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Wednesday, September 04, 2013

Rick Pollitt's Facebook Page

Once again our community has been struck by horror, sudden and vicious, reminding us of the fragility of life and the harsh swiftness with which it can be taken from us. I am so deeply sorry for the pain and anguish suffered today by the victims, the Salisbury University family and our entire Wicomico family. It somehow sounds inadequate in the face of unspeakable tragedy but I pray that every parent, every child, every friend will pause a moment and thank God for the blessing of life and for our ability to show love and concern to each other while we can. I called my children today from the other side of the world and I told them I loved them and tried to hold them close over the phone.

I encourage all of our residents to show your love to those around you and unite once again as a community that cares deeply for one another and who shares the sad times as well as the good.I also want to thank the diligent and committed members of our law enforcement and medical emergency communities for their difficult work in responding to the shootings. We tend to take for granted the challenges they confront and have to relive in their minds long after the actual event. I pray that they feel God's comforting hand, as well. Finally, I know all of us will continue to keep young Miss Kristen Loetz in our prayers, that she may quickly recover from her physical wounds and that, in time, she will be able to find peace of mind as the events of Tuesday evening haunt her memory. Our community is strong and at such times, we need the love and support of each other. I know we'll all do our part because we are also a good community and we care.

Puns For Educated Minds

1. 
The fattest knight at King Arthur's round table was
Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.

2. I thought I saw an eye-doctor on an Alaskan island,
but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian .

3. She was only a whisky-maker, but he loved her still.
4. A rubber-band pistol was confiscated from an algebra class, because it was a weapon of math disruption.
5. No matter how much you push the envelope,

it'll still be stationery.
6. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road
and was cited for
 littering.
7. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would
result in Linoleum Blownapart.

8. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.
9. A hole has been found in the nudist-camp wall.
The police
 are looking into it.
10. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
11. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
12.. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other: 'You stay here; I'll go on a head.'
13. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.
14. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said:
'Keep off the
 Grass.'
15. The midget fortune-teller who escaped from
prison was a small medium
 at large.
16. The soldier who survived mustard gas and
pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran..

17. A backward poet writes inverse.
18.. In a democracy it's your vote that counts.
In feudalism it's your
 count that votes.
19. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.
20. If you jumped off the bridge in Paris , you'd be in Seine .
21. A vulture carrying two dead raccoons boards an airplane. The stewardess looks at him and says,
'I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion
 allowed per passenger.'
22. Two fish swim into a concrete wall.
One turns to the other and
 says'Dam!'

23.. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again
that you can't
 have your kayak and heat it too.
24.. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, 'I've lost my electron.' The other says, 'Are you sure?'
The first replies, 'Yes, I'm positive.'

25. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain
during a root
-canal? His goal: transcend dental medication. 

Rubio Blasts $9M ObamaCare Advertising Campaign

A proposed $8.7 million TV advertising campaign to promote ObamaCare in the lead-up to a key launch date is being targeted by Sen. Marco Rubio, who calls the effort a “blatant misuse of federal dollars.”
The Florida Republican said Tuesday that such spending is “unconscionable,” considering the uncertainty of the law and urged the Department of Health and Human Services to halt the spending.

“Until critical questions can be answered regarding the availability and type of health insurance to be provided by ObamaCare, it is unconscionable to spend taxpayer dollars to promote and advertise ObamaCare plans that have yet to be finalized,” Rubio wrote in the Sept. 3 letter to HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius.

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Dear Miley; Pastor Writes Letter Of Love Following Teen's Controversial Performance

MEMPHIS, TN - (WMC-TV) - By now, many of you have seen or heard about Miley Cyrus' memorable (for lack of a better term) performance on 2013 MTV Video Music Awards Sunday night. Two days after an overwhelmingly negative response, a Memphis pastor wrote an open letter of love to the former Disney Channel star. That letter is going viral.

In the letter, Pastor Jarrid Wilson sympathized with the teen idol.
"I'm not going throw any scripture at you. I'm not going to tell you how wrong you are. And I'm not going to tell you that you need Jesus. Why? Because frankly, I think you already know all of these things."

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George Galloway Calls For Jihad In Central London

During a speech in central London, United Kingdom - British-Islamist MP George Galloway was filmed amongst his followers, saying that there will be 10,000 dead bodies in return for any attempt by the British to control the wearing of the Hijab.

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Troopers Investigate Serious Crash West Of Georgetown


Location: Seashore Highway (SR18/404) at Vaughn Road, Georgetown, DE

Date of Occurrence: Wednesday September 4, 2013 at approximately 2:30 p.m.

Operator and Vehicle Information:

Operator #1: Timothy E. Daniels, 21, Lincoln, DE
Vehicle #1: 1999 Mercury Mystique
Passenger: Deanna M. Storms, 21, Dagsboro, DE

Operator #2: Elidio Munoz Cruz, 50, Bridgeville, DE
Vehicle #2: 2006 Pontiac G6
Passenger: Maria G. Sandoval-Gordillo, 53, Bridgeville, DE

Operator #1: Jerry W. White, 65, Laurel, DE
Vehicle #1: 2009 GMC pickup

Resume: Georgetown, DE- The Delaware State Police are investigating a mid-afternoon head-on crash west of Georgetown that sent four people to the hospital.

The incident occurred around 2:30 p.m. as Timothy E. Daniels was operating a 1999 Mercury Mystique eastbound on Seashore Highway (SR18/404) in the area of Vaughn Road. For unknown reasons, the Mercury crossed the center line and into the westbound lanes where it struck a 2006 Pontiac G6 being operated by Elidio Munoz Cruz head-on. The impact of the collision sent the G6 backwards and into the path of a 2009 GMC pickup truck being driven by Jerry W. White who had pulled onto the westbound shoulder in order to attempt to avoid the crash.

Timothy Daniels was transported by EMS to Beebe hospital where he was treated and released with non-life-threatening injuries. He was then transported back to Troop 4 in Georgetown where he is currently being held pending criminal charges. Drugs may have been a contributing factor in this incident.

Deanna M. Storms, who was a passenger in the Mercury, was airlifted to Christiana Medical Center with serious injuries.

Elidio Munoz Cruz and his wife, Maria Sandoval-Gordillo were transported to Beebe Medical Center with non-life-threatening injuries.

Jerry White was not injured in the crash.

Seashore Highway at Vaughn Road was closed for approximately two hours as the crash was investigated and cleared.

Ron Paul Slams Rumsfeld Over Syria Comments

Former Texas Rep. Ron Paul, appearing on Fox Business Network's "Cavuto" on Wednesday, criticized former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld about his thoughts on Syria's use of poison gas on civilians.

"Hardly should he be considered an expert on the region," Paul told host Neil Cavuto.

Earlier on "Cavuto," Rumsfeld, who last served under President George W. Bush, had criticized the Obama administration for telegraphing American intentions to strike Syria with missiles.

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Meningitis Vaccine Will Be Mandatory Soon For Middle School Students In Md.

BERLIN — Maryland will be joining 15 other states in mandatory seventh grade meningitis vaccinations starting next year.

The state already requires vaccinations for all college students in Maryland, but middle schoolers are especially susceptible to the meningococcal disease, according to Dr. Neal Halsey, infectious disease pediatrician, John Hopkins professor and director of the Institute for Vaccine Safety.

“Adolescence is a time of increased risk. It has been well documented in the United States as well as other countries,” he said. “So it is important to protect adolescents.”

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TOO BIG TO TRUST WALL STREET BANKS STILL TWERKING

See. The economy is just fine. Wall Street will be paying themselves record compensation this year with your money. I wonder where Bennie will get a job when he retires from the Fed in January. Any guesses? The bankers are twerking in the Hamptons this week before heading back to their plush offices in NYC next week. I’m sure the country will be put back on course by these titans of finance. We owe them so much for all they do.
The Biggest Wall Street Banks Are Doing Fine, Set To Beat 2009 Pay Levels

Not bad for a small set of TBTF Banks that are still being heavily subsidized by the sacrifice of the public.

But they work really hard, and have a lot of very important expenses with which to maintain their lifestyles.

“When his Golden House was finished in its ruinously prodigal style, Nero would say nothing more about it in way of appreciation except that he could at last begin to live like a human being.” – Suetonius

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Woman Charged With Trying To Kill 8-Year-Old

An 8-year-old is being hailed as a hero after he fought off his father’s ex-girlfriend as she allegedly tried to kill him in Cheverly.

Jacob Soliz-Amaya was in his bed Saturday morning when his father left for work. Once his father was gone, his father’s ex-girlfriend, Helen Marie Newsome, emerged from a closet where she had been hiding for more than 12 hours, police say.

Late last week, Jacob's father broke off a relationship with Newsome.

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Black Mob Fatality In Des Moines

'If it is happening here, what do you think is happening in the rest of the country?'

Police are still trying to figure out why a black mob beat to death a Des Moines, Iowa, man at a popular downtown fishing spot one week ago.

Richard Daughenbaugh, a father of six and construction worker, did not know his killers, say police. But at 1 a.m., he found himself exchanging words with members of a mob that numbered in the dozens.

The Des Moines Register picks up the narrative with a sterile account that understates the violence and ignores the race of the attackers:

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Four Historians Take On 'The Butler's' Racist Depiction Of Reagan

Four Ronald Reagan historians have slammed the portrayal of former President Reagan in the movie "The Butler," saying that the 40th president's "attitudes toward race" as shown in the movie are inaccurate.

They begin the article, "What 'The Butler' gets wrong about Ronald Reagan and race," published in The Washington Post, by recounting instances in Reagan's life when he decried racism and took a stand for the African-American community.

Md. General Assembly Races: September Update On Candidates

The 2014 campaign season has started early. This new monthly roundup covers Maryland election news in August and lists every candidate who has filed and most who have announced. Each district is listed by county and, in most cases, incumbents with their status. The districts reflect the new district lines, which have placed some incumbents into the same district.

If we have have missed any candidates who have announced and have a website, but have not officially filed, please email Len@MarylandReporter.com. We will update this list in October.

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Senate Panel Votes To Authorize Syria Strike

Senate panel approves resolution giving Obama authority to use military force against Syria, full Senate expected to vote next week.
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An Accidental War

I see the Obama “reset” is going so swimmingly that the president is now threatening to go to war against a dictator who gassed his own people. Don’t worry, this isn’t anything like the dictator who gassed his own people that the discredited warmonger Bush spent 2002 and early 2003 staggering ever more punchily around the country inveighing against. The 2003 dictator who gassed his own people was the leader of the Baath Party of Iraq. The 2013 dictator who gassed his own people is the leader of the Baath Party of Syria. Whole other ball of wax. The administration’s ingenious plan is to lose this war in far less time than we usually take. In the unimprovable formulation of an unnamed official speaking to the Los Angeles Times, the White House is carefully calibrating a military action “just muscular enough not to get mocked.”

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Representative Matt Salmon: Syria Authorization ‘Will Fail By 20 Votes’

Arizona congressman Matt Salmon’s constituents have called his office 500 times about Syria, he tells National Review Online in an interview, but only two callers have expressed support for intervening there. “This is not hyperbole!” he says emphatically.

And Salmon himself is firmly against authorizing a strike. “I don’t see any national-security imperative for our country at all. Both sides in this equation are bad actors.” He also notes that Obama has been unable to form an international coalition and hasn’t laid out an overall objective for a missile strike. “Other than saving face for the president, I don’t understand what we would be doing,” he says.

Further, Salmon doubts the intervention will be brief. “Nobody believes this is going to be a couple surgical strikes,” he says.

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Longshoremen Quit AFL-CIO, Cite Obamacare

The 40,000-member International Longshore and Warehouse Union has dropped its ties to the AFL-CIO in a letter that partly blames compromises over Obamacare.

The letter from ILWU president Robert McEllrath to AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka, dated Aug. 29, sets out a list of the Longshoremen's complaints against the AFL-CIO. The last page of the three-page letter accuses the AFL-CIO of "going along to get along" with the Obama administration on healthcare, immigration reform, and other issues.

"President Obama ran on a platform that he would not tax medical plans and at the 2009 AFL-CIO Convention, you stated that labor would not stand for a tax on our benefits," McEllrath wrote. Instead, the AFL-CIO lobbied affiliates to support the taxing of so-called "Cadillac" plans like the Longshoremen have.

The letter also chided Trumka's group for being too weak on immigration reform.

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Obamacare Foes Claim 1 Million Signatures For Defunding

The Senate Conservatives Fund and outspoken Republican lawmakers said Tuesday that more than one million people have signed an online petition that calls on Congress to refuse any funding for President Obama’s health care law.

The fund, which bills itself as a “grassroots organization” that promotes conservative policies and candidates, touted the tally on DontFundObamcare.com as a sign of widespread support for the push to take down the law as part of an upcoming spending debate on Capitol Hill this fall.

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Undermining The Surveillance State

Some people are prone to sleepwalking. The zombie-fuelled idea of a sleepwalker, with arms outstretched and eyes closed, magically avoiding contact with walls and tables, really isn’t the way people do it. More truthfully, their eyes are open with a level of awareness usually sufficient to avoid serious injury, but with actions more akin to a computer program than a fully aware individual. Many can communicate, of a fashion, but it is cursory and stilted. It’s an appropriate metaphor when describing the functional level of a typical citizen, compared to the fully connected and aware pre-industrial human.

Some people who sleepwalk also have night terrors. They report seeing strange figures looming over them, as if watching their every move – silent, dark, conspiratorial. Not so strange, given the circumstances…

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Point-By-Point Rebuttal Of U.S. Case For War In Syria

The White House released a 4-page document etting forth its case for use of chemical weapons by the Syrian government.

But as shown below, the case is extremely weak (government’s claim in quotes, followed by rebuttal evidence).
“A preliminary U.S. government assessment determined that 1,429 people were killed in the chemical weapons attack, including at least 426 children, though this assessment will certainly evolve as we obtain more information.“

But McClatchy notes:
Neither Kerry’s remarks nor the unclassified version of the U.S. intelligence he referenced explained how the U.S. reached a tally of 1,429, including 426 children. The only attribution was “a preliminary government assessment.”

Anthony Cordesman, a former senior defense official who’s now with the Washington-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, took aim at the death toll discrepancies in an essay published Sunday.

He criticized Kerry as being “sandbagged into using an absurdly over-precise number” of 1,429, and noted that the number didn’t agree with either the British assessment of “at least 350 fatalities” or other Syrian opposition sources, namely the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which has confirmed 502 dead, including about 100 children and “tens” of rebel fighters, and has demanded that Kerry provide the names of the victims included in the U.S. tally.

“President Obama was then forced to round off the number at ‘well over 1,000 people’ – creating a mix of contradictions over the most basic facts,” Cordesman wrote. He added that the blunder was reminiscent of “the mistakes the U.S. made in preparing Secretary (Colin) Powell’s speech to the U.N. on Iraq in 2003.”

An unclassified version of a French intelligence report on Syria that was released Monday hardly cleared things up; France confirmed only 281 fatalities, though it more broadly agreed with the United States that the regime had used chemical weapons in the Aug. 21 attack.

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