Shadowscope

This is pretty horrible.

As a parent it just makes my skin crawl to think about leaving my child in a car for that long. I know when the Marine was still at home I’ve left him to watch the girls while I run into a convenience store or something, or I have dropped things off, but actually leaving your kid in the car?

How the heck could you forget that your kid was with you. I suppose it would be possible if the child were sleeping or something but even as absent minded as I am at some point in the day you would think that the mother might say to herself ‘hey, I don’t remember being at the babysitter today’.

I know that all of my babysitters that we have used as well as other care providers will normally call and ask where the kid is if/when I didn’t bring them. Who watches her kid that wouldn’t bother to call and check?

Just remember, stupidity is not a protected disability.

This Week’s Hero Was Suggested By Cindy

Lt. Michael P. Murphy 29 years old from Patchogue, New York SEAL Delivery Vehicle Team 1 June 28, 2005 On Monday, Lt. Michael P. Murphy was posthumously awarded the Medal Of Honor. His father was the one who accepted the award. Lt. Murphy will receive the award for his extraordinary, selfless heroism and steadfast courage while leading a four-man, special reconnaissance mission deep behind enemy lines east of Asadabad in the Hindu Kush of Afghanistan June 27 to 28, 2005 “We are thrilled by the President’s announcement today, especially because there is now a public recognition of what we knew all along about Michael’s loyalty, devotion and sacrifice to his friends, family, country, and especially his SEAL teammates,” the Murphy family said in a statement released earlier in the month. “The honor is not just about Michael, it is about his teammates and those who lost their lives that same day.” Murphy was the officer-in-charge of the SEAL element, which was tasked with locating a high- level Taliban militia leader to provide intelligence for a follow-on mission to capture or destroy the local leadership and disrupt enemy activity. Taliban sympathizers discovered the SEAL unit and immediately revealed their position to Taliban fighters. The element was besieged on a mountaintop by scores of enemy fighters. The firefight that ensued pushed the element farther into enemy territory and left all four SEALs wounded. The SEALs fought with everything they had. despite being at a tactical disadvantage and outnumbered more than four to one. Understanding the gravity of the situation and his responsibility to his men, Murphy, already wounded, deliberately and unhesitatingly moved from cover into the open where he took and returned fire while transmitting a call for help for his beleaguered teammates. Shot through the back while radioing for help, Murphy completed his transmission while returning fire. The call ultimately led to the rescue of one severely wounded team member, Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Marcus Luttrell, and the recovery of the remains of Murphy and Gunner’s Mate 2nd Class (SEAL) Danny Dietz and Sonar Technician 2nd Class (SEAL) Matthew Axelson. Eight more SEALs and eight Army “Nightstalker” special operations personnel comprising the initial reinforcement also lost their lives when their helicopter was shot down before they could engage the enemy. Murphy was also inducted into the Hall of Heroes at the Pentagon during a ceremony yesterday. His name was engraved beside the names of some 3,400 other service members who have also been awarded the nation’s highest honor.These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero. We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your blog, you can go here.

Perhaps not himself, but he along with millions of other Californians are pretty pissed off right now. Tricia very rightfully called this a tragedy in my comments earlier today on the last round of videos I posted and I agree wholeheartedly.

Just some recent news and video clips about the fires raging in California right now. Have to wait until I actually have free time to actually post any content

I unfortunately don’t have a bunch of time this morning to post much of anything. After work this afternoon I have a short meeting and then have to be at the local high school to do the scholarship kick-off thing. It’s Homecoming there tonight so we need to be there a bit early in order to get a parking place. I am hoping I can manage to get out of the meeting pretty quickly. I short nap before the game would be very nice indeed.

If you have the time and are concerned about catching some of the sick pedophile bastards that haunt the Internet, go check out Warriors For Innocence and leave a comment.

Trackposted to Outside the Beltway, Perri Nelson’s Website, , guerrilla radio, Right Truth, The Populist, The Amboy Times, Leaning Straight Up, Conservative Cat, Nuke’s, Diary of the Mad Pigeon, Woman Honor Thyself, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The World According to Carl, Pirate’s Cove, The Pink Flamingo, High Desert Wanderer, Right Voices, and The Yankee Sailor, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

Open Trackbacks are a way to showcase your work and potentially gain new readers. If you are interested in joining in feel free to send me a trackback through Linkfest Haven Deluxe and see other folks that are also involved. You never know, you might find a couple of new favorite reads.

Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, The Virtuous Republic, Right Truth, The Populist, Webloggin, Stuck On Stupid, Cao’s Blog, Leaning Straight Up, The Amboy Times, Conservative Thoughts, Pursuing Holiness, Pet’s Garden Blog, Right Celebrity, third world county, The World According to Carl, The Pink Flamingo, Right Voices, The Yankee Sailor, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

A guy that escaped from a New Jersey prison 28 years ago was arrested Wednesday at his Philadelphia home where he was making one last bid to conceal his identity and remain a free man.

I was just watching this Associated Press video of New Orleans and it’s like a flashback to 2005. Even though most of the southeast is in a drought, New Orleans is getting a ton of rain and flooding in parts. They’ve closed down some streets and Mayor Ray Nagin is asking residents to stay at home.

Apparently the pumps are doing what they are supposed to, but it’s just not fast enough. It’s not as if it’s going to get any better any time soon. That’s what happens when you sit in a bowl that’s below sea level. They do have some choices as to what to do with the city. The need to look at the Netherlands for some examples of engineering if they city is going to remain for another 100 years. Floating houses and better sea walls, rebuilding the natural areas around New Orleans, building up some of the extremely low levels, these are some of the things that they can do.

I’ve been reading a bit the last few days about some of the fires that are burning in California and am just amazed. They too have been in a long-time drought but the thing is that a lot of these fires are naturally burning and we have kept them away for so long that now they are ten times worse than they should be.

I know I wouldn’t want to be living there now.

It seems like the fires are getting worse every year out there as they try to control them. From what I have been reading over at CNN and other sites only one person has died so far because of the different fires, which number in the teens now.

Apparently over 400 square miles have been burned in Southern California and over 300,000 have evacuated San Diego County. President George W. Bush has declared an emergency for seven counties in California as well.

The so-called anniversary of Baby Jessica’s rescue was Tuesday and I had meant to post something in passing about it but got busy doing something else.

On October 16th 1987 I was actually on the road out to Los Angeles when this was on the news. I was pretty young at the time and although it really didn’t effect me as much as it did quite a few people around the country it touched me as well and is one of those things that stick in my head from growing up, such as the Regattas during the Bicentennial, the first Space Shuttle Launch and various other items that I have filed away in that black hole of my head.

Most of the news sites have had something posted this week, the 20th anniversary of her falling down the well and being rescued. It was such a huge deal back then.

The big thing I keep hearing about is the donations that were sent to her family during the time and how it was saved for her in a trust fund (good choice by her parents there) and how she gets it when she’s 25. My question is why is this news? I can see the date being important in people’s minds because we all like to reminisce about things both good and bad but I could really give a rat’s ass what she does with the money. Good for her is all I say.

Remember the artist in Denmark that drew Mohammed that received death threats from all over the world and prompted some publications to pull it and apologize? Swedish artist Lars Vilks has done basically the same thing but is taking a stand for his artistic expression, but he’s making sure to look under his car for bombs now since Al Qaeda has put a $100,000 price on his head and offered an extra $50,000 for anyone that murders him by slitting his throat. That’s one high-priced cartoon. His website is at http://www.vilks.net. Unfortunately it’s all in Swedish and I haven’t bothered to run it through babelfish yet so am getting most of this secondhand. He does have some depictions of Mohammed over there as well as other religious figures if you are interested in checking them out.

Vilks has been a controversial artist in Sweden for more than thirty years and his crude sketched caricature of Mohammed as a dog was a calculated move and he wanted to get a reaction. That he has certainly gotten. He receives constant death threats, and although he still works at home during the day he has to go to a safe house at night. Police have asked him to abandon his home completely to protect him from people such as the Swedish woman known as Amatullah who says that she hopes she can make good on the Al Qaeda threat and slaughter Vilks like a lamb. She has apparently already been fined for making death threats and claims that she will never stop taunting him.

I guess Lars Vilks should be glad he’s not living in Bangladesh where they have detained a cartoonist for offending Islam by drawing a caricature of Mohammed as a cat. I have to tell you, my cat is extremely offended and thinks that his eyes should be clawed out for offending catkind everywhere.

You can see the drawing he did of Mohammed’s head on a dog’s body. Since Muslim’s view dogs as being unclean I can see why they might be slightly aghast. Big hairy deal. If you don’t like it, don’t look at it. There are plenty of offensive things that we see every day, from stuff like the infamous Piss Christ to caricatures of the Pope along with plenty of political commentary.

Stuff like that get’s everyone’s panties in a twist and there is plenty of banter thrown around but the only time I ever hear of hundreds and thousands of death threats are when Muslims are involved, which just goes to show how truly primitive and barbaric the mainstream religion is. If it were just far removed wings of the religion we wouldn’t see such impact but since the rest of Islam accepts their control that makes them the mainstream.

What I find really interesting is that most of us laugh and think just as I have said “God, what barbarians” and we go about our daily business thinking we are above those assholes. If that were the case then why under Chapter 272 of it’s general laws is section 36 “Whoever wilfully blasphemes the holy name of God by denying, cursing or contumeliously reproaching God, his creation, government or final judging of the world, or by cursing or contumeliously reproaching Jesus Christ or the Holy Ghost, or by cursing or contumeliously reproaching or exposing to contempt and ridicule, the holy word of God contained in the holy scriptures shall be punished by imprisonment in jail for not more than one year or by a fine of not more than three hundred dollars, and may also be bound to good behavior.” Perhaps Muslims aren’t the only intolerant ones…

Trackposted to Nuke’s, Perri Nelson’s Website, Right Celebrity, The Crazy Rants of Samantha Burns, The Populist, The World According to Carl, The Pink Flamingo, Stuck On Stupid, Big Dog’s Weblog, The Bullwinkle Blog, Cao’s Blog, The Pet Haven, and Adeline and Hazel, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

This Weeks Hero Was Suggested By Beth

Her name is Holly Holeman. Her job is working at a flower shop. And her mission to make sure soldiers are never forgotten. Which is why she’s out at Arlington National Cemetery every week putting flowers around the headstones. She usually does this alone, but on a bitter cold day in February of 2007 she was met with family members of fallen soldiers buried in Section 60 of the cemetery who helped her to place the roses.

To read the rest of Holly’s story, you can go here.

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your blog, you can go here.

Some more video on the shooting yesterday in Cleveland.

According to Police, two guns, three knives and a duffle bag stuffed with ammunition was found near the body of the teen who shot four people at the Cleveland school. Police have identified the shooter as fourteen-year-old Asa Coon. Coon shot and killed himself as the law officers arrived at the scene. Luckily he must have been a pretty crappy shot because the only fatality was himself.

What an asshat.

Water by the pool? Tell me it isn’t so! The family may very well have been negligible in the case of their baby falling into the pool but suing them? Makes you think twice about calling 911.

Apparently several cars from a CSX train derailed in Painesville Ohio, Wednesday setting off a large smoky fire. Here’s the video.