Wednesday - July 13, 2005

The Warrior

Head bowed and body bloodied, weary and exhausted, the warrior stumbles out past the ancient buildings and onto the streets beyond. It is a long march home for a few brief hours of quiet and rest, provided the enemy also chooses to sleep tonight. There is little chance of that as the war rages on through the night and into the next day. Constant bombings occur through the wee hours of the morning. The warrior stumbles out of his bunk in the middle of the night to take a call from command post where a brief firefight has flared up at 3:00am. It never ends.

The previous day’s patrol started out ugly as the insurgents attacked an already devastated neighborhood. Sensing a weakness in one particular area, the radicals had poured through a temporary breach in the lines. The front was almost broken down in one place as the enemy hammered away at the defenses and the warrior took most of the punishment in his sector. Command had assigned him as point for the operation and he had to face the full brunt of the enemy’s charge. Coming at him from several directions at once, shouting obscene cries of hate and attacking every weak point that could be found, the attack on the warrior’s position lasted for an eternity. After the first few minutes, it all became a blur of action and hate-filled screams from the radicals.

Grenades and mortar fire coming in from the left of his position, the warrior struggled to remain calm as the cold sweat of fear channeled its way down his neck and drenched his shirt. He knew he could not yield his position or the enemy would overrun them all so he had no choice but to stand up to the full hail and fury of the incoming shells and bullets flying around like angry bees.

Carefully gauging his fire to be most effective, the warrior managed to hold his position as shells burst all around him. The medics had already evacuated the wounded as the enemy’s fire increased. The harder he fought back, the more they gathered like a pack of hyenas, ready to pounce and draw blood from this mighty warrior. His courage and steadfastness under fire only served to further infuriate the enemy. The chaos, mayhem and savagery went on and on and on and .... finally, the enemy withdrew to regroup, lick their wounds and prepare for tomorrow’s attack.

The warrior stumbled out of the foxhole, rifle in hand and somehow managed to make it out of enemy territory back to the aid station, where his wounds were patched up before command debriefed him, gave him a pat on the back and sent him back to barracks to rest. The cold night air penetrated his uniform as he stumbled out and back to a time to reflect on the day’s battle and to thank God for allowing him to survive another onslaught. “How much more can I endure, Oh Lord?”, he pleaded, “how much more before I break?”

To continue reading “The Warrior” click below ....

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/13/2005 at 11:32 AM   
Filed Under: • Media-Bias •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

The Backlash Begins

In Britain, the backlash against Muslims has already started ....

Wednesday July 13, 2005
The Guardian

A Muslim man has been beaten to death outside a corner shop by a gang of youths who shouted anti-Islamic abuse at him, the Guardian has learned.

Kamal Raza Butt, 48, from Pakistan, was visiting Britain to see friends and family. On Sunday afternoon he went to a shop in Nottingham to buy cigarettes and was first called “Taliban” by the youths and then set upon.

Nottinghamshire police described the incident as racially aggravated, not as Islamophobic, angering Muslim groups and surprising some senior officers.

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/13/2005 at 11:13 AM   
Filed Under: • International •  
• Comments (14) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Remember When?

The following were some comments made in the year 1957:

(1) “I’ll tell you one thing, if things keep going the way they are, its going to be impossible to buy a weeks groceries for $20.00.”

(2) “Have you seen the new cars coming out next year? It won’t be long when $5,000 will only buy a used one.”

(3) “If cigarettes keep going up in price, I’m going to quit. A quarter a pack is ridiculous.”

(4) “Did you hear the post office is thinking about charging a dime just to mail a letter?”

(5) “If they raise the minimum wage to $1, nobody will be able to hire outside help at the store.”

(6) “When I first started driving, who would have thought gas would someday cost 29 cents a gallon. Guess we’d be better off leaving the car in the garage,”

(7) “Kids today are impossible. Those ducktail hair cuts make it impossible to stay groomed. Next thing you know, boys will be wearing their hair as long as the girls,”

(8) “I’m afraid to send my kids to the movies any more. Ever since they let Clark Gable get by with saying damn in “Gone With The Wind”, it seems every new movie has either hell or damn in it.”

(9) “I read the other day where some scientist thinks it’s possible to put a man on the moon by the end of the century. They even have some fellows they call astronauts preparing for it down in Texas.”

(10) “Did you see where some baseball player just signed a contract for $75,000 a year just to play ball? It wouldn’t surprise me if someday that they will be making more than the President.”

(11) “I never thought I’d see the day all our kitchen appliances would be electric. They are even making electric typewriters now”

(12) “It’s too bad things are so tough nowadays. I see where a few married women are having to work to make ends meet.”

(13) “It won’t be long before young couples are going to have to hire someone to watch their kids so they can both work.”

(14) “I’m just afraid the Volkswagen car is going to open the door to a whole lot of foreign business.”

(15) “Thank goodness I won’t live to see the day when the Government takes half our income in taxes. I sometimes wonder if we are electing the best people to Congress.”

(16) “The drive-in restaurant is convenient in nice weather, but I seriously doubt they will ever catch on.”

(17) “I guess taking a vacation is out of the question now days. It costs nearly $15.00 a night to stay in a hotel.”

(18) “No one can afford to be sick any more, $35.00 a day in the hospital is too rich for my blood.”

If you were alive in 1957 (I was eight years old), feel free to add numbers (19) and (20) in the comments ....

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/13/2005 at 09:25 AM   
Filed Under: • History •  
• Comments (12) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Cause Of Drought Identified

Just across the Mississippi River from me some danged lady in Ill-Annoys has been sucking up all the water. City officials finally caught up with her .... well, almost ....

MASCOUTAH, Ill. - It’s been a hot, dry summer in this St. Louis suburb, but Rose Mary Cook knew there was no way she could have used $74,000 worth of water. The city’s utility department claimed Cook used 10 million gallons of water last month, charging her $29,787 for water, $43,581 for sewer, plus $893 for municipal tax.

“Luckily, when I opened the bill, I was sitting down,” Cook said. “I could have filled every pool in southern Illinois and still not used that much water.”

Cook presented the bill to a public works employee at City Hall. The city quickly determined the whopping charge was the result of a broken meter and issued her a corrected bill for $32.66 — waiving Cook’s monthly water and sewer charges for her troubles.

“My daughter asked me if I was hoarding water during the drought,” Cook said. “I told her I would, but I don’t know where I would find 10 million gallon jugs.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/13/2005 at 07:07 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics •  
• Comments (8) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

The Brits Are Closing In

British police and intelligence forces raided a house in Leeds yesterday, blew up a suspected bomb and identified four Britons of Pakistani origin as the bombers who evidently blew themselves up in last Thursday’s London bombings ....

LONDON, July 12—Four young British citizens of Pakistani origin appear to have carried out last week’s bombings of the London transit system, blowing themselves up along with their victims in what would be the first suicide attacks in Western Europe, British police said Tuesday.

In a day of fast-moving developments, heavily armed police backed by army units raided six houses in and around the northern city of Leeds seeking evidence, arrested a relative of one of the suspects and carried out a controlled detonation of explosives at one of the sites.

The preliminary findings against native-born Muslims brought expressions of anguish from a prominent Islamic community leader, as well as warnings from security officials that other people involved in the plot were probably still at large and dangerous, including the presumed bombmaker behind the operation. Britain remained on its highest-ever security alert.

Investigators say they believe the men drove to the Luton train station 30 miles north of the capital early Thursday morning and boarded a train to King’s Cross station in north London. They were recorded there on closed-circuit security cameras just before 8:30 a.m.

Three of them boarded subway trains heading in different directions—one toward Liverpool Street and Aldgate, one toward Edgware Road and one toward Russell Square. Bombs blew up on those three trains within 50 seconds of one another about 8:50 a.m.

The fourth man wound up on a No. 30 double-decker bus that was diverted to nearby Euston station after the explosions shut down King’s Cross. His bomb detonated nearly an hour after the others at nearby Tavistock Square, killing at least 13 people.

In total, at least 52 people were killed and about 700 wounded.

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/13/2005 at 06:57 AM   
Filed Under: • International • Terrorists •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Having Trouble Waking Up?

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/13/2005 at 06:00 AM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy •  
• Comments (13) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

MAD

_{Bob Gorrell, National/Syndicated}

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/13/2005 at 05:37 AM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

   Tuesday - July 12, 2005

Most Ridiculous Item Of The Day

You just can’t make up stories like this. There is a Commie Chinese restaurant in Manchuria that still holds a grudge against Japan ....

BEIJING (Reuters) - Japanese customers must apologise for their country’s wartime occupation of China before getting a seat at a restaurant in former Manchuria or find another place to eat, Japan’s Kyodo news agency said on Tuesday. No Japanese had tried to enter the restaurant in the northeastern Chinese city of Jilin since it started the new apology policy and hung a sign that read “Japanese people barred from entry”.

“We totally welcome those Japanese customers who can correctly view history,” the manager, surnamed Tian, was quoted as saying. “But as for those customers who still refuse to admit to history, we want to say we don’t like them.”

Staff at the Western-style restaurant were told to ask Japanese customers who walked through the door to give their views of Japan’s 1931-1945 occupation of parts of China, including the northeast, and to turn away those who did not apologise and share the owner’s opinions, Kyodo said.Many Chinese feel Japan has never owned up to atrocities committed during its occupation, including the 1937 Rape of Nanjing in which Beijing says as many as 300,000 Chinese men, women and children were slaughtered by Japanese troops. The 1948 Tokyo war crimes tribunal found Japanese troops killed 155,000 people, mainly women and children. China has repeatedly asked Japan to “take history as a mirror” and “correctly” view history to repair ties between the two countries, which this year have sunk to their lowest point in decades.

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/12/2005 at 04:33 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
• Comments (4) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

French Whine

What’s today? Tuesday? Damn, I haven’t picked on France for over a week. What’s come over me? Oh, well. I have ammunition now. Ahem! Ladies and germs, it has been brought to my attention that the esteemed Mayor Of Paris is accusing Tony Blair of unfair tactics in the recent bids for the 2012 Olympics ....

Paris attacks British Olympic tactics

(FINANCIAL TIMES) Bertrand Delanoë, the Socialist mayor of Paris, on Monday delivered a stinging attack on British tactics in the competition to host the 2012 Olympic Games, accusing the UK prime minister and his London bid team of “not respecting the rules”.

In his first official address to the Paris municipal council since London was awarded the games last week, Mr Delanoë said Tony Blair and bid leader Lord Coe had not “flirted with the line, they crossed to the other side. Victory was based on something other than Olympic principles”.

Paris, the initial favourite, was deeply disappointed by London’s victory. Many close to the Paris bid suggest that London had won by using aggressive marketing and commercial techniques rather than by relying on the quality of its dossier. In contrast to Mr Blair, who lobbied IOC members individually, Jacques Chirac, the French president, was content to make a speech in Singapore.

London also stands accused of criticising features of a rival bid when, according to a spokesman for the mayor, it “stigmatised” the Stade de France, a centrepiece of the Paris bid.

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/12/2005 at 04:12 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
• Comments (6) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Butcher Confesses

The murderer of Theo Van Gogh confessed in court today to the brutal, ritualistic murder of the Dutch artist. This Muslim mad dog went even further when he put the court on notice that, if released, he would do it again ....

The man charged with the murder of the controversial Dutch film-maker Theo van Gogh has confessed to the killing at his trial in Amsterdam. Mohammed Bouyeri, 27, said he acted out of his religious beliefs and that he would do “exactly the same” if he were ever set free. Prosecutors say Mr Bouyeri killed Mr Van Gogh in a ritualistic murder committed in the name of radical Islam. The November 2004 murder shocked the Netherlands and raised ethnic tensions.

Mr Bouyeri, who has dual Dutch-Moroccan nationality, could face a life sentence if he is convicted. “I take complete responsibility for my actions. I acted purely in the name of my religion,” he told the court in Amsterdam. “I can assure you that one day, should I be set free, I would do exactly the same, exactly the same,” he added.

His lawyer told the court on Monday there would be no defence case put forward by Mr Bouyeri or on his behalf. Mr Bouyeri is accused of shooting and stabbing Mr Van Gogh to death as he cycled along an Amsterdam street. A note stuck to his body with a knife threatened the Somali-born Dutch MP Ayaan Hirsi Ali, who wrote the script for Mr van Gogh’s film Submission, about violence against women in Islamic society.

Mr Bouyeri was arrested following a shoot-out with police just minutes after Mr Van Gogh’s killing. The prosecution said Mr Bouyeri had hoped to die a “martyr” at the hands of the police. The murder sparked a wave of revenge attacks on mosques and counter-attacks against Christian churches in the Netherlands.

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/12/2005 at 10:57 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
• Comments (11) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Caught In The Crossfire

OK, gang! Ready to have a little fun? Sure, I knew you did. It’s boring this morning and it’s also raining outside. Let’s play “Bait The Liberals”. Let’s start with Rush Limbaugh’s show yesterday and his comments on the Hildabeast’s reference to President Bush as “Alfred E. Neuman” ....

RUSH: So Hillary Clinton likens George W. Bush, the president of the United States, to Alfred E. Newman. Madam Senator, do you really, really want to go down that road? I’m wondering if she means this. See, she is said to be the smartest woman in the world, folks, and this does not jibe with her being the smartest woman in the world. This does not distance herself from Howard Dean at all. This does not distance herself from these kooks. Maybe that’s who she’s playing to now. She keeps going back and forth. One days she’s a moderate; the next day she’s a conservative. The next day she’s getting close to being pro-life, then she comes out and does something like this, and it’s not hard to keep track of it all, and it’s actually very easy to realize that some game is being played here, but I’m wondering—this sounds more like something that James Carville or The Forehead would say. So I’m wondering who’s writing her stuff. You know, she’s in a little battle here with her rivals for the nomination, and I know she’s gotta go out and get the Dean power base of the party and she’s sort of selling her soul to get it with stuff like this. Maybe she’s so filled with herself she thinks that she can say anything and the media will turn the cheek, and they will. I mean, the media is not going to think this is “lack of civility” or the “politics of personal destruction.” In fact, they’ll just laugh at it. But you never hear Bush talking this way about his political opponents. You never, ever hear him doing it and he stands just that much taller above them all. This is why I’ve always objected to this notion she’s the smartest woman in the world. She just lowered herself to all the rest of these little Chihuahuas nipping at Bush’s ankles out there in the Democratic Party. She’s no different than any of that. You know, you contrast her saying this with Bush’s class act at the G-8 last week and it’s amazing.

Here we have a woman—and I’ll say this, you know, she can cover up. She can cover up her rear end with a pant suit but apparently she can’t cover her fat mouth. You know, we are at war, for crying out loud. The liberals in the Senate are faking reaching out to people. London has just been bombed. We might have two or three Supreme Court appointments made by Bush, Hillary is out there wanting more federal money for New York state, and the smartest woman in the world, with an asterisk there, by the way, attacks the president with a Roseanne-like stunt. This is something you might hear one of the libs on Crossfire say. I don’t know how you change the tone from that. You know, if George W. Bush reminds Mrs. Clinton of Alfred E. Newman then I’ll just say it. Her husband reminded me… I thought we had Larry Flynt in the White House for eight years, folks. How’s that? We had Larry Flynt in the White House for eight years, while a whole bunch of national security questions were being ignored, while terrorism was basically off the table except we were cutting and running from it in Mogadishu, and while old Larry Flynt, Jr., is in the Oval Office with cigars and who knows whatever else, all these other things are going on around the world and Mrs. Clinton is worried about the fact we’ve got a president that she says reminds her of Alfred E. Newman? How can she say, “What, me worry?” She misunderstands. I’m sure he does worry but he’s confident because he knows himself. He likes himself, Mrs. Clinton. He’s very comfortable in telling everybody who he is, very comfortable being who he is, very comfortable telling anybody who wants to know and who is willing to listen to what his ideas are. He doesn’t have to have a meeting with himself to figure out what his core values are. He doesn’t have to have a meeting with himself to figure out what his strategy is going to be. It is what it is. He said what he was going to do during the campaign and he did it, which led a bunch of Democratic consultants after he was inaugurated to say they’ve been tricked because nobody does what they say they’re going to do in a campaign, but Bush did it. So “What, me, worry?” I don’t even think it’s an apropos analogy. Larry Flynt is much closer to her own husband in the White House.

Alright! The hook is set. The bottom-feeders are on the line. Let’s go ahead and reel them in and see what we caught. Follow this link over to (yep, you guessed it) Democratic Underground and watch the response as they start fighting the hook and thrashing around in circles ....

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/12/2005 at 10:21 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
• Comments (7) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Triple-Layer Tinfoil Required

Did you know that hurricanes are being manipulated by the evil Bush administration in order to make Halliburton richer? Me, neither. The things one can learn from so many learned scientists out there blogging nowadays. Some of them even have radio shows. Here’s what James McCanney had to say recently ....

July 10, 2005 posting ... the solar magnetic field direction and strength and general solar wind conditions were varying wildly today and over the past days ... couple this with a new moon passing (read about the significance of this condition in my weather book) and you have the conditions to have Hurricane Dennis develop into a huge storm ... HOWEVER it is also apparent from the way the NOAA (National Hurricane Prediction Center) path prediction was made as Dennis was far out in the Caribbean that it was already being manipulated to strike the Mobile Alabama area and the local oil production facilities ... as Tropical Storm Cindy earlier hit this same area the futures prices for next winter’s heating fuel were already taking huge hikes (remember Hurricane Ivan only 10 months ago ran over this exact area and then was manipulated to move south to run over the area again !!) are severe storms being manipulated to inflate oil and energy costs ???? you can guess what i think about that (see the Sun Earth Weather Sub-Page and the Weather Book for more details) ... jim mccanney

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/12/2005 at 09:55 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
• Comments (6) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

What, Me Worry?

The Hildabeast has President Bush confused with Alfred E. Neuman ....

ASPEN, Colo. — Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton went on the attack against President Bush in a speech Sunday, accusing him of damaging the economy by overspending while giving tax cuts to the rich. The Democrat from New York also accused Bush of depriving U.S. soldiers of equipment needed to fight the war in Iraq and cutting funding for scientific research.

“I sometimes feel that Alfred E. Neuman (search) is in charge in Washington,” Clinton said referring to the freckle-faced Mad magazine character. She drew a laugh from crowd when she described Bush’s attitude toward tough issues with Neuman’s catchphrase: “What, me worry?”

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/12/2005 at 08:37 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

Hero

You don’t have to be special to be a hero. You just have to be in the wrong place at the wrong time and .... have courage and compassion ....

Bus driver dragged his passengers from bomb wreckage

(TIMES-UK) THE driver of the bus ripped apart by a terrorist bomb told last night how he tried to rescue his injured passengers in the minutes after the explosion. George Psarabakis, 50, who was meant to be on another bus route but swapped with a colleague at the last minute to the No 30, thought that he had hit the pavement when the bomb went off.

“I heard a bang and thought I had hit something on the kerb, then turned around and realised the whole of the back of the bus was gone. Then I looked behind me and thought everyone must be dead.” With only cuts and bruises, Mr Psarabakis climbed out of his cab and started helping to pull survivors from the wreckage of the double decker. “I looked down at myself and saw that I was OK, then my next thought was to do something for the injured. I helped as many as I could off and kept going until my back went — it was agony. I really tried my hardest to get the victims off the bus — I really did.”

After police cleared the area, fearing further explosions, Mr Psarabakis began walking west along streets crowded with commuters stranded outside Tube stations and unable to get to work. Although he lives in Stoke Newington, in North London, he continued his journey west for seven miles and sought help only once he reached the Central Middlesex Hospital in Acton, West London, at about 10.50am. He was still wearing his blood-spattered uniform. He was treated for shock and released at 2pm, when he went home to be reunited with his wife, Andriani, and children, Christina, 15, and Marios, 13.

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/12/2005 at 06:48 AM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
• Comments (5) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

DISCLAIMER

THE SERVICES AND MATERIALS ON THIS WEBSITE ARE PROVIDED "AS IS" AND THE HOSTS OF THIS SITE EXPRESSLY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL WARRANTIES, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO WARRANTIES OF SATISFACTORY QUALITY, MERCHANTABILITY OR FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, WITH RESPECT TO THE SERVICE OR ANY MATERIALS.

Not that very many people ever read this far down, but this blog was the creation of Allan Kelly and his friend Vilmar. Vilmar moved on to his own blog some time ago, and Allan ran this place alone until his sudden and unexpected death partway through 2006. We all miss him. A lot. Even though he is gone this site will always still be more than a little bit his. We who are left to carry on the BMEWS tradition owe him a great debt of gratitude, and we hope to be able to pay that back by following his last advice to us all:

1. Keep a firm grasp of Right and Wrong
2. Stay involved with government on every level and don't let those bastards get away with a thing
3. Use every legal means to defend yourself in the event of real internal trouble, and, most importantly:
4. Keep talking to each other, whether here or elsewhere

It's been a long strange trip without you Skipper, but thanks for pointing us in the right direction and giving us a swift kick in the behind to get us going. Keep lookin' down on us, will ya? Thanks.

THE INFORMATION AND OTHER CONTENTS OF THIS WEBSITE ARE DESIGNED TO COMPLY WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. THIS WEBSITE SHALL BE GOVERNED BY AND CONSTRUED IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND ALL PARTIES IRREVOCABLY SUBMIT TO THE JURISDICTION OF THE AMERICAN COURTS. IF ANYTHING ON THIS WEBSITE IS CONSTRUED AS BEING CONTRARY TO THE LAWS APPLICABLE IN ANY OTHER COUNTRY, THEN THIS WEBSITE IS NOT INTENDED TO BE ACCESSED BY PERSONS FROM THAT COUNTRY AND ANY PERSONS WHO ARE SUBJECT TO SUCH LAWS SHALL NOT BE ENTITLED TO USE OUR SERVICES UNLESS THEY CAN SATISFY US THAT SUCH USE WOULD BE LAWFUL.

Copyright © 2004-2015 Domain Owner