Yeah, Right, Whatever

I just got out of AIM with Spence, the brother of LCpl. Kyle Renehan, and I have some updated information.

Because of some difficulty with the wounds to his leg, they are giving him a transfusion and are holding him in Iraq until the wound closes enough to make air travel safer. He is still sedated heavily and basically unconscious.

He will remain in Iraq until tomorrow night. They will start the process of waking him tomorrow, and reassess any damage to his brain. LCpl Chris will remain with him until he is moved, which is very good for Kyle. I'm sure he is talking Kyle's ear off, and that's good for both of them at this point.

Spence also said that he appreciates all of the kindness shown during this situation. Good and wonderful people have been hitting the Paypal link and doing what they can to assist his family, and it was overwhelming.

If you can help with prayer, please do so for Kyle and for his parents who are taking this very hard and need your support. (e-mail link removed by request- ed.)

However, experts acknowledge that doctors euthanize routinely in the United States and elsewhere, but that the practice is hidden.

"Measures that might marginally extend a child's life by minutes or hours or days or weeks are stopped. This happens routinely, namely, every day," said Lance Stell, professor of medical ethics at Davidson College in Davidson, N.C., and staff ethicist at Carolinas Medical Center in Charlotte, N.C. "Everybody knows that it happens, but there's a lot of hypocrisy. Instead, people talk about things they're not going to do."

More than half of all deaths occur under medical supervision, so it's really about management and method of death, Stell said.

I will neither prescribe nor administer a lethal dose of medicine to any patient even if asked nor counsel any such thing nor perform, the utmost respect for every human life from fertilization to natural death and reject abortion that deliberately takes a unique human life.

1. Choppy, the Razor-Sharp Cleaver-Wielding Zombie-Cat - With spring-loaded decapitating action. (Decapitation.)
2. Dr. Wibbles’ Fun-Time Home Biological Weapons Lab - Bubonic Plague Edition. (Bubonic Plague.)
3.Baby Chokes-a-Lot Miscellaneous Walnut-Sized Chunks of Plastic (Skin irritation.)
4. Noosey, the Laugh-a-Minute Playground Rope Toy (Rope burns, accidental hanging.)
5. My Very First Acupuncture Set - Used Drug Needle Edition. (Hepatitis, heroin overdose.)
6. Auntie Lulu’s Unstable Pile of Three Thousand Pound Boulders Adventure Set (Inadvertent crushing.)
7. The “Medications Yet to Be Approved by the FDA” Colouring Book and Sample Pack (Hair loss, severe acne, testicular swelling, drug induced coma.)
8. The “My Little Landmine” Backyard Play Set (Explosions.)
9. Baby’s First Passenger-Side Airbag (Airbag)
10. Sammy the Exhaust-Pipe Hose Snake w/ Face Mask (Asphyxiation, Irritable Bowel Syndrome.)

Twenty-four hours later, Gardner's employer, Millennium Information Services, informed him via email that his posiiton with the company was being eliminated and that his services were no longer required. Gardner says that he has since seen the company advertising for his old position.

Gardner, the father of three, now is broke and unemployed. Nonetheless, he says he'd speak against Kerry all over again because "I couldn't ever see [Kerry] as commander in chief -- not after what I saw in Vietnam, not after the lies I heard him tell about what he says he did and what he says others did." (quote from Powerline)

They said it was the world's first published case in which a patient with spinal cord injuries had been successfully treated with stem cells from umbilical cord blood... Though they cautioned that more research was needed and verification from international experts was required, the South Korean researchers said Hwang's case could signal a leap forward in the treatment of spinal cord injuries...The use of stem cells from cord blood could also point to a way to side-step the ethical dispute over the controversial use of embryos in embryonic stem-cell research.

The dolphins, "started to herd us up, they pushed all four of us together by doing tight circles around us," Howes told the newspaper. When Howes tried to break away from the protective group, two of the bigger dolphins herded him back, he said.

Howes then spotted what he described as a 10-foot great white shark cruising toward them, but the man-eater was apparently repelled by the ring of dolphins and swam away.

POACHERS in New Zealand may have killed two members of a pod of dolphins that recently saved the lives of swimmers from a great white shark attack, lifeguards said yesterday.

The mutilated carcasses of the two bottlenose dolphins were found on Wednesday in the Awaroa River, which branches off the upper reaches of Whangarei Harbour on North Island’s east coast.

Staff from New Zealand’s Department of Conservation (DOC) believe the dolphins died about two weeks ago after drowning in fishing nets set out by criminals poaching fish. DOC officer Richard Parrish said their tails had been hacked off, probably to free them from the net.

LAWTON, Okla. (AP) - A 72-year-old great-grandmother is preparing for deployment to the war zone in Iraq and will become one of the oldest Department of Defense civilian workers in the war zone. "I volunteered," said Lena Haddix of Lawton, who has five children, eight grandchildren and three great-grandchildren. "I wanted to do something for the country, because I was always left behind taking care of the children."

The PX is more than just a store for soldiers, she said. It's also a boost to morale, giving soldiers stationed overseas a link to the United States and Haddix said that's why she wants to go to Iraq.
"I just see so many of the boys. They're like little kids. They keep telling me, 'I'm going over,' or 'I've just come back,'" she said. "I would just like to go over and be with them."

And Haddix said others have tried to talk her out of her decision, to no avail.
"I'd already made up my mind I wanted to go. I just wanted to do something for myself and other people instead of working and coming home.
"I'm sure there'll be times that I'll be scared, but I'm not now."

Haddix is now going through much of the same process soldiers go through before deployment, including shots and a thorough medical checkup to make sure she's physically able to do a tour of at least six months. She will be sent to Fort Bliss, Texas, for one week of training, then be sent to Germany where she will receive her orders on where in Iraq she will be stationed.

Blonde jokes to be banned?

Blonde jokes are set to be banned in Hungary after blonde women staged an angry protest outside parliament.

The protestors handed in a petition claiming they were being discriminated against in every walk of life by bad taste blonde jokes.

And spokeswoman Zsuzsa Kovacs said: "Blondes face discrimination in the job market, in the workplace when they get a job, and even on the streets.

"People are banned from discriminating against Jews, or blacks, so why not grant blondes the same protection."

The petition was handed to the equal opportunities minister Kinga Goncz asking her to investigate whether jokes about blondes fall into the same category as religious discrimination.

The petition was just short of the 100,000 needed to force Parliament to debate the matter but Goncz's deputy who spoke to the crowd pledged the government would act to stop any discrimination.

Blondes - real and bleached - protested outside the ministry as the petition was handed in, waving banners with slogans like 'We're blonde, not stupid' and Love us for our minds.

Most of the blondes that I know are incredibly intelligent, so most blonde jokes that I make are aimed at me when I have highlights bleached into my own hair. I can't imagine that there is any true discrimination (well, in the US, at least) against blondes. Then again, I'm a brunette, so I wouldn't know...

Unfortunately, this is just another example of victim mentality and people who just can't take a joke. Geeez....

World's oldest man likes a beer

The world's oldest man says the secret of long life is a good beer every day.

German Hermann Doernemann, aged 111, took the title after the death of American Fred Hale.

The retired electrical engineer says a daily dose of a good dark beer kept him feeling on top of the world.

Mr Doernemann, who lives with his children, is officially the world's oldest man but he's a long way off being the oldest person.

The Los Angeles-based Gerontology Research Group, which keeps records of the world's oldest people, says 26 women are older than him.

Yasser Arafat's medical records show no sign he was poisoned but are inconclusive as to the cause of his death, his nephew said Monday... The lack of solid information about the cause of death has provided fertile ground for rumors in the Arab world that he was poisoned, despite earlier official denials.

"I was just smokin' a cigarette and someone takes my picture and it all blows up," Miller told them Friday.

The 310-letter word is too long to reproduce here but it starts: "Ornicopy..." and finishes: "ulinaniac". It was apparently used by medieval scribes to refer to someone who practices divination or forecasting by means of phenomena, interpretation of acts or various other manifestations.

Ornicopytheobibliopsychocrystarroscioaerogenethliometeoroaustrohiero- anothropoichthyopyrosiderochpnomyoalectryoophiobotanopeg- ohydrorhabdocrithoaleuroalphitohalomolybdoclerobeloaxino- coscinodactyliogeolithonpessopsephrocatoptrotephraoneirochoonychodactyl- oarithstichooxogeloscogastrogyrocerobletonooenoscapulinaniac

// posted by Beth @ 10:12 AM |

President Bush used the annual Thanksgiving turkey-pardoning rite Wednesday to roast the bitter campaign for the White House, jokingly recalling fund-raising disputes, attack ads and a polarizing political movie. "Now's the time for healing," he said, as he ceremonially spared two birds.

The winning "candidates" in his satirical rendition of the presidential campaign were Biscuits and Gravy, turkeys raised in Mathias, West Virginia. Their names came out on top on an online contest. "It was a close race. You might say it was neck and neck," Bush said. He spoke in the Rose Garden during a rare joint appearance with Vice President Dick Cheney.

"It came down to a few battleground states. It was a tough contest, and it turned out some 527 organizations got involved, including Barnyard Animals for Truth," Bush said, mocking the free-spending independent groups like Swiftboat Veterans for Truth known as 527s. The group raised questions about Democrat John Kerry's service in the Vietnam War.

"There was a scurrilous film that came out, 'Fahrenheit 375 Degrees At 10 Minutes Per Pound,"' he said, panning "Fahrenheit 9/11," the documentary film that assailed him over the handling of the September 11 attacks and the war on terrorism.

Rita: I'd like to make her look a little more attractive. How far can you pull back?

Cameraman: How do you feel about Cleveland?

"9 out of 10 freshman girls gain 10 – 15 pounds. But there is something you can do about it. If u live below the 6th floor takes the stairs….Not only will u feel better about yourself but you will also be saving us time and wont [sic] be sore on the eyes."

He was sentenced to expulsion from student housing, given extended disciplinary probation, required to meet with a psychological counselor to discuss his "decisions, actions, and reflections" and made to write a 3000-word reflection paper about the counseling session.