Tuesday - July 19, 2005

Requiem

The man who destroyed Western Civilization by making us all fat and lazy passed away today at the age of 83 ....

(The Scottsdale Republic) - Gerry Thomas, a Paradise Valley man credited with inventing the Swanson TV Dinner in 1952, has died. He was 83.

Thomas,who passed away Monday at a Phoenix hospice center, was working for the Swanson Co. in Omaha when he designed an aluminum tray and coined the name for the TV Dinner, a frozen meal that caught on as a convenience food in the 1950s during the advent of television.

More than 8.4 billion TV Dinners were sold, many of them long before microwave frozen meals were invented.

Thomas, who was a member of the Paradise Valley Town Council for two years ending in 1998, is survived by his wife, Susan Mills Thomas, seven children and six grandchildren.

Thomas lived near the Mountain Shadows Resort. On Tuesday, the flag at the resort’s clubhouse was lowered to half-staff in his memory.

Paradise Valley Mayor Ron Clarkesaid Thomas will be missed.

“He was a real colorful guy and just a pleasure to be around. He always had a joke about something. He was definitely a mover and a shaker in Paradise Valley,” he said.

A World War II veteran, Thomas was awarded a Bronze Star for his efforts to break a Japanese code during the Battle of Okinawa.

Services are pending.

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/19/2005 at 11:36 PM   
Filed Under: • Fine-Dining •  
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Bush Fools Everyone

President Bush fooled everyone tonight and refused to cave in to pressure to name a woman or a moderate to the Supreme Court. The President’s nominee is a staunch conservative, Judge John G. Roberts, Jr. ....

President Bush tonight announced his choice of John G. Roberts Jr., a federal appeals court judge, as his nominee to fill the first Supreme Court vacancy of his presidency. In a nationally televised ceremony in the East Room of the White House, Bush hailed Roberts, 50, as a man of “superb credentials and the highest integrity.”

He said Roberts, a conservative former White House and Justice Department official in past Republican administrations who currently serves on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, is “widely admired for his intellect, his sound judgment and his personal decency.” Bush said he had been “deeply impressed” by Roberts in his search for a successor to Justice Sandra Day O’Connor, who is retiring.

“He is a man of extraordinary accomplishment and ability,” Bush said. “He has a good heart. He has the qualities Americans expect in a judge,” including wisdom, fairness and civility.

Roberts said in brief remarks that it was “both an honor and very humbling to be nominated to serve on the Supreme Court.” He said that in arguing past cases before the Supreme Court as an attorney, he developed a deep appreciation for its role in American democracy and always “had a lump in my throat” as he walked up the building’s steps.

Neither Bush nor Roberts took questions from reporters after the announcement. Word of the nomination leaked out in advance of the 9 p.m. ceremony. Roberts, long considered one of the Republicans’ legal heavyweights, was appointed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit in 2003 by Bush. He was also nominated to the same court by Bush’s father, president George H.W. Bush, but never received a Senate vote.

Previously, Roberts practiced law at the Washington law firm, Hogan & Hartson, from 1986 to 1989 and from 1993 to 2003. Between those periods, he was the principal deputy solicitor general in the George H.W. Bush administration, helping to formulate the administration’s position in Supreme court cases. He has argued more than three dozen cases before the Supreme Court. During the Reagan administration, Roberts served for a time as an aide to Attorney General William French Smith. He also worked for White House Counsel Fred Fielding, from 1982 to 1986. He attended Harvard College and the Harvard Law School. Early in his career, he clerked for Justice (now Chief Justice) William H. Rehnquist on the Supreme Court.

Sen. Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), the Senate minority leader, said, “The president has chosen someone with suitable legal credentials, but that is not the end of our inquiry.” He said the Senate must determine whether Roberts “has a demonstrated commitment to the core American values of freedom, equality and fairness.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/19/2005 at 09:54 PM   
Filed Under: • Judges-Courts-Lawyers •  
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Home-Brew

Investigators have determined the explosives used in the London bombings was TATP, which anyone can make at home with easily obtainable chemicals. Provided you don’t clap your hands around it or step on it after you mix the crap up ....

(US News) A key component in the explosives used in last week’s London bombings is triacetone triperoxide (TATP), a U.S. law enforcement official tells U.S. News. TATP is a sophisticated or “high yield” explosive that’s easily mixed at home with recipes available on the Internet.

It was used by suicide bombers in Israel and chosen as a detonator in 2001 by would-be shoe bomber Richard Reid. Reid, who attempted to bomb a plane as it crossed the Atlantic Ocean, has claimed he used an Internet recipe to make his sneaker bomb. The ingredients in TATP—hydrogen peroxide obtained from local pharmacies, the paint thinner acetone, and a little hydrochloric or sulphuric acid — can be mixed to manufacture TATP, which packs the same punch as plastic explosives such as RDX.

TATP, used by terrorists in the Middle East and elsewhere, is considered so unstable that it can be set off by clapping one’s hands to detonate it or stomping on it with one’s foot and usually is used with other ingredients as a booster or detonator component.

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/19/2005 at 09:54 AM   
Filed Under: • Science-Technology • Terrorists •  
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Happy Birthday

“God created man, but ___________ made ‘em equal”.
-- Famous saying of the American West

If you don’t know whose birthday today is (hint: the man pictured below), you need to go here.

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/19/2005 at 09:24 AM   
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Crazy?

The latest criminal defense plea: “Your honor, I was being particularly boisterous with that young boy because the voices in my head told me to.” Perry Mason unavailable for comment ....

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - A teacher will claim she was insane due to emotional stress and did not know right from wrong when she had sex numerous times with a 14-year-old student, her attorney said Monday.

“What teacher in her right mind would do something like this?” attorney John Fitzgibbons said after a brief hearing for his client, Debra Lafave, a middle-school reading teacher.

The judge agreed to appoint two mental health professionals to evaluate LaFave. Prosecutors have said a state psychologist already determined Lafave was not insane, while one hired by the defense concluded that she was mentally ill.

Lafave’s trial was set for Dec. 5 on four felony counts of lewd and lascivious battery and one count of lewd and lascivious exhibition. Each carries a maximum 15-year prison term.

Fitzgibbons said plea bargaining broke down because prosecutors wanted Lafave to serve too much prison time, though he did not give details.

“To place an attractive young woman in that kind of hell hole is like putting a piece of raw meat in with the lions,” said Fitzgibbons. “I’m not sure she would survive.”

A state attorney’s office spokeswoman didn’t immediately return a call seeking comment.

The boy told investigators he and the teacher had sex in a classroom, her house and once in a vehicle while his 15-year-old cousin drove. He said Lafave told him her marriage was in trouble and that she was aroused by the fact that having sex with him was not allowed.

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/19/2005 at 07:05 AM   
Filed Under: • Crime • Insanity •  
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Strange SITREP

This Iraqi war story literally boggles my mind ....

1. US Army medic is shot by sniper while on patrol.
2. Body armor protects medic.
3. Medic fires back at sniper, wounding him.
4. Medic then proceeds to handcuff sniper and apply first aid.
5. Sniper is taken into custody and medic returns to patrol.

Would someone remind Senator Dickless Durbin (D-IL) that this is not how Nazis treated their enemy .... preferably with a ClueBat up side of his pointy, little head.

(KARE-11 NEWS - July 18, 2005) Being shot at by a sniper is a weekly occurrence for many U.S. soldiers stationed in Iraq. But the experience Army Pfc. Stephen Tschiderer, of Mendon, New York, had in Baghdad on June 2 was highly unusual. During a routine patrol in Baghdad, Tschiderer, a medic, was shot in the chest by an enemy sniper, hiding in a van just 75 yards away. The incident was videotaped by the insurgents. Tschiderer, was knocked to the ground from the impact, but he wasn’t killed, thanks to the protective body armor he was wearing. “I knew I was hit,” said Tschiderer, “but was uncertain of the damage or location of the hit. The only thing going through my mind was to take cover and locate the sniper’s position.”

After a few seconds, Tschiderer jumped to his feet, shot back, then took cover and located the sniper. he U.S. Army has released footage of the incident that shows Tschiderer, 21, being shot in the chest by a sniper, then getting away. His mother, Debbie Tschidere, has had a chance to view the tape, after first getting an e-mail from her son. In the e-mail, Pfc Stephen wrote, “Treating the man who shot me didn’t really sink in until afterwards. At the time, I just did my job and didn’t really think about it too much.”

After she saw the tape, she told a local television station that she just couldn’t believe her son got up. She says learning he went on to capture the shooter and render first aid tells the world what she already knows, that her son is a top-notch soldier, “And to me that shows incredible strength of character that we’re incredibly proud of,” said Debbie Tschiderer. After being shot and calling for help, other soldiers from Tschiderer’s unit joined him and together they tracked down the wounded sniper by following the blood trail he left as he and another attacker fled the scene.

The sniper was handcuffed and given medical aid by the very man he had tried to kill, Tschiderer. Tschiderer is with E Troop, 101st “Saber” Cavalry Division, attached to 3rd Battalion, 156th Infantry Regiment, 256th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division.

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/19/2005 at 06:46 AM   
Filed Under: • Military •  
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Your Hippy-Dippy Weatherman

In Las Vegas, a summer heat wave is driving record temps up to 116 degrees.

In Italy, they’re dropping like flies as temps reach 97 degrees.

In Ontario, Canada the Canucks are melting and running out of electricity to stay cool.

In Korea, temps reached 35 C (95 F) and complaints about the heat wave are rising.

And in Baghdad, the troops fighting the war on terror are saying ”WELCOME TO MY WORLD!”

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/19/2005 at 04:30 AM   
Filed Under: • Environment •  
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Looney Tunes

_{Randy Bish, Pittsburgh, PA - Tribune-Review}

_{Eric Allie,Chicago}

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/19/2005 at 04:00 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Media-Bias •  
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Obituary

CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) - Retired Gen. William Westmoreland, who commanded American troops in Vietnam - the nation’s longest conflict and the only war America lost - died Monday night. He was 91.

Westmoreland died of natural causes at Bishop Gadsden retirement home, where he had lived with his wife for several years, said his son, James Ripley Westmoreland.

The silver-haired, jut-jawed officer, who rose through the ranks quickly in Europe during World War II and later became superintendent of West Point, contended the United States did not lose the conflict in Southeast Asia.

“It’s more accurate to say our country did not fulfill its commitment to South Vietnam,” he said. “By virtue of Vietnam, the U.S. held the line for 10 years and stopped the dominoes from falling.”

As commander of U.S. forces in Vietnam from 1964 to 1968, Westmoreland oversaw the introduction of ground troops in Vietnam and a dramatic increase in the number of U.S. troops there.

American support for the war suffered a tremendous blow near the end of Westmoreland’s tenure when enemy forces attacked several cities and towns throughout South Vietnam in what is known as the Tet Offensive in 1968. Though Westmoreland fought off the attacks, the American public remained stunned that the enemy had gained access to the U.S. Embassy in Saigon, even if only for a few hours.

After the event, President Lyndon Johnson limited further increases in troops; Westmoreland was recalled to Washington to serve as the U.S. Army Chief of Staff after asking for reinforcements in response to the attacks. Westmoreland would later say he did not know how history would deal with him.

“Few people have a field command as long as I did,” he said. “They put me over there and they forgot about me. But I was there seven days a week, working 14 to 16 hours a day.

“I have no apologies, no regrets. I gave my very best efforts,” he added. “I’ve been hung in effigy. I’ve been spat upon. You just have to let those things bounce off.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/19/2005 at 01:47 AM   
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   Monday - July 18, 2005

Going back for a donut

Movement into the past gets one step less improbable.

One of the major difficulties of travelling backwards in time has just been solved, according to an Israeli theoretical physicist. And the solution, he says, is doughnut-shaped.

Mmmmmmmm. Donuts

Although it is difficult to describe what this would look or be like in real life, Ori says the mathematics reveal that every period of time between when the doughnut was created and the present moment would be somewhere in the vacuum inside the doughnut. All you need to do is work out how to get there.

Oh, is that all?

There are still difficulties to overcome with the doughnut model, however.

Hmmmm.  Keep working on it boys.

Posted by Drew458     on 07/18/2005 at 09:53 PM   
Filed Under: • Science-Technology •  
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Most Ridiculous Item Of The Day

(NEWSDAY-NY - July 18, 2005) A couple was caught having sex on top of a middle school in Port Jefferson Station on Sunday afternoon as people watched from street level, Suffolk police said.

Police said they arrested Rebekah Albee, 19, and Anthony Oddo, 24, after authorities were called about two naked people having sex atop John F. Kennedy Middle School. Police said when they arrived to the scene, they were able to see the pair having sex from street level. The two then took off when they saw that police had arrived; they were caught behind the school.

Albee, of Port Jefferson Station, and Oddo, who police said is homeless, are charged with third-degree criminal trespass and public lewdness. Oddo also is charged with resisting arrest. They are scheduled to be arraigned in First District Court on Monday.

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/18/2005 at 03:13 PM   
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Being Particularly Boisterous

Now there’s a phrase you don’t hear every day. Even worse, imagine how one could use that phrase in a story about policemen and wild outdoor orgies ....

Dutch police and park rangers have admitted they are powerless to stop a growing trend of outdoor sex orgies. In the latest incident, a large group of people were found romping naked on a beach in the Bussloo area of the country. They including [sic] 10 couples who were being “particularly boisterous” with each other while the others watched.

But police called to the scene admitted they were powerless to act despite numerous complaints from other beach users, and could only give the naked orgy lovers a verbal warning. The head of one of Holland’s biggest national parks says the problem is getting worse and has called for the government to make clear guidelines on outdoor sex orgies to allow police to act.

Eric Droogh, who is director at the Veluwe National Park, said: “A national debate on wild sex parties in the countryside is essential. “Police and park wardens currently have too little scope to intervene. The only possibility is to catch the transgressors red-handed. “Outdoor sex is now commonly occurring in national parks and other public places. In some cases they just stopped beside the road in the picnic area or a meadow for the orgies.”

He called for clearer guidelines and sanctions to deal with the outdoor sex phenomenon.

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/18/2005 at 01:43 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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Universal Truth

Some lessons are well worth repeating, no matter where you live and some words written two centuries ago still apply today. Maybe now more than ever .. as citizens in Iraq are finding out. While the Iraqis are writing their new constitution, it looks like they need to borrow a few from our Constitution. I hereby loan them to the Iraqis, free of charge. Use them wisely, my friends ....

Amendment II

A well regulated militia, being necessary to the security of a free state, the right of the people to keep and bear arms, shall not be infringed.

The Iraqi people are learning the same lesson our forefathers in America learned in the 18th century ....

A senior member of Iraq’s parliament on Sunday called for popular militias to be created as an extra line of defense against the militants, and criticized the government for failing to stop the bombs. “The plans of the interior and defense ministries to impose security in Iraq have failed,” Khudair al-Khuzai told parliament during a heated session following the latest blast. “We need to bring back popular militias,” he said, without expanding.

While there was some backing for his proposal, there are concerns militias formed along sectarian lines could lead the country ever closer to civil war, with Shi’ite and Sunni Arabs already involved in tit-for-tat killings. Despite that fear, local militias have already been formed in several Baghdad areas, and at least two Shi’ite political movements have their own powerful private armies.

In the Sadiya district in the south of the capital, residents have introduced a neighborhood watch program which involves men armed with pistols and AK-47s walking the streets from 11 p.m. to 5 a.m. on alert for attackers. They carry a piece of paper signed by the Iraqi army granting them permission to carry out the patrols. In several other districts residents have blocked off streets with the trunks of chopped-down palm trees, or with large concrete flower pots, to try to stop suicide car bombers.

“It’s better to have our own militias because we can recognize every stranger who comes into our neighborhood and the police can’t,” said Sattar Hashim in New Baghdad, a district where a bomb blast last week killed nearly two dozen children.

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/18/2005 at 12:01 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous •  
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Euro-Useless-Eunuchs

I can only hope that Europe one day cracks under the weight of the Alps and goes crashing into the Atlantic. Not just to get rid of France but all the other pissant countries who constantly squabble and fight among themselves while the Muslims take over right under their very noses. What’s got my dander up today? Well, we already know the “Euro-Constitution” is DOA because no one wants to make all states of Europe equal. Now we find out today that the asshats can’t even get their new universal European Arrest Warrant piece of crap to work. Germany is all set to release a convicted member of Al-Qaeda for some of the dumbest reasons ....

Germany’s highest court has ordered the release of a German-Syrian businessman suspected of funding al-Qaeda, who was fighting extradition to Spain. The federal constitutional court ruled that the new European arrest warrant was invalid in the case of Mamoun Darkazanli, 46. He was detained in Hamburg in October on the warrant issued by Spain. He appears in a 1999 wedding video with two of the three 11 September suicide hijackers who had lived in Hamburg.

Mr Darkazanli has not been charged in Germany, whose constitution prohibits the extradition of its own citizens. German Justice Minister Brigitte Zypries said the court ruling was “a blow for the government in its efforts and fight against terrorism”. After the September 2001 attacks, the US froze the assets of Mr Darkazanli’s Import-Export Company, saying it was a front for terrorism. He is among 41 suspects, including Osama bin Laden, indicted by Spanish Judge Baltasar Garzon.

His case was a test of the new European arrest warrant, introduced last year to speed up the handover of terror suspects. Correspondents say all other suspects in Germany facing extradition under similar warrants will have to be released on bail, and that the German parliament will have to pass a new law if suspects are to be held in jail on EU warrants. Mr Darkazanli’s lawyers argued that handing him over under the European arrest warrant would be against the German constitution.

Posted by The Skipper     on 07/18/2005 at 11:48 AM   
Filed Under: • EUro-peons •  
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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:

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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.

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