A Response To A Comment

One of the readers of this blog left a comment on a previous post that I'd like to address. Following my post, a reader by the name of Craig (here's his blog) left this comment...

I agree that blame seems to be everywhere, but noone seems to even want to acknowledge that there is any to be given out. My theory, which I detail on my site, is that the entitlement programs we have grown up with are to blame. We have become so dependents upon the government, that we don't do the things we should as preperation.

I responded with this...

It's a valid argument. I believe that as people have become more accustomed to government hand-outs (a.k.a. entitlements), they have come to expect the government to take care of them. There appears to be less self-reliance in those parts of society accustomed to living off the public dole.

Another reader, who calls herself Ann but won't give an email address or homepage, responded to my comments. I'll address them as I go...

So are you saying that the poor black citizens...

Why "poor black citizens"? Do you believe no poor white citizens were affected?

...with no resources (cars, money, connections, helicopters, etc) who actually did survive the most devastating hurricane ever to hit this country's shores, were supposed to rescue themselves from the flood caused by the busted levees? You know, the ones that the Corps of Engineers wanted to fix before their budgets were slashed (over and over again).

Actually, a little initiative might have saved some of those who died, and might have gotten lots of them out before the flooding trapped them. No money? Call a church and ask for help. Call a cab company and ask for a free lift. Ask a neighbor or friend or relative. Call a local charity. Maybe several people could have pooled their money and hired a cab. Many people believe, and I think the argument has some merit, that the more reliance people have on the government, the more complacent and needy they will become. When you have done less for your own benefit, because others are doing for you, you might tend to have troubles when fate puts you in a position of fending for yourself.

As for the Corps of Engineers comment, I have no idea what the budget needs and distributions have been for those levees over their 30 or 40 year lifespans. I do know that there are many people responsible for the work that should have been done to shore up the levees. Presidents (at least 8 over the last 40 years), governors, senators, representatives, mayors, local leaders, Louisiana Emergency Management officials, and who knows how many others. President Bush didn't write budget legislation funding or cutting funds for the levees. He didn't use the line-item veto to delete it from funding bills. If anyone deserves to be blamed for funding issues on those levees, it's Louisiana's elected leaders in DC (both Democrats and Republicans) who have had four decades to put the issue on the front burner and get it addressed.

This is how you justify the abandonment of the sick and hospitalized young? And what about the thousands of old folks in senior homes who were left to drown in sewage up to their eyeballs? How were they supposed to rescue themselves?

Actually, I blame the mayor directly for anyone hospitalized, in nursing care or in senior homes who were not evacuated. Thousands of city school buses and public transportation vehicles could have been brought out en masse and used to evacuate these people. Instead, they sat unused, like empty lifeboats on a sinking ship.

Don't you wonder why they were not evacuated while all those busses sat idle? When the state was declared to be in a state of emergency, and all the request actually were made (perhaps not to the letter of the law, but that never stopped rescue efforts in the past!).

I do wonder why the buses were never used. I have no idea why the Governor of Louisiana first turned down President Bush's request for federal assistance. I have no idea why Mayor Ray Nagin left thousands of school bus seats empty and unused, then chose to blame the President for what appear more and more to be failings at the local and state levels.

And unless I'm mistaken, the governor has the authority to call up the Louisiana National Guard in an emergency crisis. Why didn't she do this immediately? Why didn't she order thousands of troops into the city immediately? Why didn't she order vehicles and aircraft into the area to save lives immediately?

New Orleans, they were told, was too hard to get to. And yet there it sits at one of the most accessible points by water, land, or air, of any city in the nation. That, in fact, is why it even exists in the first place: incredible access.

That "incredible access" to water is what caused the entire crisis. The hurricane did virtually no damage to the city itself prior to the levees failing. Unlike thousands of square miles of devestation east of New Orleans, the city itself came through remarkably well until the waters overpowered the levees.

The blame falls squarely with the Federal Government, on FEMA and W especially. Heinous bigotry and incompetence.

It's clear you dislike the man, but how does President Bush "especially" fall to blame? Show me the "bigotry". You libs like to throw inflamatory comments around, but the never want to substantiate them with facts.

Let's see, most of the faces we saw in distress (in New Orleans) were black. Obviously that means (to a liberal) that they are suffering because they're black, and the white people must have been rescued first. How am I doing so far? But wait, the vast majority of people I saw conducting rescues, whether from boats or helicopters, were white. Does that mean that only white people cared enough to go rescue the needy? Of course not. That's absurd. Just as absurd as the complaints fro mthe left that the victims were left to their own devices because of their race. Two-thirds of the city of New Orleans is black. That means that the majority of the people left behind would probably be black. That's no racism, it's mathematics.

And the fact that they suspended rescue efforts for Laura's photo op (8 hours), and for W's photo op (locked down airspace, faked the levy repair efforts, etc.) is unforgivable. How many could have been rescued during that time? How many lives were lost. This culture of life language that sounded so good to me once, is complete bulls**t.
Your insensitivity is almost as staggering as the incompetence of this administration and its racist policies. Wake the f**k up.

As with all good Libs, the lack of hard facts and material to defend one's point leads to the inevitable personal attacks. With Ann, at least, it also leads to vulgarity. I have no idea where she's coming from with these last comments. Sounds like the ranting from the discussion groups at DemocraticUnderground.com

I don't know how many of you read the comments posted on this blog, so I wanted to address this directly in a post.

Attacking Bush Over Disaster Not Working

Here's a fantastic column by Wesley Pruden, in the Washington Times, describing how the Angry Left's attempts to politicize the tragedy along the Gulf Coast are not working. He also caught the whole school bus thing...

Not much traction with the abuse
By Wesley Pruden

George W. finally gets it -- in more ways than one. The tardy president was back on the Gulf Coast yesterday, bucking up the spirits of the damned and stiffening the resolve of the slackers.

He's getting it as well from his critics, many of whom can't believe their great good luck, that a hurricane, of all things, finally gives them the opening they've been waiting for to heap calumny and scorn on him for something that might get a little traction. Cindy Sheehan is yesterday's news; she couldn't attract a camera crew this morning if she stripped down to her step-ins for a march on Prairie Chapel Ranch.

The vultures of the venomous left are attacking on two fronts, first that the president didn't do what the incompetent mayor of New Orleans and the pouty governor of Louisiana should have done, and didn't, in the early hours after Katrina loosed the deluge on the city that care and good judgment forgot. Ray Nagin, the mayor, ordered a "mandatory" evacuation a day late, but kept the city's 2,000 school buses parked and locked in neat rows when there was still time to take the refugees to higher ground. The bright-yellow buses sit ruined now in four feet of dirty water. Then the governor, Kathleen Blanco, resisted early pleas to declare martial law, and her dithering opened the way for looters, rapists and killers to make New Orleans an unholy hell. Gov. Haley Barbour did not hesitate in neighboring Mississippi, and looters, rapists and killers have not turned the streets of Gulfport and Biloxi into killing fields.

The drumbeat of partisan ingratitude continues even after the president flooded the city with National Guardsmen from a dozen states, paratroopers from Fort Bragg and Marines from the Atlantic and the Pacific. The flutter and chatter of the helicopters above the ghostly abandoned city, some of them from as far away as Singapore and averaging 240 missions a day, is eerily reminiscent of the last days of Saigon. Nevertheless, Sen. Mary Landrieu, who seems to think she's cute when she's mad, even threatened on national television to punch out the president -- a felony, by the way, even as a threat. Mayor Nagin, who you might think would be looking for a place to hide, and Gov. Blanco, nursing a bigtime snit, can't find the right word of thanks to a nation pouring out its heart and emptying its pockets. Maybe the senator should consider punching out the governor, only a misdemeanor.

The race hustlers waited for three days to inflame a tense situation, but then set to work with their usual dedication. The Revs. Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson, our self-appointed twin ambassadors of ill will, made the scene as soon as they could, taking up the coded cry that Katrina was the work of white folks, that a shortage of white looters and snipers made looting and sniping look like black crime, that calling the refugees "refugees" was an act of linguistic racism. A "civil rights activist" on Arianna Huffington's celebrity blog even floated the rumor that the starving folks abandoned in New Orleans had been forced to eat their dead -- after only four days. New Orleans has a reputation for its unusual cuisine, but this tale was so tall that nobody paid it much attention. Neither did anyone tell the tale-bearer to put a dirty sock in it.

Condi Rice went to the scene to say what everyone can see for himself, that no one but the race hustlers imagine Americans of any hue attaching strings to the humanitarian aid pouring into the broken and bruised cities of the Gulf. Most of the suffering faces in the flickering television images are black, true enough, and most of the helping hands are white.

Black and white churches of all denominations across a wide swath of the South stretching from Texas across Arkansas and Louisiana into Mississippi, Tennessee, Kentucky, Alabama and Georgia turned their Sunday schools into kitchens and dormitories. In Memphis, Junior Leaguers turned out for baby-sitting duty at the city's largest, most fashionable and nearly all white Baptist church, cradling tiny black infants in compassionate arms so their mothers could finally sleep. The owner of a honky-tonk showed up to ask whether the church would "accept money from a bar." A pastor took $1,400, some of it in quarters, dimes and nickels, with grateful thanks and a promise to see that it is spent wisely on the deserving -- most of whom are black.

The first polls, no surprise, show the libels are not working. A Washington Post-ABC survey found that the president is not seen as the villain the nutcake left is trying to make him out to be. Americans, skeptical as ever, are believing their own eyes.

Wesley Pruden is editor in chief of The Times.

The Blame Game

Who's responsible for the massive devestation that's been wrought on New Orleans and the Gulf Coast?

Other than FEMA, the White House and various charitable organizations, everyone seems to want to lay blame on one person or another. The mayor was ranting on WWL radio last night about the President's promises of aid, aid which he says he isn't seeing. Louisiana's governor was on TV this morning complaining that enough buses weren't sent to New Orleans to evacuate local residents. Miles O'Brien is on CNN trying to get Mississippi governor Haley Barbour to blame the President, then this morning trying to get Louisiana's governor to confess to her own screw-ups. Residents and reporters and questioning why relief organizations aren't already caring for everyone in the city. Most Americans seem disgusted with the level of looting and violence taking place in the city. Everyone's complaining about something, blaming someone.

What do we really know?

First, we know that Katrina hit Florida as a Category One hurricane, a weak storm, but causing plenty of destruction and massive loss of power. Resources were directed to Florida for rescue, recovery, etc. FEMA, Red Cross, Salvation Army and many other groups were setting up shop there just after Katrina moved into the Gulf.

Next, we know that Katrina strengthened quickly, taking aim at the Florida panhandle. It wasn't until Saturday morning, only 48 hours before landfall, that anyone knew that New Orleans was in jeopardy. And no one expected that it would grow into a Category Five storm.

We know that when Katrina came ashore, it created a swath of destruction from west of New Orleans east to near the Alabama state line. That's over 100 miles, plus the damage goes inland a bit. At one point, over 80% of Mississippi was without power. Thousands of homes destroyed, tens of thousands damaged. Suddenly resuce, recovery and rebuilding is taking place not just across south Florida, but along thousands of square miles of Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana.

We know that a mandatory evacuation order was made by the New Orleans mayor Sunday morning, less than 24 hours before landfall. The terribly short notice, coupled with apathy or unconcern or stupidity (it had to be something), led to maybe 100,000 people trying to ride the storm out in New Orleans.

We know that levees made to withstand mush weaker hurricanes partially gave way, flooding the city with up to 20 feet of water. Houses are buried beneath the water, houses that will presumably have to be demolished when waters receed. Thousands of them. We also know that people knew for years and years the danger these levees held, yet they've never been strengthened.

We also know that looters and roving gangs of street thugs have tried to take control of what's left of the city. They've killed people, raped people, shot at relief helicopters and convoys and burned buildings. In a time of tragedy and suffering, we are seeing the worst of human behavior.

We know there's no effective way to communicate with all those trapped in the city, with phone service down, cell phone service spotty at best and no power to operate radios

So... I have a few questions.

Why wasn't the mandatory evacuation ordered on Saturday, when it became apparent that Katrina was heading their way?

I've seen video and pictures of dozens of school buses in a parking lot in New Orleans up to their roofs in water. Why weren't those buses used to evactuate the poor, disabled and elderly? Assuming each bus could hold 40 people, and I saw what looked to be at least 100 buses, that's another 4,000 who could have been rescued. And in a city that size, there must have been hundreds of buses.

Where has the police chief been throughout this crisis? With stories of 20 to 40 percent of city police AWOL, and video on MSNBC of three policewomen looting in a Wal-Mart, where's the public face of the police department?

Why aren't more community leaders stepping up to condemn the looting and violence?

It's too early to talk about rebuilding, but when the time comes, should the city be restored to it's condition prior to the hurricane? Should areas of the city be built-up, raising neighborhoods above sea-level?

Stupid People Fall For Stupid Rumors

Those of you in Georgia are already aware of this, and those out of state may have heard about it. We had a little Peach State gas crisis yesterday.

Rumors spread that gas stations across the state were running out of fuel. Otherwise sane people panicked, not bothering to check out the story. Cell phone calls, e-mails and text messages fueled (sorry!) the situation. Gas stations were closing at 2pm, one rumor stated. Another claimed there would be no gas deliveries for two weeks. We heard all those rumors here in the office. I got the e-mails, also.Lines formed around gas stations and backed up into streets and shopping centers. In one parking lot, a driver with a handgun tried to cut into line. In some places, gas prices shot up as high as $5.87 for regular unleaded.

But... there was no truth to any of the rumors. Gas supplies were below normal, but there was no imminent danger of tanks running dry. A mid-afternoon check of the AJC, the Associated Press and Atlanta news station web sites showed all the rumors were untrue.

"Atlanta's not out of gas," said Jim Tudor, president of the Georgia Association of Convenience Stores. Some stations might be out, "but it wasn't because there wasn't gas available. It was because there was a run on these stores."

The head of the convenience store trade association doesn't blame it on Hurricane Katrina or low stocks or delivery problems. He blames it on people falling for stupid gossip.

The situation eventually calmed down. I saw long lines all over town yesterday afternoon while I was out, but last night when we ran some errands things had calmed down. Prices on my side of town never got above $2.99, but there were reports of $4.00+ prices all over Middle Georgia.

All of this fueled (again, sorry!) by stupid rumors, believed and spread by gullible people. And yesterday, gullible equaled stupid.

Help For Hurricane Victims

At times of natural disaster, with lives and property in the balance, politics and partisanship should be set aside. The people along the Gulf Coast are suffering terribly right now. If you feel moved to help, here are some of the charities accepting donations to assist those in need.

American Red Cross
(800) HELP NOW, and (800) 257-7575 for Spanish

America's Second Harvest
(800) 344-8070

Adventist Community Services
(800) 381-7171

Catholic Charities, USA
(703) 549-1390

Christian Disaster Response
(941) 956-5183 or (941) 551-9554

Christian Reformed World Relief Committee
(800) 848-5818

Church World Service
(800) 297-1516

Convoy of Hope
(417) 823-8998

Lutheran Disaster Response
(800) 638-3522

Mennonite Disaster Service
(717) 859-2210

Nazarene Disaster Response
(888) 256-5886

Operation Blessing
(800) 436-6348

Presbyterian Disaster Assistance
(800) 872-3283

Salvation Army
(800) SAL-ARMY, (800) 725-2769

Southern Baptist Convention — Disaster Relief
(800) 462-8657, ext. 6440

United Methodist Committee on Relief
(800) 554-8583

The Lost Children Of Canton, Ohio

About six years ago, PBS produced The Lost Children of Rockdale County, a documentary about teenagers in an affluent Georgia community whose disturbing sexual activities came to light when a syphilis outbreak struck many of the kids. I was reminded of this when I saw this story. A few highlights:

Of the 490 female students at Timken High School in Canton, 65 are pregnant. And according to the Canton Health Department, 104 of the 586 babies born in local hospitals so far this year had mothers between 11 and 19. Nearly 20% of all births were to teenage or younger mothers, and apparently some as young as 11.

I know it's been a long time since I was in high school (class of '88), but what's happened to kids today? In a school of 1200 - 1300 students, we had maybe two or three pregnancies a year school-wide. One out of every 13 girls in this school is with child. Unbelievable!

As an aside, the Timkin High School mascot... the Trojan.

Oops...

An intern flight instructor and his teacher belly-flopped a Georgia Aviation Technical College plane onto the runway at the Eastman-Dodge County airport when they forgot to lower the plane's landing gear.

We've Got A House

Shannon and I have been looking for a house for a few months, and we've finally found one. We've signed the contract, got the financing taken care of, and now we're waiting to close. That's scheduled for about five weeks from now. Woo hoo!

Telling It Like It Is

A handful of heroes - American troops stationed in Iraq - got the upperhand on NBC's Matt Lauer on yesterday morning's Today Show. Lauer tried to play up the angle that troop morale in Iraq is low. He seemed shocked when the soldiers contradicted that idea. Then, they seemed to shake him a bit when asked why Americans might think otherwise.

Captain Sherman Powell: "Sir, if I got my news from the newspapers also, I'd be pretty depressed as well."
Lauer: "What don't you think is being correctly portrayed?"
Powell: "Sir I know it's hard to get out and get on the ground and report the news, and I understand that, and I appreciate that fact. But for those of us who've actually had a chance to get out and go on the patrols and meet the Iraqi Army and the Iraqi police, and go on patrols with them we are very satisfied with the way things are going here and we are confident that if we're allowed to finish the job we started we'll be very proud of it and our country will be proud of us for doing it."

Those are the words of a soldier who is there, day in and day out, and knows the real story.

I think the real question is how they stay positive and motivated when they know the national media in this country, along with the libs and many in the Democratic party, want to see them fail.

Cindy Sheehan: "Nuclear War In Iraq"

This woman has lost some hold on reality. During a rally at San Francisco State University earlier this year, Sheehan delivered a profanity-filled diatribe about President Bush and the war, including this comment...

"We are waging a nuclear war in Iraq right now. That country is contaminated. It will be contaminated for practically eternity now."

Up to a point, sorrow and grief will excuse mad rants. Cindy Sheehan has long since passed that point. She's losing it, and we're all seeing it happen. Sad...

Challenger To Durbin in Illinois?

Illinois Senator Dick Durbin isn't up for re-election until 2008, but there's already talk about just who the GOP might run against him. Sounds like a good candidate is being mentioned. Remember the name John Shimkus.

Hometown News

Thought this was a neat story. Takes place in my hometown, and involves the company my Mom works for...

Milliken Taps into Landfill Methane
The manufacturer will purchase 80 percent of gas generated.
by Mairi Beautyman
Interior Design - August 15, 2005

Methane gas emitted from the community landfill in LaGrange, Georgia will help carpet manufacturer Milliken replace 30 percent of its natural gas consumption. The gas harvesting program, initiated by the City of LaGrange municipality, launches next month.

"Methane burns cleaner and greener," says David Beard, Milliken's director of energy resources. "We looked at solar energy and other sources, but only methane had the power output comparable to natural gas."

The manufacturer will purchase 80 percent of the gas generated. According to the city, revenues from the program will offset property taxes, in addition to reducing methane released into the atmosphere. U.S. landfills are the largest source of methane worldwide.

"There is no downside for the community," says According to Patrick Bowie, director of utilities for the City of LaGrange, "industrial customers will have a source of green energy and the city is using the landfill space much more efficiently."

Over the past two decades, Milliken has eliminated use of PVC, introduced the market's only closed loop carpet process, and achieved zero waste. Last year, the manufacturer received Cleaner and Greener certification.

Time For Cindy Sheehan To Pack Up And Go Home

James Taranto, from the WSJ's Best Of The Web, sums up the Cindy Sheehan situation so well...

The Sad Story of Cindy Sheehan
Cindy Sheehan suffered a grievous loss for a noble cause: Her 24-year-old son, Army Spc. Casey Sheehan, died in combat in Iraq. Because of this, it seems churlish to criticize her. But enough is enough.

Sheehan has been camping out a few miles from President Bush's Crawford, Texas, ranch, staging a protest that has received extensive media attention. Her demand: a meeting with President Bush. "I want to ask George Bush, 'Why did my son die? What was the noble cause that he died for?' "

In fact, Sheehan has met with President Bush, as her hometown paper, the Reporter of Vacaville, Calif., reported in June 2004. At the time, although she clearly held antiwar views, she pronounced herself pleased with the meeting:

Sincerity was something Cindy had hoped to find in the meeting. Shortly after Casey died, Bush sent the family a form letter expressing his condolences, and Cindy said she felt it was an impersonal gesture.

"I now know he's sincere about wanting freedom for the Iraqis," Cindy said after their meeting. "I know he's sorry and feels some pain for our loss. And I know he's a man of faith." . . .

The trip had one benefit that none of the Sheehans expected.

For a moment, life returned to the way it was before Casey died. They laughed, joked and bickered playfully as they briefly toured Seattle.

For the first time in 11 weeks, they felt whole again.

"That was the gift the president gave us, the gift of happiness, of being together," Cindy said.

That gift seems not to have lasted. The Vallejo (Calif.) Times-Herald reports that Sheehan and her husband, Pat, have separated and that "family members of Sheehan denounced her actions Thursday in an e-mail":

Sent to a San Francisco radio station Thursday, the first public acknowledgment of a family rift came from Cherie Quartarolo, sister-in-law to Cindy Sheehan and godmother to her son, Casey.

Reached by phone Thursday, Quartarolo said she consulted with other family members before releasing the brief statement, but she declined to elaborate. She signed the memo on behalf of Casey's paternal grandparents, as well as "aunts, uncles and numerous cousins."

Noting that her family is still grieving the loss of Casey, Quartarolo wrote: "We do not agree with the political motivations and publicity tactics of Cindy Sheehan. She now appears to be promoting her own personal agenda and notoriety at the expense of her son's good name and reputation."

Casey's father, Patrick, of Vacaville, was not mentioned. He has acknowledged that he and his wife are separated, but he has avoided the spotlight that surrounds his wife's high-profile protest.

The family's e-mail, however, said "The Sheehan family lost our beloved Casey in the Iraq War and we have been silently, respectfully grieving. The rest of the Sheehan family supports the troops, our country and our president, silently, with prayer and respect."

What are we to make of Mrs. Sheehan's demand for a second meeting with President Bush? She claims she wants an explanation of why her son died, but she acknowledges that her mind is already made up. This is an excerpt of a speech she gave Monday, as transcribed on the Web site of an outfit called Veterans for Peace, describing how she conceived of her protest (quoting verbatim):

I'm gonna tell them, "You get that evil maniac [the president] out here, cuz a Gold Star Mother, somebody who's blood is on his hands, has some questions for him."

And I'm gonna say, "OK, listen here, George. #1, you quit, and I demand, every time you get out there and say you're going to continue the killing in Iraq to honor the fallen heroes by continuing the mission; you say, except Casey Sheehan.' "

"And you say except for all the members of Goldstar Families for Peace' cuz we think not one drop of blood should be spilled in our families' names. You quit doing that. You don't have my permission."

And I'm gonna say, "And you tell me, what the noble cause is that my son died for." And if he even starts to say freedom and democracy' I'm gonna say, bulls**t.

You tell me the truth. You tell me that my son died for oil. You tell me that my son died to make your friends rich. You tell me my son died to spread the cancer of Pax Americana, imperialism in the Middle East. You tell me that, you don't tell me my son died for freedom and democracy.

Cuz, we're not freer. You're taking away our freedoms. The Iraqi people aren't freer, they're much worse off than before you meddled in their country.

You get America out of Iraq, you get Israel out of Palestine

(massive round of applause)

And if you think I won't say bulls**t to the President, I say move on, cuz I'll say what's on my mind.

According to New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd, "the moral authority of parents who bury children killed in Iraq is absolute." So we now have it on absolute moral authority that America is a cancer, that Iraqis were better off under Saddam Hussein, and that Israel must be destroyed? The question is somewhat facetious, of course; Dowd is not known for thinking through the implications of the things she writes.

Yet thousands of American parents have lost children in Iraq, and thousands more in, among other places, Afghanistan, Germany, Iran, Israel, Kenya, Kuwait, Lebanon, New York, Pennsylvania, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Tanzania, Virginia and Yemen, either fighting Islamist terrorism or as a result of the failure to fight Islamist terrorism with sufficient determination. Although these thousands of parents doubtless have a wide range of opinions on the Iraq war and other subjects, we'd venture to say that not many--especially among those whose children were in the military--agree with Cindy Sheehan.

Indeed, we are now starting to see stories like this one, from the Gloucester County (N.J.) Times:

Marine Cpl. Marc T. Ryan, of Gloucester City, was killed in an explosion in Ramadi, Iraq in November.

"I would tell Cindy Sheehan that, as one mother to another, I do realize your loss is your loss and there's nothing you can do to heal from it," said the corporal's mother, Linda Ryan.

"George Bush didn't kill her son, it's the evildoers who have no value of life who killed her son. Her son made a decision to join the Armed Forces and defend our country, knowing that, at any time, war could come about," Ryan said. . . .

"George Bush was my son's commander-in-chief. My son, Marc, totally believed in what he was doing," she said.

Sheehan, she believes, is doing what she's doing because of the agony over losing her son.

"She's going about this not realizing how many people she's hurting. When she refers to anyone killed in Iraq, she's referring to my son. She doesn't have anything to say about what happened to my son," said Ryan.

Losing a child is probably the saddest thing that can happen to anyone. Unlike the death of a parent or a spouse, it is not part of the ordinary course of life. Yet somehow the vast majority of parents who suffer such a loss are able to maintain some perspective while coping with the experience.

That Cindy Sheehan has been unable to do so makes her story all the sadder. But it does not validate the hateful views she is espousing, nor does it make her pain more important than that of Linda Ryan or the thousands of others who have lost a child but maintained their dignity.

Ironic That He Had TRIPLE Bypass Surgery

I know this story has been all over the web for a couple of days, but it's too got to not pass along. From the Globe and Mail...

Three weddings and a funeral?

A lifetime of love, lies and a trio of wives unravelled for Melvyn Reed as he lay recovering from open-heart surgery in a British hospital room, police confirmed yesterday. The 59-year-old bigamist was expecting his wives to visit his sickbed, but he had planned to see them at carefully staggered intervals. Instead, he faced an incomparably awkward moment as all three arrived within minutes of each other.

It began when his second wife, Denise Harrington, 38, walked into the room to find his third wife, Lyndsey Hutchison, seated at his side. Mr. Reed introduced his third wife as a hospital visitor. But both grew suspicious when his first wife, Jean Grafton, 61, strolled in and added to the mounting confusion. The three women then went out to the parking lot to compare notes and found they were all married to the same man.

Mr. Reed, a round, balding used-car salesman, had managed to keep his three wives separate for years...

No Good Deed...

A 75 year-old woman in Connecticut is riding in an SUV that jumps a curb, crashes through a fence and plunges into a river. She's rescued by divers, her life saved. How does she repay this good fortune? She sues the town where the accident occured for taking too long to rescue her. Oh, the driver of the SUV was her son-in-law. He survived. She's suing him too.

Hate Speech

Linda Chavez looks at the comments made by Harry Belafonte and others at the recent Voting Rights act rally in Atlanta. She calls them "hate speech". Exactly...

Lost During World War II, USS Lagarto Found

A World War II submarine, lost during the final days of the War and presumed sunk, has finally been located beneath the South China Sea. The USS Lagarto, and her crew of 86, were apparently sunk in late April or early May 1945. Families of the crew never knew the fate of their loved ones. But divers found the sub in May in the Gulf of Thailand, and the Navy has declared it a protected gravesite. Divers placed flowers and an American flag on the remains.

More on the Lagarto can be found at this site.

MIT Devises Cancer Smart Bomb

As long as these anti-cancer terrorbots use their powers for good and not evil...

Imagine a cancer drug that can burrow into a tumor, seal the exits and detonate a lethal dose of anti-cancer toxins, all while leaving healthy cells unscathed.

MIT researchers have designed a nanoparticle to do just that.

The dual-chamber, double-acting, drug-packing "nanocell" proved effective and safe, with prolonged survival, against two distinct forms of cancers-melanoma and Lewis lung cancer-in mice.

The team loaded the outer membrane of the nanocell with an anti-angiogenic drug and the inner balloon with chemotherapy agents. A "stealth" surface chemistry allows the nanocells to evade the immune system, while their size (200 nanometers) makes them preferentially taken into the tumor. They are small enough to pass through tumor vessels, but too large for the pores of normal vessels.

Once the nanocell is inside the tumor, its outer membrane disintegrates, rapidly deploying the anti-angiogenic drug. The blood vessels feeding the tumor then collapse, trapping the loaded nanoparticle in the tumor, where it slowly releases the chemotherapy.

The team tested this model in mice. The double-loaded nanocell shrank the tumor, stopped angiogenesis and avoided systemic toxicity much better than other treatment and delivery variations.

But it is patient survival and quality of life that really inspire this research, Sasisekharan said. Eighty percent of the nanocell mice survived beyond 65 days, while mice treated with the best current therapy survived 30 days. Untreated animals died at 20.

The nanocell worked better against melanoma than lung cancer, indicating the need to tweak the design for different cancers.

Bell Employees Help Toronto Airbus Passengers

Thanks to Girl On The Right for bringing this story to light. Bell Mobility has an office close to Pearson International airport, where an Airbus 340 ran off the runway and burst into flames earlier this week.

As thick smoke billowed from the Airbus A-340 crumpled in a ravine at Toronto's Pearson airport, a team from Bell swung into action.

Their goal: get cell phones and calling cards to the survivors to enable them to tell family and friends they had made it through the terrifying crash of Air France Flight 358 Tuesday afternoon.

"One young girl of about 17 was shaking so much she couldn't dial the phone," said Julia Quinton, Mobility's Associate Director of Communications, who went behind police lines to help in a room packed with about 200 dazed and tired passengers. "She was holding my hand, my arm, so tightly as I dialed. Then I heard her say 'Hello, maman' and burst into tears. I had to struggle to hold back my own tears.

"She said the media in France were reporting no survivors. Can you imagine how relieved her family was to hear her voice?"

That's just one of many stories of the fast and compassionate response from Bell that put 50 cell phones and 500 calling cards into the hands of passengers, crew and emergency workers within three and a half hours of the crash. All 309 people escaped with their lives after their plane ran off the end of runway 24-L after a flight from Paris.

Nice to see a company jumping out to help those in need during an emergency.

Disturbing Judge's Ruling

The ability of law enforcement to go after child predators over the Internet may have just taken a huge hit, courtesy of a federal judge in Kansas City. Jan Helder of Mission Hills, Kansas was found guilty in federal court of trying to entice a minor for sex. He was busted in a Platte County (Missouri) Sheriff's Department sting.

But minutes after the guilty verdict was read, U.S. District Judge Dean Whipple overturned the conviction. He ruled that a conviction under federal law required actually enticing a minor - not enticing a Platte County deputy pretending to be a minor.

Apparently intent has no bearing on guilt or innocence, at least in this judge's eyes. Helder was actively trying to entice a child. Because the "child" he was chatting up was actually a cop, he's not guilty?