April the Thirteenth

This day in history:

April 13, 1970

About four-fifths the way to the moon, Apollo 13 was crippled when a tank containing liquid oxygen burst.

The Apollo 13 Astronauts, their lives threatened by a serious oxygen leak, were forced to evacuate their command ship late last night and use their intended moon-landing craft as a "lifeboat" for a fast return to the earth.

In cool and cryptic words, they were instructed by mission control here to use the attached lunar module's rocket to power them back to an emergency splashdown in the Pacific Ocean at about noon on Friday.

There will be great risks and little margin for error or delay.

A teenager who watched the movie version of the events commented, “Of course they had problems, they had Forrest Gump driving.”

April 13, 1981

Washington Post reporter Janet Cooke received a Pulitzer Prize for a feature about an 8-year-old heroin addict titled “Jimmy's World”.

From Accuracy in Media:

The story itself created a brief sensation in Washington. It was published on the front page on September 28, 1980. It was buried 18 days later when The Post reported in its local news section that the city was ending its efforts to locate the child addict whose identity The Post had refused to disclose. That story reported on page C-3 that Mayor Barry and officials of the D.C. police department were convinced that the story was part myth and part reality." He said that he and police narcotics officers all agreed that the mother of the child and her drug-pusher lover would not have allowed a reporter to witness them injecting heroin into the child as had been claimed by Post reporter Janet Cooke.

The Post reacted saying that it stood by its story. Three months later it nominated the story for a Pulitzer Prize, in the local news reporting category....

Even though the story won the Pulitzer Prize for feature writing. [Judith] Crist, [who chaired the Pulitzer jury for feature writing] and her panel had nothing to do with its selection. They had not even seen the story, since it had been entered in the local news-reporting category. The story had lost in that category, but the Pulitzer board had decided, without the knowledge of the feature panel, to give "Jimmy's World" the prize for features....

When the editors at Cooke's previous job, The Toledo Blade, read her biographical notes, they noticed a number of discrepancies. To secure the job at the Washington Post, Cooke had claimed to have a degree from Vassar College, attended Sorbonne University and to have received an award at The Toledo Blade newspaper. It didn't take long to discover that Cooke's credentials were false. Pressured by the editors of the Washington Post, Cooke confessed to inventing the story.

In an editorial optimistically headed, "The End of the 'Jimmy' Story," The Post apologized to its readers, saying, and "This newspaper was itself the victim of a hoax--which we then passed along in a prominent page- one story, taking in the readers as we ourselves had been taken in."...

Cooke, obviously, returned the award, and then promptly left the country.

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Commentaries

Joseph Farah

Courts threatening national security

“More and more we see judges at all levels – county, state and federal – winging it, improvising, making up the rules as they go along, legislating from their own personal feelings, biases and gut instincts.”

Pat Buchanan

Fighting and winning the ‘judges war’

“The issue of judicial tyranny is on the table. And if the GOP, with majorities in both chambers of Congress and its man in the White House, does not dethrone it now, it never will.”

Phyllis Schlafly

Next we should starve the courts

“Non-elected judges have flagrantly abused the legislative and executive functions of government for so many years that we wonder why a reaction has taken this long.”

Michelle Malkin

Pandering to the crackpot left

“Immediately after the election, John Kerry avoided the deepest fever swamps of the crackpot Left. But Teresa's kooky pillow-talk has apparently taken effect.”

coverage: Michelle Malkin

Walter Williams

Stupid airport security, part 2

“Airline pilots going through security are searched and asked to empty their pockets, even though they wear photo identification tags and the TSA accepts the fact that they're indeed pilots. Here's my question: If a pilot wanted to fly a plane into a building, would he need a weapon to do so?”

Coverage: Michelle Malkin

John Stossel

The climate scare

“...when I discussed Michael Crichton's argument that we needn't worry about global warming, I didn't deny that warming was a ‘scientific reality.’...The earth has warmed about one degree in the past 100 years.”

Linda Chavez

The press shows its bias

“But what exactly is it that Tom DeLay is alleged to have done? After hundreds of hours of investigative work by the nation's biggest news organizations, the evidence of any actual ethical -- much less legal -- breach is pretty thin.”

Tony Blankley

Keep DeLay, or pay the price

“I understand why the Democrats are going after Tom DeLay. Snakes gotta slither, mosquitoes gotta bite, hyenas gotta laugh, and Democrats without a blooming idea in their heads gotta go negative.”

Rich Lowry

John Bolton, Multilateralist

“The outraged-at-Bolton caucus has a problem, which is that anything Bolton has said about the U.N. appears mild given recent U.N. malfeasance.”

Paul M. Weyrich

John Bolton: A Commitment to Freedom and Human Rights

“My opinion of the United Nations has never been very high but if there is any hope for this organization to recapture at least some of its purpose then Bolton can assist.”

Warren Throckmorton

Teach respect?

“Agree with gay rights or not, let’s understand this clearly: the purpose of the [Day Of Silence] is to advance a civil rights agenda in the public schools.”

Steve Farrell

There Is No Religious Neutrality

“There is no such thing as religious neutrality in the minds of those who support the secular, socialist state. They are at war with religion in general and Christianity in particular. They always have been.”

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Around the Blogosphere

The Pro-Assassination Left

PowerLine, Blogs for Bush, Right Wing News, insignificant thoughts

John Bolton

Political Animal, Right Wing News, InTheBullpen

Tom Delay

Political Animal, Barbarians at the Gate, InTheBullpen

Britny Pregnant

Outside the Beltway, WizBang

Judicial Nominations and Activist Judges

Outside the Beltway, Blogs for Bush, The Narrow

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Gaddy and Boyd smell worse each day

WorldNetDaily is finally reporting that fact that Beth Gaddy has ordered the UAB medical center to prevent Mae Magouirk's bother, sister and nephew from visiting her. They also have quotes from Mae's brother, A. B. McLeod, who so far has allowed his nephew, Ken Mullinax, to speak for the family.

"We're just flabbergasted," McLeod told WorldNetDaily. "We don't know what to think. Why not let me see her? What's the big deal?"

McLeod spent Monday trying to determine the origin of the order "that's keeping me from seeing my sister, because I'm Mae's closest living kin – me and my sister, Lonnie Ruth."...

"It's got to be Beth, because she's the only one to do it," said McLeod. "We don't think that [the order] is legal in Georgia or Alabama, but right now it is a barrier. Right now it's stopping us from seeing her."

Yesterday, McLeod finally learned through his attorneys that Gaddy had indeed given verbal instructions to the staff at UAB to deny him, his sister Lonnie Ruth, or his nephew Kenneth Mullinax, 45, of Birmingham, permission to visit their sister and aunt.

Moreover, the hospital staff is forbidden to give them any information about Magouirk's condition. Even her physician, cardiologist Dr. Raed Aqel, who is also treating Ruth Mullinax's aortic dissection and is McLeod's physician as well, cannot reveal how their sister is faring since her admission to UAB.

Several question were also answered in the WND article. Did Judge Boyd know of Gaddy's intention to euthanize her grandmother?

According to documents filed with the court, Gaddy was very explicit in her reasons for wanting Magouirk placed in a hospice. In a petition objecting to Gaddy's April 1 request for full guardianship, McLeod quoted remarks Gaddy allegedly made to him and Kenneth Mullinax when Magouirk was in the intensive care unit at the hospital, before her transfer to hospice on March 22. Gaddy said, according to McLeod in his court petition:

(a) "Uncle Buddy, before you and Kenny try to get Grandmamma to UAB to get well, I want you to know that I am in charge now, it's totally up to me because I hold the medical power of attorney and Grandmamma has suffered to [sic] much and I want her to stay here in LaGrange."

(b) "I don't care if they are the best doctors in the whole world. I have prayed about this and God has told me that Grandmamma is ready to go home with Jesus and Granddaddy. Since I hold the medical power to do this, it is my decision and I want her to go to hospice. Her heart is now bad and she has glaucoma and blood clots. Grandmamma told me she wants to go home and I feel that means that she wants to die so I want her to go to Hospice. I promise y'all I won't withhold anything Grandmamma needs."

(c) "Grandmamma is ready to go to heaven and Jesus has told her this so Grandmamma will stay here at the Hospice and I will make sure she gets good heart medicine and care here and that she is given food and water."

Since this is part of the case filed with Boyd's court --he had to have known Gaddy's intentions as well as the rest of the family's objections, yet he allowed Gaddy to retain medical authority, and continues to allow it in spite of her disregard of the court order he issued.

Commenting on Gaddy's refusal to allow Mae's brother and sister to visit Boyd told the Birmingham News that Gaddy would be within her rights as guardian to prevent visitors from seeing Magouirk. "If she thought it would upset Mrs. Magouirk, she had every right." There's no word about whether Boyd is even aware that Gaddy ignored his court order, apparently Boyd's concern over the matter is limited to press releases designed to make him look good, rather than the welfare of Mae Magouirk.

Another aspect I find disturbing is that in the court filing A.B. McLeod claimed that Mae Magouirk told him, “Buddy, I have discovered that Beth is writing unauthorized checks on my account. I just can't trust her anymore at all. Would you please get with me and tell me what I need to do to have her removed from doing this. Also, I want to replace Beth and appoint you to have my power of attorney and to act on my behalf if I get sick.”

Mae's sister Lonnie Mullinax claimed that Mae told her, “Lonnie, I'm scared Beth is stealing money from my checking account. I have told Buddy already and ask [sic] him to please help me remove her from being able to do it. If you feel it's OK, I want to appoint Buddy as my guardian.”

Mae's nephew Ken Mullinax claimed that Mae told him, “Kenny, Beth is trying to make me give my car to Pat [Beth's mother] and I don't want to do this because I need it so my woman (her daily housekeeper) can take me to the beauty shop and my appointments. I told her no but she keeps bothering me about it and she's now treating me real mean. Charlie (Mae's deceased husband) and I bought Pat the house she lives in and even pay the property taxes on it. I would think that is enough but now this. What should I do?”

Also of interest is the run down of Mae's personal assets, totaling more than $120,000, which Beth and her brother stand to inherit if Mae dies.

While taking the time to schmooze his image with the press and bloggers, Judge Boyd has yet to cite Beth Gaddy for directly and intentionally disobeying his court order. Action speak much louder than words.

Ken Mullinax has emailed bloggers to let them know Beth's latest outrage. He requested, through his attorney, as to why she was denying them visitation.

Attorney Daniels, speaking for Beth Gaddy, told our attorney, Jack Kirby yesterday that Beth would be willing to allow us access to Mae Magouirk, if and only if

"Kenny would not give another media interview or speak to another blogger or do anything, either passive or proactive, which will give information or shed public attention to the case of Mae Magouirk."

In other words, if he agreed to hamstring himself in regards to his most effective means of keeping his aunt alive -- he could visit her. It almost sounds like she's trying to make sure she looks as evil as can be. Well, it's working.

Mae Magouirk coverage: WizBang, Blogs for Terri (also here, here and here), ProLifeBlogs (also here), Barbarians at the Gate, MediaCulpa, Technosis

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Terri Schiavo backlash: The political price of endorsing murder

From the Florida Times-Union:

Jim King has a 19-year record of solid fiscal conservatism in Tallahassee and a resume that includes the presidency of the Florida Senate.

He easily won the only three contested elections he's ever had and was most recently re-elected with 66 percent of the vote.

But King is worried about re-election in 2006, and he may have good reason. Jacksonville's most senior state senator is the only one of nine Republicans who is up for re-election after voting against a state law last month that may have saved Terri Schiavo's life.

King also is the subject of an online petition drive that asks Gov. Jeb Bush and the state Republican Party to suspend him, permanently remove him from office and bar him from representing the party -- all because of his Schiavo vote.

It is interesting that the issue of euthanasia seems to be defying traditional party lines. There are opposing social v. fiscal elements in both major parties, of course nationally the Democrats have succeeded in stifling the elements in their party that sincerely regard faith (as opposed to those who use it as a means to an end), but some still remain, much more on the local level.

The accepted two-dimensional political chart used so often is severely flawed and that's never been more apparent than now, when issues have arisen that clearly show that the normal Liberal/Conservative labels do not apply. It's easy to look for one handy title rather than finding out what a candidate stands for, and that's been a problem for some time now.

King and his fellow faithless Republicans have make their bed, and the gaunt face of Terri Schiavo haunts us and demands we make them sleep in it.

Terri Schiavo coverage: bLogicus, Teknosis

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Pedophiles for Choice

From LifeNews:

Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline continues to defend his agency's investigation into two abortion facilities that performed abortions on children who were apparently victims of statutory rape. Kline has been fighting the abortion businesses in court to obtain records concerning the abortions.

Abortion advocates have taken on a national campaign to criticized Kline and Indiana Attorney General Steve Carter, who is conducting a similar investigation of abortion on minors there.

However, Kline, in a letter to the Kansan newspaper, defends his actions.

"Child rape is a serious crime, and when a 10-year-old is pregnant, she has been raped under Kansas law," he wrote. "As the state's chief law enforcement official, I have a duty to investigate in order to protect Kansas children."

While abortion advocates claim Kline's request for records would violate the privacy rights of the girls involve, he says his investigation was secret until media outlets and the abortion businesses ballooned the story.

"This inquiry has been ongoing for over a year and, until two abortion clinics sought to make public this criminal investigation, was conducted in private so as to protect the identities of innocent individuals and the integrity of the investigation," Kline explained.

When you're dealing with people who make their living murdering the innocent, you shouldn't expect them to play fair, nor have any respect for people or the law. They're ghouls, plain and simple.

For example in another story from LifeNews the Kansas Board of Healing Arts is continuing the suspension of abortionist Krishna Rajanna's medical license. The agency temporarily suspended his license in March after inspectors found a rodent in the facility and open containers of medical waste. Rajanna told the board earlier this month that the problems have been corrected, but, hearing officer Nancy Welsh, a doctor, decided his license should be suspended 30 more days so the full board could look into his case.

Rajanna's problems were first reported to the agency in 2003 when an employee at the abortion facility witnessed firsthand the lack of safe medical procedures at the abortion facility where she worked, including the use of dishwashers as sterilizers, lack of background checks and medical training for medical assistants, lack of such simple procedures as cleaning the table between abortions or monitoring vital signs of patients during or after the abortions, and the storage of aborted children placed in the same refrigerator as food. In comments to a state legislative committee, she said that all medical waste, including bio-hazardous and contaminated was taken to Rajanna's home and placed on the curb at his home for residential pickup.

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Sextuplets celebrate first birthday in spite of doctors advice that they be aborted

From LifeNews:

The first set of sextuplets born in Missouri are celebrating their first birthday after their parents made national headlines by refusing to consider having an abortion of one or more of the babies to ensure the survival of the others.

St. John's Mercy Medical Center, the hospital where they were born, held a birthday bash honoring Ron and Tina Otten's children, according to a KSDK-TV news report.

The three boys and three girls each received their own birthday cake, but singing "Happy Birthday" became difficult when friends and family had to insert each of the six names.

Jacob, Isabella, Madison, Joshua, Riley and Tyler were born second apart about 10 weeks ahead of their normal due date. All are healthy despite the premature birth.

The Ottens have had a busy household as they already had two daughters before the set of six children were born -- Abigail, 3, and Hannah, 5.

Lotsa kudos to the Ottens for taking a stand for life, and taking the risk it entailed. They are heroes. There's an Otten Family Benefit Fund established at the Bank of Edwardsville, P.O. Box 899, Edwardsville, IL 62025. If you want to send them a financial message in support of their courage. I would image a family burgeoning from 3 to 9 would take a serious economic impact, so they would need all the help they can get.

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Day of Sodomy

The Ass. Press, oblivious to their own hypocrisy, is reporting on student objection to the “Day of Silence” event being observed by homosexual indoctrinated students across America. Calling opponents of the normalization of homosexuality --“anti-gay” (a title shamefully regurgitated by FoxNews as well as NewsMax) they distort the story to portray those participating in the “Day of Silence” as student led, while those protesting it with the “Day of Truth” as being organized by national organizations. This in spite of the efforts of national pro-homosexual groups pushing the days observance.

The “Day of Silence” is allegedly supposed to stress the bullying and intolerance homosexuals experience, but so far seems to be “observed” by acts of bullying and intolerance by homosexuals and liberal school administrators against those who oppose homosexuality.

Tim Bueler, a senior at Rancho Cotate High School in Rohnert Park, is the founder and president of the High School Conservative Clubs of America. Last week the Rancho Cotate High School Conservative Club participated in a demonstration called the "Day of Truth." The conservative protest was designed to counter a pro-homosexual observance known as the "Day of Silence," an event planned by the Gay-Straight Alliance and fashioned after a similar nationwide demonstration....

However, Bueler says the protesters were met with opposition when they tried to enter Rancho Cotate High School. "Our signs and our material were confiscated," he complains, alleging that school officials "confiscated all of our literature and our sweatshirts right when we got into class, and they cited material disruption."

The Conservative Club founder says he protested against the school officials' attempted censorship. The young activist recalls, "I asked our principal to look at the educational code under 'Religious Tolerance and Expression.' He wouldn't do that, but he confiscated our stuff just the same." Two members of the Conservative Club refused to take off their "Homosexuality is Sin" sweatshirts, and Bueler says they were suspended for the day as a result.

The leader of the conservative student group contends that the school administrators and teachers who tried to shut down the Day of Truth protest were actually demonstrating the intolerance that exists against biblical and conservative viewpoints. "They're just proving my point," he says.

"There's a liberal bias in public education," Bueler continues. "And not only that, but you have a day unto one group -- the Day of Silence, a pro-homosexual day supported by the school. And when any other group tries to demonstrate or have a day like they have, it's not tolerable."

That's pretty much what one would expect when, the Gay Lesbian Straight Education Network’s Executive Director, Kevin Jennings, sets the example in a March 20th, 2000 speech at Marble Collegiate Church in New York City by saying:

"We have to quit being afraid of the religious right. We also have to quit -- ... I'm trying to find a way to say this. I'm trying not to say, '[F---] 'em! which is what I want to say, because I don't care what they think! Drop dead!"

The DOS campaign was launched simultaneously with the GLSEN's “Teach Respect” campaign which “seeks to educate, inform and inspire Americans to address the serious problems of anti-LGBT name-calling, bullying and harassment that affects ALL students – gay and straight alike – in our nation’s schools.” Is that what they consider “leading by example”?

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Media Morons

Wizbang is reporting on the Liberal propaganda groups Media Matters transparent attack on Matt Drudge. It seem the Ass. Press reported that several Senators, one of which would be a certain self-confessed  war-criminal/presidential candidate, exposed the identity of a undercover CIA agent. Matt Drudge linked to the AP report. So now Media Matters is all in a tither at Drudge, while ignoring the source. Sometimes these Liberal can just amaze you with their idiotic little games.

Posted by Danny Carlton at 11:23 AM Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Irreligious intolerance

Jay Tea at WizBang is upset at the Mormon's practice of baptizing for the dead. It's a practice they've had for quite some time. Apparently he's just now found out about it.

But what's interesting is that Rusty Shackleford of the Jawa Report is upset that Jay is upset. He seems to thing Jay's blowing things out of proportions.

Those crazy agnostics.

In the spirit of true religious tolerance I suppose I should be upset that Rusty is upset that Jay is upset, but then I would be showing intolerance for Rusty's beliefs. But if I'm not upset that Rusty's upset that Jay's upset then I'd be endorsing intolerance for Jay's beliefs. This is upsetting.

Posted by Danny Carlton at 11:22 AM Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Intelligent legislation to prevent unintelligent education

From The Christian Post:

In the continuing debate on creation and evolution, two Pennsylvania legislators have introduced a bill in the state House to allow the teaching of intelligent design in public schools.

Representative Thomas Creighton (R-Lancaster) introduced the bill on March 16, co-sponsored by representatives Dennis Leh (R-Berks) and Samuel Rohrer (R-Berks).

The bill states that local school boards may teach the theory of intelligent design in “any school instruction concerning the theories of the origin of man and the Earth, which includes the theory commonly known as evolution.”

The proposed legislation is at the heart of a federal lawsuit which has gained national attention. Last October, the Dover Area School Board in Pennsylvania approved a policy to teach intelligent design along with evolution in ninth-grade biology classes.

Eight families, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, charged the school district with violation of the separation between church and state. They argued that intelligent design is merely a secular form of creationism.

So the ACLU uses a mythical part of the US Constitution to argue for the exclusive teaching of their pet myth, the religion of Evolution. It's a shame the ACLU itself isn't a myth.

On the same note I made an absolutely amazing discovery this morning that I have the photographic evidence to support: Behold proof of the Evolution of the Spoon!!

We are studying the miniscule fragments of an even earlier form of spoon that we plan to create a composite sketch of. The fragments were discovered at a construction site and are apparently the prehistoric remains of a long extinct form of spoon we've named Evolutionis A Mythicus. This find may prove our theory that the modern day spoon actually evolved from a prehistoric HumVee.

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