If you are in the Houston area seeking shelter from Hurricane Katrina, DO NOT GO TO THE ASTRODOME! While those who are in the Superdome are being taken to that site, there are no current plans to open it up to those beyond the folks being specially transported from the Superdome in New Orleans.

Where should you go? Try the following locations, as listed on the Red Cross site.

HOUSTON – August 31, 2005- The Red Cross has opened 19 shelters in the Greater Houston area to help disaster victims forced from their homes by Hurricane Katrina. The shelters will remain open and additional shelters will be opened as necessary.

As of Wednesday evening

# Mont Belview Sr Center (Full 112 capacity)
11607 Eagle Drive

# Baytown Community Center (150/250 capacity)
2407 Market St
Baytown, Tx

# Memorial Baptist Church
(Full/capacity 135)
600 W. Sterling (full capacity)
Baytown Texas 77520

# St. Peter Claver
(Full/ capacity 220)
6005 N. Wayside Drive
Houston Tx

Moody Methodist Church
2803 53rd Street
Galveston, Texas

New Shelters

# Spring Tabernacle
(Full capacity 200)
3034 FM 2920
Spring, Tx 77338

# Gloria Dei Lutheran Church
(capacity 250)
18220 Upper Bay Rd-Nassau Bay
Houston, Tx

# St. Mary's Catholic Church
(capacity 200)
701 Church Street
Brenham, Tx
#

# Fairmont Park Baptist Church
10401 Belfast (150 Cap)
LaPorte, Tx

# New Life Central
2104 Underwood (350 Cap)
LaPorte, Tx

# 1st United Methodist Church
4308 W. Dallas
Conroe, Tx
(capacity 200)

# 1st Baptist Church
906 Ave A
Katy, Tx

# 1st Baptist Church
1229 Ave J
Huntsville, Tx

# Lee College Gym
200 Lee Drive
Baytown Tx

# St. Maximillian Catholic Church
10135 West Rd
Houston Tx

# Missouri street Church of Christ
3400 S. Hwy 146
Baytown, Tx 77520

# North Forest School Bldg
11433 Surburb
Houston TX 77016

# North Forest School Building
6511 N. Wayside
Houston, Tx

# Kingwood United Methodist
1799 Woodland Hill
Kingwood Tx 77339

#

Also a Red Cross information Hotline number regarding locations of shelters is available for Hurricane Katrina victims. Call Red Cross 1-(866) GET-INFO. Due to the high demand, the Houston Chapter has opened a local phone bank to provide information on Houston Area Red Cross activities at 713.313.5480. The number for the Louisiana State Police: 1.800.469.4828.

Families and individuals are advised to bring along basic personal items that they will need in the shelter. Those items should include pillows and bedding items, essential medications and health- related items, extra clothing, and a toy or activity for any children they might be bring with them.

The centers will provide a safe haven for individuals and families evacuated from homes affected by Hurricane Katrina.

Posted by: Greg at 03:01 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I encountered this bit in one of the hagiographic articles about Cindy Sheehan. I guess this is what comes of allowing bloggers from Daily Kos to write your copy.

Sheehan, whose son Casey died in Iraq, camped outside the president's Central Texas ranch a month ago to demand a meeting with him. The Vacaville, California, woman hasn't gotten an audience, but she attracted a lot of support. She's promised to carry her protest to Washington and beyond after Bush goes back to work.

Let me help you out.

1) She had a meeting with the President LAST YEAR. She can demand all she wants, but there needs to be honesty about what she really is seeking. Cindy Sheehan wants a second meeting with the president, one in which he doesn’t talk and she gets to harangue him with her leftist rants about the war.

2) Sheehan has gotten support, but she has also gotten quite a bit of opposition. Why don’t you mention that detail? Could it be that it doesn’t fit your take on the story?

3) What is this “back to work” crap? Don’t you realize that the a presidential vacation is anything but a time of fun, sun. and no work? The briefings go on, the decisions go on, the work goes on – just in a different location.

Posted by: Greg at 12:28 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I encountered this bit in one of the hagiographic articles about Cindy Sheehan. I guess this is what comes of allowing bloggers from Daily Kos to write your copy.

Sheehan, whose son Casey died in Iraq, camped outside the president's Central Texas ranch a month ago to demand a meeting with him. The Vacaville, California, woman hasn't gotten an audience, but she attracted a lot of support. She's promised to carry her protest to Washington and beyond after Bush goes back to work.

Let me help you out.

1) She had a meeting with the President LAST YEAR. She can demand all she wants, but there needs to be honesty about what she really is seeking. Cindy Sheehan wants a second meeting with the president, one in which he doesnÂ’t talk and she gets to harangue him with her leftist rants about the war.

2) Sheehan has gotten support, but she has also gotten quite a bit of opposition. Why donÂ’t you mention that detail? Could it be that it doesnÂ’t fit your take on the story?

3) What is this “back to work” crap? Don’t you realize that the a presidential vacation is anything but a time of fun, sun. and no work? The briefings go on, the decisions go on, the work goes on – just in a different location.

Posted by: Greg at 12:28 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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All America has watched as Cindy Sheehan and company have pursued their anti-American protest in Crawford, proving that the United Stats is not the dictatorship they claim. I've approved of very little that has gone on at Camp Dhimmi (unlike his mother, I refuse to dishonor Casey Sheehan by calling it by his name) , but I did see this one bit of news that I want to note and praise.

Amid all the comings and goings around Camp Casey on Sunday, peace activists Genevieve Van Cleve and Peter Ravella got married.

The aisle was strewn with hay, and the crowd hummed "Here Comes the Bride."

"This is meaningful. This has substance," said Van Cleve, 34, of Austin. "We completely support what they're doing, and we just wanted to add whatever love, fidelity, loyalty and honor that we could."

I don't agree with their politics, and the couple sound like typical hippie-dippy Austinite liberals. That doesn't matter. Some things transcend politics.

Peter and Genevieve have made a serious committment that is a thing of beauty. If I agree with and support nothing else that went on as part of the Crawford protests, I offer my support here.

Congratulations to the happy couple, and may God bless them with many years of joy and love.

Posted by: Greg at 12:02 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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If ever there was a jumping of the gun by police and prosecutors, this was it. Why on earth were charges filed in this case?

MARION, Va. (AP) - A judge dismissed a manslaughter charge against a teenager whose 5-year-old half-sister died after he put her in a coin-operated laundry machine that then began running.

The ruling Thursday by Judge Charles Lincoln came after prosecutors said they did not believe they could convict the 14-year-old boy.

The boy put 30-pound Hope Wagoner into the triple-load machine "during a playful game between brother and sister" on June 17 in Chilhowie, defense attorney John Graham said.

The boy put no coins in the machine but it started anyway, Graham said. The boy tried "frantically" to stop the washer and free his sister, taking a large rock from the parking lot to smash at the glass, Graham said.

The children's mother, Rebecca Wagoner, ultimately used the same rock to break through the glass and free Hope. The child died of asphyxiation, a medical examiner ruled.

Rebecca Wagoner has sued the washing machine's maker, claiming it knew the model had a history of starting up without the insertion of coins but failed to fix the problem.

Where I grew up, this fell into the category of "horrifyingly tragic accident". It did not rise to the level of criminal behavior.

Bravo to the judge who had the common sense to see that there was no way a jury would ever convict.

Posted by: Greg at 02:05 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Yesterday I told you all about the Iraq Soldier Hoax that played out in the pages of the Daily Egyptian at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. Well, the story gets stranger as I read the coverage by Carbondale's REAL newspaper, the Southern Illinoisan.

First, we find out that the DE was not the only entity spoofed -- a Detroit church was also scammed a couple of months ago. Patrick Trovillion, who thought he was playing the part of Dan Kenner in a documentary project, may just have revealed why "Kennings" had to "die" in Iraq.

He also detailed a trip only three months ago when he traveled with Reynolds and the child playing the part of Kodee to a Detroit church that had befriended many American soldiers in Iraq. Trovillion said Reynolds instructed him to "stay in character" during the entire service.

"This was a huge church and we were seated in the front row and the pastor introduced me as Dan Kennings, so I thought they all knew that this was part of the documentary," Trovillion said. "I mean these people were hugging me and telling me they loved me and I just went along with it; I thought they were just playing the part. I even got in the car and told Jaime (Reynolds) 'those people were good ¦ they were just awesome.' I even got up in front of the congregation and gave a little speech. This church was very supportive of Dan and they knew Kodee."

Reynolds said he didn't know if the church gave any money to Reynolds on the trip but said she paid him $400 to make the overnight trip to Detroit. Attempts to reach the pastor of the church were unsuccessful.

Trovillion said he has not spoken with Reynolds in "a few months" but said he began to have serious doubts about the validity of the project after he contacted the youth pastor at the Detroit church.

"I told her who I was and she acted like she didn't recognize my name," said Trovillion. "I told her that I was the guy that had played the part of Dan Kennings and she said 'Is this some kind of sick joke?' I didn't know what to say and after what I've learned in the last few days I still don't know what to say. She (Reynolds) didn't just scam me and Kodee and the Daily Egyptian - she scammed the pastor and the entire congregation of that church."

Trovillion was paid $400 for the trip -- I wonder how much money Jaimie Reynolds milked from that congregation?

For her part, Reynolds has quit talking.

MARION - Though many believe Jaimie Reynolds concocted the story of Kodee Kennings because she craved attention, the former Southern Illinois University Carbondale student wanted nothing to do with the news media that came knocking at her door Friday.

The elaborate, year-and-a-half-long hoax Reynolds promoted through the guise of 10-year-old Caitlin Hadley, of Montpelier, Ind., caught the attention of media outlets statewide and throughout the Midwest.

Several reporters and camera crews, including The Southern Illinoisan, spent time outside Reynolds' home in the 800 block of West Boulevard Street in Marion. Reporters made multiple attempts to speak with Reynolds. However, they were either answered with silence or the quiet admonition of a middle-aged woman, assumed to be a family member of Reynolds, from the back doorstep.

Friday's silence represented a marked change in Reynolds' behavior with the media.

You know, that silence may be her first smart move, especially if she has eceived even a penny on behalf of Dan and Kodee Kennings. The word for having done so would be "fraud".

For his part, former editor Michael Brenner, who was responsible for much of the Kodee coverage, is being sought by the media for interviews. The only problem is that they are not job interviews, but rather story interviews.

The networks are clawing for interviews with former Daily Egyptian editor Michael Brenner.

But he's worried if he'll ever land a job in journalism.

"Who's going to want to hire me after this?" Brenner asked in a telephone interview with The Southern Illinoisan from his grandparents' home in Indiana.

The former editor of the Southern Illinois University Carbondale student newspaper is at the center of a media firestorm.

ABC wants to fly him to New York City. So do NBC and CBS. CNN has called, too, he said.

Friday afternoon, Brenner was fielding a constant barrage of calls from the media.

Brenner recently quit his job as a sportswriter with the East Oregonian, a job he landed shortly after donning his gown and receiving his diploma in the December 2004 SIUC graduation ceremonies.

He said he left the Oregon job after only a few months because he wanted to spend time with his family in Illinois - and with the girl he said he had known as "Kodee Kennings."

Now he is the focus of questions and debate in the media world.

He claims he was "an idiot."

For Brenner's sake, I hope he really was simply an idiot who got duped. Reynolds has claimed that she and Brenner were a couple, and that the hoax was his idea. It seems hard to believe he would be that stupid, but then again either option indicates he was stupid. Did he fake a story he couldn't possibly sustain long-term, or did he simply get suckered? Given that he involved his own parents with Reynolds, I want to believe that he is a victim. But there is some evidence that he might not be -- and that he is enjoying the attention.

As journalists continue to attempt to unravel the Kodee mystery, many are asking, "Why?"

Why did the people who played roles in the hoax get involved? What was the motive?

I spoke to a lot of fellow journalists who have been poking around in this case and most of them seem to be willing to give Brenner the benefit of the doubt.

I am still skeptical.

Here's my problem: One moment, Brenner says he's distraught. Then a second phone rings (he was juggling two phones most of Friday afternoon) and his voice turns giddy.

Frankly, he seems flattered by all of the media attention. Rather than draw the curtains in shame and retreat (as did Colleen Hastings/Jaimie Reynolds on Friday) Brenner seemed to revel in it.

In the last of many phone conversations I had with Brenner on Friday, he told me that he had committed to be on "Good Morning America" and "Nightline" on Monday. ABC had won the battle of the networks. According to him.

I'm very interested in the story. It is happening in my old stomping grounds -- litterally in my old backyard (I lived and worked just a block from the SIU Campus for a couple of years in the late 1980s). My family has a connection going back to my dad and his siblings starting school there in the early 1950s, continuing through the my generation and including two members if the family teaching for the university. I want to see how this story turns out -- and how the perpetrators are dealt with by the powers that be.

***

MORE ON THIS STORY FOUND AT Michelle Malkin, Resistance is Futile, Angry in the Great White North, Florida Masochist, Doc Rampage, Harleys, Cars, and Girls, Salient Points, Florida Cracker, With Cheese, It Comes In Pints, Brainster's Blog, Getting Nothing But Static From MSM, Out of the Box, Don Surber, The Busch Stadium III Photo Blog, My Yellow Country Teeth, Musings From Brian J. Noggle, Right Nation and Tim Blair.

Posted by: Greg at 09:58 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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The man has been sentenced to death. Why should we force-feed him if he wants to go on a hunger strike and kill himself?

A judge granted Montgomery County jail officials yesterday the authority to force-feed convicted sniper John Allen Muhammad, who has refused to eat or drink since he was transferred Monday from a Virginia prison.

Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge James L. Ryan issued the order after the county's Department of Correction and Rehabilitation filed court papers yesterday saying Muhammad was "in imminent danger of very serious bodily harm, including death, if he does not begin to receive nourishment within the next several days."

Corrections officials said in the court papers that Muhammad, 44, objected to the food at the jail in Clarksburg and to limits on his access to legal documents. The court papers quote Muhammad as directing a correctional officer to tell the warden to "get the IVs ready."

Muhammad's attorney, public defender Paul DeWolfe, argued during a hearing yesterday that the county should resolve the problems with his client rather than force-feed him. Nonetheless, the judge gave the go-ahead to feed him against his will if necessary.

As of about 9 p.m. yesterday, authorities had not exercised that option, said a person familiar with the situation, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the high-profile nature of the case.

Personally, I’d say “Buh-bye, John!”

Posted by: Greg at 12:23 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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The former top-level exec with Air America is on the lam, with $875,000.

The former chairman of Air America Radio, Evan Montvel Cohen - who former colleagues said engineered transfers of more than $800,000 to the liberal radio network from a boys and girls club in the Bronx - is missing, according to a lawyer who is trying to have him served with legal papers.

At least two people have said Mr. Cohen is in Hawaii. He has not responded to a series of e-mail messages in recent weeks from The New York Sun asking him about his role.

Mr. Cohen, 39, helped lead the launch of Air America in March 2004. Less than two months later, Piquant LLC acquired the radio network from Mr. Cohen's Progress Media. Piquant LLC has agreed to pay $875,000 to Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club, without interest, in installments over the next two years.

Watch out kiddies – he might be after the contents of your piggy banks next. He has a history of stealing from children.

Posted by: Greg at 12:18 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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The former top-level exec with Air America is on the lam, with $875,000.

The former chairman of Air America Radio, Evan Montvel Cohen - who former colleagues said engineered transfers of more than $800,000 to the liberal radio network from a boys and girls club in the Bronx - is missing, according to a lawyer who is trying to have him served with legal papers.

At least two people have said Mr. Cohen is in Hawaii. He has not responded to a series of e-mail messages in recent weeks from The New York Sun asking him about his role.

Mr. Cohen, 39, helped lead the launch of Air America in March 2004. Less than two months later, Piquant LLC acquired the radio network from Mr. Cohen's Progress Media. Piquant LLC has agreed to pay $875,000 to Gloria Wise Boys & Girls Club, without interest, in installments over the next two years.

Watch out kiddies – he might be after the contents of your piggy banks next. He has a history of stealing from children.

Posted by: Greg at 12:18 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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Would you trust a study by a tobacco company scientist that showed no connection between smoking and cancer? I didnÂ’t think so.

Why then would you trust a study by an abortion industry scientist and an abortionist regarding fetal pain?

Two of five authors of an article published in a medical journal on Wednesday saying that fetuses probably cannot feel pain before the 29th week of pregnancy did not tell the journal that they had abortion-related activities that might be seen as a conflict of interest, the journal's editor said Wednesday.

The editor, Dr. Catherine D. DeAngelis, of The Journal of the American Medical Association, said in an interview that had she been aware of the activities, the journal most likely would have mentioned them. But she added that the disclosure would not have kept the article from being published, because editors and outside experts who had read the manuscript before publication had found it scientifically sound.

One author, Susan J. Lee, a medical student, is also a lawyer who for eight months from 1999 to 2000 worked in the legal department at Naral, an abortion rights group. Another author, Dr. Eleanor A. Drey, performs abortions and is medical director of an abortion clinic.

Neither tried to conceal those activities from reporters before the journal article was published. Dr. Drey's role as an abortion provider was reported in The New York Times on Wednesday; Ms. Lee was not quoted or mentioned. All the authors are from the University of California, San Francisco.

Anti-abortion groups criticized the journal's failure to mention the two authors' work and said their backgrounds revealed a bias that cast doubt on their findings. The National Right to Life Committee issued a statement yesterday calling Ms. Lee and Dr. Drey "pro-abortion activists" whose conclusions were "predetermined by their political agenda."

The fact that Dr. DeAngelis did not know about the authors' activities was first reported Wednesday in The Philadelphia Inquirer.

The journal article questioned the need for proposed state and federal legislation that would compel doctors to tell women having abortions at 20 weeks or later that their fetuses would feel pain and to offer pain medicine specifically for the fetus.

In interviews yesterday, Dr. Drey and Ms. Lee said they did not regard their work as a conflict of interest and so it had not occurred to them to report it to the journal editors.

Really – you make your money working in that particular industry, and your conclusion is that the industry needs not be regulated. If you don’t see the conflict, you have no ethics.

Oh, yeah, you work for the abortion industry. You have no ethics.

Posted by: Greg at 12:15 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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They say they are all about women’s health. Why, then, would they sign a deal that would allow them to make a 500% profit on emergency contraception – while undercutting all the local pharmacies?

If the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) "gives a green light for over-the-counter distribution, Planned Parenthood stands to take in a minimum $100 million profit over a five-year period from sales of the Plan B 'morning-after' pill," said Jim Sedlak, executive director of American Life League's STOPP International.

"Such action from the FDA would allow Planned Parenthood to take maximum advantage of a sweetheart deal the organization arranged with Plan B's owner, Barr Pharmaceuticals," to buy the drug at below-market cost and undercut other pharmacies' retail prices, he stated.

Sedlak said the details of the business deal were exposed when internal emails of the Planned Parenthood Federation of America (PPFA) were made public during a California court case. These documents show how the organization worked out a secret arrangement with Barr Pharmaceuticals, the owner of the Plan B patent.

Under a five-year agreement, Planned Parenthood would be able to buy Plan B from Barr at bargain-basement prices, undercut local pharmacies and clear an average $20 profit on each Plan B kit, according to Sedlak.

Let’s consider the numbers. PP would get the drug at $4.25. They deal let’s them sell it at $25.00. Local pharmacies average $32.00. Over five years, the “non-profit” group dedicated to “women’s health” would rake in a $20 million profit a year dispensing this medication that they consider so essential that they want it turned into an over-the-counter drug – with PP as the cheapest distributor while getting a preferred price.

I'm all for capitalism. I've go no problem with a business or individual making a profit. But this is a non-profit organization that claims to be engaged in charitible work. Those being gouged here are the organization's clients.

So why is Planned Parenthood out to make a profit off of poor women during a time of great personal crisis?

Posted by: Greg at 12:13 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I don't know how many of you saw the news coverage about Hilary Lister. For a quadrablegic to manage to navigate the English Channel using a sip=and-puff mechanism to control her boat is more than merely impressive. I'm at a loss for words.

A British woman on Tuesday became the first quadriplegic to sail solo between Britain and France across the English Channel, coast guards said.

Hilary Lister, 33, who is able to move only her head, eyes and mouth, took six hours to navigate her boat, the Malin, unaided through one of the busiest and most treacherous shipping lanes in the world.

"It is very emotional for me. I was absolutely certain that once I got in the boat that I could make it to France. I am too stubborn to give up," Lister told reporters as she quaffed champagne after arriving at the northern French port of Calais.

"I want to get able-bodied people to rethink their views about the disabled," she said, adding that she now wants to sail around Britain's coast.

Coast guards at the southern English port of Dover, where Lister began her journey, said it was the first time a quadriplegic had made the voyage solo.

Lister's vessel has been adapted to be controlled by the "sip and puff" method, allowing Lister to adjust the sails and tiller by blowing and sucking through two straws.

Hillary Lister was once an athlete, before her illness.

Ms Lister has been a quadriplegic for four years, due to a progressive degenerative disease, reflex sympathetic dystrophy, which has worked its way up from her ankles to her neck.

And that is what made this story speak to me so loudly.

You see, I find this story both inspiring and heart-breaking at the same time. As some of you who read my words know, from time to time I talk about my wife's health problems, and the "cluster of degenerative neuromuscular conditions" that she struggles with. One of the two major ones is the condition from which has rendered Ms. Lister wheelchair bound. Fortunately, Paula's condition has not deteriorated to anything even approximating that of Hilary Lister, butthe article reminds me of the bravery that she shows every day. It also serves as a sobering reminder of what the future may hold for the two of us.

Let it be enough to say to you, my readers, that Paula is the light of my life and that the ten years we have been married have been a source of such joy to me.

And if you should ever come by the site and read this post, I want you to know that I love you, sweetheart, and that you are very much a hero and an inspiration to me.

Posted by: Greg at 02:58 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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We have many American heroes fighting in Iraq and Afghanistan. HereÂ’s an American coward hiding in Canada, Joshua Key.

Key and his wife Brandi (shown) were at Algoma University College last night to talk about American war resisters like himself and to appeal to Canadians for help.

Their visit was part of the official launch of the New Democratic Youth of Canada's national War Resisters Campaign. aimed at convincing the Canadian Government to grant sanctuary to American servicemen and women who object to the war in Iraq.

Audience members were told last night that Josh suffers from severe posttraumatic stress disorder because of the events he witnessed and was forced to participate in while stationed in Iraq.

Because of his condition and because of the estimated 8,000 or more American war resisters like him. the Keys and others are calling for changes to the Immigration Act of Canada.

"The war in Iraq is illegal," Josh said. "We are hoping people of Canada will stand up and say war resisters are welcome here."

Canada is welcome to keep this coward – though I would prefer to see a SEAL team sent in to get him so that he can face his punishment as a deserter.
I wonder – is there any possibility that the US government could revoke the citizenship and passport of this filth and his family so that we can ensure that they are never, ever, permitted to set foot on American soil again?

Posted by: Greg at 12:50 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I spent a lot of years in Lake County, Illinois, when my dad was stationed at the Great Lakes Naval Training Center in various capacities. People in the area were always appreciative of the sailors, though sometimes a bit wary. IÂ’m glad to see that some have taken the time to show a bit of kindness to the military personnel among them.

Random acts of kindness are happening in Lake County.
Restaurants on the North Shore say their patrons are getting into the habit of picking up the tabs of fellow diners who happen to be military personnel as a gesture of goodwill.

At Egg Harbor Cafe, a cozy breakfast and lunch spot in Lake Forest, sailors from the Great Lakes Naval Base in North Chicago are treated to free meals several times a month. Diners started picking up the tab after Sept. 11, manager Michelle Rasmus said.

Most of the time, it's done anonymously. All of the time, the sailors are "very grateful," she said.

The restaurant has even taken a page from diners and foots the bill of one table of military personnel every month, Rasmus said.

At the Lantern, a family-style restaurant in Lake Forest, servers have come to recognize one male customer in his 30s who always picks up soldiers' tabs when he is there.

"Sometimes their tab is bigger than his tab," said waitress Sheena Shelafoe, who has seen it happen at least five times.

It is rather heart-warming to hear about folks who want to show a little kindness for those in uniform. It’s one reason that the area will always have a special place in my heart, as one of those areas this military brat still thinks of as “home”.

Posted by: Greg at 01:17 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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This piece of excrement was gifted with talent and opportunities that many young people only dream about. He chose to be a self-centered thug, and has continued to descend to deeper depths of scumdom over the years.

Former NFL running back Lawrence Phillips, who was wanted by police for domestic violence, was arrested Sunday after allegedly running his car into three teenagers who argued with him during a pickup football game, police said.

Police had been seeking Phillips since earlier this month for allegedly attacking his girlfriend twice, once choking her into unconsciousness.

Phillips joined a group of 16- and 17-year-olds in a pickup football game in Exposition Park on Sunday and got into an argument with several of the teens, said Los Angeles police officer Sandra Escalante. He left the park, but returned and drove a black Honda onto the field, allegedly running into three teenage boys, she said.

The teenagers were taken to a local hospital with non-life threatening injuries, police said.

The car Phillips was driving was reported stolen in San Diego earlier in the week, Escalante said.

Phillips was arrested and held on the domestic violence felony warrant. Charges are pending in the Sunday incident, she said.

Now tell me -- What the hell could a couple of teenagers have done or said that meritted trying to run them down? But then again, why ask? He has a string of arrests for abusing women that date back to his college days.

I remember the day this cretin was drafted by the St. louis Rams, recently announced to be coming to the city near what was then my home. I was shocked and disgusted, as was my wife. We both knew that he was unlikely to have the discipline to use his talents to their fullest -- and that even if he did, he would be simply one more example of the thugification of popular culture.

I've watched as his every move has borne out my worst expectations and more.

Go to jail, Lawrence Phillips. Go directly to jail. Do not pass Go. Do not collect $200.

You had better start praying that your jailhouse daddy treats his bitches better than you did yours.

Posted by: Greg at 04:41 PM | Comments (6) | Add Comment
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Who cares about the safety of himan beings -- the wolves must be restored!

A federal judge Friday ordered the Bush administration to step up efforts to restore the gray wolf to New York and three other northeastern states, a ruling that environmentalists called a major victory.

"The wolves are howlin' " in celebration, said Patrick Parenteau, director of the environmental law clinic at Vermont Law School.

Judge J. Garvan Murtha found that the Interior Department violated federal law in 2003 when it issued a rule saying no further efforts to restore the wolf were needed.

The ruling also covers Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont.

Efforts to restore wolves had been successful in Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan. The government wanted to lump those states in with the Northeast in a new, 21-state eastern region, and declare that enough had been done to restore wolf populations throughout the eastern United States.

Anthony Tur, a Fish and Wildlife Service field officer in Concord, N.H., said the agency's headquarters in Washington would decide whether to appeal the ruling.

He questioned the push to build gray wolf populations in the Northeast, saying public support for such a move was unclear. He also cited disagreement in the scientific community about whether gray wolves ever populated the region.

Environmental groups argued that good wolf habitats are available in northern Maine and New York's Adirondack Mountains and that northern Vermont and New Hampshire likely would become an important corridor for wolves migrating between the two areas.

And here I was hoping for releases in Chappaqua, Harlem, and Manhattan.

Posted by: Greg at 03:00 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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Pro-abortion activists might want to consider this story as a serious challenge to their position supporting the destruction of innocent human life in the womb.

Three weeks ago, surgeons at Texas Children's Hospital performed an act of medical derring-do: They operated on an infant while he was still partially in his mother's womb and receiving oxygen through the umbilical cord.

On Friday, 21-day-old Garrett Wilson Jorgensen slept peacefully in his mother's arms, a handsome reminder of the blessings of modern medicine. Born at 7 pounds and 15 ounces, the healthy boy was headed home.

Now remember, when little Garrett had the life-saving surgery he was in precsely the same state that Planned Parenthood, NARAL, and the rest of the pro-abortion profiteers argue is less than human, bereft of rights, and fodder for partial-birth abortion.

Instead, this amazing procedure was performed.

Last month, [Ellen] Jorgensen and her husband, Christopher, were looking forward to the birth of their first child when a routine ultrasound revealed something frightening: a mass blooming inside the baby's chest.

The news became worse. The fast-growing tumor was pressing against the baby's heart and impeding blood flow. If Jorgensen went into labor unexpectedly, doctors said, the baby wouldn't survive — there was no room for his heart to beat or his lungs to expand.

An Austin physician referred Jorgensen to Texas Children's Hospital, one of a handful of hospitals in the nation offering fetal surgery to correct life-threatening abnormalities.

Four days later, Jorgensen was on an operating table in Houston, undergoing an operation known as an ex utero intrapartum treatment, or EXIT.

Developed in 1995 at the University of California at San Francisco, Children's Hospital, surgeons perform a modified Caesarean section and partially remove the fetus from the womb to undergo surgery while it is still attached to the umbilical cord. This allows surgeons to repair an airway obstruction or other breathing problem before the baby is delivered and forced to breathe on its own. Texas Children's did its first EXIT operation in 2001. Other successful surgeries have followed.

On July 29, Jorgensen underwent a two-and-a-half-hour EXIT operation in which doctors lifted the baby's head and shoulders from the mother's uterus and attached breathing tubes and intravenous lines.

Next, surgeons made an incision in the baby's chest, and brought the mass — which was taking up two-thirds of his chest cavity — outside his body. Only then did they cut the umbilical cord. They finished detaching the mass and completed the surgery in an adjacent operating room.

"The infant almost didn't make it to birth and (he) was deteriorating rapidly in the hours before the procedure," said lead surgeon Dr. Oluyinka Olutoye, co-director of the hospital's Texas Center for Fetal Surgery and an assistant professor of surgery at Baylor College of Medicine. "There was no room for the lungs to expand."

Olutoye said there was no evidence of malignancy in the mass, a rare growth called an immature mesenchymal neoplasm, and doctors were able to remove all of it. The surgeon said it was fortunate that the mass developed late in pregnancy, giving the baby's lungs a chance to grow.

My best wishes to little Garrett and his parents, Ellen and Christopher Jorgenson of Round Rock, TX.

Posted by: Greg at 02:48 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Energy independence.

Renewable energy.

Non-polluting resources.

These are all things that liberals tell us they support.

But not the ones up in the Cape Cod area.

Take this local resident -- Ted, a public employee from Hyannisport.

Leading this charge is Sen. Ted Kennedy, whose famous compound would have a nice view of the turbines. (To be fair, though most people say the turbines would be hard to see except on very clear days, and even then they'd be tiny blips on the horizon.)

But Ted wants no such thing spoiling cocktail hour on the veranda. So he drafted his famously green nephew Robert to join the fight - even though Robert is a senior lawyer for the Natural Resources Defense Council, which strongly backs the project.

Obviously, the reason this is so much fun is that the stakes are so small for everybody except a handful of people who deserve to lose. Personally, I couldn't really care one way or the other. I think the aesthetic arguments have some merit, but I also think wind power has more potential than most of its critics claim. The windmills would ultimately provide about 75 percent of the energy used by Cape Cod and the surrounding Islands, including Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard - in a clean, renewable form that, unlike older technologies, wouldn't kill birds in an avian frappe. Seventy-five percent of the area's power needs may be a rounding error when discussing America's total energy consumption, but that's a lot for any specific community.

But Ted isn't alone in ensuring that the windmills, located 5-13 miles offshore, don't clutter their ocean view with little blips out on the horizon. Take Walter, a retiree from Martha's Vinyard.

When a reporter for The New York Times Magazine called Walter Cronkite, a windmill opponent, and asked him about the proposal, the retired newsman bristled at the suggestion that this was all about selfishness. But, he had to confess, that's exactly what it is.

"The problem really is Nimbyism," he conceded by telephone, "and it bothers me a great deal that I find myself in this position. I'm all for these (windmills), but there must be areas that are far less valuable than this place is." The reporter prodded, and he said maybe the California desert would work. Isn't that a bit far away to supply Cape Cod? Well, he added, "Inland New England would substitute just as well." In fact, any place but here would do just fine.

Is seemed to dawn on Cronkite that such honesty wasn't serving his cause or himself, he interrupted his train of thought and implored the reporter, "Be kind to an old man."

In other words, sacrifices must be made -- but by the little people, not us.

Posted by: Greg at 04:06 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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I've heard liberal Democrats call for taxes to increase prices to encourage conservation. It's been a staple of the "green" Left for a generation.

Now prices have risen to the realm they have supported -- and they are complaining.

Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid on Friday said the Bush administration should require U.S. oil companies to disclose their fuel pricing policies and production costs.

In a letter to the White House, Reid also said the Federal Trade Commission should investigate instances where a state's retail prices rise 20 percent in any given week "to determine if the price of gasoline is being artificially manipulated."

Past FTC probes into U.S. oil company pricing policies have found no sign of abuse.

And then there is this one.

Separately, Democratic Sen. Bill Nelson of Florida said the White House should ask oil companies for a voluntary, temporarily freeze on prices that they charge gasoline distributors.

Hey -- the prices are up, just like you people wanted. It is having precisely the impact that conservatives have said it would have. And yet you complain. Is the problem simply that the money is going into private hands, rather than the US Treasury for you to spend?

And let's not forget that you have stood in the way of drilling off-shore and in ANWR for years. Maybe we should investigate the impact of those policies that you supported.

Posted by: Greg at 12:49 PM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
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I thought this story was done. I figured that the use of an arguably anti-Semitic slur on a diner's ticket and the boorish behavior of the manager who ejected the diner for complaining was over, given that the employee was gone and the restaurant had issued a half-hearted apology. I figured that the New Jersey Attorney General would investigate and say tha this was a one-time incident, and the case would be closed.

Maybe not. It seems that abusive comments by staff have appeared before on the restaurant's checks, and the insulted patrons have been brushed off.

A second customer has come forward accusing Parkhill's Waterfront Grill of writing an insulting label on her check.

Joanne Fordyce ate at the restaurant July 15, 2004, but the 34-year-old human resources director didn't immediately notice that she had been dubbed "Dirty Joanne" at the bottom of her bill.

She discovered the receipt a month later while switching pocketbooks. When she went to the restaurant for an explanation, general manager Malia Wells referred her to then-owner John Parkhill, who said he didn't know anything about the bill and walked away, Fordyce recalled Friday.

Fordyce contacted the state Division of Civil Rights after reading newspaper accounts this week about the experience of Elliot Stein, 23, of New York.

I'd doubt the story -- except for the fact she still has the check with the insult on it. You can't make up something like that.

The response of the restaurant is also consistent with the action towards the patrons labelled as "Jew Couple" on their check.

Restaurant spokesman Stephen Reid, who had previously called Stein's experience an isolated incident, was at a loss to explain Fordyce's bill. He said the bartender responsible for the "Dirty Joanne" notation was no longer working there but had not been fired.

"I don't know how that happened, or why it was there. It was wrong. These are two wrong circumstances that should never have happened. We hope, now that we changed our procedure, that it won't happen in the future."

He labeled Fordyce a problem customer, saying she had a "checkered past" at the restaurant and has since been banned.

"She's been asked to leave a couple times. She's rude, picking fights with the customers and patrons," he said.

Fordyce denied that, saying the restaurant was grasping at straws because of all the bad publicity.

I don't know whether Fordyce has such a "checkered past" or not. Since the diner in the other case was ejected for making a fuss, it could be that the restaurant's philosophy is "the customer is always wrong."

Now in their defense, the restaurant has gone to a table numbering system and has a message on their answering machine commenting on the situation.

"In response to recent news reports, we at Parkhill's deeply regret and apologize for recent actions of a former employee who carelessly used poor judgment in identifying a patron's religion or race on a bar tab. These actions do not reflect the beliefs and values of our staff. Parkhill's prides itself in treating all of our customers like family."

Maybe they are finally taking the situation seriously.

What I will say is this -- I don't agree with Fordyce's call for the state to shut the restaurant down.

That's for the public to do, if they find the restaurant to have engaged in egregious conduct.

It's called a free market.

NOTE: Some customers of the restaurant have rallied to its defense, commenting on an earlier post. They seem to think the food and people are great. I just wonder how the one fellow, whose surname is obviously Italian, would have reacted to a check reading "Wop Couple" or "Dago Family"?

Posted by: Greg at 11:53 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Could you imagine doing this to a disabled kid?

If you're a 7-year-old kid with cerebral palsy and autism, you have to take your laughs anywhere you can get them.

Just don't have too much fun at the local movie theater, or you might get thrown out.

That's what happened to young Anthony Pratti this week. To say his parents are upset about it would be an understatement.

Anthony, who uses a wheelchair, was with his parents, his sister and his grandmother at the Loews Cineplex theaters in the Galleria at Crystal Run Sunday, watching a 1:15 p.m. matinee of the G-rated film "March of the Penguins."

The family sat in the wheelchair section provided by the theater. Anthony was having a good time, said his mom, Gina Pratti.

"He was laughing, but he really wasn't much louder than any of the other kids," she said.

About 15 minutes into the film, one of the theater's managers approached the family, she said.

"He said our son was laughing too loud," Pratti said. "My husband told him Anthony didn't understand, that he was disabled, but that we'd try to quiet him down."

Not good enough, apparently – the manager brusquely told the family that Anthony had to leave, Pratti said.

Outraged, the family followed the manager to the lobby, where they were told they all didn't have to leave – just Anthony, Pratti said.

Pratti was dumbfounded.

"I said to him, what are we supposed to do, wheel him outside and leave him there?" she said.

The manager refunded the family's ticket purchase and sent them on their way, she said.

Well, Loews, what do you have to say and what are you going to do to make your facilities handicapped accessible and friendly?

UPDATE: Loews seems to have gotten the message -- and responded appropriately.

Posted by: Greg at 02:00 PM | Comments (4) | Add Comment
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This is in keeping with what I heard from a friend from church who had a senior role with the Discovery mission (I live five miles from Johnson Space Center).

NASA may push back plans to launch its next shuttle mission until March 2006, allowing engineers more time to solve an ongoing foam shedding problem with orbiter external tanks.

A September launch attempt of the space shuttle Atlantis and its STS-121 mission – NASA’s second orbiter to fly since the Columbia disaster – is all but out, with space agency officials stating last week that chances were slim they would make the four-day window that opens on Sept. 22.

Shuttle managers are discussing whether to push past a brief, four-day launch window in November, and even switch shuttles – launching Discovery instead of Atlantis – for the next orbiter flight, NASA officials said.

“There have indeed been discussions about that,” NASA spokesman Allard Beutel told SPACE.com, adding that an update on NASA’s shuttle program status is set for 12:00 p.m. EDT (1600 GMT) today.

Unless I miss my guess, the spring mission is a done deal. The September window is too quick, there really isnÂ’t a good window through most of the winter, and a delay until March gives them significant time to accomplish something.

But I will also note – while the folks at JSC are committed to flying the shuttle, many of them are already involved in projects that are focused on the next generation of craft and their missions. Do not be surprised to hear increased talk of placing objects into L1 & L2 orbits

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You have to wonder whether reality ever comes knocking on Bob HerbertÂ’s door. If it did, would the writer with the unsettling demeanor of a Steppin Fetchit for the DNC even bother to answer? Mr. Herbert is the clueless NY Times columnist who opposed the draft when he was younger but now wants to draft people based upon socio-economic status rather than continue our successful practice of having a volunteer military.

You have to wonder whether reality ever comes knocking on George W. Bush's door. If it did, would the president with the unsettling demeanor of a boy king even bother to answer? Mr. Bush is the commander in chief who launched a savage war in Iraq and now spends his days happily riding his bicycle in Texas.

And if the ad hominem comment in the first paragraph of this post offends you, shouldnÂ’t the second?

Posted by: Greg at 01:49 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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According to this press account, the restaurant referenced in my post yesterday has offered an apology for labeling patrons as “Jew Couple” on their bill – and their charge submitted to VISA.

Stephen Reid, a spokesman for the restaurant, said it had been the waitstaff's practice to use descriptions of diners to identify them on checks, instead of using the table number, as many establishments do. He couldn't say how long the policy had been in effect, but said the restaurant has since switched to a table-numbering system.

"Let's say you came in in a blue shirt, and I wore a blue cap with "USA' on it. So they say the guy with the blue shirt and blue cap is table two," Reid said.

He said racial slurs were never used to describe diners. The restaurant, which is 8 years old, is owned by Michael Parkhill.

The restaurant issued a statement Wednesday saying, "We deeply regret and apologize to anyone who was offended by the actions of one of our former employees who identified patrons by their religion/race on a bar tab."

Seems weak to me, since it is unclear to what degree they have made amends to the offended patron, who was ejected to the restaurant for complaining. What do you think?

And, perhaps more importantly, what does the New Jersey Attorney GeneralÂ’s office think, as they are investigating the situation.

Posted by: Greg at 01:44 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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Maybe I wonÂ’t speak firmly to that customer service rep next time I place a customer service call.

Until recently, LaChania Govan's complaints about Comcast's service seemed relatively tame. The 25-year-old Elgin mother of two said she was put on hold, disconnected, even transferred to the Spanish language line.

But after persistent problems with her digital recording system forced her to make dozens of calls to the cable company in July, her August bill came with a change really worth complaining about: In place of her name were the words "Bitch Dog."

"I could not believe it," said Govan, who works in customer service for a credit card company.

She said she immediately called Comcast to cancel her service and was sent to an operator.

"She asked me for my name. I said, `You really don't want me to go there,'" Govan said.

Recounting her problems on Tuesday, she said she was transferred to a supervisor who assured her he would find out what happened and get back to her soon.

“Get back to her soon.” That is Customer Service Rep slang for “You ain’t gonna hear a thing from us, sucka!”

I realize that dealing with irate customers isn’t easy, but that’s the nature of the job. I’ve had customer service representatives tell me “you’ll just have to live with the problem” when I have called about in-warranty repairs to products. I had a credit card company many years ago that couldn’t get my billing address correct. I won’t even get in to the story of the Postal Service supervisor who hung up on me rather than deal with my problem.

I hope that Ms. Govan gets some satisfaction – and not a suggestion from Comcast that she do a legal name change to come into conformity with their records.

Posted by: Greg at 02:58 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
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I don’t know how 4 out of 10 constitutes “half”, but the data confirms what we already know – the Mexicans are coming in droves.

In the survey of 1,200 Mexican adults, conducted in May by the Washington-based Pew Hispanic Center, 46 percent said they would like to live in the United States if they had the opportunity. Among college graduates, 35 percent said they would head north.

"Even at the high ends of the socioeconomic characteristics, we see that the propensity to migrate is quite strong," said Pew Hispanic Center Director Roberto Suro in Washington. "Mexico's economy doesn't satisfy their expectations."
The survey also concluded that 21 percent of Mexicans are inclined to work in the United States without proper entry documents.

Maybe yesterdayÂ’s suggestion of invasion and annexation isnÂ’t such a bad idea. After all, they would no longer need to move in order to be in the United States.

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If they consider this acceptable, it is clear that they are not the “family restaurant” they claim to be – unless anti-Semitism is one of your family values.

Two diners on a date at a fancy Jersey Shore restaurant were furious when they saw the check — which listed their table as that of the "Jew Couple."

Brooklynite Elliot Stein says he was shocked that a waitress at the Parkhill's Waterfront Grill in Allenhurst [New Jersey] printed the slur instead of a table number on his $36.75 bill.

As if that weren't bad enough, the 23-year-old shoe buyer told The Post, the offensive phrase then turned up on his credit-card statement two weeks later.

The response of restaurant management?

Stein said he took the offensive bill and showed it to Jewish friends seated nearby who said they could not believe it.

When the group started questioning the manager, Stein said she simply told them there was nothing derogatory about the statement.

Stein said he was then asked to leave for making a fuss.

The restaurant's general manager, Malia Wells, yesterday told The Post that the offending phrase was a matter of "poor judgment on the part of a bartender."
The server, shown as Karina on Stein's bill, has since "moved on," Wells said. She would not say whether Karina was fired.

"We are a family restaurant, and we welcome everybody," she said, adding that the words "Jew Couple" were never intended to be derogatory.

And I suppose that “Spic Couple” would be just fine, too. Not to mention “Niggers”, which your fine staff probably also uses. I know I would raise a real fuss if “Fat Couple” showed up on my bill. After all, none of it is meant to be derogatory, right Ms. Wells?

That your manager tossed out the offended couple for daring to challenge the use of a slur on the check tells me there is something much more sinister at work. How about all the decent people on the Jersey Shore making their disgust with bigotry in their midst by finding somewhere else to eat if there isn’t a more sincere apology? It shouldn’t take long to shut the place down if one is not forthcoming.

Posted by: Greg at 02:54 PM | Comments (17) | Add Comment
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If they consider this acceptable, it is clear that they are not the “family restaurant” they claim to be – unless anti-Semitism is one of your family values.

Two diners on a date at a fancy Jersey Shore restaurant were furious when they saw the check — which listed their table as that of the "Jew Couple."

Brooklynite Elliot Stein says he was shocked that a waitress at the Parkhill's Waterfront Grill in Allenhurst [New Jersey] printed the slur instead of a table number on his $36.75 bill.

As if that weren't bad enough, the 23-year-old shoe buyer told The Post, the offensive phrase then turned up on his credit-card statement two weeks later.

The response of restaurant management?

Stein said he took the offensive bill and showed it to Jewish friends seated nearby who said they could not believe it.

When the group started questioning the manager, Stein said she simply told them there was nothing derogatory about the statement.

Stein said he was then asked to leave for making a fuss.

The restaurant's general manager, Malia Wells, yesterday told The Post that the offending phrase was a matter of "poor judgment on the part of a bartender."
The server, shown as Karina on Stein's bill, has since "moved on," Wells said. She would not say whether Karina was fired.

"We are a family restaurant, and we welcome everybody," she said, adding that the words "Jew Couple" were never intended to be derogatory.

And I suppose that “Spic Couple” would be just fine, too. Not to mention “Niggers”, which your fine staff probably also uses. I know I would raise a real fuss if “Fat Couple” showed up on my bill. After all, none of it is meant to be derogatory, right Ms. Wells?

That your manager tossed out the offended couple for daring to challenge the use of a slur on the check tells me there is something much more sinister at work. How about all the decent people on the Jersey Shore making their disgust with bigotry in their midst by finding somewhere else to eat if there isnÂ’t a more sincere apology? It shouldnÂ’t take long to shut the place down if one is not forthcoming.

Posted by: Greg at 02:54 PM | Comments (94) | Add Comment
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Americans still love Lucy. Lucille Ball is the top rated star on Marketing Evaluations, Inc.'s list of deceased celebrities.

Lucille Ball is America's most beloved dead star. The company that developed the "Q score" that broadcasters and advertisers quietly consult to measure a personality's popularity has done a survey that tests the reputation of performers who have gone on to that big soundstage in the sky.

The redheaded sitcom star of the 1950s and '60s, who died in 1989, has topped past "Dead Q" lists as her comedies seemingly live forever on television, said Steve Levitt, president of Marketing Evaluations, Inc., which conducts the tests.

"What is there not to like about Lucy?" he said.

Bob Hope, John Wayne, Jimmy Stewart and Red Skelton follow her on the popularity list.

Ms. Ball, who died in 1989, was understandably unavailble for comment.

Posted by: Greg at 11:08 PM | Comments (44) | Add Comment
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I think this letter from the Houston Chronicle stands up well all by itself.

Honoring a hero's way home

Last weekend I returned home to Houston on a Continental flight.

As our plane approached the gate, the captain announced that we would be greeted by an arch of water from waiting fire trucks in order to honor a hero on board. At first I was confused, but once we got to the gate, I understood.

We watched from the windows as the ground crew respectfully removed a piece of cargo and placed it in a special van. The size of the cargo, the markings and the fact that it was accompanied by a military officer made it clear that our flight was privileged to accompany a fallen hero, coming home on a final journey.

I do not know who the hero was, or who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect the values that Americans hold dear, but I prayed for the family and friends left to mourn, and for the other warriors who risk their lives to protect us.

I also appreciated the staff at Bush International Airport for its respectful tribute.

JAMES ALLEN
Sugar Land

Thank you to all the folks at Bush Intercontinental Airport who made this tribute happen.

And may God bless this unknown hero and his family.

Posted by: Greg at 12:19 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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ABC News anchorman Peter Jennings has died after a battle with lung cancer.

ABC News Anchor Peter Jennings died today at his home in New York City. He was 67. On April 5, Jennings announced he had been diagnosed with lung cancer.

He is survived by his wife, Kayce Freed, his two children, Elizabeth, 25, and Christopher, 23, and his sister, Sarah Jennings.

In announcing Jennings' death to his ABC colleagues, News President David Westin wrote:

"For four decades, Peter has been our colleague, our friend, and our leader in so many ways. None of us will be the same without him.

"As you all know, Peter learned only this spring that the health problem he'd been struggling with was lung cancer. With Kayce, he moved straight into an aggressive chemotherapy treatment. He knew that it was an uphill struggle. But he faced it with realism, courage, and a firm hope that he would be one of the fortunate ones. In the end, he was not.

"We will have many opportunities in the coming hours and days to remember Peter for all that he meant to us all. It cannot be overstated or captured in words alone. But for the moment, the finest tribute we can give is to continue to do the work he loved so much and inspired us to do."

Jennings was someone I could not dislike, even as I often found myself in disagreement with him. I'm sorry to see him go.

May God grant him eternal rest, and may his family be comforted in this time of loss.

ADDITIONAL COMMENTARY: LaShawn Barber, Michelle Malkin, Captains Quarters, ConservaGlobe, The View From My Chair, Ramblings' Journal, The Political Teen, Patrick Ruffini, The MUSC Tiger, Grapevine's Ramblings, and Crooks and Liars.

Posted by: Greg at 05:10 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I'm one of those who is often critical of athletes and others who fail to do the right thing. Maybe its the money and the fame that cause them to forget to be decent human beings -- sort of like actors these days.

But I want ot give a shout-out to the Cincinnati Reds for doing right by a little boy at one of the worst moments of his young life. And yeah, I'm giving a hankie alert on this one.

Cincinnati Reds players rallied around a 6-year-old boy after his grandfather collapsed in the stands this week.

"We just tried to make a bad situation a little better," outfielder Ken Griffey Jr. told the Cincinnati Enquirer.

While paramedics were working on the grandfather, a security officer took the boy to the Reds' bullpen. The Reds did not release the name of the grandfather, who died Wednesday night of an apparent heart attack.

The boy, identified as Antonio Perez, sat with players for the last two innings of the game, and Griffey went and got him when the game ended. The boy participated in the Reds' high-fives celebrating their 8-5 victory over Atlanta, and he then joined the players in the clubhouse.

Clubhouse manager Rick Stowe said the Reds showered the boy with bats, wristbands and autographed baseballs. Shortstop Felipe Lopez gave him the batting helmet that he wore in this year's All-Star game.

The players entertained the boy until his parents arrived.

"We play a game," Griffey told the Enquirer. "What he was going through doesn't compare. It was important that the little guy not be by himself."

:et's be honest here -- these guys didn't have to do this. They didn't have to stick around with the kid or give him some really neat gifts. They could have stuck a ball cap on the kid's head and gone home, leaving the scared little guy to sit in the security office until his parents arrived, not knowing what was wrong with his grandfather.

But they did the right thing anyway.

And that is what separates the decent folks from the posers.

Gentlemen, you passed the real test of manhood, and I salute you.

And to the family of Antonio Perez, I extend my deepest sympathies on the loss of a beloved family member. May God comfort you in this time of loss.

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In regards to your most recent column:

1) He didn't flip the press the bird.

2) What makes you an expert on flipped birds?

3) Why use a hate-mongering hypocrite like John Aravosis as a source to condemn hpocrisy -- after all, he's a guy who believes in a right to privacy for liberal homosexuals only.

4) When did the press become royalty or the "representatives of the public"?

5) Didn't you have anything substantive to write about?

Posted by: Greg at 05:46 PM | Comments (3) | Add Comment
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1 Did you delete my earlier comment?

Bartleby

Posted by: Bartleby at Thu Aug 4 12:00:22 2005 (r/FBF)

2 No -- I wonder what happened to it, since it never made it to my box.

Posted by: Rhymes With Right at Thu Aug 4 12:30:46 2005 (fI2Yv)

3 OK - maybe I thought I hit submit before I left for work, but didn't.

Posted by: Bartleby at Fri Aug 5 00:14:30 2005 (r/FBF)

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Ralph Isenberg has vowed to starve himself to death if the government carries out its threat to deport his wife, a convicted prostitute who is in this country illegally.

Ralph Isenberg risked everything for her. His marriage of 30 years disintegrated. His best friend stopped talking to him. His adult son and daughter shunned him.

Now he says he's prepared to die for Yanhong Hu.

Mr. Isenberg, a member of Dallas' City Plan Commission, said he is planning to begin a hunger strike this week after trying everything to keep his new wife in the country.

Since they met about three years ago, he persuaded high-placed government and business leaders – including U.S. Reps. Pete Sessions and Eddie Bernice Johnson and the entire Dallas City Council – to write letters of support for her residency application.

But Monday, immigration officials said they would not allow Yanhong Hu, who now goes by Nicole Isenberg, to stay in the country past Aug. 15. The couple had sought a six-month extension after the birth of their daughter on July 1.

No. Hell no! Get her out of the country now. She has a history of immoral conduct and illegal activity, and therefore is ineligible to stay. And you are more than welcome to go with her, Ralph.

Paul Hunker III, chief counsel for U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Dallas, said Mrs. Isenberg needs four waivers for immigration law violations before the State Department can approve her application for permanent residency.

"This is really one of the most egregious cases I've seen in my 12 years as a government attorney," he said.

Mr. Sessions had lobbied for a six-month delay in her departure, citing concern for the health of the baby.

Wealth or political influence cannot be a factor in the enforcement of immigration law, but the birth of a U.S. citizen is strongly taken into consideration, Mr. Hunker said.

"Originally, the Aug. 15 date was set with the birth of their child in mind, because of a request made by their attorney," Mr. Hunker said. "If we didn't care about the child, we would have picked [Mrs. Isenberg] up and deported her."

So you see, this August 15 date is the one that you people asked for, Mr. Issenberg. You cannot now claim it is an unreasonable requriement. And you met your wife as one of her johns at a bathouse/massage parlour/brothel(?), so I find your statements that her conviction on prostitution charges was all a mistake to be less than persuasive.

Money and connections are no basis for a waiver of our nation's laws.

And Issenberg's threatened suicide is reason enough to speed up the deportation.

Posted by: Greg at 03:07 AM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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