Owner of a Lonely heart (klonhertz remix)

This video just cracks me up!
Plus I am digging the song...

What is the Nobel Jury thinking?

AP Newsbreak: Nobel jury defends Obama decision
By IAN MacDOUGALL and KARL RITTER Associated Press Writers
The Associated Press

Tuesday, October 13, 2009 10:12 AM EDT

OSLO (AP) — Members of the Norwegian committee that gave Barack Obama the Nobel Peace Prize are strongly defending their choice against a storm of criticism that the award was premature and a potential liability for the U.S. president.

Asked to comment on the uproar following Friday's announcement, four members of the five-seat panel told The Associated Press that they had expected the decision to generate both surprise and criticism. Three of them rejected the notion that Obama hadn't accomplished anything to deserve the award, while the fourth declined to answer that question. A fifth member didn't answer calls seeking comment."We simply disagree that he has done nothing," committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland told the AP on Tuesday. "He got the prize for what he has done."

Jagland singled out Obama's efforts to heal the divide between the West and the Muslim world and scale down a Bush-era proposal for an anti-missile shield in Europe."All these things have contributed to — I wouldn't say a safer world — but a world with less tension," Jagland said by phone from the French city of Strasbourg, where he was attending meetings in his other role as secretary-general of the Council of Europe. He said most world leaders were positive about the award and that most of the criticism was coming from the media and from Obama's political rivals. "I take note of it. My response is only the judgment of the committee, which was unanimous," he said, adding that the award to Obama followed the guidelines set forth by Alfred Nobel, the Swedish industrialist and inventor of dynamite, who established the Nobel Prizes in his 1895 will."Alfred Nobel wrote that the prize should go to the person who has contributed most to the development of peace in the previous year," Jagland said. "Who has done more for that than Barack Obama?"

Aagot Valle, a left-wing Norwegian politician who joined the Nobel panel this year, also dismissed suggestions that the decision to award Obama was without merit."Don't you think that comments like that patronize Obama? Where do these people come from?" Valle said by phone from the western coastal city of Bergen. "Well, of course, all arguments have to be considered seriously. I'm not afraid of a debate on the peace prize decision. That's fine. "In Friday's announcement, the committee said giving Obama the peace prize could be seen as an early vote of confidence intended to build global support for the policies of his young administration.

The left-leaning committee whose members are appointed by the Norwegian Parliament lauded the change in global mood wrought by Obama's calls for peace and cooperation, and praised his pledges to reduce the world stock of nuclear arms, ease U.S. conflicts with Muslim nations and strengthen the U.S. role in combating climate change. However, the decision stunned even the most seasoned Nobel watchers. They hadn't expected Obama, who took office barely two weeks before the Feb. 1 nomination deadline, to be seriously considered until at least next year.

The award drew heated derision from Obama's political opponents in the Republican party, and was even questioned by some members of Obama's own Democratic party, who wondered what the president had done to merit the $1.4 million honor.

Michael S. Steele, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said naming Obama showed "how meaningless a once honorable and respected award has become."In a fundraising letter, Steele wrote that "the Democrats and their international leftist allies want America made subservient to the agenda of global redistribution and control. And truly patriotic Americans like you and our Republican Party are the only thing standing in their way.

"Columnist Thomas Friedman wrote in the New York Times that Obama "has not done anything yet on the scale that would normally merit such an award. "Even in Europe, where Obama is hugely popular, many editorials and pundits questioned what he had done to deserve the award.

"Scrap the Nobel Peace Prize," foreign affairs commentator Bronwen Maddox wrote in The Times of London. "It's an embarrassment and even an impediment to peace. President Obama, in letting the committee award it to him, has made himself look vain, a fool and dangerously lost in his own mystique."

Yet Obama was humble in acknowledging the prize. "Let me be clear: I do not view it as a recognition of my own accomplishments, but rather as an affirmation of American leadership on behalf of aspirations held by people in all nations," Obama said Friday in the White House Rose Garden. "To be honest, I do not feel that I deserve to be in the company of so many of the transformative figures who've been honored by this prize.

"Nobel Committee member Inger-Marie Ytterhorn noted that the president didn't greet the news with joy. "I looked at his face when he was on TV and confirmed that he would receive the prize and would come to Norway, and he didn't look particularly happy," she told AP.

Some of the most celebrated peace prize laureates include Martin Luther King, Mother Teresa and Nelson Mandela. The award has occasionally honored more controversial figures, like the late Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat or former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger. Sometimes it raises the profile of peace workers or activists, such as Rigoberta Menchu of Guatemala in 1992 or Kenyan environmentalist Wangari Maathai in 2004. "Whenever we award the peace prize, there is normally a big debate about it," said Ytterhorn, a nine-year veteran of the award committee.

Asked whether there was a risk that the prize could backfire on Obama by raising expectations even higher and give ammunition to his critics, Ytterhorn said "it might hamper him," because it could distract from domestic issues such as health care reform. Jagland said he didn't think the Nobel Peace Prize would hurt Obama domestically but added the committee did not take U.S. politics into consideration when making their decision. "I'm not so familiar with American politics, and I don't want to interfere with it, because this is a totally independent committee," he said.

"We should not look at internal politics."Kaci Kullman Five, a former Conservative Party parliamentarian and longtime Nobel committee member, said "we all expected that there would be a discussion" about awarding Obama. She declined further comment, deferring to the Nobel Peace Prize tradition of only having the committee chairman discuss prize selections publicly. Valle, who left her seat in Parliament last week because of her Nobel panel appointment, said the criticism shouldn't overshadow important issues raised by the prize."Of course I expected disagreement and debate on the prize, on giving him the prize," she said. "But what I want now is that we seriously raise a discussion regarding nuclear disarmament."
———
Ritter reported from Stockholm.Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Original Article can be found at: http://home.suddenlink.net/news/read.php?id=17398036&ps=1018&cat=&cps=0&lang=en

David Carradine found dead in Bangkok

I can't beleive this legend is dead and under these circumstances!

© Retna/Sara De Boer

Actor David Carradine found dead in Bangkok

June 4, 2009, 9:10 AM EST

BANGKOK (AP) -- Actor David Carradine, star of the 1970s TV series "Kung Fu" who also had a wide-ranging career in the movies, has been found dead in the Thai capital, Bangkok. A news report said he was found hanged in his hotel room and was believed to have committed suicide.
A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy, Michael Turner, confirmed the death of the 72-year-old actor. He said Carradine died either late Wednesday or early Thursday, but he could not provide further details out of consideration for his family.
The Web site of the Thai newspaper The Nation cited unidentified police sources as saying Carradine was found Thursday hanged in his luxury hotel room and is believed to have committed suicide.
Carradine was a leading member of a venerable Hollywood acting family that included his father, character actor John Carradine, and brother Keith.
In all, he appeared in more than 100 feature films with such directors as Martin Scorsese, Ingmar Bergman and Hal Ashby.
But he was best known for his role as Kwai Chang Caine, a Shaolin priest traveling the 1800s American frontier West in the TV series "Kung Fu," which aired in 1972-75.
He reprised the role in a mid-1980s TV movie and played Caine's grandson in the 1990s syndicated series "Kung Fu: The Legend Continues."
He returned to the top in recent years as the title character in Quentin Tarantino's two-part saga "Kill Bill."

Memorial Day

I watched Taking Chance. It stars Kevin Bacon as a Marine Lt. Col. who escorts the body of a fallen marine home to his family.

This brings home to me the reality of the wars our country is currently participating in.

Memorial day, a day of memory. Remembering the service members who serve, have served and those who sacraficed. A day to remember.

I am thankful for those who haved served and are serving our great country.

What does the president of the United States say to the world when he bows to other leaders?

It is a shame that our leader personally assumes a subservient attitude to another leader instead of equal or lesser standing (not bowing). What is next?

Walk On

Makes you kind of re-evaluate things!

Perfect moments

I was thinking about one of the many perfect moments in my life. I am blessed, so there have been many!

When my son Pike was small, in kindergarten, I took him to a concert. It was a live performance by the Steve Miller Band. It was night at the zoo amphitheater. We were sitting on a blanket.

I call it a perfect moment because at some point in the performance, Pike got up and was dancing while singing the song (he had the greatest hits album memorized).

He was totally unselfconscious, totally in the moment, no cares, no worries. Only him and the music. Combined as one for a brief spectacular moment that I will never forget.

It was Perfect.

I was there to witness it.

I want to have more of these moments of perfection. Of equal importance, I want to recognize the moment as perfect.

Brother

I was just thinking about my brother, Troy Gene Pennington.

He wrote me only one letter in his life, but one was enough.

You see, when I was in the middle east, during Desert Storm, I received his letter. I will never forget that moment.

My battalion was in a desolete area of sand and small gravel. There was constantina wire strung around the the individual gp mediums. Attempts had been made at foxholes, but ended up being shallow scraps into the hardpan.

I was walking back to the hooch. Troy's writing was so distinctive to me. He was left handed.

I stopped and opened it, there was a picnic style table near by that I sat down on. No one was moving about. It was cold. The wind was blowing lightly.

In his letter he wrote.

It is not fair that you are there and I am here. You have so much to live for, your wife and son.

If I could I would trade places with you.

I am going to die anyway, and you have so much to live for.

You see, Troy was HIV positive. He had AIDS.

But my brother would have traded his life for mine. Regardless of the circumstance, he would have done this thing for me.

As it happens, I eventually came home. In 1994, Troy died.

I misss my brother. I miss all that made him what he was and is to me.

Freedom

I am thinking back over this years football season. We supported our local Lindale High School, they are the Eagles.

Every Friday night, the lights come on at the stadium. There is always a moment of silence and prayer. Then the national anthem is played by the band as everyone turns towards the flag.

I can't help, at this moment, standing at attention. My chest puffs up in pride and I look intensely at the flag. I am not looking at the flag, but at what it represents. Everyone sings the anthem and as the last words roll out, I can't help but shout out

Freedom

It is what it is all about.