Jobless claims and the virgin theft

Just a quick one, but I simply had to comment. It was announced that jobless claims have hit a 16-year high (Mmm… 16 years ago who became President?) and those continuing on the roles and receiving benefits is near a 26-year high (Mmm… who was Prez in 1982?). Interesting facts that I expect we will see get worse before they get better. Expect an absolutely brutal December… and get ready to invest in some real gems on Wall Street come January. This downturn is going to produce an awful lot of millionaires 10 years from now.

But on the heels of this news comes, well, what I hope is NOT something we will see more of. In Newport Beach , California last Friday, a ~5-foot bronze statue of the Virgin Mary was stolen from Our Lady Queen of Angels Catholic Church. The thieves had to bust the statue out of the cement base and carry off this not-so-light 5-foot virgin. How heavy? Well, at 550 pounds per cubic foot, I’d have to say she was a hollow statue, and would still weigh in the thousands of pounds.

So what’s the connection between jobless claims and the statue theft? Well, investigators believe the statue was stolen simply for its recycling scrap metal value. At about $1 per pound, that’s an awful lot of work for a few bucks.

60 days until we remove the virus known as “W” from our body politic.

“Goodwill” gestures? Tell that to Gilad Schalit

Question: when was the last time an Arab country did anything to demonstrate “goodwill” towards Israel?

Just ponder that question a while.

This week it was announced that Israel plans to release 250 Palestinian prisoners in a “goodwill” gesture toward Fatah leader and PLO Chairman Mahmoud Abbas prior to next month’s Muslim celebration of the Eid al-Adha feast.

Israel last freed Palestinian prisoners on Aug. 25, 2008, during a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. Rice was visiting to help push peace talks along between the two sides. At the time, the release of the 198 prisoners was billed as a way to bolster Abbas, whom the U.S. and Israel see as the best chance for a peaceful solution from the Palestinian side.

Prior to that, Israel freed five Hezbollah militants and 200 bodies of terrorists on July 16th, 2008 as part of a deal in which they received the bodies of two soldiers, Sgt. First Class Ehud Goldwasser and Staff Sgt. Eldad Regev, captured and killed by Hezbollah in 2006. One of the five militants released was Samir Kantar, who had been serving multiple life terms in Israel for a grisly 1979 attack in which, among other atrocities, he executed 28-year-old Danny Haran in front of his 4-year-old daughter just before smashing her skull in with the butt of his gun.

Through all this, Staff Sargent Gilad Schalit has remained a prisoner within the Gaza Strip. Since June 25th, 2006 Gilad has been used by the Palestinians as a negotiating piece. They’ve gone as far as agreeing to a prisoner swap in October of 2006 as mediated by Egypt, but then reneged without explanation. It is speculated that Iran applied pressure to prevent the release of Shalit.

"Since Gilad was captured, more than two years ago, Israel has released approximately one thousand Palestinian prisoners, in several goodwill gestures. But these gestures have not pushed Gilad's release even by a millimeter, and have even increased the appetite of Hamas and its demands," Noam Schalit, Gilad’s father, said.

During his entire captivity, Gilad has been refused even basic rights provided by the Geneva Convention and other such treaties. He’s even been denied access to the Red Cross or any other human rights organization.
To see a full timeline of Gilad’s kidnapping and imprisonment go to: http://www.theisraelproject.org/site/c.hsJPK0PIJpH/b.672631/apps/s/content.asp?ct=4007269

So I ask you again, when was the last “goodwill” gesture from the Arab world towards Israel? I can’t come up with one and I question Israel’s constant appeal to these types of gestures as a naïve way forward in peace talks. It’s clear Israelis place a higher value on the dead bodies of their fallen comrades than Arabs do of their living ones. So why does Israel keep trying to offer something of clearly little value to them for something we hold dearly?

The time is up and we must get serious about securing Gilad Shalit’s release. In addition, we can no longer afford, nor tollorate these one-sided trades or “goodwill” gestures. It’s time the other side bellies up to the table and gets serious about the peace process. Releasing Gilad would be a step in the right direction.

Change has come to America

“Change has come to America.” -- Barack Obama

Is it wrong for me to say I told you so? Honestly, I don’t care. President elect Obama took Ohio and won. I told you back in August if Obama took Ohio or Florida then he’d win hands down. As of 9pm central time I felt the pressure lifted. My shoulders relaxed, my eyes grew less tense, and I enjoyed watching the rest of the people continue to stress out. I knew though; I knew as soon as Ohio was called by Fox News that McCain was doomed to fail. It was simply an insurmountable mountain for him to climb to achieve the magic 270.

So now what? Now, we revel in the glorious change we have ahead. Not what you think I mean, but the fact that once again we have proven we are in the greatest nation on earth. We have, as we have 44 times before, peacefully changed our head of state by means of a democratic decision. For over 200 years we’ve handed the mantel of power from man-to-man, from generation-to-generation. Amazing when you think of how much blood has been spilt as power has transitioned over the last 200 years in other countries around the world.

And now, we must do as John McCain said. We must join together, as Americans, to make this country the best it can be. We’ve failed at that over the last 8 years, perhaps even more. Let’s take this time to dedicate ourselves to making America the land of opportunity, land of liberty and the land of freedom; together as Americans.

"My God! How little do my countrymen know what precious blessings they are in possession of, and which no other people on Earth enjoy!" -- Thomas Jefferson

Facebook causes death?

Which causes more deaths per year, saccharin or Facebook? (Answer below.)

Imagine this. You just broke up with a significant other and upon the next Facebook login you realize you are no longer considered “in a relationship” or “married.” Thus, you change your status to “single.” Nothing out of the ordinary here, right? I’m sure many of you have done this exact thing. Seems pretty innocuous.

Well, not in this day and age. Mr. Wayne Forrester of Croydon, England was on the other end of such a Facebook experience and decided to take things into his own hands. I mean, how dare his soon to be ex-wife tell her friends via Facebook that she and her husband have split.

Hell, we share everything else on there. The idea of personal privacy has certainly changed in the last decade or two. Imagine in 1984 if you were told your friends knew your every move (granted at the time my friends and I thought girls had cooties and Danny White was the best quarterback ever, but just pretend.) Most people would have had two reactions: first that of disbelief, and then of outrage.

“Surely no one has such an ability, and if they did what an affront to personal liberty!”

The cry of the fruition of an Orwellian future would sure bring people to act in outrage. They would rise up against Big Brother and shed their shackles of doublespeak.

Nowadays many of us couldn’t imagine not knowing everything as soon as it happened. With tools like Twitter we’re actually broadcasting, sometimes to complete strangers, our every activity. And, we do it in our own type of doublespeak.

WTF? @TEOTD IMHO we r nutz & F2F comm will die AFDN. But, wca?

You understand it? You know at least half of it I’m sure. Translation: “What the fuck? At the end of the day we are nuts and face-to-face communication will die any fucking day now. But, who cares anyways?”

Yes, these are all accepted, if not commonly used “words” in the new doublespeak. So, have we entered into the beginning phase of Orwell’s futuristic society? If we have, are we the ones to blame? There’s plenty more to talk about regarding privacy and liberty in our present day, but I’ll leave you with this.

Mr. Forrester of Croydon arrived at his old house in the early hours of the morning and, upon entering, attacked his ex Emma with a kitchen knife and a meat cleaver. He stabbed and hacked her to death. His defense? The Facebook posting “ totally devastated and humiliated” him. Unfortunately, this violent act based on on-line communication isn’t an isolated incident.

So, to answer the question, Facebook causes more deaths. Saccharin has never been proven to be a carcinogen and as of 2000 the USDA has proclaimed saccharin as safe.

Next time you reach the keyboard to update your status, pause and think. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/london/7676285.stm