I heard an interesting remark today regarding guns:

"It is better to have a gun and not need one, than to need one and not
have it".

How do you feel on this issue?

Leave your comments here. (Registration not required).

“We have many cards that have not been played. Don’t forget there are many Israeli settlements in the Golan.”

That sure sounds like a threat to me. These words were spoken by Foreign Minister Farouq al-Shara of Syria. These words were spoken during an interview with a British Sunday newspaper.

You may remember that Israel recently carried out an attack against what it called a “Terrorist camp” in Damascus, Syria.

Syria did not retaliate after Israel raided what it called a “terrorist camp” near Damascus earlier this month, its first strike on Syria in three decades.

“But if we are attacked again the people will not stand for it, and we will have to carry out the will of the people,” Shara said saturday.

Israel should think long and hard before it returns its military to Syria for these types of operations.
On another note, Syria should focus on these terrorist groups/camps if they do in fact exist, and try to eliminate them.

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A destroyed house and damaged church in the Syrian town of
Quneitra on the Syrian side of the Golan Heights, most of which was captured by
Israel in 1967, Tuesday Oct. 14 2003. The town was damaged during the 1973
Arab-Israeli war. Since Oct. 5, when Israeli warplanes attacked an area near the
Syrian capital of Damascus, Syria and Israel have been trading threats. Israel
said it will attack Syria again in case of an attack against Israeli civilians
and Syria said it will respond to any Israeli ‘aggression’ in all possible ways.
On Tuesday , life appeared normal on both sides of the front as Syrians were
working as usual and Israeli farmers were seen in their fields.(AP Photo Bassem
Tellawi).

Well, I had to take Felix to the emergency room last night.
Apparently neutered males are highly prone to urinary problems. If you have a neutered male, put him on the “CD” diet–ask your vet.
Right now the situation is fairly critical. He still has some blockage, even with the catheter in place. He passed some stones last night
but it appears there are still some left. The Doctor has him on fluids and is giving him a steroid to help Felix urinate.
He’s also been put on some strong antibiotic–I just hope it helps with the inflamation. Felix needs to pull through here.

I’ll keep everyone updated on his progress.
Update:10/22/2003 2:30 PM. The Doctor called. The Cat is stable, but still in serious condition. His blood levels are still high but his glucose has decreased–a sign that he is in less stress. The doctor doesn’t know just how much the cat has improved because Felix’s levels are still ofs his machine’s chart. His kidneys are working, and the catheter isn’t being clogged any more–both very good signs. I’ll have an update in the morning.
Update:10/23/2003 9:15 AM. Felix is dead. The doctor called this morning and said Felix’s tired kidneys just failed. He said Felix wasn’t in any pain–he wasn’t thrashing around in his kennel or anything. I was lucky to have had to chance last night to see him alive one more time. I’m glad I swung by there to see him. He looked tired, weak, and sad. Something in me then, told me it was possible I was saying goodbye. Goodbye Felix.

"It’s a ‘T’ for ‘Tolerance" he says.  If you watch Comedy Central
then you’ve probably heard about or seen "Reno 911". It is a hilarious
satirical T.V. show depicting idiocy within the police force in Reno, Nevada.
This show is pretty darn funny.  In a recent episode two police officers,
one white and one black, try to stop a cross burning by the KKK. What makes it funny
in this instance is that the leader of the KKK at this particular cross burning
seems to be a reformed member or something.  He tries to explain that the
cross isn’t a cross at all, he says it’s a "T"–A "T" for
"Tolerance". He says the "T" is also for
"team".  At that point he begins to explain that he’s feeling
hostility coming from the black officer and decides he wants to hug him. 
The black officer then says "D.T.AM.F.S.  Don’t take another mother F*cking
step."  It was hilarious.

Sen. Prescott Bush, R-Conn, attemps to ‘disassociate himself’ from Missouri Sen. Stuart Symington during a hearing on Capital Hill in this Aug. 17, 1962 file photo. Government documents show that Bush, the grandfather of President George W. Bush, was one of seven directors of Union Banking Corp., seized by the federal government because of its ties to a German industrialist who helped Adolf Hitler’s rise to power, government documents show. (AP Photo, File)

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Prescott Bush was one of seven directors of Union Banking Corp., a New York investment bank owned by a bank controlled by the Thyssen family, according to recently declassified National Archives documents reviewed by The Associated Press.

Fritz Thyssen was an early financial supporter of Hitler, whose Nazi party Thyssen believed was preferable to communism. The documents do not show any evidence Bush directly aided that effort. His position with Union Banking never was a political issue for Bush, who was elected to the Senate from Connecticut in 1952.

Reports of Bush’s involvement with the seized bank have been circulating on the Internet for years and have been reported by some mainstream media. The newly declassified documents provide additional details about the Union Banking-Thyssen connection.

Trent Duffy, a spokesman for President Bush, declined to comment.

Union Banking was owned by a Dutch bank, Bank voor Handel en Scheepvaardt N.V., which was “closely affiliated” with the German conglomerate United Steel Works, according to an Oct. 5, 1942, report from the federal Office of Alien Property Custodian. The Dutch bank and the steel firm were part of the business and financial empire of Thyssen and his brother, Heinrich Thyssen-Bornemisza, the report said.

The 4,000 Union Banking shares owned by the Dutch bank were registered in the names of the seven U.S. directors, according a document signed by Homer Jones, chief of the division of investigation and research of the Office of Alien Property Custodian, a World War II-era agency that no longer exists.

E. Roland Harriman, the bank chairman and brother of former New York Gov. W. Averell Harriman, held 3,991 shares. Bush had one share.

Both Harrimans and Bush were partners in the New York investment firm of Brown Brothers, Harriman and Co., which handled the financial transactions of the bank as well as other financial dealings with several other companies linked to Bank voor Handel that were confiscated by the U.S. government during World War II.

Union Banking was seized by the government in October 1942 under the Trading with the Enemy Act.

No charges were brought against Union Banking’s American directors. The federal government was too busy trying to fight the war, said Donald Goldstein, a professor of public and international affairs at the University of Pittsburgh.

“We did not have the resources to do these things,” Goldstein said.

Fritz Thyssen broke with the Nazis in 1938 over their persecution of Catholics and Jews, and fled to Switzerland. He later was arrested and spent 1941 to 1945 in a Nazi prison. His brother lived in Switzerland from 1932 to 1947 but continued to operate businesses in Germany.

The new documents were first reported by freelance writer John Buchanan in The New Hampshire Gazette.

(courtesy of Yahoo.com) 

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On the Net:

National Archives: http://www.nara.gov

A
‘Ghettopoly’ board game is held by a demonstrator during a protest outside an
Urban Outfitters store in Philadelphia, Wednesday, Oct. 8, 2003. Many in the
black community are outraged over the ‘Ghettopoly’ game, sold by the retail
chain Urban Outfitters, that has ‘playas’ acting as pimps and game cards reading
‘You got yo whole neighborhood addicted to crack. Collect $50…’ Black
clergymen say the game, the brainchild of a Pennsylvania man, should be banned.
(AP Photo/Mark Stehle)

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Perfect, we’ve de-segregated Monopoly now?  All in all, this has got to
be a funny game.  I wonder what the average number pimps and hoes that get
shot up during the course of this game is?  Why does it look so
dirty? 

Well at long last, we have a terminator as a governator. Arnold schwarzenegger ran for office and won by what I would call a landslide.
Davis is out, and Arnold is in. Or in other words, David is out, and Goliath is in.
What a circus this has all been.