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Sunday, December 17, 2006

ON VACATION, AND WITH MY BROTHER VICTOR IN TOWN…...

Since he was a history/biology major, and a big civil war buff, we’ve been touring some of the interesting sites in the area. One of the major turning points of the “war of northern aggression” was the BATTLE OF CHATTANOOGA.

After spending yesterday afternoon driving along Missionary Ridge and walking over Orchard Knob and the Federal cemetery on (I think) Indian Hill, this morning we got up early and drove out across CHICKAMAUGA DAM

Posted by Earl on 12/17 at 08:20 PM
Family Matters • (0) Comments •

Friday, December 15, 2006

HOW BIG A STRETCH MUST YOU MAKE TO BOOST YOUR SELF-ESTEEM…...?

If you’re really hurting, maybe this will help:

“People who are more intelligent as children, who will obviously keep that intelligence when they are 30, were more likely to say they are vegetarians at that age than those that were less intelligent,“ said Dr Catherine Gale, an epidemiologist at the University of Southampton in England.

Posted by Earl on 12/15 at 10:57 AM
Science • Health • Miscellany • Food • Politics • Healthcare • (1) Comments •

IT’S OKAY TO HATE THE LA DODGERS, BUT….....

You have to love and appreciate Tommy Lasorda!

TWO HOURS before Santa’s official arrival Tuesday night at the John Wooden Center, Lasorda stops by the pediatric cancer ward to visit those too ill to party. He shakes hands with the extraordinary Dr. Kathleen Sakamoto, and immediately launches into a story…..

(Later that day) An announcement is made that Santa will take a break, but Lasorda ignores it. He reaches for another kid, at a time when most 79-year-olds might’ve been reaching for the Motrin.

Two hours later every kid in the room has had time with Santa, and the backup Santa remains in full costume on a bench in the back, the call to the bullpen never coming.

It’s been the performance of a lifetime — for those fortunate to witness what one happy night can mean to some kids and parents — and Santa is dripping with sweat, exhausted and hunched over while sitting half out of costume. All that’s left for Santa now are a couple of cold pieces of pizza and hot dogs.

God bless him…..“inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these…..“
READ THE WHOLE THING

Posted by Earl on 12/15 at 09:05 AM
Family Matters • Miscellany • Religion • (0) Comments •

Thursday, December 14, 2006

HAPPY TO LIVE IN TENNESSEE…...

Where mychurch has a table in the lobby offering members the chance to write a letter to one of our soldiers….and where elementary school teachers can engage their students in showing apprciation for the guys (and gals) who keep them free.

READ THE WHOLE THING

Posted by Earl on 12/14 at 10:03 PM
Miscellany • Education • Politics • Iraq • (0) Comments •

I’M GETTING GRADES OUT AND REALLY DON’T HAVE TIME FOR THIS, BUT…......

I HAVE to share this with you. Charles Rangel recently made comments about how if our military guys had any other options they wouldn’t have “settled for” an Army (or Navy, etc.) career. Oh yeah?

Ari Steinmetz wanted to join up but didn’t make the cut:

I was also struck by the Doonesbury arc in which a student declares he can best serve his country at a hedge fund. My story is something of the opposite.

I tried to gain admission to the Air Force Academy but, while I received a congressional nomination, my school record wasn’t strong enough. I tried to enlist after college to enter flight school, but my recruiter said competition for such slots was too stiff and my test scores weren’t high enough. My fallback was the M.B.A. program at Columbia. After one semester there, my recruiter called me up to say a slot had opened for me. I jumped at the chance and dropped out of school. After three months of officer training I shipped out to flight school at Vance Air Force Base in Enid, Okla. While I had a great time, once again I didn’t make the cut and flunked out after nine months. I went back and finished my M.B.A. Now I am a mutual fund manager.

So, you see, I had to settle for an Ivy League M.B.A. and a Wall Street career because I wasn’t good enough for the military.

MORE responses to one of our Congressdummies are to be found HERE

HAT TIP: Brother Victor

Posted by Earl on 12/14 at 04:30 PM
Miscellany • Education • Politics • Iraq • (0) Comments •

Tuesday, December 05, 2006

WONDERING WHERE THE “MODERATE MUSLIM VOICES” ARE…....?

Well, Jamal Miftah spoke up - he published an article (no longer available on the newspaper website) in a Tulsa newspaper denouncing the terrorists and any mosque that provided money to the Muslim charitable groups that act as fronts (and financial conduits) for Hamas and other terror groups. For his trouble, he was threatened and then told not to come back to the mosque. Apparently, that ban HAS BEEN LIFTED, but the message is pretty plain—keep quiet if you want a peaceful life.

There’s a video interview with Mr. Miftah—SEE IT HERE

UPDATE:

If you’ve read the (single) comment on this post, you may be as curious as I am about its author, “Riaz Noor”. I noodled around with a search engine, and here is the most UP-TO-DATE INFORMATION I can find….. Enjoy.

Posted by Earl on 12/05 at 01:15 PM
Miscellany • COURAGE AWARDS • Politics • Iraq • (2) Comments •

WHAT WENT WRONG IN IRAQ…...?

I don’t normally pay any attention at all to VANITY FAIR MAGAZINE, but THIS ARTICLE makes a lot of sense. It looks like a lost opportunity, and the buck stops where it always does…..

Whatever the N.S.C.‘s deficiencies, say the neocons, the buck has to stop with the president. “In the administration that I served,“ says Perle, who was an assistant secretary of defense under Reagan, there was a “one-sentence description of the decision-making process when consensus could not be reached among disputatious departments: ‘The president makes the decision.‘“ Yet Bush “did not make decisions, in part because the machinery of government that he nominally ran was actually running him.“ That, I suggest, is a terrible indictment. Perle does not demur: “It is.“ Accepting that, he adds, is “painful,“ because on the occasions he got an insight into Bush’s thinking Perle felt “he understood the basic issues and was pursuing policies that had a reasonable prospect of success.“ Somehow, those instincts did not translate into actions.

History will sort this out, and apportion responsibility more fairly than we can at the moment. But one is reminded again that mastery of the minutiae isn’t nearly as important as that intangible quality we call “leadership”.

READ THE WHOLE THING

Posted by Earl on 12/05 at 12:32 PM
Politics • Iraq • (3) Comments •

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