Japan make Olympic judo history
Sat, 21 Aug 2004Japan's insistence on traditional ways in judo has paid off with a record haul of eight gold medals at the Athens Olympics, producing a new heavyweight warrior along the way.

Japan's judo officials have always stressed technique in trying for knock-out 'ippon' victories, bucking the trend by emerging rivals to rely on muscle power for any marginal points.

So Japanese judokas have been helped by a change in scoring styles by global referees, who now emphasise technique and execution rather than offences made while trying to score, such as a false attack or overly defensive posture.

State Parks Seek Environmental Stewardship

TALLAHASSEE - The AmeriCorps Florida State Parks program is seeking energetic nature enthusiasts interested in environmental stewardship and bettering the world around them. Participants in the 11-month service program will gain hands on experience and educational opportunities and earn money towards higher education or student loans.

GREAT AMERICAN FOOD FESTIVAL 
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ 
September 30-October 02, 2004 Denver, CO http://www.beertown.org 888-822-6273 According to the Guinness Book of World Records, there is no other place on earth where a beer aficionado can find more beers on tap. Tasting sessions offer attendees the opportunity to tour America's brewing landscape - one ounce at a time - by sampling more than 1,400 different beers from 320 of the nation's finest breweries. 

The Great American Beer Festival is not just about sampling beer. The festival's Judge Panel evaluates attending beers, and awards gold, silver and bronze medals, recognized around the world as symbols of brewing excellence. This year, beers will compete for medals in more than 50 different style categories. These awards are among the most coveted in the industry and heralded by the winning brewers in their national advertising.

Half a billion people - about one of every eight - are suffering chronic malnutrition today.  

Barbara Walters of 20/20 (USA) did a story on gender roles in Kabul several years before the Afghan conflict. She noted that women customarily walked about 5 paces behind their husbands.

She returned to Kabul recently and observed that women still walk behind their husbands, but now seem to walk even further back and are happy with the old custom.

Ms. Walters approached one of the Afghani women and asked, "Why do you now seem happy with the old custom that you used to try and change?"

"Land mines," said the woman MORAL: BEHIND EVERY MAN IS A SMART WOMAN 

Play It Safe with Pet Products 


You may think a flea product designed to be safe for dogs and puppies is likewise safe for your cat. As solid as that reasoning may seem, however, it's wrong — dead wrong. 

Never use a flea-control product designed for dogs on your cat. Many people tend to take these products lightly, but insecticides are designed to walk a very fine line: enough toxins to kill the parasites but not enough to endanger the pet. A product engineered to meet these challenges for dogs may not do so for cats. Check the label. 
Ask your veterinarian. Call the manufacturer before using any product. Your cat's life is at stake. 

Cats For Dummies, 2nd Edition, by Gina Spadafori and Paul Pion, is the ultimate kitty cat-alogue for all things feline. 

Due to a power outage, only one paramedic responded to the call. The house was very, very dark, so the paramedic asked Katelyn, a 3-year-old girl, to hold a flashlight high over her mommy so he could see while he helped deliver the baby.

Very diligently, Katelyn did as she was asked.

Heidi pushed and pushed, and after a little while Connor was born.
The paramedic lifted him by his little feet and spanked him on his bottom.

Connor began to cry.

The paramedic then thanked Katelyn for her help and asked the wide-eyed 3-year old what she thought about what she had just witnessed.


Katelyn quickly responded, "He shouldn't have crawled in there in the first place, smack his ass again!" Thanks Geri!

Forwarded e-mail
Subject: SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT!!!!!!

Don Bendell is a former Green Beret captain, who served in Vietnam on an A-Team and in the Top Secret Phoenix program in 1968 and 1969, as well as in three other Special Forces Groups. He is a best-selling author of 21 books, with over 1,500,000 copies of his books in print worldwide, and a seventh degree black master in four martial arts, who was inducted into the International Karate Hall of Fame in 1995 and Martial Arts Museum of America in 1996.

Thank you, John Kerry, for helping make us Vietnam veterans war heroes now,but you also were the primary reason that the American public grabbed sturdy unbending brooms of judgment and swept us into the closet of silence and shame for so many years. Now, with your latest unreported insanity, you are getting ready for our society to grab those same stiff brooms and sweep our brave, noble young men and women fighting against the War on Terror in Iraq, Afghanistan, and elsewhere, into that cold, dark cell of heartbreak and betrayal, like we Vietnam veterans had to endure in silent dignity. I cannot and will not watch this country go through that again.

The hardcore America-hating, Israel-hating, jihad-spouting Muslim clerics in the mideast are very excited and passing around a front page newspaper story from the very anti-American TEHRAN TIMES in Iran. In the country that is home of the world's toughest theocratic dictatorship, an e-mail from Democratic Presidential nominee, you, John Forbes Kerry, sent to the paper by your campaign committee, although they deny sending it, was printed word-for-word on the front page of Iran's main newspaper.

Your message states emphatically that, if elected President, you, John Kerry, plan to travel to the mideast and elsewhere and apologize for our actions and the actions of President Bush in the War on Terror. You are already apologizing. It says that you plan to apologize to friends and foes alike. That is right, folks. John Kerry will say he is "sorry," and in his mind, all those jihad extremists, who have vowed to kill all Americans wherever we are, will simply forgive us, hold hands with Kerry, start singing "Kumbaya," and all will be right in the world. This is insane!
You have also made statements you will do these actions within 100 days of becoming President.

Senior writer Kenneth R. Timmerman in the March 1st edition of INSIGHT, tells about the massive campaign contributions to the Kerry-for-President campaign by three Iranian businessmen living in the US, who are lobbying for the US lifting of sanctions on Iran and accepting the anti-Christian, anti-Jewish, anti-American Tehran regime and the close ties of one to the chairman of Mobil Oil. "Pro-democracy dissidents" in Iran are shocked and appalled at your remarks, and have reported that in Iran and other Mideastern countries, all the extremists and anti-west mullahs who strongly supported the attacks on the World Trade Center, Pentagon, USS Cole, Marine Barracks, and anyplace Americans congregate, want you to become our President, but they are scared to death of George W. Bush. Just think, The democratic candidate for President, you, John Forbes Kerry, is endorsed by Al Q'Aida, Hezbollah, PLF, and Hamas.

But on February 27, 2004, in a speech at UCLA , you, while trying to talk tough, despite voting against all major weapons systems for the past 18 years, stated that you will continue the War on Terror, but would use our police forces, and especially those in foreign countries, and you would also put our troops back under the powder blue flag of the United Nations. You recently made comments about Bush making troops fight without Kevlar vests, but you, Senator Kerry, voted against buying them while you were in the Senate. Senate Bill 1689. Passed 87-12. You were one of the 12. Remember?

Like the Kama Sutra, Senator, you change positions constantly. You're not going to end the War on Terror, but instead use police to handcuff terrorists and read them their rights; then a week later, you are going to end the War on Terrorism and apologize to everyone we have offended, such as Iran. What is it going to be next week, John Kerry? You flip-flop more than a beached tuna on steroids.

You convinced TV reporters Chris Wallace on Fox and NBC's Tim Russert that a photograph circulating the web and news showing you a few rows away from Jane Fonda at a September 1970 Antiwar Rally at Valley Forge, was simply a coincidence and that you and Hanoi Jane barely knew each other. But, in fact, Senator, there were only eight speakers that day, including Fonda, Donald Southerland, and Bella Abzug, and Hanoi Jane funded that rally, and the keynote speaker was you, John Forbes Kerry, executive committee member of Vietnam Veterans Against the War.

We must be Americans first, and think about our political parties after that. Sometimes we lose sight of that. I have six grown children and two are democrats. I voted for Jimmy Carter. This is not about politics. It is about standing up to the ultimate playground bully, and not simply cowering and kissing his shoes.

I left it "all on the field" in the jungles back there when I was medevaced out of Vietnam in March of 1969 and sent back to hospitals in "The World." Although You, Mr. Kerry, painted all of us Vietnam veterans with the yellow Lai and Tiger Force, most of us, draftees and lifers alike, actually poured our hearts out in the tropical rain forests and in the rice paddies, thoroughly gave it our all, and acted as warriors who had honor.

I have a son earning his green beret at Fort Bragg right now and a daughter-in-law who was on orders for Iraq but is making me a grandpa again.
I am not going to stand by and watch them go through the same treatment we did, because some of our well-meaning fellow Americans choose to wear blinders and believe things just because they heard it on the network news or simply not care enough to get involved.


I am not a "baby-killer, torturer, or murderer," John Kerry. I am a Vietnam veteran and an American who will not soon forget, or ever want to see again, any more jets loaded with fuel and screaming, innocent Americans slamming into our buildings on our very own soil. I have shed enough tears for ten lifetimes. We all have. I will never again let my fellow countrymen get away with making American veterans feel like bastard stepchildren.

Santayana said, "Those who do not remember the past are condemned to repeat it."

John Kerry, I now call on my "Band of Brothers," those who have heard the sound of guns and cries of orphaned children, those who hate war more than anyone who has not been there, to join me in this difficult battle ahead.

Republicans, democrats, independents, and the apolitical, I call on the 
25,000,000 veterans of this country to help me confront this evil facing our great nation, not with guns and bombs, but with our voices, our votes, our computers, and with all our fighting spirit.

My fellow veterans, your families, survivors, and neighbors: God bless you and God bless America.

You want proof of all I have to say. Here are the references:

 http://michnews.com/artman/publish/article_2889.shtml  http://www.chronwatch.com/content/contentDisplay.asp?aid=6246   
 http://www.washingtontimes.com/op-ed/20040229-105340-2864r.htm    
 Want more proof? Read the very exposing February 27, 2004 article, on page  8, of the NY Sun by Thomas Lipscomb, founder of Time Books and publisher of Admiral Elmo Zumwalt's best-selling book. "ON WATCH." Also read what the man who pinned the Silver Star on John Kerry had to say about him. The article is entitled "Setting Straight Kerry's War Record"