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Mar. 12, 2006 Four unrelated but recent news reports caught enough of my interest to comment about. None of the reports were individually exciting enough to merit a complete column, but the four together generate maybe a laugh line or two. The January 30th banner headline FOR THE “Stars and Stripes” read: “GI guilty of detainee abuse in Afghanistan” subtitled “second soldier faces similar charges”. Now I didn’t have any qualms about the BIG and BOLD banner headline touting the downfall from grace of another American soldier, but right underneath that headline, taking up more than half the front page spread was a BIGGER and BOLDER “HOOAH!” with the exclamation point included. And if you are unfamiliar with the term “HOOAH!” the definition was included as: (WHO-ah) adj. Also, hua, huah. All –purpose word used by members of the U.S. Army everywhere they go.” Then I had to look again. “GI guilty…” sharing the page with “HOOAH!” and I thought, “How subliminal can you get?” Whoever had put together the January 30th front page of the “Stars and Stripes” could not have done Dick Durbin and Ted Kennedy any more proud! “GI guilty…”HOOAH!” What is the chief definition of the Army term “HOOAH!”? That would be: “Good, copy, solid copy, roger, good or great, message received, understood.” “GI guilty…HOOAH!” The second article I thought worthy of mention was: Group calls for national response to church burnings” by Errin Haines, AP. I have seen countless reports of Dick Cheney’s hunting accident, Tom Delay’s promotion, Scooter Libby’s post-election trial date, UAE port deal debate, terrorist surveillance program debate, Patriot Act debate, Katrina debate, and debate over what the cafeteria in Congress should be adding to its menu, but I haven’t seen many reports out of the government addressing the fact that there are American terrorists running around Alabama burning down Christian churches. I can understand this ticket item not appearing as even a blip on the radar of the Muslim press, but to be ignored by the American media is unconscionable. The sick crap-heads that are burning down Southern churches could have been stopped months ago if the media had bothered to take as much notice as they have in the disappearance of a certain vacationer to the island of Aruba. Why is it so necessary that: “Until President Bush denounces the church burnings in Alabama, it is not a national priority.” Or why is it that “resources” will not “flow” because of the silence or words of one person? Aren’t the communities that were hit by the arsonists sufficiently enraged to bring their own resources to bear? Why isn’t everyone in America “denouncing” these attacks against American churches? Quoting from the article: “Five Alabama churches were burned on Feb. 3, and four more were burned on Feb.7. Another was burned Feb. 11. Investigators have said they don’t know a motive, but there is no racial pattern. Five of the churches had white congregations and five black. All were Baptist, the dominant faith in the region.” No motive…….just Baptist churches…….HELLO! Local authorities! Stop sitting around waiting for the President! Look for the Baptist hater with the butane lighter and the gas can! UPDATE: On Saturday March 11th, I saw an article that reported the capture of those suspected of burning the churches: From: “Alabama Churches at Ease With Suspected Arsonists in Custody”, AP, Thursday, March 09, 2006: “For weeks, church congregants in rural Alabama were on high alert, eager to find out who was burning down their churches. The answer, authorities now say, was three college students who took a prank too far. Agents capped a month of tedious police work Wednesday when they arrested the three friends in connection with nine church arsons that had spread fear through rural Alabama. According to court filings, the first arsons started as "a joke" that got out of hand. The other fires were apparently an attempt to throw off the massive arson investigation.” (So the whole thing was just a joke. More to follow after I change my name to “Elmer Fudd”) Headline: “Gym teacher accused of letting kids skip class for $1”, by Peter Whoriskey, “The Washington Post” gave a refreshing update to the fundraising efforts of teachers who pay dues to the National Teacher’s Association (NEA). It seems Terence Braxton, a former “second-year teacher at Ernest Ward Middle School in a rural area on Florida’s Panhandle..” knew how to “panhandle” children to make a buck above his $30,000 a year salary. He charged kids a dollar a day to skip Gym Class. He even ran tabs for kids who couldn’t pay until they had scraped up the cash to catch up. He had is own little “No Child Left Behind” action going. Finally: “U.S. stumped over figuring poverty numbers” subtitled, “Juggling census numbers can produce larger or smaller estimate of people in need” by Stephen Ohlemacher of the AP, is a lesson on the greed of government and how they play the poverty card every time one of their pet programs is in anger of elimination. I was interested to know that the poverty level for a family of four in America is $19, 307 and for a family of two it is $12, 334. In a land where it seems even the number of breaths you take are taxed at a particular rate, I can understand calling $12, 000 a year a level of poverty. But America is a land that recently enjoys comparing itself with foreign countries. Canadian health care is better, European law is better, Bush is equal to Hitler, the American Army is just like the Taliban, etc. There are families of 4, 5 and 6 out there in the world subsisting on a dollar a day, if that. American poor have complete access to health care and independent charities. When that’s not available, there is welfare and WIC and a host of other measures that are capable of relieving duress. Families of 4, 5, and 6 in Central America, Asia and Africa manage to share one bowl of rice or corn and must depend on those same American charities to brave death to reach them in the remote corners of the world. The poorest American in America is richer than some whole communities in third world countries. The government had better stop playing with numbering systems that are decades out of date and find a way to accurately determine American poverty. The teat is running out of political freebies. Pretty soon we’ll be charging public school children a buck a day to skip Math or Science class to raise the dollars necessary to keep the welfare state from bankruptcy. ------------ About the Author: Michael John McCrae has contributed over 500 articles to Useless-Knowledge.com. Email: macswordV@hotmail.com Comment on this article here! ------------ All articles are EXCLUSIVE to Useless-Knowledge.com and are not allowed to be posted on other websites. ARTICLE THIEVES WILL BE PROSECUTED! |
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