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AFP: Deployment of second carrier to Gulf a 'reminder': Gates
US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates said Tuesday the deployment of a second aircraft carrier to the Gulf should be seen as a "reminder" of US military power in the region.
Iranian official warns against importing Barbie dollsTEHRAN, Iran - A top Iranian judiciary official warned Monday against the "destructive" cultural and social consequences of importing Barbie dolls and other Western toys.
In the latest salvo in a more than decade-old government campaign against Barbie, Prosecutor General Ghorban Ali Dori Najafabadi said in an official letter to Vice President Parviz Davoudi that the doll and other Western toys are a "danger" that need to be stopped.
...
Najafabadi said Iran is the world's third biggest importer of toys and warned that smuggled imports pose a threat to the "identity" of the new generation.
"Undoubtedly, the personality and identity of the new generation and our children, as a result of unrestricted importation of toys, has been put at risk and caused irreparable damages," he said.
Mattel Inc., the maker of Barbie, had no immediate comment on the Iranian letter.
Barbie is sold wearing swimsuits and miniskirts in a society where women must wear head scarves in public and men and women are not allowed to swim together.
In 1996, the head of a government-backed children's agency called Barbie a "Trojan horse" sneaking in Western influences such as makeup and revealing clothes.
Authorities launched a campaign of confiscating Barbies from toy shops in 2002, denouncing the un-Islamic sensibilities of the iconic American doll. But the campaign was eventually dropped.
Also in 2002, Iran introduced its own competing dolls — the twins Dara and Sara — who were designed to promote traditional values with their modest clothing and pro-family stories. But the dolls proved unable to stem the Barbie tide.
Craig Ferguson at Correspondents Dinner | Primetime PoliticsEnjoy!
Hard lemonade, hard price - Dad's oversight at Tigers game lands son in foster care
The way police and child protection workers figure it, Ratte should have known that what a Comerica Park vendor handed over when Ratte ordered a lemonade for his boy three Saturdays ago contained alcohol, and Ratte's ignorance justified placing young Leo in foster care until his dad got up to speed on the commercial beverage industry.
...
Ratte is a tenured professor of classical archaeology at the University of Michigan...
The 47-year-old academic says he wasn't even aware alcoholic lemonade existed when he and Leo stopped at a concession stand on the way to their seats in Section 114.
An hour later, Ratte was being interviewed by a Detroit police officer at Children's Hospital, where a physician at the Comerica Park clinic had dispatched Leo - by ambulance! - after a cursory exam.
Leo betrayed no symptoms of inebriation. But the physician and a police officer from the Comerica substation suggested the ER visit after the boy admitted he was feeling a little nauseated.
The Comerica cop estimated that Leo had drunk about 12 ounces of the hard lemonade, which is 5% alcohol. But an ER resident who drew Leo's blood less than 90 minutes after he and his father were escorted from their seats detected no trace of alcohol.
The sympathetic cop who interviewed Ratte and his son at the hospital said she was convinced what happened had been an accident, but that her supervisor was insisting the matter be referred to Child Protective Services.
And Ratte thought the two child protection workers who came to take Leo away seemed more annoyed with the police than with him. "This is so unnecessary," one told Ratte before driving away with his son.
But there was really nothing any of them could do, they all said. They were just adhering to protocol, following orders.
...
But that doesn't explain why CPS refused to release Leo to the custody of two aunts - one a social worker and licensed foster parent - who drove all night from New England to take custody of their nephew.
Chris Ratte's sisters, Catherine Miller and Felicity Ratte, left Massachusetts at 10:30 the night of the fateful lemonade purchase after the police officer who'd reluctantly requested a removal order told Ratte the state would likely jump at the chance to place Leo with responsible relatives. But when the two women arrived at the CPS office early Sunday, a caseworker explained they would not be allowed to see Leo until they had secured a hotel room.
The sisters quickly complied. But by the time they returned to CPS around 10:30 a.m., their nephew had been taken to an undisclosed foster home, where he would remain until a preliminary court hearing the following afternoon.
Of all tyrannies, a tyranny exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It may be better to live under robber barons than under omnipotent moral busybodies. The robber baron's cruelty may sometimes sleep, his cupidity may at some point be satiated; but those who torment us for our own good will torment us without end, for they do so with the approval of their own conscience.
Today was Take Your Child to Work Day, or, as they say in China, Thursday.
It’s a great day to show your child how miserable they will be.
Border agents to use paintball guns to fend off attackers
TUCSON - Some surprising news came from the United States Border Patrol.
The Patrol has purchased 1,000 guns that fire non-lethal paintball or pepper pellets. The goal of a target practice session was to hit the white rag at the end of a hall with paintballs. Border Patrol agents may soon use paintballs to defend themselves against smugglers along the border due to an increase in violence.
Hmmm... let's see here... the border is getting more violent, therefore Border Patrol should start defending it with toys.
Surveillance video from an incident last year in El Paso shows a Border Patrol agent retreating after people pelt him with rocks. Some could argue the same about being hit by a paintball without protective gear, where a projectile from a paintball gun leaves a small welt on the flesh.
Oh, no... not a welt!
Small welt or not, human rights activists say it is a bad idea, even for a line of defense.
Lord, have mercy on my everlovin' soul.
Can somebody smack a little sense into these people? Or how about put them on the border with children's playthings.
(Oh, and pass the crazy pills, please.)
KSTP.com - DETECTIVES: Chris Jenkins murder connects dozens around country
Could there be a calculated, cross-country plot to kill young college men, including some in Minnesota? It seems a little hard to believe, but two New York detectives say, they can prove it.
Now, they are revealing years of their evidence for the first time to 5 EYEWITNESS NEWS...
University of Minnesota college student Chris Jenkins was found in the Mississippi River in February of 2003.
Minneapolis Police began investigating the case, which also caught the attention of two retired NYPD detectives.
Turns out, Jenkins' death was the missing part of the puzzle for Kevin Gannon and Anthony Duarte.
They think Jenkins connects dozens of other deaths around the country over the last decade. The stories are the same all over the country--an athletic, intelligent, well-liked college student goes missing.
Family and friends launch a massive search. Weeks or months later, the young man is discovered drowned. In more than 40 cases, the deaths are blamed on a drunken accident--except for one.
The death of Chris Jenkins in Minneapolis is the only one where the cause of death was changed from 'undetermined' or 'drowning' to 'homicide.'
Amy Winehouse quizzed by police after breaking down in tears over assault claims | the Daily Mail
FOXNews.com - Bush Heckler Arrested After Punching Wheelchair-Bound Girl
A man heckling First Lady Laura Bush and daughter Jenna outside the 92nd Street Y was arrested after he punched a wheelchair-bound girl whose parents had told him to shut up, authorities said Wednesday.
German Talis, 22, was shouting obscenities at the Bushes, who were leaving the building Tuesday, when he crossed paths with Wendy and John Lovetro and their daughter Maureen, 18, who has cerebral palsy.
They had been in the audience to hear the Bushes talk about their children's book, "Read All About It."
"He began yelling about Iraq and Iran at Jenna Bush. She was waving at the crowd. I told the guy, 'What are you doing? Shut up. This is about a child and books,' " said John Lovetro. "He was unperturbed. I said, 'Get out of here! You're being a moron!' "
The next thing he knew, Talis was allegedly punching Maureen, a fan of the first lady since meeting her in 2004.
Sure, pick on the cripple, as my son would say.
Yeesh.Obama suffers from the working-class blues | U.S. | Reuters
Part of the problem for Obama, who would be the first black U.S. president, is uneasiness about race. The exit polls showed nearly 20 percent of voters in Pennsylvania said race was important to them, and they heavily backed Clinton.
"Let's not pretend, some of it is race," pollster John Zogby said. 'Among some ethnic voters, there will be difficulty accepting an African-American, especially when he's off message and on the defensive the way Obama was the last few weeks."
Wild Amy Winehouse could face arrest after 'attack on TWO men' while out on all-night bender | the Daily Mail
Breakfast in bed, satellite TV, cheap drugs and free phone calls: No wonder criminals break IN to our soft jails | the Daily Mail
...inmates benefit from satellite television, free telephone calls, breakfast in bed and officers who treat them with kid gloves for fear of breaching their human rights.
...He added: "There's a classic case in Yorkshire where members of the public were climbing over the prison walls to take drugs into the prison. They put up ladders to climb over the walls, but prisoners were so comfortable in the environment they were living in that none of them tried to climb up the ladders and escape.
"When the ladders came down at night, the members of the public hide inside the prison until their colleagues come over the following morning at 6am, put the ladders back up and they were able to get out.
"None of the prisoners inside tried to escape. It tells me there's something wrong in society when people are breaking into prisons to bring in drugs and prostitutes, but the prisoners are quite happy to stay inside."
Speaking to TalkSport, he added: "Prison is no longer a deterrent. It is merely an occupational hazard."
...
A spokesman insisted inmates are not given "breakfast in bed", but are handed a "breakfast pack" to eat in their cells, or a hot breakfast to take back to their cells.
Television in cells is an earned privilege which can be removed, she added, and "no public-sector prisons" have Sky TV in cells.
She confirmed that the Incentives and Earned Privileges scheme means well-behaved inmates can earn extra visits, higher rates of pay for work, in-cell television and access to private cash.
She said the IEP scheme was designed "to ensure good order and control in prisons" and to encourage prisoners to take part in rehabilitation work.
Ahhh... leftism.
Secret Service Catch Mexican Official Nabbing White House BlackBerries
...a Mexican press attaché was caught on camera by Secret Service pocketing several White House BlackBerries during a recent meeting in New Orleans...
Sources with knowledge of the incident said the official, Rafael Quintero Curiel, served as the lead press advance person for the Mexican Delegation and was responsible for handling logistics and guiding the Mexican media around at the conference. He took six or seven of the handheld devices from a table outside a special room in the hotel where the Mexican delegation was meeting with President Bush earlier this week.
Everyone entering the room was required to leave his or her cell phone, BlackBerry and other such devices on the table, a common practice when high-level meetings are held. American officials discovered their missing belongings when they were leaving the session.
It didn't take long before Secret Service officials reviewed videotape taken by a surveillance camera and found footage showing Quintero Curiel absconding with the BlackBerries.
Sources said Quintero Curiel made it all the way to the airport before Secret Service officers caught up with him. He initially denied taking the devices, but after agents showed him the DVD, Quintero Curiel said it was purely accidental, gave them back, claimed diplomatic immunity and left New Orleans with the Mexican delegation.
*shakes head*
Scalia On Bush v. Gore: Get Over It!, Supreme Court Justice Tells 60 Minutes It’s Nonsense To Say The Decision Was Politically Motivated - CBS News
"The principal issue in the case, whether the scheme that the Florida Supreme Court had put together violated the federal Constitution, that wasn’t even close. The vote was seven to two," he says, referring to the Supreme Court’s decision that the Supreme Court of Florida’s method for recounting ballots was unconstitutional.
Furthermore, says the outspoken conservative justice, it was Al Gore who ultimately put the issue into the courts. "It was Al Gore who made it a judicial question…. We didn’t go looking for trouble. It was he who said, 'I want this to be decided by the courts,'" says Scalia. "What are we supposed to say -- 'Not important enough?'" he jokes.
Scalia also denies there is anything personal in his decisions or comments, which can often be biting. Stahl asks how he can be a close friend of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsberg, his liberal bench mate, despite the fact that they oftentimes disagree. "I attack ideas, I don’t attack people, and some very good people have some very bad ideas," he tells Stahl. "And if you can’t separate the two, you got to get another day job. You don’t want to be a judge, at least not a judge on a multi-member panel."
Pennsylvania primary today. Here’s the problem with the primaries: The Democrats are spending too much time attacking one another, and not enough time trying to rig the election.
[Clinton is] trying to convince voters in Pennsylvania that she is pro-gun. C’mon, if she were really pro-gun, Bill would be dead.
Priest carried aloft by balloons missing - msnbc.comupdated 3:48 p.m. CT, Mon., April. 21, 2008SAO PAULO, Brazil - A Roman Catholic priest who floated off under hundreds of helium party balloons was missing Monday off the southern coast of Brazil.
Rescuers in helicopters and small fishing boats were searching off the coast of Santa Catarina state, where pieces of balloons were found.
Rev. Adelir Antonio de Carli lifted off from the port city of Paranagua on Sunday afternoon, wearing a helmet, thermal suit and a parachute.
He was reported missing about eight hours later after losing contact with port authority officials, according to the treasurer of his Sao Cristovao parish, Denise Gallas.Gallas said by telephone that the priest wanted to break a 19-hour record for the most hours flying with balloons to raise money for a spiritual rest-stop for truckers in Paranagua, Brazil's second-largest port for agricultural products.
Some American adventurers have used helium balloons to emulate Larry Walters -- who in 1982 rose three miles above Los Angeles in a lawn chair lifted by balloons.
A video of Carli posted on the G1 Web site of Globo TV showed the smiling 41-year-old priest slipping into a flight suit, being strapped to a seat attached to a huge column green, red, white and yellow balloons, and soaring into the air to the cheers of a crowd.
According to Gallas, the priest soared to an altitude of 20,000 feet (6,000 meters) then descended to about 8,200 feet (2,500 meters) for his planned flight to the city of Dourados, 465 miles (750 kilometers) northwest of his parish.
But winds pushed him in another direction, and Carli was some 30 miles (50 kilometers) off the coast when he last contacted Paranagua's port authority, Gallas said.
Carli had a GPS device, a satellite phone, a buoyant chair and is an experienced skydiver, Gallas said.
"We are absolutely confident he will be found alive and well, floating somewhere in the ocean," she said.
"He knew what he was doing and was fully prepared for any kind of mishap."
Bruce Told To Leave Podium After Mexican Comment
By Steven K. Paulson, AP Writer
DENVER (AP) ― Rep. Douglas Bruce was ordered to leave the podium of the Colorado House of Representatives on Monday after calling Mexican workers "illiterate peasants."
Bruce, a Republican with a history of provoking controversy with his statements and actions, made the comment during a debate on a bill designed to ease a farmworker shortage in Colorado.
It drew an audible gasp from the House.
"How dare you," said Rep. Kathleen Curry, a Democrat who was serving as chairwoman during the debate. She told Bruce he was no longer recognized to speak.
The bill under discussion would allow the state to help immigrant workers get temporary visas.
Bruce said the bill was about "having more aliens coming into Colorado" from Mexico.
"I would like to have the opportunity to state at the microphone why I don't think we need 5,000 more illiterate peasants in Colorado," Bruce said.
Rep. Mike May of Parker, the House minority leader and head of the GOP caucus, said legislative leaders were trying to determine what action to take against Bruce.
Rep. Terrance Carroll, a Democrat from Denver, said the remark could result in a formal ethics complaint that would require a hearing and possible suspension, censure or expulsion.
"There's no room for bigotry on the floor of the House," Carroll said.
Rep Jack Pommer said calling immigrants "illiterate peasants" is deplorable. He said even for the controversial Bruce, it's a new low.
"It's a horrible thing to say, but we've kind of gotten used to that with him," Pommer said. "He's just the sort of person who seems to enjoy insulting people, and enjoys the reaction he gets when he insults people."
Bruce defended his remarks later.
"I was expressing my view, which is a true statement, that I don't want up to 5,000 more illiterate peasants coming to Colorado," he said. "And I certainly don't want to have a government program to bring them here.
"I looked up 'illiterate' in the dictionary and it means somebody who is lacking in formal education or is unable to read and write," he said. "I don't think these people who are planning to come over here and pick potatoes or peaches are likely to have much of a formal education. I looked up the word 'peasant.' The word 'peasant' means a person who works in agricultural fields.
"These people, most of them, don't speak English. Most of them haven't had any formal education, that's why they're coming over here. I don't blame them for trying, but I don't think we should pave the way for more aliens to come here," he said.
In a statement, Consul General of Mexico in Denver Eduardo Arnal called Bruce's remarks "unfortunate" and "offensive."
"I believe these types of comments do not contribute to the discussion on immigration between Mexico and the United States nor in the search of solutions regarding this topic," Arnal said.
Bruce, of Colorado Springs, has had had other run-ins since arriving at the Capitol in January as a midterm appointee to fill a vacancy.
He became the first Colorado lawmaker censured by the House after he kicked a newspaper photographer for taking his picture during a prayer. Republicans later removed him the powerful State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee because he refused to co-sponsor a resolution honoring military veterans.
Bruce said he believed resolutions were a waste of time because they have no legal impact.
Before becoming a state lawmaker, Bruce was best known as the author of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, a voter-approved amendment to the state constitution that limits taxes and government spending.
(© 2008 The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)
Posted: 04:08 PM ET
WASHINGTON (CNN) — Former White House press secretary Tony Snow will join CNN as a conservative commentator beginning Monday.
CNN president Jon Klein announced that Snow, a long-time political observer with a longstanding news background, will contribute to CNN as the network continues to broadcast winning political coverage.
Snow most recently served as press secretary to President Bush. For 10 years, beginning in 1996, he appeared on Fox News Channel as the host of Fox News Sunday, Weekend Live with Tony Snow and other programs. Before joining Fox, Snow served as a substitute "From the Right" co-host for CNN's Crossfire.
Snow has also been a newspaper writer, radio host and columnist, and a speechwriter in the administration of the first President Bush.
Saturday, April 19, 2008Mark Steyn: Guns and God? Hell, yes
Obama attacks two of the things that elevate the U.S. above places like Europe
MARK STEYNSyndicated columnistOur lesson today comes from the songwriter Frank Loesser:
"Praise The Lord And Pass The Ammunition."
Or as Barack Obama and his San Francisco pals would put it: God and guns. Loesser got the phrase from Howell Forgy, a naval chaplain at Pearl Harbor, who walked the decks of the USS New Orleans under Japanese bombardment, exhorting his comrades. When the line came to Loesser's ears, he turned it into a big hit song of the Second World War:
"Praise the Lord and swing into position
Can't afford to sit around a-wishin'…" – which some folks sang as "Can't afford to be a politician." Indeed. Sen. Obama's remarks about poor dumb, bitter rural losers "clinging to" guns and God certainly testify to the instinctive snobbery of a big segment of the political class. But we shouldn't let it go by merely deploring coastal condescension toward the knuckledraggers. No, what Michelle Malkin calls Crackerquiddick (quite rightly – it's more than just another dreary "-gate") is not just snobbish nor even merely wrongheaded. It's an attack on two of the critical advantages the United States holds over most of the rest of the Western world. In the other G7 developed nations, nobody clings to God 'n' guns. The guns got taken away, and the Europeans gave up on churchgoing once they embraced Big Government as the new religion.
How's that working out? Compared with America, France and Germany have been more or less economically stagnant for the past quarter-century, living permanently with unemployment rates significantly higher than in the United States.
Has it made them any less "bitter," as Obama characterizes those Pennsylvanian crackers? No.
...
In my book "America Alone," I note a global survey on optimism: 61 percent of Americans were optimistic about the future, 29 percent of the French, 15 percent of Germans. Take it from a foreigner: In my experience, Americans are the least "bitter" people in the developed world. Secular, gun-free big-government Europe doesn't seem to have done anything for people's happiness. Consider by way of example the words of Keith Reade. He's not an Obama speechwriter, he's a writer for the London Daily Mirror. And the day after the 2004 presidential election he expressed his frustration in an alarmingly Obamaesque way:
"Were I a Kerry voter, though, I'd feel deep anger, not only at them returning Bush to power, but for allowing the outside world to lump us all into the same category of moronic muppets. The self-righteous, gun-totin', military-lovin', sister-marryin', abortion-hatin', gay-loathin', foreigner-despisin', nonpassport ownin' rednecks, who believe God gave America the biggest d*** in the world so it could urinate on the rest of us and make their land 'free and strong.'"
Well, that's certainly why I supported Bush, but I'm not sure it entirely accounts for the other 62,039,073 incontinent rednecks. Reade, though, does usefully enumerate some of the distinctive features that separate America from the rest of the West. "Self-righteous"? If you want a public culture that reeks of indestructible faith in its own righteousness, try Europe – especially when they're talking about America: If you disagree with Eutopian wisdom, you must be an idiot.
Obama and far too many Democrats have bought into this delusion, most thoroughly distilled in Thomas Frank's book "What's The Matter With Kansas?", whose argument is that heartland voters are too dumb (i.e., "moronic muppets") to vote for their own best interests.
Europeans did "vote for their own best interests" – i.e., cradle-to-grave welfare, 35-hour workweeks, six weeks of paid vacation, etc. – and as a result they now face a perfect storm of unsustainable entitlements, economic stagnation and declining human capital that's left them so demographically beholden to unassimilable levels of immigration that they're being remorselessly Islamized with every passing day. We should thank God (forgive the expression) that America's loser gun nuts don't share the same sophisticated rational calculation of "their best interests" as do Thomas Frank, Obama, too many Democrats and the European political establishment.
As for "gun-totin'," large numbers of Americans tote guns because they're assertive, self-reliant citizens, not docile subjects of a permanent governing class. The Second Amendment is philosophically consistent with the First Amendment, for which I've become more grateful since the Canadian Islamic Congress decided to sue me for "hate speech" up north. Both amendments embody the American view that liberty is not the gift of the state, and its defense cannot be outsourced exclusively to the government.
I think a healthy society needs both God and guns: It benefits from a belief in some kind of higher purpose to life on Earth, and it requires a self-reliant citizenry. If you lack either of those twin props, you wind up with today's Europe – a present-tense Eutopia mired in fatalism.
A while back, I was struck by the words of Oscar van den Boogaard, a Dutch gay humanist (which is pretty much the trifecta of Eurocool). Reflecting on the Continent's accelerating Islamification, he concluded that the jig was up for the Europe he loved, but what could he do? "I am not a warrior, but who is?" he shrugged. "I have never learned to fight for my freedom. I was only good at enjoying it."
Sorry, it doesn't work like that. If you don't understand that there are times when you'll have to fight for it, you won't enjoy it for long. That's what a lot of Reade's laundry list – "gun-totin'," "military-lovin'" – boils down to. As for "gay-loathin'," it's Oscar van den Boogaard's famously tolerant Amsterdam where gay-bashing is resurgent: The editor of the American gay paper the Washington Blade got beaten up in the streets on his last visit to the Netherlands.
God and guns. Maybe one day a viable society will find a magic cure-all that can do without both, but Big Government isn't it. And even complacent liberal Democrats ought to be able to look across the ocean and see that. But, then, Obama did give the speech in San Francisco, a city demographically declining at a rate that qualifies it for EU membership. When it comes to parochial simpletons, you don't need to go to Kansas.
© MARK STEYN
50 percent of LA workforce are immigrants
Published: April 21, 2008 at 12:48 AM
LOS ANGELES, April 21 (UPI) -- Los Angeles is at the leading edge of a U.S. demographic trend, with half of its workforce immigrants, many of them unskilled and speaking little English.
As baby boomers retire, the same pattern will emerge across the country, the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday. Demographers estimate that by 2025 most of the growth in the workforce will be from immigrants.
Ernesto Cortes Jr., Southwest regional director of the Industrial Areas Foundation, said Los Angeles is at a crossroads.
"The question is: Are we going to be a 21st century city with shared prosperity, or a Third World city with an elite group on top and the majority at poverty or near poverty wages?" he asked. "Right now we're headed toward becoming a Third World city. But we can change that."
The Migration Policy Institute used U.S. Census data to determine that one-third of immigrants have not graduated from high school and 60 percent do not speak English fluently.
Cortes, with former U.S. Housing and Urban Development Secretary Henry Cisneros and others, is to participate in a conference this week at the University of Southern California on how to train and integrate immigrant workers.
© 2008 United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
New children's book takes on mommy's plastic surgery
Divorce. Bullies. Foster care. There are books for children on just about every tough subject these days. But mommy's plastic surgery?
A Florida plastic surgeon has written about just that in "My Beautiful Mommy," a picture book due out April 28 that tries to calm the fears of kids with parents getting tummy tucks, breast enhancement procedures and nose jobs.
Dr. Michael Salzhauer said so many moms brought kids to their appointments that he was motivated to stock up on lollipops in his Bal Harbour, Fla., office. In "My Beautiful Mommy," he explains mommy's recuperation, changing look and desire for plastic surgery.
"Many parents don't explain to their kids what's going on," said the father of four, with his fifth child on the way. "Children are very perceptive. You can't hide a major surgery from them. When mom goes down for two weeks after a tummy tuck it affects them."
Illustrations show a crook-nosed mom with loose tummy skin under her half shirt picking up her young daughter early from school one day and taking her to a strapping and handsome "Dr. Michael."
Mom explains she's going to have operations on her nose and tummy and may have to take it easy for a week or so. The girl asks if the operations will hurt, and mom replies, "Maybe a little," warning she'll look different after the bandages come off.
The girl asks: "Why are you going to look different?"
Mom responds: "Not just different, my dear — prettier!"
'Massacre' loses its luster for media now that charges are melting awayThursday, April 17, 2008Back in November 2005, the mainstream media and much of the Democratic Congress, spurred on by the anti-war, military-bashing, hate-America crowd, went into hysterics over the so-called "Haditha massacre."
The claim, made by Iraqi witnesses, was that a squad of Marines in the village of Haditha -- angry after comrade-in-arms Lance Cpl. Miguel Terrazas was ripped in half by a roadside bomb -- retaliated by wantonly slaughtering unarmed women and children.
Big-city newspapers, network and cable TV ran with the firestorm for days. Time and Newsweek had cover stories on it. Congressional members denounced Marines' so-called brutality, highlighted by U.S. Rep. John Murtha's scurrilous accusation that the Marines had engaged in a "cold blooded" killing of innocent civilians.
The anti-war left was delighted that they'd finally found the Iraq War's My Lai, and the Pentagon, reeling under the negative publicity, quickly put together a crack prosecution team, including 65 investigators, to bring to justice eight Haditha Marines charged with murder.
Well, the Marines are getting justice all right, but not the kind Murtha and fellow anti-war fanatics expected. The five Marines so far slated to go on trial have had their murder charges reduced to manslaughter, then reduced again and again until finally the prosecutors gave up and simply dropped all charges.
So what happened?
According to court observers, the real evidence -- as opposed to the far left's hysterical non- evidence -- just hasn't been there for a serious prosecution. An eight-hour taped deposition by a battalion intelligence officer, and supported by photographic evidence, confirmed Marines' account that they were under hostile fire from buildings in the area, and that they had every right to do what Marines are trained to do under those circumstances -- respond with overwhelming force.
Yes, innocent women and children were killed, but not because the young Marines were angry or out of control. It was because cowardly enemy snipers were using the innocents as shields.
There are still three Marines left to be tried for murder, but court observers believe those charges will also be dropped. Don't expect to hear much about this from Congress or the mainstream media -- or to see any cover stories in Time or Newsweek . It's only news if they're supposedly guilty.
When our courageous troops are not guilty, it's an embarrassment to even bring the issue up in polite far-left company-- much less get an apology from them.
From the Thursday, April 17, 2008 edition of the Augusta Chronicle
A Russian man trying to sleep off a night of after-work drinking failed to notice a six-inch (15-cm) knife in his back - until his wife woke him up.
Yuri Lyalin, 53, took a bus home, ate breakfast and apparently slept like a baby before his spouse noticed a handle sticking out of his back.
He was rushed to casualty but doctors found no vital organs damaged.
Mr Lyalin shrugged the episode off but the drinking partner who stabbed him faces trial, Russian media report.
"Unique and intriguing the case may be, but the accused faces a severe punishment," said Pavel Vorobyov, a deputy prosecutor in the northern city of Vologda.
'We were drinking'
Mr Lyalin, an electrician, had spent the evening drinking with a watchman at his workplace when they got into an argument, Interfax news agency reports.
The morning found him waking up in the watchman's office but instead of going back to work, he decided to take the bus home.
At home, Mr Lyalin had some sausage from the fridge and lay down to sleep, the Komsomolskaya Pravda newspaper says.
After a couple of hours, his wife noticed the handle sticking out of his back and called an ambulance.
Viktor Belov, a surgeon who treated him, found a kitchen knife in Mr Lyalin's back but "by good fortune, it had gone through soft tissue without touching vital organs".
His alleged attacker reported the crime to the police himself, Interfax adds. Mr Lyalin apparently feels fine and bears no ill-will.
"We were drinking and what doesn't happen when you're drunk?" he was quoted by Komsomolskaya Pravda as saying.
Obama is 'Bitterly' Out of Touch
By Larry Elder
Thursday, April 17, 2008"Bitter," says Sen. Barack Obama, the man of hope and change, about those who live Pennsylvania, small towns and the Midwest.
"You go into some of these small towns in Pennsylvania," Barack Obama said two Sundays ago to the Brie-and-chardonnay crowd at a fundraiser in San Francisco, "and like a lot of small towns in the Midwest, the jobs have been gone now for 25 years, and nothing's replaced them. And they fell through the Clinton administration and the Bush administration, and each successive administration has said that somehow these communities are gonna regenerate, and they have not. And it's not surprising then they get bitter, they cling to guns or religion or antipathy to people who aren't like them or anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-trade sentiment as a way to explain their frustrations."
I spent nearly 20 years living in the Midwest. I attended law school in Michigan, and moved to and lived in Ohio for another 15 years. I married a woman from Menominee, a small town in Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Her strong, values-oriented, working-class parents produced a doctor and two computer engineers.
Yet people living on the East Coast and West Coast, and those with "superior education and breeding," often dismiss those living in the Midwestern and other states, especially small towns, as existing in "flyover country."
Where to begin with Obama's statement about bitterness?
"Cling" to guns? Never mind that many people in this country hunt, grow up in a "gun culture," and believe strongly that guns provide self-defense. This belief holds in both good times and bad -- not a result of some new phenomenon over "bitterness."
"Cling" to religion? Obama here insults all religious Americans, 80 to 90 percent by some polls. Obama apparently believes one embraces religion out of bitterness, not due to spirituality, values, belief in or the acceptance of and submission to a higher power. Perhaps this explains why Obama clung to the Trinity Church of Christ for 20 years, with its anti-Semitic, anti-white, anti-American, conspiracy-believing pastor, Jeremiah Wright. If Obama attended the church out of "bitterness," surely, his reasoning goes, others do so as well.
"Anti-immigrant sentiment"? Obama here makes no distinction between the legitimate resentment over illegal aliens versus legal immigrants. Obama ignores the cost to society and the damage to America's values as a result of our porous borders and our failure to reach a consensus on what to do about the presence of illegal aliens. A newly released study by Manhattan Institute adjunct fellow Edwin S. Rubenstein analyzed immigrants' fiscal impact on 15 federal agencies. Rubenstein, a noted economist, found that each immigrant costs taxpayers more than $9,000, or $36,000 for an immigrant household of four.
"Anti-trade sentiment"? Didn't Obama, too, criticize NAFTA for shipping jobs overseas? (Of course, Mexico, the United States and Canada are contiguous, with no "sea" between them. But never mind.) Obama says the "bitter" blame trade, but didn't Obama -- apparently insincerely -- promise to renegotiate NAFTA as a result of its alleged negative economic impact? He implicitly acknowledges the statement by a Canadian official, who said that an Obama campaign aide contacted him and labeled Obama's anti-trade remarks as "campaign rhetoric."
So, Obama considers small-town Pennsylvanians and Midwesterners stupid, irrational gun-toters, religious zealots, hicks lacking the sophistication, knowledge and worldliness possessed by him and his Harvard-trained wife, Michelle, who only recently became "really proud" of her country.
Obama, by the way, made his "bitter" analysis on a Sunday, but not until Friday did this become a major media story. Why so long? No doubt, the anti-Second Amendment, secular media -- to say nothing of those in attendance -- agreed with Obama's analysis of the unsophisticated little people. Obama is, therefore, "in touch."
But remember the recent Bush press conference, when Bush responded with skepticism about a reporter's prediction of impending $4-a-gallon gas? The next day, page A-1 in the Los Angeles Times: "$4-a-Gallon Gas? It's News To Bush; President's Surprise at the Idea Fuels a Sense That He's Out of Touch." But as to the newsworthiness Obama's insult to Midwesterners -- it made pages A-13 and A-17, in the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, respectively.
Here's the line. Obama insults the Midwest in particular and people of religion in general. Yet he remains in touch. President George W. Bush, because of skepticism of $4-a-gallon gas, becomes the poster boy of the inability to relate to the little guy.
So who's "bitterly" out of touch?
Larry Elder is host of the Larry Elder Show on talk radio and author of Showdown : Confronting Bias, Lies, and the Special Interests That Divide America .
Austria: Furor Over Jesus Orgy Drawing
VIENNA, Austria (AP) - Is it art—or is it blasphemy?Austrians are locked in a nationwide debate touched off by the brief display in a prestigious Roman Catholic museum of an etching that depicts Jesus Christ and his disciples having an orgy during the biblical Last Supper.
A chastened and chagrined Cardinal Christoph Schoenborn, the top churchman in this largely conservative and overwhelmingly Catholic country, has ordered the offending artwork removed.
...
The dispute began on March 12 with the opening of "Religion, Flesh and Power," a collection of about 50 paintings, drawings and sculptures—some with homo-erotic themes—by Austrian artist Alfred Hrdlicka.
Among them is Hrdlicka's rendition of the Last Supper: a large, loosely rendered black and white etching that shows Jesus and his disciples engaging in sex acts on the table where they shared their final meal before Christ's crucifixion.
...
Bernhard Boehler, director of the cathedral museum, said earlier this week he was "surprised at the heat of the battle" over the orgy drawing.
"In Austria, no special reason is required for a church museum to dedicate an exhibition to the most important living sculptor," Boehler said. But he said the museum decided to remove the offending work "out of consideration for the religious feelings of some Christians."
"The protests came primarily out of fundamentalist Christian circles in the USA and Germany," he said, referring to various Web sites.
"There is a long dialogue between art and the church," Boehler added. "For the church, the quality is decisive—not the piety of the artwork."
Hrdlicka could not be reached for comment Friday. But Kaufmann, the curator, said he was caught off-guard by the intensity of the debate.
"We were really sensitive" in choosing which works to show, he said, "and for me, the etching is fantastic."
...
Even Schoenborn paid homage to Hrdlicka as "one of Austria's most important living artists."
"Like nearly no other artist, he is concerned about suffering and mistreated people ... and he expresses this in his work in a shocking way," the cardinal said. "He says of himself that he is a communist and an atheist, but he nevertheless has a burning interest in the Bible."
I bet he does. ;^)
Suburban Obama delegate quits over 'divisive' remark
CARPENTERSVILLE | Says when she called black kids 'monkeys,' she was asking them to get out of tree
April 8, 2008Moving to nip in the bud some potential bad press, White House hopeful Barack Obama's campaign persuaded a delegate to step down after she was ticketed for calling her neighbor's African-American children "monkeys."
Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski, a Carpentersville village trustee, was elected as an Obama delegate to the Democratic National Convention. She sports an Obama sign in her front yard.
Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski (left) admitted she used the word "monkeys," but said she did not intend racism. Barack Obama's campaign has persuaded the delegate to step down.
(File/AP)
On Saturday, two neighbor children were playing in the tree next-door to her house.Ramirez-Sliwinski "came outside and told the children to quit playing in the tree like monkeys. The tree was not on Ramirez-Sliwinski's property," Carpentersville Police Commander Michael Kilbourne said.
Ramirez-Sliwinski admitted she used the word "monkeys," but said she did not intend racism. She said she was only trying to protect them from falling out of the tree.
"Linda Ramirez-Sliwinski said she saw the kids playing in the tree and didn't want them falling out of the tree and getting hurt. She said she calls her own grandchildren 'monkeys,' " Kilbourne said. The mother of one of the children did not see it that way, noting she and Ramirez-Sliwinski have clashed before.
"She felt it was racist because of the fact the children were African-American," Kilbourne said.
Told of the incident Monday by the Sun-Times, Obama's campaign called Ramirez-Sliwinski and persuaded her to step aside as a delegate because the campaign felt her remarks were "divisive and unacceptable."
"Given the incident, she is stepping down as a delegate and will be replaced," said campaign spokesman Ben Labolt.
Ramirez-Sliwinski did not return messages seeking comment Monday. She told the Daily Herald she meant no racism with her comment but that "after this incident, I will not run again" for trustee.
The only Hispanic on the board, Ramirez-Sliwinski has been a strong voice for Carpentersville's 40 percent Hispanic population. She and Village President Bill Sarto opposed an English-only proposition and an ordinance to crack down on illegal immigrants.
Opposition leader Judy Sigwalt said, "We are elected officials. We are in a position where people look to us for leadership and professionalism. We have to be diplomatic at all times."
"Frankly, I don't see a law that was broken here," Sarto said. "I think this entire thing has been blown out of proportion. She's a good neighor. She went over to caution the children to be careful not to fall out of a tree.
She has never indicated to me any prejudice whatsoever. We have a trustee who has been convicted on four counts of domestic battery and refuses to resign from the board. He beat his wife with a baseball bat. This seems far less egregious to me."
Ramirez-Sliwinski's $75 ticket was for "disorderly conduct," which Kilbourne defined as, "when a person does something that alarms or disturbs another."
Heston Left Cinematic, Political Mark
Apr 7 07:41 AM US/Eastern
By DAVID GERMAIN
AP Movie Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Nancy Reagan was heartbroken over Charlton Heston's death. President Bush hailed him as a "strong advocate for liberty," while John McCain called Heston a devotee for civil and constitutional rights.
Even Michael Moore, who mocked Heston in his gun-control documentary "Bowling for Columbine," posted the actor's picture on his Web site to mark his passing.
Heston, who died Saturday night at 84, was a towering figure both in his politics and on screen, where his characters had the ear of God (Moses in "The Ten Commandments"), survived apocalyptic plagues ("The Omega Man") and endured one of Hollywood's most-grueling action sequences (the chariot race in "Ben-Hur," which earned him the best- actor Academy Award).
Better known in recent years as a fierce gun-rights advocate who headed the National Rifle Association, Heston played legendary leaders and ordinary men hurled into heroic struggles.
"In taking on epic and commanding roles, he showed himself to be one of our nation's most gifted actors, and his legacy will forever be a part of our cinema," Republican presidential candidate McCain said in a statement that also noted Heston's involvement in the civil-rights movement and his stand against gun control.
Heston's jutting jaw, regal bearing and booming voice served him well as Marc Antony in "Julius Caesar" and "Antony and Cleopatra," Michelangelo in "The Agony and the Ecstasy," John the Baptist in "The Greatest Story Ever Told" and an astronaut on a topsy-turvy world where simians rule in "Planet of the Apes."
"Charlton Heston was seen by the world as larger than life," Heston's family said in a statement. "We knew him as an adoring husband, a kind and devoted father, and a gentle grandfather with an infectious sense of humor. He served these far greater roles with tremendous faith, courage and dignity."
The actor died at his home in Beverly Hills with his wife, Lydia, at his side, family spokesman Bill Powers said. He declined to comment on the cause of death or provide further details Sunday.
One of the biggest box-office draws of the 1950s, '60s and '70s, Heston's work dwindled largely to small parts and narration and other voice roles from the 1980s on, including an uncredited cameo as an ape in Tim Burton's 2001 remake of "Planet of the Apes."
Shirley Jones, who co-starred with Heston in one of his last leading roles in the 1999 drama "Gideon," said his talent as an actor sometimes is forgotten because of the epic characters he played.
"To me, he was the consummate leading man. He was tall, he was handsome, he was sensitive, he was gruff when he had to be. He was a great cowboy, he was perfect for those historical roles," Jones said. "He could do everything, and there aren't many actors around today who could."
In 2002, near the end of his five years as president of the NRA, Heston disclosed he had symptoms consistent with Alzheimer's disease.
The disclosure was soon followed by an unflattering appearance in Moore's 2003 best documentary winner "Bowling for Columbine," which took America to task for its gun laws.
Moore used a clip of Heston holding aloft a rifle at an NRA rally and proclaiming "from my cold, dead hands." The director flustered the actor in an interview later in the film by pressing him on his gun- control stance. Heston eventually walked out on Moore.
Moore's Web site, http://www.michaelmoore.com, on Sunday featured a photo of Heston, the date of his birth and death and a note from the actor's family requesting that donations be made to the Motion Picture and Television Fund in lieu of flowers.
There was no other reaction on the site from Moore about Heston's death. Moore did not immediately respond to e-mail and phone requests seeking comment.
Jones, who worked with Heston on "Gideon" near the beginning of his tenure as NRA president, said she discussed gun control with him and came to respect his stand, even though she disagreed with it. She said he told her his family grew up poor in the country and "had to go out and kill a deer if we wanted meat."
"He was a caring, sweet gentleman who believed in his country," Jones said. "He believed the Constitution said it's OK, we have to defend ourselves."
Like fellow conservative Ronald Reagan, Heston served as president of the Screen Actors Guild. Former first lady Nancy Reagan said in a statement that she was heartbroken to hear of his death.
"He was one of Ronnie's and my dearest friends," she said. "I will never forget Chuck as a hero on the big screen in the roles he played, but more importantly I considered him a hero in life for the many times that he stepped up to support Ronnie in whatever he was doing."
Current Screen Actors Guild president Alan Rosenberg called Heston "a capable and visionary union leader" in a Sunday statement.
Bush—who in 2003 presented Heston the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor—called Heston a "man of character and integrity, with a big heart."
California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, who had Heston as a co-star in 1994's "True Lies," said in a statement that Heston "entertained millions of people around the world during his legendary film career."
"He cared deeply about his craft and he loved his family, his work and his country with all his heart," Schwarzenegger said.
Decades before his NRA leadership, Heston was a strong advocate for civil rights in the 1960s, joining marches and offering financial assistance.
Civil-rights leaders in Los Angeles held a moment of silence in Heston's memory Sunday after an unrelated news conference.
Heston had contributed and raised thousands of dollars in Hollywood for Martin Luther King Jr.'s movement, said Earl Ofari Hutchinson, president of the Los Angeles Urban Policy Round Table.
"We certainly disagree with his position as NRA head and also his firm, firm, unwavering support of the unlimited right to bear arms," Hutchinson said. But, he added, "Charlton Heston was a complex individual. He lived a long time, and certainly, there were many phases. The phases we prefer to remember were certainly his contributions to Dr. King and civil rights."
Fans remember Heston for some of the most epic moments on film: Parting the Red Sea as Moses in "The Ten Commandments," cursing his self-destructive species as he stumbles on the remnants of the Statue of Liberty in "Planet of the Apes," tearing hell-bent through the chariot race in "Ben-Hur."
"Ben-Hur" earned 11 Oscars, the most ever until 1997's "Titanic" and "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" tied it.
Born Charles Carter in a Chicago suburb on Oct. 4, 1923, Heston grew up in the Michigan wilderness, where his father operated a lumber mill.
Heston took up acting after serving in the Army during World War II. He took his professional name from his mother's maiden name, Charlton, and the last name of his stepfather, Chester Heston, whom she married after his parents' divorce.
After his movie debut in two independent films by a college classmate, Heston was put under contract by producer Hal B. Wallis ("Casablanca"). Cecil B. DeMille cast him as the circus manager in "The Greatest Show on Earth" and then as Moses in "The Ten Commandments."
He followed with Orson Welles' "Touch of Evil," William Wyler's "The Big Country" and the sea saga "The Wreck of the Mary Deare" before "Ben-Hur" elevated Heston to the top of Hollywood's A-list.
His later films included "Earthquake," "El Cid," "The Three Musketeers," "Midway" and "Soylent Green."
In recent years, Heston drew as much publicity for his crusades as for his performances. In addition to his NRA work, he campaigned for Republican presidential and congressional candidates and against affirmative action.
He resigned from Actors Equity, claiming the union's refusal to allow a white actor to play a Eurasian role in "Miss Saigon" was "obscenely racist." He attacked CNN's telecasts from Baghdad as "sowing doubts" about the allied effort in the 1990-91 Gulf War.
Heston also feuded with liberal Edward Asner, one of his successors as Screen Actors Guild president. In a statement Sunday, Asner said Heston "was a worthy opponent and certainly helped create work for a lot of actors."
When Heston stepped down as NRA president, he told members his time in office was "quite a ride. ... I loved every minute of it."
Heston and his wife had a daughter, Holly Ann, and a son, Fraser Clarke, who played the infant Moses in "The Ten Commandments."
In the 1990s, Heston's son directed his father in several TV and big- screen films, including "Treasure Island" and "Alaska."
The Hestons celebrated their golden wedding anniversary in 1994 at a party with Hollywood and political friends. They had been married 64 years when he died.
___
Associated Press reporter Bob Thomas contributed to this report.
400 Ecstasy Pills Found in Woman's Body Cavity Last Edited: Friday, 04 Apr 2008, 1:42 PM EDT Created: Friday, 04 Apr 2008, 12:17 PM EDT 
IREDELL COUNTY, N.C. (WGHP) -- During a traffic stop, sheriff's deputies discovered a woman who had 400 pills of ecstasy hidden inside one of her body cavities.
Tanganika Miller, 18, was taken to a local hospital where doctors removed the bag of pills, which had a street value of $20,000. Miller was then arrested and charged with drug trafficking.
A spokesman for the sheriff's department said the body cavity in question was not the woman's mouth.
During the stop, deputies also discovered that all four occupants of the car had been smoking marijuana while traveling on Interstate 77. Christopher James, 22, was arrested for drug possession. The remaining two occupants were not charged.
Md. Boy, 12, Kills Man Attacking Mother
Officials Undecided On Filing ChargesBy Avis Thomas-Lester and Hamil R. Harris
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 2, 2008; A01The 12-year-old boy had finished his homework and was playing a video game when he heard his mother cry out. Rushing to her aid, he found her on the kitchen floor, straddled by a fellow resident of their Prince George's County boarding house, the man's hands wrapped tightly around her neck, the boy said yesterday.
"I kept saying, 'Stop! Stop! Stop!' " the boy said, describing the events of Monday night. "But he just ignored me. He didn't stop. He just kept hurting her."
The boy said he grabbed a knife and swung, slashing 64-year-old Salomon Noubissie across the neck and opening an artery. Noubissie was fatally wounded.
The mother, Cheryl Stamp, said she did not immediately understand what had happened. "What did you do?" she said she asked her son.
"He didn't say anything," she said. "But I knew when I looked in his eyes. I said, 'Oh, Lord.' "
Law enforcement officials were reviewing evidence yesterday and had not decided whether to file charges. Their preliminary account of the incident broadly matches that of the boy and his mother.
The case presents exceedingly unusual circumstances: Rarely is a 12-year-old implicated in a homicide, and even less often does a child that age take a life to protect his mother.
"In Maryland, there can be a legitimate defense of third parties in the event of a violent attack," State's Attorney Glenn F. Ivey said. "That is a possibility in this case."
Yesterday, Stamp and her son were secluded in the boarding house on Roosevelt Avenue in the Landover area, curtains closed and doors locked against reporters and neighbors.
Like other neighbors, Turan Queen said she stood by the child. "His reaction was to help his mother," she said. "This was a 12-year-old defending his mother."
Stamp and her son agreed to be interviewed by Washington Post reporters, in part to explain the boy's actions. The Post is not naming the boy because he is a minor.
Efforts to contact Noubissie's family were unsuccessful.
Stamp said she and Noubissie, a Cameroonian immigrant, moved into the boarding house within days of each other about three months ago. They became fast friends, she said.
Stamp said that she is unemployed and that Noubissie had told her he was studying to be a psychiatrist. She said the boarding house is owned by Noubissie's nephew, a Massachusetts resident.
On Monday night, she said, Noubissie was not himself. He started to yell at her and grab her hair, she said. He was speaking in his native French, as he often did, but this time in "a devilish voice," she said. "He was talking crazy," Stamp said.
She said she tried to use "reverse psychology," ordering him to leave the kitchen and go to his room to calm down. His response was violent, she said.
"He threw me into the door so hard it hit my back, and it made my chest start hurting," she said. "Then he threw me to the floor. He threw me down and started choking me. I think that's when my son came in. . . . He protected me."
The boy, who is 5 feet 6 inches tall and weighs 175 pounds, said he acted because he thought he had no choice. "He was hitting her with the broom; then he was choking her," the boy said. "I told him to stop."
He grabbed a knife that he said his family had last used to cut turkey at Thanksgiving dinner.
"I knew I had to kill him so he would stop hurting my mother," he said.
Once she was freed, Stamp said she yelled upstairs for someone to call police. She said her son took her by the arm and led her into their bedroom.
Nearby, Noubissie was flailing and yelling, Stamp and her son said. As the door closed, she noticed the blood coming from his neck. "I didn't know where all that blood was coming from," she said. "He was talking in that language -- loud."
Stamp said she did not realize for several moments that her son, and not she, had been responsible for inflicting the injury that caused Noubissie to release her.
In the bedroom, as they waited for police, the boy did not speak, Stamp said. She sat on a couch, looked down and saw the bloody knife, she said.
Noubissie was alive when police arrived, Stamp said. He was combative with the officers, she said, even as he bled heavily. He died at a hospital. Police sources confirmed her account.
Stamp, who has two adult children and a 17-year-old daughter who lives with the girl's father, said the tragedy was the second to befall her family. She supports herself and her son from "widow's benefits" she has received since her husband fatally shot himself more than 20 years ago. Her eldest son, 27, witnessed the suicide, she said. "I've had enough drama in my life," she said.
The 12-year-old boy said yesterday that he was not happy about what he had done but that he knew that it was the right thing.
"I just asked God again to protect me and my mother," he said. "I told God that I had stabbed him because he was killing my mother. I know he understands, and I think he will keep us safe now."
April 1, 2008, 6:56 pmMcCain and Letterman Trade Insults on ‘Late Show’
Senator John McCain on “The Late Show With David Letterman” Tuesday night. (Photo: John Paul Filo/CBS, via Reuters)
WASHINGTON – Well, it was not officially part of his biographical campaign swing, but Senator John McCain flew to New York Tuesday for a return appearance on “The Late Show With David Letterman,’’ where he formally announced that he was running for president last year.
Homer, had he lived to become a Letterman fan, might have found that the show violated the principle of the guest-host relationship. It began with Mr. Letterman, in his monologue, making some of his trademark McCain-looks-like-a-cranky-old-man jokes.
“He looks like the guy at the hardware store who makes the keys,’’ he said, according to a transcript provided by CBS. “He looks like the guy who can’t stop talking about how well his tomatoes are doing. He looks like the guy who goes into town for turpentine. He looks like the guy who always has wiry hair growing out of new places. He looks like the guy who points out the spots they missed at the car wash.’’
Then Mr. McCain walked out on stage.
“Hi, Letterman,’’ he said. “You think that stuff’s pretty funny, don’t you?”
Then Mr. McCain unleashed a slew of his own you-look-like-a-guy jokes at Mr. Letterman.
“Well, you look like a guy whose laptop would be seized by the authorities,’’ Mr. McCain said. “You look like a guy caught smuggling reptiles in his pants.’’Mr. Letterman interjected: “Don’t knock it if you haven’t tried it.’’
Mr. McCain continued: “You look like the guy who the neighbors later say, ‘He mostly kept to himself.’ You look like the night manager of a creepy motel.’’
“Well, that’s what I need,’’ Mr. Letterman said.
Then Mr. McCain delivers the coup de grace: “And you look like the guy who enjoys getting into a hot tub and watching his swim trunks inflate.’’
On Tuesday, everybody was a comedian. The Democratic National Committee came up with its own April Fool’s day list of the “Top 10 Reasons to Vote for John McCain.” They included “Early Bird Specials at the White House cafeteria,” “Finally, the President of the National Press Club will be made a member of the cabinet,’’ “Best Karaoke Song Ever: ‘Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb, Bomb Iran’ ” and the number one reason: “The last seven years have been so great, let’s have four more!”
Can't believe I just posted a McCain story, BTW... this should be interpreted as "like".
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George Clooney is Hollywood’s movie star, he’s not the audience’s movie star. He’s spent the past ten years cultivating the media while doing nothing really for the audience outside of the Ocean’s # movies.
Plus there are the incidents of smugness and arrogance, that the media let’s slip, but audience doesn’t forget, like his Princess Di press conference, or his rather nasty joke about Charlton Heston’s Alzheimer’s. And then saying that Heston deserved it for being president of the NRA, forgetting Heston’s often overlooked civil rights work. The media quickly forgave him, because it was the politically correct thing to do, but the audience saw Clooney cruelly picking on an old man with a distinguished career dying of a terminal illness.
Hollywood has forgotten that in order to be a good box office draw a “star” needs the goodwill of the audience. Clooney’s career is built on the goodwill of the media, and hoping that they could spin success for him. But the media’s power to spin just isn’t what it used to be.
Comment by Furious D — April 5, 2008 @ 5:05 am