"A Stupid Sense of Humor"

Since this blog chose to delete my comment to the following news article:

A report of a bomb aboard a Turkish merchant ship Thursday forced the U.S. Coast Guard to escort the vessel away from the port of Philadelphia and anchor it near the mouth of the Delaware River, where it flows into the Atlantic Ocean, senior Defense officials told FOX News.

The ship’s master became irritated with the length of time a routine Coast Guard search was taking and made comments about a possible explosion, officials said. He refused to allow authorities to search certain portions of the vessel, called the Cenk Kaptanoglu.

But the captain later told authorities he’d been joking about the bomb, officials told FOX News. The ship, which was carrying coal, had not yet been boarded for its second inspection.

Still, the Coast Guard took his comments “very seriously” and planned to conduct a "multi-agency” search, officials told FOX News.

The blog posted this comment to the article:

Does the US Government have a Department of Insanity? [Insert your own jokes here _____] If they do, I hope they were part of the "multi-agency" search.

My answer to this was (paraphrased):

If you work in law enforcement, then you would not take such joking lightly. Especially in this day & age. Anyone who would make such an idiotic joke to a LEO should be prepared for nothing less than a cavity search.

I thought that was an obvious, "Dude, Wake up."

The blog administrator obviously didn't like that answer.

Modern Olympics: First Gold Medalist

The Romans abolished the Games in A.D. 394. Then in 1896, they started up again. A young man - the son of Irish immigrants - decided he was going to compete. His name was James Brendan Connolly. His is a success story all on its own:

He was raised in the tough South End of Boston. Forced to leave school in the early grades, he worked at various jobs, educated himself, & was admitted to Harvard in 1895 at the age of 27. When he asked Harvard for a leave to compete in the Games, they refused. So he packed up & left for Athens anyway, paying his own expenses. His event was the triple jump. In those days, they called it the "hop, step, & jump". It was the first event on the Olympic schedule -- set for the opening day. Unfortunately, the Americans had not realized that the Greeks used the Hellenic calendar; so the team wound up arriving just hours before the opening ceremony as opposed to 12 days before the Games.

Connolly was out of shape - 12 lbs. overweight - and tired. However, he received the first Olympic prize to be awarded in more than 1,500 years when he cleared 45 feet. He was the last to jump & outdistanced his closest competitor by more than a yard.

Harvard had offered him an honorary degree, but he rejected it. He wound up becoming a prolific journalist & author, writing 25 novels. He did choose to accept an invitation to lecture on literature at Harvard. At his 50th class reunion, the college awarded him a Harvard "H" in track.

War Blogs.

Here is a write up article by NPR (National Public Radio) about war blogs from Iraq. I just want to share that I personally read cbftw's blog daily My War: Fear & Loathing in Iraq. If anyone is interested in checking out these soldier's blogs, then you'll find a list of them in this article.