstanding teaching programs. These hospitals provide patients up to the age of 18 with specialty care in orthopedics, burns, spinal cord injury rehabilitation, cleft lip and palate surgery, and they do it at no charge to the patients and their families.
The economic crisis has caused the Shriners board of trustees to recommend shutting down their hospitals in Galveston, Tex., Shreveport, La., Spokane, Wash., Greenville, S.C., Erie, Pa. and Springfield, Mass. The Galveston hospital, which is recognized throughout the world as a leading burn center, has not reopened since it was severely damaged by Hurricane Ike.
The endowment for the Shriners hospitals has shrunk from $8 billion to $5 billion since the start of the current economic downturn. For the Shriners hospitals that’s an enormous decline in just a short period of time. And the decline in the endowment is expected to continue until our economy turns around. This month, despite those losses, the majority of the 1,500 delegates to the Shriners annual conference voted to keep open all the hospitals recommended for closure.
Our government has bailed out banks and car manufacturers and is providing lots of stimulus dollars to states and local governments.
The federal government has appropriated $787 billion to bail out insurance conglomerate AIG, a number of big banks, GM and Chrysler, and to stimulate the economy in order to reverse the loss of jobs. Why can’t the federal government provide some of these funds to the Shriners Hospitals for Children?
Thus far, federal stimulus dollars have done little to stimulate the economy. Local communities have been awarded funds for projects they never envisioned and did not ask for. That sure looks like a big pork boondoggle. If the government would provide some of these funds for the Shriners hospitals, it would ensure that American children and children from other parts of the world would continue to get excellent free medical care at these hospitals. It is even possible that those federal funds would create new jobs, but if not, they will certainly save jobs.
Is it possible for federal stimulus dollars to be awarded to the Shriners hospitals? Yes, but only if our taxpayers start contacting their congressmen or congresswomen and their U.S. senators to demand that some of those stimulus funds be spent to help keep all Shriners Hospitals for Children open.
The economic crisis has caused the Shriners board of trustees to recommend shutting down their hospitals in Galveston, Tex., Shreveport, La., Spokane, Wash., Greenville, S.C., Erie, Pa. and Springfield, Mass. The Galveston hospital, which is recognized throughout the world as a leading burn center, has not reopened since it was severely damaged by Hurricane Ike.
The endowment for the Shriners hospitals has shrunk from $8 billion to $5 billion since the start of the current economic downturn. For the Shriners hospitals that’s an enormous decline in just a short period of time. And the decline in the endowment is expected to continue until our economy turns around. This month, despite those losses, the majority of the 1,500 delegates to the Shriners annual conference voted to keep open all the hospitals recommended for closure.
Our government has bailed out banks and car manufacturers and is providing lots of stimulus dollars to states and local governments.
The federal government has appropriated $787 billion to bail out insurance conglomerate AIG, a number of big banks, GM and Chrysler, and to stimulate the economy in order to reverse the loss of jobs. Why can’t the federal government provide some of these funds to the Shriners Hospitals for Children?
Thus far, federal stimulus dollars have done little to stimulate the economy. Local communities have been awarded funds for projects they never envisioned and did not ask for. That sure looks like a big pork boondoggle. If the government would provide some of these funds for the Shriners hospitals, it would ensure that American children and children from other parts of the world would continue to get excellent free medical care at these hospitals. It is even possible that those federal funds would create new jobs, but if not, they will certainly save jobs.
Is it possible for federal stimulus dollars to be awarded to the Shriners hospitals? Yes, but only if our taxpayers start contacting their congressmen or congresswomen and their U.S. senators to demand that some of those stimulus funds be spent to help keep all Shriners Hospitals for Children open.
Monday, July 06, 2009
SNIPPETS ON MICHAEL JACKSON'S DEATH
REP. PETER KING, R-NY
"Let's knock out the psychobabble," Congressman King said in a video, which was posted by his campaign. "He was a pervert, a child molester; he was a pedophile. And to be giving this much coverage to him, day in and day out, what does it say about us as a country?
King said "there's nothing good about" Jackson."
No one wants to stand up and say we don't need Michael Jackson. He died, he had some talent, fine," he said. "He may have been a good singer, he did some dancing. Bottom line is, would you let your child or grandchild be in the same room with Michael Jackson? What are we glorifying him for?"
I see this guy, who's really a lowlife, and he's being treated like a hero of civilization."
Whoopie Goldberg, appearing on television’s The View, was quick to pipe in most emphatically that she would let her child or grandchild be in the same room with Jackson. What else would you expect that "leftie" to say?
As for me, to Rep. King’s remarks I say, Amen!
LAPD CONTAMINATED THE "CRIME" SCENE
Defense attorney Harland Braun, who has represented celebrities including Robert Blake, Roseanne and Gary Busey, charged that LAPD allowed the scene of Jackson’s death to be contaminated. The investigating officers did not secure the scene and allowed the Jackson family to remove several truckloads of Jackson’s belongings. LAPD did not obtain a search warrant until four days later. Braun believes that any forthcoming prosecutions will be severely compromised because evidence could have been removed or planted during the interim.
True enough. Every police officer is taught to respond to any death as if it were a homicide. But in this case I am going to defend the LAPD officers. When they arrived on the scene a doctor and paramedics were attending to Jackson, he had not been pronounced dead, and there was no evidence of any foul play. Under the circumstances, what the officers saw was a medical emergency, not a crime.
I remember a homicide case I participated in where the crime scene was not secured. A neighbor of the victim, a widow in her eighties, called our department to report that he had found her dead sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch of her house. The responding officers did not see any evidence of foul play. The body was removed by the medical examiner’s office.
Not until the next day did the medial examiner notify us that the autopsy revealed the victim had been shot behind the ear with what appeared to be .22 cal. bullet. Tbe entrance wound, which had been hidden by her hair, was so tiny that it scabbed over immediately.
There had been no blood at the scene and there were no other signs of any foul play. Even the medical examiner who came to the scene saw no evidence of a homicide. Thus, after the body was removed, the crime scene was left unattended and any evidence that might have been on the porch or inside the house was contaminated.
By canvassing the neighborhood for witnesses, we lucked out and learned that someone had seen a sailor near the victim’s home close to the time of death. By checking with all the naval bases in Southern California for sailors on leave, we came up with a suspect who confessed to shooting the victim as he was robbing her.
So, even when police officers respond to a death call as if it were a homicide, under certain circumstances the most experienced officer can conclude that there was no foul play. And that’s why LAPD should not be faulted for failing to secure the scene of Jackson's death.
SARAH PALIN’S RESIGNATION
With all the speculation over why Sarah Palin resigned as governor of Alaska, leave it up to my wife to come up with a jewel of an explanation. She said that Palin was so overcome with grief over the death of Michael Jackson that she just couldn’t go on. And being the good Christian family values conservative that she is, Palin would never admit that she was grieving for a child molester.
God bless the old battleaxe! For 55 years I've been blessed with her quick wit and great sense of humor.
"Let's knock out the psychobabble," Congressman King said in a video, which was posted by his campaign. "He was a pervert, a child molester; he was a pedophile. And to be giving this much coverage to him, day in and day out, what does it say about us as a country?
King said "there's nothing good about" Jackson."
No one wants to stand up and say we don't need Michael Jackson. He died, he had some talent, fine," he said. "He may have been a good singer, he did some dancing. Bottom line is, would you let your child or grandchild be in the same room with Michael Jackson? What are we glorifying him for?"
I see this guy, who's really a lowlife, and he's being treated like a hero of civilization."
Whoopie Goldberg, appearing on television’s The View, was quick to pipe in most emphatically that she would let her child or grandchild be in the same room with Jackson. What else would you expect that "leftie" to say?
As for me, to Rep. King’s remarks I say, Amen!
LAPD CONTAMINATED THE "CRIME" SCENE
Defense attorney Harland Braun, who has represented celebrities including Robert Blake, Roseanne and Gary Busey, charged that LAPD allowed the scene of Jackson’s death to be contaminated. The investigating officers did not secure the scene and allowed the Jackson family to remove several truckloads of Jackson’s belongings. LAPD did not obtain a search warrant until four days later. Braun believes that any forthcoming prosecutions will be severely compromised because evidence could have been removed or planted during the interim.
True enough. Every police officer is taught to respond to any death as if it were a homicide. But in this case I am going to defend the LAPD officers. When they arrived on the scene a doctor and paramedics were attending to Jackson, he had not been pronounced dead, and there was no evidence of any foul play. Under the circumstances, what the officers saw was a medical emergency, not a crime.
I remember a homicide case I participated in where the crime scene was not secured. A neighbor of the victim, a widow in her eighties, called our department to report that he had found her dead sitting in a rocking chair on the front porch of her house. The responding officers did not see any evidence of foul play. The body was removed by the medical examiner’s office.
Not until the next day did the medial examiner notify us that the autopsy revealed the victim had been shot behind the ear with what appeared to be .22 cal. bullet. Tbe entrance wound, which had been hidden by her hair, was so tiny that it scabbed over immediately.
There had been no blood at the scene and there were no other signs of any foul play. Even the medical examiner who came to the scene saw no evidence of a homicide. Thus, after the body was removed, the crime scene was left unattended and any evidence that might have been on the porch or inside the house was contaminated.
By canvassing the neighborhood for witnesses, we lucked out and learned that someone had seen a sailor near the victim’s home close to the time of death. By checking with all the naval bases in Southern California for sailors on leave, we came up with a suspect who confessed to shooting the victim as he was robbing her.
So, even when police officers respond to a death call as if it were a homicide, under certain circumstances the most experienced officer can conclude that there was no foul play. And that’s why LAPD should not be faulted for failing to secure the scene of Jackson's death.
SARAH PALIN’S RESIGNATION
With all the speculation over why Sarah Palin resigned as governor of Alaska, leave it up to my wife to come up with a jewel of an explanation. She said that Palin was so overcome with grief over the death of Michael Jackson that she just couldn’t go on. And being the good Christian family values conservative that she is, Palin would never admit that she was grieving for a child molester.
God bless the old battleaxe! For 55 years I've been blessed with her quick wit and great sense of humor.
A MICROCOSM OF AMERICA ?
Shmuley Boteach, a controversial American Orthodox rabbi, radio and television host, and author, has composed a eulogy for Michael Jackson that shows the pop icon's peculiarities to be a microcosm of America.
HERE IS THE EULOGY THAT SHOULD BE GIVEN TO BRING REDEMPTION TO MICHAEL’S LIFE
By Rabbi Shmuley
‘The death of Michael Joseph Jackson is not just the personal tragedy of a man who died young. Nor does it solely represent a colossal waste of life and talent. Rather it is, above all else, an American tragedy. For whether we wish to acknowledge it or not, our obsession with Michael Jackson, our infatuation with every peculiar detail of his life, stems from the fact that he represents a microcosm of America.
‘It has long been fashionable to caricature Michael as an oddball, as a freak. But how different were his peculiarities to our own?
‘Michael’s dream was to be famous so that he would be loved. Having been forced into performing as a young boy, he never knew a time when affection was a free gift. Rather, attention, the poor substitute for love with which he made due, was something that he had to earn from the age of five. Hence, his obsession with being famous and his lifelong fear of being forgotten by the crowds. And if that meant purposefully doing strange things in order to sustain the public’s interest, he would pay that price too because he could not live without his drug of choice, fame.
But how different is that from the rest of us, living as we do in an age of reality TV where washing our dirty laundry in public makes us into celebrities and competing on American Idol promises us that we can be the next Michael Jackson.
‘Of course, there was Michael’s constant plastic surgery. How much could one man so hate himself, we asked, that he is prepared to disfigure his face utterly? But the same question could easily be asked of millions of Americans, especially women, who live with extremely poor body image, who starve their bodies and undergo extreme cosmetic procedures – including sticking a needle in their forehead – to rediscover lost beauty and youth.
‘Yes, there was Michael’s troubled soul. Could a man so blessed with fame and fortune, we wondered, really be so miserable that he had to numb his pain with a syringe of Demerol? And yet, my friends, America is the richest country in the world with the highest standard of living. Still, we consume three quarters of the earth’s anti-depressants and one out of three Americans is on an anti-anxiety medication.
‘As far as Michael’s materialism and decadence, particularly when we watched him on TV spending millions of dollars on useless baubles, is it really all that different to the rest of us who have maxed our credit cards buying junk we don’t need to compensate for an insatiable inner emptiness?
‘There were also Michael’s broken relationships. Two divorces, estrangement from brothers and sisters, and extremely questionable and perhaps even criminal sexual activities. Yes, few of us, fortunately, are guilty of such crimes. But the huge success of ‘barely legal’ pornographic websites, ‘Girls Gone Wild’ videos, and the sexualization of teens like Miley Cyrus should perhaps have us question the adolescent nature of our own sexual interests. As for broken relationships, Time magazine just reported that of every one hundred marriages, fifty divorce, twenty-five stay together unhappily, and only twenty-five are happy.
‘In sum, my friends, we are fixated on Michael Jackson because he was always just a very extreme version of ourselves and compacted into his short life a supercharged version of all the strangeness and profligacy of a culture which puts attention before love, fans before family, body before spirit, medical sedation before true inner peace, and material indulgence before spiritual enlightenment. Perhaps the only reason the rest of us did not become as strange or as broken as Michael was that we simply lacked the talent and the resources to do so.
‘And therein lies a profound morality lesson. Where Michael goes, the rest of us go. Our obsession with Michael was always selfish. It was a focus on where we ourselves were headed, where our culture and our interests were leading us.
‘And now we have the power to take a senseless tragedy and given it meaning by learning from the heartbreaking demise of a once-great legend that life is not about fame and fortune but rather about G-d, family, community, and good deeds.
‘Rest in peace, Michael. May you find in death the serenity you never had in life and may they judge you more charitably in heaven that we did here on earth.’
HERE IS THE EULOGY THAT SHOULD BE GIVEN TO BRING REDEMPTION TO MICHAEL’S LIFE
By Rabbi Shmuley
‘The death of Michael Joseph Jackson is not just the personal tragedy of a man who died young. Nor does it solely represent a colossal waste of life and talent. Rather it is, above all else, an American tragedy. For whether we wish to acknowledge it or not, our obsession with Michael Jackson, our infatuation with every peculiar detail of his life, stems from the fact that he represents a microcosm of America.
‘It has long been fashionable to caricature Michael as an oddball, as a freak. But how different were his peculiarities to our own?
‘Michael’s dream was to be famous so that he would be loved. Having been forced into performing as a young boy, he never knew a time when affection was a free gift. Rather, attention, the poor substitute for love with which he made due, was something that he had to earn from the age of five. Hence, his obsession with being famous and his lifelong fear of being forgotten by the crowds. And if that meant purposefully doing strange things in order to sustain the public’s interest, he would pay that price too because he could not live without his drug of choice, fame.
But how different is that from the rest of us, living as we do in an age of reality TV where washing our dirty laundry in public makes us into celebrities and competing on American Idol promises us that we can be the next Michael Jackson.
‘Of course, there was Michael’s constant plastic surgery. How much could one man so hate himself, we asked, that he is prepared to disfigure his face utterly? But the same question could easily be asked of millions of Americans, especially women, who live with extremely poor body image, who starve their bodies and undergo extreme cosmetic procedures – including sticking a needle in their forehead – to rediscover lost beauty and youth.
‘Yes, there was Michael’s troubled soul. Could a man so blessed with fame and fortune, we wondered, really be so miserable that he had to numb his pain with a syringe of Demerol? And yet, my friends, America is the richest country in the world with the highest standard of living. Still, we consume three quarters of the earth’s anti-depressants and one out of three Americans is on an anti-anxiety medication.
‘As far as Michael’s materialism and decadence, particularly when we watched him on TV spending millions of dollars on useless baubles, is it really all that different to the rest of us who have maxed our credit cards buying junk we don’t need to compensate for an insatiable inner emptiness?
‘There were also Michael’s broken relationships. Two divorces, estrangement from brothers and sisters, and extremely questionable and perhaps even criminal sexual activities. Yes, few of us, fortunately, are guilty of such crimes. But the huge success of ‘barely legal’ pornographic websites, ‘Girls Gone Wild’ videos, and the sexualization of teens like Miley Cyrus should perhaps have us question the adolescent nature of our own sexual interests. As for broken relationships, Time magazine just reported that of every one hundred marriages, fifty divorce, twenty-five stay together unhappily, and only twenty-five are happy.
‘In sum, my friends, we are fixated on Michael Jackson because he was always just a very extreme version of ourselves and compacted into his short life a supercharged version of all the strangeness and profligacy of a culture which puts attention before love, fans before family, body before spirit, medical sedation before true inner peace, and material indulgence before spiritual enlightenment. Perhaps the only reason the rest of us did not become as strange or as broken as Michael was that we simply lacked the talent and the resources to do so.
‘And therein lies a profound morality lesson. Where Michael goes, the rest of us go. Our obsession with Michael was always selfish. It was a focus on where we ourselves were headed, where our culture and our interests were leading us.
‘And now we have the power to take a senseless tragedy and given it meaning by learning from the heartbreaking demise of a once-great legend that life is not about fame and fortune but rather about G-d, family, community, and good deeds.
‘Rest in peace, Michael. May you find in death the serenity you never had in life and may they judge you more charitably in heaven that we did here on earth.’
Sunday, July 05, 2009
THE PALESTINIAN 'MODERATES' OBAMA IS COUNTING ON
PA MINISTER: MUSLIMS, CHRISTIANS FIGHTING JEWS TOGETHER
by Maayana Miskin
IsraelNationalNews.com
July 5, 2009
Senior Palestinian Authority official Issa Qaraqe praised terrorism on Saturday during a meeting with the family of a jailed terrorist murderer. Qaraqe's statements were reported by the PA-affiliated Maan and Palestine News Network news agencies.
Qaraqe, who serves as the PA "Minister of Prisoners and Ex-Detainee Affairs," praised PA Christian terrorists for "defending Palestinian dignity." Many Christians have "endur[ed] great challenges in facing the Israeli occupation," he said.
His statements were made in a speech in honor of Chris Bandak, a PA terrorist from Bethlehem serving consecutive life sentences in Israeli prison. Bandak was convicted of firing on Israeli motorists in Judea, murdering two and seriously wounding a third.
Affiliated with the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades and Tanzim, both sects of Fatah, Bandak and his family are Greek Orthodox Christians. Bandak's family expressed pride in his actions, and asked the PA to intervene with Israel to allow Bandak more visitors in prison.
Terrorists like Bandak show the strength of "Palestinian unity," said Qaraqe. "Our Christian communities shot down all Israeli bets and attempts to divide our people on a sectarian basis. We are all Palestinians."
Qaraqe paid tribute to other imprisoned PA Christian terrorists as well.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Just a reminder that Arab terrorism against Jews has been going on since long before the 1948 birth of Israel. There were a series of brutal Arab attacks on Jewish towns in the summer of 1929. Nearly 70 Jews were slaughtered in their homes in Hevron, 20 in Tzfat, 17 in Jerusalem, and others were murdered in Motza, Kfar Uriah and Tel Aviv.
by Maayana Miskin
IsraelNationalNews.com
July 5, 2009
Senior Palestinian Authority official Issa Qaraqe praised terrorism on Saturday during a meeting with the family of a jailed terrorist murderer. Qaraqe's statements were reported by the PA-affiliated Maan and Palestine News Network news agencies.
Qaraqe, who serves as the PA "Minister of Prisoners and Ex-Detainee Affairs," praised PA Christian terrorists for "defending Palestinian dignity." Many Christians have "endur[ed] great challenges in facing the Israeli occupation," he said.
His statements were made in a speech in honor of Chris Bandak, a PA terrorist from Bethlehem serving consecutive life sentences in Israeli prison. Bandak was convicted of firing on Israeli motorists in Judea, murdering two and seriously wounding a third.
Affiliated with the Al-Aksa Martyrs Brigades and Tanzim, both sects of Fatah, Bandak and his family are Greek Orthodox Christians. Bandak's family expressed pride in his actions, and asked the PA to intervene with Israel to allow Bandak more visitors in prison.
Terrorists like Bandak show the strength of "Palestinian unity," said Qaraqe. "Our Christian communities shot down all Israeli bets and attempts to divide our people on a sectarian basis. We are all Palestinians."
Qaraqe paid tribute to other imprisoned PA Christian terrorists as well.
EDITOR’S NOTE: Just a reminder that Arab terrorism against Jews has been going on since long before the 1948 birth of Israel. There were a series of brutal Arab attacks on Jewish towns in the summer of 1929. Nearly 70 Jews were slaughtered in their homes in Hevron, 20 in Tzfat, 17 in Jerusalem, and others were murdered in Motza, Kfar Uriah and Tel Aviv.
Saturday, July 04, 2009
ACTORS WHO WERE TRUE HEROES
Today, July 4th, we are celebrating our nation’s independence. What does Independence Day mean to us? Sadly, for far too many Americans, it’s merely a day when we can get drunk and raise hell with fireworks. Sure, there are many flags flown, parades held and enjoyable family get-togethers, but the real significance of this special day is lost upon many Americans, even unknown to some of them.
First and foremost, July 4th should be a day when we assert our patriotism. Unfortunately, the word "patriotism" has become closely associated with the right-wing and is a politically incorrect term unless it is used in the context of speaking out against our government’s policies.
We are a nation obsessed with celebrities. Most of today’s movie stars are just a bunch of "girlie boys" who, while they may portray action heroes on the silver screen, would never think of joining our armed forces in defense of their country.
Instead, practicing their own brand of self-professed patriotism, many entertainment celebrities run around at home and abroad protesting against U.S. government policies they don’t like and badmouthing those American leaders they detest.
This Fourth of July is an appropriate time to recall the past when patriotism meant standing up for the good old USA and led many actors to take up a call to arms. Here is a partial list of true heroes among American and British actors who served their respective countries with distinction on the front lines during World War II:
Alec Guinness
Operated a British Royal Navy landing craft on D-Day.
James Doohan
Captain in the Royal Canadian Artillery Landed in Normandy with the U. S. Army on D-Day.
Donald Pleasance
R. A. F. pilot who was shot down, held prisoner and tortured by the Germans.
David Niven
Sandhurst graduate - Royal Army Lt. Colonel of the British Commandos in Normandy.
James Stewart
Stewart entered the Army Air Force as a private. During World War II, he served as a bomber pilot leading more than 20 missions over Germany and took part in hundreds of air strikes during his tour of duty. Stewart earned the Air Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross, France's Croix de Guerre, and seven Battle Stars during World War II. In peace time, Stewart continued to be an active member of the Air Force as a reservist, reaching the rank of Brigadier General before retiring in the late 1950s.
Clark Gable
Although he was beyond the draft age, Gable enlisted as a private in the AAF on Aug. 12, 1942 at Los Angeles. He attended the Officers' Candidate School at Miami Beach , Fla. and graduated as a second lieutenant on Oct. 28, 1942. He then attended aerial gunnery school and in Feb.1943 he was assigned to the 351st Bomb Group at Polebrook where he flew operational missions over Europe in B-17s from which he obtained the combat film footage for the movie Combat America. Capt. Gable returned to the U.S. in Oct. 1943 and was relieved from active duty as a major on June 12, 1944 at his own request, since he was over-age for combat.
Charlton Heston
An Army Air Corps Sergeant in Kodiak.
Ernest Borgnine
A U. S. Navy Gunners Mate 1935-1945.
Charles Durning
A U. S. Army Ranger at Normandy earning a Silver Star and awarded the Purple Heart. Durning landed at Omaha Beach in the D-Day invasion. He survived the landing, but was wounded in an ambush during the Battle of the Bulge. He was captured, escaped, and narrowly missed assassination at the Malmedy Massacre. He still carries his memories and battle fatigue to this day.
Charles Bronson
A US Army Air Corps tail gunner on B-29s in the 20th Air Force out of Guam, Tinian, and Saipan.
George C. Scott
A decorated U. S. Marine.
Eddie Albert
Awarded a Bronze Star for his heroic action as a U. S. Naval officer aiding Marines at the horrific battle on the island of Tarawa in the Pacific Nov. 1943. At Tarawa, he was wounded and lost most of his hearing.
Brian Keith
A US Marine rear gunner in several actions against the Japanese on Rabal in the Pacific.
Lee Marvin
A U.S. Marine on Saipan during the Marianas campaign where he was wounded earning the Purple Heart.
John Russell
Enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942 where he received a battlefield commission and was wounded and highly decorated for valor at Guadalcanal.
Robert Ryan
A U. S. Marine who served with the O. S. S. in Yugoslavia.
Tyrone Power
Joined the U.S. Marines after the Pearl Harbor attack. He served as a pilot flying supplies into, and wounded Marines out of, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
Don Adams
USMC, Contracted malaria on Guadalcanal.
James Arness
US Army, Wounded at Anzio. Purple Heart and Bronze Star.
Art Carney
US Army. Carney went to Normandy in July of 1944 as a replacement to the 28th Division in position around St Lô. He was part of a 30 calibre machine gun squad. On 15 August 1944 he had just taken up his position and was hit in the right leg by mortar shrapnel.
Jackie Coogan
A glider pilot who volunteered for hazardous duty with the 1st Air Commando Group. In Dec. 1943, the unit was sent to India where, by using CG-4A gliders, it airlifted crack British troops under Gen. Orde Wingate during the night aerial invasion of Burma (Mar. 5, 1944), landing them in a small jungle clearing 100 miles behind Japanese lines.
Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
US Navy. He joined the naval reserves before the war. During the war he served on the Battleship Massachuesetts and was a Commando raider sent on several land attack missions.
Henry Fonda
US Navy. Bronze Star for Valor.
Glenn Ford
US Navy. In addition to his WWII service, he served in the reserves during the Korean War and the Viet Nam War. He retired as a Captain in the US Naval Reserve.
Jack Palance
US Army Air Corps. 455th bomb group. Required facial reconstruction from terrible injuries received in 1943 when his B17 crash landed in Britain.
Jason Robards Jr
US Navy. He was a radioman on duty at Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack.
Ronald Reagan
Captain, US Army Air Corps. Because of a severe hearing loss, he was not allowed any flying duties. Prior to the war, he was a cavalry officer in the Nebraska National Guard.
Jack Warden
Served in the 101st Airborne.
James Whitmore
Served as an officer in the Marine Corps.
And last, but certainly not least, there was America’s most decorated war hero who became a movie star after WWII ended.
Audie Murphy
US Army - the most decorated soldier of WWII. Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, 2 Silver Star Medals, Legion of Merit, 2 Bronze Star Medals with 'V', 2 Purple Hearts, U.S. Army Outstanding Civilian Service Medal, Good Conduct Medal, 2 Distinguished Unit Emblems, American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with One Silver Star, Four Bronze Service Stars (representing nine campaigns) and one Bronze Arrowhead (representing assault landing at Sicily and Southern France), World War II Victory Medal Army of Occupation Medal with Germany Clasp, Armed Forces Reserve Medal, Combat Infantry Badge, Marksman Badge with Rifle Bar, Expert Badge with Bayonet Bar, French Fourragere in Colors of the Croix de Guerre, French Legion of Honor, Grade of Chevalier, French Croix de Guerre With Silver Star, French Croix de Guerre with Palm, Medal of Liberated France, Belgian Croix de Guerre 1940 Palm.
First and foremost, July 4th should be a day when we assert our patriotism. Unfortunately, the word "patriotism" has become closely associated with the right-wing and is a politically incorrect term unless it is used in the context of speaking out against our government’s policies.
We are a nation obsessed with celebrities. Most of today’s movie stars are just a bunch of "girlie boys" who, while they may portray action heroes on the silver screen, would never think of joining our armed forces in defense of their country.
Instead, practicing their own brand of self-professed patriotism, many entertainment celebrities run around at home and abroad protesting against U.S. government policies they don’t like and badmouthing those American leaders they detest.
This Fourth of July is an appropriate time to recall the past when patriotism meant standing up for the good old USA and led many actors to take up a call to arms. Here is a partial list of true heroes among American and British actors who served their respective countries with distinction on the front lines during World War II:
Alec Guinness
Operated a British Royal Navy landing craft on D-Day.
James Doohan
Captain in the Royal Canadian Artillery Landed in Normandy with the U. S. Army on D-Day.
Donald Pleasance
R. A. F. pilot who was shot down, held prisoner and tortured by the Germans.
David Niven
Sandhurst graduate - Royal Army Lt. Colonel of the British Commandos in Normandy.
James Stewart
Stewart entered the Army Air Force as a private. During World War II, he served as a bomber pilot leading more than 20 missions over Germany and took part in hundreds of air strikes during his tour of duty. Stewart earned the Air Medal, the Distinguished Flying Cross, France's Croix de Guerre, and seven Battle Stars during World War II. In peace time, Stewart continued to be an active member of the Air Force as a reservist, reaching the rank of Brigadier General before retiring in the late 1950s.
Clark Gable
Although he was beyond the draft age, Gable enlisted as a private in the AAF on Aug. 12, 1942 at Los Angeles. He attended the Officers' Candidate School at Miami Beach , Fla. and graduated as a second lieutenant on Oct. 28, 1942. He then attended aerial gunnery school and in Feb.1943 he was assigned to the 351st Bomb Group at Polebrook where he flew operational missions over Europe in B-17s from which he obtained the combat film footage for the movie Combat America. Capt. Gable returned to the U.S. in Oct. 1943 and was relieved from active duty as a major on June 12, 1944 at his own request, since he was over-age for combat.
Charlton Heston
An Army Air Corps Sergeant in Kodiak.
Ernest Borgnine
A U. S. Navy Gunners Mate 1935-1945.
Charles Durning
A U. S. Army Ranger at Normandy earning a Silver Star and awarded the Purple Heart. Durning landed at Omaha Beach in the D-Day invasion. He survived the landing, but was wounded in an ambush during the Battle of the Bulge. He was captured, escaped, and narrowly missed assassination at the Malmedy Massacre. He still carries his memories and battle fatigue to this day.
Charles Bronson
A US Army Air Corps tail gunner on B-29s in the 20th Air Force out of Guam, Tinian, and Saipan.
George C. Scott
A decorated U. S. Marine.
Eddie Albert
Awarded a Bronze Star for his heroic action as a U. S. Naval officer aiding Marines at the horrific battle on the island of Tarawa in the Pacific Nov. 1943. At Tarawa, he was wounded and lost most of his hearing.
Brian Keith
A US Marine rear gunner in several actions against the Japanese on Rabal in the Pacific.
Lee Marvin
A U.S. Marine on Saipan during the Marianas campaign where he was wounded earning the Purple Heart.
John Russell
Enlisted in the Marine Corps in 1942 where he received a battlefield commission and was wounded and highly decorated for valor at Guadalcanal.
Robert Ryan
A U. S. Marine who served with the O. S. S. in Yugoslavia.
Tyrone Power
Joined the U.S. Marines after the Pearl Harbor attack. He served as a pilot flying supplies into, and wounded Marines out of, Iwo Jima and Okinawa.
Don Adams
USMC, Contracted malaria on Guadalcanal.
James Arness
US Army, Wounded at Anzio. Purple Heart and Bronze Star.
Art Carney
US Army. Carney went to Normandy in July of 1944 as a replacement to the 28th Division in position around St Lô. He was part of a 30 calibre machine gun squad. On 15 August 1944 he had just taken up his position and was hit in the right leg by mortar shrapnel.
Jackie Coogan
A glider pilot who volunteered for hazardous duty with the 1st Air Commando Group. In Dec. 1943, the unit was sent to India where, by using CG-4A gliders, it airlifted crack British troops under Gen. Orde Wingate during the night aerial invasion of Burma (Mar. 5, 1944), landing them in a small jungle clearing 100 miles behind Japanese lines.
Douglas Fairbanks Jr.
US Navy. He joined the naval reserves before the war. During the war he served on the Battleship Massachuesetts and was a Commando raider sent on several land attack missions.
Henry Fonda
US Navy. Bronze Star for Valor.
Glenn Ford
US Navy. In addition to his WWII service, he served in the reserves during the Korean War and the Viet Nam War. He retired as a Captain in the US Naval Reserve.
Jack Palance
US Army Air Corps. 455th bomb group. Required facial reconstruction from terrible injuries received in 1943 when his B17 crash landed in Britain.
Jason Robards Jr
US Navy. He was a radioman on duty at Pearl Harbor during the Japanese attack.
Ronald Reagan
Captain, US Army Air Corps. Because of a severe hearing loss, he was not allowed any flying duties. Prior to the war, he was a cavalry officer in the Nebraska National Guard.
Jack Warden
Served in the 101st Airborne.
James Whitmore
Served as an officer in the Marine Corps.
And last, but certainly not least, there was America’s most decorated war hero who became a movie star after WWII ended.
Audie Murphy
US Army - the most decorated soldier of WWII. Medal of Honor, Distinguished Service Cross, 2 Silver Star Medals, Legion of Merit, 2 Bronze Star Medals with 'V', 2 Purple Hearts, U.S. Army Outstanding Civilian Service Medal, Good Conduct Medal, 2 Distinguished Unit Emblems, American Campaign Medal, European-African-Middle Eastern Campaign Medal with One Silver Star, Four Bronze Service Stars (representing nine campaigns) and one Bronze Arrowhead (representing assault landing at Sicily and Southern France), World War II Victory Medal Army of Occupation Medal with Germany Clasp, Armed Forces Reserve Medal, Combat Infantry Badge, Marksman Badge with Rifle Bar, Expert Badge with Bayonet Bar, French Fourragere in Colors of the Croix de Guerre, French Legion of Honor, Grade of Chevalier, French Croix de Guerre With Silver Star, French Croix de Guerre with Palm, Medal of Liberated France, Belgian Croix de Guerre 1940 Palm.
Friday, July 03, 2009
WHY THE CHINESE WILL KICK OUR BUTTS IN MATH AND SCIENCE...!
BELOW ARE TWO PHOTOGRAPHS. STUDY THE FIRST PHOTO VERY CAREFULLY BEFORE YOU LOOK AT THE SECOND ONE.
IT MAY TAKE AWHILE BUT EVENTUALLY, BY STUDYING THE TWO PHOTOGRAPHS, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO DETECT HOW CHINESE COLLEGE STUDENTS APPROACH HIGHER EDUCATION AS COMPARED TO AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENTS.
Shanghai University Students
IT MAY TAKE AWHILE BUT EVENTUALLY, BY STUDYING THE TWO PHOTOGRAPHS, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO DETECT HOW CHINESE COLLEGE STUDENTS APPROACH HIGHER EDUCATION AS COMPARED TO AMERICAN COLLEGE STUDENTS.
Shanghai University Students
University of Colorado Students
ANY QUESTIONS?
PALESTINIANS NOT IMPRESSED WITH OBAMA
PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY ARABS IN LATE RESPONSE TO OBAMA SPEECH: NO, WE CAN’T
by Maayana Miskin
IsraelNationalNews.com
July 3, 2009
A poll released this week showed that PA Arabs are reluctant to grant rights to Jews or Christians within areas demanded for a PA state. A survey conducted by the Arab World for Research and Development among 1,200 Arab residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza found that did not feel Jerusalem should be shared with Jews and Christians.
When asked to what extent they agreed with a statement made by United States President Barack Obama that Jerusalem should be "a secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims," less than 17 percent said they agree, while 20 percent said they "somewhat agree." More than 42 percent said they disagree with the statement, while 17 percent "somewhat disagree."
REJECT VIOLENCE? NO THANKS
More than 45 percent of those surveyed disagreed with a second statement of Obama's in which the president called on the Arab world to reject violence and killing as a means of struggle. Twenty-two percent did not give an answer, while the remainder said they "agree" or "somewhat agree" with the statement.
The poll showed that PA Arabs were pessimistic regarding Obama's speech to the Arab world in early June. More believed that Obama's visit to the region would strengthen Israel, increase restrictions on Gaza, and do nothing to promote negotiations than believed the opposite. Only 14.2 percent said they fully agreed that Obama is serious when he calls for the creation of a PA state.
by Maayana Miskin
IsraelNationalNews.com
July 3, 2009
A poll released this week showed that PA Arabs are reluctant to grant rights to Jews or Christians within areas demanded for a PA state. A survey conducted by the Arab World for Research and Development among 1,200 Arab residents of Judea, Samaria and Gaza found that did not feel Jerusalem should be shared with Jews and Christians.
When asked to what extent they agreed with a statement made by United States President Barack Obama that Jerusalem should be "a secure and lasting home for Jews and Christians and Muslims," less than 17 percent said they agree, while 20 percent said they "somewhat agree." More than 42 percent said they disagree with the statement, while 17 percent "somewhat disagree."
REJECT VIOLENCE? NO THANKS
More than 45 percent of those surveyed disagreed with a second statement of Obama's in which the president called on the Arab world to reject violence and killing as a means of struggle. Twenty-two percent did not give an answer, while the remainder said they "agree" or "somewhat agree" with the statement.
The poll showed that PA Arabs were pessimistic regarding Obama's speech to the Arab world in early June. More believed that Obama's visit to the region would strengthen Israel, increase restrictions on Gaza, and do nothing to promote negotiations than believed the opposite. Only 14.2 percent said they fully agreed that Obama is serious when he calls for the creation of a PA state.
Thursday, July 02, 2009
THE VA AS A GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE MODEL
As the Obama administration goes full steam ahead to get a government health care package enacted during this congressional term, an irate citizen informs us about a government health care program that’s been around for years – the Veterans Administration.
J.T. Chapman is a civic activist in the Clear Lake area of Houston. While his observations relate specifically to Texas veterans, according to everything I’ve read, serious problems within the VA are widespread throughout the land.
And if the VA is a model for government health care, then Americans everywhere should be concerned about what the final version of the president’s health care reform package will be like and how it's going to be paid for.
GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE
By J.T. Chapman III
So far as most of us U.S. Taxpayers can tell, the Veterans Administration is the only government agency responsible for the health benefits of a large segment of our population – Our Veterans.
Today’s Houston Chronicle Editorial, "Dishonoring Our Troops – Houston leads nation in shameful backlog of veterans’ benefits claims," and recent news stories point out how abysmal this responsibility has been abdicated by our federal government. Not just in Houston, but everywhere.
Our Veterans deserve better. The current situation has come about by neglect, insufficient funding and by government bureaucracy. It should not be so.
I know this story first-hand. I applied for a veteran’s pension for my 88-year old Father, who is now in a nursing home, and who served in combat in WWII in the Philippines. It took over NINE months to get his claim approved.
It would NEVER have happened without the help of the Texas Veterans Commission, which is the advocate for Texas veterans, their families, and their survivors AGAINST the VA. How WRONG is it that we have to have a State funded agency to help our Veterans get what they deserve from the federal government?
As we go forward with "health care reform" in this Country, may we all ask hard questions of our elected representatives. Perhaps, before we go too far, we should demand that President Obama AND the Congress FIX the VA health care system and let us ALL see how that works out.
It could and should be done quickly before we embark on further social engineering health care experiments that don’t work any better than the VA. Otherwise, in the future we all might just require a "Texas Health Care Commission" to advocate for the average Texas Citizen against their federal health care system.
We ALL deserve better.
J.T. Chapman is a civic activist in the Clear Lake area of Houston. While his observations relate specifically to Texas veterans, according to everything I’ve read, serious problems within the VA are widespread throughout the land.
And if the VA is a model for government health care, then Americans everywhere should be concerned about what the final version of the president’s health care reform package will be like and how it's going to be paid for.
GOVERNMENT HEALTH CARE
By J.T. Chapman III
So far as most of us U.S. Taxpayers can tell, the Veterans Administration is the only government agency responsible for the health benefits of a large segment of our population – Our Veterans.
Today’s Houston Chronicle Editorial, "Dishonoring Our Troops – Houston leads nation in shameful backlog of veterans’ benefits claims," and recent news stories point out how abysmal this responsibility has been abdicated by our federal government. Not just in Houston, but everywhere.
Our Veterans deserve better. The current situation has come about by neglect, insufficient funding and by government bureaucracy. It should not be so.
I know this story first-hand. I applied for a veteran’s pension for my 88-year old Father, who is now in a nursing home, and who served in combat in WWII in the Philippines. It took over NINE months to get his claim approved.
It would NEVER have happened without the help of the Texas Veterans Commission, which is the advocate for Texas veterans, their families, and their survivors AGAINST the VA. How WRONG is it that we have to have a State funded agency to help our Veterans get what they deserve from the federal government?
As we go forward with "health care reform" in this Country, may we all ask hard questions of our elected representatives. Perhaps, before we go too far, we should demand that President Obama AND the Congress FIX the VA health care system and let us ALL see how that works out.
It could and should be done quickly before we embark on further social engineering health care experiments that don’t work any better than the VA. Otherwise, in the future we all might just require a "Texas Health Care Commission" to advocate for the average Texas Citizen against their federal health care system.
We ALL deserve better.
A DEFENDANT'S RIGHT TO CONFRONT WITNESSES
Houston Chronicle Editorial
July 1, 2009
ACCOUNTABILITY
Supreme Court’s welcome ruling supports defendants’ rights to confront witnesses
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a significant ruling, one that upholds the right of a criminal defendant, during trial, to confront the analyst who prepared a forensic report if the prosecution plans to use that report as evidence.
The ruling, in the case of Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, confirmed the confrontation clause of the Sixth Amendment, which provides that "in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right … to be confronted with the witnesses against him."
It was no surprise that Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the majority opinion. He was the author of the court’s 2004 decision, in Crawford v. Washington, which unanimously upheld that same principle.
Melendez-Diaz was a narrowly won decision (5–4), and one that will be revisited and clarified. But it was the right decision, one in which the Supreme Court reaffirmed its concern for the rights of criminal defendants, who are often left without adequate resources to defend themselves.
Nowhere has that lack been more obvious in recent years than in Houston, as evidenced by the Houston Police Department’s scandal-ridden crime lab, whose egregious mistakes, omissions and sloppy procedures have led to horrendous miscarriages of justice.
Last December, Ricardo Rachell was released from prison after serving six years for sexually assaulting a child, cleared by DNA that had been available all along — a victim of shoddy police work and inadequate representation.
Just last week, another Houstonian, George Rodriguez, was awarded $5 million by a federal grand jury for the "deliberate indifference" of the city to discredited evidence from the crime lab which led to his conviction. He spent 17 years in prison for a kidnapping and rape he did not commit.
Defense attorneys applauded the decision: Noted Houston attorney Stanley Schneider called the decision "outstanding. An individual’s right to freedom is the most precious thing we have, and the right to cross-examination is the backbone of our system of justice."
But many prosecutors, and the court minority, complained that it would place an undue strain on forensic analysts and prosecutors. Scott Burns, executive director of the National District Attorneys Association, called it "a train wreck," reported the New York Times.
But Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos welcomed the decision, noting that since taking office last January, she has made good on her pledge to pass on all offense reports to defense attorneys and has proposed the creation, she told the Chronicle, of a "regional, independent crime lab, staffed by qualified scientists to meet the forensic demands of our justice system."
Scalia pointed out that many states have already adopted the confrontation clause, saying "Perhaps the best indication the sky will not fall after today’s decision is that it has not done so already."
As forensic science expands, so do the ranks of experts who interpret it. It’s reassuring to know they’ll be held accountable.
July 1, 2009
ACCOUNTABILITY
Supreme Court’s welcome ruling supports defendants’ rights to confront witnesses
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court issued a significant ruling, one that upholds the right of a criminal defendant, during trial, to confront the analyst who prepared a forensic report if the prosecution plans to use that report as evidence.
The ruling, in the case of Melendez-Diaz v. Massachusetts, confirmed the confrontation clause of the Sixth Amendment, which provides that "in all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right … to be confronted with the witnesses against him."
It was no surprise that Justice Antonin Scalia wrote the majority opinion. He was the author of the court’s 2004 decision, in Crawford v. Washington, which unanimously upheld that same principle.
Melendez-Diaz was a narrowly won decision (5–4), and one that will be revisited and clarified. But it was the right decision, one in which the Supreme Court reaffirmed its concern for the rights of criminal defendants, who are often left without adequate resources to defend themselves.
Nowhere has that lack been more obvious in recent years than in Houston, as evidenced by the Houston Police Department’s scandal-ridden crime lab, whose egregious mistakes, omissions and sloppy procedures have led to horrendous miscarriages of justice.
Last December, Ricardo Rachell was released from prison after serving six years for sexually assaulting a child, cleared by DNA that had been available all along — a victim of shoddy police work and inadequate representation.
Just last week, another Houstonian, George Rodriguez, was awarded $5 million by a federal grand jury for the "deliberate indifference" of the city to discredited evidence from the crime lab which led to his conviction. He spent 17 years in prison for a kidnapping and rape he did not commit.
Defense attorneys applauded the decision: Noted Houston attorney Stanley Schneider called the decision "outstanding. An individual’s right to freedom is the most precious thing we have, and the right to cross-examination is the backbone of our system of justice."
But many prosecutors, and the court minority, complained that it would place an undue strain on forensic analysts and prosecutors. Scott Burns, executive director of the National District Attorneys Association, called it "a train wreck," reported the New York Times.
But Harris County District Attorney Pat Lykos welcomed the decision, noting that since taking office last January, she has made good on her pledge to pass on all offense reports to defense attorneys and has proposed the creation, she told the Chronicle, of a "regional, independent crime lab, staffed by qualified scientists to meet the forensic demands of our justice system."
Scalia pointed out that many states have already adopted the confrontation clause, saying "Perhaps the best indication the sky will not fall after today’s decision is that it has not done so already."
As forensic science expands, so do the ranks of experts who interpret it. It’s reassuring to know they’ll be held accountable.
SNIFF, SNIFF, SOMETHING'S WRONG WITH MY WHIFF
The Houston Police Department has had a slew of crime lab problems. Sloppy storage of evidence, poor work by analysts, misinterpretation of evidence and even false testimony by lab workers has led to the wrongful conviction of several suspects. In particular, HPD’s crime lab has had a scandalous problem with DNA testing. Unfortunately, HPD’s scandals are far from unique, other police agencies, including even the FBI, having experienced similar problems.
Another possible problem area involves the use of dogs in police work. Dogs are used in a variety of police tasks, not just for drug and explosive detection. Rick Casey, a very popular Houston Chronicle columnist, had an interesting piece on the reliability of blood hounds. Actually Casey hints that the dogs are fairly reliable, its their handlers who may not be so. Here is Casey’s bloodhound column:
DOG’S NOSE FALLIBLE AS A CRIME LAB
By Rick Casey
Houston Chronicle
July 1, 2009
DNA has shown conclusively that people are unreliable.
Eyewitness identification is often misidentification.
Hair matches? Too often they match too many heads.
Even fingerprints are not for sure, as the FBI learned when it falsely accused a Portland lawyer of being involved in a Madrid terrorist bombing that killed 191 and injured 2,000. The FBI issued a rare apology for jailing the man for two weeks.
Now two federal lawsuits involving a Fort Bend County deputy and his dogs say that bloodhounds may be man’s best friends, but they are not infallible detectives.
Back in February, Calvin Miller, a self-employed mechanic and laborer, was called into the Yoakum Police Department for questioning. He took his attorney, Bill Caraway, with him.
According to a lawsuit on Miller’s behalf, a police officer grabbed Miller’s arm, wiped it "forcibly" with a gauze pad, and said, "That’s all I need. Y’all can go now."
The police version is less aggressive, but it is undisputed that the purpose of the encounter was to obtain skin cells that contained Miller’s scent so that one of Fort Bend County Deputy Keith Pikett’s trusty bloodhounds could check his scent against scents found on evidence connected with two crimes.
Pikett has received a fair amount of publicity for his hounds’ successes, going back to their involvement in the Olympic bomber case in Atlanta.
According to the suit, police told Caraway that "local dope dealers" said Miller had been buying a lot of cocaine and a local woman, 66, had reported being robbed by a tall, soft-spoken black man, a description that fits Miller and quite a few other black males.
A few weeks later, a 79-year-old Yoakum woman was raped, also describing her assailant as a tall, soft-spoken black man.
Miller was jailed March 4, based partly on a "scent lineup" conducted by Pikett in which he had his bloodhound compare Miller’s scent to scents found on the rape victim’s bedcover and items recovered from the robbery.
A DNA test excluded Miller as the rapist in early April, but he wasn’t released for more than a month, four days after both victims failed to identify him in a lineup.
AN EARLIER CASE
The same attorney who filed a lawsuit on Miller’s behalf earlier this year, Rex Easley Jr., sued Pikett and others in connection with another false identification based on bloodhound work.
In that case, a former sheriff’s captain was publicly identified as a suspect in the murder of a 53-year-old Victoria woman he had dated.
Pikett’s dog was said to have followed a scent from her body dumped in the country, to her house and on to the former captain’s house.
He wasn’t arrested "but his name was all over the TV," Easley said.
In this case, another man confessed to the murder.
BLASTING ‘VOODOO SCIENCE’
Easley said the problem wasn’t with the dogs, but with the "science" performed by their handlers.
Calling it "voodoo science," he said he suspects that Pikett did something that influenced his dog to ID the scent of the man whom police suspected.
Easley said if he can get the cases to trial he will present several experts to show that the methodology used in these cases is "junk science."
I was unable to reach Pikett, but Fort Bend Assistant County Attorney Randall Morse, who represents him, said he hasn’t known Pikett and his dogs to blow a case in the past 15 years, despite working on 2,000 cases.
Morse said he doesn’t like to speculate, but human error can lead to bad results. For example, he said, it is possible that the police detective who obtained the gauze sample from Miller also handled some of the robbery items on which the dog found a match.
So it may be that dogs are great detectives after all. The problem is their communication skills are limited and their excitements subject to misinterpretation.
"Defense lawyers complain that you can’t cross-examine a dog," said Morse.
So the problem may not be what the dog is telling us, but what we are hearing.
To err, it seems, truly is human.
Another possible problem area involves the use of dogs in police work. Dogs are used in a variety of police tasks, not just for drug and explosive detection. Rick Casey, a very popular Houston Chronicle columnist, had an interesting piece on the reliability of blood hounds. Actually Casey hints that the dogs are fairly reliable, its their handlers who may not be so. Here is Casey’s bloodhound column:
DOG’S NOSE FALLIBLE AS A CRIME LAB
By Rick Casey
Houston Chronicle
July 1, 2009
DNA has shown conclusively that people are unreliable.
Eyewitness identification is often misidentification.
Hair matches? Too often they match too many heads.
Even fingerprints are not for sure, as the FBI learned when it falsely accused a Portland lawyer of being involved in a Madrid terrorist bombing that killed 191 and injured 2,000. The FBI issued a rare apology for jailing the man for two weeks.
Now two federal lawsuits involving a Fort Bend County deputy and his dogs say that bloodhounds may be man’s best friends, but they are not infallible detectives.
Back in February, Calvin Miller, a self-employed mechanic and laborer, was called into the Yoakum Police Department for questioning. He took his attorney, Bill Caraway, with him.
According to a lawsuit on Miller’s behalf, a police officer grabbed Miller’s arm, wiped it "forcibly" with a gauze pad, and said, "That’s all I need. Y’all can go now."
The police version is less aggressive, but it is undisputed that the purpose of the encounter was to obtain skin cells that contained Miller’s scent so that one of Fort Bend County Deputy Keith Pikett’s trusty bloodhounds could check his scent against scents found on evidence connected with two crimes.
Pikett has received a fair amount of publicity for his hounds’ successes, going back to their involvement in the Olympic bomber case in Atlanta.
According to the suit, police told Caraway that "local dope dealers" said Miller had been buying a lot of cocaine and a local woman, 66, had reported being robbed by a tall, soft-spoken black man, a description that fits Miller and quite a few other black males.
A few weeks later, a 79-year-old Yoakum woman was raped, also describing her assailant as a tall, soft-spoken black man.
Miller was jailed March 4, based partly on a "scent lineup" conducted by Pikett in which he had his bloodhound compare Miller’s scent to scents found on the rape victim’s bedcover and items recovered from the robbery.
A DNA test excluded Miller as the rapist in early April, but he wasn’t released for more than a month, four days after both victims failed to identify him in a lineup.
AN EARLIER CASE
The same attorney who filed a lawsuit on Miller’s behalf earlier this year, Rex Easley Jr., sued Pikett and others in connection with another false identification based on bloodhound work.
In that case, a former sheriff’s captain was publicly identified as a suspect in the murder of a 53-year-old Victoria woman he had dated.
Pikett’s dog was said to have followed a scent from her body dumped in the country, to her house and on to the former captain’s house.
He wasn’t arrested "but his name was all over the TV," Easley said.
In this case, another man confessed to the murder.
BLASTING ‘VOODOO SCIENCE’
Easley said the problem wasn’t with the dogs, but with the "science" performed by their handlers.
Calling it "voodoo science," he said he suspects that Pikett did something that influenced his dog to ID the scent of the man whom police suspected.
Easley said if he can get the cases to trial he will present several experts to show that the methodology used in these cases is "junk science."
I was unable to reach Pikett, but Fort Bend Assistant County Attorney Randall Morse, who represents him, said he hasn’t known Pikett and his dogs to blow a case in the past 15 years, despite working on 2,000 cases.
Morse said he doesn’t like to speculate, but human error can lead to bad results. For example, he said, it is possible that the police detective who obtained the gauze sample from Miller also handled some of the robbery items on which the dog found a match.
So it may be that dogs are great detectives after all. The problem is their communication skills are limited and their excitements subject to misinterpretation.
"Defense lawyers complain that you can’t cross-examine a dog," said Morse.
So the problem may not be what the dog is telling us, but what we are hearing.
To err, it seems, truly is human.
Wednesday, July 01, 2009
WHO IS LINNY ?
Every morning, if you watch NBC’s Today Show, you will see Linny, an African-American, standing outside the broadcasting studio at the same spot along the crowd control barricade. If you’re like me, you must’ve wondered who he is. If it weren’t for the nice clothing he wears, you would think he was homeless. So, who is Linny? Here is the answer:
By LOLA OGUNNAIKE
Published: May 31, 2006
His name is Linny Boyette, and to die-hard fans of the "Today" show he is almost as familiar and beloved a face as Katie, Matt, Ann and Al. That is because Mr. Boyette, arguably the show's ultimate fan, has been standing in the audience outside the NBC Midtown studio every day for nearly 12 years, except Sundays and the rare sick day. Unlike the throngs of shrieking, overcaffeinated, poster-waving tourists who surround him daily, jockeying for air time, Mr. Boyette, 63, is a quiet, unassuming man.
But his presence at "Today" has been greatly felt. "Every day there's a sea of faces from all over the country and in fact the world," said Katie Couric, who ends her 15-year career at the morning show today, in an e-mail message. "It's been great seeing his familiar face every morning. We usually high-five each other."
Mr. Boyette and Ms. Couric did not always have the best relationship, however. "She was a bit nervous about me in the beginning," he said. "Who is this nonchalant guy? He never has a sign. He's never screaming." He was eventually introduced to her and assured her that he was not a stalker. He has since met members of her family. "
I've met all their families," he said, breezily rattling off the names of the cast members' spouses and children. He, meanwhile, is a childless bachelor. "No wife," he said, "no kids, no stress."
Mr. Boyette said he was particularly fond of Ann Curry, the show's news reader, and that he was saddened when she was passed over for Ms. Couric's spot. "She is an absolutely wonderful person, always has warm greetings," he said of Ms. Curry. "She would have been great." He knows little about the woman who was named to replace Ms. Couric, Meredith Vieira, but said his sister, a fan of Ms. Vieira's show, "The View," loves her. Mr. Boyette remained noncommittal: "We'll see."
He begins his day at 3:30 a.m. with a shower and a shave. By 4:40 Mr. Boyette, who lives in the Bronx, is off to the train. He usually arrives in Midtown an hour later, and after a quick cup of tea, he heads over to 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where "Today" is taped. "I can't wait to get here," he said one morning late last week. "It's like therapy for me."
Born in Jamaica and raised in both New York and London, Mr. Boyette, who is a retired United States Army man, speaks in a deep British accent, peppering his conversation with words like "bloke" and "telly."
Dressed that morning in jeans and a loose-fitting shirt, a straw hat and his signature oversize glasses, he had just finished watching Jimmy Buffett whip the crowd into a frenzy with the song "Margaritaville." As he exited, some in the crowd stopped to chat with him. It was nothing new for Mr. Boyette, who is regularly asked to sign autographs or pose for pictures. Some of his admirers have even taken him hats and T-shirts from their hometowns, he said.
Diana Jones and Vondell Cook — both from San Diego and dressed in matching yellow and white ensembles — did not come bearing gifts, but they were eager for photos with Mr. Boyette. "I always look for you in the crowd," said Ms. Cook, smiling brightly.
Ms. Jones wanted to know where he usually stands. "Anywhere I want to," he replied, only half-jokingly.
Being the show's "fifth personality" has its privileges, Mr. Boyette said. He never has to wait in line for prime viewing of the action, and he's often invited into the studio for coffee or tea, though he prefers to remain perched outside, behind the metal railing, he said. "
It's quite busy in there, quite maddening, and I don't want to get in their way," he said. Over the course of the interview, which took place at the plaza, several "Today" crew members and security guards stopped to shake his hand or pat him on the back. "
He's a man of few words, but he's always smiling," said Franco Coello, a crew member. "We all love him."
While in the Army, Mr. Boyette said, he visited many trouble spots, but it's the gruesome memories of Vietnam, where he worked in a hospital recovery room, that still haunt him. "People you would see at 8 o'clock in the morning would come back in body bags," he said quietly. Going to "Today" helps keep his mind away from such thoughts, he said.
Mr. Boyette was first drawn to the show's summer concert series. After seeing Al Green years ago, he was hooked, he said. Last year he missed three days because of the transit strike and "I was out of my head, all out of sorts," he said. In 2001 a collapsed lung landed him in the hospital for 35 days. When he returned to the plaza, he said, the "Today" gang had a special chair and an envelope filled with donation money waiting for him. "I thought I was dreaming," he said, still a bit incredulous. "I still have the chair at home."
Over the years some people have tried to discourage Mr. Boyette from his daily "Today" visits, he said. "My sister thinks I'm a bit mental," he admitted. "She can't believe I come down here in the winter."
But he's glad he's ignored the naysayers. "The show has been wonderful for me," he said. "Most of my friends are dead or divorced, and I'm still standing."
By LOLA OGUNNAIKE
Published: May 31, 2006
His name is Linny Boyette, and to die-hard fans of the "Today" show he is almost as familiar and beloved a face as Katie, Matt, Ann and Al. That is because Mr. Boyette, arguably the show's ultimate fan, has been standing in the audience outside the NBC Midtown studio every day for nearly 12 years, except Sundays and the rare sick day. Unlike the throngs of shrieking, overcaffeinated, poster-waving tourists who surround him daily, jockeying for air time, Mr. Boyette, 63, is a quiet, unassuming man.
But his presence at "Today" has been greatly felt. "Every day there's a sea of faces from all over the country and in fact the world," said Katie Couric, who ends her 15-year career at the morning show today, in an e-mail message. "It's been great seeing his familiar face every morning. We usually high-five each other."
Mr. Boyette and Ms. Couric did not always have the best relationship, however. "She was a bit nervous about me in the beginning," he said. "Who is this nonchalant guy? He never has a sign. He's never screaming." He was eventually introduced to her and assured her that he was not a stalker. He has since met members of her family. "
I've met all their families," he said, breezily rattling off the names of the cast members' spouses and children. He, meanwhile, is a childless bachelor. "No wife," he said, "no kids, no stress."
Mr. Boyette said he was particularly fond of Ann Curry, the show's news reader, and that he was saddened when she was passed over for Ms. Couric's spot. "She is an absolutely wonderful person, always has warm greetings," he said of Ms. Curry. "She would have been great." He knows little about the woman who was named to replace Ms. Couric, Meredith Vieira, but said his sister, a fan of Ms. Vieira's show, "The View," loves her. Mr. Boyette remained noncommittal: "We'll see."
He begins his day at 3:30 a.m. with a shower and a shave. By 4:40 Mr. Boyette, who lives in the Bronx, is off to the train. He usually arrives in Midtown an hour later, and after a quick cup of tea, he heads over to 30 Rockefeller Plaza, where "Today" is taped. "I can't wait to get here," he said one morning late last week. "It's like therapy for me."
Born in Jamaica and raised in both New York and London, Mr. Boyette, who is a retired United States Army man, speaks in a deep British accent, peppering his conversation with words like "bloke" and "telly."
Dressed that morning in jeans and a loose-fitting shirt, a straw hat and his signature oversize glasses, he had just finished watching Jimmy Buffett whip the crowd into a frenzy with the song "Margaritaville." As he exited, some in the crowd stopped to chat with him. It was nothing new for Mr. Boyette, who is regularly asked to sign autographs or pose for pictures. Some of his admirers have even taken him hats and T-shirts from their hometowns, he said.
Diana Jones and Vondell Cook — both from San Diego and dressed in matching yellow and white ensembles — did not come bearing gifts, but they were eager for photos with Mr. Boyette. "I always look for you in the crowd," said Ms. Cook, smiling brightly.
Ms. Jones wanted to know where he usually stands. "Anywhere I want to," he replied, only half-jokingly.
Being the show's "fifth personality" has its privileges, Mr. Boyette said. He never has to wait in line for prime viewing of the action, and he's often invited into the studio for coffee or tea, though he prefers to remain perched outside, behind the metal railing, he said. "
It's quite busy in there, quite maddening, and I don't want to get in their way," he said. Over the course of the interview, which took place at the plaza, several "Today" crew members and security guards stopped to shake his hand or pat him on the back. "
He's a man of few words, but he's always smiling," said Franco Coello, a crew member. "We all love him."
While in the Army, Mr. Boyette said, he visited many trouble spots, but it's the gruesome memories of Vietnam, where he worked in a hospital recovery room, that still haunt him. "People you would see at 8 o'clock in the morning would come back in body bags," he said quietly. Going to "Today" helps keep his mind away from such thoughts, he said.
Mr. Boyette was first drawn to the show's summer concert series. After seeing Al Green years ago, he was hooked, he said. Last year he missed three days because of the transit strike and "I was out of my head, all out of sorts," he said. In 2001 a collapsed lung landed him in the hospital for 35 days. When he returned to the plaza, he said, the "Today" gang had a special chair and an envelope filled with donation money waiting for him. "I thought I was dreaming," he said, still a bit incredulous. "I still have the chair at home."
Over the years some people have tried to discourage Mr. Boyette from his daily "Today" visits, he said. "My sister thinks I'm a bit mental," he admitted. "She can't believe I come down here in the winter."
But he's glad he's ignored the naysayers. "The show has been wonderful for me," he said. "Most of my friends are dead or divorced, and I'm still standing."
EX-CONGRESSWOMAN RESURFACES AS AN ANTI-ISRAEL ACTIVIST
Does anyone remember Cynthia McKinney, the former black Democratic congresswoman from Georgia? Well, she was the one who slugged a white Capitol Hill police officer in 2006 when he tried to check her ID at a congressional office building checkpoint. She accused the officer of being a racist for trying to stop her.
Now she has resurfaced as a pro-Arab, anti-Israel activist. That is hardly surprising since she and her father have had a long history of anti-Semitism. Before I get to her latest endeavors, I want to refresh your memory with some excerpts from my blog, KAPOW --- DON'T TOUCH ME, YOU RACIST COP! (April 9, 2006).
Assaulting a police officer: "On March 29, 2006 Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., an African-American, was not wearing her ID pin, and she had just recently changed her hairdo from cornrows to a curly brown afro. A white Capitol Hill police officer, who was working the security checkpoint at a congressional office building entrance, failed to recognize her. When McKinney bypassed the checkpoint, the officer ordered her three times to stop. Each time she ignored his lawful orders. In order to stop Rep. Mckinney, the officer grabbed her by the shoulder. She spun around and - KAPOW! - slugged him in the chest with her cell phone."
Anti-Semitism: "In 2002, she blamed Jews for the loss of her Congressional seat (which she subsequently regained), claiming that they poured money into her black opponent's campaign because she had sided with the Palestinians against Israel. Her father, Billy McKinney, blamed the defeat on a Jewish plot and stated that, ‘Jews bought everybody, that's (spelling out) J-E-W-S.’"
With that background in mind, here are some excerpts from today’s IsraelNationalNews.com on how McKinney has been making news lately as an active member of the group "Movement For The Freedom Of Gaza":
McKINNEY: ISRAEL SHOULD ‘CALL OFF ITS DOGS’
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Several IDF navy boats intercepted, boarded and took control of a boat of pro-Arab activists trying to break Israeli sovereignty over coastal waters Tuesday afternoon. No one was injured, and an IDF spokesman told Israel National News that no shots were fired.
It was the first time the IDF has boarded one of the boats since the pro-Arab "Free Gaza" movement began sending ships to Gaza last August. The previous sailing, earlier this year, ended up with a collision with a navy boat that forced the activists away from Gaza. The activists have accused the navy of purposely ramming their vessel.
Among the 17 passengers on Tuesday's vessel, not including the captain and three-man crew, are former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire and three journalists, including two from the Arabic-language Al Jazeera network. Other passengers are from the United States, Denmark. Ireland, Bahrain, Jordan, Yemen and Britain. One Israeli, Lubna Masarfwa, also is on board, according to the Free Gaze group that organized the voyage.
As the navy surrounded the activists’ boat, McKinney said by phone from the vessel, "I am extremely angry. We demand that the Israeli government call off their attack dogs."
Former Congresswoman McKinney, who was also on the boat that was in the collision, called on U.S. President Barack Obama and the international community to "intervene now to prevent this situation from escalating with potentially drastic results to the civilians on board."
Now she has resurfaced as a pro-Arab, anti-Israel activist. That is hardly surprising since she and her father have had a long history of anti-Semitism. Before I get to her latest endeavors, I want to refresh your memory with some excerpts from my blog, KAPOW --- DON'T TOUCH ME, YOU RACIST COP! (April 9, 2006).
Assaulting a police officer: "On March 29, 2006 Rep. Cynthia McKinney, D-Ga., an African-American, was not wearing her ID pin, and she had just recently changed her hairdo from cornrows to a curly brown afro. A white Capitol Hill police officer, who was working the security checkpoint at a congressional office building entrance, failed to recognize her. When McKinney bypassed the checkpoint, the officer ordered her three times to stop. Each time she ignored his lawful orders. In order to stop Rep. Mckinney, the officer grabbed her by the shoulder. She spun around and - KAPOW! - slugged him in the chest with her cell phone."
Anti-Semitism: "In 2002, she blamed Jews for the loss of her Congressional seat (which she subsequently regained), claiming that they poured money into her black opponent's campaign because she had sided with the Palestinians against Israel. Her father, Billy McKinney, blamed the defeat on a Jewish plot and stated that, ‘Jews bought everybody, that's (spelling out) J-E-W-S.’"
With that background in mind, here are some excerpts from today’s IsraelNationalNews.com on how McKinney has been making news lately as an active member of the group "Movement For The Freedom Of Gaza":
McKINNEY: ISRAEL SHOULD ‘CALL OFF ITS DOGS’
by Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu
Several IDF navy boats intercepted, boarded and took control of a boat of pro-Arab activists trying to break Israeli sovereignty over coastal waters Tuesday afternoon. No one was injured, and an IDF spokesman told Israel National News that no shots were fired.
It was the first time the IDF has boarded one of the boats since the pro-Arab "Free Gaza" movement began sending ships to Gaza last August. The previous sailing, earlier this year, ended up with a collision with a navy boat that forced the activists away from Gaza. The activists have accused the navy of purposely ramming their vessel.
Among the 17 passengers on Tuesday's vessel, not including the captain and three-man crew, are former U.S. Congresswoman Cynthia McKinney, Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mairead Maguire and three journalists, including two from the Arabic-language Al Jazeera network. Other passengers are from the United States, Denmark. Ireland, Bahrain, Jordan, Yemen and Britain. One Israeli, Lubna Masarfwa, also is on board, according to the Free Gaze group that organized the voyage.
As the navy surrounded the activists’ boat, McKinney said by phone from the vessel, "I am extremely angry. We demand that the Israeli government call off their attack dogs."
Former Congresswoman McKinney, who was also on the boat that was in the collision, called on U.S. President Barack Obama and the international community to "intervene now to prevent this situation from escalating with potentially drastic results to the civilians on board."
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