A Manassas mother is honoring her son’s memory the best way she knows how – through dance.
After 9/11, Colin Wolfe of Manassas decided to trade in ballet to serve our country. But after less than two months in Afghanistan, he was killed by a roadside bomb in 2006.
The remains of English Monarch Richard III have been found under a parking lot in Leicester (pronounced Lester), England.
According to Yahoonews.com:
Archaeologists announced today (Feb. 4) that bones excavated from underneath a parking lot in Leicester “beyond reasonable doubt,” belong to the medieval king. Archaeologists announced the discovery of the skeleton in September. They suspected then they might have Richard III on their hands because the skeleton showed signs of the spinal disorder scoliosis, which Richard III likely had, and because battle wounds on the bones matched accounts of Richard III’s death in the War of the Roses.
NEW YORK — Voters in three states will decide next month whether to legalize the sale and use of marijuana. If a ballot measure in one of those states succeeds, as supporters predict, it may create a rare truce in the war on drugs — and trigger a showdown with the federal government.
State-level legalization would climax decades of struggle by reformers to convince voters that marijuana presents less of a threat to public safety than legal drugs, including alcohol. It would also show that pro-pot activists have learned from previous losses, like California’s Proposition 19.
“There’s no doubt in my mind that at least one of them will pass,” said Dan Riffle, a legislative analyst for the Marijuana Policy Project.
His confidence appears justified. A September poll put support in Washington state at 57 percent. A Colorado poll out Monday from The Denver Post showed 48 percent in favor, versus 43 percent opposed. Support in Oregon was lagging.
Proponents have picked their battles. Legalization is only on the ballot in libertarian-leaning western states. Still-hostile state legislatures have been bypassed with ballot initiatives. And the presidential election will draw marijuana- friendly younger voters to polls.
From Politico.com:
The FBI probed a late-night swim in the Sea of Galilee that involved drinking, numerous GOP freshmen lawmakers, top leadership staff – and one nude member of Congress, according to more than a dozen sources, including eyewitnesses.
During a fact-finding congressional trip to the Holy Land last summer, Rep. Kevin Yoder (R-Kan.) took off his clothes and jumped into the sea, joining a number of members, their families and GOP staff during a night out in Israel, the sources told POLITICO. Other participants, including the daughter of another congressman, swam fully clothed while some lawmakers partially disrobed. More than 20 people took part in the late-night dip in the sea, according to sources who were participants in the trip.
You know, why can’t members of Congress behave, especially when out of the country? Is this the same GOP who gets all prissy over behavior and wants ultrasounds for women seeking abortion? Is this the same GOP who wants us all to reliquish our reproductive rights? Is this the GOP who wants to tear down that wall of separation between church and state?
Four Secret Service employees who lost their jobs in the fallout from a prostitution scandal in Colombia plan to challenge their dismissals, arguing they’ve become scapegoats for an agency under fire.
The employees plan to fight their dismissals by arguing that their behavior was not unusual for the Secret Service, The Washington Post reported Tuesday night. Their challenge emerges just ahead of a Senate committee hearing Wednesday where the agency’s director, Mark Sullivan, is set to speak publicly for the first time since the scandal erupted more than a month ago.
The Secret Service has said that its employees had a clear understanding that it was not appropriate for them to bring women back to their hotel rooms while on assignment and off duty, but current and former employees told the Post that such behavior was tolerated “under an unwritten code that allows what happens on the road to stay there.”
So where is the personal responsibility? “We’ve always been allowed to do it!” and ”But Ma, everyone else is doing it!” somehow just isn’t going to cut it this time. I would hope that this excuse wouldn’t save anyone’s job.
Trading supposedly begins at around 11 am. Facebood Friday. Will you try to buy or wait?
The IPO share will probably be around $40. The institutional guys can buy at that price. The common man cannot. It will be fun to watch. I think I might just hold back for a while. I can’t see the real money in Facebook. Who has ever bought anything off of Facebook? There is just too much free there. We’ll see.
Let the frenzie begin. Let’s hope the FB frenzie stirs up the bulls and has them hoofing it, kicking the bears back as they charge.
I would like to talk about something that makes ME sick. Sick and numb. Today a third student has died as a result of that fatal shooting at Chardon High School outside of Cleveland. Every day there is violence in schools. Earlier in the week, an 11 year old girl died in California as a result of fighting with another girl, over a boy. There are probably others student deaths that weren’t sensational enough to make the news. Are our schools becoming killing fields?
What can be done to stop this type of senseless violence? The 11 year old girl was a participant. We can assume willing. However, the 4 students who were shot yesterday were simply sitting in the cafeteria eating breakfast. How did the shooter get access to the cafeteria? He wasn’t even a student in that school any more. He went to alternative school. We can only assume that he walked right in with the rest of the students at 7:30 am.
Is there a way to make our schools safer? From all accounts this school, like Columbine a decade ago, wasn’t in a heavy crime area. It was just an ordinary school, like our kids go to. It wasn’t inner city.
Today Whitney Houston will be layed to rest. Her untimely death knocked her fans for a loop. The cause of death has not been released but that hasn’t kept the public from speculating and blaming her not-so-private addiction problems. The truth is, no one knows what was the cause of her death.
Meanwhile, the controversial New Jersey governor, Chris Christie has ordered the flag to be flown at half mast on all government buildings in honor of Whitney Houston. Sadly, he has been under a barrage of criticism for honoring Houston in this manner. One of his harshest critics has been a woman whose son was killed last month in Afghanistan. Much of the criticism has been that we shouldn’t be honoring pop stars, especially ones who have died from addiction problems.
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Governor Jan Brewer of Arizona apparently forgot her manners, again, and pointed her finger in the face of the President of the United States on the tarmac during President Obama’s latest trip to Arizona. Governor Brewer later told the press that she felt threatened by the President. A picture speaks a thousand words.
I don’t know what Governor Brewer thought the President was going to do to her. They were in plain view and the secret service security team was right there.
Sadly, this encounter is just another example of the breakdown of protocol and manners in the country. Pointing or wagging one’s finger in the face of the President of the United States, regardless of who he is is simply not acceptable. I feel certain that Brewer is now the darling of those Obama haters who feel she ‘told him off good.’
I think that protocol needs to be taught in every classroom across America. Obviously much has been forgotten or in Brewer’s case, never learned. There are just certain behaviors one upholds when speaking to the President of the United States. We use terms like’ Mr. President’ when addressing him. We even do that if he is our best friend when in public. (or her if that should ever come to pass)
Brewer set a bad example for everyone who sees this picture and is an embarrassment to our country. The eyes of the world are on us. What must they be thinking?
Rick Perry has decided that he was been wrong about abortion. After watching Mike Huckabee’s video on abortion, he has decided that the government does have a right to force a woman to bear a child that was conceived from rapeand/ or incest. He was unclear about whether life of the mother should be discarded in favor of the fetus.
My question is, when is it going to end? If the new Perry position isn’t extreme enough, perhaps one of the big Ron Paul supporters is. IN fact, the Ron Paul campaign is doing nothing to distance itself from this YoYo, reported by outsidethebeltway.com :
Four years ago, the Ron Paul campaign generated controversy by not repudiating the endorsement of the neo-Nazi group Stormfront, but at least back then they didn’t actually promote the fact that they had received the endorsement. This time, though, they seem pretty proud about getting the support of a Nebraska Pastor who has made some pretty vile comments:
There has been another VA Tech shooting today. 2 have been killed. The news reports that VA Tech was very proactive and that students were given information immediately. The shooter is still at large. It is unknown if he is pinned down or roaming.
Stay tuned.
ATF, State Police, FBI are all involved. The VA State Police has taken over the investigation.
The students are complaining that it is taking too long to apprehend the shooter. They are in lock down. Come on kids. Be glad it wasn’t you shot. They do not know the identification of the shooter. No classes are in session. Today is what is known as reading day. Tomorrow begins final exams.
My nephew is at Tech. I am not worried. Too ornery. His father wanted to ship him back at Thanksgiving.
VT alert sytsems are amazing now. All VT computers give an alert, sirens sound, text messaging, etc.
Over the weekend, former national security advisor Zbigniew Brzezinski spoke the following when he accepted the Jury du Prix Tocqueville Prize in France:
The foregoing observation is especially relevant to our understanding of the challenge facing contemporary America. Though a democracy, it is becoming a country of socially ominous extremes between the few super rich and the increasingly many who are deprived. In America today the top 1% of the richest families own around 35% of the entire nation’s wealth, while the bottom 90% own around 25%. It should be a source of perhaps even greater concern that the majority of all currently serving Congressmen and Senators, and similarly most of the top officials in the executive branch, fall in the category of the very rich, the so-called top 1%.
At the same time, though still a unique super-power, America finds it difficult to cope with the consequences of the increasingly accelerating global changes that are spinning out of control, both on the socio-economic and on the geopolitical levels. Socio-economically, the world is becoming a single playing-field in which 3 dynamic realities increasingly prevail: globalization, “internetization”, and deregulation.
Most of us were outraged over Pat Robertson’s words, giving the OK to divorcing a spouse with Alzheimer’s Disease. However, after thinking it over, maybe we should thank him. He made us think of something that is fairly repugnant and he forced conversation. We have probably had more discussion because of Pat’s ill-fated remarks than we have since Ronald Reagan announced he had been diagnosed with the disease.
What do most of us know about Alzheimers? Does it run in families? Does it hit those in middle age? Are there different types? How many of us knew it was the 6th leading cause of death in the United States? I sure didn’t.
Are there legal reasons for divorce? Will divorce protect the surviving spouse from liquidation of assets if the afflicted spouse has to be institutionalized for care? That’s something to think about. I know several folks who chose to shack up to protect their retirement assets since remarriage would kick them out of the system. Can divorce provide the same safety net?
Finally, people divorce over mental illness and substance abuse all the time. How many of us would chastise a person for divorcing a spouse who was institutionalized because of severe schizophrenia or other chronic mental diseases that seemed hopeless? We are very forgiving about that. How is Alzheimer’s any different?
Maybe we should thank Pat for providing the impetus for discussion. These are definitely discussions that should be taking place. Until Pat shot off his mouth, we just weren’t talking.
From Huffington Post:
Military jets escorted an American Airlines plane to a safe landing at New York City’s JFK Airport on the 10th anniversary of the September 11 terrorist attacks.
NBC LA reports that the two F-16 fighter jets were called into action after three passengers refused to come out of a bathroom on a flight originating in Los Angeles.
There was initially some confusion as to whether the jets had been called, with NBC New York noting that a security official first said fighter jets had been launched and then another security official said they had been set to launch.
A law enforcement official told the AP that the incident isn’t thought to be terrorism.
Pardon my stridency. What is wrong with people? 3 people who will not come out of the bathroom? How much did it cost us, the taxpayers, to send up those F-16 fighter jets? How about sending the jerks the bill for that scramble? If they don’t pay it, get a judgement on them. Furthermore, how about a year in jail? I am also ready to ban people who do stupid things on planes from boarding a plane in the United States for life.
From NBCLosAngeles:
The three men were later questioned and released at the airport, an FBI spokesman said.
Passengers told NBC New York after landing that they didn’t even know there was an incident on board until they saw police meeting the flight on the ground.
The three men were drunk. Each week we read about some fool who wants to do something incredibly stupid on an airplane. It should be painful and expensive to be stupid. I don’t care how stupid the rules get. The airlines and the government rule here. I have a choice whether to fly or not. If I don’t like rules, I can stay off planes (and I do stay off these days).
Why are three people in the bathroom? Is this a mile high club with a kink or two? Get a motel room, on the ground, jerks. They should not have been released. They should have to pay for the expense to the taxpayers.
Former Secretary of State Colin Powell fired back at what he called “cheap shots” made by former Vice President Dick Cheney, in order to sell his new book, due to come out on Tuesday. Powell contended that Cheney swiped at many in the former Bush Administration and used such allegations to pump up his new book entitled “In My Time.”
Cheney has been stumping all the talk shows championing his new biography and saying it will make some heads explode. To this, Powell takes exception. Politico discloses:
Powell said on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that many disclosures seemed to be “cheap shots that he’s taking at me and other members of the administration who served to the best of our ability for President Bush.”
Powell took particular umbrage at Cheney’s claim he felt more comfortable expressing his views to the public than President George W. Bush, as the book brings to the surface bitterness over the 2003 decision to invade Iraq.
“The president knows that I told him what I thought about every issue of the day,” Powell said. “Cheney may forget that I’m the one who said to President Bush, ‘If you break it, you own it.’ And you have got to understand that if we have to go to war in Iraq, we have to be prepared for the whole war, not just the first phase. And Mr. Cheney and many of his colleagues did not prepare for what happened after the fall of Baghdad.”
Powell disputed the claim from the book “In My Time” that Cheney had pushed him out in 2004, saying that’s when he had intended to leave.
The retired Army general, who had also served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, described the administration as dysfunctional at the time of his departure.
“It was clear by 2004 that the team was not functioning as a team,” Powell said. “And we had different views, and not just views, not views that could be reconciled. And so I said to the president that I would be leaving at the end of the year, after the election, and he ought to take a look at his whole team to try to resolve all these issues.”
Cheney also levels in his book some condescending criticism at Condoleezza Rice, Powell’s successor as secretary of state, and former CIA Director George Tenet, Powell noted.
Colin Powell has a long distinquished military record that pre-dates his service in the Bush Administration. He is one of the least partisan of anyone who has served as Secretary of State. He broke rank with Republicans in 2008 by supporting the candidacy of Barack Obama, a Democrat. He added he didn’t mind that Cheney revealed that the administration wasn’t always in agreement. What he found offensive was placing the administration’s disagreements on par with tabloid news. He felt that Cheney had going over the top in his efforts to promote his own book, often at the expense of those who served in the Bush Administration.
Who else from the Bush Administration will protest the ” ‘heads will explode” rhetoric used by Cheney? Will the former president be embarrassed by Cheney revelations or will the book endear us to George Bush and vilify Cheney? Did he go too far with his less than flattering depiction of Colin Powell? Powell seemed to take more offense at what Cheney said about others rather than about himself.
