Newspaper Page Text
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♦ SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 2, 2006
OPINION
Daniel F. Evans
Editor and Publisher
Julie B. Evans
Vice President
Don Moncrief Foy S. Evans
Managing Editor Editor Emeritus
Houston students do well
Houston County students made
impressive scores on the revised SAT
test this year, coming through with
scores that exceeded state and federal mean
totals.
We like to brag about our public school
system as one
of the things
that has lured
newc o m -
ers to move
into Houston
County for
decades.
Scores like
those released
by the College
Board for the
Class of 2006
ratifies our belief that we have a right to
brag.
Houston County students in the Class
of 2006 exceeded the state average by 24
points. They exceeded the national average
by 28 points. ,
Perhaps our state ranks 46 th in the nation,
but clearly educators in Houston County
are on the right track in preparing students
for college with excellent foundations to
succeed in institutions of higher learning.
Did he need to do that?
President Bush went to New Orleans
for the 13 th time since Hurricane
Katrina struck a year ago and he took
“full responsibility” for the disaster.
We wonder what is wrong with him. Unless
he has powers beyond those we know about,
the hurricane was not his fault.
The mayor of New Orleans and the gov
ernor of Louisiana were on the ground and
failed to fulfill their obligations to get people
out of New Orleans before the storm struck.
Even after the hurricane, local response
was poor, with nearly half the police force
in New Orleans abandoning their jobs and
leaving town.
FEMA was a failure. President Bush was
not on the scene and if he had been we doubt
that he could have done more to prevent the
disaster.
Many people did outstanding jobs helping
the stranded and lives were saved.
By accepting responsibility for the disaster
President Bush probably said what his crit
ics wanted him to say, but as Commander in
Chief he had to rely on subordinates who,
along with the mayor and governor, did not
perform well.
Now is the time to move forward and plan
for an effective response to the next hurri
cane to hit the storm ravaged Gulf Coast.
State Briefs
Trash sticky situation
I read with interest the article on the front page of
Tuesdays newspaper about the Mayor complaining of the
trash totes being left beside the road after trash pickup. I
have a two-part complaint with his thinking.
First, my trash day is Wednesday and has been since we
started with Advance Disposal. My tote is usually pulled
out Tuesday night. This week however I forgot and didn’t
pull it out until Wednesday morning. When I came home
Wednesday afternoon and went to pull my tote from the
road, it was still filled with trash. Now, I didn’t know
if I had just missed pick up for not having it pulled out
Tuesday night or not. So I left my tote beside the road.
Thank goodness I did because they didn’t empty my tote
until Thursday. If I had pulled my tote in on Wednesday
like the Mayor wants us to do I would have missed having
my trash emptied this week.
I have called the city and logged a complaint with them,
because this is not the first time this has happened both
at home and at my place of employment.
Second, at my job trash pick up is Wednesday also. I
leave the office before 6 p.m. on Tuesday nights. There
is no specific time they pick up our trash. Sometimes
it is wee early morning hours, noon, or late afternoons.
So I pull my tote to the road before I leave the office on
Tuesdays because I don’t come in to the office until after
8:30 a.m. in the mornings. I should not have to make a
special trip to the office just to pull the tote out after 8
p.m. to make sure it’s out for collection on Wednesday.
I feel like the mayor can’t start charging city of Perry
residents with misdemeanors for not pulling their totes
in until he can get his trash collection people to start
doing their jobs and getting our trash emptied on the
days it is supposed to be emptied. He wants the citizens
to be consistent with getting our totes pulled out after 8
p.m. the day before scheduled collection day and pulled in
by 9 p.m. the day of collection but he can’t get his collec
tion service to be consistent with trash pick up.
Oh, and by the way - we all want to know, What’s with
the purple trash tote?
Terry S. Stinson, Perry
Houston County
students In the Class
of 2006 exceeded the
state average by 24
points. They exceeded
the national average by
20 points.
The growing American waist
Our waistlines keep on growing.
At least, that is what the Trust
For America’s Health says is
happening.
Of course, that is something anyone
with any eyesight knows. It doesn’t
take the study that was conducted by
the Trust to point out the obvious.
Obesity is on the rise. Just about
every government agency involved in
tracking the health of Americans tells
us that. So do the American Medical
Association, the American Heart
Association, the American Cancer
Society, for a start.
We’re a nation that likes to talk about
healthy living and losing weight, but
the scales and how we look are proof
that we are better at talking about it
than practicing what we preach.
Goodness knows, we all know what
we should eat. And how much or how
little. We know that we should exercise
regularly.
However, it is easier to give a nod
to living the healthy life than forcing
ourselves to make the sacrifices that
are needed.
The Trust says that nine out of
the 10 states with the highest obe
sity rates are in the South. Why not?
Southern cooking is the best you can
find anywhere. And what our cooks
place before us we eat heartily and in
abundance.
Health authorities admonish us to
eat sparingly and to exercise regularly.
They don’t have the luxury of meals
consisting of peas and combread and
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No more ambulances for terror
What kind of cold-blooded thugs
use ambulances as killing aids
or propaganda tools? Islamic
terrorists, of course, have an unsur
passed history of using emergency
vehicles as tools of their murderous
trade. International charities and
media dupes have gone along for the
ride.
In March 2002, Israeli Defense
Forces discovered a bomb in a Palestine
Red Crescent Society ambulance near
Jerusalem. The bomb, packed in a sui
cide belt, was hidden under a gurney
carrying a Palestinian child. The driver
confessed that it was not the first time
ambulances had been used to ferry
explosives.
Female suicide bomber Wafa Idris,
who blew herself up in a January 2002
attack in Jerusalem, was a medical
secretary for the PRCS. Her recruit
er was an ambulance driver for the
same organization, which receives sup
port from governments worldwide and
the American and International Red
Cross.
As I reported in May 2004, an Israeli
television station aired footage of armed
Arab terrorists in southern Gaza using
an ambulance owned and operated by
the United Nations Relief and Works
Agency for Palestine Refugees which
has received more than $2.5 billion in
taxpayer subsidies. Palestinian gun
men used the UN emergency vehi
cle as getaway transportation after
murdering six Israeli soldiers. Senior
UNRWA employee Nahed Rashid
Ahmed Attalah confessed to using his
official UN vehicle to bypass security
and smuggle arms, explosives and ter
rorists to and from attacks. Nidal ‘Abd
al-Fataah ‘Abdallah Nizal, a Hamas
activist, worked as an UNRWA ambu
lance driver and admitted he, too, had
used an emergency vehicle to transport
munitions to terrorists.
Peter Hansen, the head of the
UNJ?WA, huffily denied that its vehicles
OPINION
mashed potatoes and beef and pork
chops and fried chicken and banana
pudding and other delicacies only a
true southerner can appreciate.
That, of course, is no excuse. Our
waistlines are expanding at our own
expense. This is supposed to cause
diabetes and heart disease and shorten
our lives.
I mentioned my concern over my
own growing waistline and weight to
my son and he told me, “If I was old as
you it wouldn’t matter.”
Maybe I am guilty of giving lip ser
vice to maintaining my own weight and
waistline.
There have been several times when
I have had exercise routines. About 30
years ago I got up before dawn and ran
several miles before breakfast.
Most mornings I asked myself if
I wanted to punish myself that way
the rest of my life. Ironically, jogging
or running can become addictive. I
got to the point I needed my fix. On
trips I looked for a place to run and if
I didn’t run I felt guilty all day. I have
jogged in many unusual places, includ
ing the roofs of some downtown hotels
in Atlanta.
were being exploited by terrorists. But
a few months later, he told Canada’s
CBC TV: “I am sure that there are
Hamas members on the UNRWA pay
roll and I don’t see that as a crime.”
When they’re not being used to ferry
weapons, ambulances serve as major
stage props for Hizballah news pro
ductions. I remind you again of CNN
anchor Anderson Cooper’s description
last month of Hizballah’s ruse: “They
had six ambulances lined up in a row
and said, OK, you know, they brought
reporters there, they said you can talk
to the ambulance drivers. And then
one by one, they told the ambulances
to turn on their sirens and to zoom off,
and people taking that picture would
be reporting, I guess, the idea that
these ambulances were zooming off to
treat civilian casualties, when in fact,
these ambulances were literally going
back and forth down the street just for
people to take pictures of them.”
Keep all this context in mind - and
keep the summer’s bombshell blog rev
elations of Photoshopped war fauxtog
raphy by Reuters and staged photos
by other media outlets in mind - as
we move on to the events of July 23.
According to the Lebanon Red Cross,
two of its ambulances were delib
erately struck by weapons in Qana,
Lebanon, while performing rescue mis
sions. The international press, which
has stubbornly ignored the prolonged
exploitation of emergency vehicles by
terrorists, immediately accused Israel
of committing “war crimes.”
Photos and accounts of the alleged
Foy
Evans
Columnist
loyevansl9@cox.net
Michelle
Malkin
Columnist
malkin@comcast.net
HOUSTON DAILY JOURNAL
I got off of the running kick when I
had surgery. Since then, on a few occa
sions, I have joined health clubs and
have maintained a sensible exercise
program until I fell off the wagon, per
haps permanently, more than a year
ago.
Now I tell myself I am going to start
exercising again as I join the multi
tude of people with waistlines who are
requiring larger and larger clothes.
Today’s Americans have a lifestyle
conducive to obesity and larger waist
lines. It’s what we eat, but alsd the
fact most of us do not have jobs that
require more than a minimal amount
of exertion.
Any beneficial exercise most of us get
is by setting aside time for “exercise”
and most people find this hard to do,
considering other things tugging at
them for their time. •
Government intervention is sup
posed to be helping. Food and bever
age companies are being asked to keep
the calories down. The suggestion has
been made that planning and zoning
regulations should make more walk
ing necessary. Nutrition counseling is
everywhere.
But the final responsibility lies with
all of us. Lecturing will do no good.
What we consider important is within
us. I know that my priorities have
changed as I have grown older. I find it
easier to dream than to act. And when
the chips are down I figure that my son
may be right, after all.
ambulance targeting were dissemi
nated widely by newswires, the BBC,
ITV, The New York Times, the Boston
Globe and countless others. It should
be noted that Western journalists were
not allowed onto the scene, but received
video and pictures from locals. Bloggers
have again raised pointed doubts about
what those photos really show (see
zombietime.com/fraud/ambulance/ and
my Internet video report at hotair.
com/archives/2006/08/29/ambulances
for-jihad/). The roof of one Red Cross
ambulance said to have been hit by a
missile had a neat hole punched dead
center - in the same location that ven
tilation holes of other ambulances are
positioned.
Massive rust and corrosion around
the hole suggest the damage may have
occurred before the alleged strike.
Moreover, a missile explosion inside an
ambulance would not leave the rest of
the vehicle as intact as the supposedly
targeted ambulance remained. A para
medic quoted by several media organi
zations claimed a “big fire” engulfed
the inside of the vehicle. But photos
of the ambulance allegedly consumed
by the fire showed gurneys and seats
intact and minimal damage to the
interior.
What is the response from all of the
media hypers of the alleged Red Cross
ambulance missile strike last month?
The same response they’ve had to
the jihadists’ past ambulance hoaxes:
Nothing.
Maybe your political representatives
will have more to say. Many of the
UN and Red Cross ambulances and
ambulance drivers being exploited by
the likes of Hamas and Hizballah are
supported by American taxpayers and
charitable groups. Isn’t it time to cut
off the ambulances-for-terror lifeline?
Michelle Malkin is author of the new
book “Unhinged: Exposing Liberals
Gone Wild.” Her e-mail address is
malkin@concast.net.