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Amen......Greg
I wish I knew how to get that issue on a ballot.
FROM THE TAMPA BAY NEWSPAPER
Very Interesting!
Will we still be the Country of choice and still be America if we continue to make the changes forced on us by the people from other countries that came to live in America because it is the Country of Choice??? Think about it . . .
All I have to say is, when will they do something about MY RIGHTS? I celebrate Christmas, but because it isn't celebrated by everyone, we can no longer say Merry Christmas. Now it has to be Season's Greetings. It's not Christmas vacation, it's Winter Break. Isn't it amazing how this winter break ALWAYS occurs over the Christmas holiday? We've gone so far the other way, bent over backwards to not offend anyone, that I am now being offended. But it seems that no one has a problem with that.
This says it all!
This is an editorial written by an American citizen, published in a Tampa newspaper. He did quite a job; didn't he? Read on, please!
IMMIGRANTS, NOT AMERICANS, MUST ADAPT.
I am tired of this nation worrying about whether we are offending some individual or their culture.
Since the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, we have experienced a surge in patriotism by the majority of Americans. However, the dust from the attacks had barely settled when the "politically correct" crowd began complaining about the possibility that our patriotism was offending others.
I am not against immigration, nor do I hold a grudge against anyone who is seeking a better life by coming to America.
Our population is almost entirely made up of descendants of immigrants. However, there are a few things that those who have recently come to our country, and apparently some born here, need to understand. This idea of America being a multicultural community has served only to dilute our sovereignty
and our national identity..
As Americans, we have our own culture, our own society, our own language and our own lifestyle.
This culture has been developed over centuries of struggles, trials, and victories by millions of men and women
who have sought freedom.
We speak ENGLISH, not Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic,
Chinese, Japanese, Russian, or any other language.
Therefore, if you wish to become part
of our society, learn the language!
"In God We Trust" is our national motto. This is not some Christian, right wing, political slogan. We adopted this motto because Christian men and women, on Christian principles, founded this nation, and this is clearly documented. It is certainly appropriate to display it on the walls of our schools.
If God offends you, then I suggest you consider another part of the world as your new home, because God is part of our culture.
If Stars and Stripes offend you, or you don't like Uncle Sam,
then you should seriously consider a move to another part of this planet. We are happy with our culture and have no desire to change, and we really don't care how you did things where you came from.
This is OUR COUNTRY, our land, and our lifestyle.
Our First Amendment gives every citizen the right to express his opinion and we will allow you every opportunity to do so.
But once you are done complaining, whining, and griping about our flag, our pledge, our national motto, or our way of life, I highly encourage you take advantage of one other great American freedom, THE RIGHT TO LEAVE.
Many years ago, I had an experience coming home from a Christmas Party one night on HWy 5.in SD, Ca. It appeared I was the only car on the road and I had been watching my rear view mirror and all the sudden a red light was flashing real close to my car. Two policeman got out of the car, one came to the drivers side and the other to the other side. Because I knew there had not been lights behind me, I suspected something. I rolled my window down just enough to talk to the policeman. He said get out of the car, I said, "No......you were driving without lights." I looked over to the other man and he had his gun drawn. I said, "if you want to shoot me you will do it with my door locked." Then I said, "get back in your car and follow me, and I will meet you at the police station." They said, "Okay". I pulled back out on the freeway, but they didn't. I reported it to the police, but never heard anything. A couple years later a policeman rape and killed a young lady on that freeway. He got a life sentence.
OT: In April, Maya Angelou was interviewed by Oprah on her
70+birthday.
In April, Maya Angelou was interviewed by Oprah on her 70+
birthday. Maya really is a marvel who has led quite an interesting and exciting life. Oprah asked her what she thought of growing older. And, there on television, she said it was "exciting." Regarding body changes, she said there were many, occurring everyday...like her breasts. They seem to be in a race to see which will reach her waist, first. The audience laughed so hard they cried. She is such a simple and honest woman, with so much wisdom in her words. Because of that, I share this....
by Maya Angelou
When I was in my younger days,
I weighed a few pounds less,
I needn't hold my tummy in
to wear a belted dress.
But now that I am older,
I've set my body free;
There's the comfort of elastic
Where once my waist would be.
Inventor of those high-heeled shoes
My feet have not forgiven;
I have to wear a nine now,
But used to wear a seven.
And how about those pantyhose-
They're sized by weight, you see,
So how come when I put them on
The crotch is at my knee?
I need to wear these glasses
As the print's been getting smaller;
And it wasn't very long ago
I know that I was taller.
Though my hair has turned to gray
and my skin no longer fits,
On the inside, I'm the same old me,
It's the outsides changed a bit.
But, on a positive note...
I've learned that no matter what happens, or how bad it seems
today, life does go on, and it will be better tomorrow.
I've learned that you can tell alot about a person by the way he/she handles these Four things:
a rainy day,
lost luggage,
tangled Christmas tree lights.
Investment in NVEI/RIM. (My addition)
I've learned that regardless of your relationship with your parents, you'll miss them when they're gone from your life.
I've learned that making a "living" is not the same thing as making a "life."
I've learned that life sometimes gives you a second chance.
My comment: [Let's continue to pray for y2k's Daughter, she is so young. And spokeshave's daughter]
I've learned that you shouldn't go through life with a catcher's mitt on both hands. You need to be able to throw something back.
I've learned that whenever I decide something with an open heart, I usually make the right decision.
I've learned that even when I have pains, I don't have to be one.
I've learned that every day you should reach out and touch someone. People love a warm hug, or just a friendly pat on the back.
I've learned that I still have a lot to learn.
I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.
IOwn, That is great.......Thank You.
I think this is an example of his thinking......
(it was assumed that the Americans would use it responsibly.........And they were given the right to judge what was best for us??????
"When we got organized as a country and we wrote a fairly
radical Constitution with a radical Bill of Rights, giving a radical amount of individual freedom to Americans, it was assumed that the Americans who had that freedom would use it responsibly....
[However, now] there's a lot of irresponsibility. And so a lot of people say there's too much freedom. When personal freedom's being abused, you have to move to limit it."
-- Bill Clinton
[William Jefferson Blythe III] (1946- ), 42nd US President
Source: MTV's "Enough is Enough" 3-22-94
And the key to Sam Walton's success, when he decided to go public his first and most important thing he did was go talk to a young lady who was a lawyer in Little Rock, AK. to be the first member on his Board of Directors. She accepted his offer of Twenty Thousand Dollars for every meeting of the Board whether she attended the meeting or not. And that was Hilary Rodham (Clinton). I believe she still receives at least $20,000.00 or more.
Wal Mart has made many of the mid-west cities become ghost towns. You can't deny they have better prices.
Thank You Spoke, and how is your daughter?
I have to go try to find a grocery store that I don't have to cross the picket lines to get stuff for pies.......
Again have a great Thanksgiving......."Don't eat too much."
Here we are the day before Thangsgiving and there is contant bickering going on, and anyone that "God Forbid" attempts to post a positive they get 10 negatives.
Come on........WISH ALL YOUR FRIENDS A GREAT THANKSGIVING DAY WITH THEIR LOVED ONES.
And remember Y2K's daughter in your prayers......let's at least remember all our troops that are protecting us. There is much more in life than NVEI.
There have been many friendships formed in this group over the years, Life is not only about money. It's about how you can help your friends and family.
Pretty cute,
The New California Governor has just announced an agreement whereby English will be the official language of the state, rather than German, which was the other possibility.
As part of the negotiations, The Terminator's Government conceded that English spelling had some room for improvement and has accepted a 5-year phase-in plan that would become known as "Austro-English" (or, perhaps even better, "Austrionics".)
1. In the first year, "s" will replace the soft "c". Sertainly, this will make the sivil servants jump with joy. The hard "c" will be dropped in favour of the "k". This should klear up konfusion, and keyboards kan have one less letter.
2. There will be growing publik enthusiasm in the sekond year when the troublesome "ph" will be replaced with the "f". This will make words like fotograf 20% shorter.
3. In the 3rd year, publik akseptanse of the new spelling kan be expekted to reach the stage where more komplikated changes are possible.
Governments will enkourage the removal of double letters which have always ben a deterent to akurate speling. Also, al wil agre that the horibl mes of the silent "e" in the languag is disgrasful and it should go away.
4. By the 4th yer peopl wil be reseptiv to steps such as replasing "th" with "z" and "w" with "v".
5. During ze fifz yer, ze unesesary "o" kan be dropd from vords kontaining "ou" and after ziz fifz yer, ve vil hav a reil sensibl riten styl.
Zer vil be no mor trubl or difikultis and evrivun vil find it ezi tu understand ech oza. Ze drem of a united urop vil finali kum tru.
If zis mad yu smil, pleas pas it on to oza pepl
Another thing the main media will not tell you.
Did you know the military does not provide our men & women who are fighting this battle the proper boots and Air Conditioners or Heaters? While the JA'S in congress increase their compensation with out a vote from us. At least $10,000.00 per year. Many of them make well over $1,000,000 in addition to all their security. They don't into their retirement either. (We do in our tax dollars.) They retire with their full salary. And then government doesn't have enough to pay for proper shoes for the military or their air line tickets home form the base where they are station.
This link will tell you how you can donate to them.
http://operationac.com/dw_pages/howtodonate.htm
*AWESOME*
I just saw the eclipse! I have to walk about 150 yards to the trash can, and I came around the comer and there it was. It was beautiful.
I made an error here, Life isn't {IS} fun with Family, Friends and People and even some enemies. because they can become new friends when you get to know them.
Thank You "iamshazzam"! I miss the fun we used to have on raging bull & Ihub.
Some have made it all about money, and I understand that, it has taken much longer than any of us thought, and the different attitudes creep into our relationships. And then the blame game starts. We all have a choice as to how we live and our attitude about life. Life isn't fun with Family, Friends and People and even some enemies. because they can become new friends when you get to know them.
And you know what, dancing is a great way to fine out a persons value system. That may not be true the way young people dance today. Hummmmm, that may be the reason for the changes in society. They need to slow dance to soft music.
To Quote a very nice young man.
"Just a few thoughts.
Again Thank You,
Mayu
Dido, doughjo.
One trillionaire fires his lowly employee over a photo, and one is devoted to peace.
Kroc left a fortune to USD institute
$50 million bequest to further peace goal
By Lisa Petrillo
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
November 5, 2003
As dying philanthropist Joan Kroc sat in her Rancho Santa Fe living room talking about her legacy, she spoke about the $50 million she was leaving University of San Diego's Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice.
" 'Now they will know I'm serious about peace,' " Mrs. Kroc told center director Joyce Neu.
Yesterday the university announced Mrs. Kroc's bequest, the largest in its history, to the center which she had supported with $30 million in donations over the last five years.
"This will allow USD to become a diamond in the field," Neu said of Mrs. Kroc's last gift to the 7,000-student university.
The McDonald's heiress and philanthropist died Oct. 12 of brain cancer at age 75. She left a $1.7 billion estate, and of the numerous gifts to charities as diverse as the homeless and sick children, Kroc left $100 million toward the cause of world peace.
Last week came the news that she had donated $50 million to the University of Notre Dame's Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, the largest gift in that private university's history. But officials at the University of San Diego said they had delayed announcing their share of the bequest in deference to the suffering going on during Southern California's wildfires.
Mrs. Kroc told USD officials in August of her intentions. As she gathered beneficiaries in her living room to discuss her legacy, Neu recalled Mrs. Kroc uttering her pronouncement about being serious about peace, and everyone laughed.
"This was one of the most fun human beings you could know," she said. "Even though she was dying, she was not sad, not maudlin. I'm just grateful that I was lucky enough to know her, and to thank her."
For USD the endowment will allow the center to hire distinguished faculty, increase scholarships to graduate students from around the world, establish scholars-in-residence programs and allow the center to become more actively involved in public policy globally.
Already, the university has had calls from politically troubled regions such as Nepal, Macedonia and Chechnya to become part of their peace process, Neu said, but lack of resources has hampered more active involvement.
"This takes us to a whole new level. We are the place that people will come to, not just doing the research but doing the work out in the field, to make the world a better place," Neu said.
"Staggering" is the word USD president Mary Lyons uses to describe the donation that she believes will define what she calls the "new Catholic university."
Both Notre Dame and USD are private, Catholic universities.
USD will not just host a center devoted to peace and social justice but will be able to act and spread Catholic ideals, Lyons said. "The university itself will be an institution that goes to the heart and soul of the teachings of the church."
Although the Notre Dame center is more than a decade older than the one at USD, Neu believes Mrs. Kroc's gift is an endorsement of the direction Neu was taking the center. Its students come from countries as far away as Kenya, Korea, Iran, Tanzania and Nepal. The center has hosted ambassadors from such regions as Macedonia and the Congo, and drawn such notables as former President Jimmy Carter, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
"She was very much against the use of military force to resolve conflicts," said Neu, who noted that Mrs. Kroc both publicly and privately tried to do what she could for the cause of peace. "That is the work she would want us to carry on in her name."
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Lisa Petrillo: (760) 737-7563; lisa.petrillo@uniontrib.com
Why we should "NOT" take God out of our lives, schools, jobs and public events.
Duke University Medical Center's Harold Koenig thinks keeping spirituality out of the clinic is irresponsible
Faith & Healing
Can religion improve health? While the debate rages in journals and med schools, more Americans ask for doctors’ prayers
By Claudia Kalb
NEWSWEEK
Nov. 10 issue — On a quiet Saturday afternoon, Ming He, a fourth-year medical student in Dallas, came across a man dying in the VA Hospital. Suffering from a rare cancer and hooked up to an oxygen tank, the man, an Orthodox Jew, could barely breathe, let alone speak. There were no friends or relatives by his bed to comfort him. When the young student walked into his room, the man looked at her and said, “Now that I’m dying, I realize that I never really learned how to live.” Ming He, 26, had no idea how to respond.
“I THOUGHT, ‘My God, the chaplain doesn’t work on weekends, what do I do?’ ” She held the man’s hand for a few minutes in silence; two days later, he died. And as soon as she could, she signed up for “Spirituality and Medicine” at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical School, a course that teaches students how to talk to patients about faith and illness.
More than half of the med schools in the country now offer such courses—up from just three a decade ago—largely because patients are demanding more spiritual care. According to a NEWSWEEK Poll, 72 percent of Americans say they would welcome a conversation with their physician about faith; the same number say they believe that praying to God can cure someone—even if science says the person doesn’t stand a chance. On Beliefnet, a popular interfaith Web site, fully three quarters of more than 35,000 online prayer circles are health related: patients’ loved ones—as well as total strangers—can log on and send prayers into the electronic ether, hoping to heal cancers, disabilities, chronic illness and addiction. Popular practices like these, as well as the growing belief in the medical community that what happens in a person’s mind (and, possibly, soul) can be as important to health as what happens on the cellular level, are leading many doctors to embrace the God they banished from the clinic long ago in favor of technological and pharmaceutical progress.
All over the medical establishment, legitimate scientists are seeking the most ethical, effective ways to combine patients’ spiritual and religious beliefs with high-tech treatment. Former mutual-fund tycoon Sir John Templeton spends as much as $30 million a year funding scientific projects that explore the nature of God. “The Anatomy of Hope,” a meditation on the effects of optimism and faith on health, by New Yorker medical writer Jerome Groopman, M.D., is coming out early next year. The National Institutes of Health plans to spend $3.5 million over the next several years on “mind/body” medicine. And this weekend Harvard Medical School will hold a conference on spirituality and health, focusing on the healing effects of forgiveness. “There’s been a tremendous shift in the medical profession’s openness to this topic,” says Dr. Andrew Newberg, a neurologist at the University of Pennsylvania who is studying the biological effects of meditation and prayer on the brain. “People like me are very intrigued by what we’re seeing.”
Modern medicine, of course, still demands scientific proof on top of anecdotal evidence. So over the past decade, researchers have been conducting hundreds of studies, trying to scientifically measure the effects of faith and spirituality on health. Can religion slow cancer? Reduce depression? Speed recovery from surgery? Lower blood pressure? Can belief in God delay death? While the research results have been mixed, the studies inevitably run up against the difficulty of using scientific methods to answer what are, essentially, existential questions. How do you measure the power of prayer? Can one person’s prayer be stronger—and more effective—than another’s? How do you separate the health benefits of going to church or synagogue from the fact that people who attend religious services tend to smoke less and be less depressed than those who don’t?
Which ones are you too young to remember? LOL
75th-anniversary Special Reminds US of CBS' Storied History Top Stories
November 02 4:05:00 AM EST
Live from New York's Hammerstein Ballroom, it's a three-hour shebang called "CBS at 75."
Hmm, this comes just 5 <SUP>1</SUP>/<SUB>2</SUB> years after a May 1998 special called "CBS: The First 50 Years."
You old dog, CBS. How'd you manage that? Simple. Add the audio-only years.
Sunday's star-studded presentation, kicking off the first full week of the November "sweeps," craftily uses 1928 for starters. That's the year in which founding father William S. Paley bought 16 radio stations and christened them the Columbia Broadcast System. Two decades later, CBS officially entered the television age with a national prime-time lineup that included "Riddle Me This," "Roar of the Rails," "Cap'n Billy's Mississippi Music Hall," "Kobbs Korner," "Toast of the Town" and its first big hit, "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts."
Godfrey and Paley since have passed on, as have fellow CBS giants Lucille Ball, Desi Arnaz, Edward R. Murrow, Ed Sullivan, Red Skelton, Jackie Gleason, Jack Benny, George Burns, Gracie Allen, Rod Serling, Danny Thomas, Phil Silvers, Garry Moore, Raymond Burr, Buddy Ebsen, Elizabeth Montgomery, Carroll O'Connor and numerous Lassies.
Still, it promises to be quite a turnout for Sunday's "rea-l-l-l-l-y big show," as Sullivan used to say. Even the Smothers Brothers are scheduled to reappear on a network that canceled their hit variety hour in 1969 for being too politically outspoken. The replacement show was "Hee Haw."
CBS' legacy otherwise is a case study in cream rising to the top. The so-called "Tiffany Network" long has been home to a succession of gold-standard programs and gilded stars. Let's name a few:
At least 12 surviving members of the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences Hall of Fame have said they'll be on hand Sunday night: They are: Carol Burnett, Walter Cronkite, Mary Tyler Moore, Don Hewitt, Mike Wallace, Andy Griffith, Alan Alda, Dick Van Dyke, Betty White, Ed Asner, Angela Lansbury and Tim Conway. That number would grow if Jean Stapleton, Norman Lear, Carl Reiner, Bob Newhart and Harvey Korman show up.
Not yet in the Hall of Fame, but deserving to be, are CBS stalwarts James Arness, Bob Barker, Larry Hagman, Pat Summerall and the aforementioned Smothers Brothers. Only Arness, 80, apparently will be unable to make it on Sunday night. David Letterman likewise should be in the Hall of Fame, although CBS would have to share him with NBC. In either case, he's not an announced participant Sunday night, which should surprise no one. Dave just doesn't do these things anymore, but maybe we'll see him on tape doing "The Top Ten Reasons Why CBS Should Be Proud of `The Dukes of Hazzard.'"
Since the birth of the Nielsen ratings system in 1950, CBS has had TV's No. 1-rated series in 28 of the 53 prime-time seasons. Here we go: "Arthur Godfrey's Talent Scouts," "I Love Lucy" (four times), "The $64,000 Question," "Gunsmoke" (four times), "The Beverly Hillbillies" (twice), "The Andy Griffith Show," "All in the Family" (five times), "60 Minutes" (five times), "Dallas" (three times), "Survivor" and "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" (likely to repeat this season).
CBS has the two most-watched telecasts of all-time. The Feb. 28, 1983, finale of "M(ASTERISK)A(ASTERISK)S(ASTERISK)H" was seen in 50.15 million homes. The "Who Shot J.R.?" episode of "Dallas," telecast on Nov. 21, 1980, has the runner-up spot with 41.47 million homes. Total viewer numbers, which weren't computed then, likely would more than double both totals.
You want signature TV characters? CBS has them in abundance. Lucille Ball as Lucy Ricardo. Carroll O'Connor as Archie Bunker. Jean Stapleton as Edith Bunker. Larry Hagman as J.R. Ewing. Buddy Ebsen as Jed Clampett. Mary Tyler Moore as Mary Richards. Ed Asner as Lou Grant. Ted Knight as Ted Baxter. Sherman Hemsley as George Jefferson. James Arness as Matt Dillon. Andy Griffith as Andy Taylor. Don Knotts as Barney Fife. Alan Alda as Hawkeye Pierce. Angela Lansbury as Jessica Fletcher. Jackie Gleason as Ralph Kramden. Candice Bergen as Murphy Brown. Dick Van Dyke as Rob Petrie. Tom Selleck as Thomas Magnum. Richard Thomas as John Boy Walton. Bob Newhart as Bob Hartley and Dick Loudon. Raymond Burr as Perry Mason. Bea Arthur as Maude Findlay. Phil Silvers as Ernie Bilko. And if we must, Bob Denver as Gilligan.
Through it all, CBS has clung to the now-antiquated notion that network programming by and large is meant to entertain America at large, not just advertiser-craved 18- to 49-year-olds. In other words, it's the only network that dares to air "JAG," whose principal appeal is among viewers 50 years of age and older.
So as CBS turns 75, here's to its continued health. Can't wait for the 100th anniversary special. That should be three or four years from now.
---
Bill, you are guessing, and I may be guessing.......Danny Ways mother has battled cancer for a couple of years and she is loosing the battle. I would think this is why you are seeing him register his shares. Danny helps his mother. Danny and Ray have been friends since about 10 years old. Danny's mother has had a tough life, and they really don't need the sinister assumptions on his fillings.
Bill, you know I have always respected you, so please back off of this.
OT........Help from all over the country has arrived, now our Firefighters are getting some much need rest.
Worn-down Crews Pulled Off Fire Lines As California Infernos Rage Top Stories
October 29 4:05:00 AM EST
SAN DIEGO - Low on water, fuel and sleep, exhausted and overwhelmed firefighters were pulled off fire lines Tuesday in San Diego, even though raging infernos destroyed hundreds more homes and sent thousands of residents fleeing to evacuation centers.
Flames dotted an area that extended, on a straight line, more than 100 miles, from the Mexican border north to the suburbs of Los Angeles, threatening 40,000 homes. Despite a break in the hot, windy weather, firefighters pushed back a by a week their estimate of when the fire would be fully contained - Nov. 5.
Crews were able to stop the Verdale firestorm from spreading in Simi Valley and San Fernando Valley, north of Los Angeles. But those successes were offset by blazes growing near San Bernandino and San Diego. There, some crews have enough resources only to save lives, not property, even though 10,000 firefighters are spread throughout the region.
At least 1,572 homes had been destroyed and at least 16 people killed as of Tuesday, with 80,000 residents forced out of their homes. Fire officials fear the death toll will rise as crews begin inspecting the remnants of charred homes and vehicles.
"This fire was so fast," said Glenn Wagner, San Diego County's chief medical examiner. "I'm sure we're going to find folks who simply never had a chance to get out of their houses."
In the 1991 Oakland Hills fire, east of San Francisco, 25 people died, 3,175 homes were destroyed and damage was estimated at $1.5 billion. Gov. Gray Davis said damages from the Southern California fires could hit $2 billion, making them the costliest in state history.
Late Monday, one fire erupted in Northern California, burning 1,500 acres and threatening 50 structures in remote eastern Shasta County. But it's the Southland where the nation's eyes are riveted.
"You couldn't have written anything worse than this," said Gene Zimmerman, supervisor of the San Bernardino National Forest, the area in which two of the most destructive fires began last week. "You can dream up horror movies, and they wouldn't be this bad."
While the hot, dry weather finally broke, many of the men and women battling the San Diego fires reached their breaking point after 55 non-stop hours on the front lines. Firefighters drove to nearby towns to gas up their vehicles and buy fast food. It may be a week before they gain the upper hand on these blazes.
"They're so fatigued that despite the fact the fire perimeter might become much larger, we're not willing to let the firefighters continue any further," said Rich Hawkins, a Forest Service fire chief. "They are too fatigued from three days of battle.
"There's blocks of homes that are going to burn to the ground. My objective is to make sure there's nobody in them."
San Diego's worst blaze, the Cedar Fire, had burned more than 206,000 acres and destroyed around 900 homes in a 45-mile long front, ranging from Scripps Ranch to Julian, a mountain community widely renowned for its apple crop.
Thus far, the worst hit community has been Scripps Ranch, a high-end suburb about 15 miles north of San Diego, where residents pay millions for canyon-view homes and enjoy what is billed by developers as a "country life." In this community alone, more than 300 homes have been leveled by fire.
The fire was just miles from merging with the 37,000-acre Paradise Fire from Valley Center, north of Escondido. Thirteen of the deaths came as victims tried to flee flames in those two fires.
More than 3,000 of the 10,000 firefighters in the region were battling the San Diego fires. But officials estimated they needed twice as many.
If the two San Diego County fires join up, it will complicate firefighting efforts by cutting off escape routes and even whipping up additional wind.
Barbara Morales escaped the fast-moving blaze that took her Scripps Ranch home and four others on the five-acre parcel on which she's lived for more than two decades. The flames were coming fast and the fireballs were as big as softballs. As she hustled her in-laws, both in their 80s, into the car, one of their walkers blew away in the winds. But she kept going.
"I just floored it," Morales said. "I didn't see the driveway, but I just went."
They escaped - just barely. And now, less than 24-hours later, Morales is steeling herself to go back. She has the photo album with her wedding pictures and her son's graduation shots. But she doesn't have her wedding ring.
"I have to go back and find the ring," she said. "That's the only thing I want."
Four days of wildfires have left this Southern California community reeling. Those who've lost homes have cried so much the tears no longer come. But many more are still on edge as evacuations continue. Fire fighters are doing their best, but on Tuesday, it seemed they were still making little progress.
People wear surgical masks as they go about their daily errands. By Tuesday, most stores had gone through their stock and volunteers at Red Cross shelters were scrambling to have supplies flown in from other areas. At the Longs Drug store in Mira Mesa, air purifiers were hot items - by late afternoon, all were gone. Surgical masks were nowhere to be found and store managers said they had no idea when new supplies would be coming in.
The 24-hour Kinko's declared it would close at 5 p.m. because of poor air quality. Most of the county's schools shut down. Even striking grocery workers suspended picket lines for two days, while members scrambled to save their homes or salvage belongings.
All day, the San Diego area was cloaked in a perpetual dusk. Smoke had snuffed out any sign of blue in the sky. At noon, drivers along I-15 drove with their headlights on. Along the I-5 along the coast, the smoke hung so heavy, drivers could barely see the ocean.
Many refugees had come from the San Pasqual Indian reservation in the hills above the town. Many had lost their homes.
Rebecca Williams was at work when the blaze tore through the studio home she rents from a friend.
"It was my quiet peaceful little hideaway," said the 43-year-old, who has yet to return to what's left of her place.
"I went up there and talked to a policeman last night," she said. "I asked him if my home was OK and he just put down his head and I knew."
But even amid the heartbreak there are stories of joy.
For three years, Lena and Tito Ortega, who also live on the San Pasqual Reservation, saved their money so they could build their dream home. They didn't have the money to hire a contractor, so they did all the work themselves. They were just three months from moving into the three-bedroom, 2,000 square foot home, when the evacuation order came down on Sunday.
"I prayed to God, `please God, we worked so hard, please don't take this away,'" Lena Ortega, 28, said as she stood at the evacuation center Tuesday. "My husband snuck up last night so he could take a look - and it was there, the house was there. Everything around it was burnt - there was a big black circle, but the house was there."
"I don't know how - it's like angels surrounded it and saved it," she said. "I thank God."
Near Los Angeles, emergency crews were aided by calm weather that included increased humidity, less heat and an end to the Santa Ana winds that had gusted up to 70 mph earlier in the week. That allowed water- and retardant-dropping aircraft and helicopters to make repeated runs on the fires.
But flames, raging as high as 50 feet in the air, still held the upper hand.
More than 90 miles away in San Bernardino County, the Old Fire and Grand Prix Fire, which merged earlier in the week, had jumped a highway and was moving as one contiguous wall of flames toward the mountain resort town of Lake Arrowhead. The town, which sits at an elevation of 5,100 feet, was left particularly vulnerable to flames by a beetle infestation that has devastated the surrounding trees.
Officials were particularly concerned about "crowning," in which flames leap from one treetop to another, leaving firefighters on the ground all but powerless to stop them.
"If that occurs we don't have the capability to put those fires out," U.S. Forest Service spokeswoman Carol Beckley said. "It will be a firestorm."
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(Knight Ridder Newspapers correspondents Kate Folmar and Putsata Reang contributed to this report.)
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Cedar Fire Still Burning Out Of Control Top Stories
10-27-2003 10:01:PM
(San Diego, CA) -- The Cedar Fire has now consumed more than 206-thousand acres according to the California Department of Forestry. More than 300 houses and other structures have been destroyed since the blaze began Saturday night near Ramona. The fire is still burning out of control tonight, primarily in the East County. There is no word yet on a time for containment, much less control. Evacuations are under way in Julian, Ramona and Eucalyptus Hills. Residents will be allowed back home once authorities say the danger has passed. Thirteen deaths have been attributed to the three major fires that erupted in the county over the weekend. Besides the Cedar Fire, the Paradise Fire near Valley Center has burned more than 20-thousand acres and the Otay Fire in the south county has charred more than 35-thousand acres. At least 13 people have been killed in the fires and authorities say the death toll will likely be much higher.
isfahan1, Yes and Thank You for asking. We have to stay inside because of the ashes in the air. You can hardly see the sun because of the smoke and ashes. We have more help that came down from other parts of California, Arizona and Nevada. All the firemen need some rest. The people in San Diego have really been good to the people that had to evacuate their homes. It came within a couple of miles from us, so we have been able to remain at home.
If I hear how you get them I will let you know. However, I think I heard it was only for people who live in San Diego. But I don't believe there will be many from San Diego will go to Tempe and leave their love ones in San Diego. Perhaps you are from San Diego.
I have lived in San Diego off and on for the past 59 years and this is the worst thing I have ever lived through......an elderly man on TV said. "If they made a movie of this, people would think it was fiction."
Thank You for posting the pictures, they are trying to use back fires to stop the destruction of homes and property. But it is about the only thing they can do. San Diego has not had any rain for about 90 days so all the brush is dry. evacuation is now happening in some parts of Escondido.
All that gray you see is smoke and ashes. My car, bushes and the streets looks like it has been in a war zone. Air quality is really bad.
****SAN DIEGO COUNTY NEEDS YOUR PRAYERS****
We have many nvei shareholders in San Diego Who are in need of our prayers. Northeast San Diego County is on "FIRE". Many people are losing their homes. Valley Center, Romona, Scrips Ranch, Pomona, Lakeside, Santee Lakes, Miramar Base ( the fire has jumped across Hwy 15 TO THE BASE) and they evacuating the Miramar Navy Air Base. Highway #15, #163, #52 have been close.
For those that don't know what a Santa Ana wind is, it is a heavy wind from the eastern hills to the west.
Now they are saying the winds have change to the southwesternly diriction, and is expected to go all the way to La Mesa. I am in La Mesa, so I need to go.
Bill it has gone down on Merck nearly $6.00 per share since I bought in a little over 2 weeks ago. And the news in that PR doesn't sound like it will start going back up any time soon.
Over the years I have used the example of Blue Chip stocks before early spring of 2000 and nvxe/nvei. My reason for that was to show you could buy more shares of nvei, compared to Blue Chips for the same money. That gave me the opportunity to compare the benefits other than the fun of OTC stocks. Not a very good reason for an elderly person, tho'. But, I enjoy the people here more.
The different brokerage companies and the brokers have always given me more negatives than encouragement of my investment in nvei to counter my optimism of nvei. I took my eyes off of the goal. In the past, I have always just ignored them and did what I thought was best.
However, with the events of the past two years and the negative posting on this board and the cesspool. And, nvei taking longer than any of us anticipated. I didn't give myself credit for what I knew I should have done (buy more nvei).
So I called my broker and ask for the best and most reliable place to invest without touching my nvei shares. His recommendation was Merck and Pfizer and I said let's buy, there is always a need for medicine. Merck at 50.50 and Pfizer at 32.00 including cost. I only have myself to blame. I am not even going to look at how many nvei shares I could have bought with that money.
This news release says it all.
Pharmaceutical area no longer safe haven for jobs
October 24, 2003 1:57:00 PM ET
By Bill Berkrot
NEW YORK, Oct 24 (Reuters) - While jobs in high-tech, transportation, financial services and other industries have disappeared by the tens of thousands since the late 1990s, the pharmaceutical industry had appeared to be a source of endless growth.
But these days at the major pharmaceutical companies -- where it was once believed that job security lagged behind only that of civil servants and tenured college professors -- that perception is fading faster than David Letterman's hairline.
The latest blow -- and it was not a small one -- came this week when Merck & Co. Inc. (MRK) announced it would cut 4,400 jobs, including 3,200 full-time positions, or about 5 percent of its work force.
"Whenever growth starts to slow down, total employee population is going to follow suit," said John Challenger, chief executive of Challenger, Gray & Christmas, the Chicago-based outplacement firm.
To further unsettle employees at the world's third-largest drug maker, Merck Chief Executive Raymond Gilmartin told his troops more job cuts were "highly likely."
Many major drug companies that enjoyed double-digit profit growth year in and year out have hit hard times.
The laundry list of woes includes competition from cheaper generics, a lack of new billion-dollar drugs to replace those that have gone off patent, the cost of government probes into marketing and manufacturing practices and, in some cases, massive litigation over recalled drugs.
Mounting pressure from state officials and advocacy groups calling for price controls in the United States, where prescription drugs are by far the most expensive in the world and account for nearly half of all global sales, also portend tough times for an industry that once seemed immune to such instability.
"There are a number of initiatives out there that are making it a riskier environment for pharmaceutical companies," said Challenger, citing the rising chorus of calls for allowing importation of much less expensive drugs from Canada.
That environment is manifesting itself in the loss of thousands of jobs.
Prior to the Merck announcement, troubled Schering-Plough Corp. (SGP) said in August it planned about 1,000 job cuts.
Pfizer Inc. (PFE) , the world's largest drug maker, has been coy about numbers, but its absorption of Pharmacia Corp. this year is expected to land thousands more industry workers on the unemployment line.
Baxter International Inc. (BAX) and Cerus Corp. (CERS) also announced massive job cuts this year.
"It's a sign of the times in the industry, and the fact is that the companies are going to have to start consolidating from here," said David Moskowitz, an analyst for Friedman Billings Ramsey.
"GARDEN STATE" HIT HARD
New Jersey, with its famed pharmaceutical corridor home to many of the world's largest drug companies, is being disproportionately hit by the industry downturn, which will tax the state's employment resources.
"Any time one of the state's largest employers announces layoffs, it's an issue of grave concern," said New Jersey Labor Commissioner Albert Kroll.
In the past two years, the state has spent more than $2.6 million in training grants to eight pharmaceutical companies, Kroll said. Those costs will surely mount as the state sets into motion its "rapid response team" to help with reemployment assistance and work force transition.
Kroll expressed confidence that the drug industry "will rebound strongly" despite the recent string of setbacks.
But employment expert Challenger said past belief that a good, high-paying job in the pharmaceutical industry was a job for life was always a myth.
"There's no place that's a safe haven, and anybody that thought that pharmaceuticals was a safe haven was fooling themselves," Challenger said.
"There's no business that can constantly be growing. There are always cycles." (Additional reporting by Jed Seltzer) REUTERS
Amen, Brother Don. lol
IOwn, it worked for me....takes a little time for the fantastic pictures to load.
"Attack another's rights and you destroy your own."
-- John Jay Chapman
(1862-1933)
Source: letter, 1897
Ben,Congratulations for your award.
I miss reading your posts. However, we now know what you have been doing.
WELL SAID, LaFemNikita,
A GREAT LADY!!!!!
Gracious philanthropist leaves a global legacy
By Jack Williams
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
October 13, 2003
DON KOHLBAUER / Union-Tribune
San Diego philanthropist and former owner of the San Diego Padres, Joan B. Kroc, (seen here in 1995) died of cancer this weekend.
Joan B. Kroc, the billionaire McDonald's heiress who saw her San Diego Padres into their first World Series and who used her fortune – sometimes anonymously – to benefit causes ranging from homelessness to world peace, has died.
Diagnosed more than three months ago with inoperable brain cancer, Mrs. Kroc died yesterday at her home in Rancho Santa Fe. She was 75.
Reflecting her desire for privacy and to keep the focus on the causes she supported, Mrs. Kroc kept her illness a secret to all but those closest to her.
The life and times of Joan B. Kroc
Padres of yesteryear remember kind, caring lady who led team
"It was just like Joan," said Monsignor Joe Carroll, whose St. Vincent De Paul Village benefited from Mrs. Kroc's largess. "It was one of the best-kept secrets in town for somebody so famous."
As news of her death spread, community leaders spared no praise in acknowledging her widespread legacy.
Former Mayor Maureen O'Connor, a close friend of Mrs. Kroc's, said: "San Diego was privileged and very lucky to have Joan Kroc, whom I always called St. Joan of the Arches.
"She was a a woman of generous spirit and a loving heart for all people of San Diego. She has no equal."
In a March 19, 1990, story focusing on powerful women in the Sun Belt, Time magazine described a trio of "elegant ladies from the smart set" in San Diego: Mrs. Kroc; Helen K. Copley, owner of The Copley Press and publisher of The San Diego Union and the Evening Tribune; and O'Connor.
"Together, these wealthy women call many of the shots in the West's second-largest city," the magazine said.
Mrs. Kroc emerged as a civic-minded, hands-on philanthropist after inheriting the estate of her husband, Ray Kroc, the McDonald's Corp. founder and owner of the Padres, who died in January 1984.
Succeeding him as Padres owner, she saw the team win the first of its National League championships later that year. In 1990, she sold the Padres for $75 million to a group of 15 businessmen headed by Tom Werner and began to take her philanthropy to a new level.
"The more I give, the more fortunate I feel," she once told The San Diego Union-Tribune.
In sharing the wealth, she felt she was following her husband's example. "Ray was once asked in an interview why he gave so much of his wealth away," Mrs. Kroc said. "He said, 'I've never seen a Brinks truck following a hearse. Have you?' "
Last month, Forbes magazine estimated Mrs. Kroc's fortune at $1.7 billion, making her 121st on its list of the nation's wealthiest people.
Causes she supported over the years have included health research, drug and alcohol rehabilitation, help for the homeless, the arts, wildlife preservation, an animal shelter, programs to combat child abuse and victims of natural disasters.
"San Diego has lost one of its most cherished citizens today," Mayor Dick Murphy said. "Her generous philanthropy demonstrated her abiding affection for the city. She will be missed."
Among the most visible signs of Mrs. Kroc's philanthropy are a 12-acre Salvation Army community center that opened in June 2002 in ethnically diverse Rolando; the Joan B. Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at the University of San Diego; the St. Vincent de Paul Joan Kroc Center for the homeless in downtown San Diego; San Diego Hospice palliative care center in Hillcrest; and the Kroc-Copley Animal Shelter in the Morena District.
The Salvation Army's Tim Foley, co-administrator of the Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center, which has welcomed more than 425,000 people since its opening, called Mrs. Kroc "truly one of God's special angels."
Mrs. Kroc donated $87 million to the Salvation Army – the largest contribution in the 118-year history of the organization – to create the community center at 6845 University Ave. Designed to expose children to the arts, educational programs and sports, it is known as the Salvation Army's Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center.
The last component of the center – a 640-seat performing arts space at an adjoining education wing – opened in March.
At the dedication of the arts space – known as the Joan B. Kroc Theater – featured guest Tony Bennett invited Mrs. Kroc, an accomplished pianist, to join him on stage for one of his songs. Although it was one of her last public appearances, Mrs. Kroc returned to the center about three weeks ago to check on a bronze sculpture by Henry Moore that she contributed to the center's garden area, Foley said.
Her gift to the center was believed to be among the largest ever by a San Diego resident to a local charity. Mrs. Kroc approached the Salvation Army about the project, one of the biggest community centers in the nation, after she toured some of the city's struggling eastern neighborhoods.
The Kroc Institute for Peace and Justice at USD, an extension of Mrs. Kroc's commitment to world peace and conflict resolution, opened in late 2001 as a think tank for research and teaching.
She donated $25 million for construction and an additional $5 million to endow a lecture series on conflicts and human rights.
Mrs. Kroc also gave $6 million to the Joan B. Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies at the University of Notre Dame, culminating more than 15 years of contributions to the school.
Without fanfare, she donated a sculpture by the renowned Giacomo Manzu to the institute in August, said Joyce Neu, the institute's director.
"One of her most abiding interests was trying to make people change the way they think and behave so that they can deal with their differences in a more benign way," Neu said. "She had such an amazing passion and dedication and was so wonderful, so much fun, to be with. You couldn't be apathetic around her."
Although she allowed her name to be used for projects such as the USD institute, sometimes in hopes it would attract other donors, she shied from the limelight.
"She turned down interview requests with Fortune and Forbes, but talked to a small community newspaper because she thought it would help the Salvation Army project here," said Dick Starmann, her spokesman who announced her death.
In 1997, Mrs. Kroc anonymously donated $15 million to flood victims in Grand Forks, N.D., and East Grand Forks, Minn. In an attempt to keep her identity a secret, she left her private jet and toured the flood-devastated region in a van.
When families devastated by the flood received $2,000 each, they knew her only as "the angel."
Later, reporters who checked ownership records of the jet that delivered her learned that it was registered to Joan B. Kroc Trustees.
"I'll tell you, that was really a godsend," Ruth Lindgren, 77, one of the beneficiaries in East Grand Forks, said last night.
"Everyone looked so helpless. Everybody was so down, wondering what they were going to do."
Lindgren and her husband, Harley, used the money to buy a trailer in which they lived while their house was rebuilt.
Mrs. Kroc's desire for anonymity came as no surprise to Carroll, head of St. Vincent de Paul Village. Carroll once recalled that she handed him a check, unsolicited, for $800,000.
When the mission-style St. Vincent de Paul Joan Kroc Center opened to house the homeless on Imperial Avenue in September 1987, "it was probably the first time she had ever permitted her name to be used on a building," Carroll said.
After contributing more than $3 million to build the center, Mrs. Kroc returned to serve meals. "She had a great knack of looking the homeless in the eye and treating them just like she treated me – as a friend," Carroll said.
Mrs. Kroc also was a major benefactor of Ronald McDonald Children's Charities and Ronald McDonald Houses.
In 1993, she contributed more than 1.2 million shares of McDonald's stock, worth an estimated $60 million, directly to Ronald McDonald Houses, where parents whose children are undergoing medical treatment receive shelter.
She followed that two years later with a $50 million donation to Ronald McDonald Children's Charities, a grant-making organization that supports health care and medical research, education, the arts and civic and social services.
The San Diego Hospice care center, which opened for terminally ill patients in 1991, was established following an initial donation of $18.5 million from Mrs. Kroc.
"Her father had died in a hospice setting in Minneapolis," said Blair Blum, chief executive officer of San Diego Hospice. "She wanted to share that philosophy with the people of San Diego."
Mrs. Kroc and Helen K. Copley, chairman and publisher emeritus of The San Diego Union-Tribune, each contributed $2 million for the Kroc-Copley Animal Shelter, which opened in May 2002.
"Joan was an enormously giving person and wonderful friend to Mother and me," said David Copley, chairman and publisher of the Union-Tribune. "Their love of animals culminated in their collaborative efforts to build the new Kroc-Copley Humane Society. Joan's legacy will live on and on, thanks to all that she has done for this community and throughout the country."
On the political front, Mrs. Kroc became an activist in the nuclear disarmament movement after attending the National Women's Conference for the Prevention of Nuclear War in Washington in 1984.
The following year, she poured close to $3 million into the nuclear weapons debate. She bought newspaper ads, commissioned book printings and funded disarmament groups.
Joan Beverly Mansfield was born Aug. 27, 1928, in St. Paul, Minn. Although her father, a railroad worker, was out of work during the Depression, the family was able to pay for her piano lessons from the time she was 6 to 16.
Music was a priority in the Mansfield family. Mrs. Kroc's mother had been a concert violinist.
At 15, Mrs. Kroc began teaching piano, building a 38-student clientele. She played keyboard at a music store. She studied at the prestigious McPhail School of Music in Minneapolis.
At 17, she met and married Roland Smith, a young man fresh out of the Navy. As a young mother, in the early 1950s, she took a job playing the piano and organ in a St. Paul restaurant.
It was there she first caught the eye of Ray Kroc, then a budding burger tycoon. "I was stunned by her blond beauty," he later wrote in his autobiography.
Twelve years later, after he was divorced twice and she once, they were married. He was 26 years her senior but so youthful and energetic that she thought he was about 35, she would say many years later.
Ray Kroc bought the Padres in 1974 and the couple moved to San Diego two years later. After making her home here, Mrs. Kroc founded Operation Cork, which produced films and booklets and sponsored programs to educate health professionals about the dangers of alcoholism.
In 1980, she established what was believed to be the first employee-assistance program in major-league baseball for her team's players and staff with drug problems.
"Sadly, in her passing, people will really find out for the first time how much she meant to not only this community but to the world," said former Padres star Tony Gwynn. "She did things her way, not for recognition or other considerations but because it was the right thing to do.
"It's a shame that most of us will only now find out the extent of what Joan did. She was a great owner, person and humanitarian. I remember when I declared bankruptcy in 1987. It was my darkest hour. And Joan was there to offer me words of encouragement and to address the team on my behalf.
"She cared about the players and their families. Heck, she cared about everyone on the face of this earth. She loved to help people."
Survivors include a daughter; a sister, four grandchildren; and four great-grandchildren.
A private service is planned.
Sports writers Bill Center and Jim Lindgren and staff writer Lisa Petrillo contributed to this report.
Abe51, I would like to add another quote:
If you can give your son or daughter only one gift, let it be enthusiasm.
- Bruce Barton
Where on earth are you guys getting these outrageous numbers? at least you could come up with a little truth.
IOwn, you are a very creative young man........Poor Rush!!!!!
Abe51,
Let me also express my appreciation to your,
"Qoutes of the day"
I look forward to reading them each morning.
Thanks Voyager546, Yes, I am in another OTC stock "nvei", and followed the other nvei investors over here. Most of my investment is in nvei, and I have been in it since 1997. So I am in the same minus position on both OTC stocks, I have some energy stocks & and money market stocks however they don't go up very fast and are not as much fun.