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Finding
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By
JIM STREET Ed
& Pub When I was in
senior management years ago, we had a threat from a labor union and I
couldn’t believe the naiveté of some of the department heads. They figured
if they would just give the union a small token, it would be satisfied and go
away. Wrong answer. The union
bosses weren’t interested in a token response. In fact, if the union got everything
it asked for, it would be bad news. Their jobs depended on dissatisfaction
among the workers. If workers were
happy with their situation, the union bosses wouldn’t have a job. So they had
to create dissatisfaction. They had to convince union members that management
was unfair, cruel and even malicious. Even if it was a total lie. OPINION And listening
to the discussion last week over claims of Tea Party racism by Ben Jealous,
president of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People,
it is clear we haven’t learned much in the intervening years. We heard all
sorts of “reasons” advanced for why Jealous said what he did – except the
right reason. He was scared to death his very existence was becoming
irrelevant. If there were
total racial harmony in the country, Jealous wouldn’t have a job. So he has
to stir the pot to keep NAACP members angry enough they will continue with
their dues and donations. In fact, until
this debate heated things up a bit, it had been pretty calm on that front. Sure, there
are individuals who are racist and there always will be – on both sides of
the issue. People are people and some will cling to stereotypes no matter the
evidence to the contrary. Look at the
rantings of New Black Panther Party member Samir Shabazz calling for the
killing of “crackers” and their babies. Is that any
less “racist” than the despicable antics of the Ku Klux Clan a few
generations earlier? But
institutional racism, thankfully, is pretty much a thing of the past and
that’s not good news for an organization created to fight institutional
racism. So Ben Jealous
has to make up some racial insults to rally the troops. "For more
than a year, we've watched as Tea Party members have called congressmen the
N-word, have called congressmen the F-word,” Jealous told ABC News. “We see
them carry racist signs and whenever it happens, the membership tries to shirk
responsibility. "If the
Tea Party wants to be respected and wants to be part of the mainstream in
this country, they have to take responsibility," he said. Only problem
is, there have been no documented cases of derogatory language by any Tea
Party member. There were allegations of one racial slur at a rally on the
Capitol Steps over the HealthCare debate late last year but no one has
produced visual proof. Andrew
Breitbart's "Big Government" website offered a $100,000 reward for
anyone producing recorded proof of any such language and, in spite of camera
phones everywhere these days, Andrew still has the 100 grand in his pocket. If such
insults existed, wouldn’t someone somewhere have produced recorded evidence
and claimed the big prize? And the Tea
Party does not exist as a monolithic organization. It is hundreds of
individual local organizations that have sprung up in opposition to
overreaching government and deficit spending over the last 18 months. Still, Tea
Party members did speak out against a sign in Iowa last week likening
President Obama to Adolph Hitler and Vladimir Lenin and a letter Tea Party
Express spokesman Mark Williams wrote, ostensibly from Jealous, to President
Lincoln. "We
Coloreds have taken a vote and decided that we don't cotton to that whole
emancipation thing," the bogus letter said. Tea Party
members didn’t “cotton to” Mark’s idiotic stunt. The Tea Party
movement is seen by some as “racial” because a vast majority of those appearing
in rallies are white but that is merely because too many blacks and other
minorities still believe they are better off with a big-brother welfare
state. No one that I
have heard of has indicated minorities are not welcome and, in fact, a few
have shown up at some of the rallies. And countless
Tea Party members have encouraged participation by all races. Yes, Ben, if
there are racial or other slurs coming from those purporting to speak for the
Tea Party, others in the movement should disavow them. But to blame
an entire movement on the actions of a few misguided souls is flat out wrong. It is even
more misguided if you can’t find credible evidence the slurs even
existed. DAYTON’S
UFO SAGA When
Ken DeFoor was with the helicopter division of the Houston Police Department
in late December of 1980, there was a report of a UFO near the city of
Dayton. “This
was a widely publicized UFO sighting,” said Ken, who now lives near Dayton in
the community of Kenefick. “We received several calls in Houston as to
whether or not we had helicopters up that night because 23 helicopters were
seen escorting a UFO over Dayton. “We
did not have any helicopters in the air that night,” he said. “It was Dec.
29, 1980. They’ve never been able to identify the UFO that was there. “When
I retired from the Houston Police Department, I became chief of the Dayton
Police Department,” Ken said. “One of the officers who spotted this UFO was
still on the force so we talked extensively about the sighting. “The
History Channel was here recently and did a report on our UFO,” he said. Numerous
accounts of the Dayton UFO sighting are on the internet and television. It
has been mentioned in books and magazines. They indicate that the witnesses
were on a two-lane road at about nine at night when they saw some light above
the trees. They
at first thought it was an airplane and then the light became brighter as it
got closer. They
said the light came from a huge object shaped like a diamond and hovered at
treetop level. It was silver and emitted a constant beeping sound. Blue
lights ringed the center and red and orange flames shot out of the bottom,
flaring outward, creating the effect of a large cone. The
resulting heat was strong enough to make the car’s body painful to touch. The
object seemed to bounce up and down a few times, then ascended over the
treetops. That’s
where the witnesses say military helicopters surrounded the UFO and flew away
with it. The
incident reportedly lasted about 20 minutes. Later,
military authorities returned to the scene, but refused to talk to anyone who
had seen the strange craft. The
military denied having any helicopters chasing a UFO. “The
people who were closest to the UFO received radiation burns,” Ken said. “The
night they saw the UFO, they became ill with blisters, their faces swelled
and their hair fell out. “When
they went to the doctor the next day, the doctor said they had radiation
burns,” he said. The witnesses filed a lawsuit against the
government, asking for $20 million in damages. After
years in courts a US District Judge dismissed the case in 1986. It is one of
very few UFO cases to result in court proceedings. The
sighting is known as the Cash-Landrum or Piney Woods incident. The
people involved were Betty Cash, 51 years old at the time, and her friend,
Vickie Landrum, age 57. Vickie’s seven-year-old grandson Colby was with them.
Betty
was hospitalized for 15 days as a burn victim. She died on Dec. 29, 1998,
exactly 18 years after her claimed close encounter. “It
never happened, as far as the government is concerned,” Ken said. Going
Over Niagra Falls They are the
most powerful waterfalls in North America and more than one and a half million
cubic feet of water go over them per minute. Niagara Falls
is a favorite site for honeymooners as well as tourists. On July 9,
1960, three young people decided to go boating. They packed a lunch, got in a
little boat and drifted down the Niagara River. It was not
uncommon for people to go boating but you did not go very far down river and
never near the falls. They were not
paying atten-tion and drifted lazily and peacefully down the river but then
something began to change. The current
began to pick up speed and there were waves. They rowed frantically trying to
get to calmer waters but to no avail. The little boat capsized and all were
thrown overboard. The young girl
managed to grab hold of a rock and was later rescued and a nine-year-old boy
went over the falls with nothing but a lifejacket and, miracle of miracles,
he survived. The young man
who owned the boat was drowned. That tragic
story reminds me of something in the Bible. Many people go through life lazily
floating down the river of life and thinking everything is going to turn out
wonderfully. The Bible
tells us to watch closely what we believe and how we live or we will end up
ship-wrecked (1 Timothy 1:19, Hebrews 2:1 and 2, Jude 17 to 21, 2 John 8 and
9.) See you in
Church next Sunday. Brother J Evening planetary show For
the past several months, Saturn, Mars and Venus have been gracing our evening
sky, although they have been widely spaced. But
now, as they are closing in on one another, they're in the early stages of an
evening sky show you won't want to miss. Venus,
the dazzling "Evening Star" in the west, is hard to miss but Mars
and Saturn can easily be confused with stars – so let's see how to figure out
what's what. First,
we'll identify some other nearby objects that are part of the show. Two
bright first magnitude stars in the area are Leo's Regulus and Virgo's Spica.
Planet
Mercury makes an appearance near the horizon and the crescent Moon glides by
over several nights. Making
it easier to find and sort out all the objects is the fact that they are
generally aligned diagonally with Venus and Regulus at the lower right and
Spica at the upper left with all the rest between them except Mercury. Venus,
of course, is the star of the show, becoming visible soon after sunset well
before any of the other players. As
the sky darkens, watch for Regulus to become visible a little to Venus' lower
right. Regulus
is a bright star, yet much dimmer than Venus. Then
each night thereafter, Venus gradually moves toward the upper left, pulling
further away from the star. To
find Mars, make a fist with your left hand and hold it at arm's length. Mars
is about one and a half fist-widths to Venus' upper left appearing slightly
reddish and as bright as Regulus. Now
go one more fist-width to the upper left and you'll find Saturn, looking like
a creamy-colored star a bit brighter than Mars. Finally,
another two and a half fist-widths to the upper left is Spica, a white star
about the brightness of Saturn. While
those are the main characters, they're not the entire cast as the crescent
Moon makes a cameo appearance. Early
Tuesday evening, a thin crescent was near the western horizon a fist-width
below Venus and Regulus. Then
over the next several evenings, as its crescent thickened, it passed by the
others. Wednesday
evening it was to Venus's lower left, making for a beautiful pairing. Then
Thursday evening, it formed a triangle with Mars to the upper right and
Saturn above. This
evening, July 16, it is a fist-width to the left of Saturn and Mars. And
tomorrow, July 17, nearly at its first quarter phase, the Moon is half a
fist-width below Spica. The
shy and elusive little Mercury is easy to miss. Orbiting near the Sun, it is
never seen far from our star's glare. When
in the morning sky, Mercury appears low in the east a little before sunrise
and, when in the evening sky, as it is now, it is low in the west for a short
while after the Sun goes below the horizon. About
15 minutes after sunset, start looking for a surprisingly bright star-like
object just above the west northwestern horizon two and a half fist-widths to
Venus' lower left. It
creeps slightly higher each evening over the next couple of weeks, edging closer
to Regulus which it finally catches July 27. As
you watch Venus, Mars, and Saturn over the next couple of weeks note that
they are closing in on one another, preparing for some dramatic pairings
which we'll talk about next time.
Sunday,
July 18, the Moon is at first quarter. Sunday,
July 25, the full Moon is called Hay Moon and Thunder Moon.* Saturday
morning, July 31, the Moon is above Jupiter high in the south.
Evenings,
see above. Mornings, Bright Jupiter, rising after midnight, is in the
southeast.
July
20, 1969, US astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were the first humans
to land and walk on the moon. Bet you remember where you were. Stargazer appears every other week, space permitting,
Paul Derrick is an amateur astronomer who lives in Waco. Contact him at 918
N. 30th, Waco, 76707, (254) 753-6920 or paulderrickwaco@aol.com. See the Stargazer Web site at stargazerpaul.com. Movie Reviews : Ed Layton ‘Robin
Hood’ reviewed If you’re
looking for the romantic tale of Robin Hood in Sherwood Forest, Friar Tuck
and Little John with the wonderful Maid Marion, her soft yet remote
affections drawing at Robin’s emotions, don’t go see this movie. Legend is a
solidly formed series of myths that have emanated from the oral stories that
were repeated for hundreds of years by a specific ethnic or social group of
people. Robin Hood is
such a legend. It
started at the end of the Crusades and the fall of the Roman Empire in
the 1200s and 1300s. Robin was a
sole adventurer for 300 years, robbing the rich and giving to the poor. Friar Tuck,
Little John and Maid Marion entered into the story more than 300 years later
as writers continued to expand on the legend with enthusiastic literary
license. Enter Ridley
Scott, director of “Gladiator,” with screenwriter Brian Helgeland, deciding
to create a story of Robin Hood’s humble beginning before the legend. A
prequel, if you will. Robin Hood’s
legend is tampered with, where legend becomes further fictionalized and
passed off as authentic. This is a
movie that will dazzle with battles, blood and gore. Robin’s
character, played by Russell Crowe, is not the affable, likeable man played
by Errol Flynn in 1938 or Kevin Costner’s 1999 portrayal. This Robin
Hood is a serious, brooding, battle-weary veteran of the Crusades who wants
nothing more than rest and distance from battle. The story
really begins when a dying knight makes Robin promise to return his sword,
illicitly taken from his father, to go to war as a young man. Robin agrees
to this dying man’s request and thus the plot develops. Robin, a
yeoman archer well below knight status, and his men don the uniforms of
deceased knights and return to a hero’s welcome in England. In his quest
to return the sword, he meets Maid Marion Loxley, the dead knight’s widow,
and father-in-law Sir Walter Loxley, to whom the sword belongs. So, in this
story, Maid Marion, played by the forever anemic looking but stunning beauty
Cate Blanchette, is of lower nobility, unfortunately downgrading her from the
original legend. The story
continues and Robin is asked by the old Sir Walter Loxley, played by the very
capable Max von Sydow, to take his son’s place in the family as his son who
has returned from King Richard’s wars. Robin is
amused and Maid Marion scoffs at the idea but both acquiesce for the sake of
the family and the lands. The feudal
Lords of England have been taxed to their limit and a rebellion is stirring
only to be averted as the nation unites to repel an invasion by King Philip
of France. This brings
you to the final climax of the movie and you’ll have to go see it to find out
what happens. Two pleasures
for me, not to mention the fair Cate Blanchette, in this movie was Yes, I liked
the movie. Yes, I recommend it. Yes, go see it. Ed’s rating is three
out of four stars. ««« “Robin Hood”
came in at $37.1 million, which is a very respectable showing against a power
house like “Iron Man,” which takes the weekend with $53 million The next
highest movie was “Letters to Juliet” bringing in $13.9 million. “Letters” is a
very sweet chick flick that will do OK dollar wise, But “Iron Man” and “Robin
Hood” will dominate the money until “Prince of Persia” debuts on the 27th
with Jake Gyllenhaal. “Sex and the
City 2” also will come out that weekend but it will fizzle at the box office. ‘Clash of the Titans’ "Release the Kraken." Zeus (Liem Neeson) orders Hades
to punish the rebellion by men against the gods. Hades has an agenda of his own, go become leader of all the gods and reign hell on man. To the rescue comes Perseus, played by Sam Worthington, the heroic Jake Sully from “Avatar.” Perseus is the unknowing illegitimate son of Zeus. The action begins when
Perseus begins his quest to defeat the Kraken
and send Hades back to the depths of darkness. There are great action scenes that will have you white knuckling the
armrest of your theater seat. Sam Worthington as Perseus gives a visual feast of action scenes throughout the movie. Medusa, played
by an unknown, Natalie Vadianova, will strongly
repulse and captivate simultaneously with her head of undulating snakes. The computer graphics are superb and border on the quality we saw in
Avatar. A PG-13 with no nudity and no vulgar language, the plot may have
been weak but, then again, this is a mythological story. So far,
grossing in at $125-plus million, I'm sure we'll see more
mythology movies. Who knows what Zeus, Apollo, Poseidon or Aphrodite will be up to
next? If you like action movies, go ahead, see or rent this one. You won't
be disappointed. Ed's rating is three and a half stars. «««1/2 ‘Date
Night’ funny “Date Night”
is a very funny, if not hilarious, movie. Rated PG 13, I was a little
uncomfortable with the numerous sexual innuendos and double-entendres. There was no
nudity and negligible foul language, which, I'm supposing makes the
sexual dialog more acceptable. I can only say
I wouldn't take my 13-year-old daughter to this movie. I felt it should
be PG-17. Having said
that, as an adult, I enjoyed the movie. Phil and
Claire played by Steve Carell (The Office, The Forty Year Old Virgin) and
Tina Fey (Saturday Night Live, Sarah Palin impersonator) depict an ordinary
couple from the New Jersey "burbs" who become involved in a case of
mistaken identity. The premise is
formulaic but this movie makes it work. The mistaken identity results
from them stealing a restaurant reservation. The adventure
begins while they're enjoying their dinner, thinking they've been busted when
two thugs approach them and ask them to step outside. Well, that’s
not quite what happens. They end up being chased by mob thugs and corrupt
police. The ensuing
chase and evasion scenes become the hilarious mainstay of the movie. You will laugh
at the mishaps and turn-arounds that occur. There is an
obligatory car chase that has a new twist and will leave you holding your
stomach in uncontrollable, raucous laughter. The Hollywood
staple, Mark Walberg (Four Brothers), makes a surprise appearance as a by-
chance person who reluctantly assists them out of their potentially fatal
situation. I enjoyed the
Phil and Claire characters. Steve Carell and Tina Fey work well together and
played out the mayhem superbly. I'm
recommending this movie as a PG-17. I give it three and a half stars
out of four. Enjoy. «««1/2 Pride
before the fall To the Editor, One of the
workers in the shipyard at Belfast that built the Titanic stated that
"this ship is so strong God couldn't sink it." That was a
very prideful boast. The Captain of the Titanic wanted to set a record
for the fastest transatlantic crossing in 1912. His pride ignored
warnings of iceberg flows. The more things
change, the more things stay the same. All of creation, including
science and technology, comes from God. Man's pride
and corruption are of his own making. The
prostitution of the auto industry with the oil industry is corruption that
has not only sunk the Deepwater Horizon but also is sinking mother ship
Earth. If only a
Tesla cost less than a shotgun shack on the bayou, the mother ship might make
it into port safely. Once again,
Texas, please pray the little prayer at www.de-vrouwe.net every day to help put the fire on the
water out and to help put a plug into the navel. Matt
"Houston" Dunnigan Rome,
Italy |
|
William
Brydges Rowes FALLS CHURCH,
VA – Jeff and Anne Rowes of Falls Church have announced the arrival of
William Brydges Rowes here June 17. Will's mother
is the former Anne Vargas-Prada, daughter of Charlena Chandler of Dryden. Augusto
Vargas-Prada of Lima, Peru, is the maternal grandfather. Will’s
maternal great grandparents are the late Joe and Mildred Chandler and his
great-great grandparents, Charles and Minerva Chandler and Charles and Lena
Stavley were early Terrell County residents. Will's
paternal grandparents are Barbara Rowes of Vancouver Island, BC, and Kenneth
Rowes of Edmonton, AB. |