Discovery, Shame & More Namecalling

THUMBS UP TO:

Uncommon dedication to self and country

A Lewiston, Maine, man who lost 140 pounds to join the Marines headed to Parris Island, S.C., last week to begin boot camp. When he topped 330 pounds, Ulysses Milana was rejected by recruiters for the Navy and Army. Marine Corps recruiters worked with him as he lost about 20 pounds per month.

He lost the weight by exercising, changing his eating habits and giving up his occasional beer after work. He told The Associated Press he wanted to serve in the military like other members of his family. His wife, Latoya, also comes from a military family.

Milana, a San Diego native, is a former culinary student who struggled to give up hot wings, pizza and beer. He said determination kept him on track. Marine recruiters also worked with him, helping to develop a workout regimen.

Milana will complete 12-week basic training at Parris Island before being assigned a duty station.

Exciting historical and Biblical discovery

King Herod, the famous Biblical king, might have been buried in a crypt with lavish wall paintings, Israeli archaeologists told AP. The paintings were discovered earlier this month in a two-story mausoleum, bolstering the belief that the ancient Jewish monarch was buried inside. No human remains have been found, but excavation continues at a hillside dig in an Israeli-controlled portion on the West Bank, south of Jerusalem.

The site of Herod’s winter palace was discovered in 2007 in the Judean desert.

The Herod of Christian tradition flew into a rage when he met three wise men on the way to Bethlehem. They were carrying gifts for the baby Jesus and telling of the birth of a new king of Israel.

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More embarrasing, racist newspaper columns
Gawker.com has given columnist Stephen Lewis of the Murfreesboro (Tenn.) Post the dubious distinction of “Most Racist Newspaper Column About Obama’s Election.” After the election, Lewis wrote a column chronicling Barack Obama’s rise to the White House. It was sung to The Jeffersons television show theme. It’s pretty horrible, calling the White House a “deee-luxe pimp pad” and other racist nonsense.

Lewis has apologized, as has editor and publisher Michael L. Pirtle, who pointed out, weakly, that Lewis is not a journalist “but a citizen of the community who writes a weekly column, again in his case a humor column.” And what is Lewis’ “real job?” He’s an elementary school principal.

We assume the reason Gawker.com gave this award to Lewis is perhaps it hadn’t seen Bobby Lee May’s similar-style column earlier this election season in The Voice newspaper in Grundy, Va. In the column, May said Obama would paint the White House black, supports reparations for slavery, would add a “Black National Anthem” and would replace the American flag with one that has a “star and crescent logo” – an Islamic symbol.

May resigned his position as chairman of the Buchanan County, Va., campaign for Republican John McCain after his column was referenced in a Los Angeles Times article about racial attitudes toward Obama in Southwest Virginia.

Newspaper staff called communists, atheists

Don Blankenship, CEO of Massey Energy,  compared Charleston Gazette Editor James. A. Haught to Osama Bin Laden on Nov. 20 when he spoke to the Tug Valley Mining Institute in Williamson, W.Va. “It is as great a pleasure for me to be criticized by the communists and the atheists of the Charleston Gazette as to be applauded by my best friends,” he said. “Because I know they are wrong.

People are cowering away from being criticized by people that are our enemies. Would we be upset if Osama Bin Laden was critical of us?” he asked.

Blankenship, who heads the country’s fourth-largest coal company, said the coal business needs to start standing up for itself.

“They can say what they want about climate change ,” he said. “But the only thing melting in this country that matters is our financial system and our economy.”

“The greeniacs are taking over the world,” he claimed.

Certainly Blankenship was among friends at a mining meeting in West Virginia. And he took full advantage of the moment to blast the communists, atheists and greeniacs who he believes oppose him. To some, he might sound paranoid, but for at least 20 years, the company has prided itself on avoiding the press when it could and blaming the press when it couldn’t. In that vein, Blankenship sounds right on twisted message.