Tuesday - August 08, 2006

The Other News From Iraq

Here is your daily dose of The Other News From Iraq. Your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to count how many MSM outlets cover this story. Good luck on that.

Seriously, how did the Iraqis manage to get 275,000 troops trained and equipped to the point where they are taking over more and more of US troops’ tasks? When did this miracle happen? The Iraqis now have five divisions in the field handling security and fighting insurgents, and five more are in the works to be deployed soon.

The US plan to stand down US troops when the Iraqi army stands up is at the halfway point now ... and the lamestream media ignores it. Whazzup with that? Don’t our media outlets want us to hear good news from Iraq? ... ... ... that was a rhetorical question, by the way. Carry on ....

4th Iraqi Army Takes Over For
101st Airborne
_{BAGHDAD (CENTCOM PRESS RELEASE)}

As further evidence of the continued progress of Iraqi security forces, the 4th Iraqi Army Division will officially assume the lead for security operations Aug. 8 in most of Salah ad Din and Kirkuk provinces, previously controlled by units from the 101st Airborne Division.

The handover of forward operating bases and security lead demonstrates the progress being made by the Iraqi security forces, reiterates successes, and highlights the progress of the legitimate Iraqi government as a positive move toward full national sovereignty and self-reliance, said a Multi-National Force-Iraq spokesman.

This transfer occurs as the Iraqi security force takes charge and shows it is capable of coordinating, planning and conducting security operations with Coalition forces acting in a support role. According to a 101st Airborne Division spokesman, the 4th IAD has demonstrated it is fully capable of assuming security responsibility by taking over security operations in provinces covering major cities of Tikrit, Kirkuk and Samarra.

The 4th IAD is the fifth of 10 Iraqi army divisions to assume security responsibility, which represents the halfway mark of Iraqi divisions assuming responsibility for providing security in their country. In total, Iraqi security forces are in the lead with five Iraqi army divisions, 22 army brigades, and 76 army battalions, and the Iraqi National Police have two battalions, for a total of about 275,000 trained forces.

According to Coalition officials, 48 of 110 Forward Operating Bases have been transferred to the Iraqis; the result of the increased capacity of the Iraqi security forces and the Iraqi government. “This (handover) is a brave quest and significant milestone toward garnering security self-reliance for the Iraqi citizens, the Iraqi security force, and the government of Iraq,” said Coalition officials.

According to a fact sheet released by the 101st Airborne Division, “more than 275,000 trained and equipped Iraqi security personnel work every day to protect Iraq and its people. These numbers continue to grow as more troops are scheduled to assume independent control in the coming months.”

As evidence to the 4th IAD’s capabilities, about 3,000 Iraqi security forces, with support from Coalition troops, recently detained 154 terror suspects and seized a large weapon cache during Operation Gaugamela west of Kirkuk. The 10-day operation was conducted to search for suspected al-Qaida terrorists in and around the cities of Hawaija and Riyadh.

Following a request from local Arab leaders to rid the area outside Kirkuk of terrorists, the 10-day operation - covering 25 cities and villages spanning more than 900 square miles - began with a series of smaller Iraqi Army operations targeting 20 objectives in the Rashad area, southwest of Kirkuk. Using their own intelligence information, Soldiers from the 2nd Brigade, 4th Iraqi Army Division planned and conducted the missions, detaining nine terror suspects and seizing a cache of weapons.

“This was the first time the Iraqis in our area have self-sustained during an operation,” said Capt. Krista Jekielek, a U.S. logistics representative to the Iraqi security forces. “It was a significant validation, showing they are capable of moving the necessary personnel and supplies required to perform their mission.”

Capt. Lyn Graves, an Army spokesman who patrolled Hawija with the Iraqi security forces during the operation, said the Iraqi forces were extremely proficient and professional. In addition to taking terrorists and weapons off the street, the discipline of the soldiers involved in the mission truly stands out, according to Maj. Greg Bishop, a 1st BCT spokesman.

“The Iraqi and Coalition Soldiers went into two of the most contentious cities in the Kirkuk province, searched hundreds of homes and buildings and detained more than 150 suspects with no violence whatsoever,” said Bishop. “That’s an incredible success and a true measure of the professionalism of everyone involved in the operations.”

U.S. Central Command Public Affairs - Spc. Patrick Ziegler, Spc. Chris Erickson, 1Lt. Anthony Deiss

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/08/2006 at 09:32 AM   
Filed Under: • Iraq • Military •  
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Quote Of The Week

“… undermines not only our reputation but also the good name of all our photographers ...” Uh-huh. Right. That ought to clear things up nicely. It’s too bad most of us out here in the real world gave up on the mainstream media long ago. Go ahead, Reuters. Pull the other one. It’s got bells on ...

“Manipulating photographs in this way is entirely unacceptable and contrary to all the principles consistently held by Reuters throughout its long and distinguished history. It undermines not only our reputation but also the good name of all our photographers.”

-- Reuters Global Picture Editor Tom Szlukovenyi

LONDON (Reuters) - Reuters withdrew all 920 photographs by a freelance Lebanese photographer from its database on Monday after an urgent review of his work showed he had altered two images from the conflict between Israel and the armed group Hizbollah. The news and information agency announced the decision in an advisory note to its photo service subscribers. The note also said Reuters had tightened editing procedures for photographs from the conflict and apologized for the case.

Removing the images from the Reuters database excludes them from future sale. Reuters ended its relationship with Hajj on Sunday after it found that a photograph he had taken of the aftermath of an Israeli air strike on suburban Beirut had been manipulated using Photoshop software to show more and darker smoke rising from buildings. An immediate enquiry began into Hajj’s other work.

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/08/2006 at 09:17 AM   
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Hicks Nix Chicks Ticks

“What’s wrong with those stupid hicks out there in the red states? Are they too stupid to buy our concert tickets?”

I can almost hear her now, saying those very words. Natalie Maines just doesn’t get it. Their new album hit the charts, climbed to about number five then started to disappear. Their fans are disappearing too. Yet Natalie just can’t seem to keep her mouth shut. In a recent “statement” slamming patriotism as something she has no use for, this gal is just digging herself deeper and deeper into a hole and absolutely refuses to stop digging.

I suppose she has a right to her opinions and she has a right to voice her opinions. This is America, after all. However, freedom of speech does not guarantee that her opinions will be either intelligent or accepted by others. That’s where she lost it and continues to lose it. This group will not last much longer if she keeps on spitting in her fans’ faces with these ridiculous rants that are angering her base - what there is left of it. It’s a pity. They used to be a fairly good group of musicians before they became a lousy group of politicians.

Dixie Chicks Cancel 14 Shows on Tour
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Aug 8, 7:11 AM (ET)

Several concerts on the Dixie Chicks’"Accidents & Accusations” tour have been canceled after slow ticket sales, but the group says it has replaced them with other dates. Kansas City, Houston, St. Louis, Memphis and Knoxville are among 14 cities no longer on the original schedule released in May, according to a revised itinerary posted Thursday on the Dixie Chick’s Web site.

Other shows, including Nashville, Los Angeles, Denver and Phoenix, have been pushed back to later dates. The North American leg of the tour kicked off July 21 in Detroit. Billboard magazine and other trade publications have reported lackluster sales in some markets, particularly in the South and Midwest.

Group spokeswoman Kathy Allmand said Monday that the total number of North American dates remains the same, with several Canadian cities added in place of the U.S. shows. The trio released a statement last week attributing the changes to attempts to “accommodate demand” and said more dates might be added next year.

The group also said the adjustments will allow them to promote the documentary “Dixie Chicks: Shut up and Sing,” for the Toronto International Film Festival in September. “We hope that our fans who were looking forward to a stop that is no longer on the tour will be able to join us at a nearby arena this fall, and we are sorry for any confusion or inconvenience these changes have caused,” the Dixie Chicks said.

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/08/2006 at 08:55 AM   
Filed Under: • Celebrities • Stoopid-People •  
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That Was Then, This Is Now

It’s not news ... it’s SCAREY NEWS! Twenty-fours a day, seven days a week. If they can’t find news to report, they’ll make it up. Evidently, journalists today slept through science class in the second grade or they’d understand that it gets warmer in Summer. We’re still waiting to find out what Al Gore’s excuse is ...

_{Dick Locher - The Chicago Tribune}

• Heat Wave Draws Attention to Dry Skin Care Treatment (EMAXHEALTH)


• Summer Heat Deaths Up To 30 (CBS-2 CHICAGO)


• Summer Heat Wave Killing Car Batteries (WQAD-TV CHICAGO)


• Heat wave overcrowds Humane Society with abandoned, unwanted pets (KTKA TV - ABC KANSAS)


• California’s Deadly Heat Wave Takes Toll on Peaches (NEW CALIFORNIA MEDIA)


• Obese people may collapse more in heat wave (CHINA DAILY)

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/08/2006 at 08:33 AM   
Filed Under: • Climate-Weather •  
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   Monday - August 07, 2006

Outstanding Headline Of All Time

No, I don’t know anyone. I know a whole lot of dipshits who could use several bottles of these pills ... starting with anyone who voted for Gore or Kerry and including nearly everyone in the Middle East. This is a pill whose time has come. Just in time ...

You Know Anybody Who Needs An “Anti-Stupid” Pill?
—Mon Aug 7, 2006 8:30am

BERLIN (Reuters) - A German scientist has been testing an “anti-stupidity” pill with encouraging results on mice and fruit flies, Bild newspaper reported Saturday.

It said Hans-Hilger Ropers, director at Max-Planck-Institute for Molecular Genetics in Berlin, has tested a pill thwarting hyperactivity in certain brain nerve cells, helping stabilize short-term memory and improve attentiveness.

“With mice and fruit flies we were able to eliminate the loss of short-term memory,” Ropers, 62, is quoted saying in the German newspaper, which has dubbed it the “world’s first anti-stupidity pill.”

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/07/2006 at 01:54 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Stoopid-People •  
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Anticipation

Do you need any further proof that the Angry Left has kidnapped the Democratic party, refused to “move on” and is fully prepared to tear the country apart if they win a majority in the House this November. We are under attack by foreign terrorists, our borders are porous with illegals flowing in, the price of oil is going through the roof ... and all the Donks are interested in is impeaching their nemesis, the “evil BushChimpHitler”, as they refer to him?

John Conyers is the poster child for the angry left. He has taken Howard Dean’s madness, Al Gore’s whining and John Kerry’s bullshit, rolled it all together and come up with impeachment. The Angry Left and their bought and paid-for flunkies in the Democratic party want to bring America down around all our ears. To hell with survival as a nation, screw anyone who disagrees with them ... they want Bush’s hide nailed to a barn wall.

Just remember, when you go to vote in November, the Republicans aren’t doing the best job of running things but they’re a whole hell of a lot better than the alternative. If you vote Democratic, you might as well kiss this country goodbye. The lunatics will be in charge of the asylum if they win the House or Senate. I hope and pray you folks have better sense than these traitorous weasels. If not, may God have mercy on us all ....

The Democrats’ Impeachment Road Map
It’s finished, ready to go — and waiting for November
By Byron York
—(NRO) - August 07, 2006, 6:17 a.m.

There’s a word you won’t find in the text of Democratic Rep. John Conyers’s new “investigative report” on the Bush administration, “The Constitution in Crisis: The Downing Street Minutes and Deception, Manipulation, Torture, Retribution, and Coverups in the Iraq War, and Illegal Domestic Surveillance.” And the word is…impeachment. Yet the 350-page “Constitution in Crisis,” released last week, is, more than anything else, a detailed road map for the impeachment of George W. Bush, ready for use should Democrats win control of the House of Representatives this November. And Conyers, who would become chairman of the House Judiciary Committee — the panel that would initiate any impeachment proceedings — is the man who could make it happen.

While it’s absent in the body of the report, the I-word does appear a few times in Conyers’s 1,401 footnotes, which include citations of authorities ranging from the left-wing conspiracy website rawstory.com to the left-wing antiwar sites democracyrising.us and afterdowningstreet.org to the left-wing British newspaper the Guardian to the left-wing magazines The Nation and Mother Jones to the left-wing blogosphere favorite Murray Waas to the New York Times columnists Paul Krugman, Maureen Dowd, Bob Herbert, and Frank Rich to former Clinton aide Sidney Blumenthal to the New Yorker’s Seymour Hersh. (Sources for “The Constitution in Crisis” even include one story co-written by the disgraced Internet writer Jason Leopold.) Relying on such material, Conyers has created what might be called the definitive left-wing blogger’s history of the Bush administration. “I would like to thank the ‘blogosphere’ for its myriad and invaluable contributions to me and my staff,” Conyers writes in the report’s introduction. “Absent the assistance of ‘blogs’ and other Internet-based media, it would have been impossible to assemble all of the information, sources and other materials necessary to the preparation of this report.”

But Conyers’s report is more than the world’s longest blog post. Far more seriously, it is the foundation for possible articles of impeachment, detailing charge after charge against the president. “Approximately 26 laws and regulations may have been violated by this administration’s misconduct,” Conyers wrote Friday in a message posted simultaneously on the DailyKos and Huffington Post websites. “The report…compiles the accumulated evidence that the Bush administration has thumbed its nose at our nation’s laws, and the Constitution itself.”

A few months ago, when there was speculation that Democrats planned to impeach Bush if they won the House, the party’s leadership moved quickly to stop the discussion. In May, a spokesman for House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi told the Washington Post that Pelosi had told her fellow Democrats “impeachment is off the table; she is not interested in pursuing it.” But Conyers, who would likely be the single-most important person in the undertaking, was never on board. “There’s no way I can predict whether there will ultimately be an impeachment proceeding underway or not,” he said last week in an interview with the liberal website tpmmmuckraker.com. “The Constitution in Crisis” is Conyers’s sign that, should the opportunity arise, he is ready to go.

- More on the Angry Left’s madness at NRO ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/07/2006 at 12:27 PM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists •  
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Syrian Saber Rattling

Things are spiraling out of control in the Middle East. Lebanon rejected the US/French cease-fire proposal. Syria also rejected the proposal, their foreign minister stormed out of an Arab countries meeting over the crisis and now the Syrians are gearing up the saber rattling, saying they are ready for war.

Countries always say that before the fighting begins. They are about to learn a hard lesson - it’s about time. Syria has been interfering in the region almost as long as Iran. They don’t understand that the Israelis have only committed about 10% of their fighting force to Lebanon. Maybe this whole half-ass war Israel is fighting is a way to sucker Syria into thinking they can whip Israel. If so, all hell is about to break loose.

Now to the really important question ... What’s up with those ugly-ass pink berets the Syrian army wears? Did they borrow them from the French? Not that there’s anything wrong with pink berets. I’m just sayin’ ....

Syria Ready For Possible Regional War
BEIRUT (JERUSALEM POST) - August 6, 2006

Syrian Foreign Minister Walid Moallem crossed into Lebanon Sunday for the first visit by a top Syrian official in more than a year, Lebanon’s state news agency said.

Speaking to reporters after the meeting with his Lebanese counterpart, Fawzi Salloukh, Moallem said “Syria is ready for the possibility of a regional war if the Israeli aggression continues.”

He added that a US-French draft resolution to end the war “adopted Israel’s point of view only.” Underlining his support for Hizbullah, Moallem said, “as Syria’s foreign minister I hope to be a soldier in the resistance.” Salloukh said that “Israel cannot take in peace what it had failed to take in war.”

“If Israel attacks Syria by any mean, on the ground, by air, our leadership ordered the armed forces to reply immediately,” he said after emerging from a meeting with Lebanese President Emil Lahoud. Israel has issued several pledges not to attack Syria. According to Moallem, the US-French cease-fire plan was “a recipe for the continuation of the war.”

Moallem’s visit comes amid strained relations between Lebanon and Syria as a result of the Feb. 14, 2005 assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. A UN investigation has implicated several Syrian officials in the murder. Syria denied any involvement in the Hariri assassination that led to an international isolation of Damascus. Prompted by the crisis that followed Hariri’s assassination, Syria withdrew its troops from Lebanon in April 2005, ending a 29-year military presence.

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/07/2006 at 10:58 AM   
Filed Under: • Middle-East •  
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The Home Front

Democrats’ Danse Macabre
By Jed Babbin
(AMERICAN SPECTATOR) - 8/7/2006 12:08:40 AM

Some future political science student will cruise to his Ph.D. on a thesis analyzing the Democratic Party purge being held tomorrow in Connecticut. Those of us who believe that “big government conservative” is an oxymoron and who want to fight the war as if we mean to win it are entirely out of patience with Mr. Bush and Congressional Republicans. They haven’t dealt with our most deadly enemies decisively despite having the means and opportunity to do so, and behave as though their purpose in life is to spend money that isn’t theirs. But most of the time we hold our noses and stick with the president because the Dems are vastly worse.

Throughout the Clinton years, the Dems’ hid behind Clinton’s “don’t worry, be happy” smile. The good times rolled on while the danger of Islamic terrorism grew. Now, almost five years into a war, their entire 2006 national defense strategy is contained in Alfred E. Neuman’s “What, me worry?” That fact disturbs the Dems not at all, because they have no constituency other than the most rabid antiwar Bush haters. It disturbs us because we’re at war and all the Dems have to offer is Jack Murtha—whose favorite target is the Marines, not the enemy—and John Dingell, who sees no moral difference between Hizballah and the Israelis.

Now the Michael Moore-Pinch Sulzberger-Cindy Sheehan Dems are about to purge poor ol’ Joe Lieberman from their party in Tuesday’s primary because he supports the war in Iraq. There’s no other issue among the Dems, as Chris Matthews rehearsed yesterday. Dan Rathercadaver—resurrected by Matthews to make his Sunday show the greatest black comedy since Dr. Strangelove—agreed solemnly. There’s no greater crime for a Dem than to voice any opinion other than the one the Washington Post wrote in an editorial on July 16, wringing its hands and blaming W for all the world’s ills: “But in the press of cascading crises, it is crucial that the administration not lose focus on the two wars it started and has yet to win.” (Italics added, superfluously.)

According to the Quinnipiac University poll released Thursday, Ned Lamont leads Lieberman by 54-41 percent. If Lieberman loses, we should be very grateful. If the anti-Bush media and the Democrats who follow its orders succeed in purging Lieberman, if they succeed in this danse macabre, the Dems will be headed off a cliff and not back to the White House in 2008.

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/07/2006 at 04:53 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists •  
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   Sunday - August 06, 2006

Why Ask Why?

1. Why do they call it a TV “set “when you only have one?

2. Why is the third hand on the watch called the second hand?

3. If a word is misspelled in the dictionary, how would we ever know?

4. If Webster wrote the first dictionary, where did he find the words?

5. Why do we say something is out of whack? What is a whack?

6. Why does “slow down” and “slow up” mean the same thing?

7. Why does “fat chance” and “slim chance” mean the same thing?

8. Why do “tug” boats push their barges?

9. Why do we sing “Take me out to the ball game” when we are already
there?

10. Why are they called “stands” when they are made for sitting?

11. Why is it called “after dark” when it really is “after light”?

12. Doesn’t “expecting the unexpected” make the unexpected expected?

13. Why are a “wise man” and a “wise guy” opposites?

14. Why do “overlook” and “oversee” mean opposite things?

15. Why is “phonics” not spelled the way it sounds?

16. If work is so terrific, why do they have to pay you to do it?

17. If all the world is a stage, where is the audience sitting?

19. If you are cross-eyed and have dyslexia, can you read all right?

20. Why is bra singular and panties plural?

21. Why do you press harder on the buttons of a remote control when you
know the batteries are dead?

22. Why do we put suits in garment bags and garments in a suitcase?

23. How come abbreviated is such a long word?

24. Why do we wash bath towels? Aren’t we clean when we use them?

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/06/2006 at 09:54 PM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff •  
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Fred Reed as Tom Sawyer

If you’ve never read a Fred Reed column you are missing one of the great pleasures of the internet. Fred is a curmudgeon with a web page. Here is just a sample of his latest effort, which describes how he amused himself as a kid.

It was a different country then, and the South was a differenter part, warts and all. Nobody much watched us. You could sensible things, like line shotgun shells up on a board and shoot at the primers from fifty feet away with the BB guns. Contrary to what a Yankee might think, this didn’t produce much of a bang because the shell wasn’t confined in a barrel, but it was better than nothing.

I guess things were kind of unsupervised. You couldn’t do it today. You’d need a Caring Adult to be in charge, meaning some tiresome school marm who didn’t think you should make black powder and blow things up. What’s black powder for, then? Tell me that.

Fred’s Column. Don’t miss it.

Fred’s website. I include this because he uses frames.

Posted by Christopher     on 08/06/2006 at 04:34 PM   
Filed Under: • Editorials •  
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The NORAD Tapes: September 11, 2001

Vanity Fair has obtained over thirty hours of tapes from NORAD’s Northeast Command Center in upstate New York where Griffiss AFB used to be during the Cold War. The article includes several sound bites during the attacks of 9/11.

Listening to the air traffic controllers and NORAD trying to figure out what is going on and whether to scramble fighters or not is an eerie experience. Listen to the tapes. I hear confusion, chaos and wild guesses about what to do in the voices of the personnel. It is obvious no one ever planned for this kind of attack.

I don’t agree with Vanity Fair that the military tried to cover it up. It was obvious what happened. Those of us who have served in the military understood exactly what had taken place. It’s what we call a cluster-f**k. The enemy caught us with our pants down. End of story.

Go listen and read the timeline. It will send a chill down your back as you recall the day and see it from the eyes of the military personnel charged with protecting America. Warning: some adult language ... which is quite understandable, under the circumstances ....

9/11 Live: The NORAD Tapes

How did the U.S. Air Force respond on 9/11? Could it have shot down United 93, as conspiracy theorists claim? Obtaining 30 hours of never-before-released tapes from the control room of NORAD’s Northeast headquarters, the author reconstructs the chaotic military history of that day—and the Pentagon’s apparent attempt to cover it up.

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/06/2006 at 04:26 PM   
Filed Under: • Terrorists •  
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Lights - Camera - Action!

Ever wonder how See-B.S. News gets that coverage of events in Paleswine? Especially all those action sequences of Pallies rioting, getting shot by Israeli soldiers and then carted off in a grieving funeral procession? Welcome to Pallywood - where actors, directors, makeup artists and script writers work hard every day to create sound bites for the Western media. You haven’t seen over-acting like this since William Shatner had trouble with Tribbles. Click the “Play” button and sit back and watch the show unfold ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/06/2006 at 02:41 PM   
Filed Under: • Media-Bias • Paleswine •  
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100 years ago

I received this in my email this morning.

The year is 1906.
One hundred years ago.
What a difference a century makes!
Here are some of the U.S. statistics for the Year 1906:

The average life expectancy in the U.S. was 47 years.

Only 14 percent of the homes in the U.S. had a bathtub.

Only 8 percent of the homes had a telephone.

A three-minute call from Denver to New York City
cost eleven dollars.

There were only 8,000 cars in the U.S., and only 144 miles
of paved roads.

The maximum speed limit in most cities was 10 mph.

Alabama, Mississippi, Iowa, and Tennessee were each more heavily populated than California.

With a mere 1.4 million people, California was only the 21st most populous state in the Union.

The tallest structure in the world was the Eiffel Tower!

The average wage in the U.S. was 22 cents per hour.

The average U.S. worker made between $200 and $400 per year .

A competent accountant could expect to earn $2000 per year, a dentist $2,500 per year, a veterinarian between $1,500 and $4,000 per year, and a mechanical engineer about $5,000 per year.?

More than 95 percent of all births in the U.S. took place at HOME.

Ninety percent of all U.S. doctors had NO COLLEGE EDUCATION! Instead, they attended so-called medical schools, many of which were condemned in the press AND the government as “substandard.”

Sugar cost four cents a pound.

Eggs were fourteen cents a dozen.

Coffee was fifteen cents a pound.

Most women only washed their hair once a month, and used borax or egg yolks for shampoo.

Canada passed a law that prohibited poor people from
entering into their country for any reason.

Five leading causes of death in the U.S. were:
1. Pneumonia and influenza
2. Tuberculosis
3. Diarrhea
4. Heart disease
5. Stroke

The American flag had 45 stars. Arizona, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Hawaii, and Alaska hadn’t been admitted to the Union yet.

The population of Las Vegas, Nevada, was only 30!!!!

Crossword puzzles, canned beer, and ice tea hadn’t been invented yet.

There was no Mother’s Day or Father’s Day.

Two out of every 10 U.S. adults couldn’t read or write. Only 6 percent of all Americans had graduated from high school.

Marijuana, heroin, and morphine were all available over
the counter at the local corner drugstores. Back then pharmacists said, “Heroin clears the complexion, gives buoyancy to the mind, regulates the stomach and bowels, and is, in fact, a perfect guardian of health.” ( Shocking? DUH! )

Eighteen percent of households in the U.S. had at least
one full-time servant or domestic help.

There were about 230 reported murders in the ENTIRE U.S.A.!

Now I forwarded this from someone else without typing
it myself, and sent it to you and others all over the United States, possibly the world, in a matter of seconds!

Try to imagine what it may be like in another 100 years.

IT STAGGERS the MIND

Posted by Christopher     on 08/06/2006 at 09:57 AM   
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Immoral Equivalence

Why is a dead Jewish woman less important than a dead Lebanese woman? The press is having a field day reporting the deaths in Lebanon but don’t have time to report on the deaths in Israel as hundreds of missiles rain down on Haifa, Galillee and even the West Bank in the most recent attacks. Is there a media bias against the Jews? I would have to say yes, there most definitely is a lot of partisan reporting going on in the current Middle East crisis.

Why do you think that is? Is an Israeli life not the equivalent of a Lebanese life. Hezbollah started this mess and then they hide among civilians while lobbing one missile after another at random targets inside Israel. So why does the Western media wring its collective hands over deaths in Lebanon and drone on endlessly about “Qana massacre” while nobody hears a word about a Jewish grandmother and her two daughters getting blown up by Hezbollah rockets? How can anyone in their right mind call a group that started a fight “resistance fighters”?

The press has lost sight of the difference between good and evil. They are trying to push the concept of media neutrality and “moral equivalence” on us, seeemingly to provide “balanced coverage”. What they are doing instead is practicing immoral equivalence when they refuse to acknowledge the difference between the opposing sides and unfairly report one sides’ deaths but not the other. They might as well admit they are helping the terrorists in their PR war. That is immoral in anyone’s book and there is no “equivalence” when one side of the equation is left empty. Q.E.D.

Israeli War Deaths Go Largely Unnoticed
—(Y-NET NEWS) - 08.06.06, 02:25

Hours after mother and two daughters are killed in Hizbullah rocket attack, media outlets around world fail to report deaths; meanwhile, British press continues anti-Israel tirade. Media bias? Hours after 60-year-old Fadia Jumaa and her two daughters, Samira, 31, and Sultana, 33, were killed by a Hizbullah rocket attack on their home in the Israeli-Bedouin village of Arab al-Aramshe, the international media has so far largely ignored their deaths.

Reuters was alone among non-Israeli media outlets to report the deaths, according to a Google news search, a number of hours after the first reports of the attack surfaced. The lack of coverage of the Israeli civilian war casualties stands in marked contrast to the swift response by many sections of the international media to reported Lebanese casualties.

Meanwhile, the British press, which has produced some of the most venomous anti-Israel coverage during the war, has continued its tirade against Israel. An article in the London-based Guardian, entitled “Militants merge with mainstream ,” argues that Hizbullah has gained widespread, cross-religious support in the Arab world, and uses terms such as “the Qana massacre” to explain the apparent newfound unity.

The article argues that Sunnis and Shiites have come together in their backing of Hizbullah: “Whatever qualms Arabs once had about Hizbullah they have since been dissipated by Israel’s attacks, the hundreds of deaths, the sight of up to a quarter of the Lebanese population fleeing their homes, and especially the bombing of UN observers and the massacre at Qana. The Shiite organisation and its leader, Hassan Nasrallah, have become symbols of resistance even in such unlikely places as the Gulf countries where Sunnis and Shiites have been spotted waving the yellow-and-green flag.”

The article was co-written by Issandr el-Amrani, a freelance journalist in Egypt who referred to Hizbullah as “ Lebanese resistance fighters “ on his personal blog and who describes reports of Hizbullah members operating out of civilian areas as “Israeli lies.” The article’s authors failed, however, to note that an influential Saudi Sunni cleric, Sheikh Safar al-Hawali, has issued an anti-Hizbullah fatwa declaring that “Hizbullah is not the ‘Party of God’ but the ‘Party of Satan.’”

An Associated Press report, which undermines the Guardian’s claims, says that “Al-Hawali’s words are an addition to a previous fatwa issued two weeks ago in Saudi Arabia by the leader of the Wahhabi movement, Sheikh Abdullah bin Jabrin, which declared that it is illegal to support, join, or even pray for Hizbullah.” Meanwhile, an article has appeared on the BBC website in which a reporter for the British broadcaster, Hugh Sykes, relays a conversation he has with Lebanese residents.

The article is remarkable as it contains the views of a BBC journalist being given to Lebanese locals, rather than the other way around. In the piece, written in first person narrative, Sykes tells people in Lebanon that there would be “no point” for Israel to strike Hizbullah targets in Lebanon: “‘People keep asking me… ‘ Beirut - will they bomb Beirut again?’ ‘What would be the point?” I reply.’ Four massive thumps one night, and six the next, as Israeli bombs or shells slammed into the ground a few kilometres away. Or into the children’s homes,” Sykes wrote.

Posted by The Skipper     on 08/06/2006 at 08:13 AM   
Filed Under: • Media-Bias • Middle-East •  
• Comments (2) • Trackbacks(0)  Permalink •  

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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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