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.
Friday, August 31, 2007
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Looking back on the Great Deluge
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!
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!
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Grumps' Grumblings: Vick and other Bad Boys
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."
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."
Wednesday, August 22, 2007
Don't forget about Ring of Fire
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)
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)
Thursday, August 16, 2007
Those 'Bad Boys' now flood sports pages
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.
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.
Thursday, June 21, 2007
Dangerous liaisons now threaten Israel
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.
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.
Monday, April 30, 2007
The Champ's last night at the fights
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."
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
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.
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.
Friday, April 27, 2007
It's a Blog World after all (April 27/07)
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.
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)
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.
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)
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.
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)
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."
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)
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.
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.
Thursday, April 12, 2007
Yes, war is definitely hell (April 12/07)
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?
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?
Tuesday, April 3, 2007
Repeating history and the Holocaust
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."
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."
Thursday, March 29, 2007
It's a weird, weird world after all
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.
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.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
It was supposed to be a secret
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.
"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.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Remembering a tower of strength
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.
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
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.
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
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.
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.
Wednesday, March 14, 2007
Ethiopian Jews' long journey 'home'
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.
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.
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