Wounded soldiers at Walter Reed ordered not to speak to reporters
Surprise, surprise, surprise. Soldiers at Walter Reed Army Medical Center’s Medical Hold Unit have been told that they must awake up at 6 a.m. every morning and have their rooms ready for inspection at 7 a.m.
Also on an unrelated matter, they are not to speak to the media.
Instead of telling a reporter how bad their living conditions are, they are to use the chain of command.
For those of you who have not been in the military, daily room inspections are used as a form of punishment. The military may not be able to outright punish a service member for speaking to a reporter, but they certainly can and will punish you for having dust on a light bulb.
One of my readers attempts to set me straight on the whole Wal-Mart Nazi t-shirt thing
Sometimes somebody posts a comment that makes me re-think my position on a subject that I blogged about. This is not one of those comments.
ilike_kidrock@hotmail.com wrote:
thank all this is bull shit i am not a nazi but i like the nazi stuff every mother f***er need to get over the Sh** it is a part of history we shouldn’t forgit it yea and go ahead and call me what you want but we do have a fredom of speach and yea it may offend people but it is something we don’t need to forgit everyone wants to forgit it but we shouldn’t
Normally I try to cut people slack that are even worse spellers then me, but this fella that loves to profess his admiration for Kid Rock doesn’t even know how to use a period.
Britney Spears umbrella attacks on the rise
Police are reporting a significant increase in Britney Spears umbrella attacks. The first attack happened in front of the home of hip hop superstar Kevin Federline. The victims of this unprovoked umbrella attack were professional photographers who just happened to be in the neighborhood on a totally unrelated matter.
Since this initial Britney Spears umbrella attack, dozens of people have reported similar attacks. Though the time of day and the locations differ, the attacks all have a very similar theme. Britney Spears jumps out from a hiding place and attacks with her umbrella.
Police have tried to find a pattern to her umbrella attacks. So far, they have been unsuccessful discovering anything that will lead them to identifying a pattern to the Britney Spears umbrella attacks.
They have discovered though that Britney Spears is not the first to use the umbrella as a weapon. There was actually someone before Britney Spears who used the umbrella to cause harm.
It’s important to note that this person used his umbrella differently then Britney Spears. This person used his umbrella to fire knockout gas out of the special tip. He didn’t bludgeon or spear anyone if you will with it like Britney.
So far Britney Spears has not attacked anyone with gas.
2007 New York Comic-Con
This weekend kicks off the 2007 New York Comic-Con. This will be the second year for this event. Hopefully for everyone's sake, it goes better then it did last year. Last year's event was marred by overcrowding and massive organizational problems. Some people who pre-paid for tickets were not even allowed admission because too many people were already inside. Once people were allowed in, they would have to wait hours to get back in. Even retailers and comic professionals with booths had to wait in line to get back in. By most reports, it was pretty bad.
This from Publishers Weekly:
Although the hall was, by unanimous opinion, too small and the aisles far too narrow, according to show organizers fewer than 5,000 advance tickets had been sold a week before the show began. The last-minute influx of ticket buyers caught everyone flatfooted, although the big line on Friday night should have been a sign.
Saturday's show was a logistical logjam from the moment the doors opened. Both New York State police and the NYPD were on the streets around the Javits Center warning people that the show was sold out and telling them not to go in. Even some people who had paid in advance for three-day passes were left standing in line for up to two hours—or not allowed in at all.
When the convention floor wasn't completely shut down, people were being allowed in as only others left the floor, leaving even celebs like film director Kevin Smith and cartoonist Frank Miller standing in line, unable to get to signings and meetings. And with many inside the exhibit hall unaware of the problems getting back in, even a quick smoke break could lead to disaster, with exhibitors and artists unable to return to their booths.
Exacerbating the problem was a lack of organization in the lines to get badges. Professionals, people with VIP passes, three-day ticket-holders and walk-up attendees were all sent to the same line, resulting in chaos and long waits.
When you have Kevin Smith and Frank Miller standing in line with a fat guy dressed like Batman, you have a problem.
Part of the problem was that con organizer Greg Topalian was only able to secure a small portion of the Javits Center to hold the convention. Reportedly he was able to secure a much larger portion this year.
Topalian also sold tickets with the idea that people would come to the con and stay for only a few hours. He believed that just because you bought an admission ticket for the whole day didn't necessarily mean you were going to stay the whole day. He also believed that just because you purchased a 3-day ticket didn't mean you were going to attend all three days. These were some of the excuses Topalian gave on the Comic Geek Speak podcast for overselling so many tickets.
In my opinion, that was the real problem. It wasn't that he didn't have enough floor space. If you only have room for 10,000 people you should only sell 10,000 tickets. What difference does it make if you get enough space for 30,000 people if you then go and sell 60,000 tickets?
You will have the same problem. It will just be on a bigger scale. Overselling tickets to a comic book convention is just as wrong as Jim Bakker overselling time shares at a cheesy evangelical Christian luxury hotel. Something I believe he went to prison for.
Every year there is a large Anime convention held in nearby Baltimore called Otakon. Instead of selling single day tickets, they sell $50 memberships for the whole weekend. They only sell as many memberships as they can accomidate. They don't oversell memberships hoping that some wont show up. Once the set number memberships are sold, that's it. No more are sold. From what I gather, things go a lot more smoothly at Otakon. Not that I've ever been to Otakon. I just hear that people really like it.
Then again, the people that run Otakon are not about making profit. Not to say that they are a bunch of commie hippies. It's run by a not-for-profit organization dedicated to putting on the best Anime convention ever. The goal of the New York Comic-Con is to make money. Seemingly, as much money as possible.
If your pick-up truck has fake testicles hanging from the trailer hitch, you better stay out of Maryland
At least if my state delegate gets his bill passed. This from the local Hagerstown Herald-Mail:
ANNAPOLIS – Washington County Sheriff's deputy Matthew Bragunier figures that he sees, at least once a day, fake bull genitals flopping from the hitches of pickup trucks.
They're only a toy, but they're also unpleasant to look at, said Bragunier, worried what his 2-year-old girl might think someday.
"My daughter's going to see this," he said. "She's going to ask what this is. I don't want to be put in that spot. I don't think I ever want to be in that spot."
Del. LeRoy E. Myers Jr., R-Washington/Allegany, agreed.
This week, he filed a bill for Maryland to ban the toys and others like them.
The bill prohibits any "model, sign, sticker or other item" that shows uncovered human or animal genitals, as well as human buttocks or female breasts, from motor vehicles.
I too saw a pickup truck with fake bull genitals flopping from a trailer hitch. Once.
I thought it was stupid. I didn't think a special law needed to be passed. What's next? What part of the redneck culture will be regulated with a special Maryland law? Rebel flags? Dale Earnhardt tribute decals? Worn out 2000 Bush/Cheney stickers? If you take away a redneck's right to hang fake bull genitals from his trailer hitch, what's next?
I just think it's funny that the anti-fake bull testicle bill was sponsored by a guy named "LEROY".
Sean Hannity and Neal Boortz agree that teachers are more dangerous then terrorists
A least the uppity ones that join unions. This from Think Progress:
Last night on Fox News’s Hannity and Colmes, right-wing radio host Neal Boortz claimed that teachers unions are “destroying a generation” and are “much more dangerous than al Qaeda.” He stated, “Look, Al Qaeda, they could bring in a nuke into this country and kill 100,000 people with a well-placed nuke somewhere. Ok. We would recover from that. It would be a terrible tragedy, but the teachers unions in this country can destroy a generation.” Sean Hannity agreed, noting, “They are ruining our school system.”
Neal Boortz? I’m still not convinced he is a real person. Part of me thinks he is a fictitious character created for the sake of comedy.
I wonder what the troops would think if they heard what Sean Hannity and Neal Boortz had to say about the enemy they are fighting. That al Qaeda are a bunch of pussies compared to unionized teachers. I’m tempted to say that they would be demoralized, but I have to believe they would simply think that Hannity is an idiot. I doubt the troops have ever heard of Boortz.
The Oscars should be more like the Baseball Hall of Fame
The Oscars are in four days. The movies up for awards are all from this past year. I think that’s a mistake. We ought to wait a while before bestowing awards to movies and the people that make them. Let the dust settle so we can reflect on what is truly award worthy. It’s not like any of the movies up for awards this year were actually made in the last 12 months.
In baseball, a player must be retired from Major League Baseball for five (5) years before he is eligible for the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, New York. The Oscars are sort of like the Hall of Fame. They are both very prestigious and considered to be the crowning achievement of one’s carrier. The following movies are up for Best Picture this year:
- Babel
- The Departed
- Letters from Iwo Jima
- Little Miss Sunshine
- The Queen
Are we going to feel the same way about any of these movies in 2012? Granted, when I was a kid I figured that I would be too busy riding around in my flying car to be watching movies. For some reason I now don’t see myself in a flying car in 2012.
Here is a list of the movies nominated five (5) years ago for Best Picture:
- A Beautiful Mind
- Gosford Park
- In the Bedroom
- The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
- Moulin Rouge
The winner was A Beautiful Mind. It featured Russell Crowe as a mathematical genius who also had schizophrenia. I never saw it. I thought it sounded both boring and depressing. I also never watched Moulin Rouge or Gosford Park.
Did anyone watch Gosford Park?
I did see In the Bedroom and thought it was a great movie. I might even be willing to say that it was the best movie I watched that year if I hadn’t watched The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring.
It’s a movie I’ve watched over and over and over again. I own it on DVD. Both the theatrical version and the extended boxed set. It’s a fantastic movie. There is no way I believe that Russell Crowe acting like a crazy guy who is good with numbers is better then Gandalf fighting a Balrog in the mines of Moria.
I cannot help but believe that five years later, the voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences would have realized that.
There is a new $1 coin
Even though the U.S. Mint facilities in Denver and Philadelphia have made a combined 300 million of these, the only place I’ve seen them is on eBay. I’m sure they will eventually turn up in everyday life. I’m looking forward to using them.
I like coins. I’m not a coin collector, but I’m pretty sure I have the coin collecting gene. I’ve just really never allowed it to fully manifest itself. It takes a lot of money to collect coins. They don’t call it the Hobby of Kings for nothing. The inference is that kings have a lot of money. More money then electronic technicians such as myself have. It’s true. Kings make more money then electronic techs. I looked it up on Wikipedia once.
I don’t even know who “they” is.
These $1 coins kick off a new $1 coin program that will each feature a dead president. Even the ones nobody really remembers. Even the ones nobody really likes anymore. Every three months, a new $1 coin will be released. The first coin is Washington and the final coin will be of Reagan. I expect right-wingers to go crazy about that one.
Right-wingers love Ronald Reagan. They will have to wait till 2016 to use them.
Evidence that Bush does not care about the troops
Larry Johnson of No Quarter links to an article in the Washington Post that details conditions troops being treated at Walter Reed Army Center as out-patients. It’s pretty disgusting.
Behind the door of Army Spec. Jeremy Duncan’s room, part of the wall is torn and hangs in the air, weighted down with black mold. When the wounded combat engineer stands in his shower and looks up, he can see the bathtub on the floor above through a rotted hole. The entire building, constructed between the world wars, often smells like greasy carry-out. Signs of neglect are everywhere: mouse droppings, belly-up cockroaches, stained carpets, cheap mattresses.
Call me a liberal, but I don’t think our troops injured in Iraq should ever have to live someplace where phrases such as “mouse droppings” or “black mold” are used to describe the living conditions.
At a bare minimum, American service members injured in Iraq receiving out-patient medical treatment should be treated no worse then the Bush twins. If Jenna and Barbara were receiving medical treatment on an out-patient basis. Not that they would ever be caught serving their country. They might be caught using fake ID’s so they can illegally drink, but you won’t ever see these two doing anything even remotely associated with patriotism. Even the fake kind that is popular with so many Republicans.
This is one of the results of waging war on the cheap.
It’s a myth that Wal-Mart took immediate action with their Nazi t-shirts
I hate to do this, but I feel the need to once again weigh in on the whole Wal-Mart Nazi t-shirt controversy. I promised myself I wasn’t going to blog about it any longer. I don’t want to be known as the Wal-Mart Nazi t-shirt guy. It might already be too late for that. Also, there are other bloggers doing a much better job with it then I ever could. Even if I wanted to. Which I don’t. Look to the The Consumerist. It is the number one place on the Internets to find out the latest on the whole Wal-Mart Nazi t-shirt controversy.
This morning I received an email Google Alert telling me that “BentCorner.com” had appeared in a news story. I set up a Google Alert so I would know when my blog appeared in a newspaper article. Most of the time I know ahead of time when my blog or myself is mentioned in a newspaper article. The reporter doing the article usually contacts me to ask questions. I believe it’s something people in the news business refer to as professionalism. Sometimes like in the case with The Miami Herald, the reporter didn’t even try to contact me to get facts. Instead they just made stuff up.
This morning’s Google Alert pointed me to something called the American Thinker. I’ve never heard of it. That seems like a shame too since I am an American and I think about things. It sounds like the American Thinker would be right up my alley.
When I went there, I realized two things. It’s not really a newspaper. It appears to be a blog. A rather nice looking blog, but it’s still a blog. Also, it appears to have a right-wing slant to it. That would account for me not knowing anything about it.
This from the article about the Nazi t-shirt:
Back in November the blog BentCorner.com revealed that Wal-Mart was selling a T-shirt that displayed the Nazi Totenkopf–the “death head” emblem, which was worn by Adolf Hitler’s personal guards. Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) sent a letter, signed by a bipartisan group of 21 representatives, to Wal-Mart Chief Executive H. Lee Scott Jr. asking the retail giant to remove the shirts immediately from store shelves.
So far so good. I would have pointed out that Rep. Barny Frank (D, gay) also signed the letter. Nothing gets Right-Wingers more worked up then a good Barny Frank story. It’s right up with a hatchet job on Hillary Clinton or something that attempts to disprove Global Warming by quoting the Bible.
The only issue I had with the piece over at the American Thinker was this:
Even though Wal-Mart did take immediate action, directing all stores to remove the shirts and deleting the item barcode from their computer system, about three dozen of their 3300 stores have not successfully removed all shirts.
This just is not true. Though Wal-Mart said they were taking immediate action, they never did. They allowed these shirts to remain on their sales floor and be sold to anyone with an extra $7.88 in their pocket. People continued to find these shirts at their local Wal-Mart weeks and even months after this story originally broke. The Consumerist did an excellent job chronicling the on going status of these shirts.
Though Wal-Mart did delete the barcode from their computer system, it took them almost a whole month to do so. Even then, people were reporting that they could still buy the shirt. They would simply take another similarly priced shirt to the register and ask the person (Wal-Mart prefers to call them “associates”) to scan the other shirt.
Make no mistake. Wal-Mart continued to sell these shirts. If your local Wal-Mart no longer sells them, it’s because someone bought them all up. It’s not because Wal-Mart actually removed them.
The Murtha plan
U.S. Rep. John Murtha has come up with a creative way of putting a stop to Bush’s war in Iraq. It involves placing conditions on how Bush can spend the $93.4 billion in new combat funds.
- The Pentagon would have to certify that troops being sent to Iraq are “fully combat ready” with training and equipment.
- Troops must have at least one year at home between combat deployments.
- Combat assignments could not be extended beyond one year.
- A “stop-loss” program (back door draft) forcing soldiers to extend their enlistment periods would be prohibited.
It’s a good idea. Instead of cutting off the funds, it places common sense conditions on how those funds are to be spent. The conditions are things that really cannot be argued against.
Unless of course Republicans want to argue that troops should be sent to Iraq that are not combat ready. That troops should be sent to Iraq that have not been home for at least one year. That troops should be forced to continue serving in the military even after their enlistments are over. That combat tours should last longer then a year.
How are the chickenhawks going to argue for any of that?
So far, they don’t seem to be arguing against the actual details of the plan. No, they are instead criticizing the end results of such a plan. It will be impossible to continue Bush’s war in Iraq with such conditions placed on the war’s financing. This plan may actually work. It may actually do some good. Where a non-binding resolution does nothing, this can actually bring an end to Bush’s perpetual war in Iraq.
House passes non-binding resolution on Iraq war
The final non-binding vote was a non-binding 246 to a non-binding 182. Seventeen Republicans actually voted for the non-binding resolution.
What a waste of time. What’s the point? To let Bush know that they don’t approve of his war? Couldn’t they just do what I do and write a blog post? This non-binding resolution doesn’t do anything. A non-binding resolution has as much teeth to it as a blog post.
It seems a shame though that they didn’t allow the non-voting members of the House to vote. Since it was non-binding, what’s the difference? The representatives from Puerto Rico, Washington DC, the Virgin Islands, and Guam are allowed to pretend to be actual congressmen. They are not allowed to actually vote. This non-binding Iraq war resolution sounds like it would have been right up their non-voting alley.
If they were allowed to vote.
XM Radio adds Ed Schultz to it’s Air America lineup
Finally XM Radio does something that I can appreciate. Something positive. Something that doesn’t make me wish I bought a Sirius satellite radio instead of an XM radio. They are moving liberal/progressive talker Ed Schultz from a single one hour on tape delay to the whole three hours. His show will also be live. He will fill the time Noon – 3pm time slot that was being filled by The Al Franken Show. Franken is leaving the Air America Network to run for the U.S. Senate.
XM used to air the complete Ed Schultz show on tape delay at 3PM before moving him to a different channel and cutting him to one hour. The move never made sense. In fact, I actually emailed XM and complained. Ed Schultz is one of the few progressive talkers that is actually successful at radio. He has an audience. His show generates revenue. The man has real ability behind the microphone.
In other words, his show is the complete opposite of most of the Air America lineup.
Don’t get me wrong. I listen to most of the shows on Air America. Though the hosts have passion for what they talk about, most lack even basic fundamental skills behind the mic. Most podcasters are more professional and polished behind the microphone then some of the Air American hosts.
It’s not enough to simply be passionate in what you believe. You must also have actual radio skills. Though I don’t agree with most of what Rush Limbaugh or Sean Hannity have to say, I have to admit that they have superb radio skills. These two guys know what they are doing when it comes to doing radio.
So does Ed Schultz.
Yesterday while listening to the Sam Seder show on Air America, I heard the host talk about Ed Schultz joining the Air America lineup on XM channel 167. Instead of treating the news as something positive, he treated it as something negative. In fact, he advised listeners to call XM and complain.
Huh?
He told listeners to call and ask XM to not add Ed Schultz, but to instead add liberal talker Thom Hartmann. The reasoning being that XM channel 167 is called AIR AMERICA and Ed is not part of the Air America network.
Personally, I don’t really care. I just want to listen to the best liberal or progressive or non-conservative radio that I can. That means Ed Schultz. I’ve never heard of Thom Hartmann. Not to say that he is bad. I’ve just never heard his show. From what I gather, his show is on Air America only on the weekends. His show is sandwiched between repeats of other Air America shows. I would think that if he was better then Ed Schultz, Air America would have moved Thom Hartmann to Jerry Springer’s old time slot.
Yes, Air America put Jerry Springer on the air. The same Jerry Springer that does a TV show that features transvestite prostitutes that marry their brothers.
Maybe it’s just me, but I have a hard time believing that a radio host that isn’t good enough to replace Jerry Springer on Air America is somehow better then Ed Schultz on XM.
Pat Robinson on the risks of too much plastic surgery
From the February 7 edition of the Christian Broadcasting Network’s The 700 Club:
ROBERTSON: You know there’s a lady named Greta Van Susteren, who’s on Fox.
WATTS: Yeah.
ROBERTSON: Got a very popular –
WATTS: Oh, I saw her.
ROBERTSON: She looked gorgeous last night, but she had a really serious facial deal. And it did a wonder –
WATTS: Sister needed help.
ROBERTSON: Sister got the help.
WATTS: Sister — she needed some help, yeah.
ROBERTSON: But she got it. She just looks great, and she’s so popular.
WATTS: But have you ever seen someone who got it too much, and so they come up to you, and they’re like, “Pat, how are you doing? It’s so good to see you.”
ROBERTSON: Yeah, they got the eyes like they’re Oriental, and, you know, it’s all pulled. So, make sure you do it right. But — it’s — that’s one way you can go, but it’ll cost you five or six thousand dollars probably. All right. What else?
This racist crackpot once ran for President. Granted, he ran as a Republican, but he ran for President none the less. I can just imagine a Pat Robinson presidency where he sits around the oval office doing impersonations of various racist ethnic stereotypes.
I wont be voting for Hillary Clinton
I don’t care how much money she’s raised or how much money she’s raised for other politicians. I don’t care that her last name has a certain ring to it that hearkens back to a time when someone much more suited for the job of President sat in the Oval Office. More suited then the guy presently sitting there.
I won’t be voting for Hillary Clinton.
The simple reason I wont be voting for Hillary Clinton is because of her vote on Iraq. In October 2002 she voted for the resolution authorizing President Bush to take military action against Iraq. Big mistake. She has stated in the past that she wasn’t sorry for her vote. Now that she is running for President, she says that she wishes she had not voted the way she had, but she blames the Bush administration for false information about Iraq.
Frankly, I’m not impressed.
She and other elected leaders could have and should have used the power of their office to press the Bush administration into proving the case against Iraq. She now blames her vote on Iraq on Bush. She claims that it was Bush “who misled this country and this Congress“.
The problem is that she believed him.
Hillary Clinton asking to be my President is a lot like someone who was ripped off by one of those stupid Nigerian email banking scams asking to be my money manger. For a lie to work, it takes two people. The person telling the lie and the person believing the lie.
The fact is she failed to even consider that Bush was wrong when he claimed Iraq posed a threat. The fact that she wont even admit it was a mistake for voting the way she did is embarrassing. I think it says a lot about her character. She wont admit her mistakes. I’ve had enough of that particular character flaw in my President.
Also, I will never vote for anyone that wears a Yankee hat. Especially if they are not from New York. Hillary Clinton is from Chicago. She used to be a Cubs fan. I guess I could understand someone being a Yankee fan if they were raised that way from a very early age. If they were brainwashed into being a Yankee fan. With Hillary, that isn’t the case. If we were to elect Hilary to be President, who’s to say she wouldn’t wear that retched Yankees hat everywhere she goes?
When in doubt, blame it on dinosaur flatulence
At least that’s what Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) believes. During a recent hearing on climate change, Rohrabacher questioned part of an IPCC report on climate change that among other things, reported a period of dramatic climate change that occurred 55 million years ago.
We don’t know what those other cycles were caused by in the past. Could be dinosaur flatulence, you know, or who knows?
Link (with video)
Local Marine injured in Iraq
I realize it’s not as important as Anna Nicole Smith dying, but a local Marine serving in Iraq has been injured. This from the local newspaper, the Herald-Mail:
U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Dane Fonte of Smithsburg was injured Wednesday afternoon in Iraq when he was hit by a grenade on a rooftop, Fonte’s parents said Saturday. The 21-year-old Fonte is being treated at Bethesda (Md.) Naval Hospital for bone fractures around his right eye, which also received some retina damage.
That’s one word you don’t ever want associated with your retina. The word “damage”. My hopes and prayers go out to Dane and his family.
I tried looking online for more news about this attack, but I couldn’t find anything. The only results I got were for the before mentioned article in the local newspaper. I then tried to do a less structured search. Instead of searching for Dane Fonte, I searched for MARINE+INJURED+IRAQ+GRENADE. I got lots and lots of results. None of them were about Dane Fonte though. It seems there is no shortage of news articles about Marines being injured in Iraq with grenades. Just none about 21 year old Dane Fonte.
UPDATE – The Herald-Mail updated their report. Here is what was published in today’s eddition (11 February):
SMITHSBURG – U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Dane Fonte was injured Wednesday afternoon in Iraq after a grenade exploded during an engagement in Anbar province, his parents said Saturday.
The incident happened while Fonte was on a rooftop during several hours of off-and-on fighting with insurgents, but he managed to avoid the brunt of the explosion, Jeff and Carlann Christopher said.
Fonte, 21, is being treated at Bethesda (Md.) Naval Hospital for bone fractures around his right eye, which also received some retina damage, according to his parents.
“That’s the major concern,” said Fonte’s mother, who added that wounds to her son’s leg and arm were sutured on Saturday.
Though his eye now is patched, Carlann Christopher said her son could detect some amount of light since he was flown from Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province, a suspected staging area for insurgents fighting U.S. troops.
“There’s 10 fingers, there’s 10 toes, his personality is there,” she said in an interview from the hospital.
She said Fonte’s superior officer, Cpl. Joshua Pitcher, was not as fortunate, and now is “fighting for his life” after receiving more severe head trauma from the same device.
Jeff Christopher received a cell phone call about his son being taken to the hospital Thursday afternoon while he was at Lowe’s in Hagerstown.
He wasn’t told the extent of his son’s injuries, but left the store and immediately drove to Twigg Cycles in Hagerstown, where his wife works, and went to the hospital.
“We didn’t talk a whole lot,” Carlann Christopher said.
Her husband, a Marine Corps veteran, has traveled to Bethesda several times in the last few months with other members of the Hagerstown chapter of the U.S. Military Veterans Motorcycle Club. They also have traveled to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., to support other military personnel injured in the line of duty.
While with their son, Carlann Christopher said Fonte’s sergeant, who lost his legs in October, was one of a number of people who have stopped by to visit him.
“He came in to see him walking on prosthetics,” she said.
“This place is a living miracle,” she said. “The outpouring of love … There’s nothing we could ever want for.”
“The nurses and doctors at Bethesda Naval have been the best,” her husband added.
Despite attempts by his father to deter him from joining the Marine Corps, Fonte enlisted immediately after graduating from Smithsburg High School in 2003, his mother said.
He was deployed to Iraq in September, and was scheduled to complete his term of service with the 1st Battalion of the 6th Marine Regiment in August.
“He’s just worried about his guys still over there,” Jeff Christopher said. “That’s all he’s concerned about.”
Fonte’s younger sister, Casey, 18, said her brother was “out of it” when she first saw him Thursday.
On Friday, he was laughing and telling jokes, she said Saturday.
“He still has all of his body parts, thank God,” she said while cleaning her brother’s room at their parents’ house off Vodys Court in Smithsburg, where his Marine Corps unit’s colors fluttered in a chilly wind.
A standout football player and wrestler in his years in high school, Fonte’s mother anticipates a hearty welcome home from the community for her son, who she said has an infectious smile and personal drive to be the best.
“I think if Dane ran for mayor of Smithsburg, I’d think he’d win hands down,” she said.
It is a scanner for books!
I saw this earlier today on Boing Boing. I have to get one. It’s called the OpticBook 3600 and it made by Plustec. It’s a scanner that is made specifically for scanning the pages of a book. Not only does it feature an ergonomic design well suited for scanning books, it features special magical technology for eliminating shadows near the inner spine area. I think the technology was devised by Gnomes.
Not that I am advocating the illegal duplication of copyrighted material. That would be … wrong.
Send white trash celebrities to Iraq
Anna Nicole Smith died. She was found “unresponsive” in her hotel room at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino in Hollywood, Florida. She was pronounced dead at the hospital.
This was huge news for some reason. I couldn’t believe how much the mainstream news media seemed to care about the death of Anna Nicole Smith. There were other things going on Thursday that were far more important and effected far more people then Anna Nicole Smith dying in an Indian casino hotel room.
Take Iraq for example. Almost every single day American service members are killed in Iraq. It seems to me that nobody even cares anymore. At least not the way they care about Anna Nicole Smith dying.
I think that is what bothers me the most about Bush’s war in Iraq. It’s not the flawed reasons and false justifications for invading Iraq. It’s not the colossal waste of money. Money we don’t really have. What bothers me the most is how little my fellow Americans seemingly care about the troops being sent over there.
Contrary to what you may have read on a magnetic yellow ribbon bumper sticker placed on the back of an SUV, Americans just don’t care about American solders dying in Iraq.
I realize just how little Americans care when I see the collective slobber fest over the death of Anna Nicole Smith. Frankly, I’m suprised she didn’t O.D. years ago. Like her son.
Maybe the answer to ending the war in Iraq is to draft white trash celebrities and send them to Iraq. Force them into the military and make them ride around Baghdad in an unarmored HUMVEE. Maybe then America will finally start to care what happens over there. Maybe if Lindsay Lohan or Britney Spears were sent to Iraq, people might finally care what happens over there.
Maybe.
The whole Wal-Mart Nazi t-shirt thing will not die
I got a call yesterday afternoon from a reporter from the Chicago Tribune. It was concerning my not-so-recent discovery of Nazi t-shirts being sold at my local Wal-Mart. I blogged about it at the time. Feel free to go back and read my posts if you want to.
I haven’t blogged about the ‘controversy” since November 21. I did write about some idiot that emailed me about it, but that doesn’t really count. I wasn’t blogging about how bad Wal-Mart was for selling Nazi paraphernalia to kids. I was blogging about how much of a tard some guy was. Others have been blogging about it though. Some have been quite active on the subject. Just not me.
It seems that congressperson Jan Schakowsky from Illinois has learned about Wal-Mart selling Nazi swag. She is pissed off about it. She wrote a letter to Wal-Mart and even got other members of Congress to sign the letter. In fact, she even got Representative Barny Franks to sign it.
Nothing demonstrates just how angry you are then than getting Representative Barney Frank to sign your letter.
The reporter from the Chicago Tribune wrote an article about it that was published in today’s issue. She mentioned in her article that I was the one who first wrote about Wal-Mart selling the shirts.
I hope this does not get me in trouble. There is a chance (albeit a small chance) that I am a wanted man in Chicago. The last time I was in the Windy City I drove through a toll without paying. I wanted to pay the toll. I had the money to pay the toll. Sort of. Illinois has these unmanned toll booths where the driver has to throw change into a big orange plastic basket. It’s really quite easy. If you have any change that is. I had just flown in and I didn’t have any change. I only had paper money. Not knowing what to do, I just drove through without paying.
I haven’t been back to Chicago since. I haven’t dared.
Boston, the city of scaredy cats
If you are a Boston city official, you probably jumped under your desk in fear the very first second this image appeared on your computer monitor. It’s an LED sign powered by batteries. The LED’s are laid out in the shape of a cartoon character. A cartoon character flipping the middle finger.
Quit scary, isn’t it?
Not particularly. Unless you had a bad experience as a kid with a Lite-Brite. Remember those? I never had one, but I think my cousin did. I remember seeing them every year in the Sears Christmas catalog.
These signs appeared in over 10 American cities to promote the upcoming Aqua Teen Hunger Force cartoon. Boston city officials were the only ones to freak out over it. They gave a whole new meaning to the term freaking out. They actually thought these signs were bombs planted by terrorists. They tied up the city of Boston for nearly 10 hours because they thought these signs were bombs.
How embarrassing for the city of Boston. The people that run their city are idiots. They overreact to Lite-Brite signs.
Support your local comic book shop
You enjoy reading comic books. You have a local comic book shop that you enjoy going to. Help support your local comic book shop by buying your comic books there. That seems obvious, right? Evidently not.
I read this today on a comic book message board that shall remain nameless.
I went to my LCS today to pick up the small amount of comics I don't get from DCBS like 52, and saw that as of Sunday, they are going out of business. And they are the only LCS within miles and miles. Comfort me, people, I feel like a pet has died.
In case you didn't know, "LCS" is geek code for local comic book shop. DCBS is Discount Comic Book Service, a website that sells comic books for 30% to 40% off the cover price. Something like that. The above forum post was written by a guy that likes comics and instead of buying his comics from his local comic book shop, he buys them from the online discounter.
I think this illustrates why it's important to support the local comic book shop. If you have one that's worth supporting that is. Not all local comic book shops are great places to visit. Some reek of cigarette smoke. Some are really quite awful. I'm not exaggerating when I say that I've been in comic book shops all over the country. Some of them really suck.
I got the impression from the guy's post that his local shop didn't suck. Otherwise he wouldn't have equated it's closing to a pet dying. Maybe instead of only buying a small amount of comics at his local shop, he should have been buying more of his comics there. Like all of them. Not that it would have necessarily kept them afloat.
I just think that if you would be sad if your local comic book shop closed down, you should be supporting it with your patronage. That means not buying your comics from a website just because it saves you a few bucks.
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