Corbett's World '07

Looking back on the Great Deluge

2007-08-31T06:53:00.000-07:00

I'VE STORED NEW ORLEANS in my memory bank. That was the Big Easy of the 1970s for this reporter when the then-vibrant Louisiana city was filled with jazz, colourful residents and the flavour of a thousand Cajun delights for every palate.
There was jam-packed Bourbon Street and the smells of hospitality that supposedly would last an entire lifetime as I savoured the NFL's Ultimate Excess, known as the Super Bowl.
It was even before the Superdome had been officially opened and long before The Great Deluge and the five hours of hellish torment known as Katrina, which ripped into the soul and the spirit of New Orleans along with 150 miles of coastline.
That was only two years ago -- August 29, 2005 -- when the hurricane slammed the area with 150-to-180-mile-per-hour winds, ripping and tearing and putting 80 per cent of New Orleans under water and creating massive gaps in the supposedly protecting levees.
While a bevy of columnists, including this one, and authors of renown have flooded the bookshelves with sordid stories of the devastation, none has been more articulate and poignant that Douglas Brinkley, an imminent professor of history at Tulane University in New Orleans.
Brinkley has pieced together a portrait of despair and the human drama in his HarperCollins' 736-page book entitled, The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
In a blurb from the book's contents, it reveals not only the essence of the hurricane, but of the storm-surge flooding in which it submerged a half million homes as well as "the human tragedy of government mis-management, which proved as cruel as the natural disaster itself."
Brinkley takes issue with the city's mayor Ray Nagin, whose evacuation play favoured the rich and healthy; Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco's lack of leadership in a time of extreme troubles; as well as then FEMA director, Michael C. Brown, who seemed to lose sight of his real mission in a mish-mash of mistakes.
However, there were inspirational, if not downright gritty accounts of survival, interspered in Brinkley's account and one that caught my eye was that of editor Jim Amoss and his New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper staff.
While I wouldn't be so bold as trying to match Brinkley's prose concerning the newspaper's crisis of that fateful day, this is my take after reading one of the chapters:
* Now the Times-Picayune office is located a quarter mile from the Superdome and on that Tuesday morning there was about three feet of water at their doorstep when editor Amoss gathered his staff and the word in everyone's mind was evacuate since there had been a breach on the 17th Street Canal levee.
In quoting Amoss, who remains as the major paper's editor today, "We had to make our move quickly before it became impossible and we were trapped in this building and couldn't function."
As a veteran of countless newspaper traumas, this columnist believed he had seen and heard it all until reading Amoss' recollection of how the Times-Picayune staff piled into a dozen delivery trucks while dirty and filthy water splashed around the fenders and threatened to seep into the engines, thus ending the journeys in short order.
In continuing the hazardous trek to higher and much drier ground, Amoss was quoted as saying, "The thought we might stall in the middle of the deluge and have no option but to drag these people into the water, had me on edge."
But after crisis after crisis across the Mississippi, Amoss and his group landed in the Cajun community of Houma and then Baton Rouge, and, finally, at Louisiana State University where he was able to "commandeer" the LSU journalism building through the assistance of its Dean, Jack Hamilton.
The venerable Louisiana newspaper was able to put out electronic versions on Wednesday and Thursday of that chaotic week, according to Brinkley, and by Friday, Sept. 2, 2005, there was a print edition from Houma, which Amoss called, "a weird-looking paper because their format is different from ours. It stayed that way for two weeks."
While Brinkley published his account in 2006, the crisis surrounding New Orleans continues, almost on a daily basis and the anger and despair was evident as U.S. President Bush arrived on the second anniversary of the great tragedy. This was coupled with a grand jury decision to clear respected Dr. Anna Pou and two nurses, who were accused of murder by injecting four different patients in their care with two different drugs.
Although Dr. Pou and the nurses, Cheri Landry and Lori Budo, were cleared, the tragedy remains and raises questions in ethics.
The storm of 2005, which took more than 1,000 lives, may have passed, but the heartache surrounding New Orleans and the Great Deluge might never go away. Not in our lifetime.

Looking back on the Great Deluge

2007-08-30T12:06:00.000-07:00

I'VE STORED New Orleans in my memory bank. That was the Big Easy of the 1970s for this reporter when the then-vibrant Louisiana city was filled with jazz, colourful residents and the flavour of a thousand Cajun delights for every palate.
There was jam-packed Bourbon Street and the smells of hospitality that supposedly would last an entire lifetime as I savoured the NFL's Ultimate Excess, known as the Super Bowl.
It was even before the Superdome had been officially opened and long before The Great Deluge and the five hours of hellish torment known as Katrina, which ripped into the soul and the spirit of New Orleans along with 150 miles of coastline.
That was only two years ago -- August 29, 2005 -- when the hurricane slammed the area with 150-to-180-mile-per-hour winds, ripping and tearing and putting 80 per cent of New Orleans under water and creating massive gaps in the supposedly protecting levees.
While a bevy of columnists, including this one, and authors of renown have flooded the bookshelves with sordid stories of the devastation, none has been more articulate and poignant that Douglas Brinkley, an imminent professor of history at Tulane University in New Orleans.
Brinkley has pieced together a portrait of despair and the human drama in his HarperCollins' 736-page book entitled, The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
In a blurb from the book's contents, it reveals not only the essence of the hurricane, but of the storm-surge flooding in which it submerged a half million homes as well as "the human tragedy of government mis-management, which proved as cruel as the natural disaster itself."
Brinkley takes issue with the city's mayor Ray Nagin, whose evacuation play favoured the rich and healthy; Louisiana governor Kathleen Blanco's lack of leadership in a time of extreme troubles; as well as then FEMA director, Michael C. Brown, who seemed to lose sight of his real mission in a mish-mash of mistakes.
However, there were inspirational, if not downright gritty accounts of survival, interspered in Brinkley's account and one that caught my eye was that of editor Jim Amoss and his New Orleans Times-Picayune newspaper staff.
While I wouldn't be so bold as trying to match Brinkley's prose concerning the newspaper's crisis of that fateful day, this is my take after reading one of the chapters:
* Now the Times-Picayune office is located a quarter mile from the Superdome and on that Tuesday morning there was about three feet of water at their doorstep when editor Amoss gathered his staff and the word in everyone's mind was evacuate since there had been a breach on the 17th Street Canal levee.
In quoting Amoss, who remains as the major paper's editor today, "We had to make our move quickly before it became impossible and we were trapped in this building and couldn't function."
As a veteran of countless newspaper traumas, this columnist believed he had seen and heard it all until reading Amoss' recollection of how the Times-Picayune staff piled into a dozen delivery trucks while dirty and filthy water splashed around the fenders and threatened to seep into the engines, thus ending the journeys in short order.
In continuing the hazardous trek to higher and much drier ground, Amoss was quoted as saying, "The thought they we might stall in the middle of the deluge and have no option but to drag these people into the water, had me on edge."
But after crisis after crisis across the Mississippi, Amoss and his group landed in the Cajun community of Houma and then Baton Rouge, and, finally, at Louisiana State University where he was able to "commandeer" the LSU journalism building through the assistance of its Dean, Jack Hamilton.
The venerable Louisiana newspaper was able to put out electronic versions on Wednesday and Thursday of that chaotic week, according to Brinkley, and by Friday, Sept. 2, 2005, there was a print edition from Houma, which Amoss called, "a weird-looking paper because their format is different from ours. It stayed that way for two weeks."
While Brinkley published his account in 2006, the crisis surrounding New Orleans continues, almost on a daily basis and the anger and despair was evident as U.S. President Bush arrived on the second anniversary of the great tragedy. This was coupled with a grand jury decision to clear respected Dr. Anna Pou and two nurses, who were accused of murder by injecting four different patients in their care with two different drugs.
Although Dr. Pou and the nurses, Cheri Landry and Lori Budo, were cleared, the tragedy remains and raises questions in ethics.
The storm of 2005, which took more than 1,000 lives, may have passed, but the heartache surrounding New Orleans and the Great Deluge might never go away. Not in our lifetime.
***
ACCORDING TO SCHOOL DAZE: Discovery Canyon Campus, an elementary school in Colorado Springs, Colorado, has banned -- tag -- on its playground. Yes, it's true, those dreaded words "You're IT" could, possibly, reduce squabbles, according to some wise (?) school officials!

Grumps' Grumblings: Vick and other Bad Boys

2007-08-28T16:58:00.000-07:00

CHURCHES ACROSS North America must be full of recent converts. That thought was prominent after hearing Michael Vick had found Jesus during his moment of contrition before howling crowds and dead dogs.
Now, this lowly scribe wouldn't cast any stone (even the first one) at the falling Atlanta superstar, however, he followed up his statement of "Dogfighting is a terrible thing and I reject it ... I found Jesus and turned my life over to God" with "I think that's the right thing to do as of right now."
Whatcha mean by saying as of right now, Michael?
Vick had been indicted on July 17 along with three other defendants on "charges of violating federal laws against dogfighting." He pleaded guilty; suspended indefinitely by the NFL and will appear before The Judge on Dec. 10 for sentencing. He could get anywhere from a year to five years in the slammer.
A few columns back I listed a number of sports figures such as Mark Bell, Eric and Jordan Staal, Chris Chambers, Jose Offerman, Tim Donaghy, and, of course, Vick, who had been caught in a web of trouble of their own making.
However, just the other day, I uncovered a list of 308 arrests and citations as of April 22 "involving NFL players since 2000," and compiled by Brent Schrotenboer, Erin Hobbs and Merrie Monteagudo of the San Diego Union-Tribune.
Since April the list has been updated and 22 more names were added bringing you until Monday of this week. Perhaps, more names will be added this week. If I were a betting man, I'd count on it.
In August, these names stood out:
* 8/27/2007 -- Lance Briggs, Chicago Bears LB. Charged with leaving the scene of an accident after crashing his 2007 Lamborghini (valued more than $300,000) into a pole and leaving it on side of a Chicago expressway. Court date Oct. 4.
* 8/23/2007 -- David Boston, Tampa Bay Bucs WR. Arrested, charged with DUI after police found him passed out behind the wheel of vehicle in Florida. Pending.
* 8/5/2007 -- Anthony Hargrove, Buffalo Bills DE. Arrested charged with resisting arrest, harassment and criminal mischief after allegedly striking a police officer outside a nightclub.
Other names which glared from the San Diego Union-Tribune list included:
* Terry (Tank) Johnson, Chicago DL. Tank was pulled over for speeding, arrested for "DUI impaired to the Slightest Degree" in Arizona on June 22. He was released by the Bears three days later. The case was dropped when he registered 0.72, under the legal limit of 8.0. His football future is still in doubt.
* 6/22/2007 -- Adam (Pacman) Jones, Tennessee Titans CB. Charged with felony coercion stemming from February melee and shooting at Las Vegas club. Oct. 29 preliminary hearing.
* 5/10/2007 -- Steve McNair, Baltimore QB. Arrested, charged with being the owner of a vehicle operated by a drunken driver. McNair was a passenger in his truck. Charges dropped after driver had his DUI charge reduced to reckless driving.
* 3/21/2007 -- Chris Henry, Cincinnati WR. Cited for three traffic charges, including driving with a suspended license, vehicle impounded.
* 3/18/2007 -- Joey Porter, Miami LB. Misdemeanor battery charge at Las Vegas casino vs. Levi Jones. Pleaded no contest, $1,000 fine. NFL fined him three game cheques ($141,176).
In backtracking, on Feb. 27, Vick was cited for trespassing after fishing at a private lake in Virginia, a misdemeanor. The citation was dropped.
While Vick's name has been prominent in the past few days, another Atlanta player, DT Jonathan Babineaux, was arrested on Feb. 19 on charges of felony animal cruelty.
According to a Gwinnett County, Georgia police report the 286-pound Babineaux was held after his girlfriend's dog, Kilo, apparently died of blunt force trauma.
ON A LIGHTER NOTE (From Uncle John's Bathroom Reader): These are snippets from real church bulletins -- "This afternoon there will be a meeting in the south and north ends of the church. Children will be baptized at both ends." ... "A bean supper will be held Saturday evening in the church basement. Music will follow."
PRIMETIME PROVERBS (From The Addams Family): Morticia Addams: "Now Pugsley darling, who could be closer than a boy and his mother?" Pugsley Addams: "A boy and his octopus?" Morticia (smiling): "Hmmm ... Perhaps." ... From The Bullwinkle Show -- Aesop, Jr. "There's no fuel like an old fuel!" Aesop, Sr.: "Hmmm ... I gas you're right."

Don't forget about Ring of Fire

2007-08-22T12:35:00.000-07:00

WITH HURRICANE DEAN sweeping into Mexico, another even more deadly disaster appears to be waiting in the wings, and one that could zero in on the Pacific coastline of North America. And that's the devastating Ring of Fire.
Certainly, there was the recent 8.0 earthquake and its aftershocks which occurred in Peru, but the 'Ring' has the potential of erupting once again and most have forgotten its last occurence despite the fact it lashed out in December 2004.
In case, you've forgotten about it, this is what I wrote midway through 2005:
***
WARNING! : If you live on the west coast of North America, your life is in danger, for a mountain of molten lava and water is about to engulf your cities from San Diego to Los Angeles to San Francisco to Seattle to Vancouver to Alaska.
A plot for another 'disaster' movie for summer release in 2005?
Possible, but it could also become a reality.
An AFP story out of Mount Talang, Indonesia in late April reported that "massive quakes have stirred two huge volcanoes from their slumber and sent shockwaves reverberating along a vast and volatile region known as the Pacific "Ring of Fire."
One of those volcanoes is known as "Son of Krakatoa."
That "Ring of Fire" has caused grown men to quiver, for the history books recall the massive volcanic eruption of Krakatoa in 1883; and most recently the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980.
The Ring's arc stretches from Chile, north to Alaska and then west to encompass Japan, Southeast Asia and the Pacific islands. No one, or not one thing is safe.
Then, of course, in late December 2004, the Ring came to life with a 9.3 quake off Indonesia and the accompanying tsunamis which claimed upwards of 300,000.
Television was quick to react to such a massive disaster and in early April, 2005, a two-hour "docudrama" -- 'Supervolcano' erupted on the Discovery Channel. It was time to head for hills.
It happened in Yellowstone National Park, but before you rush out to buy disaster insurance, it did happen 2.1 million years ago. And that's a lot of zeroes.
However, it's not that far fetched to envision another cataclysmic event, perhaps not at Yellowstone, where in the movie such Montana cities such as Bozeman and Billings were buried under deadly ash.
I remember the Mount St. Helens eruption in 1980 and the ash which covered cars and houses as far north as Vernon and Oyama. It took weeks for me to clean off my car.
'Yellowstone' and its 'Huckleberry Ridge' eruption blew out an estimated 600 cubic miles of lava and ash, enough to fill a cube measuring 8.4 miles on each side and enough to bury the state of Wyoming in 38 feet of debris. In comparison, the total ash and debris from Mount St. Helens would have filled a cube 0.6 miles on each side.
There are those that believe the Ring of Fire is just the shifting of plates in the Pacific. Then there's the Biblical point of view for such grave dangers facing the West Coast of North America and it has to do with former U.S. President George Bush and the Israeli prime minister Ariel Sharon giving away "God's Chosen Land of Israel" to the Palestinians.
In Bill Koenig's 'Eye to Eye', a 384-page in-depth study of the consequences of dividing God's Covenant Land, citing the major "land for peace" efforts and the 29 corresponding catastrophes or events from October 30, 1991 to December 13, 2000 and then the 20 corresponding catastrophes from March 31, 2001 to November 4, 2003.
Koenig also explored the major catastrophes or events that transpired when Presidents Bush, Clinton and George W were in office, beginning with the Madrid Peace Conference of October 30, 1991 to November 4, 2003.
In addition, Koenig outlines the top 10 natural disasters ranked by FEMA relief costs; the three largest insurance events in U.S. history; four of the seven costliest hurricanes in U.S. history; plus three of the four largest tornado outbreaks in U.S. history.
Whether you believe such catastrophes are just coincidences or part of a divine intervention in man's decision to give away The Land, there's little doubt something earth-shattering is going on and that includes the Indonesian disaster of December 2004.
"There will be signs in the sun, moon and stars. On the earth, nations will be in anguish and perplexity at the roaring and tossing of the sea." (Luke 21:25)

Those 'Bad Boys' now flood sports pages

2007-08-16T17:03:00.000-07:00

TIME HAS PASSED me by. It's true, for when I was knee-high to a grasshopper, my heroes were athletes of superlative character. Oh, some might have sipped the grape once too often, but their untarnished names were rarely seen in the daily paper.
No, the standard line was about living clean and eating your hearty breakfast cereal and following in the footsteps of your heroes, whether it be football, or hockey, or baseball or even the so-called pseudo-sport, pro wrestling. Even the villains of my day had a sense of honour.
However, something changed in sports as well as our entire civilization in the 1970s or later.
Now, before I continue with this diatribe and you start yelling for this Ol' Fogey to stop pontificating, let's review the topics in recent sports pages:
* Toronto Maple Leafs forward Mark Bell has pleaded no contest to drunk driving with injury and hit-and-run charges in California. Acquired by the Leafs from the San Jose Sharks, Bell, who could have spent three years and eight months in prison, has to serve at least four months behind bars next summer, after the 2007-08 NHL season has ended.
* Carolina Hurricanes star Eric Staal and his brother, Jordan Staal of the Pittsburgh Penguins, were arrested on disorderly conduct and "obstructing the legal process." It seems the brothers and their pals were celebrating at Eric Staal's bachelor party at a resort in northeastern Minnesota. It was reported that some of the party-goers "gathered on a nearby highway and began harassing motorists."
* Chris Chambers, a former Pro Bowler and Miami Dolphins' top receiver, will plead not guilty to driving while impaired, according to his lawyer. Apparently, Chambers was arrested on July 14 after being pulled over near Charlotte, N.C.
* Adam (Pacman) Jones. The suspended Tennessee Titans cornerback, who has tried his hand as a "wrestler" and now plans to launch a hip-hop career, still has a dubious record of five, or six, different arrests hanging over his head. According to an AP report, Pacman is under indictment in Las Vegas "on two felony counts of coercion stemming from a February fight at a strip club that left a bouncer, a former wrestler himself, paralyzed."
* Jose Offerman, a former MLB all-star infielder with the Los Angeles Dodgers and Boston Red Sox, went wild in the minors the other night -- bonking the opposing pitcher and catcher with his bat. The AP story said Offerman, now with the Long Island Ducks of the independent Atlantic League, was charged with two counts of second-degree assault with Bridgeport Bluefish catcher John Nathans sustaining a concussion while pitcher Matt Beech had a broken middle finger.
* Prince Fielder, the Milwaukee Brewers' top slugger with 37 homers, suspended for three games. It seems the fired-up first baseman had a close encounter with plate ump Wally Bell while arguing a third strike and bench coach Dale Sveum had to restrain him. Incidentally, Fielder's Brewers are smack dab in the middle of the NL Central chase with the Chicago Cubs.
* Breshetta Clark, a former Memphis Grizzlies administrative assistant, is suing the NBA team and the team's engineering director Carl Howard Parker, for $3 million. Clark, according to another AP report, claimed Parker sought "sexual favours while her husband was away on military duty."
* Michael Vick, the starry Atlanta Falcons quarterback, has turned from Sunday's hero into a villain, seemingly, overnight because of federal dogfighting conspiracy charges. While his lawyers and the prosecutors were still wrangling at the time of this writing, Vick faces five years in prison and a fine of up to $250.000, if convicted.
* Tim Donaghy, the former NBA referee, has pleaded guilty to felony charges, for betting on games in which he officiated. He faces 25 years in prison. He was released on a $250,000 bond.
So whatever happened to runs, hits, errors, etc., etc. or passing percentages or ...?
It's my guess those days are over and might never return. That's sad.
THAT'S SO MUCH B.S.: And you thought I was talking about Bud Selig, did you? Thursday, the baseball commissioner patted New York Yankees' Jason Giambi high on the backside when he should have planted a solid kick farther down, and said Giambi didn't deserve any punishment for taking those 'roids of ruin. After all, JG has been acting like a saint with his numerous charitable acts, so let's show him some charity. Now, excuse me, Bud, while I throw up.
ANOTHER GRAPPLING DEATH: The shock hasn't worn off since hearing Brian Adams, aka Demolition Crush, had died earlier this week. While the cause has still to be determined, insider Eric Cohen, on his about.com website, wrote that Adams left the WWE in 1994 after being arrested for possession of steroids and a stun gun. He later retired following a serious spine injury.
BEFORE THEIR TIME: Some well-known names from the wrestling fraternity that have died since 1985 before the age of 50: Chris Von Erich, Mike Von Erich, Louie Spiccoli, Art Barr, Gino Hernandez, Jay Youngblood, Rick McGraw, Joey Marella, Ed Gatner, Buzz Sawyer, Crash Holly, Kerry Von Erich, D.J. Peterson, Eddie Gilbert, The Renegade, Owen Hart, Chris Candido, Adrian Adonis, Gary Albright, Bobby Duncum Jr., Yokozuna, Big Dick Dudley, Brian Pillman, Leroy Brown, Mark Curtis, Eddie Guerrero, John Kronus, Davey Boy Smith, Johnny Grunge, Chris Benoit, Rick Rude, Bruiser Brody, Big Boss Man, Earthquake, Biff Wellington, Dino Bravo, Curt Hennig, Junkyard Dog, Andre The Giant, Bam Bam Bigelow, Big John Studd, Hawk, Sherri Martel.

Dangerous liaisons now threaten Israel

2007-06-21T14:20:00.000-07:00

BENJAMIN NETANYYAHU is a realist. The former Israeli prime minister is also confrontational in his statements and considers Iran's Mahmoud Ahmadinejad a serious threat to the world's existence.
He also believes Ahmadinejad has his evil eye centered on "wiping Israel off the map" and after annihilating the Little Satan (Israel), the next target would be the Big Satan (the U.S.) and, with nuclear capabilities in the next few years, this may not be just the hallucinations of the former mayor of Tehran, but could become a reality.
On June 17 in Yediot, Netanyahu wrote: "We live in the world of radical Islam and of missiles. This is the gist of the gathering storm around us. Every piece of territory that we unilaterally evacuate is being taken over by radical Muslim forces, who then direct their missiles at us under the guidance of Iran."
Bibi followed this up with appearances on American TV in which he reiterated that Iran and its "apocalyptic" madman was directing the steps of Hamas (meaning "zeal" in Arabic), which as David Dolan described in his informative book, Israel at the Crossroads, was a militant offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood movement called the Islamic Resistance movement.
At the time of this writing, an overwhelming fear has spread across the Middle East for these vile thugs have overwhelmed Gaza (now known as Hamastan) and could soon gather the West Bank in its clutches..
That fear has caused Egypt's Hosni Mubarak to call an urgent summit with invitations sent out to Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, now camped in the West Bank after being kicked out of Gaza, the present Israeli PM Ehud Olmert, and Jordan's King Abdullah.
In recent days, Olmert met with U.S. President Bush and, in turn, raked up as much as $86 million in weaponry for Abbas, also known as Abu Mazen, who had in the past, been scorned as a weak controller of a corrupt regime. He's also one who funded a terror group, al- Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, which teamed up with Islamic Jihad, in committing suicide bombings in Israel.
Now, Abbas is the "pet" of, at least Bush, when to most he's been called "Arafat in a $1,000 suit."
While Bush has called Abbas "the presidents of all the Palestinians" and "a reasonable voice amongst the extremists," it appears the U.S. president is not setting his standards very high.
On the other side, in the Hamas' camp, they seized millions of dollars in U.S. weaponry and equipment when the Fatah and Abbas scurried off to the West Bank.
According to Aaron Klein of World Net Daily, the stockpile left behind included "dozens" of mounted machine guns; approximately 7,400 American M-16 assault rifles; about 800,000 rounds of bullets; 18 armoured personnel carriers; seven armoured military jeeps; "tens" of armoured civilian cars, including pickup trucks and magnums; eight massive trucks equipped with water cannons for dispersing protests; and 14 military-sized bulldozers.
Fatah strongman Mahmoud Dahlan told Reuters that Hamas may overrun the West Bank as well and seize even more American weaponry being promised in Washington.
"If serious reforms are not undertaken in the security forces it would be easy for Hamas to take over the West bank," Dahlan said.
With such groups as Hamas, Fatah, Hezbollah, Islamic Jihad and al-Qaeda along with such states as Saudi Arabia, Syria and, of course, Iran, leading the "hate Israel," parade, the possibility of these extremists going on a murderous Middle East rampage appears to becoming a reality -- and soon.
An.interesting note, Israel is also concerned with the news that Russia, yes Russia, has, or is about to deliver, advanced MiG-31 fighter planes to Syria, which will carry guided missiles.
As Dolan also wrote in recent days, if "Western indifference" continues to hold sway, the collapse of the pro-Western Hashemite monarchy in Jordan is a possibility as well as Mubarak's rule over Egypt.
While the world watches with bated breath, the manoeuvrings of not only Bush, Olmert and Abbas will be analyzed, but equally scrutinized will be those from the dark side from Ahmadinejad to Bashar Assad of Syria and those controlling Hamas such as Ismael Haniyeh.
The looming question has to be: How long will the U.S. and Israel fund Abbas' Fatah organization? And, secondly, will Bush and the Americans go to "war" against the militant Islamic hordes now surrounding Israel?
Only time will tell.

The Champ's last night at the fights

2007-04-30T09:08:00.000-07:00

ON THE NIGHT of April 11, 1981, Joe Louis stared blankly as Larry Holmes and the late Trevor Berbick circled each other in the Las Vegas ring. It was the last fight he would ever see; for hours later he would be dead.
However, as I watched the great champion from the past, no more than 20 feet away, I knew he was in another world, that of dementia.
However, Louis wasn't the only one to have suffered from what was once called "punch drunk" syndrome or "dementia pugilistica" or "chronic traumatic brain syndrome."
There have been others, who have seen their great skills diminished or wiped out such as Sugar Ray Robinson's Alzheimer's and even Muhammad Ali's Parkinson's.
If you'll indulge me to reflect on the past, this is his obit from those sad April days of 1981:
"They wheeled out The Champ one last time. Joseph Louis Barrow was placed in a gold casket and flown from Las Vegas to Washington, D.C. His body will "lie in rest" at the 19th Street Baptist Church prior to burial at Arlington National Cemetery on the instructions of Ronald Reagan.
In death, Joe Louis, who was born May 13, 1914, in a cabin near Lafayette, Ala., has gained more respect from the U.S. government than while he lived. Arlington National Cemetery is usually the burial plot for American heroes. Joe Louis was one of them, but his own government didn't treat him that way. His tax bills were larger than the national gross of some European countries.
Of course, Uncle Sam waited until his days as heavyweight champion were nearly over before sending him the bills. An honest man, he tried to keep his head above water by first turning to wrestling and, in later years, he played host and greeter at Caesars Palace in Glitter Gulch.
Joe Louis was one of the few people associated with boxing who remained untainted. For boxing, as a sport, is about as corruptible as the Spanish court circa 1400. There usually is no way to get near it without getting tainted.
The underworld always loved it. It was easier to fix than a World Series, it kept you in touch with the riffraff as well as high society, and it was a perfect place to invest your rum-running profits.
It's been said that boxing is a refuge of drifters, grifters, guys who have done one to 10 for shooting their wives, and just got out of prison in time to kill again. It's not a sport, it's a rabble, according to the great, late Jim Murray,
Of course, The Champ stood above the pettiness of James Norris.
He had seen it all. The bad times, particularly, his own, including strokes, heart attacks and then was confined to a wheelchair and wheeled out on special occasions such as title fights like the one on April 11, 1981 when Larry Holmes scored against Berbick.
As we said at the start of this column, he stared at the ring that right, probably remembering his own career. During the period of 1937 to 1950, he defended his heavy crown 25 times.
In the middle of the Holmes-Berbick fight, I noticed as his entourage wheeled The Champ to one of the exits. Early on April 12, Joe Louis suffered a fatal heart attack in the bathroom of his Las Vegas home.
With seven days, there was a funeral in the same ring where he had watched Holmes and Berbick.
"Let's hear it for The Champ," cried a voice from the ring and the crowd responded.
They had wheeled him out one more time. And now he'll be buried in Arlington. It's unfortunate that the U.S. government hasn't been so considerate while Joseph Louis Barrow was alive."

My Mother's Miracle -- re-visited

2007-04-30T07:25:00.000-07:00

ALRIGHT, I'LL SAY IT right out, I've survived Guillane-Barre Syndrome.
As I approached 30 years of age, I, suddenly, became paralyzed in my limbs; losing all strength in my arms and legs; and losing weight -- in the neighbourbood of 40 pounds -- within a matter of weeks.
It was a dramatic time. Even today, those symptoms occasionally reoccur, sometimes causing anger to swell up, but then I remember the most inspirational person I have ever met -- my mother, Anne Corbett and her perservance in overcoming the darkest days in her life.
Perhaps, you've read about my mother in a number of newspapers, but with Mother's Day fast approaching on Sunday, May 13, it bears repeating:
***
The tall, handsome mother, who had a very active life, including being on a national women;s softball championship team, was suddenly struck down with the supposedly incurable disease, multiple sclerosis, in her early 30s.
It's a disease of the brain and spinal cord caused by an unknown agent that attacks the covering (myelin) sheath of nerve fibres, resulting in temporary interruption of nervous impulses, particularly in pathways concerned with vision, sensation, and the use of limbs. The hard (sclerotic) patches produced by the disease eventually result in permanent paralysis. And death.
She spent many hours in doctors' offices, attempting to alleviate the pain associated with M.S. She also spent hours and hours praying, along with her close friends, for she had great faith in her Creator.
Despite her affliction, the tall, handsome mother managed to smile and even tried to play games to alleviate the worries of her husband and young son. A daily ritual for the young boy and father was to play "choo-choo" in which the boy would stand in front of his mother and the father behind her and push on her legs to move her around the small house.
However, after a year or more the disease started to take a great toll and she was forced to use a wheelchair. Her legs and then arms became, increasingly, dysfunctional. He vision became severely impaired and her glasses resembled Coke bottles. The doctors didn't have any encouraging news. Multiple sclerosis would soon claim another victim.
The tall, handsome mother, nevertheless, still had her faith. Maybe, prayer would help. It seemed like the only answer left.
One day, as the woman wheeled into her bedroom, she heard a voice as she looked into her closet. "Annona, put on your shoes," the voice said. The woman looked around to see who was in the room with her. "Annona, put on your shoes," the voice said again.
"You know I can't put on my shoes, Lord, I can't walk," she said. Immediately, when she said, Lord, she realized the voice wasn't human. She leaned over, put on her shoes, unused in more than a year, put them on, and shakily got to her feet.
She walked out into the kitchen of her home, where the young boy was playing..
Her mother-in-law was also standing there in awe. All three started crying. Her husband and father-in-law were just as dumbfounded when they returned from work.
The tall, handsome woman abandoned her wheelchair, and within a year had a "miracle baby." The doctors had said it was impossible to have another child because of the effects of M.S.
She then returned to high school and would later obtain her teaching certificate and would teach for 22 years in the Calgary school system.
The "miracle baby" -- Garry -- grew up to be a strapping man, and excellent athlete, and a noted psychologist.
She believes in miracles. So do I, for I was that young son, who was there when his mother walked again.

It's a Blog World after all (April 27/07)

2007-04-27T05:09:00.000-07:00

THE LATE, GREAT Lewis Grizzard once wrote "these fingertips have never, and will never, touch one key on any sort of computer."
And somehow, the humourous columnist struggled through with the adage of: "Listen, you imbecile, there is only one way anybody should compose and that is upon a manual typewriter."
Some how, after a mountain high pile of scribblings, I sometimes wish I had listened to Lewis' advice. But I didn't. Instead during the past couple of decades, my knowledge has expanded from computers, which always seemed to malfunction, to advanced technology and now, within the past six months, I have "graduated" to the edge of another universe, called blogging.
As I've said before, the question is no longer "what's your sign?" but has sprouted into "what's your blog sign-on?"
And so in order to show my knowledge in this "art," I'm ready to give a few lessons from How Stuff Works.com.
So what is a blog, Professor?
Well, as the manual says, "a blog is a lot like an online journal or diary. The author can talk about anything and everything. Many blogs are full of interesting links that the author has found. Blogs often contain stories or little snippets of information that are interesting to the author."
However, that doesn't mean I'm about to tell you how I almost landed the "Big One" off Bass River on my blogs.
So, I'll just continue:
"Even though blogs can be completely free-form, many blogs have a focus. For example, if a blogger is interested in technology, the blogger might go to the Computer Electronics Show and post entries of the things he/she sees there. If a blogger is interested in a certain disease, he/she might post every news article and every piece of research he/she finds on the disease."
Say, Corbett, you're typing up all that information from the website, aren't you?
Alright, you caught me, but they are a great boon to a reporter, who's pressed for time and without much effort, he/she can get a new perspective, for as the howstuffworks site said, "there are now millions of them."
For a writer, who now has created at least five blogs, stuffed with columns and other trivia, it's been great, but what would Lewis think?
I think I know the answer, for Grizzard, if he were alive today, he would still be advocating the use of a manual typewriter and even citing the Bible as a reference point.
"Then they ask, "Where in the Bible?" Lewis wrote. "And I say, "The book of Royal," and they say there is no book of Royal in the Bible, and by that time I'm halfway down the street and the conversation is over." Incidentally, Royal was the name of the typewriter brand he always used.
To make another point, the man with the Southern drawl, cited the computer virus as the bane of society with these words: "It's been all over the news that something called Michelangelo, probably an evil spirit, could get into computers and wipe out everything stored in them. Great industries could be brought to their knees. Kingdoms could crumble. Authors could kill themselves in droves."
Then he also offered this bit of wisdom: "Do you think if Margaret Mitchell had done "Gone With the Wind" on a computer, and it had disappeared because of a dog's indiscretion, she would have gone to all the trouble of rewriting GWTW?"
Perhaps, it's fortunate that Lewis Grizzard has passed on to that Great Typewriter Heaven in the sky. After all, he would cringe at a veteran scribbler not only knowing how to blog, but also considering learning about iPods, etc.
***
CRY ME A RIVER: Although I promised not to haul out The Book of Lists again, a couple of "criers" made me do it. Yes, two hockey players made the List: Todd Bertuzzi and the Great One, no not Sid Crosby, but Wayne Gretzky ... Big Bertuzzi, once with the Vancouver Canucks and now with the Detroit Red Wings, bashed Colorado's Steve Moore with a sucker punch back in March 2004. Two days later, he broke down in tears before the media. As for the Phoenix Coyotes' head coach, who has now lost most of his front-office support staff including GM Mike Barnett, Gretzky has been long remembered for his tearful farewell from Edmonton to Los Angeles in 1988. Who ever said grown men don't cry?
***
FINALLY: Who said the Ol' Columnist doesn't get any e-mail? Just in the last 24 hours, I've heard from such suspects and their one-liners as Oscar Vegas: Getting thinner can be enjoyable ... Sidney Maxwell: Become fit and happy ... Gerald Baez: Look in the mirror and enjoy yourself ... Betsy Whitt: Obesity is dangerous, stop it. Incidentally, I didn't open any of this "hazardous" material even though I should lose the weight.

The Return of The Exorcist 2007 (April 25/07)

2007-04-27T05:06:00.000-07:00

WAS ANNA NICOLE SMITH demon-possessed?
After Bob Larson, the well-known exorcist, appeared on the Dr. Phil television program Tuesday afternoon, that highly-flammable topic will now be discussed throughout millions of households.
On Larson's website, he stated her death came as no shock. In fact, the energetic red-haired preacher was surprised she'd lived so long.
"The autopsy will only tell what physically killed her, not the spiritual reason behind her death. Anna Nicole was set up by Satan. Generational and family curses were hanging over her head from the day she was born. These curses grew stronger the longer she lived."
Then Rev. Larson reiterated his belief about the former Playboy Playmate with these words: "Although her life seemed to be rich and glamorous, it was not always like that. She hungered for attention.
"In one interview she said, 'I love the paparazzi ... I've always liked attention. I didn't get it very much growing up and I always wanted to be, you know, noticed.'
"Why didn't she get attention growing up? It probably had to do with the fact that her father abandoned her at a very young age. In a 2004 People magazine interview she said, 'I don't have any good memories from Christmas when I was a girl.'
"Her mother raised Anna (known as Vicki Lynn Hogan) as a single parent. This curse of abandonment literally turned her over to the devil. If her mother had known what do do, she could have broken the curse. Anna's life indicates that her mother did not break the curse."
Rev. Bob went on to state that "when she was a child, Ms. Smith declared she wanted to grow up to be like Marilyn Munroe. Well, she succeeded, down to the circumstances of her death. By wanting to be like Marilyn Monroe, Ms. Smith spoke a curse over her life and the devil used it to his evil advantage."
Then Larson went on to claim that besides Anna Nicole being born with a curse, so was her son, the now deceased Daniel, and "so was her new baby daughter that lawyers and ex-lovers are fighting over."
Demon possession would seem to be a fringe subject for late-night movies and even later late, late, late talk shows, but now Dr. Phil has brought it into the daylight.
In exploring the subject with Larson, who has been performing exorcisms for more than 30 years, he outlined on his website a litany of factors from demons and diseases; when is a person ready for an exorcism; to even where a demon goes when he's cast out.
So where do demons go?
This was Rev. Bob's answer: "I have cast out hundreds of demons, commanding every one of them to go to the pit. Every time I have cast demons to the pit, they have pleaded not to be sent there. I've confronted demons that screamed, writhed and begged to avoid the pit. As a practical matter, any place a demon doesn't want to go is where I want to send them."
Larson's expertise in the area of cults, the occult and supernatural phenomena has been sought throughout the world. He's appeared on Oprah, Donahue, Montel, Sally Jessie, Larry King Live, The O'Reilly Factor and, of course, Dr. Phil. Besides the TV talk shows and newspaper features, he's written some 30 books, including four best-selling novels, Dead Air, Abaddon, The Senator's Agenda and Shock Talk and others on such topics as In the Name of Satan and Extreme Evil: Kids Killing Kids.
Of course, Dr. Phil was correct in asking numerous questions, particularly the major one of whether the reverend was just on a witch hunt.
As for this investigative reporter (ID* Investigative Day), the subject of devil worship and exorcism has tweaked my interest in the past, however, it's been dormant for more than 20 years now, and for a valid reason.
In the 1980s, as an assistant to a well-known Canadian evangelist, I encountered something out of "The Exorcist" on at least one occasion..
While an exorcism was being performed, a small woman, about five feet tall and weighing in the neighbourhood of 1110 pounds, growled and snarled, and threw three large men aside as if they were toothpicks. Her darting eyes still are ingrained in my memory bank.
Whether she was demon possessed is a matter of conjecture, but it was enough for me to leave the subject on the backburner until now.

There she is ... Miss America 1944 (April 20/07)

2007-04-27T05:03:00.000-07:00

OLD AGE has failed to slow down Venus Ramey.
And at 82 she has managed to thrust herself back in the headlines because of her tenacity.
For certain, there are other more descriptive words, but tenacity will do for now.
At an age when most seniors start to mellow, Venus Ramey, is just beginning to show that the red in her hair means something.
The other day, a guy named Curtis Parrish from Ohio and apparently others decided to "invade" her farm near Waynesburg, Ky. It was a bad idea.
When Miss Venus saw her dog run into a storage building, she knew something was up. And sure enough, apparently the scoundrels were trying to steal some old farm equipment.
They had been caught red-handed and one of them told her they were just leaving.
Well, Miss Venus wasn't having any of that and balancing on her walker she pulled out a snub-nosed .38-calibre handgun and plugged the intruder's tires.
In an AP news story, she was quoted as saying, "I'm trying to live a quiet, peaceful life and stay out of trouble, and all it is, is one thing after another."
And that should be the end of the story, but there's more, for Venus Ramey happens to be Miss America of 1944 and she's been a "fighter," all her life.
In peering into the Miss America scrapbook, it showed Venus had solid roots, for a relative fought in the Revolutionary War, a grandfather was a Kentucky state senator and a father was a Kentucky State Representative in 1934.
Venus showed her passion for politics by becoming a page in the Kentucky House and then she left for Washington, D.C.
She was never one to stay idle and with a flair for dancing, singing and comedy, Venus entered and won the Miss Washington D.C. title and then went on to claim the Miss America 1944 title, and without missing a beat she proceeded to sell war bonds.
According to the Miss America website, her picture was pasted on a B-17 fighter plane and that plane made 68 sorties over war-torn Germany without losing a man.
In 1945 she worked for Senator Kaper of Kansas and Congressman Somner of Missouri on the "suffrage" bill and, in 1947, Warner Brothers tried to sign her up for a Hollywood film, but by that time she was fed up with show biz.
Although Venus Ramey returned to Kentucky and her tobaco farm, where she married and raised two sons, her name never seemed to disappear from the newswires.
She ran for a seat in the Kentucky House on educational issues as well as trying to eradicate the word "illegitimate" from the birth certificates of "innocent children." And she even has had her own radio show and was publisher of a political newspaper.
One of her major achievements was getting the Over-The-Rhine area listed on the U.S. Registry of Historic Places in the 1970s.
And then her name faded; that was until just the other day when she fired her snub-nosed .38 at an intruder's get-away vehicle.
Now, the culprit and the world know of Miss Venus' tenacity.
***
Alright, since we're introduced you to Miss Venus, it might be interesting to find out who proceeded her and who followed her as Miss America.
In 1943, soprano Jean Bartel from Los Angeles took the crown by singing Cole Porter's Night and Day.
While the pageant had been awash with bathing suits, Bartel refused to pose in one afer taking the title and then she went on a Bond-selling tour.
Later, Bartel starred in a Broadway musical; worked in radio and TV on such shows as The Red Skelton Show, The Danny Thomas Show, Perry Mason and she even has had her own production called, It's a Woman's World.
Later she would run her own travel agency as well as being active in church work.
On September 17, 1945, a Time Magazine article read: "Atlantic City, once a mecca for giggling cuties in Mack Sennett bathing suits, abandoned itself for five days last week to a ponderous appraisal of the female mind. The occasion: the annual Miss America contest. The prize: a $5,000 college scholarship on a take-it-or-leave-it basis. The winner: Miss New York City, a Hunter College graduate named Bess Myerson, who excels at the flute and pianoforte."
Then the last paragraph of the article read: "On the last night of this unique academic process Miss America 1945 was crowned by Miss America of 1944, a typist named Venus Ramey, who seemed more the phsyical than the intellectual type. It was obvious that the winner deserved her victory. She had been cool and ladylike throughout and had played Grieg's Piano Concerto in A Minor without a bobble. She also looked good in a bathing suit."
Bess Myerson also made a name for herself, having appearing in various TV shows in the 1950s and 1960s and being involved in controversial New York City politics in the 1970s and 1980s.
In recent years, although ailing, she has been involved in social causes and philanthrophy.

Unforgettable newspaperman of note (April 20/07)

2007-04-27T04:59:00.000-07:00

WHEN I FIRST met David Wylie, it was under strange circumstances, indeed.
After returning from Israel where I had been working as an investigative reporter for a number of news organizations, I was slowly recovering from illness when fire swept through my "valley" in August 2003.
However, it really wasn't a surprise when a reporter showed up at my door, asking questions about the wildfire, which had burned the land near Falkland and scorched many people's dreams in what had at one time had the appearance of "paradise."
That reporter was David Wylie, and, I thought at the time, he was an articulate and thorough journalist, who knew exactly how to extract information and I would later read his article concerning the fire in an e-mail message he sent me.
A short time before the first edition of the Vernon Daily Courier, Wylie contacted me, telling me about his new appointment as the M.E. of the offshoot of the well-established Kelowna Daily Courier. And, to my surprise, he asked me to write a column for him, knowing my background with the Toronto and Edmonton Suns and even ventures in far-off venues such as Africa and the Middle East.
It's strange, the twists and turns of life, for here was another "beginning" after being at the start of both the Toronto and Edmonton Suns. But for an old newspaper warhorse, it gave me an incentive to get back into harness, instead of "vegetating."
For me, it was an experience to be savoured; for although Wylie has the face of a young man, his reporting and editing skills are unmatched.
Besides his newspaper instincts, he is also a Christian man of high integrity with a sense of humour and wisdom far beyond his years.
Athough the Vernon Daily Courier is only two plus years old, it was Wylie along with a bank of "old" codgers such as George Dobie and myself as well as freelancers of every ilk, who have made an impact in a short time.
However, Wylie's leadership has been the key in keeping this community informed and also helping keep honesty intact in government. If that is possible.
Starting what was essentially a "brand-new" newspaper with a "rookie" seemed like a futile scheme, but not with Wylie at the helm.
Now, he and his wife move on to other fields of endeavour with the CanWest News Bureau in Ottawa. He's going back "home" to Ontario, but it's certain he'll leave a piece of his heart in B.C., for he was the backbone of a "little paper, which will, hopefully, grow and grow."
And, one more thing, I consider David Wylie to be a true friend.
We will miss you, but never forget you.
His post has been taken over by Scott Neufeld, who has all the makings of an excellent successor. He will do well. After all he has had David Wylie as his teacher.
***
SO I BROKE MY PROMISE: A couple of weeks ago, I vowed to destroy the Best of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader. I fibbed. After scrambling through the crumpled papers in the dustbin, I discovered these "gems":
* David Shepherd, a biology prof at Southeastern Louisiana University, put rubber reptiles "on or near roads" and watched how 22,000 motorists reacted to them. His conclusion: "There are apparently very few animals hit accidentally on the highway."
A few examples Shepherd witnessed:
* "A truck driver crossed the centre line, went into the opposite lane of traffic, and drove onto the shoulder of the road to run over a 'turtle'"
* A housewife who saw what she thought was a snake in the road swerved to kill it, "then turned around to run over it five more times."
* "A policeman crushed a 'snake' with his tires, then stopped and pulled his gun. I quickly jumped from some bushes and explained it was a fake."
CONCLUSION: "Some people just have a mean streak towards animals."

When evil walked the hallways (April 18/07)

2007-04-27T04:53:00.000-07:00

WHEN 23-YEAR-OLD South Korean-born student, Cho Seung-Hui, shot and killed fellow Virginia Tech students and teachers, most at point-blank range, it brought to the forefront the disturbing question of Why?
His identity has been determined, but the reasons for his murderous behaviour on the sprawling Blacksburg, Va. campus, which is home to at least 26,000 students, remains. However, a note uncovered by the Chicago Tribune, may give a clue to the killer's state of mind. That note rails about "rich kids" on campus, "debauchery" and "deceit" by "charlatans." He signed the note "Ismail Ax" in red ink.
Of course, the Virginia Tech massacre follows in an ever-growing list of "killing fields," which has even included Canada. The most notable being the 14 women slaughtered in the corridors of Montreal's Ecole Polytechnique by 25-year-old Marc Lepine on Dec. 6, 1989. Lepine, who would kill himself, actually separated the men from the women and then opened fire on the female engineering students while screaming, "I hate feminists."
However, such shootings on a massive scale stretches back to August 1, 1966 when Charles Whitman climbed to the top of the tower at the University of Texas and opened fire. He murdered 15, including his mother and his wife the night before.
And who can forget about the milkman who shot 10 Amish girls in a picture-book Pennsylvania schoolhouse in October 2006?
Or who can forget Columbine?
In April 1999, teenagers Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold wiped out the hopes and dreams of 12 fellow students and a teacher in the Colorado high school.
All these mass killings, including the Virginia Tech madness, had, seemingly, been pre-mediated.
While the previous massacres have been as a result of gunfire, the most savage attack came as a result of three bombings in Bath Township, Michigan on May 18, 1927. In this deadliest mass murder in U.S. school history, farmer Andrew Kehoe slaughtered 45 people and injured 58.
In trying to piece together Kehoe's rampage, it seems as a school board member he was furious over a property tax that had been levied to fund the school building and, in turn, he blamed the additional tax on causing foreclosure on his farm.
Kehoe "snapped" over a period of many months.
After killing his wife on the morning of May 18, he set his farm buildings on fire and as the firefighters arrived at his farm, a devastating explosion occurred at the school building. Kehoe had secretly planted dynamite and hundreds of pounds of pyrotol inside the school and he set it off with a detonator.
However, Kehoe wasn't finished with his deadly rampage. He drove over to the school area; denotated a bomb inside his shrapnel-filled vehicle, killing himself and the school superintendent.
As with most killers, Kehoe had a sordid history.
It seems when he was 14, the family's stove exploded as his stepmother was attempting to light it. According to Wikipedia, the oil fueling the stove soaked her, and the flames set her on fire. Andrew watched his hated stepmother burn for a few minutes before dumping a bucket of water on her. She would later die from the injuries. The stove malfunction was left unresolved, and Kehoe was never charged.
Among Kehoe's attack were children in the second to sixth grades attending the Bath Consolidated School.
Now nearly 80 years later, the Virginia Tech slaughter took 33 lives of the learning and teaching elite and one sullen gunman.
***
As expected, the "copycats" are starting to come out of their holes as I knew they would.
While writing this column, there were reports of threats and lockdowns and even evacuations at universities in Texas, Oklahoma, Tennessee and two public schools in Louisiana.
* Bogalusa, Louisiana High School and Middle School and Bowling Green School, Franklinton, La.: Man arrested for threatening mass killing.
* St. Edward's University, Austin, Texas: Threatening note found.
* University of Tennessee, Chattanooga, Tenn.: Telephone bomb threat.
* University of Oklahoma: Man spotted carrying a suspicious object. It was an umbrella, not a weapon.

Yes, war is definitely hell (April 12/07)

2007-04-12T13:12:00.000-07:00

GENERAL WILLIAM T. SHERMAN (in an 1880 speech) apparently said: "Some of you young men think that war is all glamour and glory, but let me tell you, boys, it is all hell."
And the author Kurt Vonnegut, who died Wednesday at the age of 84, seemingly caught the absurdity of warfare in classic novels as Slaughterhouse-Five and in his semi-bio called Fates Worse Than Death. Although Vonnegut would deny he drew from his experiences as a German-held prisoner during the Battle of the Bulge, his life would later fall apart with excessive drinking and even attempted suicide.
However, the most startling reason for considering such a statement as "war is hell" also came from news accounts out of Afghanistan on Wednesday where two Canadian soldiers -- Master Cpl. Allan Stewart, 30, and Trooper Patrick James Pentland, 23, of the Royal Canadian Dragoons and based in Petawawa, Ont., had been killed by a roadside bomb explosion.
On Sunday, six of "our boys" were killed when their armoured vehicle was struck by a roadside bomb west of the city of Kandahar.
It brought Canada's death toll in Afghanistan to more than 50 and counting, including a diplomat, since 2002.
And the question remains: Why?
Why have we put our young men and women on the firing line to face notorious Taliban thugs?
Does Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his Ottawa cohorts have a legitimate (and honourable) reason for shipping these elite to a country unknown to 95 per cent of the Canadian population?
Are we such a war-mongering nation that we must take up arms and continue to lose precious lives and then label our efforts as humanitarian in a land forgotten by time?
The CBC News In Depth outlines there are three Canadian Forces operations in Afghanistan -- with the largest being Operation Athena with 2,286 troops. This operation includes a battle group of 970 in Kandahar; 35 soldiers connected with Operation Archer and 15 members with Operation Argus.
Other facts include: About 10,000 Canadians have served in Afghanistan since 2002; and the military costs reached $2.2 billion by November 2006 or nearly $1.6 million per day and the costs are expected to skyrocket to about $4 billion by the end of the mission in 2009.
One of the most startling facts has been that more than $1 million has been spent on funerals for "our soldiers" killed in Afghanistan.
Why?
The death toll has reached staggering figures, unless Mr. Harper, you believe that the fatalities, including one diplomat, Glyn Berry, are mere statistics which can be written off as some kind of federal expense?
And for what?
Besides Master Cpl. Allan Stewart and Trooper Patrick James Pentland, who lost their lives in that miserable piece of real estate on Wednesday, here is a casualty list which should be looked at and one which should conjur up nightmares:
Pte. David Robert Greenslade; Pte. Kevin Vincent Kennedy; Sgt. Donald Lucas; Cpl. Aaron E. Williams; Cpl. Christopher P. Stannix; Cpl. Brent Poland; Cpl. Kevin Megeney; Chief Warrant Officer Robert Girouard; Cpl. Albert Storm;
Sgt. Darcy Tedford; Pte. Blake Williamson; Trooper Mark Andrew Wilson; Sgt. Craig Paul Gillam; Cpl. Robert Thomas James Mitchell; Pte. Josh Klukie; Pte. David Byers; Cpl. Glen Arnold; Cpl. Shane Keating;
Cpl. Keith Morley; Pte. Mark Anthony Graham; Sgt. Shane Stachnik; Warrant Officer Frank Robert Mellish; Warrant Officer Richard Francis Nolan; Pte. William Jonathan James Cushley; Cpl. David Braun; Cpl. Andrew James Eykelenboom; Master Cpl. Jeffrey Scott Walsh; Master Cpl. Raymond Arndt; Sgt. Vaughn Ingram; Cpl. Bryce Jeffrey Keller; Pte. Kevin Dallaire; Cpl. Christopher Jonathan Reid; Cpl. Francisco Gomez; Cpl. Jason Patrick Warren; Cpl. Anthony Boneca;
Capt. Nichola Goddard; Cpl. Matthew Dinning; Bombardier Myle Mansell; Lt. William Turner; Cpl. Randy Payne; Pte. Robert Costall; Capt. Trevor Greene; Cpl. Paul Davis; Master Cpl. Timothy Wilson; Pte. Braun Scott Woodfield;
Cpl. Jamie Brendan Murphy; Sgt. Robert Alan Short; Cpl. Robert Christopher Beerenfenger; Sgt. Marc D. Leger; Cpl. Ainsworth Dyer; Pte. Richard Green; Pte. Nathan Smith.
Also more than 100 Canadian soldiers have been wounded.
And the question remains: Why?

Repeating history and the Holocaust

2007-04-03T13:26:00.000-07:00

SEARCHING THROUGH the attic of my Jerusalem office/apartment, the musty and grainy photographs spoke volumes. A couple and their children in happier times, of places and people with names I didn't know, and suddenly, it was if this intruder was in a time warp.
And I also felt as if I had violated a family's privacy so I quickly closed the attic opening and tried to erase those photos from my mind, but I never could. That was in the summer of 1999 -- more than seven years ago.
Later I was to learn, from a weeping relative, that the fading photos were of a few members of a family, who had somehow survived Nazi Germany's genocide of the Jews, known as the 'Final Solution,' to barely escape to Israel with only grim memories.
That life-altering experience awoke dramatically earlier this week when a news report out of Britain caught my attention with this headline: British schools drop Holocaust lessons for fear of enraging Muslims.
Of course, the mainstream press has given the report little coverage, if any, when it should have received front page headlines, but then again we seem to be preoccupied with appeasing this generation with frivolous coverage and photographs of Paris Hilton and news of British PM Tony Blair's acquiescence to Iran, who have not only openly declared to wipe out the United States (which would include Canada), as well as their main target, the tiny sliver of land known as Israel.
But then again, this generation seems bent to forget the past and its savage history when six million Jews were slaughtered in the Holocaust just prior to a few being able to escape and establish a homeland in May, 1948, less than 60 years ago.
And while the British may be the epitome of that so-called plague of "political correctness," such denial of man's inhumanity to man has spread around the world, with anti-Semitism becoming a plague once again as it was just before the Second World War.
In the 1940s, Britain and the U.S., along with Canada, were major forces against Hitler and Nazi Germany and their demonic plan to "rule" the world and annihilate the Jews. Today, however, militant Islam has been given its head to march across the globe without so much as a whimper.
While this generation might be hoodwinked into believing it's all about control of oil resources in the Persian Gulf; those with a sense of history well know that world wars and atrocities have their roots in the evil premise that Jews must be annihilated.
And where does such thinking begin -- in schools. It already has in Britain where a sense of history has evaporated. Of course, Canada has not been immune to such vile words from the equally venomous pronouncements of Ernst Zundel and Jim Keegstra.
"Schools are dropping the Holocaust from history lessons to avoid offending Muslim pupils, a Government-backed study has revealed," was the lead paragraph in Britain's Daily Mail. However, every school child throughout the world should be made aware that Hitler's rampage began in stages, starting with racially discriminatory laws in Germany and then "expanded to mass murder ... Besides Jews, others deemed "unworthy of life" included Roma (Gypsies), people with disabilities, some of the Slavic peoples (Poles, Russians and others) while other groups, according to the Holocaust Encyclopedia, were "persecuted on political and behavioural grounds ..."
In addition, any so-called "holocaust denier" must constantly be reminded of the millions of murders committed at such places as Auschwitz-Birkenau, Majdanek, Chelmno, Belzec, Sobibor and Treblinka.
While the denial of even using the word, "Holocaust" in British schools might seem to be a trivial matter, it could have dire consequences, for as philosopher George Santayana (1863-1952) once wrote: "Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it."
Or as a reader of the Israel Insider wrote: "Ever hear of the Dark Ages? We are returning to them and I imagine this is how they came about, a society that lost all sense of reason came into being."
***
NEWT GINGRICH (Former U.S. Speaker of the House by video to the Herzliya security conference outside Tel Aviv): "Our enemies are fully as determined as Nazi Germany, and more determined than the Soviets ... freedom as we know it will disappear, and we will become a much grimmer, much more militarized, dictatorial society."

It's a weird, weird world after all

2007-03-29T17:03:00.000-07:00

So what do Old Men think about in the Spring? Yes, that, too, but also solving the great mysteries of life.
In fact, there I was, contemplating my navel, and telling The Missus the game plan about searching for the Bermuda Triangle and also the Dragon's Triangle.
Perhaps, it was one of those recent TV shows that tried to explain these mysterious triangles that stretch around the globe that had peaked my interest. But I started to remember that my interest in the triangles had begun shortly after reading and re-reading Charles Berlitz's best-selling book on the subject in 1974. It certainly was standard reading for every fertile brain during that period.
For the younger generation, this highly-popular writer was the grandson of the founder of the famous Berlitz language schools, but in his spare time he delved into some of the great mysteries such as the Bermuda Triangle (aka Devil's Triangle), Atlantis, UFOs and ancient astronauts.
However, Berlitz wasn't the only one to "explore" the area, which covers some 500,000 square miles and is located off the southeastern coast of the U.S. in the Atlantic Ocean and stretches from Bermuda to Miami to San Juan, Puerto Rico. And it is noted for the disappearances of at least 100 planes and more than 1,000 lives.
While Berlitz made the Bermuda Triangle notorious, it first came to the forefront in a February 1964 article in Argosy. In it, the magazine writer, Vincent H. Gaddis, began with these words:
"What is there about this particular slice of the world that has destroyed hundreds of ships and planes without a trace?"
Then Gaddis proceeded to tell about the tanker Marine Sulphur Queen, with her crew of 39, which was headed from Beaumont, Texas to its planned destination of Norfolk, Virginia. No trace of it was found except a life jacket and several bits of debris.
Then there was the case, as Gaddis wrote, of two KC-135 four-engine strato-tanker jets, which took off in clear weather from Homestead AFB, south of Miami, on August 28, 1963, with a crew of 11. Those planes vanished.
Gaddis even described about an internationally famous jockey named Al Snyder, and two of his friends sailing from Miami on March 5, 1948, to go fishing. They were never found.
Of course, the Bermuda Triangle isn't the only area known for such mysterious disappearances since there are about a dozen so-called "vile vortex areas," including something called the Devil's Sea, aka the Dragon's Triangle, or Formosa Triangle. It is located off the coast of Japan in a region of the Pacific around Miyake Island, about 110 miles south of Tokyo.
On a howstuffworks.com website, it reads: "Like the Bermuda Triangle, the Devil's Sea doesn't appear on any official maps, but the name is used by Japanese fishermen."
And so what is the explanation or explanations for such mysterious phenomena?
Some believe the disappearances could be attributed to inexperience of the navigators, either in the air or on the water, and also the areas off Florida and off Japan are known for violent and unexpected storms and weather changes. These vicious storms could include "waterspouts," or a tornado at sea, which could destroy a passing plane or ship. These freak waves have been known to reach 100 feet in height, according to the "Howstuffworks" site.
There are other theories such as concentrated methane gas hydrates, which is believed to be a potential energy source and then's the human element -- pirates, aka drug runners, who have been known to hijack cargo ships, etc.
And then there are far-fetched theories, ranging from aliens in flying saucers to Edgar Cayce's writings concerning the yet "undiscovered" city of Atlantis on something known as the "Bimini Road."
The "theories" also include "electronic fog," which causes compass malfunctions and blue holes and the list goes on and on.
***
BASIC CAYCE DIET: While "the sleeping prophet," Edgar Cayce might be best noted for his Atlantis "visions," he also offered meal planning for "healing and health maintenance." In it, here's a simple outline for a typical day's menu: BREAKFAST -- Either citrus fruit, or cooked or dry cereal ... LUNCH -- Raw vegetable salad with dressing or fruit salad ... DINNER -- Steam vegetables served with fish, poultry or lamb. As far as food preparation -- Steam vegetables in their own juices; never fry foods; use fresh, locally grown vegetables and fruits whenever possible; avoid aluminum cookware ... It sounds like a plan to me.

It was supposed to be a secret

2007-03-27T11:33:00.000-07:00

It was almost as if Garry Moore was standing in the wings and saying: "Whisper your secret to me, and we'll show it to the folks at home." After he said that the TV camera usually panned to the puzzled faces of the panel consisting of Bill Cullen, Henry Morgan, Betsy Palmer and Bess Myerson.
"I've Got A Secret" was one of the most popular shows from an earlier era, however, it was the first thing I thought about when writing today's column about so-called "secrets."
Just in the past few days, the Net has been ripe with a supposed "secret" and that's the Americans will launch a "sneak (aka secret) attack," called Operation Bite, against Iran on Good Friday, April 6th. And now it's no longer a "secret."
Of course, when Webster G. Tarpley, the well-known conspiracy advocate, echoed Russian journalist Andrei Uglanov's writings to the world about the "secret" attack, I had doubts and I was about to toss such information into File 13 when Jim Krane's Associated Press report caught my attention:

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) -- The U.S. Navy on Tuesday began its largest demonstration of force in the Persian Gulf since the 2003 invasion of Iraq, led by a pair of aircraft carriers and backed by warplanes flying simulated attack maneuvers off the coast of Iran. The maneuvers bring together two strike groups of U.S. warships and more than 100 U.S. warplanes to conduct simulated air warfare in the crowded Gulf shipping lanes.

Of course, the U.S. Navy brass denied the maneuvres were in response to the capture of 15 British sailors, who were seized by Iranian forces in recent days.
However, Tarpley's rewrite on Sunday of Uglanov's piece in the Moscow weekly, Argumenty Nedeli, starts to gain some credibility when combined with Krane's report.
The essence of the initial Moscow report was "the long awaited U.S. military attack on Iran is now on track for the first week of April, specifically for 4 a.m. on April 6, the Good Friday opening of Easter weekend." It's supposed to last for 12 hours, according to Uglanov, from 4 a.m. to 4 p.m. local time and has been code named Operation Bite.
According to Uglanov, about 20 targets -- uranium enrichment facilities, research centres and laboratories -- have been targeted, however, the Bushehr nuclear plant reactor would be spared because Russian engineers are working there.
In addition, according to the Russian journalist, the U.S. attack would be aimed at wiping out the headquarters of the Iranian armed forces; sinking the fleet of Iranian warships in the Gulf as well as "degrading" the Iranian air defense system.
The attack, supposedly, would be carried out from the aircraft carriers (re: Dubai report); from the Sixth Fleet in the Mediterranean and the missile-laden B-52 bombers from the island of Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.
While much of Uglanov's report might be pure speculation, it has been reprinted by Russia's well-known news agency, RIA-Novosti, who asked retired Colonel General Leonid Ivashov to confirm its "essential features."
"I have no doubt that there will be an operation, or more precisely a violent action against Iran," Ivashov was quoted as saying.
If such an air attack by the U.S. against Iran does take place on April 6 or on any other date in the near future, it could have grave consequences considering the close military ties between Russia and Iran.
One of those "military" ties could involve a supersonic Russian-built missile, known in the West as the "Sizzler," which may have found a "home" in Iran and could be aimed at the pair of U.S. aircraft carriers now in the Persian Gulf.
In a March 23 article on the Bloomberg.com website, reporter Tony Capaccio stated that the U.S. Navy, "after nearly six years of warnings from Pentagon testers, still lacks a plan," for defending the carriers against such a missile.
Later in Capaccio's article, Capaccio quoted U.S. chief of naval operations, Admiral Michael Mullin, as saying, "(The Sizzler) is very fast and it has maneuvring characteristics that are of concern ..."
Apparently, this Russian-built missile has been "shopped around" at international arms show.
***
WHAT'S NEXT? While Tehran has been fairly silent except to say the British Marines are being treated fairly, there's 'a secret' surrounding their seizure. According to Western intelligence sources and Brian Ross' ABC Investigative Unit it was for "retaliation" after the Americans grabbed five Quds (Jerusalem) Force officers from the Iranian consulate in Irbil, Iraq on Jan. 11 ... Quds force, according to sources, answers to the Grand Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.and not Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad.

Remembering a tower of strength

2007-03-24T07:46:00.000-07:00

Bill Stevenson was the strongest man I have ever met. And it's fortunate for the world that accompanying that brute strength was a smile as wide as the Grand Canyon.
He was one of those characters from the "unforgettable" category that so seldom crosses one's path.
Every once in a while over the past 25 years or so, I have looked at a photograph of Stevenson as he manhandled heavy iron in his "newly-opened" Edmonton fitness center.
And at that time he was also giving sage advice to another "incredible bulk," who was planning to work out before re-entering the carnival wrestling ring as a villain in a flick called "Running Brave."
But besides Stevenson's photo there was also a column, which I wrote for the Edmonton Sun, and it started this way:

"The Marquis de Sade would feel right at home. Long John Silver would look longingly at the racks. Captain Bluebeard would admire the bars, for there are more in this place than on New Orleans' Bourbon Street or Sing Sing.
No, we're not talking about the latest in torture rooms, but Little Bill Stevenson's house of repute, also known as the Edmonton fitness centre.
You know Stevenson? He's the guy with the time zones. The one who's laughter has been known to shatter champagne glasses ala Ella Fitzgerald. He's also been known to shatter a few beer glasses as well.
Bill Stevenson is a free spirit. He's one who knows how to work hard. This Eskimo -- football variety -- also is one who doesn't take himself too seriously. In his company, the Mona Lisa might crack a smile (to use a line from the super writer Jim Murray).
Stevenson and his friends have their grand opening today and if you notice him huffing and puffing it's because he's still moving in the furniture and machines into the centre, which undoubtedly will be in a class by itself.
This is the elite of sweat centres, one which comes equipped with hydragym cylinders, Nautilus equipment, a racquetball court, swimming pool, whirlpools and saunas and the major selling feature is that it is co-educational."

Later in the column from Friday, Jan. 16, 1981 I wrote:
"Little Bill, whose main responsibilities will be promotion and "seeing people keep coming back," has already interested fellow Eskimos such as Angelo Santucci, Tom Towns, David Boone and Dan Kepley ... Stevenson, who has given up his horse-breeding interests, is so enthused about his fitness project that he intends to move his family of a wife and two small children into the city from their present abode nine miles west of this hamlet (Edmonton).
A few days ago, CBC sportscaster John Wells indicated Stevenson was 45 pounds overweight. However, Little Bill took affront to this and I hope for Wells' sake that he doesn't run into Stevenson for he looked mean as he bashed a piece of his new machinery.
"I'm going to be in the best shape I've ever been in," grimaced Stevenson, contemplating the 1981 CFL season. I believe him."

After a stellar career at Drake University, Stevenson was drafted by the NFL Miami Dolphins, but chose to join the Memphis Southmen of the World Football League for the 1974 and 1975 seasons. Then he came home -- to Edmonton -- and became a mainstay with the Eskimos for 14 seasons from 1975 to 1988.
He first proved to be a tower of strength on the vaunted Alberta Crude defensive line with Dave Fennell, Ron Estay and the late David Boone, and then he shifted to protecting his old quarterback Tom Wilkinson on the offensive line. During his tenure in the CFL, he and the Eskimos claimed seven Grey Cups.
He, seemingly, would be around forever with his love for life and his smile as wide as the Grand Canyon.
However, earlier this week, Bill Stevenson, after apparently going outside for a smoke, fell down some stairs at his mother's home and was taken to Edmonton's Misericordia Hospital where he died at the young age of 56.

The Ark, the Prince and obsession

2007-03-24T07:39:00.000-07:00

It's an obsession. Something flaring and at other times lying dormant within one's soul.
Since 1990, the obsession has been to search for the original Ark of the Covenant, which has taken me from the depths of the African nation of Ethiopia to being a resident in the Jerusalem neighbourhood of Abu Tor, where according to the Bible, King David, brought the Ark.
However, although I've done a 10-part series called The Glory of the King and probed the minds of such scholars as Graham Hancock (The Sign and The Seal), it wasn't until Monday of this week , the obsession grew into a flame again.
It came in the form of an e-mail from an Ethiopian in Virginia, who said that Prince Stephanos (Stephen Mengesha), the once "pet" great-grandson of the late Emperor Haile Selassie I, was trying to track me down. The writer claimed the Ethiopian prince was on a temporary visit to Canada.
Then after reading and re-reading the e-mail, I decided to look through my past files concerning Mengesha, for he was the one, who first made me aware of Ethiopia's claim it possessed history's most important historical, powerful and religious artifact in the small northern town of Aksum.
In the third of a five-part series entitled The Searchers for World Net Daily, this is a condensed version of what I wrote:
***
"If it's found, and if it's such a sacred item for the Jewish faith, what's to stop Israel from waging war to get it back? It's not a matter of diplomatic negotiations or going to the United Nations. This is something the world Jewry around the globe believes it's necessary to build the Third Temple and if that's how important it is, the chances of Israel going to war to get it (are greatly increased)." -- Prince Stephanos (Stephen Mengesha), April 6, 1990.
He was unpretentious.
A smiling, affable man, who introduced himself as Stephen Mengesha, was a Toronto car salesman.
"Steve's my name."
In early 1990, while doing research for a series of newspaper articles on the Ethiopian famines, he became a friend, and would relate that the Ark of the Covenant was the Horn of Africa nation's greatest treasure.
It was a blockbuster.
Of course, I'd earlier read in Grant Jeffrey's paperback, "Armageddon - Appointment With Destiny," of his conversations with Prince Stephanos, the favorite great-grandson of the late Emperor Haile Selassie, who was murdered by dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam and his thugs in 1975.
He also related to this investigative reporter of how the original Ark, constructed by Moses' chief carpenter, traveled from Solomon's Temple in Jerusalem to Ethiopia with one of Solomon's offspring, Menelik I. It has been in Ethiopia ever since, according to the Ethiopian royal chronicles, and its holy book, the Kebra Negast.
On Saturday, April 28, 1990, the Prince spoke about the searches for the Ark, which have ranged from Mussolini to the Israelis:
CORBETT: What's the importance of the Ark?
PRINCE: The building of the Third Temple is the cornerstone of the Jewish faith and the coming of all Jews to Israel. Finding the Ark of the Covenant is paramount for this to happen and the coming of their Messiah. So even though it's unspoken, they're on the look out for it, and many times they have explored the possibility of the Ethiopian claim. It has been pursued by various people throughout history prior to the Italian occupation (through the auspices of the Roman Catholic Church), and after the restoration of the Emperor to the throne (in 1941). Even today, they're still looking for it.
CORBETT: Is it possible there's an Ark on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem?
PRINCE: The lack of an Ark being mentioned in the book, "In The Shadow of the Temple," isn't evidence the Israelis don't care about it. After all it's the cornerstone. If you're going to build a temple, you have to have something to put in it and no where in the Jewish traditions does it say that God is going to bring it down from heaven. There's nothing of that nature being mentioned in prophecy. The building of the Third Temple I just mentioned requires the Ark inside it or else it would be a meaningless building.
CORBETT: I've read, probably in one of Grant Jeffrey's books, that during the excavations underneath the Temple Mount that they've spotted something that looks like the Ark. Is this a duplicate.
PRINCE: There is a duplicate Ark. The rabbinical council knows about it.
CORBETT: There are lots of duplicates around. Isn't that true?
PRINCE: Yes. Finding the original Ark of the Covenant is an interest by the Catholic Church and the Pope during the 1936-1940 Ethiopian occupation by Italy and Mussolini and there's good indication that the Catholic Church was looking for it.
CORBETT: Was that one of Mussolini's aims?
PRINCE: Not Mussolini's, but he was persuaded by the Pope and, of course, the Pope has been criticized for blessing Mussolini's mission to Ethiopia because of that.
CORBETT: Describe the church where it's supposedly buried?
PRINCE: I have been to the church, but I haven't been to the basement, in fact if there's a basement, which contains the Ark, that would be a secret.
In 1993, Prince Stephanos returned to Aksum and was able to photograph the stairwell leading to the Ark.
Even though others have claimed to have seen the Ark, such conjecture is certainly untrue.

Resurrecting a most worthy project

2007-03-24T07:36:00.000-07:00

Ted Byfield, the Canadian publishing icon, was once described by one of his admirers, Steve Hopkins, as imaginative, compassionate, generous and charming as well as "stubborn."
However, "determined" and "crusader for what's right" could certainly be added.
Two years ago, Byfield's most ambitious project, the much-anticipated $5 million, 12-volume Christian History Project, collapsed and there were those who were ready to give it a proper burial.
However, Byfield wasn't about to give in to circumstances.
In a May 30, 2005 column, I quoted the project's then president and CEO Bob Doull as saying he suspected a technician (with possible Muslim ties) of tampering with the expensive computer system on Dec. 28, 2004. Based in Edmonton, the 'puter "housed" the volumes, artwork and all the customer records. Edmonton police, apparently, looked into the incident.
To make matters worse, on Feb. 13, 2005, CHP was struck a second time; this time it was less devastating as the criminal(s) attempted to "take down the telephone system."
Doull said he had "set up a couch outside the server room" to watch for the culprit(s), however, the two incidents had sent the project into a tailspin even though added security systems were in place. "It paralyzed our customer service," stated Doull, admitting about $700,000 would be needed to restore a workable system. He then added he intended to return to being a community newspaper publisher.
All hope seemed lost, for a letter on March 1, 2006 from spokesman, Brian Lehr, read, in part: "We wish to inform you that the Christian History Project Limited Partnership has been forced to cease operations and is being dissolved. The Partnership developed an outstanding product, but unfortunately it is unsuccessful as a commercial enterprise. It is with deep regret that we must advise all creditors of our inability to pay the amounts owing to them ..."
The death knell may have sounded, but they had forgotten about a "determined" and "stubborn" Byfield.
Just the other day, a 10-page bulletin reached my desk from SEARCH (The Society to Explore and Record Christian History). In it Byfield claimed the new society was committed to producing the last six of the 12 books of the series called 'The Christians: Their First Two Thousand Years, and it would cost $3 million, including $1 million up front to begin production.
He then added, "As yet we have no money, but we deeply believe that if the work is good, then God will make it happen."
Byfield said the project had been discontinued because "its sales method -- telemarketing -- proved so costly."
He then outlined six things in the society's favour including people, who created the first six books want to finish the job, as well as the society has some 55,000 copies of the first six volumes stored gratis in Edmonton.
While more than 10,000 people bought the first six books, Byfield said he was enouraged that since the society was established, more than 1,800 had written, e-mailed or phoned to say they intend to buy the last six volumes.
Byfield, who was general editor for the first six volumes, will continue in that role while Hopkins will serve as associate editor and Dean Pickup as art director. In addition, a qualified staff of writers and artists are willing, actually, anxious to join the renewed project, which is in the midst of trying to gain up-front financial stability.
The first six volumes included: The Veil Is Torn (AD 30 to 70) -- Pentecost to the Destruction of Jerusalem; A Pinch of Incense (AD 70 to 250) -- From the Fall of Jerusalem to the Decian Persecution; By This Sign (AD 250 to 350) -- From the Decian Persecution to the Constantine era; Darkness Descends (AD 350 to 565) -- The Fall of the Western Roman Empire; The Sword of Islam (AD 565 to 740) -- The Muslim Onslaught all but Destroys Christendom; and The Quest for the City (AD 740 to 1100) -- Pursuing the next world, they founded this one.
The final six volumes will include such titles as The Glorious Disaster; The Birth of Modernity; The Century of Giants; The Christian Democracies; Unto the Ends of the Earth and The Fifth Resurrection -- From the Fall of Christian Europe to the Rise of the Christian South and the time period stretches from 1100 AD to 2001 AD.
For more information concerning this epic, and highly recommended project, contact Byfield at tedbyfield@thechristians.ca or www.thechristians.ca website.

Ethiopian Jews' long journey 'home'

2007-03-14T07:18:00.000-07:00

NEWS ITEM (March 14, 2007): More than two decades after they were brought to Israel, State finally completes construction of monument commemorating 4,000 Ethiopian Jews, who perished on journey to the Holy Land.
It was a short story out of Jerusalem on Wednesday, which caught my eye and by the time I had finished the eight paragraphs, tears had welled up for I had been a minor part in reporting on the exodus in which so many died.
The mass departure of Ethiopian Jews from their country as part of the "Moshe Operation" began in 1983, when thousands started moving clandestinely towards the Sudanese border, according to Ynet News. During their journey and stay in temporary camps in Sudan they endured murders, rapes, diseases, robberies and hunger.
On Jan. 21, 1999, I wrote the following report for World Net Daily with the headline: The Black Jews and the Ark:

JERUSALEM: When 17,000 Ethiopian Jews were airlifted from the slums of Addis Ababa to the pristine air of Tel Aviv during Operation Solomon in May 1991, it evoked strange stories, particularly that the Falashas had escaped with the Ark of the Covenant from St. Mary of Zion church in Aksum.
However, as much as the Ethiopian Jews would have savored taking the coveted religious object back to Jerusalem, the powerful Ethiopian Orthodox Church, not the ostracized Falashas, were in control of security of the "terrible, golden container," which had been taken out of Solomon's Temple.
From the movie, Raiders of the Lost Ark: Indy's professorial skills will begin to shine here:
INDY: The Ark of the Covenant, the chest the Hebrews used to carry around the Ten Commandments in.
EATON: What do you mean "The Ten Commandments"? You mean the Ten Commandments?
INDY: Yes, the actual Ten Commandments. The original stone tablets that Moses brought down out of Mount Horeb and smashed, if you believe in that sort of thing. (The men were impressed but impassive).
INDY: Either you guys go to Sunday School?
MUSGROVE: Well, I, I?
INDY: Now, look, the Hebrews took the broken pieces and put them in the Ark. When they settled in Canaan, they put the Ark in a place called the Temple of Solomon.
BRODY: In Jerusalem.
INDY: Where it stayed for many years. Until, all of a sudden, whoosh, it's gone.
EATON: Where?
INDY: Well, nobody knows where or when.

In the late Louis Rapoport's extraordinary book, "The Lost Jews," he detailed the connection between Beta Israel and the Ark:
RAPOPORT: "The Ark is the 'pivot round which the Abyssinian Church revolves,' according to Lake Tana explorer R.E. Chessman. There is a replica of the Ark, called the tabot, in every Ethiopian church, which represents the original Ark of shittim wood that contained the stone tablets Moses brought from Mount Sinai. Every year the Christian priests take out the replica during the Feast of Timkat, or Baptism. (In 1999, Timkat was celebrated in Aksum on Tuesday, Jan. 19). As the Ark passes, the people prostrate themselves before it. Ethiopian priests, who believe they are the Levites' successors -- the Falasha priests claim to be the Levites' descendants -- still dance as David did before the tabot. For the legend of the Ark is the cornerstone for the priests' claim that Ethiopians were the elect of God -- in place of the Jews, who had rejected the "messiah" -- and, therefore, the Ark was in their custody.
"How do the Beta Israel refer to the Ark? The Ark's power to defeat Israel's enemies is commemorated in one Falasha prayer: And it came to pass when the Ark set forward that Moses said, 'Rise up, Lord, and let Thy enemies be scattered.' And in the Apocalypse of Baruch, which is included in the Falasha liturgy, it is related that 'God raised up Nebuchadnezzar,' who captured 'Zion' -- the Ark, whose wood was like a white pearl radiating multi-colored images, according to the vision of the 14th century Falasha ascetic, Gorgorios.
"One Beta Israel story, recorded in the 19th century by a Protestant missionary, says the Christians did place the Ark in Aksum, but "only when a Falasha approaches it does the wall before it open up, whereupon he prostrates himself in front of the Holy Ark.
"The Falashas' belief in the Ark's powers led them to march unarmed to Aksum in 1862, where they prayed the walls of the cathedral holding the Ark would tumble down and they would then take it back to Israel, where it belonged. They were laughed at and beaten, and many died on the road."
During the Corbett-Harron expedition in November 1990, although the roads were demolished leading from the capital of Addis Ababa to the north and the search for the Ark had been canceled, the trail was still warm, knowing that the Black Jews were still in the country.
Most sources told us that thousands were still abandoned in the Lake Tana-Gondar areas, barely surviving while Ethiopia was being laid waste by armies from the north, central and the south.
On the last day in the war zone, Harron and I were almost ready to give up our search for these forgotten peoples.
Then a miracle happened on Nov. 15, 1990, when we celebrated Sigd, the Ethiopian Jews' day of prayer to return to their homeland, Israel, and the freeing of the Jews from Babylonian captivity. It's a celebration unlike any other in Ethiopian or Jewish history.
CORBETT'S DIARY: Thursday, Nov. 15, 1990, ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia: "As we drove through the weaving traffic, we reached the Asmera road, which seemed to be blocked off and Sherry Yano (with CPAR -- Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief) was told by one of the few traffic cops I'd seen in Addis, that the road was off-limits because of a celebration at the Israeli embassy.
"So parking the land cruiser, we started walking along the road, filled with people going to and fro with many children in their Sunday best, along with women with great umbrellas and long, white dresses, and finely-robed men.
"Everyone had a wide smile on their faces and there was an unexplainable glow.
"Even the youngsters were different.
"I kept my vidcam recording this scene, and while the kids were curious, they allowed the three of us to be part of their celebration walk.
"On the side of the hill, guarded by what I knew to be an Israeli agent, the white-robed throng poured through the gates from the embassy, well hidden in the trees.
"Their lilting voices lifted into heaven.
"I felt a part of these radiant people.
"As we walked along, we inquired about where the leaders' compound was, and first a smiling man and then a young boy pointed the way.
"Just then a small car pulled up and two of Sherry Yano's friends yelled greetings.
"They, too, had a radiant look.
"One young woman, Jody, in a white wrap-a-round, and she, too, was bubbling about the celebration on the Israeli embassy grounds and how she had joined in dancing with thousands of Falashas.
"The small car now held all five of us as we turned down a narrow dirt road and stopped in front of a locked compound.
"Stepping through a narrow gate opening, I saw at least 100 men, women and children in their finest clothing, sitting alongside a neat bungalow, feasting on injerra and other typical Ethiopian food; chatting away, but I didn't feel out of place.
"Lyle and I were introduced to Andy (I was to learn later his last name was Goldman), a tall, twentysomething man from just outside Washington, D.C., who was with the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry with their headquarters in New York City.
"Andy said he preferred to be anonymous because this was such a sensitive issue, so I called him Andy No-Name because he didn't mention his surname in any conversation. And I didn't ask.
"Others were just as hesitant, even to the edge of paranoia.
"Walking up the steps to the living quarters of the neat bungalow, a woman, in a brightly colored dress, was sopping injerra in a bean mixture -- wot -- and was offering me a bite.
"In crowded rooms there were the celebrants. Andy No-Name led us to one particular room, slowly opening the door and there were a dozen Falasha priests.
"There were 14 altogether in the small room. One was a woman and one a teenage boy, who was, undoubtedly, a server of the special boiled meat from the rites of the animal slaughter earlier in the day.
"No one said a word as I moved my vidcam around the room, but there was no noticeable annoyance at an intruder in their inner circle.
"After leaving this sacred area, I passed through a roomful of women, all sitting on the floor drinking tea, and as I moved through I kicked a tray full of cups and quickly apologized for my big feet.
"They laughed and nodded at me.
"In the rear of the bungalow were more housing quarters with a dozen families in one spacious room. There appeared to be a sense of unity and purpose even in such cramped quarters.
"Then Andy No-Name asked me to sit down on a pile of leaves and we would talk, without the vidcam rolling.
"He explained the hardships of the Ethiopian Jews from the war-torn areas of Gondar and Lake Tana, but there were survivors and they all wanted to go to Israel and they had, in small numbers.
"Then it was a good thing I was sitting down, for when I asked how many Falasha Jews were in this one place in Addis, he replied: "About 22,000. There are between one and two thousand still remaining in Gondar." Did he say 22,000? I had heard him correctly and no doubt within a couple of months' time, all the Falasha Jews -- Beta Israel -- in Ethiopia would be all in one place, ready to go home to Israel."
The 1990-1991 drama of the civil war was forever overshadowed on Friday-Saturday, May 24 and 25, when Israel airlifted thousands of Ethiopian Jews from Addis Ababa in a lightning operation before the rebels closed in on the capital.
The 21-hour airlift of about 17,000 Falashas was launched in secrecy with military censors barring all news reports from Israel until after the last plane took off from Addis.
Military sources said the 'Lost Jews' were flown out in 30 unmarked civilian and air force planes, under the code name, Operation Solomon. The first great airlift in 1983-1984 had been dubbed Operation Moses.
However, the greatest regret was they had left behind the Ark of the Covenant, still "resting" in a church in the northern town of Aksum.

The years of living dangerously

2007-03-08T10:37:00.000-08:00

March 9/07
When Ivan Safronov, a military correspondent for Russia's top business daily, Kommersant, fell to his death from the fifth floor of his Moscow apartment building last week, it reinforced the fact that journalism can be deadly.
And two organizations, the International News Safety Institute (INSI), based in Brussels, Belgium, and the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), have the facts and figures to make such an assumption.
Safronov's death remains under investigation, for as INSI director Rodney Pinder pointed out in an AP story: "Thirteen journalists have died in Russia since (President Vladimir) Putin came to power, and there hasn't been a conviction."
Meanwhile, both the INSI and the CPJ delve into a world of intrigue and have done so since the 1990s when it involves journalists, whether they are front-line news reporters, TV cameramen and women, behind-the-scenes editors and, of course, the Internet and its subsidiaries, which manages to peer into the seedier sides of life as no other medium has done before.
Besides Safronov's sudden demise, another highly-suspect case was that of investigative reporter Anna Politkovskaya, who was delving into the abuses by Russian troops in Chechyna. She was shot and killed outside her apartment last October, according to an AP report.
In pursing the matter, the INSI has reported that more than 1,000 journalists and their support staff have died in the past decade, and that Iraq and Russia happen to be the deadliest countries.
Just in the last couple of days that point was driven home when Iraqi TV cameraman Youssef Sabri was killed in a car bombing.
Apparently, Sabri was filming Shi'ite pilgrims in Karbala from the back of a police truck when he was killed by an explosion, which ripped through a police checkpoint.
Although the figures from the INSI were much higher because they included translators, fixers, office staff and drivers, the CPJ, claimed at least 95 journalists, not including Sabri, have died since the Iraq war began in 2003.
The INSI began compiling its list in 1990 while the CPJ started in 1992 when they reported 42 journalists were killed in scenarios involving murder, being caught in crossfire, and being on dangerous assignments. Some 11 others died that year, but the reason for their deaths still have not been confirmed.
While both groups might have discrepanies in their statistical data, the CPJ claims 55 died in 2006, with those involved in reporting on a variety of fronts from war, politics, corruption, crime, human rights, sports/culture to business. Of the reported 55, some 32 died in Iraq and two in Russia.
Briefly are details about just a few of those killed in Iraq during 2006:
* Munsuf Abdallah al-Khaldi, Baghdad TV, March 7, Baghdad: Unidentified gunmen in west Baghdad shot al-Khaldi, 35, a presenter for the Iraqi television station Baghdad TV. Al-Khadi was driving to the northern city of Mosul to interview poets when assailants stopped the car and fired three shots ... One passenger was killed and two others injured. Al-Khaldi presented an educational and cultural show focusing on Middle Eastern poetry.
* Amjad Hameed, Al-Iraqiya, March 11, Baghdad: Hameed and his driver Anwar Turki were shot and killed by gunmen apparently affiliated with al-Qaeda in an ambush in central Baghdad. Hameed had been head of programming for Iraq's state TV channel Al-Iraqiya since July 2005 ... The father of three children had just left home for work when he was shot several times in the head and chest.
* James Brolan and Paul Douglas, CBS, May 29, Baghdad: Cameraman Douglas and soundman Brolan were killed when a car bomb exploded while they were on patrol in Baghdad with Iraqi and American soldiers. Correspondent Kimberly Dozier, the third member of the CBS crew, was seriously injured in the attack.
* Ismail Amin Ali, freelance, August 7, Baghdad: The body of freelance journalist Ali, 30, was discovered in late evening by police in the eastern section of Baghdad known as al-Sadr City, according to a CPJ source. His body was riddled with bullets, and Iraqi police said they found signs of torture. The journalist had been abducted while he was at a gas station two weeks earlier. The kidnappers had demanded ransom, but his family was unable to pay.
While Politkovskaya's murder on Oct. 7, 2006 in Moscow received world-wide attention, there was also another journalist -- Vagif Kochetkov, who worked for Trud and Tulsky Molodoi Kommunar -- who died on Jan. 8. The 31-year-old from Tula, 125 miles south of Moscow, reported on politics, social issues and culture.
On the night of the attack, Kochetkov told his parents he was meeting an unidentified person, and he would return home to download his work onto his computer. That evening he called from a local coffee shop and told them he'd be home in an hour. On the way, he was attacked. Although his condition wasn't considered serious at first, he began to deteriorate and after brain surgery on Jan. 5 he fell into a coma and died three days later. Just prior to the attack, Kochetkov wrote an article on the activities of a Tula drug-dealing group with the banner headline: "Revenge of the Mafia?"
As we said, and statistics will confirm, journalism can be a dangerous profession.

A case of the DSTs this Sunday

2007-03-06T12:44:00.000-08:00

For March 7/07
Remember when the trite saying of "spring ahead, fall back" was sufficent?
Not any more since we're in the computer age and your machinery could go slightly "haywire," to use a non-scientific term on Sunday.
That's right, Anna Schecter, who is part of Brian Ross' investigative team at ABC News, reports: "A new law requiring daylight savings time to start March 11, three weeks earlier than normal threatens a widespread Y2K-like computer glitch in U.S. computers preset for the later start date of April."
And, it's all George Bush's fault, or, at least we'll blame him, for the U.S. president is the one responsible for approving the March 11 date in order to save energy since most states (and provinces) don't need to turn their lights on as early in the evening.
In Schecter's report, she clearly states: "The DST extension is part of an energy bill passed in 2005 in an effort to cut back on the use of electricity."
Of course, whatever happens south of the border, certainly affects its northern neighbours, and even in the Vernon area there might be mini-Y2K "headaches" with computers unless software patches have been installed to adjust computer settings to the change.
Is this a serious issue?
In Schecter's reports, she quotes former White House counterterror and cyber crime chief Richard Clarke as saying "traffic lights and switches on train rails are two candidates that could cause an accident." Clarke also theorizes bank vaults could open an hour later, but then downplayed the problems by saying, "The difference between this and Y2K is that systems continue to work, they're just an hour off, wheras with Y2K we had reason to believe that systems would stop working."
Although the date has shifted from April back to March 11 and stretches to the first Sunday in November this year, DST first kicked off in 1915 and had been mulled around a great deal longer. In fact, Benjamin Franklin, when not flying a kite, saw the advantage of an extra hour of daylight in the spring with the days getting shorter in the fall while he was an envoy to France in the 1770s.
According to the CBC, the Americans adopted the Uniform Time Act in 1966. This meant each state could adopt DST in each time zone and then in 2006, most states and Canadian provinces moved their clocks ahead one hour "on the first Sunday in April."
Of course, Saskatchewan and Newfoundland and "pockets" in Ontario and northern British Columbia had to be different with their own time zones. But what's an hour here or a half-hour there?
There has even been considerable discussion on other reasons for changing to an earlier DST date as set by the U.S. and it involves economics. For as Ontario Premier Dalton McGuinty was quoted as saying: "We're not anxious to have a disconnect between us and our chief trading partner."
***
"I don't really care how time is reckoned as long as there is some agreement about it, but I object to be told that I am saving daylight when my reason tells me that I am doing nothing of the kind. I even object to the implication that I am wasting something valuable if I stay in bed after the sun has risen. As an admirer of moonlight I resent the bossy insistence of those who want to reduce my time for enjoying it. At the back of the Daylight Saving scheme I detect the bony, blue-fingered hand of Puritanism, eager to push people into bed earlier, and get them up earlier, to make them healthy, wealthy and wise in spit of themselves." (Robertson Davies, The Diary of Samuel Marchbanks, 1947, XIX, Sunday.)
***
HERE A-HUTCH, THERE A-HUTCH: Canmore, Alta. mayor, Ron Casey, has a chewing and burrowing problem in his mountain vacation spot. It seems the town, pop. 11,500, on the outskirts of Banff National Park, is being overrun with rabbits. Yes, those bunnies numbering more than 1,000 are everywhere and causing havoc. It seems Peter Cottontail and friends were kept under control in the past by predators such as the now-vanishing coyotes, but they're free to roam on their own in 2007.
***
BOGART SHOULD HAVE BEEN THRILLED: "And the Oscar for African Queen goes to Humphrey Bogart." His response: "&^%$, I hope I'm never nominated again. It's meat and potatoes roles for me from now on." (From Uncle John's Bathroom Reader).

'Junk' that kills body and mind

2007-03-06T12:40:00.000-08:00

Perhaps, there should be a warning label with this column: Do Not Take Any 'Junk' If You Want To Survive. By 'junk' I mean anabolic steroids, human growth hormones or supposedly muscle-enhancing pills that turn 98-pound weaklings into Superman or Superwoman.
And if you think that only prominent athletes, whose names are in the papers on a daily basis, subject themselves to ingesting this type of "junk," then take another guess.
Your little darlings, both male and female, in assorted sports are aware of easily-obtained "junk" and countless numbers apparently pop those pills, etc. for sleeker physiques and more mental and physical prowess. However, they, eventually, will learn that such "junk" will be equivalent to encountering kryptonite, which always reduced Superman to a mere mortal.
The reason for bringing this up is because it's become the scourge of this generation. Perhaps, in past generations as well. And now those athletes from the '60s, '70s and '80s are finding out just what "hell" on earth really means.
Take for instance, an individual, once described as looking like "Andre The Giant's angry, big brother," has now reached that aging group and laments adhering to the premise of "Better living through chemistry."
"When I was a kid, I wanted to be the greatest athlete of all time," he offered the other day, adding, "so in the 1960s I discovered a new source of power."
From the 160-pound weakling, he eventually bulged to 305 pounds and, suddenly, turned into a mean-spirited individual, who found that his "artificial" muscles and bulk could actually swell his bank account. However, just as quickly as his athleticism skyrocketed, it evaporated.
And with age, he almost shouted: "Stay away from any semblance of 'junk.' It will ruin your body and, possibly, your mind."
However, that advice is missing today, in most high-powered sports circles, which often treats such warnings as so much rhetoric. There was even snickering after one-time baseball star, Jose Canseco, "confessed" in a best-selling book about his "junk" use and implied San Francisco Giants' Barry Bonds was one of a bevy of superstars, who were caught up in that so-called "drug culture."
The BALCO revelations also put the spotlight on Bonds and Jason Giambi among others, but also made it clear that to investigate and report on such behaviour could be precarious, for two investigative reporters, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams (who wrote the book, Game of Shadows) barely escaped jail time for the wide-ranging expose.
The use of designer drugs even reached another level with a breaking story in the past few days and that is "illicit steroid distribution networks" are being targeted on the U.S. East Coast where reported customers have included Los Angeles Angels' outfielder Gary Matthews Jr., former heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield and a doctor for the Pittsburgh Steelers.
When pro wrestling went to court in 1994 with such illustrious names as Hulk Hogan (Terry Bollea) coming to the forefront, there were smiles all around and it was treated not with contempt, but with a degree of acceptance, passing it off even as "wrestlers will be wrestlers." Although the BALCO situation met with initial shock, it eventually wallowed in a bog filled with lawyers trying to prevent the names of certain high-priced jocks from getting into the dailies.
However, there's one troublesome aspect in all this scenario: It may get to the point that certain "name" athletes will want such publicity, adhering to the premise of "you can say anything you want about me as long as you spell my name correctly."
It really is just another step in the downfall of today's so-called progressive society.
What is needed, is qualified "counselors" to go into every school and every schoolyard in North America and admonish and teach would-be athletes about the horrific consequences of "junk use," whether it be injectible designer drugs/steroids or pills of any sort.
It certainly might help save a generation.
While this column might be "preaching," hopefully, it might salvage some from the "living hell" experienced by the aging and withering individuals, who once believed they had discovered the secret formula of "better living through chemistry."
SWAN SONG (From Uncle John's Bathroom Reader): The Myth: General Douglas MacArthur coined the saying "Old soldiers never die; they just fade away." The Truth: He was just quoting a British Army song from World War I ... Did you know that 'Dugout Doug' was Elvis' idol and that Presley memorized every line of dialogue from the George C. Scott film, Patton? And now you know.

Time for semi-annual Kerwoods

2007-03-06T12:36:00.000-08:00

Unless you've been on another planet or sitting in the bizarre hearings involving the final "destination" of former reality star, Anna Nicole Smith, then you're aware that everyone and their dog are giving out awards.
It's the annual season for the Oscars and Emmys and the Golden Jockstraps for the top athletes, however, you, perhaps, missed out on the semi-annual Kerwoods, honouring the most bizarre of the bizarre.
But before delving into the grab bag, the Ol' Columnist would be remiss without checking in with the Canadian Taxpayers Federation, who have named Liberal Senator Colin Kenny as the winner of the federal "Teddy" Award for being "the worst offender when it comes to government waste and overspending."
The CTF even held an Oscar-like ceremony in awarding Kenny for the "Best Comedic Performance by an Unelected Official" for his starring role in "Letters & Bills from Dubai."
It seems in 2006, Kenny and other Ottawa top dogs (aka freeloaders) were shuffling off to Kandahar to check on our troops. However, there was a twist in the plot and the military commanders held up a stop sign and in Dubai, the "Have Credit Card, Will Travel" Bunch checked in to the Renaissance Hotel for seven days at a cost of, now get this, $30,000. On top of this the entire overseas jaunt for these penny-pinchers came to $138,000.
And are you ready for the "municipal" Teddy award?
It went to my former stomping grounds of Edmonton and their glorious international idea of hiring 30 actors at $30,000 to hand out, get this, yo-yos in Washington on Canada Day.
The Teddies, of course, are named after a fired senior public servant (chairman of the Canada Labour Relations Board), Ted Weatherill, who billed his bosses $733.43 for a lunch for two. Oh, yes, it was in that quaint little village of ... Paris, France.
However, this column was supposed to be about what I call the Semi-Annual Kerwoods and this time I checked through my files and selected a few that have already been given Darwin Awards for "stupidity."
From the hundreds I read, these made my list:
* Man Glued to Rhino Buttocks (1999): A Vermont native toured the Eagle's Rock African Safari Zoo when he decided to "demonstrate the power of Crazy Glue." Our genius rubbed several ounces of the sticky substance on his hands and then placed them on the buttocks of a passing rhino. Well, "Sally the Rhino" took off, goring a shed wall and destroying two fences. Incidentally, did I tell you that "Sally" had been constipated and had been given a laxative? The upset rhino proceeded to "shower" his glued rider with 30 gallons of rhinoceros diarrhea before being detached from the "messy" scene.
* Another Kerwood also goes to a Darwin honourable mention from 1995: It seems Robert Ricketts, a 19-year-old student at Bowling Green U. in Ohio, was struck by a moving train and his head was bloodied. Apparently, Rapid Robert was trying to see how close he could get to the train without getting hit. He miscalculated, but he did live.
* Do you remember Larry Walters? He's the bright one who bought 45 weather balloons and tied them to his tethered lawnchair. After strapping himself in with what every "astronaut" would need -- a few sandwiches, some Miller Lite, and a pellet gun, Ol' Larry was ready for a smooth and lazy ascent to about 30 feet over his backyard. By the way, he had the pellet gun to pop the balloons on his planned slow descent. Well, sometimes the best-laid plans do not work, and Mr. Balloon Man soared into the sky like a cannon and leveled off at 16,000 feet. After crossing the LAX corridor and being spotted by Trans World and Delta pilots, he blacked out over Long Beach where the cops were waiting for Lawn Chair Larry.
* And, finally, another Darwin caught my eye and it was the "Blondes and Oil Changes" episode from 1996. It seems Amy Brasher, another "nuclear scientist" from San Antonio, took her car to a mechanic for an oil change. She, however, forget to tell anyone that there were 18 packages of marijuana packed around the car engine. The mechanic called the cops. Amy had an explanation or what she thought was a reasonable explanation: "I didn't realize that the mechanic would have to raise the hood to change the oil." Duh!

Crossing border can be a real pain

2007-03-06T12:33:00.000-08:00

So you have the February Blahs?
It's a malady which strikes the Ol' Columnist at this time of year, much like a right uppercut from the heavyweight champion, whoever he is these days.
You know the symptoms: There's a chill in your bones and your brain hasn't worked on all cylinders since last July and you can vaguely remember what warm weather was really like. Very vaguely.
So there I was driving along in the Ol' Chariot, with the windshield wipers attempting to scrap off the mixture of snow and rain, while dreaming of being toasted on a southern beach. It was then the morbid voices on Bill Good's radio program began relating the problems on our border ever since 9-11.
Of course, I sometimes live in the past, remembering a casual walk across the bridge at Niagara Falls, Ont. and into the U.S. It was a breeze. Or flying to Florida or California was a cinch. But that was before than awful day when North Americans woke up to the realization that terrorists did, indeed, live among us.
When I arrived back at the Ol' Homestead, I began to check out some of the current news stories concerning border security; and discovered something called the border security plan, which I had overlooked.
In keeping you and me up-to-date, here briefly are some of the points put out by Canada's Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day on Friday, Jan.12:
* Canada intends to spend more than $368 million on border protection in the next five years.
And what does than mean? Well, if you work for the feds, there goes your Christmas bonus, and, perhaps, that winter vacation to somewhere humid.
* Some $337 million of that Day bankroll will be spent on the electronic-Manifest program. What's that, you might ask? It allows for computer-automated risk assessments of cargo shipments before they reach Canada, according to the AP story.
And the reason for the eManifest plan was because some 18,000 trucks cross the U.S.-Canada border every day and this is what Day said at Windsor, Ont. when the program was introduced: "I even sometimes surprise my American friends when I remind them that the trade that comes across the Ambassador Bridge in total is greater than all the trade that exists between the United States and Japan."
Of course, Day's pronouncements were in line with Prime Minister Stephen Harper's post-election promise in tightening the security, and rightly so, along the 4,000-mile border.
While security concerning the transporting of goods will increase dramatically in the next few years, individuals will be adhering to a new set of guidelines. Stringent rules will, or are, now being enforced.
When checking with the Canada Border Services Agency (cbsa.gc.ca), I learned that they have a workforce of about 12,000 public servants and provide services at about 1,200 points across the nation and 39 international locations.
Some of the things that the CBSA does (and, of course, they use that word, "we," in all cases):
* We manage 119 land border crossings.
* At 61 land border crossings and nine international airports, we operate on a 24/7 basis.
* We operate four immigration detention facilities in Laval, Toronto, Kingston, and Vancouver for individuals deemed to be inadmissable for a number of reasons including: posing a danger to the public or to national security; unlikely to appear for an immigration process; or for whom identity has not been confirmed.
Then "we" continued with the CBSA responsibilities, which included:
* We administer legislation that governs the admissibility of people and goods into and out of Canada.
* We establish how people and goods move through our borders.
* We detain those people who may pose a threat to Canada.
* We remove people who are inadmissable to our country, including those involved in terrorism, organized crime and war crimes or crimes against humanity.
And the list goes on and on.
As for me, after reading the CBSA "handbook" I think I'd better stay right at home.
Forget about being "toasted" on a southern beach some where.
Could someone sell me a cheap heat lamp and please pass me some suntan lotion?
RAINING CATS AND DOGS (From Uncle John's Bathroom Reader): Meaning: Torrential rain. Origin: In the days before garbage collection, people tossed their trash in the gutter -- including deceased housepets -- and it just lay there. When it rained really hard, the garbage, including the bodies of dead cats and dogs, went floating down the street.

Facts, not fiction, about Jerusalem.

2007-03-06T12:29:00.000-08:00

Even in this world of supposedly instant communication, fact and fiction often become tangled. And in the Middle East such mingling of the truth and lies seems to be an every-day occurrence.
Just this week, the Iraq and Iran situation became cloudier with miscommunications between George Bush's White House and the generals in the field in that "hell-hole" known as Baghdad.
And another quagmire has to be Jerusalem, and the on-going construction work at the Temple Mount's Mugrabi Gate.
As a former Middle East reporter, based in that contentious city to three religions -- Judaism, Christianity and Islam -- the "war" has been ongoing. It could escalate this weekend with Muslims expected to voice more than just their opinion as to has the right to hold sway over Jerusalem. This despite a supposed agreement with Turkey to send in a technical inspection team after a meeting between Israeli PM Ehud Olmert and Turkish PM Recep Tayyip Erdogan.
As I've written in the past, much of mankind's future will be determined in the Israeli city, and not in Washington or Moscow or Tehran.
When I went searching through my Middle East files I discovered the viewpoints of an expert, Steven Shamrak, who offered explanations for just who has rightful ownership to The Land.
* 1. Nationhood and Jerusalem -- Israel became a nation in the 14th century B.C.E., some 2,000 years before the rise of Islam.
* 2. Since 1272 B.C.E. the Jews have had dominion over the land for up to 1,000 years with a continuous Jewish presence in the land for the past 3,300 years.
* 3. The only Arab dominion since the Arab invasion and conquest in 635 C.E. lasted no more than 22 years.
* 4. King David founded the city; Muhammad never came to Jerusalem.
* 5. Jerusalem has been the Jewish capital for more than 3,000 years. It has never been the capital of any Arab or Muslim entity.
* 6. Jerusalem is mentioned more than 700 times in the Jewish Holy Scriptures, known as the Tanach. It's not mentioned in the Koran.
*7. Jews pray facing Jerusalem while Muslims pray facing Mecca.
* 8. In 1854, a reporter for the New York Tribune, Karl Marx, yes that Karl Marx, wrote that Jews made up two-thirds of the city's population.
* 9. When Mark Twain toured "Palestine" in 1867, he had this to say: "A desolate country whose soil is rich enough but is given over wholly to weeds. A silent, mournful expanse. We never saw a human."
* 10. An official Ottoman Turk census in 1882 showed only 141,000 Muslims (Arab and non-Arab) in the entire Land of Israel.
* 11. In 1906, Karl Baedeker's travel guide showed Jerusalem's population of 60,000 of which there were 40,000 Jews; 13,000 Christians and 7,000 Muslims.
* 12. As the Jews came and drained the swamps and made the deserts bloom, Arabs followed. They came for jobs, for prosperity, for freedom. And, they came in large numbers.
* 13. In 1922, with what was widely acknowledged as the illegal separation of Transjordan, the Jews were forbidden to settle on almost 77 per cent of "Palestine," while Arab settlement went unrestricted and encouraged by British mandatory authority.
* 14. Prior to the Second World War, Mojli Amin, a member of the Arab Defense Committee for "Palestine," proposed the idea "that all the Arabs of 'Palestine' will leave and be divided up amongst the neighboring Arab countries. In exchange for this, all the Jews living in Arab countries will leave and come to Palestine."
* 15. Did you know that Saudi Arabia was not created until 1913, Lebanon until 1920? Iraq did not exist as a nation until 1932, Syria until 1941; the borders were established in 1946 and Kuwait in 1961.
While these cover 15 of the 29 truths, Shamrak also offered these points:
* Israel is a front-line defense in the war between Islamic expansionism and Western democracies.
* UN anti-Israel bias and double-standard is applied to Israel by international community.
* Jewish people have the right to live in peace on all the land of their ancestors.
* Israel is the only Jewish state.
* There are 60 Muslim countries, including 22 Arab ones. They have enough land to accommodate all Arabs.
* Negotiation will not stop terrorism. It only makes it stronger.
Shamrak, in my opinion, makes valid points concerning Israel, which faces another temptuous and volatile weekend as the entire world watches.

Passing the Valentine's Day test

2007-03-06T12:26:00.000-08:00

So, men, you've forgotten what day it is, have you?
That's right, Mr. Macho, it's not Christmas, or New Year's or even Sir Smithers' birthday; but it's Valentine's Day 2007.
Can you still remember when holding hands and giving her chocolates and a bunch of flowers was an everyday occurrence and not something that you handed out in order to "pay" for some known or unknown indiscretion?
Now, this is not a lecture from the Ol' Columnist, for I must confess, The Missus even questioned my motives when I was extra affectionate and even promised to pick up some clothes that were lying around.
It was mainly because I'd just taken the Valentine's Day Quiz as put out by Reader's Digest and made a passing grade of 70 per cent that I'm now gloating just a bit.
In order for you to get in the good graces of your lady this year, check out your knowledge:
* 1. The lovers' holiday, known as Valentine's Day, has its origins in the Pagan rite of ... Romance; Joviality; Fertility; Wine making ? Correct answer: Fertility. The annual Roman fertility rite dates back to the 4th century B.C. Young men drew from a box the names of young women, who became their companions.
* 2. The pagan fertility festival was named after what Roman god? Venus; Lupercus; Odraticus; Fortuna? Correct answer: Lupercus.
* 3. Valentine was stoned, clubbed and beheaded because he ... Secretly married young lovers; Ate too much chocolate; Refused to send the Roman emperor a Valentine's Day card; Failed to pay income tax? Correct answer: Valentine began secretly marrying young lovers after Emperor Claudius II banned marriage.
* 4. Why is the name Arterius important to the Valentine's Day story? Correct answer: He was Valentine's jailer.
* 5. Which civilization introduced Valentine's Day cards? Greece; Rome; India; Babylonia? Correct answer: It was Roman men who first offered women written wishes of affection.
* 6. Who sent the earliest surviving Valentine's Day card? Correct answer: Charles, the Duke of Orleans, sent his wife a card while she was imprisoned in the Tower of London.
* 7. Sending anonymous Valentine's Day cards in England became fashionable after ... A paper mill strike ended; A reduction in postal rates; An increase of card shops ... A reduction of printing costs? Correct answer: A drop in postal rates.
* 8. The son of Venus, goddess of love and beauty, is associated with Valentine's Day. What is his name? Correct answer: Cupid, of course.
* 9. The letter X represents a kiss and was once used to convey what message? Correct answer: Sworn oath, for in days of old, when many did not know how to write, an X or the sign of the cross was accepted as a sworn oath.
* 10. Why did the Allied governments outlaw troops from the writing of XXX in letters home during WWII? Correct answer: To prevent spies from using it as a code.
So you've taken the test, even though you have all 10 correct answers. I had only three wrong and I didn't peek once.
Now I wonder what the Missus would like on this special day? However, there's one suggestion from a Japanese spa which I refuse to indulge in and that's to go dipping in chocolate. It was an ancient practise of the Aztecs, who believed it was an aphrodisiac that "invigorated men and made women less inhabited."
Perhaps, a box of calorie-reduced chocolates and a handful of flowers will fit the bill.
If I don't hear the slamming of any doors, I'll know that I'm still her "Valentine," after all these years.
EMBRACE FOR THE AGES: In the pre-dawn of Valentine's Day, some bone hunters in Italy have found a prehistoric couple wrapped in each other's arms near Verona, which was the setting for Shakespeare's doomed romance about Romeo and Juliet. Archaelogists suggest the "bones" are from the late Neolithic period of about 5,000 years ago. There's also a suggestion that durng that era, a wife would be "sacrificed" and buried with her husband when he died.
DID YOU KNOW? (From Uncle John's Bathroom Reader): E.A. Murphy, Jr. Murphy was not an optimist. An American engineer in the 1940s, he was the first to utter the words "Anything that can go wrong will go wrong" -- Murphy's Law.

A man with a definite (water) plan

2007-03-06T12:23:00.000-08:00

Steve Skultety has a plan.
And what's more at $90 mil it would be a bargain in meeting our future water needs.
I have to admit that the word, "water," in the past has always conjured up thoughts of the Sons of the Pioneers warbling "Cool, Cool Water," or Jack Nicholson's movie classic, "Chinatown." in which the underlying theme wasn't Roman Polanski slicing and dicing Jack's nose, but getting water flowing into Los Angeles by any means.
And, of course, I can't forget recalling the school nurse reiterating time and again to drink eight glasses of water a day to stay healthy.
So when Skultety handed me a letter about water after church service on Sunday, I had envisioned placing it under the heading of "Letters to the Editor," and even told The Boss that he should find a spot for it in today's paper.
Then I began to re-read Skultety's plan.
He began: "A recent figure of $42 million was mentioned for water treatment, which would give us good quality water, however, it will do nothing towards increasing water supply volume. So to guarantee available water for Vernon and this valley's needs, now and in the future, we need to look elsewhere."
Where is this elsewhere?
Skultety then proposes transporting water via a pipeline from the Revelstoke Dam, which is above the 2,000-foot level to Okanagan Lake at about the 1,000-foot level.
"It would mean the cost of transporting would be nil due to the elevation difference," he emphasized.
For those not in the know, such as myself, I looked up about the Revelstoke Dam and found it is one of four dams in B.C. that regulate the flow of the Columbia River. And according to a B.C. Hydro blurb, its hydroelectric complex comprises a 175 m high concrete gravity dam in Little Dalles Canyon, a 122 m high earthfill dam on the west bank of the river, and a powerhouse in the riverbed, immediately downstream of the concrete dam.
In continuing with the letter, Skultety claimed such a proposed pipeline had definite plus sides such as:
* Prior to discharging this water into Okanagan Lake, generating power from it would eventually repay the capital invested in the project.
* An increase in the Okanagan River in summer to minimize the "salmon fry die-off" due to low flow and high-water temperature.
* Better lake level control year round.
* Increased fish production in the lake.
* Faster water turn over.
* Better cleansing and flushing effect.
* More water for food production.
Then Skultety spoke about the cost of the Revelstoke Dam to Okanagan Lake pipeline, stating it would be about $90 million for the 90 miles at $1 million a mile. Such a pricetag would be reasonable since it would be spread among users from Vernon to Wenatchee, Washington on the Columbia.
Skultety pointed out that since the Okanagan Lake is part of the Columbia watershed, the environmental hazards would be minor for there wouldn't be a mixing of different watersheds nor would there be any toxics being transported.
"In addition, our current water source could be returned to agricultural use untreated, and we could keep our valley greener and healthier."
However, there was a minus side; and Skultety pondered whether politicians would question where and who would turn on the first tap.
His letter ended on a positive note: "This pipeline would benefit the entire valley, not just Vernon, and we should act now before some private enterprise starts selling us our water because we didn't plan for our future needs. It is our opportunity to make the Okanagan Valley the Napa of the North."
Hear, hear, I'll drink to that. Water, that is.
SOME THINGS I WISH I'D SAID (But Mark Twain did and Uncle John's Bathroom Reader quoted him): "Adam and Eve had many advantages, but the principal one was that they escaped teething." ... "Get your facts first, and then distort them as much as you please." ... "Noise proves nothing. Often a hen who has merely laid an egg cackles as if she has laid an asteroid." ... "Man is the only animal that blushes. Or needs to." and, finally, "It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt."

So much for being a Maverick

2007-03-06T12:20:00.000-08:00

When I worked with Garth Turner at the Toronto Sun, I could sometimes overhear such words as "pompous," followed by a precise vulgarity. There's a possibility I might have even used them.
Then in November, 2006, I had a change of heart when Turner stood up to the present-day puppet master, Stephen Harper, and his so-called Conservative puppets; and for his grief, he was tossed aside.
As a seasoned "blogger," Turner claimed his boot from Harper and his sad-sack band "was the symbol of just how bankrupt the political system has become. After all, my electors were screwed in this incident, and for all intents and purposes, the national party just doesn't care."
Then he went on to "blog," with these words: "The party brass refused to tell them why I was tossed, or provide evidence to support it, or come clean or why they decided in secret I will be disqualified as the nominated candidate and in fact banned from the Tories again. Apparently not content to kill me once (kicked out of caucus last month), they killed me again last Friday (no longer a candidate, and never to be one)."
With his dismissal from the Conservatives and Harper's gang, Turner was labelled with the tag of "maverick," which he wore proudly around his neck.
And so, what I and thousand others in the burgeoning nation of "bloggers," believed was a new era when our voices would be heard and Turner would, begrudgingly, become a leading force, there definitely was an aura of hope.
But wait, in just the last day or so, this so-called "Maverick" has jumped from the "blog nation" to Stephane Dion's weak-kneed Liberals and destroyed, completely, his image as someone honourable and one who might deserve some respect in that self-centred profession, known as politics.
Turner has turned his back, not only on the Conservatives, but on the rest of Canada, not because he's joined the Liberals, but because he has scuttled the dream, any dream, of people who had almost forgotten how to dream.
The nightmare of "business as usual" in Ottawa continues and as Roy Clancy of the Calgary Sun wrote about Turner and his ilk, "they'll break your heart every time."
Then Clancy quoted some bloggers, who mumbled the likes of "You want to know (Turner) why Canadians are cynical about politics, then take a good long look in the mirror." Or as another hissed: "Finally, a sheep in sheep's clothing" and then continued on with his diatribe.
Perhaps, Turner has every right to pussy-foot around the Liberals or whoever will pat him on the back and mutter, "now you be a nice boy, and we'll buy you lunch," but then again Canada was looking for a hero, a maverick, but what we got was just another non-principled politician.
The shame of it all.
Some day, my fellow Bloggers, a real hero will emerge. I think.
***
YOU CAN'T MAKE THIS STUFF UP: The plot thickens as the attractive American astronaut is charged with "trying to murder the woman she believed was her romantic rival for a space shuttle pilot's affection" and that's just the opening scene. The love triangle has a dozen plots and sub-plots and it's all entangled because these two female rivals are, allegedly, on the prowl for another (male) astronaut. No, it's far too complicated for the movie of the week, but you can catch it on your nightly TV newscast.
***
FRANKIE COULD BELT 'EM OUT: The neighbours could hear my bellowing a mile away, I think. Although some of the words were juggled, I was trying to deliver my rendition of Frankie Laine's That's My Desire, That Lucky Old Sun, Mule Train, Jezebel and even the theme from Rawhide. In an era of big-voiced crooners, Laine was the "king" and he died on Tuesday. He was 93.
***
THEIR REAL NAMES (From the Best of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader): Did you know that Woody Allen was really Allen Konigsberg; Jack Benny was Joseph Kubelsky; Michael Caine was Maurice Mickelwhite; and Frankie Laine was Francesco Paulo LoVecchio.

Get out of the purple rain, Prince

2007-03-06T12:17:00.000-08:00

What, no, Janet Jackson and her wardrobe malfunction?
What, no, rumbling John Madden or smooth Pat Summerall or Bill (The Baby Blimp) Parcells being soaked in some sticky Gatorade on the sidelines?
Instead, what a mere 140 million TV viewers and yours truly got to see during Super Bowl XLI was a strange-looking guy with a purple guitar making a racket in HDTV and platform technology, and seven hours and 55 minutes, more or less, of commercials, where the main attraction was some SLAP-stick. And I do mean Bud Light SLAP-stick.
And what we also got besides the Purple Rain and (Prince) Rogers Nelson, formerly known as TAFKAP (my computer won't make that weird symbolic sign), were two lesser, and often non-descript entities -- Jim Nantz and Phil Simms.
Say, didn't Simms used to play for the New York Giants back in 1987?
Yes, he did and admirably, I might add as he set a Super Bowl record with an 88% completion percentage and took Parcells' Giants to a 39-20 triumph over John Elway and his Denver Broncos in XXI.
So what's Simms up to these days? He played second fiddle to technology when the Indianapolis Colts splished-splashed their way past the Chicago Bears 29-17 in XLI.
If you'll forgive me, this is what I wrote 20 Super Bowls ago:
* John Madden, who works as the Slice Blimp in the off-season, has given us such words as Bam! Boom! Whack!
But now he's done something definitely unique in addition to giving Daniel Webster and his dictionary fits, with a series of questions as the Giants started the countdown to Gatorade.
Madden, before God, Pat Summerall and a billion Chinese, asked the provocative questions: 1. How does sweat sound in stereo? 2. How does spit sound in stereo? and, most important, 3. How does chewing a mouthpiece sound in stereo?
The CBS Super Bowl XXI, directed by Sandy Grossman, was broadcast in stereo to such football hotbeds as Nicaragua, Iceland, Singapore, Saudi Arabia, Luxembourg and, on a delayed and edited basis, to the Chinese where the Super Bowl is known as Gan Lan Qui (olive ball) because of its shape.
Then Madden followed up his stereo comments with a description of the Gatorade buckets -- "there's the Mother bucket, the Father bucket and even the Baby Bucket." And CBS provided us with such startling graphics as the Father Bucket (it eventually was poured over Parcells) contains 10 gallons of the sticky stuff, weighs 12 pounds, stands 23 1/4 inches high and is in its third year.
While such nonsense was espoused near the conclusion of Super Bowl XXI, it gave the telecast just the right touch, and if one was scoring the broadcast, the CBS crew of Summerall, Madden, Brent Musberger, Dan Dierdorf, Irv Cross and Will McDonough has to rate a 9. Nobody, as Bobby Bare used to sing rates a 10, only Bo Derek.
Summerall, the former Giants kicker, didn't allow his bias to show, and gave us a first-rate, straight-forward play-by-play report, with the least amount of verbal diarrhea, although he could have been a touch more excited. But that's Summerall's style, and he's too old and set in his ways to change now.
While Madden and Summerall were giving the viewer accurate and entertaining performances, host Musberger and Dierdorf, the former Incredible Bulk of the St. Louis Cardinals, were equally adept, particularly in their analytical view of a replay involving Denver's Clarence Kay and then the subsequent safety when the Giants' George Martin tracked Elway into the end zone.
Even the billion Chinese will savor Super Bowl XXI, even if they can't understand Madden's Bam! Boom! Whack! or what spits sounds in stereo.
And, finally, there was no over-rated guitar plucker prancing out there in the Purple Rain nor the dull (not dulcet) sounds of Nantz and Simms nor anyone humming to 'Who Let The Dogs Out?'
SUPER BOWL HALL OF FAME: Top 3 commercials, as rated by at least three fans and MSNBC: 1. Apple "1984" (1984); 2. Coke "Mean Joe Greene" (1979); 3. E*Trade "Monkey" (2000). Honourable mentions: Reebok "Terry Tate: Office Linebacker" (2003); Monster.com "When I Grow Up ..." (1999).
SUPER BOWL HALL OF SHAME: 1. Apple -- "Lemmings" (1985); 2. Burger King -- "Find Herb the Nerd" (1986); 3. Just for Feet -- Kenyan runner ad (1999). Dishonourable mentions: Holiday Inn -- Sex change ad (1997); Budweiser -- Flatulent horse ad (2004).
'MISTAKE IN THE LAKE': Remind me NEVER to be photographed after taking a dip in the Okanagan in early February.

Super mystery and Super Sunday

2007-03-06T12:14:00.000-08:00

While the mystery of who's the best quarterback, Peyton Manning or Rex Grossman, will, undoubtedly, be solved on Super Bowl Sunday, there is one mystery which still remains: What really happened to Carroll Rosenbloom ?
Of course, most people, except for certain football fanatics, have forgotten the name, but he was an integral part of the NFL and was a major story, for even this reporter some 27 years -- the last Super Bowl I was, supposed, to cover. But that's another story.
So how does this story even involve Sunday's combatants, the Indianapolis Colts and the Chicago Bears?
If you'll allow me to disgress, on Thursday, Jan. 17, 1980 in the Toronto Sun, I wrote about a "fading blonde" named Georgia Rosenbloom, who took over as boss of the Rams when her husband, Carroll, drowned in the heavy surf off the Florida coast in April (1979).
There's that name -- Carroll Rosenbloom.
And the story then detailed about her surviving a "palace revolt" and also severe injuries suffered by her team.
Then I wrote: "The off-the-field dramatics provided more intrigue than the Rams' on-the-field activities. First, there was the death of Rosenbloom, who made an even swap with Robert Irsay a few years back -- the Colts to Los Angeles and the Rams to Baltimore. He (Rosenbloom) was a complex man ... while Georgia minded the Rosenbloom household ..."
Though countless expected Georgia Rosenbloom (Frontiere) to fail since most believed the inheritance of the Rams was nothing more than a tax dodge, she took complete control and, eventually, moved them to St. Louis.
However, those Rams with MVP quarterback Kurt Warner and head coach Dick Vermeil in control did succeed and brought Super Bowl XXXIV hardware to St. Louis early in 2000.
So where does Super Bowl XLI all tie in and what is the Robert Irsay connection with (Carroll) Rosenbloom?
Well, the senior Irsay as his bio details was born in Chicago in 1923 and was the longtime owner of the Baltimore/Indianapolis Colts franchise.
In Wikipedia, it reads: "While previously the owner of the then-Los Angeles Rams, Irsay essentially traded franchises with Carroll Rosenbloom, the then owner of the (Baltimore) Colts in 1972. In a controversial move, Robert Irsay moved the Colts to Indianapolis in the early morning hours of March 29, 1984."
After the senior Irsay's death on Jan. 18, 1997, the Colts were taken over by his son, Jim, an eccentric, but generous CEO, who runs the Colts today with the assistance of team president Bill Polian.
While Jim Irsay is considered a benevolent man, his father, Robert, was targeted in the Baltimore Sun as "an impetuous and meddlesome team owner prone to drunken fits of rage."
When the Colts headed to Indianapolis, Baltimore was without a franchise until Art Modell did the unthinkable and moved the beloved Cleveland Browns to the East Coast city. However, he did leave the name -- the Browns, etc. -- in the "Mistake By The Lake," and the franchise was resurrected some years later. However, Modell because of that move became a curse word.
As for the late Carroll Rosenbloom, the mystery still surrounds his drowning behind his Golden Beach, Florida home. It has always been questionable, for he was such a strong swimmer. And, although it's been rumoured that the death of the high-stakes gambler, may have been foul play, an investigation ruled it as accidental.
So while there's a new era of leadership with the Indianapolis Colts, the shadows of the late Carroll Rosenbloom and Robert Irsay still remain.
Incidentally, in Super Bowl XIV on Jan. 20, 1980, the one I was referring to at the beginning of this column, Georgia Rosenbloom (Frontiere) and her Los Angeles Rams lost 31-19 to Terry Bradshaw and his Pittsburgh Steelers before 103,985 fans in Pasadena's Rose Bowl.
As for this reporter, I didn't cover the game, for I'd been called back to the Edmonton Sun to take over a management position. But that's definitely another story. Incidentally, the late Paul Rimstead and his brother, Rolf, took my place in the Pasadena press box.
P.S. Although I'm not a betting man, here's Sunday's score: Indianapolis 28, Chicago 14.
COWBOY CONCERT: My pal, Rob Dinwoodie, and Dogwood Road will at the Westwood Hall on Saturday, Feb. 17 at 7 p.m. Also on the program will be Matt Johnston, Butch Falk, Mike Puhallo and Gordie West. Admission at the door is only $10. For info call Sherry Simpson at 375-2274 or Puhallo at 1-888-763-2224.

Bleak future for fractured world

2007-03-06T12:12:00.000-08:00

When the Doomsday Clock ticked forward to five minutes to midnight just a few days ago, it just made a slight blip on most people's screens. It's been something that hell-and-brimstone preachers have been warning about for what seems a century or two.
However, as a former Middle East bureau chief for a major news-gathering service based in Jerusalem, the words from such political figures as former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich during the Herzliya, Israel security conference had an impact on me. Even more than a dozen sermons.
In blunt words: This planet could be in its death throes or on a life-support system.
When Gingrich spoke via a video hookup, he foresaw Israel as the prime target from Iran and, if that is true, then it could lead to a "second Holocaust."
His chilling words, which appeared in the Jerusalem Post, were these: "We have enemies who are quite explicit in their desire to destroy us. They say it publicly, on television, on Web sites. We are sleepwalking through this as though it is all a problem of communications, and that somehow diplomacy will enable us to come together and have a wonderful fiesta in which we will all learn to love one another."
Of course, he was referring to the savage threats from Iran's strongman, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, and that nation's nuclear weapons program.
While you may have mulled over Gingrich's words in other reports, they should be repeated and repeated until they sink in, even in Canada, for we are joined at the hip with the U.S., and what happens south of the border will have dire consequences here as well.
Although some may question the validity of Ahmadinejad 's "prophetic vision" of a coming messiah, known to Iran as the Madhi, nevertheless, his pronouncements, even the last few days, are downright sinister and scary, particularly when he and his cohorts are possibly armed and definitely dangerous with nuclear weapons.
In continuing his warning, Gingrich was adamant when he said: "Three nuclear weapons is a second Holocaust. If two or three cities are destroyed because of terrorism, both the U.S. and Israel's democracy will be eroded and both will become greater dictatorial societies.
"What (actions) are you in Israel going to take if tomorrow morning Jerusalem, Haifa and Tel Aviv would be destroyed? Similarly, the U.S. needs to consider what policies it would advance if in 24 hours, Atlanta, Boston and San Francisco were destroyed. These threats will become even more imminent in two or five years' time."
Even during the Herzliya conference, Canada's Foreign Minister, Peter MacKay, stated he was "deeply concerned about Iran" and insisted that Tehran must not be allowed to obtain N-weapons. However, just wishing will not evaporate Iran's stockpile, according to a growing number of experts.
While Iran now has come to the forefront as the major threat to world security, a giant nation, China, has spread fear, although on a relatively small scale, at the moment.
On Wednesday, Japan's Prime Minister, Shinzo Abe, voiced his concern about China firing a missile to destroy an "obsolete" satellite orbinting some 500 miles above the earth.
According to news analyst, Bill Wilson, "this single event has the possibility of escalating an arms race in space that could make the Star Wars movie series look like prophecy."
Wilson went on to comment that the U.S., Australia, Britain, South Korea and even Canada have, or are preparing, diplomatic protests.
So the dangers are here on earth as well as in the heavens.
In his analytical report, Wilson had this comment: "The apocalyptic Bible book of Revelation predicts a massive military assembly originating from China in the latter days, "Then the sixth angel poured out his bowl on the great river Euphrates, and it water dried up so that the way of the kings from the east might be prepared."
And, of course, there are preachers such as John Hagee, who are deeply concerned.
In Jerusalem Countdown, the front cover has these words: Iran's president has said, "Israel must be wiped off from the map of the world." And then Hagee on the back cover writes: "We are on a countdown to crisis. A nuclear showdown with Iran is apparent. The battle for Jerusalem has begun. This war will affect every person on Planet Earth."

Now for some useless facts

2007-03-06T12:07:00.000-08:00

"What should I write about?" It was a standard question for The Missus.
"Well," she says, "you could write about Ken Dryden's No. 29 jersey being retired in Montreal. After all we both knew his father."
I nodded my head, remembering the great humanitarian, Murray Dryden, who passed away in 2004.
"Then, there's the dire situation over in Israel," she continued.
Of course, I'd lived in Israel and had heard about the most recent bombing down in the resort town of Eilat.
"Aw, everyone's written about that," I muttered.
"I've got it. What about those useless facts you're always spouting?"
"That's it," I yelped. "Mr. Useless at your service."
And then I started to ramble on as The Missus "pretended" to pay attention, but then I noticed her eyes were closing.
"Hey, wake up, did you know a snail can sleep for three years."
She was enthralled by my knowledge. Actually, she was speechless.
And so I continued on with these facts, which could be used at your next party. Some came courtesy of Precision Mold Base out of Tempe, Arizona and others were drifting around in the ether when I caught up to them:
* The original game of "Monopoly" was circular.
* The sentence "the quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" uses every letter in the English language.
* More people are killed by donkeys annually than are killed in plane crashes.
* Birds do not sleep in their nests. They may occasionally nap in them, but they actually sleep in other places.
* Caesar salad has nothing to do with any Caesar. It was first concocted in a bar in Tijuana, Mexico, in the 1920's.
* Barbie's measurements if she were life size: 39-23-33.
* Underground is the only word in the English language that begins and ends with the letters "und."
* The dot over the letter 'i' is called a tittle.
* Only 1/3 of the people that can twitch their ears can twitch only one at a time.
* Alfred Hitchcock didn't have a belly button. It was eliminated when he was sewn up after surgery.
* The A&W of root beer fame stands for Allen and Wright.
* Bingo is the name of the dog on the Cracker Jack box.
* Elton John's real name is Reginald Dwight.
* Stalin was only five feet, four inches tall.
* The only planet without a ring is earth.
* A group of unicorns is called a blessing.
* Twelve or more cows are known as a "flink."
* A group of frogs is called an army.
* A group of owls is called a parliament.
* Roy Rogers name was Leonard Slye and Dale Evans was Frances Octavia Smith.
* Peanuts are one of the ingredients of dynamite.
* The Bible does not say there were three wise men; it only says there were three gifts.
"Where does it say that?" The Missus interjected.
"I'll look it up later," I replied.
"Do you want to hear more," I asked.
"Sure," was her only answer.
Then I proceeded to ramble on about more "useless facts."
* U.S. President Teddy Roosevelt was the first to announce to the world that Maxwell House coffee is "Good to the last drop."
* Julius Caesar was self-conscious about his receding hairline.
* The toothbrush was invented in 1498.
* Leonardo Da Vinci invented the scissors.
* Frostbite Falls, Minnesota, was home to Rocky and Bullwinkle.
* Donald Duck comics were banned from Finland because he doesn't wear pants.
* The most common letters in the English language are R S T L N E. Sound familiar? Watch an episode of 'Wheel of Fortune.'
"Did you know that, sweetheart?"
There was no reply.
I swear, if I didn't know better, The Missus has just dozed off ... zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.

Sports scandals a sign of the times

2007-03-06T12:05:00.000-08:00

It once was described by a now departed sports scribbler as "the playpen of life."
Now, it could be best tabbed as "the pig sty."
It's a sordid underbelly that sometimes deals with shady lawyers and sports agents as well as not-so-gullible athletes, who often break down the legal boundaries while clinging to "I know nothing" defence.
Just this week, two seasoned NFL writers -- Jason Cole and Charles Robinson -- delved into the possibility of New Orleans Saints' running back Reggie Bush taking cash and gifts while he was playing at USC. Definitely a no-no, if true.
However, while a U.S. federal investigation has not revealed all the facts and figures to the general public to date, it's a serious charge put forward by the Yahoo! Sports investigative team.
But it's not surprising to learn about illegal activities in sports.
Take for instance, the high-profile BALCO case, which has wrapped its deplorable arms around the likes of baseball superstar Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants, New York Yankees star Jason Giambi, sprinter Tim Montgomery and others.
While Bonds is still being investigated concerning taking steroids, five defendants, including BALCO founder Victor Conte, have pleaded guilty to illegal drug distribution, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Not only has The Chronicle reported on it, but two of their reporters, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, were ruled in September, 2006 to be in contempt of court for "refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating leaked transcripts in the (steroid distribution) case," involving BALCO (Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative).
U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White sentenced the reporters to 18 months behind bars and docked their newspaper $1,000-a-day. The pair, meanwhile, are free with the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Frisco hearing the case in March.
While this reporter has detailed the "top cheaters" as well as the "dirtiest players" in a July, 2006 column, it's time to put forward an annual list of sports scandals from a wide range of scources.
Remember, this is my list, but you might have a different order:
* 1. The BALCO scandal. That case is on-going, but its repercussions will, undoubtedly, change the face of baseball and other sports, for it involves stars, such as Bonds.
* 2. Canada's Ben Johnson. It was a crushing blow to the sprinter and the entire nation when he was found to have used a banned substance during the 100 metres at the 1988 Seoul, South Korea Olympics. It left Johnson's life in disarray.
* 3. Tonya Harding. It was a whack attack heard around the world when figure skater Harding "hired" some goons to attack fellow competitor Nancy Kerrigan's knees in 1994. Since then Harding has been lost in an avalanche of bad publicity.
* 4. Pete Rose. An on-going drama, which still haunts baseball. The one-time superstar with the Cincinnati Reds was certain to gain Hall of Fame status, but he was banned from the game by former Major League Commissioner A. Bart Giamatti for his betting misdeeds. Rose is still denied access to Cooperstown, but, supposedly, thrives on appearances at baseball-card shows.
* 5. Mike Danton. A one-time player with the NHL's St. Louis Blues remains behind bars for his involvement in a murder-for-hire plot.
* 6. Mike Tyson. A walking-talking disaster appears ready to fall -- once again. The former, bruising heavyweight champion of the world is now cavorting with the unsavoury characters from the Las Vegas Strip.
* 7. O.J. Simpson. The former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL superstar with the Buffalo Bills, who was cleared of a double murder, has stooped to a new low with his latest book project. Oh, what a tangled web, O.J.
Of course, there are dozens of other scandals and the list could include the Kobe Bryant sex assault case; the Sammy Sosa cork bat case along with a bevy of college basketball points-shaving incidents.
One which we haven't mention is the gambling case, involving former Philadelphia Flyers' standout-turned-Phoenix Coyotes' assistant, Rick Tocchet. It probably deserves an entire page in the future.
JUST A BLIP: In case you missed it, the mothership paper reported in Wednesday edition that two Powell River Kings, Adam Presizniuk and Brandon Cummings, both 20, didn't appear in the Jan. 17 BCHL all-star game in Surrey. It seems Presizniuk and Cummings had been out drinking and causing a ruckus the night before and, according to the story, "slept off the effects while in RCMP custody."

Pour me another, make it a double

2007-03-06T12:00:00.000-08:00

So I'm hooked.
It was something that the Ol' Columnist thought he'd never say.
Yes, I've conquered another world. This time, the taste for one of the planet's greatest so-called "addictions" -- coffee.
Perhaps, it's best to trace my previous objections to such household names as Folgers, Hills Bros., Maxwell House, Nestle', MJB, Columbian and Lavazza Premium Drip. And, of course, staying away from the now familiar Starbucks or Beans To Cup, where I happened to stop the other day.
However, when growing up in the great Nova Scotian metropolis of Bass River, the notable beverage was tea. And through the years, there were brand names such as Salada, Tetley, Red Rose, Twinings and Lipton. However, coffee drinkers were to be avoided like the plague.
There's even a fading photograph of the Boy Wonder on his tricycle wheeling across the Bass River Bridge with a 90-cent package of coveted tea.
Fast forward to Edmonton and there's a fading photograph of former Oilers' tough guy, Dave Semenko, and yours truly sipping tea with our pinkies extended with Mr. Twining (or, maybe, he had some other English moniker) showing his two "pupils" proper manners in tea-drinking. It was an experience not to be forgotten.
With another fast forward, it's early November, 1990, and the Boy Wonder, who's aged considerably, is seated by a bonfire in deepest Africa.
After abhoring even the mention of "coffee" until that point in my life, I was there, sipping "kaffa."
Perhaps, the Ol' Columnist's diary would explain it best:
* Well, the sun has now set and we have "retired" for a feast of injerra -- a dish of spicy meat and cheese ... However, I wasn't prepared for the night-ending ceremony, in which a woman, in traditional African clothing, held a container of a dark, pungent liquid over the flickering bonfire ... From my Ethiopian friends, I learned it was called "kaffa" ... However, on sipping it, I thought it was tar used in road construction ... The taste lingered for days and days ... So this is original "brand" of coffee. No thanks, I said to myself, "never again."
Of course, I wanted to find out where it had originated and there's one story that has spread throughout the world about a Caffa Ethiopian sheepherder named Kaldi, who noticed his sheep becoming hyperactive after eating some "red cherries" from a certain plant. Kaldi tried it himself and he became as "jumpy" as his animals.
Now, along came a monk, who noticed a change in Kaldi's behaviour and condemned those "red cherries" as the "devil's fruit." But later the monks discovered the crushed berries helped them stay awake during prayers.
Before learning this tale, I thought the Ethiopian monks stayed awake in their caves about the monasteries by chewing on something called "chat, which is known to produce an "unnatural high."
But back to "kaffa" -- when I returned to Canada, I determined never to drink anything resembling coffee.
That was until just a few days ago when the "Boss" along with fellow columnist George Dobie and me decided to go for a "coffee" break.
Without thinking, I poured myself a cup and found it not only stimulating, but it tasted great. That's why I'm telling you, I'm now hooked on coffee.
Of course, you can still bribe me with tea, but coffee would be more than a bonus in the future
ON THE STARBUCKS TRAIL: Maybe, you've heard about a scruffy guy named Winter (just Winter), who's only mission in life is to drink coffee at every Starbucks on the planet, according to a feature article in the Palm Beach Post. The 34-year-old told a reporter and I'll quote: "In my teenage years, I guess I had no clue about my place in the world. I was just living, like, living the way that most people live. I was existing, really, instead of acting with purpose. Since that time, I've been determined to act with purpose." Winter has apparently found it; since he's "stopped" at 6,550 Starbucks out of 7,102 in existence. And a few other facts, according to the Florida newspaper, he's sipped gallons of coffee in his travels, but someone should remind him that Starbucks adds 2.8 stores a day in the U.S. alone. So you better watch out for him and his $11,000 Hyundai Accent, and also some guy named Bill Tangeman, who is filming his "Starbucking" adventures. However, the question of the day has to be: What about bladder control, Winter?

Through the laughter and tears

2007-03-06T11:43:00.000-08:00

When the Wit of Washington -- Art Buchwald -- died last week, it caused a sadness around the world. He was a writer with extraordinary talent, who in 1962 began his thrice-weekly columns which eventually were syndicated to 700 newspapers.
Of course, what I remember most about his efforts was his complete disdain for dying during his last days and he certainly left a legacy of not dwelling on the excruciating pain of having one leg amputated and suffering from failing kidneys.
He definitely was the "Mark Twain" of this generation, but the reason to remember him was his humour throughout his illustrious career, particularly his having had devastating bouts with depression.
When trying to put into words how he felt about his impending demise, it's best to quote him. "I have no idea where I'm going, but here's the real question: What am I doing here in the first place? It's what you do on Earth and the good deeds you do on Earth that are important."
Actually when I started to think about this piece, I planned to take the words of Gerald Nachman and moan about the demise of the great humour columnists in today's newspapers. However, when mulling it over, a wise voice emphasized there was a new generation of "humour" writers scattered even in this newspaper.
But when Nachman wrote in April 2006, he related that in the late 1980s it had become a dying breed, but there were at least four -- Buchwald, Russell Baker, Erma Bombeck and Dave Barry, who still carried the torch.
There were others south of the border such as Mike Royko of the Chicago Tribune, Jack Smith, Al Martinez, Lewis Grizzard and, of course, the great Jim Murray of sportswriting fame. In Canada there was Jim Taylor and his wit in the Vancouver papers.
However, as the wise person told me just the other day, there's a new breed rising, perhaps, not in the realm of a Buchwald or a Murray or even a Dave Barry, but ones to make newspaper readers think, and perhaps, even chuckle on occasion.
That laughter is something that is certainly needed amid this stench of impending conflicts around the world.
Buchwald had to ride out his fits of depression, which plagued him throughout his life. His mother was even institutionized for "acute depression" when he was only three years old.
There have been other famous individuals, who have had more than what some would call the case of the "blues" throughout their lives.
One is the Oscar-winning actress Patty Duke, who also wrote 'Call Me Anna' as well as 'A Brilliant Madness -- Living with Manic-Depressive Illness.' Incidentally, Patty's father was an alcoholic, who couldn't hold down a job and had a disorderly life. He left home when she was only six. Her mother was taken away to a hospital for depression when 'Anna' was just a toddler.
When reading 'A Brilliant Madness' book jacket, "Patty recounts with painful honesty her temper tantrums, crying jags, hospital stays, suicide attempts, panic attacks, crushing depressions, and plunges into near bankruptcy. She reveals frankly how her disease helped to destroy two marriages and deeply hurt her children.
"But Patty's story has a happy ending: diagnosis after years of on-again, off-again therapy, a treatment -- lithium -- that offered a near-miraculous recovery, a new marriage, and the joy she feels today as she contemplates a future filled with life's normal ups and downs." The book, 'A Brilliant Madness' was written in 1992.
However, mental health experts have declared there is help available and those "suffering" depression, bipolar disorders and affiliated diseases, can be assured "they are not alone."
The "famous people with bipolar disorders" reads like a 'Who's Who' and includes the likes of movie director Tim Burton; writer TV personality Dick Cavett, actress Carrie Fisher, actress Margot Kidder and comedian Jonathan Winters.
And those affected by depression includes TV journalist Mike Wallace; musician Donny Osmond and the late Sir Laurence Olivier.
However, if I were to list those in both categories it would number into the thousands upon thousands.

Blah days of January are here

2007-03-06T11:39:00.000-08:00

After some deep breathing, 10 cups of hot beverage and even a run (actually, a slow walk) through the snow, I believed my mind would come alive. That my brain cells would start to percolate, however, they were short-circuited on a winter morning.
It must be the February blahs. However, it occurred to me that it was only mid-January.
What to write about?
Well, the latest breaking story in these parts examined the practices of a previously untouched realm, that of medical doctors, but a California website (RateMDs.com) has stolen my thunder. Then the B.C. medical gurus (cpsbc.ca) has outlined just who was given more than a slap on the wrist by its disciplinary board. So that has been done; and every Tom, Dick, Harry and Joan has reported on Iraq, Iraq and all the other hotspots throughout the world.
So, Boss, what can I write about?
Of course, there's the Seven Pillars of Health, written by Dr. Don Colbert, a board-certified medical doctor, and how I could change my sedentary life in 50 days or less.
And what were those seven pillars? Water, Sleep and Rest, Living food, Exercise, Detoxification. Supplements and (Learning) to cope with Stress. The only problem has to be what is "living food?"
So that's a "seven-week journey to great health" that I must start on. Perhaps, on the weekend.
However, what to write about for the next edition of the Daily Courier, is the question before me.
Then a small, still voice mumbled: "Got anything interesting in your "treasure chest?"
That "treasure chest" happens to be a closet in the back bedroom filled with dust-covered books, magazines, such as Sports Illustrated and National Geographic as well as some long-playing records. The only problem is, I don't have a phonograph to play them on.
When I started thumbing through the National Geographic from December 1995, the front cover showed a towering gorilla, named Gregoire, examining the top of Jane Goodall's head at the Brazzaville Zoo in the Congo. And inside, a fascinating story. "Her decades of study show that chimps in the wild are startlingly like us. Today the primate primatologist travels the globe to speak up for their captive and orphaned kin."
Nearly a dozen years later, she is still going strong at age 72 and now she has a "Dame" in front of her name of Valerie Jane Goodall. "The English primatologist, ethologist and anthropologist is probably best known for conducting a 45-year study of chimpanzee's social and family life, and founded The Jane Goodall Institute in Gombe Stream National Park in Tanzania," according to Wikipedia research.
That magazine also stretched my imagination, for I went "exploring" about The Timeless Vision of Teotihuacan and new finds among the ruins, which were putting a human face on the great metropolis of ancient Mexico.
Then there was an in-depth piece complete with pages upon pages of photographs concerning the Manta "with its devilish horns and a fearsone 20-foot wingspan which belie the gentle nature of the giant ray." At least that's what the blurb indicated.
However, by far the most awe-inspiring section was James Reston, Jr.'s "exporation" of Orion: Where Stars Are Born.
Accompanied by a map supplement, the piece claimed the Hubble Space Telescope granted "a fresh look at clouds of gas and dust forming around young stars -- perhaps the start of solar systems."
Even as a youngster, the National Geographic opened up a door to the world of "explorers," and it brought back an avalanche of memories when I ventured down the Amazon River. Of course, I never did, but one never is too old to dream.
After closing the pages of the National Geographic, I wondered where I could acquire one of those old phonographs, on which I could listen to Frank Sinatra's Greatest Hits.
On side one, there was Strangers in the Night, Summer Wind, It Was a Very Good Year, and turning it over I could "almost hear" That's Life, When Somebody Loves You and Softly As I Leave You.
Of course, this sentimental journey wouldn't be complete without some Bing Crosby and such classics as MacNamara's Band, Play A Simple Melody, Blue Skies, Far Away Places, The Bells Of St. Mary's and I'll Be Seeing You.
Actually, when Sinatra and Crosby sang, one could make out the words, unlike today's so-called music.
Ah, the sign of aging has to be remembering the past, even if it's just in my head.
Now, Boss, where can I find a phonograph? One that, actually, plays.
SPEAKING OF NOSTALGIA (From Uncle John's Bathroom Reader): Some doo-wop sounds you may have forgotten such as -- Pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-pa-Oom-A-Mow-Mow, Papa-Oom Mow Mow. One of the most famous rock syllable combos, from the group called the Rivingtons and their semi-doo-wop tune, "Papa Oom Mow Mow" ... Of course, there was Yip, Yip, Yip Yip Boom, Sha-Na-Na-Na, Sha-Na-Na-Na-Na. It's from "Get a Job," by the Silhouettes and it's not only a great doo-wop, it was the symbol of the '70s doo-wop revival.
FINALLY: In the words of the great Jim Taylor, who once wrote: "Slobbies feel that anyone stupid enough to go looking for a wall of pain deserves to find it."

Time for good manners is right now

2007-03-06T11:36:00.000-08:00

Remember when your mother told you, "Now, mind your manners." It wasn't just a suggestion, it was an order from on high.
It came into play just the other day when the Ol' Columnist asked a store clerk for an item, and then I proceeded to be completely ignored while Clerk#1 turned to Assistant Clerk#2 and said:
"So what are you going to wear Saturday night?"
"Oh, I don't know, what are you going to wear?"
The conversation continued on and on between the pair about the "happening" on Saturday night and then evolved into "who are you going with? You're not going with Steve, are you?"
It was then I walked away grumbling and uttered the usual #%^&*&$# to voice my disapproval.
When I told someone about my disgust, she said: "There are no manner these days. Kids do not know those words such as "Please .. Thank You ... Excuse me ... Can I help you? ... Pardon Me."
Actually, manners of even the simpliest form have become extinct as the Dodo Bird.
And it's not just a lost art among the younger generation, but it has blatant misuse among the rich and poor as well as the educated and uneducated when this so-called sophisticated generation would rather use just a grunt as a response.
Of course, such behaviour has been prevalent in the ongoing Rosie O'Donnell vs. Donald Trump "feud" on American television.
And until just a few days ago, I had placed the blame entirely on O'Donnell, but then Smuley Boteach in the Jerusalem Post wrote another side in which he berated Trump for not behaving like a "gentleman."
As he wrote, "there were many ways for Trump to respond (after O'Donnell called him 'a pimp' in reference to The Donald's connection with beauty pageants). He could have ignored her, debated her, or simply said that he is prepared to respond to legitimate criticism, but not when it is vented with venom."
Then Boteach astutely noted, "Instead Trump, who like many narcissistic men has a very thin public skin, erupted like a bile-filled volcano. Refusing to respond to any of O'Donnell's points, he instead called her a "slob," "disgusting," and "an animal."
Boteach in his treatise then continued to slice and dice The Donald with these words: "Trump's nauseating attacks on O'Donnell's body mass betray a man who denies women an independent identity and creates them solely in a man's image."
Now where were we? Oh, yes, standing at the store counter and wondering about the reason I couldn't get any (good) service.
Actually, this period of what I call the "Anti-Manners Era," stretching from the 1970s through the early 2000s has infiltrated every aspect of society, and it's most prevalent on television and radio, where interupting a "guest" is common practice. If you don't believe me, watch such talk programs as Bill O'Reilly and most of the news programs even on that supposedly epitome of proper decorum, the CBC.
Of course, it makes for fast-paced programming, even though it's highly annoying.
It might be proper to have a class, perhaps, starting at the lowest grade level in Rules of Civility & Decent Behaviour In Company and Conversation, written by a young schoolboy.
These are a few of those "rules" with the original spelling being unchanged:
* Every Action done in Company, ought to be Some Sign of Respect, to those that are present.
* In the Presence of Others Sing not to yourself with a humming Noise, nor Drum with your Fingers or Feet.
* If You Cough, Sneeze, Sigh, or Yawn, do it not Loud but Privately, and Speak not in your Yawning, but put Your handkerchief or Hand before your face and turn aside.
* When you Sit down, Keep your Feet firm and Even, without putting one on the other or Crossing them.
* Shew not yourself glad at the Misfortune of another though he were your enemy.
* Use no Reproachfull Language against any one neither Curse nor Revile.
* Drink not nor talk with your mouth full neither Gaze about you while you are a Drinking.
* Rince not your Mouth in the Presence of Others.
* Labour to keep alive your Breast that Little Spark of Celestial fire called Conscience.
Of course, that schoolboy was George Washington (1732-1799), the first president of the U.S., and the preceding, as we said, were only a few of the 110 "Rules."
SO WHAT ARE WE, CHOPPED LIVER? While Nelson, B.C. celebrated the CBC's Hockey Day in Canada last Saturday, Vernon got zip, nada, etc. Something is entirely wrong when anyone with a slight bit of ice in their veins knows Vernon is Hockey Town Canada. When will we be recognized? In the past the Hockey Day in Canada edition has stopped in Stephenville, Nfld.; Shaunavon, Sask.; Iqualuit, Nunavut; Windsor, N.S.; Red Deer, Alta.; and Toronto. That's a total of seven such Big Shows and not one stop in Our Town. Shame on the CBC and the powers that be ... Finally, the ECHL, the AA-level feeder league for the AAA-level American Hockey League, which boasts only one Canadian team, the Victoria Salmon Kings, has a date to stop in Abbotsford. As we asked before, "are we chopped liver?" These pros might like it here in the Interior, in Vernon.

Those scams know no boundaries

2007-03-06T11:31:00.000-08:00

(In the second of a two-part series, a look at the leading scams and how to save yourself major headaches.)
It could be called The Promise and The Plea.
Of course, you've been subjected to the following email, all in capital letters, which reads something like this:
LAGOS, NIGERIA.
DEAR SIR,
MY UNCLE, (fill in the name), A MOST HONOURABLE MEMBER OF THE NIGERIAN GOVERNMENT HAS RECENTLY PASSED AWAY. I HAVE THE PRIVILEGE TO REQUEST YOUR ASSISTANCE TO TRANSFER THE SUM OF $49,800,000.00 (FORTY NINE MILLION, EIGHT HUNDRED THOUSAND UNITED STATES DOLLARS) INTO YOUR ACCOUNTS.
And, on and on it goes, explaining, usually in those bold capital letters, the reason that you are to be on the receiving end of an enormous bonanza.
Then comes the "hook" and there always is one, which asks you to give "them" your banker's name, phone, etc., etc.
It's one of the less-than-subtle scams, which probably has plagued your email box on an annual basis, if not monthly. However, Audri and Jim Lanford of Internet Scambusters adamantly advise that not only such proposals are scandalous and criminal, they can be extremely dangerous.
These Nigerian (sometimes interchanging their nationalities to other suspect countries such as the Congo) creeps are never backwards in wielding violence to anyone who crosses up their schemes.
For as the Lanfords noted on their Scambusters' Web site: "In June of 1995, an American was murdered in Lagos, Nigeria, while pursuing a 4-1-9 scam, and numerous other foreign nationals have been reported missing."
While the Nigerian scheme is the most noticeable, the No.1 plague throughout the planet appears to be identity theft. These same scambusters have cited it as "the most frightening and least understood problems" in today's supposedly "smart society."
While the Lanfords claim it's a fairly complicated issue, they have simplied it in these terms: "Someone gets your name, address, social security number (SIN if you live in Canada) and credit card or other information and uses them to run up big bills, pretending they're actually you. They skip on the bills and leave you with ruined credit and collectors hounding you."
Of course, you've heard of people, who have lost their identity, and it's taken years for them to acquire some peace of mind, if ever.
Although there are dozens of rules to prevent you from having this disaster happen; there is a simple one: Keep an extra close watch on who sees your credit card; keep an extra close eye on your mail box; and keep a close watch on what you are offering as far as Internet information is concerned. That includes posting of your passwords.
In other words: Be skeptical and use common sense.
One shocking fact that the Lanfords brought out was that computer crimes only accounted for 11.6 per cent of all identity theft in 2004 with relatives, friends and even neighbours, or acquaintances of the victim, being the main culprits.
So identity theft often begins in the same place charity does -- at home, according to the Lanfords.
Although, we've barely skimmed the surface, there are others scams that could threat your sanity.
Just add the word scams to the following: Auction; contest; charity; corporate; government; hotel; insurance; investment; lottery; mail order; pyramid; religious; retail; sports; used cars; work at home and the list goes on and on.
JUSTICE NOT SERVED: In a December column, I wrote about Mengistu Haile Mariam, the vicious 'Butcher of Addis Ababa' who had been found guilty of genocide for his multiple crimes against the Ethiopian people. And at that time, the most pressing question had to be: Would he ever spend any time behind bars? On Thursday in Addis, he was sentenced to life in prison. However, as Mulugeta Aserate, a cousin of the late Emperor Haile Selassie, said: "This is a victory for Mengistu. These people should be sentenced to death for mass murder of Ethiopian citizens." However, the mass murderer, who ruled the ancient land with an iron fist from the mid-1970s to 1991, will likely never know the wrath against his Marxist regime, for he has been "holed up" in Zimbabwe, in luxurious surroundings and savouring the protection of that country's president, Robert Mugabe.

'Tis season for (cred card) scams

2007-03-06T11:29:00.000-08:00

'Phishing' is a dirty word. Just mention it in mixed company and someone will blush.
I had never even heard of such a word until the last few years and now everywhere you go, 'phishing' is in or shouldn't that be out?
Actually when I scanned the Internet dictionary of objectionable conduct, it ranked third on the list, and this is what it said:
Never respond to emails that request you provide your credit card info via email -- and DON'T EVER RESPOND to emails that ask you to go to a website to verify personal (and credit card) information. These are called 'phishing' scams.
Just a few days ago, someone tried the 'phishing' scam on the Ol' Columnist. It wasn't the first time and, undoubtedly, it won't be the last as this is scam month as it seemingly is every month of the year.
However, January seems to the key month when these &^%$#&((* scammers believe that you and me have our guard down.
The email appeared to be believeable; it had a picture of a credit card with those common words: "What's in your wallet?" And then it began with those introductory words as Dear Valued Customer and then proceeded to tell me that "due to attempts which we have experienced by fraudsters, attempts which is divulging important personal information from customers, this information can be (e.g. credit card details, telephone banking details or Internet banking log on).We have done something better to protect you and your account."
Then came the 'hook."
"As part of our ongoing commitment to provide the 'Best Possible' service and protection to all our customers, we are now requiring each member to validate their account using our new secure and safe SSL servers." Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah, Blah!
However, suspicion set in when reading this line: "This email has been sent to all (the credit card company) customers, and it is compulsory to follow as failure to verify account details will lead to account suspension."
And to top it all off, a phone call came, with someone telling me (no, ordering me) to push a certain button because the (credit card) company MUST contact me and that's when I hung up.
When I contacted the REAL "what's in your wallet?" folks via their website, they gave this warning: "Phishing is an Internet scam in the form of an email or pop-up box. The emails and pop-links link to site that look like well-known legitimate businesses and ask you to provide or confirm personal, financial, or password information."
Then the legitimate credit card company stated the scammers used the following methods to get you to reply:
* Threatening to close your account unless you provide personal information immediately;
* Claiming to need updated personal information on your account;
* Offering a service that can only be provided with your personal information.
Then the REAL company provided email addresses to report such criminal activities.
Although exposure of credit card scams have appeared in this newspaper before, repeating them often could save you an avalanche of headaches and pain.
The following are some key Internet Scambusters credit card fraud prevention tips:
* Keep an eye on your credit card every time you use it, and make sure you get it back as quickly as possible;
* Try not to let your credit card out of your sight whenever possible;
* Be very careful to whom you give your credit card;
* Don't give out your account number over the phone unless you initiate the call and you know the company is reputable;
* Never give your credit card info out when you receive a phone call. (For example, if you're told there has been a 'computer problem' and the caller needs you to verify information.) Legitimate companies don't call you to ask for a credit card number over the phone;
* Never provide your credit card information on a website that is not a secure site;
* Sign your credit cards as soon as you receive them;
* Shred all credit card applications you receive;
* Never leave your credit cards or receipts lying around;
* Never lend a credit card to anyone else.
In order to track down these scam artists, the authentic credit-card companies want you to contact them to report such abuses. There's also a reporting website: www.antiphishing.org/index.html, which is committed to wiping out Internet scams and fraud.
Tomorrow: More tips about credit card safety and also other scams you should be aware of in 2007.

What's all the Big Stink about?

2007-03-06T11:25:00.000-08:00

"You know that's weird," I muttered as The Missus shook her head.
"What's weird?" she said.
That's when I blurted out the latest headlines: The Big Stink. The Big Soak. The Dead Birds. The Big Bang.
Since we were married by Captain Noah on his boat, it didn't shock her that I still speak in headlines, being the very first editor of the Mount Ararat Times.
"So what's this all about?" she asked in an even tone.
"Oh, nuthin much, but for a slow news day, all heck is breaking loose."
And that's when I filled her in about the smell that had been wafting over the Big Apple. It seems a stink akin to rotten eggs drifted from a northern New Jersey swamp and raised such a commotion that sophisticated New Yawkers thought there was going to be another 9/11.
One man, Alfred Stewart, told the New York Post, "That smell was stinking. It smelled, like, toxic. If you stayed in it and held it enough, you probably would have gotten dizzy from it."
"Like your rotten feet," The Missus interjected, so slyly.
Then I moved to the second series of headlines: The Big Soak.
On the 'Wet Coast' it's been raining and raining. In fact, CTV's Todd Battis told viewers that B.C. is chasing last January's rainfall of 28 days, which was one short of the all-time mark.
"It rained for 28 days, stopped for half a day, and then rained for another 14," said Battis.
Although, I have a sure fire way of telling when bad weather is about to hit -- aching bones -- the weather experts apparently claim heavy rain and warm temperatures cause something called the "Pineapple Express."
However, that wet stuff will move inland and the snow will reach upwards of 20 cm. Now, if I could only figure out how many inches that is.
Closer to Vernon, it's reported the Trans-Canada Highway in the Revelstoke-Golden area is closed, being blocked by an avalanche. "Traffic was being re-routed from the Trans-Canada to Highway 93," according to the CTV report.
"So what's this about dead birds?" The Missus asked.
"Well, it's just a part of the weirdness," I said, telling her about the dozens of birds that were lying along 10 blocks in Austin, Texas. In fact, there were 63 pigeons, sparrows and grackles (large, noisy blackbirds) found and, at press time, there was no reason for their demise, although the terrorism-response plan was ordered into effect.
The strangest part of the so-called "threat" was that it was in front of the state Capitol buildings
"So what about the Big Bang?" The Missus asked.
"Well, that's what happened down in Montserrat and it shot a cloud of ash more than five miles into the sky."
Dr. Vicky Hards, director of the Montserrat Volcano Observatory, said: "I think it was a warning call ... of what it can do."
In 1997, the volcano destroyed Monserrat's capital of Plymouth, killing 19 people.
SOME AFTERTHOUGHTS: Are you (football) bowled out? It all started with (BillyBobs Winery and Flowery Shop?) Poinsettia Bowl, in which something called the TCU Horned Frogs won and swept into others, complete with accompanying sponsors, such as the Las Vegas Bowl, New Orleans, Papajohns. com, New Mexico, Armed Forces (formerly the Fort Worth Bowl), Hawaii, Motor City, Emerald, Independence, Holiday, Texas (formerly the Houston Bowl), Music City, Sun, Liberty, Insight, Champs Sports, Meineke Car Care, Alamo, Chick-fil-A (formerly the Peach Bowl).
Is that it, Corbett? No, there's more: The MPC Computers Bowl, Outback, Cotton, Gator, Capital One, Rose, Fiesta, Orange, Sugar, International (in Toronto), GMAC, and, finally, the BCS National Championship.
FINALLY: Of course, I can't forget about the pros, for as Dave Barry once wrote: "Sharks are as tough as those football fans who take their shirts off during games in Chicago in January, only more intelligent." We'll see if that's true when Seattle plays Da Bears this Sunday.

Apocalypse Now: A familiar scenario

2007-03-06T11:21:00.000-08:00

(Second of a two-part series on the Apocalypse from Ahmadinejad to former Washington Post reporter Michael Drosnin).
The "prophets" of doom and gloom are flooding the market place -- or, at least, the Internet and bookstores around the globe. In fact, it's become a multi-million, perhaps, even a billion-dollar business.
In generations past, those so-called seers of "end times" wore long robes and had scruffy beards and stood on street corners while shouting of mankind's imminent demise. "The End Is Here," they would bellow.
Now, they turn up on major television shows, with a few exceptions, issuing their pronouncements. They're mostly clean cut and some even wear designer suits.
And where did this trend begin?
Before Y2K, Frontline, the celebrated U.S.-based television program, gave the chronological order of "the apocalyptic world view through the ages."
The following are brief excerpts which stretches back to 1,500 B.C.E., when the Persian prophet Zoroaster spoke of "a cosmic battle between good and evil ending in a new, perfect world for humanity. The Zoroastrian tradition survives today in Iran and as the basis of Parsiism in India."
If, indeed, the genesis occurred in Iran, then the world shouldn't be shocked by the recent pronouncements from its despotic leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who believes a Shi'ite messianic figure, Imam Mahdi, will arrive with "Jesus, the son of Mary," by the spring equinox.
Then as I wrote in Thursday's paper, this Mahdi, supposedly, would take over an army and eventually end up in Jerusalem and wage a number of apocalyptic battles against the enemies of Islam (namely Israel and the U.S.).
However, in tracing the Frontline scenario, the Book of Ezekiel (written in 592 BCE to 586 BCE), apparently was penned in response to the invasion and capture of Jerusalem by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzer and the exile of the Jews to Babylon. And this book as well as the Book of Isaiah, First Enoch and, particularly, the Book of Daniel is the basis of much of today's proliferation of prophecy believers and so-called scholars.
In the New Testament, the Gospel of Mark, according to Frontline "interpreters" included the "Little Apocalypse" in which Jesus -- The Messiah -- fuelled expectations of His imminent return.
However, perhaps, the Book of Revelation, written in 90 CE, emphasized apocalyptic events, which would occur in the future.
Throughout the ages the world has gravitated towards a belief it would come to a dramatic end -- and suddenly. And beyond that, there was either damnation for some, known as hell, or an ideal paradise, known as heaven.
According to Frontline, the American Revolution had a significant role in fuelling apocalyptic thinking, for "colonial pamphleteers equated the hated Stamp Act with the "mark of the beast" from Revelation, and cast King George in the role of the Antichrist.
In 1859, according to Frontline, a British minister, John Nelson Darby, introduced a theological viewpoint known as premillennial dispensationalism, which divided history in sections or epochs. According to Darby, the period we are living in now would be considered the Church Age, which would be followed by the Rapture, in which the true believers in Christ would be swept away and those left on the planet would have to endure the terrible dilemma known as the Tribulation.
While there have been a bevy of "doom-sayers," probably the most listened to have been TV evangelist John Hagee and prolific writers such as professing born-again Christians, Hal Lindsey and Grant Jeffrey.
One who doesn't fall into that category is former Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal reporter, Michael Drosnin, who has had two New York Times bestsellers, Citizen Hughes, and The Bible Code.
Drosnin, in the Bible Code II -- The Countdown, written in 2002, believes the world is on the very edge of the Apocalypse and as he wrote for the book jacket, "The warning in the Bible Code (the ancient code encrypted in the Bible) is clear: A nuclear World War will start with an act of terrorism in the Middle East. It is the Apocalypse foretold by all the West's three major religions."
Drosnin went on to claim September 11 was predicted in the 3,000-year code and "was the beginning, not the end, of the danger."
One of the most scary scenarios was forecast by a former Californian named Frank Ernest Mauck, who has taken on the mantle of "Elijah the Tishbite" and now resides in Cyprus.
On a daily basis he utilizes the Internet to get his messages that Planet X is on a collision course with Earth. Then he proceeds to condemn everyone from U.S. President George Bush to Prince Charles for the world's ills.
While this planet hasn't been rocked yet by apocalyptic storms or it hasn't turned on its axis, it appears time is quickly running out, according to these "prophets of doom and gloom."

Dealing with 'prophets of doom'

2007-03-06T11:16:00.000-08:00

(First of a two-part series on the Apocalypse from Ahmadinejad to former Washington Post reporter Michael Drosnin)
The words, "Apocalypse warning" has a tendency to send shivers up and down one's spine. It's a subject which is often ignored by so-called normal people, who dwell on the rise and fall of stock market prices.
However, even though Terry Mattingly of Scripps Howard News Service claimed such matters as the "end-times" didn't even rate among the top 20 "religious stories" during 2006, it, nevertheless, held high priority in some circles.
Incidentally, such events as the violence ignited by the publication of the Muhammad cartoons and the controversy surrounding the Da Vinci Code movie did make the headlines.
As far back as the summer, and in this column, I detailed that Iranian despot Mahmoud Ahmadinejad believed that the Hidden Imam, would appear by Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2006. It didn't happen, but there were those that believed such an event could occur in the near future.
Just prior to that date, former Princeton professor Bernard Lewis in the Wall Street Journal, wrote: "What is the significance of Aug. 22? This year, Aug. 22 corresponds to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427. This, by tradition, is the night when many Muslims mark the night flight of the prophet Muhammad on the winged horse, Burq, first to "the farthest mosque," usually identified with Jerusalem, and then to heaven and back (c.f. Koran XVII.1). This might well be deemed an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and if necessary of the world."
Then I took the liberty to quote from the Zionist.com website, which stated: "Ahmadinejad is a strong believer in the Shi'ite tradition of the 12th imam, the so-called "hidden" Imam Mahdi who Allah had miraculously kept alive since his disappearance in 874 A.D. As the story goes, Imam Mahdi will return at a time of great global chaos, oppression and bloodshed and usher in an era of (Islamic) justice."
However, on Dec. 31, the official Iran website claimed the Imam would arrive by spring along with "Jesus, the son of Mary." This Mahdi, who some believe to be Osama bin Laden, would suddenly appear in Mecca; form an army, head for Medina and eventually take on Islam's chief enemies (Israel and the U.S.) in Jerusalem.
"Ahmadinejad's mystical pre-occupation with the coming of the Mahdi is raising concerns that a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic could trigger the kind of global conflagration he envisions (and) will set the stage for the end of the world," according to the respected website, World Net Daily.
Of course, Ahmadinejad isn't the only one, who has made predictions.
In Dr. Michael Rutford's book, "The Nostradamus Code: World War III -- 2007-2012, he has taken the liberty to interpret the "quatrains" of the often-quoted seer.
In Chapter 4: The Time of Troubles, Rutford's summation included such frightening thoughts as the rise of a crazed (Middle Eastern) leader, who will launch nuclear bombs on the Mediterranean and in Europe, particularly on France and Italy. "This leader is not the Antichrist but helps to set the stage for the Antichrist."
Other interpretations of Nostradamus' quatrains include:
* Volcanoes, earthquakes, flood, droughts. "A very bright, previously unknown comet will appear and coincide with the time of great geological troubles, with earthquakes and volcanoes erupting and disrupting weather systems ... The U.S., in particular, will be subject to serious natural disasters ... Earth changes will take place that will help the Antichrist's drive for world conquest."
However, a modern-day "interpreter," Jack Kelley has written of seven major prophetic signs of the Second Coming (of Jesus Christ): 1. Israel will be in The Land (Ezekiel 38:8); 2. Jerusalem will be in Jewish hands (Luke 21:24); 3. A Moslem coalition armed and led by Russia will attack the Holy Land (Ezekiel 38:2-6); 4. The ancient Roman Empire will re-emerge as a political force (Rev. 17:9-10); 5. The world will embrace a single religion (Rom.13:8); 6. The world will accept a single government (Rev. 13:3); 7. Babylon will re-emerge as a prominent city in world affairs (Rev. 18:2-3).
There are other signs according to Kelley such as: Wars and rumours of wars; the increase of natural disasters; signs in the sun, moon and stars; pestilence; the love of most will grow cold; the gospel will be preached in all nations.
So the question remains: What will really happen in the near future?
Tomorrow: Other "prophets" will vent ther views, from former Washington Post reporter Michael Drosnin, author of the best-selling Bible Code II -- The Countdown to Elijah the Tishbite, aka Frank Ernest Mauck.

Words that deserve to be banned

2007-03-06T11:09:00.000-08:00

"Mother Nature." If you say those two words real fast, perhaps, I won't wash your mouth out with Lifebuoy soap.
In launching 2007 in this space, I pondered what to write about: Would it be wars or rumours of war, the state of the Canadian economy or the proliferation of football games south of the border?
No, it was dull voice on the television in the middle of the night, which spurred this diatribe.
"Do you know what Mother Nature has in store today?" Mr. Monotone mumbled. And then he proceeded to explain that the cold front was devastating the U.S. Plain states and then he claimed the frigid temperatures originated in Canada's North.
However, the weather forecast wasn't my major gripe. After all it is early January. No, it was those introductory words: Mother Nature.
So after turning off the TV (ain't remote control great?), I thought about other words, which should be banished from the English language.
Actually, I'd heard about small Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan, which has put out an annual list of "banished words" since the '70s. Perhaps, it's their only claim to infamy.
After calming my nerves, I went searching and found out that p.r. director Bill Rabe had claimed after he released that first list "it would go on forever."
And, seemingly, it has.
Every year, particularly since the news famine strikes during January, the media relishes those lists.
As a press release claims, "people from around the world have nominated hundreds of words to be purged, forever, such as "you know," "user friendly,""at this point in time," and "have a nice day."
Of course, the idea came about during a New Year's Eve party in 1975 and the next day after everyone had sobered up, the first one was released.
Each year, people submit words that MUST be banned and a selection committee in the Soo then goes to work in gleaning the best or is that the worst?
Following is an abbreviated version of the 2007 list:
GITMO -- As one reader wrote, "When did the notorious Guantanamo Bay Naval Base change to 'Gitmo,' a word that conjures up an image of a fluffy and sweet character from a Japanese anime show?"
COMBINED CELEBRITY NAMES -- Obnoxious names making the headlines such as 'Bragelina,' 'TomKat' and 'Bennifer.' Someone called them annoying, idiotic and so lame and pathetic that it's 'lamethetic.'
AWESOME -- It was banished in the 1980s and now it deserves to be kicked all the way into utter darkness. Ain't that awesome? As a wise man, named Tom, from Orlando, Fla., wrote: "That a mop, a deodorant or a dating service can be called 'awesome' demonstrates the limited vocabularies of the country's copywriters."
WE'RE PREGNANT -- As one woman wrote, "I'm sure any woman who has given birth will tell you that 'WE' did not deliver the baby."
ASK YOUR DOCTOR -- That's a dandy as someone said, "I don't think my doctor would appreciate my calling him after seeing a TV ad."
HEALTHY FOOD -- As another reader said, "the tuna steak she had for lunch sounded healthy and then she added, "If my lunch were healthy, it would be still swimming somewhere. Grilled and nestled in salad greens, it's "healthful."
The following are but a few of the hundreds of objectionable words, which should immediately leave on a rocket ship (with prejudice as the legal beagles might say):
ABCs -- Absolutely; Actioning; All Time Record; Almost Exactly; Alternative Music; And How Are We Today?; Armed and Dangerous; At This Point in Time; Baby Boomers; Bare Naked; "Been There, Done That"; Bonding; Breaking News; But You Shouldn't Feel that Way!; Carbs; Chill Out; Courtesy Call; Cutting Edge.
DEFs -- Detente; Diva; Do-able; Done in Good Taste; Downsizing; Dude; Empower; Exact Same; Factoid; First-Time Caller; For Sure; Foreseeable Future; Fresh Donuts.
GHIs -- Giving 110 Per cent; Got; Got Game; Gut Feeling; Half Dead; Handy-Man Special; Hang Up Your Clothes; He Goes/She Goes; Hello!?; The Honest Truth; Hunker Down; I'm 150 Per cent Behind You; I'm Like; In Your Face; It's All Good.
JKLMNs -- Jumbo Shrimp; Junk Science; Know What I'm Sayin'?; Let's Do Lunch; LOL; Macho; Mean-Spirited; A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste; More Bang for the Buck; More Than Happy; Multi-tasking; My Plate is Full; No-Brainer.
O-Zs -- "Oh, Well"; On a Roll; Person of Interest; Pre-Planning; Pushing the Envelope; Read My Lips; Rufusenik; Sanitary Landfill; Slight Glitch; So; Too Right; Up Front; You're Fired!; Win-Win; You the Man/You're the Man; Yuh Know; Zeroize.
And the non-existent Mother Nature wasn't to be found. Oh, well, time to start a write-in campaign.