Book Review

(It seems I'm not the only one doing them!)

When a book review is titled Behold a Pail of Horsepucky, it's pretty clear that the writer doesn't think anyone else should waste their time reading the book.

The book may be a waste, but just the review's title should tell you that that is an entertaining read.

Miami-Dade blogger's Cuban slant draws fans

Val at Babalu Blog mentioned and linked to an article in his local paper a while back.

Now, it's in mine, too!

Conga-rats, Val.

Debunking Myths

We've all gotten into them: useless discussions started by trolls and other forms of trouble makers. What they say (or write) defies logic, verifiable fact and/or common sense, but still they persist.

Some, like Ward Churchill, make a living by perpetuating their lies. Some folk just have web sites. And the gullible choose to believe them.

FROM THE MOMENT the first airplane crashed into the World Trade Center on the morning of September 11, 2001, the world has asked one simple and compelling question: How could it happen?

Three and a half years later, not everyone is convinced we know the truth. Go to Google.com, type in the search phrase "World Trade Center conspiracy" and you'll get links to an estimated 628,000 Web sites. More than 3000 books on 9/11 have been published; many of them reject the official consensus that hijackers associated with Osama bin Laden and Al Qaeda flew passenger planes into U.S. landmarks.

Healthy skepticism, it seems, has curdled into paranoia. Wild conspiracy tales are peddled daily on the Internet, talk radio and in other media. Blurry photos, quotes taken out of context and sketchy eyewitness accounts have inspired a slew of elaborate theories: The Pentagon was struck by a missile; the World Trade Center was razed by demolition-style bombs; Flight 93 was shot down by a mysterious white jet. As outlandish as these claims may sound, they are increasingly accepted abroad and among extremists here in the United States.

Popular Mechanics, investigatating 16 of the most "prevalent claims," assembled a group of experts to debunk the myths.

WARNING: Some of the photographs may be disturbing.

Via: Austin Bay.

Some people have way too much time

Johnny might be having problems reading and Suzy, math, but all will turn out just fine and dandy in Scottsdale, Arizona.

Yep!

The United School District there has come up with an "innovative" approach to . . . uh.

The United School District has . . . well, I don't know what the heck the purpose of what they did is and I bet you won't either.

To keep employees' focus on the student, someone there came up with the bright (gagging) idea of changing job titles. Oh, and the school board approved it.

The person formerly referred to as the receptionist is now "The Director of First Impressions." Bus drivers are now "Transporters of Learners."

More here and here.

Reaction is mixed.

Picture this?

Hmmmmmmmm, no.

Mark at auterrific blogged here pointing to an article in Slate. The article describes how a dog that had been tied to a tree was "rescued" by an individual, and the dog's subsequent journey to what will be its new home.

When Mark said it had inspired him to do the same thing (as was described) the next time he saw a dog in a similar situation, I bit his head off. And then came here because I wasn't sure how much room I had there.

If I was rough, Mark, I'm sorry, but I meant what I said. Call Animal Control or the Humane Society and report it and follow up on the complaints. Do not take matters into your own hands. "Rescuing" any animal in the manner described is theft.

Tank (the Yellow Lab) and his bestest buddy, The Wonderdog, who was found on the side of an Interstate with one front leg broken, the other smashed. And yes, his front legs are still that crooked, not that it's ever slowed him down.

I've known (and know) people who walk right onto people's property and snatch animal(s) because in their opinion its neglected. Aside from being (in my opinion) just plain crazy, the superior attitude of these folk bugs the HELL out of me.

Society's laws don't apply to them. The absolute nobility of their "cause" gives them the right to do whatever the heck they want. Point out that there are organizations and procedures in place, the response is more of their opinion. The system is insufficient, it's not timely, it's ineffective . . . but, I digress.

A few years ago I freelanced the "barnyard beat" for the local paper covering, among other things, animal shelters and rescue organizations in Northeast Florida. Yes, the specific region from which "Fly" was stolen.

I noted with interest that "Patsy Beckert" didn't bother to report the situation she observed to any of the normal agencies one would contact. Why, I wondered, was it necessary to transport Fly out of state when there's an already-established, absolutely outstanding rescue organization specifically for Border Collies in the area. All "Patsy" would have had to do was drop it off, or call them and one of their members would have picked it up from her. Heck, if "Patsy" had taken "Fly" to Animal Control or the Humane Society, either one would have called that rescue organization immediately. Why? Because of a long-standing arrangement.

Why bother to check and see if the owner had reported the dog missing? (Were they going to return it if it had been?) Why check with the police? They don't handle that stuff unless the owner had reported it stolen.

(GULP!)

What "local animal authorities" were the calls made to? The system, while vastly improved, is still in disarray. There is still no central registry which is why people are encouraged to make use of The Missing Pet Network and Petfinder.

Doesn't Katz, the author, realize he's admitted to the (anticipated) receipt of stolen property?

And what happens to "Fly" if she doesn't work out. Contrary to this hearts and flowers story, not all rescues do.

I doubt it, but perhaps she'll turn out to be an uncontrolable, untrainable vicious monster. Or, it might be that the resident dogs completely and totally hate her guts from the start, and it goes downhill from there.

To whom is Fly returned?

Returned? Yep, returned.

Another thing missed in that article is reputible and responsible adoption. To keep an animal from ever again being dumped / abandoned / mistreated, the agency through which the animal adoption occurred requires that it be returned to them if, for any reason whatsoever, it doesn't work out OR the "owner" can no longer provide care.

Oh, it's a feel good story full of drama and "heroic" figures, complete with an anticipated happy ending.

It's also bullshit.

Idle thoughts

Experience is the thing you have left when everything else is gone.

When the only tool you own is a hammer, every problem begins to look like a nail.

A flashlight is a case for holding dead batteries.

I had amnesia once -- or twice.

I went to San Francisco. I found someone's heart. Now what?

Protons have mass? I didn't even know they were Catholic.

All I ask is a chance to prove that money can't make me happy.

If the world was a logical place, men would ride horses sidesaddle.

What is a "free" gift? Aren't all gifts free?

They told me I was gullible ... and I believed them.

Teach a child to be polite and courteous in the home and when he grows up, he'll never be able to merge his car onto a freeway.

Two can live as cheaply as one, for half as long.

One nice thing about egotists: They don't talk about other people.

I planted some bird seed. A bird came up. Now I don't know what to feed it.

I used to be indecisive. Now I'm not sure.

The cost of living hasn't affected its popularity.

How can there be self-help "groups"?

The speed of time is one-second per second.

Is Marx's tomb a communist plot?

If swimming is so good for your figure, how do you explain whales?

Show me a man with both feet firmly on the ground, and I'll show you a man who can't get his pants off.

It's not an optical illusion. It just looks like one.

Is it my imagination, or do buffalo wings taste like chicken?

Via Hey, Joe!

The Death of Innocents

There are no exceptions for those who proclaim they want the death penalty abolished completely. For them, there is no crime too horrific or circumstance that warrants it. Ever. One of those individuals is Sister Helen Prejean, the author of DEAD MAN WALKING and the person Susan Sarandon portrayed in the movie by the same name.

Prejean is a skilled writer so her lapses in THE DEATH OF INNOCENTS are not due to inexperience. She writes purposefully with one simple goal in mind: to inflame passions.

Prejean's one-sidedness is blatant. The two men whose cases she examines, both of whom she claims are innocent of the crimes they were executed for, are wonderful, noble, courageous individuals who are the true victims of a system filled with injustice and corruption. (Yeah, they had long criminal histories Prejean writes, but heck, they say they were abused as children so they're not really responsible for what they did.) Those individuals who supported them are wonderful, noble, perky, and incredibly intelligent.

Everyone else is filth. Prejean even goes so far as to slime either the victims themselves or members of their family.

While Prejean includes anything and everything that is sympathetic to the two murderers (and through them, her cause) she conveniently omits whatever isn't.

One such omission (which I verified separately) involving an O'Dell conviction Prejean completely fails to mention, is described here in an Amazon review.

At the time of the Schartner murder in Virginia, O'Dell had been recently paroled from Florida where he had been serving a 99 year sentence for a 1976 Jacksonville abduction that almost ended in a murder of the female victim (had not police arrived) in the back of his car. The circumstances of that crime were almost identical to those surrounding Schartner's murder.

Another reviewer notes:

It is intellectually dishonest to keep repeating that O'Dell is innocent without a serious examination of the evidence and a discussion of that evidence. This book does neither.

A third writes:

So many of the statements she makes in this book regarding the Dobie Williams case are distorted. It doesn't seem that accuracy and truth are as important to Sister Prejean as promoting her views on the death penalty. She did not even show enough respect to the victim in this horrible crime to spell her name correctly.

I'll add one more item that Sister Prejean either forgot about or distorted beyond recognition in writing THE DEATH OF INNOCENTS: The Ninth Commandment.

Ahhhhhh, yes.

Good ol' Scott Ritter is back in the news. Turns out this time, he's writing for Al-Jazeera. Why doesn't that surprise me.

Yep, good ol' Scott, a former Marine, trashing the United States and it's military.

Oh, and look here! Scotty's denigrating Sen. Norm Coleman and the various Congressional investigations into the U.N.'s Oil for Blood scandal.

You think Scotty-poo might be getting a little nervous about what's going to turn up?

[I]n 2004 . . . the newly free Baghdad newspaper Al-Mada . . . named 270 individuals who had received vouchers to buy Iraqi oil at cut-rate prices.

Among those named on official documents Al-Mada obtained were then Indonesian president Megawati Sukarnoputri, British Labor MP George Galloway, former UN weapons inspector Scott Ritter and a small army of Russian politicians. [emp -- ed.]

The Weekend Australian

Imagine that! There are other indications that through Oil for Blood, good ol' Scotty -- a former U.N. weapon's inspector -- was on Saddam's payroll:

In 2000, Shakir al Khafaji, a Detroit businessman, provided $400,000 to fund the production of a documentary by former weapons inspector Scott Ritter that claimed inspections had succeeded in removing Iraq's weapons of mass destruction.

Khafaji was listed as having been awarded 2 million barrels of oil, for a profit of $931,000 in 2001, according to Duelfer's report and congressional investigators. Khafaji was awarded three more vouchers for a total of 5 million barrels between 2001 and 2003, but he never collected on them, the records show. [emp -- ed.]

Los Angeles Times

But in a 2002 interview, good ol' Scott makes no mention of any movie. No, he talks about paying for a trip to Baghdad out of his own pocket . . . well, not really paying for it himself:

RITTER: I went to Iraq on my own initiative. I made the decision to approach and say I think it is time for me to deliver a message to the Iraqi government that if they don't allow ...

ASMAN: Paid for out of your own pocket?

RITTER: Hell, yes. Or by an anti-sanctions group in the case of South Africa, they didn't spend a single damn penny. I wouldn't accept their money, it is against the law.

ASMAN: Some people say that some of this money has come from Iraqi-Americans, there's one Iraqi-American in particular, who is perhaps not pro-Saddam but at least people say he's against the U.S. position towards Iraq, that that in itself kind ... of [proves that] Iraq is giving people money to do their bidding.

RITTER: ... He's a Detroit-based American businessman. [emp -- Ed.] An American citizen. He has family in Iraq. People have to put this in perspective. They are looking death and destruction in the face. You can't blame a guy that is trying to prevent a war.

ASMAN: He has no contact whatsoever with anybody in the Iraqi government?

RITTER: I didn't say that. How do you think I got the government with him?

FoxNews Transcript

In the above interview, Scott gets nailed REPEATEDLY for his WMD doubletalk. He also provides a very interesting explanation for his resignation as a weapons inspector and why Saddam kicked the U.N.'s inspectors out, both of which occurred in the same year.

Coincidence, I'm sure. Yep. Sure am.

A coincidence, too, I'm sure was the suspicion by the U.N.'s inspectors when they were kicked out, that Saddam was having banned materials moved just before they got to a site because someone was leaking their inspection schedule.

I think good ol' Scotty's going to be in the news a lot, but I doubt he's going to be especially pleased about it.

Oops.

Labrador Retrievers love to play fetch. Sometimes, though, the timing could be a little better.

Too-helpful pooch puts the collar on owner

Get me out of the ball game

Joe, noting with happiness the beginning of Spring Training, asks for help from:

Anyone with knowledge of a New York Yankess Theme Song ringtone that will work on a T-Mobile Nokia 6010

I'm mentioning it here only because I really like the guy. We have a lot in common (we're both former New Yawkers), root for the same pro football team, and share similar political views.

I knew this time would eventually come, though. You see . . .

. . . I hate the Yankees. HATE!

I wasn't always this way. Long ago and far away, I really didn't care one way or the other about them. They were just there, every single year, on the radio. Not my family's, but the one belonging to Mary's (she was a few years older) older brothers.

Then came the New York Metropolitans, The Mets, a team so bad I loved 'em. How bad were they? Even with my vision problems and complete lack of athletic ability, I could have been a starter. The Yankees kept winning (except in 1969 when "The Amazin's" actually, incredibly, and unbelievably won their first World Series) but, I was okay with that. It didn't bother me. I just didn't watch WPIX, the New York television station that carried their games.

In 1974, however, I made the mistake of marrying a New York Yankees FAN-atic. My only excuse -- the only one I have -- is that I was young. I didn't know what it meant to be married to one.

When baseball season starts, for him the world as we know it ends. It's Yankees, all the time. Every game. Every single frickin' second.. All of them. The house could be on fire, but fleeing the flames would have to wait until the inning's over.

Then there's the playoffs with the Yankees in it every year, which every year is followed by the World Series, with the Yankees in that, too.

Bad enough? It got worse. How?

In 1979, I birthed an Atlanta Braves FAN-atic.

When baseball season starts, for him the world as we know it ends. It's Braves, all the time. Every game. Every single frickin' second. All of them. The house could be on fire, but fleeing the flames would have to wait until the inning's over.

As a result, it's not only the Yankees I HATE although they do retain a special place in my heart because they were first.

I've grown to despise baseball.

Every single frickin' second of it.

Scary thought

I'll be shocked if the turnout in today's special election even reaches the 10 percent predicted. Except for the poll workers, my precinct was empty when I voted earlier today. I didn't expect to see a lot of voters, but one of the people there said "only a handful" had been in all morning. That was at 1 in the afternoon!

What election? Supervisor of Elections and a few city council seats which were vacated by people running for SoE.

You'd think after all of the unfounded criticism the SoE received after the 2000 (2002 and 2004) elections from the Lefty Loons, the Democrats would have a large field vying for that office.

Somewhere in the back of my head I realized it, but it didn't really hit until I looked at today's ballot. Of the six running for the office, only one is a Dem. And he's one of the Loons!

Dear gawd, that's a scary thought. Dems who vote only the party line showing up today.

CORRECTION: I don't know where my brain was yesterday. My thanks to whoever spotted it and chased it back home.

Two Democrats were on yesterday's SoE ballot: Andy Johnson (the Loon) and Warren Jones.

UPDATE: Since none of the candidates in yesterday's three races won a majority, we all get to go back again next month to choose between the two largest vote-getters.

I hate these things!

Which Website are You?

Via Curmudgeonly & Skeptical

I hate these things!

What Kind of Drunk Are You?
Brought to you by Rum and Monkey

Via Paula

The Real Stars

After writing a celebrity-filled gossip column for E! Online for years, Ben Stein calls it quits.

This is a must read.

LAMB: The Gospel According to Biff, Christ's Childhood Pal

In my HUMBLE opinion, LAMB is one chapter too long. It's not a length issue. To me, that last chapter just didn't fit.

And now that that's out of the way . . .

If you despise shooting stuff out of your nostrils, don't read this book.

If you delight in loudly and repeatedly screaming, "I'm offended," do.

Little is known of Christ's early years. To correct this, Levi bar Alpheus (known as Biff because of the sound made each time his mother smacked him upside his head) is brought back from dust by the angel Raziel. Held prisoner in the Hyatt in St. Louis, Biff is ordered to start writing.

As Biff writes about all those years missing in the New Testament, we come to know Joshua of Nazareth through his eyes, from the time they first met by the town's well when both were six, as Josh sat there with a lizard in his mouth, just its tail sticking out.

This recounting of their first meeting sets the tone for much of what follows: an absurd mix of farce and poignancy that works.

Under Raziel's supervision — except when the angel is bemoaning the horrible inhumanities in today's world as depicted by soap operas and professional wrestling — Biff world is now a mixture of the present and his memories.

Several of these memories involve Mary of Magdala — betrothed at 10 and married by 12 as arranged by her parents — the little red-haired girl that had moved into their neighborhood who was first their pal, and then became much more to both.

But from the start something else is calling Josh. Something he is aware of but doesn't understand. Ultimately his question becomes: What exactly is the Messiah expected to do?

Joshua searches for those he believes hold that answer: the three wise men who journeyed to the stable in Bethlehem where he was born. And Biff, his bestest friend, of course, goes with him.

Together they travel through the Middle and Far East encountering and learning from Hinduism, Buddhism, ninjas and a yeti until Josh's understanding, while not there yet, is more complete. Although the two are still close, by the time they finally return home, the distance between them has slowly grown.

Josh's teachings draw a constantly increasing following. Among them are several eccentric Apostles Moore uses to mask the growing sense of foreboding he creates through Biff.

We know how it ultimately ends, but long before that so did Josh. He accepts it. Biff, however, can't.

If I had to come up with one word to describe LAMB, that word would be unexpected.

Just ditch the last chapter, okay?

Picture this?

Don't blame me ...

if you spend too much time checking out your name, your spouse's name, your friends' names, your mother's . . . I forgot my do my mother's!

Name Voyager

Via Curmudgeonly & Skeptical.

A failure from the start

That's how former U.N. weapons inspector Richard Spertzel describes the Oil For Food Program in a FOXNews interview.

While the MSM hypes that the Iraq Survey Group found no (stockpiles of) WMDs in Iraq, they remain silent on what was found.

Spertzel, who also served on the ISG, says what frightened him most "was the discovery of secret labs to make deadly weapons like the nerve agent, sarin, and the biological poison, ricin, in spray form," and photographs in the same labs of counterfeit, brand-name glass perfume bottles.

"Can you imagine somebody going into Macy's department store and spray a little bit of a perfume to see whether they like the scent, only instead of perfume they're getting a face full of sarin?"

More here.

Hats Off To Jacksonville Florida

"As I sit here writing this piece it is Super Bowl Sunday morning and the band and myself will soon be leaving for Alltel Field in beautiful Jacksonville, Florida . . ."

Charlie Daniels

A 50-pounder?

I've never seen one in RL (and I hope I never do) but for some reason I always thought of coyotes as much smaller.

An injured 2-year-old female coyote rests after Jacksonville Animal Care and Control workers rescued her Wednesday from the side of Florida 9A. The non-native animal is expected to surivive.

I detected somewhat of a sympathetic tone here, especially with the pic of the poor widdle thing.

I've read too many stories about them in areas they've moved into and then multiplied in. And this one weighs 50 pounds?

I've never done anything except ping targets, but with coyotes I might be tempted to change that.

Unless the coyote was carrying away one of Da Neighbor's endlessly yapping, multitude of batshit Chihuahuas.

That's different.

Yes, dear ... yes, dear ...

Despite what the naysayers kept repeating, the 39th Super Bowl went off with nary a hitch. One major one was . . . uh, a real mess.

The first reports from various media sources was that a few of the bathrooms at Alltel Stadium had to be closed down because the commodes were backing up.

That, boys and girls, is what's called an understatement.

I didn't think too much of it at the time. You have 80,000 people partying and somebody's sure to try to flush something that shouldna-oughta-be. The next day, however, the news clarified the situation. It wasn't just a few bathrooms that had to be closed because commodes were backing up, but a lot of bathrooms had been closed because overflowing toilets were flooding areas.

Flooding? Flooding! And water wasn't just coming from the commodes but from the sinks, too.

The fire department pumped water out of the stadium and workers put sandbags around the phone room where the water was 3 to 4 inches deep to keep the phone system from going out, [Bob Downey, general manager of SMG, which operates Alltel Stadium] said.

"The fire department alleviated the flood conditions by pumping out the water,'' Downey said. "We nearly had a flood in the basement.''

Downey also said that about 10 percent of the Jaguars offices were damaged when water from sinks shot all the way to the ceiling.

When Hubby read yesterday's article, he began to speak very loudly, colorfully and non-stop when he got to this particular section:

Downey said the problem was caused by a new water line installed by JEA to the stadium area. He said JEA did not notify him about the new line.

Since what much of what Hubby said (all I could get in occasionally was, "Yes, dear.") is not quotable in polite society, I shall summarize:

Downey screwed something up badly and he's looking for a scapegoat. What new water line? We put in that "new line" in 2003!

Hubby (who has you've probably surmised is employed by JEA on its water transmission side, and worked on the installation of that "new line" in 2003) included all kinds of technical information about the proper maintenance of flush valves and details about debris which I neither understood nor gave a hoot about.

So it was with great delight that I opened today's paper and saw this:

JEA released a document Wednesday that said SMG failed to maintain booster pumps, which help move water through tall buildings, in the stadium. As a result, one pump failed Sunday, triggering low pressure inside the stadium, according to JEA. The utility also said SMG failed to maintain flush valves regularly and then when several hundred toilets inside the stadium were continuously running, SMG failed to correct the problem.

Perhaps, now, Hubby will shut up.

Blogkeeping

I've matured. I don't announce every little change I make anymore because the few links I used to have, well. I have a bunch more now.

I do think, though, that I should mention a few of the changes I made today.

I've removed Diplomad because of their announcement that although they would be leaving their site up for a few days, they are closing shop. I'm going to miss ‘em.

I added a new "Information On" section strictly for Social Security Reform and moved all of the links I had on that subject there. Yes, some of them are blogs but they're danged good ones when it comes to kicking the stuffing out of the Lefty-Loon arguments against it. Also, check out USA Next which is countering AARP's blather as fast as it dribbles out.

Florida Bloggers! Added several more. One in particular I want to call attention to is Mom in the Mirror. She writes as a mother because she is one (Duh!) but I can also see fathers pondering some of the same questions she asks like, If my child has an invisible friend is there any reason why can't I have one, too?

Oops!

Are flip-flops still in style? It seems so if your name is John Kerry.

Flip-flops are just so . . . me.

Kerry, in an interview Sunday on NBC's "Meet The Press," was asked whether he would follow President Bush's example and release all of his military records. "I have," Kerry said. "I've shown them -- they're available for you to come and look at." He added that "people can come and see them at headquarters."

But when a reporter showed up yesterday morning to review the documents, the campaign staff declined, saying all requests must go through the press spokesman, Michael Meehan. Late yesterday, Meehan said the only records available would be those already released to this newspaper. - Kerry refuses to release more records, April 20, 2004.

Oops.

MR. RUSSERT: Would you sign Form 180?

SEN. KERRY: But everything, Tim...

MR. RUSSERT: Would you sign Form 180?

SEN. KERRY: Yes, I will. But everything that we put in it, Tim--everything we put in--I mean, everything that was out was a full documentation of all of the medical records, all of the fitness reports. - Meet the Press, January 20, 2005

Oops!

My full military record has been made public," Kerry said. ''All of my medical records and all of my fitness reports, every fitness report involving each place I served, is public. - February 6, 2005.

~~~~~~
If Kerry's made all of his military records available, one of them should be the F-180 that would allow complete access to, and independent review of all of his military records which would then verify his statement. Until that form is signed, Kerry can and will continue with his bogus claims.

Perhaps the wrong question is being asked. Instead of asking him, "Will you sign the F-180?", to which he always answers that he will, I wish someone would pin him down on when.

We're doomed.

The secret is out and now everybody knows.

It's bad enough that more writers covering the . . .

. . . are saying nice things about us. I was hoping the crappy weather in the beginning of the week would continue and maybe, just maybe, we'd luck out and have a hurricane to boot. Or maybe a quarter-inch of snow so that everything would really get all screwed up like the last time it happened back in . . . I don't remember. It was a long time ago and the last time it snowed at all here.

Word is getting out, too, that people are having fun and not just at the big, fancy places downtown that were set up for people to have fun the short time they were here for the Super Bowl, but elsewhere. Like at some of the spots down at the beaches that are there year 'round and frequented, year 'round, by we who live here.

If that isn't bad enough, Diane Daniel from the Boston Globe, decided to play investigative reporter, checking out the flow of St. Johns River for four freakin' days.

I was already feeling down, but one article now has me now feeling downright depressed: Forget the Super Bowl, go to Jacksonville for the fried chicken.

Beach Road Chicken Dinners

If you look at the byline, you'll see it's a reprint. The article was originally published in The Washington Post.

We've been found and found out. The secrets we've kept to ourselves for so long have been discovered and revealed. Now others know. Too many others.

We are doomed.

Way, way cool

The Cleveland Browns didn't make it to this year's Super Bowl. In their place -- as a 'thank you' for their service -- the Browns are sending 50 Marines who've served in Iraq or Afghanistan or are about to.

More here.

Alaa pegged it

"We want to know when Iraqis will go out there and shed their blood like Americans have." - Ted "Obama Osama Rama-Lama Ding-Dong" Kennedy

As for some of the Arab scum and other detractors, they are appearing on TV screens looking like they have just swallowed a cockroach, or perhaps had some awful lizard creeping up their backsides. - Alaa

Ward Churchill: Fraud

Coming on the heels of my post on "Nutty" Professor Ward Churchill, today Captain Ed links to a press release from Dennis Banks of AIM, the American Indian Movement, the organization Churchill has repeatedly claimed he's a member of and spokesman for:

Ward Churchill has been masquerading as an Indian for years behind his dark glasses and beaded headband. He waves around an honorary membership card that at one time was issued to anyone by the Keetoowah Tribe of Oklahoma. Former President Bill Clinton and many others received these cards, but these cards do not qualify the holder a member of any tribe.

If you look at the previous press releases on Churchill AIM has released, this isn't the first time they've tried to call attention to his faudulent practices.

Captain Ed also notes:

If [Churchill] received tenure while fraudulently posing as a real Native American, they have just cause to dismiss him altogether.

UPDATE: From the Denver Post today:

In addition to questioning Churchill's Indian heritage, some people have raised questions about his duties in Vietnam, where he said he fought in that country's highlands and then moved to coastal regions, where he was assigned to "gun trucks" similar to today's Humvees.

I've got news for 'em . . .

. . . via a link to AIM documents provided to Boker Tov, Boulder! in a reply, Churchill's résumé lists his military service as a Public Information Specilist. His dangerous duties? Writing and editing news releases and other materials.

The "Nutty" Professor

Remember King's The Stand, and Frannie's observation about the pre-plague guy she'd been dating? How he always positioned himself -- posing -- gazing into the distance, so that he would appear to be in deep thought, comtemplating weighty matters that were far beyond the capabilities of everyone else. Got the image? Hold on to it.

I'm sure by now you've heard of Ward Churchill, the University of Colorado Professor and (now former) Chair of the school's Ethnic Studies Department. You also know by now, I'm sure, on September 11, 2001, Churchill wrote an essay in which he blames the victims in the Twin Towers for their own deaths. As a matter of fact, in it Churchill blames everyone except the terrorists themselves.

Not really everyone, just the U.S. going back to LBJ and to some extent the Jooz because of their "dispossession/displacement of Palestinians during the 1960s." Except Churchill didn't quite finish his "stream-of-consciousness interpretive reaction" so he added an addendum. It wasn't just the "combatants" who flew those planes on September 11. Quite possibly they were assisted by the ghosts of Koreans, Japanese, Cherokee who died on the Trail of Tears, and everyone else the United States has ever oppressed, killed, pissed off, or didn't buy cotton candy for when they were at the fair.

In a January 31 statement, Churchill says:

In the last few days there has been widespread and grossly inaccurate media coverage concerning my analysis of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, coverage that has resulted in defamation of my character and threats against my life. What I actually said has been lost, indeed turned into the opposite of itself, and I hope the following facts will be reported at least to the same extent that the fabrications have been.

Churchill then goes on to clarify his statement and in doing so, not only digs himself in even deeper but squeeze in mention of his book with the same title as his "essay."

Is this guy a schiester or a 1960s loon who must have done too much hash and peyote back then, fried his brain, and is stuck back there and can't get out? I think he's both.

This is the photograph of him I've seen most frequently:

Notice the distant gaze, the way-cool shades, and the suggestion of a turtle-neck to add to his I'm-a-with-it-kinda-guy appearance.

The guy I saw quoting Charles Manson in an interview was a much older wreck, a cross between Basil Rathbone and John Lennon on a had-hair day. I'd almost guarantee that the tweedy-jacket he wore had patches on its elbows.

This picture is closer . . .

Wade Churchill

. . . except his hair is much shorter here, and washed. I wonder what deep thought he's thinking deeply about this time? I'll bet he was drawing connections between the United States and Nazi Germany in the use by sports teams of Native American names, images and symbols.

Ward ('Che') Churchill

I want the state gone: transform the situation to U.S. out of North America. U.S. off the planet. Out of existence altogether. - Satya Magazine

All of my adult life, I've been an activist. I've been an activist full time one way or another. Every aspect of what I do is [connected] to that central task, and that central task of activism is to clarify and organize around the clarification. In the course of that activist adulthood, I have encountered and agreed with and participated in movements that aspired to certain slogans. When I started out it was "U.S. out of Vietnam," and then that was changed and it became "U.S. out of Indochina," and then it became "U.S. out of Southern Africa," and it was "U.S. out of the Caribbean and Central America," and then it became "U.S. out of the Persian Gulf." I agreed with every one of those, but ultimately there's only one way that any of them will be possible and that is: US out of North America, U.S. off the planet, and take Canada with you when you go! [Emp. ed] - 15th annual Under the Volcano: Festival of Art and Social Change, Celebrating Peoples Resistance to War, Occupation and Empire, Vancouver, British Columbia

I'm sure Wade Churchill is making all of these appearances out of the goodness of his heart. A man of conviction, he wouldn't lower himself by accepting money, or relying on any of the other symbols of the establishment he wants destroyed, things like airplanes, hotels, the internet, publicists . . .