Shannon Conwell, 33, said he and his 9-year-old son fell asleep on the couch while watching a movie. They awoke about 3 a.m. Friday to find their home on fire after hearing the family's Amazon parrot, Peanut, imitating a fire alarm.
"He was really screaming his head off," Conwell said.
The smoke alarm had activated, but it was the bird's call that caught Conwell's attention.
"I grabbed my son and my bird, and got out of the house," he said.
The fire destroyed the home's dining room, kitchen and bedroom, Muncie fire officials said. It remains under investigation.
We're not discounting the possibility that the bird set the fire in order to ingratiate himself to the family by playing the hero. It's not like we haven't seen flaming birds before, after all.
The Blotter calls the latest audio tape from Osama bin Laden "worried".
Showing apparent signs of concern over events in Iraq, al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden urged insurgents to "unite your lines into one" in an audiotape played on al Jazeera Monday.
"Don't be arrogant," bin Laden warned. "Your enemies are trying to break up the jihadi groups. I urge you all to work in one united group."
People familiar with bin Laden's voice say the tape appeared to be authentic, although there was no reference to any event that would indicate when it was recorded.
Bin Laden's message comes at a time when U.S. strategy to split Iraqi insurgent groups from al Qaeda units appears to be working.
He has rather a lot to be worried about - his strategy (or the strategies of his underlings) have backfired badly, driving former supporters to the American side in large numbers. It is costing him credibility with the "jihadi street" and he knows it. Osama is the one who trotted out the "strong horse" metaphor. Right about now he's looking a lot like a Shetland pony.
Nancy Pelosi has tried, repeatedly, to meddle in foreign affairs. Her trip to Syria was just an opener. The real damage is coming from her attempt to ram through the Armenian genocide bill. Her meddling and that of Congress as a whole, is now bearing bitter fruit. The White House - the executive branch that has exclusive constitutional powers for foreign relations - is desperately trying to head off a Turkish incursion into Iraq. But Pelosi's antics have made that job enormously more difficult.
President Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and other U.S. officials implored Turkish and Iraqi leaders to work together to counter the threat from the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK), U.S. officials said Monday as Turkish troops headed toward the border and tensions soared.
Bush spoke by phone to Turkish President Abdullah Gul and by secure videoconference to Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki to urge the two governments to work together to deal with the group after a weekend ambush by rebel Kurds killed 12 Turkish soldiers and left eight missing, the White House said.
To Gul, Bush "expressed his deep concern about the recent attacks by PKK terrorists against Turkish soldiers and civilians," spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. "The president reaffirmed our commitment to work with Turkey and Iraq to combat PKK terrorists operating out of northern Iraq (and) told President Gul that the United States will continue to urge the Iraqis to take action against the PKK."
Bush and al-Maliki, meanwhile, "agreed to work together, in cooperation with the Turkish Government, to prevent the PKK from using any part of Iraqi territory to plan or carry out terrorist attacks," Johndroe said. "The prime minister agreed with President Bush that Turkey should have no doubt about our mutual commitment to end all terrorist activity from Iraqi soil."
The U.S. designates the PKK as a terrorist organization…………
………..As Rice was speaking to Erdogan and Barzani on Sunday, the U.S. Ambassador to Iraq, Ryan Crocker, was making similar points in Baghdad with Iraqi President Jalal Talabani — himself a Kurd — who ordered the PKK to lay down their arms or leave Iraq, and al-Maliki, a Shiite.
"From our perspective this is a diplomatic full-court press," McCormack said. "We want to see an outcome where you have the Turks and the Iraqis working together and we will do what we can to resolve the issue without a Turkish cross-border incursion."
However, he acknowledged that U.S. influence with NATO ally Turkey was limited, particularly after a House committee passed a resolution describing the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Armenians during the waning days of the Ottoman Empire as a "genocide," infuriating Ankara, which has threatened repercussions.
"It makes it harder," McCormack said, referring to the resolution.
It makes it more likely that innocents will die, as well. If Turkey crosses the border it will be at least partly because of the actions of Nancy Pelosi and the House Foreign Relations committee. Seriously stupid move. As Stuart Rothenberg pointed out just today.
Have you ever wondered what in the world a pumpkin weighing hundreds of pounds was good for? You've seen those ginormous gourds featured every fall. But what are they good for? Well, wonder no more! It should be obvious that making a pumpkin into a coach is something out of a fairy tale. But making a real yacht out of one is easy!
The simple, powerful words of Dan Murphy, father of Lieutenant Michael Murphy, describing his son. Michael Murphy was presented the Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously today.
The President of the United States of America, in the name of Congress, takes pride in presenting the Medal of Honor to Lieutenant Michael P. Murphy, United States Navy, for conspicuous gallantry and intrepidity at the risk of his life, above and beyond the call of duty, as the leader of a special reconnaissance element with Naval Special Warfare Task Unit Afghanistan on 27 and 28 June 2005.
While leading a mission to locate a high-level anti-coalition militia leader, Lieutenant Murphy demonstrated extraordinary heroism in the face of grave danger in the vicinity of Asadabad, Konar Province, Afghanistan. On 28 June 2005, operating in an extremely rugged, enemy-controlled area, Lieutenant Murphy's team was discovered by anti-coalition militia sympathizers who revealed their position to Taliban fighters. As a result, between 30 and 40 enemy fighters besieged his four-member team.
Demonstrating exceptional resolve, Lieutenant Murphy valiantly led his men in engaging the large enemy force. The ensuing fierce firefight resulted in numerous enemy casualties, as well as the wounding of all four members of his team. Ignoring his own wounds and demonstrating exceptional composure, Lieutenant Murphy continued to lead and encourage his men. When the primary communicator fell mortally wounded, Lieutenant Murphy repeatedly attempted to call for assistance for his beleaguered teammates. Realizing the impossibility of communicating in the extreme terrain and in the face of almost certain death, he fought his way into an open terrain to gain a better position to transmit a call. This deliberate heroic act deprived him of cover, exposing him to direct enemy fire. Finally achieving contact with his headquarters, Lieutenant Murphy maintained his exposed position while he provided his location and requested immediate support for his team.
In his final act of bravery, he continued to engage the enemy until he was mortally wounded, gallantly giving his life for his country and for the cause of freedom. By his selfless leadership, courageous actions, and extraordinary devotion to duty, Lieutenant Murphy reflected great credit upon himself and upheld the highest traditions of the United States Naval Service.
Dan and Maureen Murphy, Lieutenant Murphy's parents, accepted the medal at a White House ceremony today. President Bush wore a special gold dog tag bearing Lieutenant Murphy's name that was presented to him by the Murphy's before the ceremony.
Before the emotional White House ceremony, Murphy's parents Dan and Maureen Murphy met with Bush and gave him a gold dog tag in tribute to their son.
"What we were most touched by was that the president immediately put that on underneath his shirt, and when he made the presentation of the Medal of Honor, he wore that against his chest," said the father.
After the ceremony, Dan Murphy said, Bush told the family: "I was inspired by having Michael next to my chest."
The father, who fought back tears during the ceremony, said they were "deeply moved" by Bush's gesture.
"It was very emotional on everybody's part," said Maureen Murphy.
Bush presided over a solemn ceremony honoring their son's battlefield decision to expose himself to deadly enemy fire in order to make a desperate call for help for his elite combat team.
"While their missions were often carried out in secrecy, their love of country and devotion to each other was always clear," Bush said. "On June 28, 2005, Michael would give his life for these ideals."
Murphy's parents both cried at points in the ceremony as they stood next to the president and listened to their son's heroism recounted. Vice President Dick Cheney also attended, as did a handful of previous recipients of the Medal of Honor.
"There's a lot of awards in the military, but when you see a Medal of Honor, you know whatever they went through is pretty horrible. You don't congratulate anyone when you see it," said Marcus Luttrell, the lone member of Murphy's team to survive the firefight with the Taliban.
No, you don't congratulate a Medal of Honor recipient. You respect and honor them. Thank you for your service, Lieutenant Murphy. To Mr. and Mrs. Murphy, thank you for raising such a man.
Video. Please honor Lieutenant Michael Murphy by watching the whole thing.
Enthusiasts will be happy to hear that the annual Morton Punkin' Chuckin' contest went on as scheduled this year. It had been announced that it would be canceled last July, but a group of local businesses and civic groups pulled together to get it organized. Which gave the guys from the Acme Catapult, LLC and the Aludium Q-36 pumpkin modulator a chance to show off.
The Morton Chamber of Commerce announced in July it was canceling the event, citing financial and logistical concerns and the pressure of putting on back-to-back extravaganzas. The chamber also sponsored September's Pumpkin Festival.
A coalition of business and civic groups picked up the pieces to help save the event in August. Morton, which pumps out 85 percent of the world's canned pumpkin, proclaims itself the Pumpkin Capital of the World.
Susan Pyles, the town's tourism director, said she thinks the publicity generated by Punkin' Chuckin's brief demise helped Saturday's attendance, when the crowd was estimated at 4,000.
"This was one of our biggest one-day crowds in years," she said. "It was extraordinary. There were a lot of people at Punkin' Chuckin' for the first time. Many first-timers told me they always meant to go to Punkin' Chuckin', then decided to take a look after Punkin' Chuckin' was almost canceled."
The event was also held Sunday, amid spring-like weather, at the Uhlman family farm, its home since 2001.
Punkin' Chuckin' competitive divisions include hand-tossed, two categories for youths, and adult human-powered. The open division was divided into trebuchet (gravity propulsion), catapult, centrifugal and air cannon. No explosives can be used, and a pumpkin must leave a machine intact.
The Aludium Q-36 air cannon and Acme Catapult machines were crowd favorites Saturday.
Mind you, the Acme catapult is not just for pumpkins. No, sirree Bob. It can also be used to get rid of unwanted appliances.
I can't find any 2007 video posted yet, but here's some from 2004.
Bruce Henderson over at And Still I Persist has a post up about the tremendous fires roaring through southern California. Bruce has some dramatic photographs he took of the fires and the smoke. Bruce's wife Tammi spent all night rescuing horses - only to find that the evacuation site may now be under threat. (When I was out in San Diego a little while back, the hills were tinder dry. Looks like they finally got the wrong spark.) Bruce also has maps posted that show the extent of the fires - they are huge.
Be safe, Bruce. (UPDATE: Bruce Webster just sent me a link to the continuous updates.)
Unrestrained fires stoked by gale-force winds raged across San Diego County today, forcing more than 250,000 people from their homes and scorching 100,000 acres, a county official said, in the worst of more than a dozen blazes racing across Southern California.
"If you see a fire, please evacuate immediately. Don't wait to be told to leave," San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders said at a news conference this morning.
Among those evacuated were hundreds of patients at Pomerado Hospital and a nursing home in suburban Poway, officials said.
Qualcomm Stadium and the Del Mar Fairgrounds opened as evacuation centers, and officials made 120,000 "reverse 911" calls to tell people to evacuate. Schools throughout the county and at UC San Diego were closed. At least a dozen homes were lost. County Supervisor Ron Roberts gave the latest totals on evacuations and acreage.
"I could see the flames when I was trying to get the cats in the car. I couldn't breathe unless I pressed my face into the car. I'd just take a deep breath and run back into the house to get more things. It was very scary," said Shannon Spilman, 31, who had evacuated to Escondido High School north of San Diego late Sunday night.
It's already too late for a lot of homes, but it would seem that some of this product would have been helpful - and might still be. (Some is already in use in a few areas.)
(AP) — It was the most intense fire ever recorded in the Black Hills National Forest, but nearly all homes coated with a slimy gel were saved while dozens of houses nearby burned to the ground.
The gel was a super-absorbent polymer that can hold many times its weight in water and clings well to vertical surfaces and glass. It is mixed with water and then can be sprayed on homes with a truck-mounted hose or a backpack apparatus, or dropped from a plane. The substance is relatively new to firefighting, having been developed about a decade ago, and is not widely used. But some firefighters who have tried it are impressed, saying it offers longer-lasting protection than the foam retardants that have been around for many years.
"This stuff really works," Ed Waggoner of Reno, Nev., a retired California fire boss who now helps direct attacks on large forest fires in the Black Hills. "We're talking about a water bubble that you put on your house two or three hours before the fire gets there, and it'll save it when the fire gets there."
Kim Zagaris, fire chief in the California Office of Emergency Services, said all 122 of the fire trucks under his command carry gel. And county officials in San Diego recently gave the Palomar Mountain volunteer fire department a grant to buy gel that residents can spray on their homesThe substance is relatively new to firefighting, having been developed about a decade ago, and is not widely used. But some firefighters who have tried it are impressed, saying it offers longer-lasting protection than the foam retardants that have been around for many years "This stuff really works," Ed Waggoner of Reno, Nev., a retired California fire boss who now helps direct attacks on large forest fires in the Black Hills. "We're talking about a water bubble that you put on your house two or three hours before the fire gets there, and it'll save it when the fire gets there."
Kim Zagaris, fire chief in the California Office of Emergency Services, said all 122 of the fire trucks under his command carry gel. And county officials in San Diego recently gave the Palomar Mountain volunteer fire department a grant to buy gel that residents can spray on their homes.
UPDATE: Lex from Neptunus Lex is also under threat from the fires and may have to evacuate. Stay safe, Lex.
A few days ago, I posted one of my Sherlock Holmes send-ups. I use those to point out absurdities. In this case the subject was a British school's decision to investigate a four-year old boy as a "racist." Today's Washington Post has an op-ed written by Yvonne Bynoe that should send chills down your spine. Because it describes what is happening here in this country to preschoolers. Some of them are being accused of sexual harassment - and that label becomes permanent.
Consider these egregious examples: In December 2006, a 4-year-old boy in Waco, Tex., was punished with an in-school suspension after a female aide accused him of sexual harassment. According to a television station there, the child had hugged the woman while getting on the bus, and she later complained to administrators at La Vega Primary School that the child had put his face in her chest. School officials later agreed to remove sexual references but refused to expunge the "inappropriate physical contact" charge from the boy's school record.
In my home state of Maryland, state data show that during the 2005-06 school year, 28 kindergartners were suspended for sex offenses, including 15 for sexual harassment.
Last December, a kindergartner was accused of sexual harassment after he pinched a classmate's bottom at Lincolnshire Elementary School in Hagerstown, according to the local paper, the Herald-Mail. The charge will remain on his record until he enters middle school. "It's important to understand a child may not realize that what he or she is doing may be considered sexual harassment, but if it fits under the definition, then it is, under the state's guidelines," school spokeswoman Carol Mowen told the Herald-Mail. "If someone has been told this person does not want this type of touching, it doesn't matter if it's at work or at school, that's sexual harassment."
In fact, the Maryland Department of Education defines sexual harassment as "unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors and/or other inappropriate verbal, written or physical conduct of a sexual nature directed toward others." I am alarmed that Mowen's statement appears to imply that schools will find a child guilty of sexual misconduct even if the child doesn't understand the implications of his or her actions.
Money may be at the root of these school suspensions. A 1992 Supreme Court ruling set the stage for school districts' having to pay damages in sexual harassment cases. In Franklin v. Gwinnett County Public Schools, a high school student, Christine Franklin, was sexually harassed by her male teacher.
Close on the heels of a story from the Associated Press that found numerous cases of real sexual misconduct by teachers and alleges that the situation is often covered up by school officials, this becomes even more absurd. They are criminalizing the behavior of toddlers and covering up the behavior of some of their own? Is that the way we want this country's schools run?
Sioux City, Iowa has given up the fight and has embraced the FAA identifier for the city's airport. That would be Sioux City - SUX.
SIOUX CITY, Iowa - City leaders have scrapped plans to do away with the Sioux Gateway Airport's unflattering three-letter identifier — SUX — and instead have made it the centerpiece of the airport's new marketing campaign.
The code, used by pilots and airports worldwide and printed on tickets and luggage tags, will be used on T-shirts and caps sporting the airport's new slogan, "FLY SUX." It also forms the address of the airport's redesigned Web site — http://www.flysux.com/.
Sioux City officials petitioned the Federal Aviation Administration to change the code in 1988 and 2002. At one point, the FAA offered the city five alternatives — GWU, GYO, GYT, SGV and GAY — but airport trustees turned them down.
Airport board member Dave Bernstein proposed embracing the identifier.
"Let's make the best of it," Bernstein said. "I think we have the opportunity to turn it into a positive."
Bernstein makes an excellent point: the designator is very memorable. You may not know your own city airport designator, but I'll bet you will always remember Sioux City's. I've been chuckling over this the whole time I've been working on this post. I know I mentioned at some point that the State University College at Oswego (New York) had parking stickers that read "SUC at Oswego" which led to much hilarity amongst the student body.
Ouch. The Clinton campaign has a real problem. The Washington Post has come out with an editorial that hammers Hillary Clinton over her campaign finances. They point out that this is yet another case of zeal for cash overcoming good judgment.
This appears to be another instance in which a Clinton campaign's zeal for campaign cash overwhelms its judgment. After the fundraising scandals of President Bill Clinton's 1996 reelection campaign, the dangers of vacuuming cash from a politically inexperienced immigrant community should have been obvious. But Ms. Clinton's money machine seized on a new source of cash in Chinatown and environs. As the Times reported, a single Chinatown fundraiser in April brought in $380,000. By contrast, 2004 Democratic presidential nominee John F. Kerry raised $24,000 from Chinatown in the course of his entire campaign.
The LA Times article that kicked this off cites some donors being strongarmed into contributing by neighborhood bosses. One third off donors the LAT tried to find could not be located - and nobody had ever heard of them. In many cases the amounts contributed appear to be grossly out of line with the donor's probable income. How much do dishwashers make in Chinatown? Enough to have a cool $2,000 to hand over to a political candidate? Some of the donors may not be legally entitled to donate at all.
The appearance of this editorial indicates that this story has legs and will be looked at by the media. They may be in the tank for Democrats as a group, but reporters cannot resist a big, stinky story. And Hillary's finances are beginning to smell very ripe, indeed.
Stuart Rothenberg takes a look at institutional differences between Democrats and Republicans. He's a little bit trite with a few of his observations, but he's spot on with one thing: the Democrat's push for an Armenian genocide bill may be a truly dumb move on their part - and it could do real and serious damage to them politically.
As former President Bill Clinton proved, Democrats are much better at publicly feeling people's pain, even if it occurred more than 100 years ago and all of the people actually involved in the incident are long gone. It doesn't even matter whether the United States was involved. Democrats pretty much are ready to apologize or commiserate for anything, anyplace and anytime.
Luckily for Democrats, we've had centuries of people oppressing people around the world, so there is almost an endless supply of brutalities and injustices deserving of attention, classification, condemnation and apology.
In fact, so many unfortunate things have happened over the past few centuries that the next Democratic Congress can spend pretty much all of its time, if it wants to, apologizing to groups and demanding that other people apologize, too. Democrats have only begun to scratch the surface on groups they want to apologize to.
The problem for the Democrats is that the controversy over Congress' steps to assert that Turkey was guilty of a policy of genocide isn't a laughing matter — at least it isn't to the Turks. Instead, it is the first truly dumb thing that Democrats may have done since the party won both chambers of Congress last year.
It now looks as if House Democrats may put the Armenian genocide measure in the deep freeze, hoping that everyone forgets about it. But while that may limit the damage that the party could cause itself, burying the measure wouldn't inoculate Democrats completely from the fallout caused by their initial efforts to pass the resolution.
I recently asked a couple of Democrats — an incumbent Member of Congress from a Democratic-leaning district who is on record supporting the measure and a long-shot Congressional challenger in a Republican district — whether they now favored the genocide resolution, and both acted as if the measure were infected with botulism.
I have been posting about this since the bill was, wrongly, I think, reported out of committee. The bill does nothing to improve the situation between Turkey and Armenia. In fact, it makes the situation worse for no good reason at all. That it also could damage - directly - American troops in contact with an enemy makes it more than just dumb. Rothenberg points out that making policy is more difficult than just criticizing. Funny how that works, isn't it?
Animals | Gaius Monday, 22 October , 2007 | 
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