Monday - May 14, 2007

Motivational Poster Of The Day

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/14/2007 at 01:08 PM   
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Members Blog

I finished putting the final touches on our Members Blog over the weekend. The Barking Moonbat Recon Patrol site is becoming pretty active with new member posts so I decided I better get around to putting links to their posts here. Over there in the right sidebar there is now a realtime listing of the last ten posts over at Recon Patrol - along with the poster’s name. Give it a try. They’re taking a big load off of me here by digging up more strange lunacy than I could ever keep track of alone.

Be sure and bookmark the site. It also has RSS and Atom feeds for quick tracking of what’s going on. BTW, if any of the other members out there want to join the posters and start blogging over there, drop me a line at “allan ‘at’ barking-moonbat.com” or leave something in the comments here. If any of you requested posting privileges when I set this up a few weeks ago and I somehow dropped the ball, give me a nudge and I’ll make sure you’re added and send you instructions on how to post.

This is for registered members here only. If you’ve ever wanted to try your hand at blogging but didn’t want the hassle of setting up a site and trying to maintain a schedule for posting every day, this is your chance. No pressure, just post when you want about whatever you want. I generally leave the posters to post whatever they want. (within reason, of course).

This is an experiment and an attempt to do something new in the blogosphere. Technically speaking, the Recon Patrol is just a subdomain of BMEWS (bark.barking-moonbat.com). I hope you find it interesting and decide to participate. Click on the logo below to go directly to the Recon Patrol site or choose one of the post links in the right sidebar. Drop some comments on the posters and let’s see what happens.

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/14/2007 at 11:20 AM   
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On This Day In History

Tel Aviv, Palestine, Saturday, May 15, 1948 (NY TIMES)

The Jewish state, the world’s newest sovereignty, to be known as the State of Israel, came into being in Palestine at midnight upon termination of the British mandate.

Recognition of the state by the United States, which had opposed its establishment at this time, came as a complete surprise to the people, who were tense and ready for the threatened invasion by Arab forces and appealed for help by the United Nations.

In one of the most hopeful periods of their troubled history the Jewish people here gave a sigh of relief and took a new hold on life when they learned that the greatest national power had accepted them into the international fraternity.

The declaration of the new state by David Ben-Gurion, chairman of the National Council and the first Premier of reborn Israel, was delivered during a simple and solemn ceremony at 4 P.M., and new life was instilled into his people, but from without there was the rumbling of guns, a flashback to other declarations of independence that had not been easily achieved.

The first action of the new Government was to revoke the Palestine White Paper of 1939, which restricted Jewish immigration and land purchase. In the proclamation of the new state the Government appealed to the United Nations “to assist the Jewish people in the building of its state and to admit Israel into the family of nations.”

The proclamation added: “We offer peace and amity to all neighboring states and their peoples, and invite them to cooperate with the independent Jewish nation for the common good of all. The State of Israel is ready to contribute its full share to “the peaceful progress and reconstruction of the Middle East.”

The statement appealed to Jews throughout the world to assist in the task of immigration and development and in the “struggle for the fulfillment of the dream of generations—the redemption of Israel.”

Plans for the ceremony had been laid with great secrecy. None but the hundred or more invited guests and journalists was aware of the meeting until it started, and even the guests learned of the site only ten minutes before. It was held in the Tel Aviv Museum of Art, a white, modern-design two-story building. Above it flew the Star of David, which is the state’s flag, and below, on the sidewalk, was a guard of honor of the Haganah, the army of the Jewish Agency for Palestine.

As photographers’ bulbs flashed and movie cameras ground out reels of the scene, great crowds gathered and cheered the Ministers and other members of the Government as they entered the building. The security arrangements were perfect. Sten guns were brandished in every direction and even the roofs bristled with them.

The setting for the reading of the proclamation was a dropped gallery whose hall held paintings by prominent Jewish artists. Many of them depicted the sufferings and joys of the people of the Diaspora, the dispersal of the Jews.

The thirteen Ministers of the Government Council sat at a long dais beneath the photograph of Theodor Herzl, who in 1897 envisaged a Jewish state. Vertical pale blue and white flags of the state hung on both sides. To the left of the ministers and below them sat other members of the national administration. There are thirty-seven in all, but some were unable to get here from Jerusalem.

At 4 P.M. sharp the assemblage rose and sang the Hatikvah, the national anthem. The participants seemed to sing with unusual gusto and inspiration. The voices had hardly subsided when the squat, white-haired chairman, Mr. Ben-Gurion, started to read the proclamation, which in a few hours was to transform most of those present from persons without a country to proud nationals. Then he pronounced the words “We hereby proclaim the establishment of the Jewish state in Palestine, to be called Israel,” there was thunderous applause and not a few damp eyes.

After the proclamation had been read and the end of the White Paper and of its land laws pronounced, Mr. Ben-Gurion signed the document and was followed by all the other members of the administration, some by proxy. The last to sign was Moshe Shertok, the new Foreign Minister and the Jewish Agency’s delegate to the United Nations. He was roundly applauded and almost mobbed by photographers.

The ceremony ended with everyone standing silently while the orchestral strains of the Hatikvah filled the room. Outside, the fever of nationalism was spreading with fond embraces, warm handshakes and kisses. Street vendors were selling flags, crowds gathered to read posted bulletins, and newspapers were being sold everywhere.

As the Sabbath had started, there was not the degree of public rejoicing that there would have been any other day. The proclamation was to have been read at 11 P.M., but was advanced to 4 because of the Sabbath. Mr. Shertok explained that the proclamation had to be made yesterday because the mandate was to end at midnight and the Zionists did not want a split second to intervene between that time and the formal establishment of the state.

In the preamble to the declaration of independence the history of the Jewish people was traced briefly from its birth in the Land of Israel to this day. The preamble touched on the more modern highlights, including Herzl’s vision of a state, acknowledgment of the Jewish national homeland by the Balfour Declaration in 1917 and its reaffirmation by the League of Nations mandate and by the United Nations General Assembly resolution of Nov. 29, 1947.

It asserted that this recognition by the United Nations of the right of the Jewish people to establish an independent state could not be revoked and added that it was the “self-evident right of the Jewish people to be a nation, as all other nations, in its own sovereign state.”

- More ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/14/2007 at 08:40 AM   
Filed Under: • History •  
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Let’s Make A Deal

Memo to Al-Qaeda In Iraq:

OK, it’s time to negotiate. Here’s the deal, Al-Qaeda In Iraq .... either you release our soldiers unharmed, without a hair on their heads touched or we start killing everything in sight. Or you can allow the Red Cross to check on them and deliver mail and packages while you hold them in POW camps under Geneva Convention rules - with Bibles provided ... or we start killing everything in sight.

Personally, I would prefer to just cut to the chase and start killing everything in sight. We know you have probably already killed our troops after torturing them with knives, swords and any kitchen implements you found handy. Don’t worry - ABC, NBC, CBS, CNN, BBC, NY TIMES, et al will defend your right to draw and quarter those young men in your custody.

There are certain rules in warfare and you have violated every one of them, killing civilians mindlessly and laughing at all of the rules of the Geneva Convention. So we are going to give the Iraqi Army orders to shoot everything that moves and sweep the countryside clean while we look the other way, OK? Don’t worry though, we’ll be busy shooting any reporters who wander by. Have a nice day. You are now officially dead men walking ....

-- The Skipper

Al-Qaida Claims To Have 3 Missing Troops
BAGHDAD (YAHOO NEWS) - May 13, 2007

An al-Qaida front group announced Sunday it had captured American soldiers in a deadly attack the day before, as thousands of U.S. troops searched insurgent areas south of Baghdad for their three missing comrades.

The statement came on one of the deadliest days in the country in recent weeks, with at least 124 people killed or found dead. A suicide truck bomb tore through the offices of a Kurdish political party in northern
Iraq, killing 50 people, and a car bombing in a crowded Baghdad market killed another 17.

Troops surrounded the town of Youssifiyah and told residents over loudspeakers to stay inside, residents said. They then methodically searched the houses, focusing on possible secret chambers under the floors where the soldiers might be hidden, residents said. The soldiers marked each searched house with a white piece of cloth.

Soldiers also searched cars entering and leaving the town, writing “searched” on the side of each vehicle they had inspected. Several people were arrested, witnesses said.

The Islamic State in Iraq offered no proof for its claim that it was behind the attack Saturday in Mahmoudiya that also killed four U.S. soldiers and an Iraqi translator. But the Sunni area known as the “triangle of death” is a longtime al-Qaida stronghold.

If the claim proves true, it would mark one of the most brazen attacks by the umbrella Sunni insurgent group against U.S. forces here. Maj. Gen. William Caldwell, spokesman for the U.S. military, said 4,000 U.S. troops backed by aircraft and intelligence units were scouring the farming area as the military made “every effort available to find our missing soldiers.”

President Bush was also getting regular updates on the missing soldiers, said Gordon Johndroe, a spokesman for the White House’s National Security Council in Washington.

The early morning attack on two U.S. military vehicles outside of Mahmoudiya, about 20 miles south of Baghdad, left the bodies of the four U.S. soldiers and their translator badly burned.

Caldwell said the bodies of the interpreter and three of the slain soldiers had been identified, but the military was still working to identify the fifth.

Later Sunday, the Islamic State of Iraq posted a brief message on a militant Web site saying it was responsible for the attack and held an unspecified number of U.S. soldiers. The group promised more details later.

- More ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/14/2007 at 01:04 AM   
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   Sunday - May 13, 2007

Sunday Science

Since it’s Sunday, let’s delve into some cosmic science and have a little fun for a change. Now ... “creationists” will tell you that things happened the way they happened because that’s the way God intended them to happen and therefore he made them happen. So-called “evolutionists” will tell you that “s**t just happens” and we’re all just a 15 billion year long series of accidents.

I tend to agree with the former because the life spark in this hairless monkey body I currently occupy likes to think of itself as somewhat more than the product of an accidental collision between two protozoa a few billion years ago. No, something bigger had to have a hand in there somewhere and I would really like to ask that “something bigger” why He (or She) left me with an appendix at the end of things. But I digress. I’ll take that up with Him (or Her) later.

For now, let’s just suppose for a moment that about 65 million years ago our Solar System looked somewhat different than it does today and in between Earth and Jupiter there was another massive gas giant like Jupiter or Saturn and it had two moons, one of which was destined to become Mars and the other consigned to be smashed into asteroids ...

Both of these planetary changes occurred about 65 million years ago, when suddenly one fine Thursday morning the finger of God reached out and touched the hypothetical Planet V which they revolved around, smashing it to oblivion and starting a chain of events that caused a certain creature to appear on Earth about 3.2 million years ago, as that planet suddenly ended a period of extremely hot global warming and cooled down enough to became a veritable Garden Of Eden.

This is not an attempt to be sacrilegious, I assure you. It is but a feeble attempt to understand the old saying that “God works in mysterious ways” or as Albert Einstein said, “Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind.”

I’ll leave it to you to figure out how snakes and apples came into all this. For now though, just wrap your head around this theory and let’s discuss the possibilities. After all, what else are brains for? They’re utterly useless without ideas ....

In this study, we wish to focus our attention on hypothetical original Planet V, which occupied the position in the solar system now held by Mars; and on its original twin-moon companions, Mars and Body C. The evidence that Mars was a moon of an exploded planet is extensive. The existence of a “twin” is required by fission theory if the parent body was liquid or gaseous, and by evidence suggestive of a second explosion affecting Mars. This twin is the body most likely to have held life, as suggested by findings of water and organic molecules and evidence for weathering in meteorites dated close to Body C’s indicated explosion date of 3.2 million years ago.

Of those two moons of Planet V, Mars was apparently closer to Planet V than Body C was. This is because Body C most likely took less damage than Mars did when Planet V exploded 65 million years ago. Had it been the other way around, life of any kind might not have survived or evolved to an advanced stage on Body C. However, we tried developing the dynamical tests in this article assuming the opposite order (Body C as the innermost moon) and found no solutions compatible with the applicable theories and available evidence, Of course, both moons would have been badly damaged by the Planet V explosion. But both managed to survive for the next 62 million years in mutual orbit around each other, which indicates that damage done by the Planet V explosion was not the sole cause of the much later Body C explosion, or of its timing.

-- “The Violent History Of Mars”, Tom Van Flandern, MetaResearch

Postulate I: Correlation Earth, 65 Million Years Ago

During the End-Cretaceous (K-T) extinction (65 million years ago) eighty-five percent of all species disappeared, making it the second largest mass extinction event in geological history. This mass extinction event has generated considerable public interest, primarily because of its role in the demise of the dinosaurs.

-- “The End-Cretaceous (K-T) Extinction”, Steven M. Stanley, “Extinction”

Postulate II: Correlation Earth, 3.2 Million Years Ago

The Pliocene epoch itself contains episodic climate fluctuations prior to the late Pliocene cooling, and our focus for study is a warm period in the middle Pliocene between 3.15 and 2.85 million years before present and, as such, spanned the period of time during which the Earth transitioned from relatively warm climates to the generally cooler climates of the Pleistocene. This transition included the emergence of the direct ancestors of humankind and contains the beginnings of cyclic Northern Hemisphere glaciation.

-- “The Climate of the Pliocene: Simulating Earth’s Last Great Warm Period”, Mark A. Chandler, NASA GISS

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/13/2007 at 01:27 PM   
Filed Under: • Religion • Science-Technology •  
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Sunday Editorial

You can call it “going wobbly” or you can call them “surrender monkeys” if you wish but it must be noted that at any other time in our nation’s storied past they would have been called “traitors”, and at the very least, arrested and tried for sedition. George Washington just had them shot. Andrew Jackson was more direct and shot them himself. Abraham Lincoln had them locked up and clapped in irons for the duration. Arrested as spies, internment camps, sentenced to death and actually executed - that is how people of this ilk have been dealt with in the past. What happened to change all that?

I agree with Mike Reagan that the Leftists (Democrats) have gone all wobbly ... again. Vietnam permanently scarred the Democrat Party and allowed a complete takeover by Liberal defeatists and socialist snake-oil salesmen. “Going wobbly” has become a habit they can’t shrug off. It’s the monkey on their back and even though some in that party may recognize the destructive nature of the habit, they’re hooked.

So they go into denial and pretend to fight the addiction to surrender when in actuality they’re just fighting attempts by others (read: Conservatives, Republicans) to help them get over their Vietnam Syndrome. That’s where the real problem comes in. The rest of us conservatives and moderates are also going wobbly. We have treated these cheesy surrender monkeys in our midst with kid gloves and refused to give them the tough love they need to recover. In short, we let them get away with ridiculous pronouncements, asinine legal maneuvers and even political chicanery.

The overall end result of all this wobbliness is that sooner or later a lot of Americans are going to die. Let me repeat that ... a lot of Americans are going to die. That is no scare tactic - it is a fact. Those who hate us and wish for our destruction are not going wobbly. If anything, they are regrouping and gathering strength.

On December 7, 1941 a little over 1,500 military personnel and 48 civilians were ambushed and murdered at Pearl Harbor by outside forces bent on our destruction and another 1,100 wounded in an unprovoked act of war. Our nation rose up and fought back. Spies were shot, traitors were locked up and the enemy was destroyed.

On September 11, 2001 over 2,800 American civilians were ambushed and murdered in our nation’s largest city by outside forces bent on our destruction and over 3,000 American children were left without a parent. Since then we have tracked the enemy down, beaten him back, destroyed his base of operations in Afghanistan and taken the fight to Iraq to begin the task of making sure we will not be attacked again from radical forces in the Middle East.

Then suddenly we all went wobbly. The Democrats are only doing what the surrender monkey on their back forces them to do. They have no backbone for a fight unless it’s against a weak opponent ... and right now that weak opponent is you and me and the rest of us who should know better. The predetermined outcome of this wobbliness by all of us is most definitely going to be another attack - in the form of a suitcase nuke or biological agent smuggled into the country and used to kill not just thousands but hundreds of thousands or millions of Americans. More American children will be left without a parent ... and they will be asking us why we didn’t do something before it was too late. I can’t wait to hear your answer ....

_{Gary McCoy - Cagle Cartoons}

Going Wobbly
-- by Michael Reagan

Maggie Thatcher had a great line about politicians who lose their nerve when faced with a big problem: she warned them against going wobbly.

That warning would be lost on the members of today’s national Democratic Party. They’ve gone far beyond that stage. Nowadays they have no problem with being seen as America’s surrender monkeys.

Covering their eyes so they won’t be able to see how their policies will bring on a holocaust that will afflict the Middle East, and their ears so they won’t hear the cries of hundreds of thousands of Iraqis and Afghans as they are butchered by al Qaeda and Iranian terrorists, they are willing to stand by while chaos reigns in the entire region, a major part of our oil supply is cut off, and terrorism comes home to our front door.

Their latest gambit, carried out under the guise of an organization of veterans calling themselves VoteVet.org, a group affiliated with the Soros-funded far-left MoveOn.org – a Democratic front group—has sponsored a TV ad featuring retired Gen. John Batiste, Gen. Paul Eaton and failed Democratic presidential candidate Gen. Wesley Clark.

The ad opens with a clip of President Bush saying, “I have always said that I will listen to the requests of our commanders on the ground.”

In the ad Batiste says, “Mr. President, you did not listen. You continue to pursue a failed strategy that is breaking our great Army and Marine Corps. Mr. President, you have placed our nation in peril. Our only hope is that Congress will act now to protect our fighting men and women.”

What Batiste is really saying is that President Bush doesn’t listen to him, which, thankfully, is true. Instead, the President is listening to his top general in Iraq, General Petraeus, and the other generals there.  They are on the ground, know what’s going on there, are following a carefully thought out strategy, and they are convinced they can bring about a political solution – which the Democrats are demanding - by first making it possible by wiping out al Qaeda and other foreign fighters and quelling the sectarian violence which stands in the way of political unity among all Iraqis.

The blatantly obvious political motive behind the group was noticed by retired Gen. William Nash, a senior fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations. He told ABC, “When you become part of the political process, you’re taking some part of your uniform into that arena and that is an issue that many soldiers, whether they be active or retired, would have a problem with.”

The group’s ads target GOP House members Mary Bono of California, Phil English of Pennsylvania, Randy Kuhl and James Walsh of New York, Jo Ann Emerson of Missouri, Timothy Johnson of Illinois, Mike Rogers and Fred Upton of Michigan and Michael Castle of Delaware.

Recognizing the real source of the ads, English’s spokeswoman Julia Wanzco sneered, “The congressman has long stated that he is for a political settlement not a surge, and at the end of the day, these ads are more about cheap Democratic political stunts than about solving the actual problem.”

Solving the problem, however, is not what this is all about. Sen. Harry Reid, the hapless Democrat majority leader in the Senate, made it quite plain what his party’s motive in all but surrendering to Osama bin Laden is all about: winning more seats in the Senate next year. National security be damned; full speed aft.

When he had the gall to all but tell al Qaeda that they have won and we have lost, he in effect told out troops – you know, all those soldiers and Marines over there in harm’s way—that they are wasting their time risking life and limb; that’s it’s a losing battle. What a great morale builder that was!

In using front groups like MoveOn.org and VoteVets.org to spew their venom the Democrats have shown that they learned a lesson from the Soviets, who all but created the strategy of hiding behind innocent-sounding fronts here in America.

It’s too bad that officers with splendid military records are allowing themselves to be the patsies for the surrender monkeys.

---

_{Mike Reagan, the eldest son of the late President Ronald Reagan, is heard on more than 200 talk radio stations nationally as part of the Radio America Network. Look for Mike’s newest book, “Twice Adopted.” E-mail comments to Reagan@caglecartoons.com. ©2007 Mike Reagan.}

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/13/2007 at 11:01 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Editorials • Iraq •  
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Sunday Funnies

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/13/2007 at 10:33 AM   
Filed Under: • Humor •  
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   Saturday - May 12, 2007

Photo Of The Week

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/12/2007 at 09:36 PM   
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Quote Of The Week

“I am ready to face the consequences of violating probation. I do not expect to be treated better than anyone else who violated probation. However, my hope is that I will not be treated worse.”

-- Paris Hilton, who will start her 45-day jail sentence June 5 but will probably not serve more than three weeks (if even that much time) due to prison overcrowding. She has filed an appeal with Governor Schwarzenegger for clemency.

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/12/2007 at 01:20 PM   
Filed Under: • Celebrities • Crime •  
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Week’s Poll Numbers

It’s time to check in with the week’s poll numbers and see what people are thinking about their guvmint. The polls below (source: Real Clear Politics) show President Bush still around 35% approval rating. Oddly enough, Congress’ approval rating is also around 35%.

But ... but ... but I thought the Democrats in Congress were now governing with a “mandate” from the people and making all kinds of changes, enacting new legislation and turning back the Eeeeevil BushHitlerCheneyHalliburtonCo conspiracy. It’s obvious folks aren’t too happy with any of our guvmint officials right now. Is this Bush’s fault too ... ?

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/12/2007 at 10:01 AM   
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Mom

Tomorrow is Mothers Day. You didn’t forget, did you? OK, I am giving you fair warning this year. You now have twenty-four hours to get your slacker butt off the couch and plan something for your Mom tomorrow. Failure to do so will result in severe punishment. I kid you not.

You can go buy her flowers or sweets. You can take her out to dinner. There are a thousand things you can do to show your love and respect for the woman who raised you. For what it’s worth, I suggest just wait until she is not looking and sneak up on her, give her a big hug and say “I love you, mom.”

My mother passed away in 1991. I sure wish I had another chance to do that very thing for her one more time. In the meantime, here is a story of one mother’s love and devotion you need to read. Make note of the address to send contributions to.

For Mother’s Day - A Mother’s Determination
-- By Tom Purcell

It was 1994. She thought she’d heard a faint wheezing in her baby’s lungs. She took her baby to the doctor right away, who sent her to a specialist. The doctor said it was nothing – probably a touch of acid reflux. He said it was common for new mothers to overreact. He said he’d run some tests to be safe.

Later that night, she was preparing for bed. The phone rang. It was the doctor. Her daughter tested positive for Cystic Fibrosis. The doctor warned her not to panic. The tests could be wrong – he’d run them again the following day. He warned her to avoid reading about the illness until it was confirmed.

But she couldn’t wait. She threw a rain coat over her pajamas, grabbed her sleeping baby out of her crib, then rushed out to a late-night book store. As she cradled her baby in her arms, she read everything she could about CF.

It is an hereditary disease that causes a child’s lungs, intestines and pancreas to become clogged with thick mucus. It is fatal. She’d be lucky if her daughter survived into her 20’s.

She broke down in the book store. She slid to the floor, crying uncontrollably as she held her baby tightly. She cried as though her baby had already been taken away. The doctor confirmed the lab results. The pain was unbearable. She and her husband did not know what to do.

She reached out to a friend. Luckily, her friend knew plenty about CF. She knew former NFL star Boomer Esiason and his wife Cheryl. They have a son with CF. They’ve done extensive fundraising for the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation, and now head their own foundation.

The Esiasons contacted her right away. They understood her pain well and consoled her. They shared everything they knew about the illness. She was instantly transformed. She began channeling her pain into mastering CF. She learned how to apply medications and treatments to give her daughter the best hope.

She learned of CF’s other challenges, too. Though there are 30,000 Americans who suffer from the illness, the number is too small to spur drug companies to do research. The CF market cannot generate enough revenue to recoup the millions needed to develop new drugs.

So she took the bull by the horns. She quit her job and jumped into the CF fundraising business full time. She joined boards and chairs events. She gives speeches wherever she can.

The money she raises goes to the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation. It hires its own scientists to advance its own medical breakthroughs (90 percent of the funds raised go directly to research). Thanks to so many just like her, the average lifespan of a child born with CF has jumped to 36.5 years.

But that isn’t good enough for her. In 1998, her second daughter was born with CF. There was only a 25 percent chance that she and her husband, both CF carriers, would have another CF child, but fate struck again. They felt unbearable pain again.

Every day is a battle for her now. Every day, her girls must take a collective 34 pills and an array of oral medicines. They must complete 10 breathing treatments and six 30-minute therapy sessions. The treatments and medicines are designed to extend their lives.

Every day, she works tirelessly to raise money to advance any technique or medicine that might extend a CF child’s life a little longer – that might, if promising new research goes as hoped, cure this dreaded disease. Hers is the story of a mother’s love – a mother’s powerful determination to breathe life into thousands of children.

Her name is Angela Kinney and she could use a little help. She’ll be participating in the Great Strides walk in Pittsburgh on May 20th (an event that is held throughout May in cities across America). To contribute to her efforts go to http://www.cff.org/great_strides/angiekinney or contact her directly at angiekinney@comcast.net.

You might want to wish her a Happy Mother’s Day while you’re at it. She’s certainly earned it.

---

_{Tom Purcell is a humor columnist nationally syndicated exclusively by Cagle Cartoons. For comments to Tom, please email him at Purcell@caglecartoons.com.}

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/12/2007 at 06:44 AM   
Filed Under: • Editorials • Medical •  
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Saturday Silliness

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/12/2007 at 06:39 AM   
Filed Under: • Fun-Stuff •  
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Weekend Eye Candy

College Co-Eds - 101

OK, guys! Show of hands! How many of you are willing to admit that we love the ladies for their brains and not their body? C’mon, now! You know they’re smarter than us. The fact that they are so beautiful really doesn’t matter, does it?

Oh, well. You slobbering animals will learn one day. Today we are giving a little lesson in feminine intelligence. We have four delightfully smart college co-eds who are working on serious degrees at small colleges and universities.

So take the tour and examine the bright, intelligent look in all of their eyes. EYES, I Said! These are the gals you need to help you with your homework. Study hard and click the image of lovely Jessica Erin Sylvia to enter the Gallery. (WARNING: NSFW)

Posted by Hugh Hefner     on 05/12/2007 at 06:17 AM   
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   Friday - May 11, 2007

America Alone?

Meet the new face of our ally in the War on Terror in Iraq. This is Gordon Brown, the new resident of Number 10 Downing Street. Tony Blair hasn’t even managed to clear his bags out of his office yet and the new Prime Minister is already making noise about “reversing Blair’s policies in Iraq” and leaving the US to manage things on our own.

Prime Minister Brown seems to be more concerned about saving Britain’s health care system and “economic development” than he is about Islamic radicals and the growing problems in the Middle East. I’m sure he has Britain’s best interests at heart and I wish him well. Thus it must be.

Perhaps his next announcement will include a note from Osama Bin Laden and an announcement of “peace in our time”? We shall see.

Those who forget the past are doomed to repeat it. And so, the next chapter is brought to a close and a new chapter begins in the long history between the United States Of America and the United Kingdom. May God have mercy on us all ...

Brown Reviews Strategy On Iraq
_{(LONDON TIMES) - May 12, 2007}

Gordon Brown plans to fly to Iraq to review British policy and troop numbers after using the launch of his leadership campaign yesterday to try to make a decisive break with the Blair era.

The Chancellor said he would govern Britain in a different way – “I want to lead a government humble enough to know its place” – as he lambasted the excessive use of spin and the cult of celebrity, and pledged to restore trust in Labour and politics.

But he also accepted for the first time that mistakes had been made in Iraq, saying that much more must be done to promote economic development and political reconciliation.

His decision to make an early visit to see army chiefs on the ground and the Iraqi Government will raise speculation that Mr Brown would like to speed up the timetable for British withdrawal. British forces are due to hand over control of Basra to Iraqi forces by the end of the year, when troop levels will be reduced from about 7,000 to 2,000.

British forces are due to pull out of Saddam’s former palace in the centre of the city this summer, and eventually all British forces and the consulate will be relocated to the airport.

One of the Chancellor’s allies said last night: “His current assessment is that the the timetable is right. But such matters must be kept under review and that will be among the purposes of his visit, although his big concern is to make the people of Iraq feel they have a stake in their country through economic development.”

A change of policy on Iraq would be considered a dramatic shift from Mr Blair’s stance, but diplomatic sources said that the strong US criticism of President Bush for sending 25,000 more troops to Baghdad gives Mr Brown an opportunity to accelerate the withdrawal process.

Mr Brown could go to Iraq within weeks if the Left fails to raise enough votes from MPs to challenge him for the Labour party leadership. But, if there is a Continued on page 2, col 4 contest he would not be able to use taxpayers’ money for a government trip that might be seen to boost his standing.

Mr Brown used his launch speech in London to distance himself from elements of Mr Blair’s legacy: “As a politician I have never sought the public eye for its own sake. I have never believed presentation should be a substitute for policy. I do not believe politics is about celebrity.”

- More ...

Posted by The Skipper     on 05/11/2007 at 11:21 PM   
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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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