Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Heroes: Sergeant’s Art Funds Surgeries for Children
Where most just see trash, Air Force Tech. Sgt. Robert Sommers sees possibility.
On any given day, the squadron’s noncommissioned officer in charge of operations management can be found sorting through leftover wood scraps and paints in his shop to create paintings and donate the proceeds to help pay for heart surgeries for children whose parents are unable to pay for the surgeries themselves.
“Possibilities are endless; everybody has a talent and can use it to help others who are less fortunate,” Sommers said. “This is what I am trying to do.”Two local doctors perform these surgeries free of charge. But an oxygenator is needed for each operation, and each costs $560.
During his five-month tour, Sommers’ donated proceeds have paid for three oxygenators.
“There are many people in this world who by some circumstance are less fortunate than we are,” he said. “I viewed this tour as a possibility to help a few of these people.”READ MORE
Operation Gratitude in Iraq
... Meanwhile, the flip side of the say-all-and-do-nothing leftists are the myriad silent-majority forces at work day and night proving with their actions that they truly love and support our valiant military men and women.
One of the most effective groups at work on behalf of our troops is Operation Gratitude, an assemblage of Americans who put aside every difference among them in the common cause of loving our soldiers. Since its founding in 2003, this one group of all-volunteer supporters has sent 300,000 care packages to our troops serving in harm's way.
And all of it started because one American mom decided that she could not sit idly by in her safe, comfortable home doing nothing while our young men and women willingly left safety and comfort behind to fight for the rest of us...
[good reading, Recommended > ]
READ MORE
A Brash Proposal [for Israel]
... But every move of self-defense is condemned by the “international community” -- consisting primarily of Israel’s enemies and even a few countries who ought to know better. Does Israel attempt to take out the rocket lunching areas and those who man them with a few air strikes or a ground raid? That’s “disproportionate.” Does Israel administer a dose on non-violent reprisal such as lowering the amounts of electricity or fuel it sends to the Gazans? That’s “collective punishment” and “inhumanitarian” treatment.
[snip]
(1) Make all retaliation indisputably “proportionate.” That is, design some rocketry similarly incontrollable to the Qassams and fire them willy-nilly at populated Gaza areas. Same for mortar shells and Katyusha-equivalent missiles. One for one exactly. What could be more proportionate than that?
[could you imagine the uproar if Israel sent uncontrolled (indiscriminate) rockets into Gaza? Yet that's what Gazans have been doing to Israel for years on end. Yet when Israel targets the bad guys hiding among the populace they're the ones demonized?]
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This is Restraint, Secretary-General
[predictable update I guess...]
It's official. It's on the record. The words have been spoken out loud. Israel, according to Ban Ki-Moon, Secretary General of the United Nations, is using "excessive and disproportionate" force in Gaza.
Now the Security Council knows it. Now the world knows it.
After years of being pounded by missiles and rockets from Gaza, after weeks of escalating Hamas instigated and led attacks, Israel chose to respond. And in turn, the world has responded --- by condemning Israel.
What did Israel do? Did Israel raze a village, bomb an orphanage, massacre an entire village? No. Israel officiated a counterattack, striking at those terrorists hiding within a civilian populace who are targeting Israeli cities and citizens with Qassam rockets and with missiles
What would be an acceptable, proportionate response? Let me offer some suggestions. Perhaps, Israel should:* day after day, for the next few years, indiscriminately lob rocks into residential areas
Would that change the thinking of those who are now condemning Israel? Would those be less excessive and proportionate responses?
* sponsor civilians to build and shoot crude and inaccurate rockets into Gaza
* preach hatred, teach about destruction and dream of annihilating the entire Palestinian population
* reprint textbooks eliminating the Palestinian Authority from maps
[UNsalvageable]
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Russia, China block UN resolution on Iran
Vienna, Austria - Russia and China on Tuesday scuttled a Western attempt to introduce a resolution on Iran's nuclear defiance at a meeting of the International Atomic Energy Agency, diplomats said. (Snip) Asked why Russia and China were opposed, one of diplomats said Moscow decided to withdraw its support ''on principle''
[that would be the 'oppose America' principle. I don't care what Bush thinks he saw in Putin's eyes, we need remember that these folks are not our friends]
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Kremlin Signals Tough Line After Vote
President Vladimir Putin fast-tracked the transfer of power to his newly elected protege Monday and signaled the Kremlin won't back down from its pull-no-punches anti-U.S. foreign policy or ease up on its critics at home. President-elect Dmitry Medvedev credited his overwhelming election victory Sunday to Putin's policies that have ''so effectively been pursued in recent years.'' Medvedev has stressed he will pursue Putin's foreign and domestic agenda...
[how surprising. 'Putin's policies' have consisted of stealing the energy companies from the private sector and reaping the profits of sky-high energy costs, thanks in large part to our refusal to develop our own reserves as he {and every other nation} develops theirs]
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Oil jumps to new record on dollar's fall
The surging price of oil reached another milestone Monday, jumping to an inflation adjusted record high of $103.95. The weaker dollar that has propelled oil and other commodities prices higher sent light, sweet crude for April delivery past $103.76 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange. That's the level many analysts consider to be the true record high for oil, after its $38 barrel price from 1980 is translated into 2008 dollars.
[this is a bit of a distortion: while the depreciating dollar contributes to higher dollar-based costs, analysts say based on supply & demand oil should be around 76$ a barrel, and the primary reason it's so much higher is speculation based on America's consistent signaling that it doesn't intend to do anything about the supply side of the equation {consider: last year's 'energy' bill only mentioned oil in connection with raising the taxes on the companies that provide it. insanity} ]
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TAX CUT FOR HUGO?
If there's anything more dumbfounding than the House's imposition of $18 billion in taxes on oil companies, thereby guaranteeing higher prices at the pump, it's the exemption voted for Venezuela's state oil firm:
* H.R. 5321 scrapped the tax deduction routinely given to the major integrated oil companies -- Exxon, Chevron, BP, Shell and ConocoPhillips -- that helps them explore, extract, refine and market the energy that drives our economy.
* However, Congress ensured that its discrimination against the big oils would benefit Citgo,
which happens to be owned by Venezuela's Hugo Chavez.
* Under the bill, Citgo keeps its 6 percent deduction for U.S. domestic manufacturing -- the one the American oil companies lose -- because Citgo, technically, buys from Chavez.
Worse, the bill includes distorted incentives that will do exactly the opposite of what Congress intends:
* By taxing big oil companies, Congress gives them less cash to develop new sources of supply that would bring these prices down.
* America's large integrated oil companies are profitable, but they also are the biggest spenders on exploration and R&D technologies.
* Now U.S. oil companies have a long-term incentive to locate operations abroad, if only to match the advantage enjoyed by companies such as Citgo.
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PRICED OUT OF THE MARKET
The world's food situation is bleak, and shortsighted policies in the United States and other wealthy countries -- which are diverting crops to environmentally dubious biofuels -- bear much of the blame. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization:
* The price of wheat is more than 80 percent higher than a year ago and corn prices are up by a quarter.[several contributing factors,] Yet the most important reason for the price shock is the rich world's subsidized appetite for biofuels:
* Prices have gone so high that the World Food Program, which aims to feed 73 million people this year, said it might have to reduce rations or the number of people it will help.
* In the United States, 14 percent of the corn crop was used to produce ethanol in 2006 -- a share expected to reach 30 percent by 2010.According to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, absent new technologies, the United States, Canada and the European Union would require between 30 percent and 70 percent of their current crop area if they were to replace 10 percent of their transport fuel consumption with biofuels.
* This is cutting into production of staples like soybeans, as farmers take advantage of generous subsidies and switch crops to corn for fuel.
READ MORE
[up to 70% of our crop land to replace 10% of the transportation fuel we need. remember that when next we're' told we need to use alternative energy sources: with the sole exception of nuclear (over time), none of them are a viable alternative - they simply haven't the capacity for our needs. Meanwhile, we float on oceans of oil...]
[Flashback: 061024 post:]
Geologist Refutes Media Myth: World Has Lots and Lots of Oil
A common theme in the media the past couple of years has been that the world is running out of oil, and that energy prices will do nothing but head higher for the rest of time. Well, a University of Washington economic geologist issued a statement on Thursday not only refuting such contentions, but also claiming that we will never fully deplete the earth’s supply of black gold:
"The most common question I get is, 'When are we going to run out of oil.' The correct response is, 'Never,'" said Eric Cheney.
[as previously mentioned, since the oil embargo of '73 the energy industry has found new reserves at a rate more than double the global (including China & India) increase in usage, meaning the supply horizon continues to expand and is already twice what it was in the 70's - the only thing effecting the supply side of the equation is America's (unique) refusal not to exploit its own resources - below link recommended]
http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2006-10/uow-dpb101906.php
bonus...
[HT:MN]
Dan Rather, Katie Couric, and an Israeli commando were captured by terrorists in Iraq.
The leader of the terrorists told them that he would grant them each one last request before they were beheaded.
Dan Rather said, "Well, I'm a Texan, so I'd like one last bowlful of hot spicy chili."
The leader nodded to an underling who left and returned with the chili.
Rather ate it all and said, "Now I can die content."
Katie Couric said, "I'm a reporter to the end. I want to take out my tape recorder and describe the scene here and what's about to happen. Maybe someday someone will hear it and know that I was on the job till the end."
The terror leader directed an aide to hand over the tape recorder and Couric dictated some comments. She then said, "Now I can die happy."
The leader turned and said, "And now, Mr. Israeli tough guy, what is your final wish?"
"Kick me in the ass," said the soldier."
"What?" asked the leader? "Will you mock us in your last hour?"
"No, I'm not kidding. I want you to kick me in the ass," insisted the Israeli.
So the leader shoved him into the open and kicked him in the ass.
The soldier went sprawling, but rolled to his knees, pulled a 9 mm pistol from under his flak jacket, and shot the leader dead. In the resulting confusion, he jumped to his knapsack, pulled out his carbine and sprayed the terrorists with gunfire.
In a flash, all terrorists were either dead or fleeing for their lives.
As the soldier was untying Rather and Couric, they asked him, "Why didn't you just shoot them in the beginning? Why did you ask them to kick you in the ass first?"
"What?" replied the Israeli, "and have you two assholes report that I was the aggressor?!
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