The Dead Soldiers Ignored by Our Celebrity Obsessed Media

Spc. Jason M. Weaver will not be appearing on the Howard Stern show…

Insurgents attacked Spc. Jason M. Weaver's unit in the Kandahar province on March 3. An improvised explosive device killed the 22-year-old, who had been deployed for the first time

Cpl. Andrew Wilfahrt will not be interviewed on the Today Show…

Cpl. Andrew Wilfahrt, a gay Minnesota man who went back in the closet to join the military, died Sunday while on patrol in Afghanistan when an IED exploded during an attack on his unit. He was 31.

Pfc. David R. Fahey Jr., will not speak with Piers Morgan

Pfc. David R. Fahey Jr., 23, of Norwalk, Conn., died Feb. 28, in Kandahar Province from wounds suffered when his unit was hit by an improvised explosive device, according to the Defense Department.

Army Specialist Rudolph R. Hizon will not be featured in a segment on 20/20…

Army Specialist Rudolph R. Hizon, 21, of Los Angeles, was killed Monday when insurgents attacked his unit using an improvised explosive device in Afghanistan's Logar province.

Sgt. Kristopher J. Gould will not be on Dateline NBC…

Gould, 25, of Frankenlust Township, died in the Ghazni province of wounds suffered when insurgents attacked his unit with an improvised explosive device.

U.S. Army 1st Lt. Daren Hidalgo (pictured above) will not get more than 1 million Twitter followers in 24 hours.

Flags will be flown at half-staff on Wednesday in honor of U.S. Army 1st Lt. Daren Hidalgo, 24, a former Wisconsin resident who was killed in Afghanistan on Feb. 20.

Spc. Brian Tabada will not be a call-in guest on any radio shows…

The U.S. Army says 21-year-old Spc. Brian Tabada of Las Vegas, Nev., died Feb. 27 in Konar province

None of the dead U.S. soldiers above received a glance from the national media. A national media entranced by a celebrity drug-addict that abuses women. A national media that is stumbling over itself to allow Charlie Sheen to spout any type of trivial nonsense he so pleases to an eager citizenry.

None of the dead soldiers above made a sitcom. All these young men did was give their lives for their country. Which makes Sheen's new motto of "winning" seem all the more pathetic. And should make all of us feel as though we are losing our soul.

Crossposted at William K. Wolfrum Chronicles

By William K. Wolfrum | Sourced from Dagblog

Posted at March 6, 2011, 9:19 am

 

Beware: Doing good at work can sometimes get you fired

There was public outrage recently when four employees at a Walmart store in Utah lost their jobs for safely disarming a gun-toting shoplifter.

Walmart could care less about what the public thinks, and adheres to strict rules that protect their liability (bottom line), but not their employees lives.

“What if, after following policy, the perpetrator doesn’t run off with the loot, but instead points a gun at someone back and continues to speak in a threatening tone? At what point may they aggressively defend their own lives? According to Walmart’s policy, never.” Full Story

As It Stands: Word struck? Don't let it bother you, there's probably a good reason

By Dave Stancliff/For the Times-Standard

Posted: 03/06/2011 01:30:25 AM PST

Have you ever been struck speechless? Momentarily stunned by a comment or something you saw? At a complete loss of words? Tongue-tied? I have. On my first date in junior high. It was really pathetic. I searched for words to impress my date and made croaking sounds that scared her instead!

The first time I had to stand up in front of a class to make a speech, I lost my voice. I stood, pointed at a chart and coughed. And coughed. Words barely discernible as human came out of my mouth, mocking my efforts at communication. The teacher took pity on me, pretended I made sense and gave me a passing grade.

I once saw a little Vietnamese boy carrying a lizard so big he had it wrapped around his neck. He held the writhing snout with a calm ease born from experience. The lizard looked like a miniature Godzilla to my inexperienced Western eyes.

There we stood in a rice field. The boy was in a hurry to get home but willing to stop and chat if he could “souvenir” something off me or one of the other guys in the platoon. I pointed at the squirming lizard and held my hands up in the universal gesture of a question. The boy smiled and said “Numba one chop chop!”

I smiled back and tried not to gag. I really didn't have a thing to say. I'd recently tried a local fish-head stew that smelled so bad I stuffed my nose with Vicks vapor rub in order to eat it.

 When I think about it, I've been wordless many times in my life:

 “Where have you been all night young man?”

No response.

“Who said you could take that last piece of pie?”

No response.

“What were you thinking?”

No response.

You get the idea. It's pretty common to be at a loss for words. I've given this a lot of deep thought (about five fully focused minutes), and I think it's a survival instinct. If you say nothing, it's better than saying the wrong thing. Think about it:

“Where have you been all night young man?”

“None of your business...” This is where harm comes in.

“Who said you could take that last piece of pie?”

“Grandma ... she appeared to me in a vision ... .” This is where you get to stare at the wall for the rest of the afternoon.

“What were you thinking?”

“That I wanted to get fall-down stupid drunk and tell you ... .” This is where your mate locks the front door and lets you sleep it off on the front step.

Sometimes silence is golden. Or better than a truthful alternative. Then there are times when words can't describe what you're seeing. For example, when I watched each of my three sons enter this world, I was without words. My world tilted each time but no fine speech sprang forth to honor the birth.

No mere words could describe those moments of new life I shared with my wife. I saw my past and my future. Life and death often leave us speechless. The passing of my sister and brother, both so young, left me mute with misery each time. Words were dust in my mouth.

I used to have a friend whose mother always said, “Well, hush my mouth!” He'd tell her he got an A in a test at school and she'd squeal, “Well, hush my mouth!” happily. He'd describe a fight we witnessed and she'd say, “Well, hush my mouth” in awe at the description of carnage. I never understood that expression.

After 60 years of experiencing times when words were worthless or needless, I'm still amazed at how quickly they flee in times of stress, pressure or pleasure. For example, when you get a back rub and are asked if it feels good, words seem unnecessary and a contented sigh says everything!

As It Stands, the next time someone asks you if the “cat got your tongue?” just smile like the Cheshire cat in Alice and Wonderland, and don't answer.

Public shaming: taking disipline to the streets when all else fails

I’d love to see this trend extend to politicians who lie, cheat, and otherwise discredit public service. I would make one a modification for their punishment; going “old school” with the stocks. Remember them?

“Time-outs, groundings and confiscated toys are so old-school.

Today's parents are getting more creative with their punishments. When their kids misbehave, some moms and dads are taking their discipline to the streets. Though public shaming of criminals has fallen out of fashion elsewhere in the world, it's still popular in the United States for misdeeds like reckless driving and shoplifting. See which kids — and a few adults — learned their lesson the public way.”

Full Story

The “Duh” for the day: car theft suspect asks officer for ride

“A car theft suspect who took off on foot in Salem was able to flag down a motorist for a ride. The only problem: the helpful driver was an undercover police officer.

The Statesman Journal reports the officer had been looking for the suspect Thursday and recognized the 31-year-old from previous contacts for other crimes.

When the suspect knocked on the window of the unmarked car and asked for a lift, he got one — straight to jail.”

Story Source      Image source

Pot dispensaries turn against L.A.'s marijuana tax proposal

Measure M on Tuesday's ballot would add a 5% marijuana tax to sales at pot dispensaries. Owners of the collectives once supported the idea but are now angry about the upcoming lottery to decide which ones can remain open.

“In Los Angeles, where voters decide Tuesday whether to create a pot tax, medical marijuana activists who once urged City Hall to tax and regulate them are hoping to defeat the proposal, angered by the council's decision to limit the number of dispensaries to 100 and choose them by lottery.”                                                 FULL STORY

Scientists: Magnetic Polar Reversal May Have Started

Concern has been mounting for almost a decade as scientists hunched over their instruments and double-checked new data concerning the status of the Earth's crucial magnetic field.

The magnetic field protects all life from damaging solar radiation. Exposure to such radiation can cause cancer and mutate DNA. Some researchers believe evolution has been driven in part by epochs marked by a failing or weak magnetic field that allowed the surface of the world to be bathed with intense ultra-violet and other deadly forms of life-changing radiation.

Now new evidence has emerged leading some scientists to believe that the magnetic pole shift—an ongoing phenomenon that has been happening for decades—has reached a tipping point.

According to a report issued by the prestigious British Geological Survey (BGS), evidence suggests the magnetic reversal has begun.

The BGS has taken this position based on careful analysis of a region of the Earth known as the South Atlantic Anomaly (SAA). It's an area where the magnetic field is in a state of flux and has weakened noticeably. The data shows the anomaly is growing rapidly and spreading west from South Africa.

All of this indicates the Earth's liquid core is changing.

"This may be early evidence of a forthcoming reversal in the direction of the Earth’s internal magnetic field," states the article on the BGS website.

Source

Doctor’ Seuss’s thought on Love – ‘it’s Mutual Weirdness’

Source

Today marks the 150th anniversary of the First National Flag of the Confederate States of America

Some argue the flag is a symbol of racism. Others say it's just Southern pride. (Which state was marred in controversy for flying the flag at its state house?)

Let’s take a look at the flag's history and its influence in pop culture. Photo of South’s first flag by Bob Jordon/AP

The Confederacy's first national flag ended its reign in May 1863, when the secession government adopted the second national flag (scroll through photos). The Stainless Banner covered the casket of a famous Civil War general

The president of the Confederacy

The man who designed the flag

The flag's other name

The states that seceded from the Union

Latest about the 150th anniversary

Information via Popular Searches

I was born in Ohio, and most of my direct line fought for the North. There was one relative (who lived in Ohio) who fought for the South. That was a common theme that made the whole war even more heart-breaking. Brother against brother.

Here’s a list of inventors killed by their own inventions

This is a list of inventors whose deaths were in some manner caused by or related to a product, process, procedure, or other innovation that they invented or designed.

                                            Aviation

• Ismail ibn Hammad al-Jawhari (died ca. 1003–1010), a Muslim Kazakh Turkic scholar from Farab, attempted to fly using two wooden wings and a rope. He leapt from the roof of a mosque in Nijabur and fell to his death.
• Otto Lilienthal (1848–1896) died the day after crashing one of his hang gliders.
• Franz Reichelt (1879–1912), a tailor, fell to his death off the first deck of the Eiffel Tower while testing his invention, the coat parachute. It was his first ever attempt with the parachute and he had told the authorities in advance he would test it first with a dummy.
• Henry Smolinski (died 1973) was killed during a test flight of the AVE Mizar, a flying car based on the Ford Pinto and the sole product of the company he founded.
• Aurel Vlaicu (1882–1913) died when his self-constructed airplane, Vlaicu II, failed him during an attempt to cross the Carpathian Mountains by air.
• Michael Dacre (died 2009, age 53) died after testing his flying taxi device designed to accommodate fast and affordable travel among nearby cities.
• Read More Here

PHOTO - Franz Reichelt (d. 1912) attempted to use this contraption as a parachute. Reichelt died after he jumped off the Eiffel Tower wearing his invention, which failed to operate properly as a parachute.