Corbett's Investigative Day

Iraq War Logs (http://wikileaks.org/)

2010-10-24T04:03:00.000-07:00

At 5pm EST Friday 22nd October 2010 WikiLeaks released the largest classified military leak in history. The 391,832 reports ('The Iraq War Logs'), document the war and occupation in Iraq, from 1st January 2004 to 31st December 2009 (except for the months of May 2004 and March 2009) as told by soldiers in the United States Army. Each is a 'SIGACT' or Significant Action in the war. They detail events as seen and heard by the US military troops on the ground in Iraq and are the first real glimpse into the secret history of the war that the United States government has been privy to throughout.

The reports detail 109,032 deaths in Iraq, comprised of 66,081 'civilians'; 23,984 'enemy' (those labeled as insurgents); 15,196 'host nation' (Iraqi government forces) and 3,771 'friendly' (coalition forces). The majority of the deaths (66,000, over 60%) of these are civilian deaths.That is 31 civilians dying every day during the six year period. For comparison, the 'Afghan War Diaries', previously released by WikiLeaks, covering the same period, detail the deaths of some 20,000 people. Iraq during the same period, was five times as lethal with equivallent population size.

Friday, Oct. 15, 2010

2010-10-15T00:47:00.000-07:00

Mostly Dis & A Lot of Dat: With that Iranian Mad Man (Ahmadinejad) finally leaving Lebanon, Bibi Netanyahu says Israel will remain wary of ties between Beirut and Tehran. The PM added that Israel will 'know how to defend itself against such developments.' (Source: Ynet)

2010-10-15T00:41:00.000-07:00

Corbett Returns To Blog Again

2010-10-13T09:24:00.000-07:00

October 13, 2010: After nine months of hospital visits and stay-at-home care, Ol' Man Corbett returns to his post with ID (Investigative Day) and the Jerusalem Sun ... If you want a much fuller report, just e-mail me at: editorcorbett@gmail.com ... Much has happened in nine months, including losing a ton (well, alright, 40 pounds) ... So it's back to the grind Thursday ...

2009-04-21T05:03:00.001-07:00

Apocalypse Now: A familiar scenario

2009-02-21T09:29:00.000-08:00

(Second of a two-part series on the Apocalypse from Ahmadinejad to former Washington Post reporter Michael Drosnin was written in January 2007).
The "prophets" of doom and gloom are flooding the market place -- or, at least, the Internet and bookstores around the globe. In fact, it's become a multi-million, perhaps, even a billion-dollar business.
In generations past, those so-called seers of "end times" wore long robes and had scruffy beards and stood on street corners while shouting of mankind's imminent demise. "The End Is Here," they would bellow.
Now, they turn up on major television shows, with a few exceptions, issuing their pronouncements. They're mostly clean cut and some even wear designer suits.
And where did this trend begin?
Before Y2K, Frontline, the celebrated U.S.-based television program, gave the chronological order of "the apocalyptic world view through the ages.
"The following are brief excerpts which stretches back to 1,500 B.C.E., when the Persian prophet Zoroaster spoke of "a cosmic battle between good and evil ending in a new, perfect world for humanity. The Zoroastrian tradition survives today in Iran and as the basis of Parsiism in India.
"If, indeed, the genesis occurred in Iran, then the world shouldn't be shocked by the recent pronouncements from its despotic leader, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who believes a Shi'ite messianic figure, Imam Mahdi, will arrive with "Jesus, the son of Mary," by the spring equinox.
Then as I wrote in Thursday's paper, this Mahdi, supposedly, would take over an army and eventually end up in Jerusalem and wage a number of apocalyptic battles against the enemies of Islam (namely Israel and the U.S.).
However, in tracing the Frontline scenario, the Book of Ezekiel (written in 592 BCE to 586 BCE), apparently was penned in response to the invasion and capture of Jerusalem by the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzer and the exile of the Jews to Babylon. And this book as well as the Book of Isaiah, First Enoch and, particularly, the Book of Daniel is the basis of much of today's proliferation of prophecy believers and so-called scholars.
In the New Testament, the Gospel of Mark, according to Frontline "interpreters" included the "Little Apocalypse" in which Jesus -- The Messiah -- fuelled expectations of His imminent return.
However, perhaps, the Book of Revelation, written in 90 CE, emphasized apocalyptic events, which would occur in the future.
Throughout the ages the world has gravitated towards a belief it would come to a dramatic end -- and suddenly. And beyond that, there was either damnation for some, known as hell, or an ideal paradise, known as heaven.
According to Frontline, the American Revolution had a significant role in fuelling apocalyptic thinking, for "colonial pamphleteers equated the hated Stamp Act with the "mark of the beast" from Revelation, and cast King George in the role of the Antichrist.
In 1859, according to Frontline, a British minister, John Nelson Darby, introduced a theological viewpoint known as premillennial dispensationalism, which divided history in sections or epochs. According to Darby, the period we are living in now would be considered the Church Age, which would be followed by the Rapture, in which the true believers in Christ would be swept away and those left on the planet would have to endure the terrible dilemma known as the Tribulation.
While there have been a bevy of "doom-sayers," probably the most listened to have been TV evangelist John Hagee and prolific writers such as professing born-again Christians, Hal Lindsey and Grant Jeffrey.
One who doesn't fall into that category is former Washington Post and The Wall Street Journal reporter, Michael Drosnin, who has had two New York Times bestsellers, Citizen Hughes, and The Bible Code.
Drosnin, in the Bible Code II -- The Countdown, written in 2002, believes the world is on the very edge of the Apocalypse and as he wrote for the book jacket, "The warning in the Bible Code (the ancient code encrypted in the Bible) is clear: A nuclear World War will start with an act of terrorism in the Middle East. It is the Apocalypse foretold by all the West's three major religions.
"Drosnin went on to claim September 11 was predicted in the 3,000-year code and "was the beginning, not the end, of the danger.
"One of the most scary scenarios was forecast by a former Californian named Frank Ernest Mauck, who has taken on the mantle of "Elijah the Tishbite" and now resides in Cyprus.
On a daily basis he utilizes the Internet to get his messages that Planet X is on a collision course with Earth. Then he proceeds to condemn everyone from U.S. President George Bush to Prince Charles for the world's ills.
While this planet hasn't been rocked yet by apocalyptic storms or it hasn't turned on its axis, it appears time is quickly running out, according to these "prophets of doom and gloom."
(OK Corbett is a former editor-columnist with the Edmonton Sun and one of the originals of the Toronto Sun. Hie e-mail is: editorcorbett@gmail.com).

Dealing with 'prophets of doom'

2009-02-21T08:54:00.000-08:00

(First of this two-part series on the Apocalypse from Ahmadinejad to former Washington Post reporter Michael Drosnin was written in January 2007)
The words, "Apocalypse warning" has a tendency to send shivers up and down one's spine. It's a subject which is often ignored by so-called normal people, who dwell on the rise and fall of stock market prices.
However, even though Terry Mattingly of Scripps Howard News Service claimed such matters as the "end-times" didn't even rate among the top 20 "religious stories" during 2006, it, nevertheless, held high priority in some circles.
Incidentally, such events as the violence ignited by the publication of the Muhammad cartoons and the controversy surrounding the Da Vinci Code movie did make the headlines.
As far back as the summer, and in this column, I detailed that Iranian despot Mahmoud Ahmadinejad believed that the Hidden Imam, would appear by Tuesday, Aug. 22, 2006. It didn't happen, but there were those that believed such an event could occur in the near future.
Just prior to that date, former Princeton professor Bernard Lewis in the Wall Street Journal, wrote: "What is the significance of Aug. 22? This year, Aug. 22 corresponds to the 27th day of the month of Rajab of the year 1427. This, by tradition, is the night when many Muslims mark the night flight of the prophet Muhammad on the winged horse, Burq, first to "the farthest mosque," usually identified with Jerusalem, and then to heaven and back (c.f. Koran XVII.1). This might well be deemed an appropriate date for the apocalyptic ending of Israel and if necessary of the world.
"Then I took the liberty to quote from the Zionist.com website, which stated: "Ahmadinejad is a strong believer in the Shi'ite tradition of the 12th imam, the so-called "hidden" Imam Mahdi who Allah had miraculously kept alive since his disappearance in 874 A.D. As the story goes, Imam Mahdi will return at a time of great global chaos, oppression and bloodshed and usher in an era of (Islamic) justice."
However, on Dec. 31, the official Iran website claimed the Imam would arrive by spring along with "Jesus, the son of Mary." This Mahdi, who some believe to be Osama bin Laden, would suddenly appear in Mecca; form an army, head for Medina and eventually take on Islam's chief enemies (Israel and the U.S.) in Jerusalem."
Ahmadinejad's mystical pre-occupation with the coming of the Mahdi is raising concerns that a nuclear-armed Islamic Republic could trigger the kind of global conflagration he envisions (and) will set the stage for the end of the world," according to the respected website, World Net Daily.
Of course, Ahmadinejad isn't the only one, who has made predictions.
In Dr. Michael Rutford's book, "The Nostradamus Code: World War III -- 2007-2012, he has taken the liberty to interpret the "quatrains" of the often-quoted seer.
In Chapter 4: The Time of Troubles, Rutford's summation included such frightening thoughts as the rise of a crazed (Middle Eastern) leader, who will launch nuclear bombs on the Mediterranean and in Europe, particularly on France and Italy. "This leader is not the Antichrist but helps to set the stage for the Antichrist."
Other interpretations of Nostradamus' quatrains include:
* Volcanoes, earthquakes, flood, droughts. "A very bright, previously unknown comet will appear and coincide with the time of great geological troubles, with earthquakes and volcanoes erupting and disrupting weather systems ... The U.S., in particular, will be subject to serious natural disasters ... Earth changes will take place that will help the Antichrist's drive for world conquest."
However, a modern-day "interpreter," Jack Kelley has written of seven major prophetic signs of the Second Coming (of Jesus Christ): 1. Israel will be in The Land (Ezekiel 38:8); 2. Jerusalem will be in Jewish hands (Luke 21:24); 3. A Moslem coalition armed and led by Russia will attack the Holy Land (Ezekiel 38:2-6); 4. The ancient Roman Empire will re-emerge as a political force (Rev. 17:9-10); 5. The world will embrace a single religion (Rom.13:8); 6. The world will accept a single government (Rev. 13:3); 7. Babylon will re-emerge as a prominent city in world affairs (Rev. 18:2-3).
There are other signs according to Kelley such as: Wars and rumours of wars; the increase of natural disasters; signs in the sun, moon and stars; pestilence; the love of most will grow cold; the gospel will be preached in all nations.
So the question remains: What will really happen in the near future?
Tomorrow: Other "prophets" will vent ther views, from former Washington Post reporter Michael Drosnin, author of the best-selling Bible Code II -- The Countdown to Elijah the Tishbite, aka Frank Ernest Mauck.
(OK Corbett is a former editor-columnist with the Edmonton Sun and one of the originals of the Toronto Sun. He can be reached at editorcorbett@gmail.com)

Time to remember those unforgettables

2009-01-03T07:25:00.000-08:00

I’m one of the fortunate ones. There have been a raft of unforgettables, who have crossed my path. Those extraordinary individuals, who have defied great odds and pursued their dreams (or visions) no matter what the obstacles and the criticism of mere mortals.
And from that list three stand out from the rest. Of course, I’ve written about them in the past, and they certainly deserve to be written about again and again.
With the Israel-Gaza confrontation at a fever pitch I decided to search my files from 1999-2000 when I walked the streets of Jerusalem as a newsman for World Net Daily and a number of other publications. It was there I met a distinguished man named Gershon Salomon, whose mission in life was the rebuilding of the great Jewish sanctuary on the Temple Mount.
In 1999, hundreds, and I was one of them, walked with Salomon towards the closed gates of the Temple Mount and later to other Biblical sites. It was a sweltering day and there aboard a flatbed truck was a massive rock, which Salomon designated the “Foundation Stone” for the Third Temple.
Salomon believes the mission to rebuild the Third Temple came as a result of a life-changing experience, which occurred in 1967.
As a commander of an Israeli unit of paratroopers, he helped "liberate" the Temple Mount and Biblical Jerusalem.
He described it this way: "It was after a critical time in my life after I had been seriously wounded in a battle in the Golan Heights against the Syrian enemy which had attacked the Israeli villages. In a great miracle, G_d, together with His brave Israeli soldiers defeated the Syrians and saved my life.
"He appeared in my life on that critical day and promised me that He had not yet finished with me, but that He had something great for me to do in my life. He surrounded me with His angels as the Syrians later testified. They told the UN observers that they saw angels with their own eyes.
"After a year in hospital with terrible pains and struggling together with G_d Who stood with me to recover and be ready for what He would tell me to do, I volunteered back to my unit using two crutches and G_d continued to heal me.
"When the Temple Mount was in Jewish hands once again after nearly 2,000 years, Salomon was elated. He felt, at that moment, G_d had saved his life and "that I should build His House."
Salomon’'s tears of joy turned to sorrow shortly afterwards when Israeli Minister of Defense, Moshe Dayan, had the nation's flag and the Star of David removed from where Salomon believes is the Holy of Holies and "placed it on the Western Wall of the Temple Mount, which is the symbol of destruction and exile."
While he considered Dayan's decision sinful and anti-godly, Salomon re-iterates his mission to anyone, who will listen, and that is to rebuild the Third Temple and for that purpose he's still leads The Temple Mount and Land of Israel Faithful Movement. Unforgettable.
Even today as Israel is once again going through agonizing war pains, Salomon remains firm in his belief that he’s still “commissioned” to build the Third Temple.
In quoting from his magazine called The Voice of the Temple Mount Faithful, Salomon believed G_d said to him: “I am not finished with you. You will build My house on My holy hill to where you used to watch when you were a kid.”
The second Unforgettable has to be Ernest Frank Mauck, aka Prophet Elijah, whom I also met in Jerusalem.
In 1999, Elijah had been locked up in the stark confines of the Kfar Shaul mental hospital for “mentioning the Name of Yeshua (Jesus) and issuing pronouncements of judgments against Jerusalem and Israel unless “they repented of their evil ways.”
As I wrote at that time, Mauck, with his flowing wild mane of white hair, was mocked constantly for his appearance, however, he gained hundreds of supporters.
These days Elijah lives on the island of Cyprus and uses the Net to send out “messages” of impending doom, believing certain prominent world figures are demonic and that the earth is on a collision course with the mysterious Planet X, aka Niburu.
The third Unforgettable was someone I talked to just the other morning. The one-time athlete from Nova Scotia suffered through the agony of an incurable disease – multiple sclerosis until the morning of Jan. 27, 1951.
In a dramatic “miracle from God” she was able to walk again, had another child and also returned to university. The now 93-year-old mother also taught for 22 years in the Calgary school system.
“Would you put a poem I wrote in your column?” she asked.
“Of course,” I answered.
Prayer For 2009 – Walk With Me.
Dear Lord, guide my steps into the New Year
Lest I lose my way and become entangled
With the mundane things of life and miss your plans for me.
The beautiful lady continued with three more inspiring verses and then she added: “Please make sure you add my name: “Composed and written by Annona Corbett, Jan. 1, 2009.”
“I certainly will, Mom.”

Once again the world is holding its breath

2008-12-29T13:14:00.000-08:00

December 29, 2008 – Perhaps, it’s the cynicism which warps an aging reporter’s mind – one who has covered the beginnings of the 1990-91Gulf War and the vicious Ethiopian conflict.
However, the present-day war between Israel and the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip reminded me once again that the doomsday clock is rapidly ticking towards the midnight hour.
Just in the past few days, the escalation of an “end-times” scenario became much more pronounced as all of Israel’s bitterest enemies and her friends, particularly the United States, are only a day or so away from joining in the Israel-Gaza (Hamas) showdown.
If you believe such a scenario seems impossible, just remember the warships of Iran and now even the great power – China – are in the Gulf of Aden, chasing down pirates while Putin’s Russia from the North seems edgy into getting into the Middle East hostilities. Meanwhile, the U.S. armies are in nearby Iraq and Afghanistan.
Coupled with these possibilities would be Israel’s plans to wipe out the Iranian nuclear facilities and the Biblical forecast of the complete destruction of the Syrian capital of Damascus.
The following is a previous column when the world was holding its breath just two years ago.
Tick … Tick … Tick!
***
May, 2006 -- While Israel has been celebrating its 58th birthday, a frightening scenario has been rapidly unfolding in the Middle East. The players appear to be all in place -- Iran, Iraq, Ethiopia, Libya and Algeria among others -- ready to "annihilate" Israel within days.
Even Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, some might call him "MAD" for short, has certainly bellowed from his small frame: "Israel must be wiped off the map." In other words, drive the miniscule Jewish state into the Mediterrean Sea.
For generations, despots such as Germany's Adolf Hitler have sought to erase Jews from the face of the earth; however, none have succeeded and, according to the Bible, none ever will.
As a former Middle East bureau chief for a major news service, and based in Jerusalem, this reporter has watched as nation after nation have turned their backs on the much-maligned peoples.
In what would be considered an end-times scenario, there seems to be one nation that must be among the list of enemies of Israel, and that, of course, would be Russia.Already the expansive Land of the North -- Putin's Russia -- has declared themselves as faciliators.
While Ahmadinejad has stated his case against Israel, citing the Palestinian issue, other voices are being raised in Iran and elsewhere, fomenting the situation into a fever pitch.In actuality, the Palestinian issue is non-existent, for the people that have occupied both Gaza and large areas of the West Bank territories are only usurpers since Palestine has never been their land; most are peoples from Jordan and other Arab countries, who "squatted" in present-day Israel, for the Jews were, basically, in exile for some 2,000 years.
In 1948, the Jews under such leadership as the late David Ben-Gurion and others established their homeland and it became known as modern-day Israel.
For the children of Israel, it had been a heart-rendering "exile," for even in Psalm 137 it reads:"How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land?
If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right handforget her cunning.
If I do not remember thee, let my tongue cleave to theroof of my mouth;if I prefer not Jerusalem above my highest joys.
This was the song of the exiled Jews, who were camped by the waters of Babylon, now in present-day Iraq.
Through the errant leadership of now-comatose Ariel Sharon and present-day Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, Sharon's protege, of "giving up" their God-given inheritance, the Israelis have been squeezed inside a small portion of The Land, and completely surrounded by hostile Islamic nations, particularly Syria.
And what do the Iranians intend to do in such a situation?
Perhaps, a senior Revolutionary Guards commander, Rear Admiral Mohammad-Ebrahim Dehqani, put it more succinctly than some of his diplomatic cohorts when he said: "We have announced that whenever America does something evil, the first place we will target will be Israel.
"In other words, that's more than a double dare. The rear admiral was actually saying, "Mr. Bush, we dare you to do something and we'll go after Israel ... with nuclear weapons. After all, we have them."Undoubtedly, Washington and President Bush will not sit idly by and allow Iran to dictate world terms.
And what will be the triggering mechanism to bring Russia from the North to join Iran, Iraq, Ethiopia, Libya and Algeria in attacking Israel?That's something all news observers are pondering.Will there be other prominent "spoils," which stand out when the Russian-led Muslim alliance attempts to invade the tiny state, who possess nuclear facilities at Dimona?
One thing that's absolutely certain, according to the "textbook" -- the Bible -- there will be "a supernatural destruction of this Russian-led alliance.
"Will it occur in the massive staging area known as Armageddon, in the Valley of Jezreel, in northern Israel?
And what happens to the so-called No. 1 world power, the United States, in this scenario?

First Person Account ... but for my mother's prayers

2008-12-15T06:26:00.000-08:00

(Ed. Note -- OK Corbett had intended to write about his own ‘Bucket List’ after viewing the Jack Nicholson-Morgan Freeman flick, in which both have cancer and have been given six months to live before “kicking the bucket.” However, in a strange twist of fate and in a split second, Corbett’s own life hung in the balance early Friday afternoon.)

Fridays have always been one of my favourite days of the week.
A time to run some farm errands; feed the dawgs – Bennie the Hound and Sadie the Kid and even Griff if I can find him – and then head out to see some friends in Falkland, on to Westwold and even out to Monte Lake.
Most of the afternoon was filled as well with a trip into Vernon to check with my doctor – Dr. DeBeer – to find out the results of some recent tests and then return to the Ol’ Homestead, put up my feet and mull over what I was going to write for Monday.
I had decided to do my own ‘Bucket List.’ Or so I thought. Instead, it became a first-person account of how I (nearly) died on a Friday afternoon, but for the grace of God.
11:30 a.m. - 12 noon: I headed into Falkland to do some errands and then the Subaru Outback purred towards Monte Lake. Even though it was snowing, there didn’t seem to be any problem and I knew I would get back to Vernon by 2:20 in time to check in with Dr. DeBeer.
12:45 p.m.: No problem although the snow started to swirl on the return trip as I approached Westwold and rounded the corner towards the Legion, located on the left-hand side of the road. Slush was building up in the middle of the road and the car skidded slightly and then it happened …
12:50 p.m.: The car started to spin round and round and turning in the opposite direction. And then it went sideways to the left-hand side of the road and sped up. However, I believed I would be able to stop it before landing in the ditch, but it didn’t.
12:51 p.m.: “Oh, God,” I whispered. I’m now flying high in the air and then within seconds, although it seemed like an eternity, the Subaru “twisted” and then landed with a thud on its roof. The floor is now inches from my face and my legs are trapped. I could hear the car radio blaring; the engine was still going and the seatbelt was holding my 260-pound frame tight and I’m lying in a bed of shattered glass.
12:53: I’m conscious, but I’m trapped and thinking, “is this how I’m going to die?” The car’s interior was crushing down on me and I couldn’t move my arms. It was like a tomb. A grave. And then I yelled: “Help me!” a half-dozen times. However, I am at peace. No panic. No out-of-this world nightmares.
12:55: Then I heard a female voice and it was familiar one. “It’s Barb McDonald. Are you okay?” she asked. “I think so,” I replied. I knew Barb, for The Missus and my family had stayed at her home during the 2003 fires, which had come so close to our Whispering Pines residences. (I later learned this “angel of mercy,” was also a school-bus driver as well as a “First Responder” and had apparently watched as the Subaru sailed into a ditch, which turned out to be a deep six-foot gully, laden with rocks and brush).
1:06 p.m.: I moved my arms and my wrist watch was working and found it intact and I wondered what was underneath my head. It was glass. The car door was finally pulled open and I could see outside and looked up at some shoes high above. From that angle, I thought I had landed in the Grand Canyon.
(It was then that RCMP Cpl. Keith Ferguson of the Falkland Detachment joined the “rescue” party and displayed a high degree of professionalism and concern).
1:15: Barb asked me to turn off the ignition and I tried to reach the keys which were next to my left foot; she was concerned that the airbags would “deploy” and I’d be in trapped without any means of escape. They didn’t and although I couldn’t get the keys out; the car radio finally ceased blaring. Barb had to leave, for it was past time for her to pick up school kids, who were waiting for the bus. Then one of the firemen asked me if I could crawl out of the tangled mess. I wanted to see if my legs would actually work since the left one was snared under the dash. Crawling outside, there were a half-dozen or so rescue-ambulance-firemen there in the gully and up top on the road. I got up off my snow-covered knees and shakily got to my feet. I could stand. I was alive, but the Subaru now resembled a battered accordion. I was wondering how I was going to get up the steep incline. That’s when the fireman told me that I would be taken in a basket and hauled up to the waiting ambulance.
1:20: Another “free” ride and that’s when I saw the full extent of the Subaru’s “injuries,” lying upside down in a fatal position. However, I couldn’t ponder the situation too long for a hospital visit was mandatory. The ambulance “nurse” told me she had once been a paralegal in Vancouver, but had found that being with the ambulance service was so much more satisfying. We talked and even chuckled about our life experiences.
2:45: Vernon Jubilee Hospital Emergency: A wheelchair was in order, for it’s mandatory even though I was quite mobile. No injuries. No stiffness. Only a rinky-dink scratch on my finger (fourth digit right-hand side), which measured all of 1/64 of an inch and nearly invisible after drops of blood had been wiped off.
4:10: The Missus and stepdaughter Susan arrived at the hospital to take me home and they were shocked to see me uninjured and mobile.
5:30: Although I had been told, in the past that I had more lives than a cat since I had been threatened by vicious gangs and even small kids with guns in Ethiopia; been surrounded by hoodlums in Israel and survived, I knew there must be another reason for the latest episode. That’s when I told my 93-year-old mother in Calgary on the phone about the accident. She was calm as usual. “I know … I called my prayer group together and we’ve been praying for you the past couple of days.”
As in the past, my survival didn’t depend on any number of “cats,” but on my mother’s prayers and my faith in God.

Tears once again covered The Land

2008-12-04T04:51:00.000-08:00

ON MONDAY in a far-off place, Mumbai (formerly known as Bombay), a two-year-old boy named Moshe touched the entire world with his screams of “Mommy, Mommy”!
If you were not touched by his tearful wail, then your heart has turned to stone.
And then on Tuesday in Israel, tears once again covered The Land, as Moshe’s mother, Rivka Holtzberg, and father, Rabbi Gavriel Holtzberg, were laid to rest in Mount of Olives cemetery.
In a memorial ceremony, Rivka’s father, Shimon Rosenberg, told the mourners that his daughter was five months pregnant at the time of her death.
She and her husband and others in Chabad House had been slaughtered by the hideous terrorists while Little Moshe had been rescued and as Israeli President, Shimon Peres, was quoted as saying, “We must explain to him why his mother was murdered. Anyone who has a child must ask this question. Those who have no pity for children will not pity mothers or fathers.”
***
While the story of a now motherless and fatherless child touched the hearts of many others, it had a major impact on mine, for I must admit that I’m still drawn to Israel time and time again, even though it’s been some years since I lived there.
Being based in Jerusalem as a Middle East bureau chief for a major news-gathering organization, it changed my life and now, years later, there’s a definite yearning to return to The Land. It also opened the doors to another ancient people – the Black Jews, known as the Falashas – whom I spent time with in Ethiopia.
They, too, have longed for eons to return to what they consider to be their Promised Land, Israel.
When I went searching the latest news concerning them, it was disconcerting to learn that in a Dec. 1, 2008 report from Addis Ababa, there are around 8,000 still waiting to travel to Israel in order to reunite with relatives.
***
I will never forget, however, my first meeting with these “forgotten” people:
CORBETT'S DIARY: Thursday, Nov. 15, 1990, ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia: "As we drove through the weaving traffic, we reached the Asmera road, which seemed to be blocked off and Sherry Yano (with CPAR -- Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief) was told by one of the few traffic cops I'd seen in Addis, that the road was off-limits because of a celebration at the Israeli embassy.
"So parking the land cruiser, we started walking along the road, filled with people going to and fro with many children in their Sunday best, along with women with great umbrellas and long, white dresses, and finely-robed men.
"Everyone had a wide smile on their faces and there was an unexplainable glow.
"Even the youngsters were different."I kept my vidcam recording this scene, and while the kids were curious, they allowed us to be part of their celebration walk.
"On the side of the hill, guarded by what I knew to be an Israeli agent, the white-robed throng poured through the gates from the embassy, well hidden in the trees.
"Their lilting voices lifted into heaven.
"I felt a part of these radiant people.
"As we walked along, we inquired about where the leaders' compound was, and first a smiling man and then a young boy pointed the way.
"Just then a small car pulled up and two of Sherry Yano's friends yelled greetings.
"They, too, had a radiant look.
"One young woman, Jody, in a white wrap-a-round, and she, too, was bubbling about the celebration on the Israeli embassy grounds and how she had joined in dancing with thousands of Falashas.
"The small car now held all five of us as we turned down a narrow dirt road and stopped in front of a locked compound.
"Stepping through a narrow gate opening, I saw at least 100 men, women and children in their finest clothing, sitting alongside a neat bungalow, feasting on injerra and other typical Ethiopian food; chatting away, but I didn't feel out of place.”
Incidentally, Nov. 15, 1990 was significant, for it marked Sigd, the Ethiopian Jews’ day of prayer to return to their homeland, Israel, and the freeing of the Jews from Babylonian captivity. It’s a celebration unlike any other in Ethiopian or Jewish history.
On May 24-25, 1991, about 17,000 Falashas were airlifted from Addis to Israel under the code name, Operation Solomon. The first great airlift in 1983-84 had been dubbed Operation Moses.

After Bonds, will baseball ever be the same?

2008-11-28T00:40:00.000-08:00

JUST WHEN I thought it was about time to haul out the old snowboard or lace up the size 12 skates, U.S. District Court Judge Susan Illston decided to hit a double into deep centre field.
While the entire world has been focused on the TV screen in the past few days as to the horror in Mumbei (formerly Bombay) and also the collapse of the almighty dollar and sense, Judge Illston gave some relief by ordering the release of grand jury testimony concerning steroids in the grand ol’ game – baseball.
What she did was give every baseball fanatic a chance to argue concerning Barry (I want to make that ‘clear’) Bonds and all the others in other sports such as football and track and field and their involvement with the latest so-called “junk.”
Of course, the lifting of the restrictions on the BALCO testimony should mean Bonds will testify freely in March 2009 when he goes to trial.
Pro sports has taken an awful licking ever since 2003 when it was revealed that baseball (and football among others) was knee deep in the mire of performance-enhancing drugs.
During the past three years, ‘roids has been a frequent topic and for this scribbler it’s one I have frequently called the “the pig sty of life.”
***
It's a sordid underbelly that sometimes deals with shady lawyers and sports agents as well as not-so-gullible athletes, who often break down the legal boundaries while clinging to "I know nothing" defence.In recent times, two seasoned NFL writers -- Jason Cole and Charles Robinson -- delved into the possibility of New Orleans Saints' running back Reggie Bush taking cash and gifts while he was playing at USC. Definitely a no-no, if true.
However, while a U.S. federal investigation has not revealed all the facts and figures to the general public to date, it's a serious charge put forward by the Yahoo! Sports investigative team.But it's not surprising to learn about illegal activities in sports.
Take for instance, the high-profile BALCO case, which has wrapped its deplorable arms around the likes of baseball superstar Barry Bonds of the San Francisco Giants, New York Yankees star Jason Giambi, sprinter Tim Montgomery and others. While Bonds is still being investigated concerning taking steroids, five defendants, including BALCO founder Victor Conte, have pleaded guilty to illegal drug distribution, according to the San Francisco Chronicle.
Not only has The Chronicle reported on it, but two of their reporters, Mark Fainaru-Wada and Lance Williams, were ruled in September, 2006 to be in contempt of court for "refusing to testify to a grand jury investigating leaked transcripts in the (steroid distribution) case," involving BALCO (Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative).U.S. District Judge Jeffrey White sentenced the reporters to 18 months behind bars and docked their newspaper $1,000-a-day.
The pair, meanwhile, are free with the Ninth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in Frisco hearing the case in March (2007).
While this reporter has detailed the "top cheaters" as well as the "dirtiest players" in a July, 2006 column, it's time to put forward an annual list of sports scandals from a wide range of sources.Remember, this is my list, but you might have a different order:
* 1. The BALCO scandal. That case is on-going, but its repercussions will, undoubtedly, change the face of baseball and other sports, for it involves stars, such as Bonds.
* 2. Canada's Ben Johnson. It was a crushing blow to the sprinter and the entire nation when he was found to have used a banned substance during the 100 metres at the 1988 Seoul, South Korea Olympics. It left Johnson's life in disarray.
* 3. Tonya Harding. It was a whack attack heard around the world when figure skater Harding "hired" some goons to attack fellow competitor Nancy Kerrigan's knees in 1994. Since then Harding has been lost in an avalanche of bad publicity.
* 4. Pete Rose. An on-going drama, which still haunts baseball. The one-time superstar with the Cincinnati Reds was certain to gain Hall of Fame status, but he was banned from the game by former Major League Commissioner A. Bart Giamatti for his betting misdeeds. Rose is still denied access to Cooperstown, but, supposedly, thrives on appearances at baseball-card shows.
* 5. Mike Danton. A one-time player with the NHL's St. Louis Blues remains behind bars for his involvement in a murder-for-hire plot.
* 6. Mike Tyson. A walking-talking disaster appears ready to fall -- once again. The former, bruising heavyweight champion of the world is now cavorting with the unsavoury characters from the Las Vegas Strip.
* 7. O.J. Simpson. The former Heisman Trophy winner and NFL superstar with the Buffalo Bills, who was cleared of a double murder, has stooped to a new low with his latest book project. Oh, what a tangled web, O.J.
Of course, there are dozens of other scandals and the list could include the Kobe Bryant sex assault case; the Sammy Sosa cork bat case along with a bevy of college basketball points-shaving incidents.
One which we haven't mention is the gambling case, involving former Philadelphia Flyers' standout-turned-Phoenix Coyotes' assistant, Rick Tocchet. It probably deserves an entire page in the future.
P.S. Tocchet did “serve” his penance and is now the new interim coach of the Tampa Bay Lightning, replacing Barry Melrose, who was fired Nov. 14.
At the very outset of this column, I mentioned Judge Illston, who hit a “double” in unsealing the grand jury testimony and all those so-called “hot” documents.
However, she could have hit one out of the park by allowing reporters access as well.
While all the legal types will get a chance to peer into the “secrets” chambers, the Ol’ Columnist will just have to wait until March when Bonds is expected to answer “the charges of making false statements and obstruction of justice, etc., etc.”

Then all those bright hopes turned grey

2008-11-22T04:38:00.000-08:00

Tragedy knows no boundaries.
Bill Stevenson, David Boone, York Hentschel and Dan Kepley were four “stars” from the Edmonton Eskimos’ dynasty of the late 1970s and early ‘80s.
Three of them – happy-go-lucky Stevenson, pleasant and mannerly Boone and non-talkative and introspective Hentschel – died tragic deaths while extremely aggressive Kepley barely survived alcohol and pain killers and jailed twice for impaired driving.
Following Grey Cup Sunday featuring the Calgary Stampeders and the Montreal Alouettes will be the fifth estate’s Head Games on CBC with host Bob McKeown. It was first seen on Wednesday night.
Broadcaster McKeown has a unique perspective on the subject, for he was an all-star centre with the Ottawa Rough Riders, which won the Grey Cup in 1973.
During the period (1978-1986) I lived in Edmonton, I took part in its “wide-open” atmosphere, but didn’t realize the dramatic downturn it would have on these four “stars.”

***
Bill Stevenson was the strongest man I have ever met. And it's fortunate for the world that accompanying that brute strength was a smile as wide as the Grand Canyon.

He was one of those characters from the "unforgettable" category that so seldom crosses one's path.

Every once in a while over the past 25 years or so, I have looked at a photograph of Stevenson as he manhandled heavy iron in his "newly-opened" Edmonton fitness centre.

And at that time he was also giving sage advice to another "incredible bulk," who was planning to work out before re-entering the carnival wrestling ring as a villain (The Viking) in a flick called "Running Brave."

But besides Stevenson's photo there was also a column, which I wrote for the Edmonton Sun in 1981, and it started this way:

"The Marquis de Sade would feel right at home. Long John Silver would look longingly at the racks. Captain Bluebeard would admire the bars, for there are more in this place than on New Orleans' Bourbon Street or Sing Sing.

No, we're not talking about the latest in torture rooms, but Little Bill Stevenson's house of repute, also known as the Edmonton fitness centre.

You know Stevenson? He's the guy with the time zones. The one who's laughter has been known to shatter champagne glasses ala Ella Fitzgerald. He's also been known to shatter a few beer glasses as well.Bill Stevenson is a free spirit. He's one who knows how to work hard. This Eskimo -- football variety -- also is one who doesn't take himself too seriously. In his company, the Mona Lisa might crack a smile (to use a line from the super writer Jim Murray).

Stevenson and his friends have their grand opening today and if you notice him huffing and puffing it's because he's still moving in the furniture and machines into the centre, which undoubtedly will be in a class by itself.

This is the elite of sweat centres, one which comes equipped with hydragym cylinders, Nautilus equipment, a racquetball court, swimming pool, whirlpools and saunas and the major selling feature is that it is “co-educational."

After a stellar career at Drake University, Stevenson was drafted by the NFL Miami Dolphins, but chose to join the Memphis Southmen of the World Football League for the 1974 and 1975 seasons. Then he came home -- to Edmonton -- and became a mainstay with the Eskimos for 14 seasons from 1975 to 1988.

He first proved to be a tower of strength on the vaunted Alberta Crude defensive line with Dave Fennell, Ron Estay and the late David Boone, and then he shifted to protecting his old quarterback Tom Wilkinson on the offensive line.

During his tenure in the CFL, he and the Eskimos claimed seven Grey Cups.

He, seemingly, would be around forever with his love for life and his smile as wide as the Grand Canyon.

However, earlier this week (March, 2007), Bill Stevenson, after apparently going outside for a smoke, fell down some stairs at his mother's home and was taken to Edmonton's Misericordia Hospital where he died at the young age of 55.

However, the fifth estate pointed out that Stevenson, after his playing career was over, fell on hard times, (bankruptcy and divorce) and years of alcohol abuse and destitution. He also suffered from years of “unreported head injuries.”

***

David Boone was an All-Star CFL defensive end with Edmonton, who had played with the Minnesota Vikings, B.C. Lions, Hamilton Tiger-Cats and Toronto Argonauts. He had suffered years of depression from “unreported head injuries.” The TV program suggested Boone had committed suicide in March, 2005.

***

York Hentschel, from Bentley, Alberta and Drake U., was a defensive end with Edmonton’s “Alberta Crude. “ He would finish up his pro career in 1981 with Hamilton and Winnipeg.
He died in March 2006 of organ failure after suffering years of alcoholism, drug abuse and depression and “unreported head injuries.” He was only 52.

***

Dan Kepley, Edmonton’s ferocious middle linebacker, retired in 1984 and tried to ease the emotional and physical pain with alcohol. After being jailed for impaired driving, Kepley has certainly changed and has been living a booze-free life. He’s now an assistant coach with the Eskimos.

Reynolds Wrapped Up In A Very Costly Hug

2008-09-06T06:36:00.000-07:00

Posted: Friday, Sept. 5, 2008
WITH GUSTAV slowly passing into oblivion and while awaiting Hanna, Ike and Josephine to make major assaults on the eastern part of North America, it gives me a brief chance to bring up another notable subject: BASEBALL.
That’s right, the vicious weather had been an occupational hazard until yesterday when I got out the dust-covered slide rule and tried to calculate whether my beloved Boston Red Sox could catch the Tampa Bay (Devil) Rays in the American League East. They were three off the pace when I last looked with the New York Yankees actually 10 behind.
And in the National Central, my Chicago Cubs were 4.5 games ahead of the Milwaukee Brewers.
However, believe it or not, another question kept nagging at me: Whatever happened to Harold Reynolds? You were wondering that, too?
So it hasn’t bothered you? But some of the strangest thoughts throw me a curveball like that when least expected.
I knew the former All-Star second baseman-turned-broadcaster had been fired in July 2006 for … of all things -- HUGGING.
So I chased down a column about the situation and it started this way:
Are you a hugger? If you are, you better watch out, Bub.That's right, just when you thought the world was gaining a sliver of sanity and legal settlements had reached a pinnacle of banal stupidity, breaking news has proved you wrong again, Ol' Onion Breath.
If you recall, a report broke of Reynolds being sent to the outer reaches of Siberia, for what he called "giving a woman a hug," that he felt was "misinterpreted."
However, was that the real reason? Maybe. Maybe not, for Reynolds apparently told USA Today he was ousted because: "They (ESPN suits) made a decision to have a change in direction. I respect their decision, but I don't necessarily agree with it."
So those two viewpoints seemed to have settled the issue.
Wrong.
The legal beagles such as Reynolds' Connecticut lawyer, Joseph Garrison, then entered the fray and Reynolds has now sued ESPN for at least US$5 million with Garrison being quoted as saying, "moral turpitude, in my opinion, is not reflected by an innocuous hug. I think the case is very strong."
At least that's what the lawyer said.
When I went chasing down the lawsuit wording on the Smoking Gun.com website, Reynolds, who claims he doesn't drink, smoke, or use foul language, contends that, at the time of the "brief hug," the intern "never expressed any discomfort" and that she had dinner with him that same evening at a Boston Market restaurant.
Reynolds, who seems to be one of the truly nice guys on TV, went the legal route in seeking a bundle, for he had just signed a new six-year deal with the sports network.
That was the story in 2006. So what happened to Reynolds since then?
In mid-April 2008, there was a brief item that the two sides – Reynolds and ESPN – had settled the issue although no terms were ever divulged.
Reynolds had this to say: “My family and I are ecstatic … This is a matter of principle and never wavered. All my goals were met, and now I look forward to concentrating on the game I love.”
And then the ESPN spokesman came back with this one: “The settlement was a fraction of his demands and substantially less than what it would have cost to litigate the case …” It was followed by a stream of legalese.
Where did that leave Reynolds? On April 24, the New York Daily News reported Reynolds had been hired by SportsNet New York as a “studio analyst on Mets telecasts.”
So as I was asking: Are YOU a hugger?
When the subject came up again, I remembered a "study" and it went like this:The Basic Essentials of Life -- 1. Air; 2. Food; 3. Water. 4. Hugging; 5. Clothing; 6. Shelter.
Apparently, scientific research has shown every human being needs four hugs per day merely to survive; eight hugs per day to maintain oneself at a strong emotional level; 12 hugs per day to grow; and a hug can take many forms -- an embrace, a kind word, a touch, a loving smile.
Before I became too immersed in this sugary pool of huggydom, a senior expert, hesitatingly, had these words to say:
"Hugging is okay when one gets older. It's recommended."
At least that's what my 92-year-old mother told me.
THOUGHTS FROM MARK TWAIN (From Uncle John’s Bathroom Reader): “The principle difference between a cat and a lie is that a cat only has nine lives” … “It is better to keep your mouth shut and appear stupid than to open it and remove all doubt” … “The difference between the right word and the almost-right word is the difference between ‘lightning’ and ‘lightning bug.’”

Those hurricanes and strange conspiracy theories

2008-09-03T04:24:00.000-07:00

WITH GUSTAV sinking into the Louisiana swamps and a flood of potentially dangerous hurricanes looming on the dark horizon in the next 10 days, it’s only a matter of time before the conspiracy theorists present their case (s).
Will everyone from the Russians to aliens from outer space to a roomful of mad scientists be blamed for such weather catastrophes?
When I thought that was “sick” thinking on my part, I went searching the Net and found out about a meteorologist in Pocatello, Idaho, who reportedly claimed that Japanese gangsters known as the Yakuza caused Hurricane Katrina. It’s the one which devastated New Orleans back in 2005.
Of course, whether that “meteorologist’s” tale has some fact behind it is another matter. This Idaho hot “potato” apparently was convinced “it was caused by electromagnetic generators from ground-based microwave transmitters.”
However, conspiracy theories have been around for centuries as I detailed in a column from a couple of years ago. In fact, they have become an epidemic.
You don't believe me?In 2001, the BBC reported, “when historic events shake our world, conspiracy theories are seldom far behind,” and then proceeded to outline some of those "theories" that the moon landing was faked; Princess Di was murdered; and the granddaddies of them all, that “JFK was the victim of an elaborate CIA assassination plot.”
Well, JFK probably wasn't the “granddaddy” of conspiracies for Honest Abe Lincoln's assassination in the 1860s also had more than a tinge of conspiracy.
In order to pacify my restless curiosity, I went searching for the wackiest conspiracy theories on the Net. In order to save you the trouble of looking behind every closet door or down every spooky alleyway, here they are:
* The world is controlled by dinosauroid-like alien reptiles. These "reptiles," direct from the constellation Draco, must consume human blood to keep their human appearance. And how come you know that, Corbett? Well, a BBC reporter named David Icke said so. And one more thing, Christine Fitzgerald, supposedly a confidante of the late Lady Di, said the princess claimed the Royal Family were reptilian aliens.
* NASA faked the Apollo 11 moon landings. So you've heard that one before, have you? The main reason there was no such historic event(s) was those moon boys could never have survived the journey because of exposure to radiation. And what's more there are no stars in any of the photos. So it must be the truth.
* An another one, which has slipped past the Ol' Columnist, is the one about the U.S. government in Washington, D.C., with the assistance of Israel, and/or Iraq, planning those 9/11 attacks. Of course, it seems plausible since the Twin Towers fell straight down. And the entire conspiracy scenario hinges on the fact that Flight 77 flew towards the Pentagon for 40 minutes without being intercepted.
* You better watch out when shopping for those barcodes are really used to control people. And, another major "fact" -- they could be Satanic in nature. So now you know.
* Another historical "fact" was the Early Middle Ages (500-1000 AD) never occurred and Charlemagne never existed. What happened to him, I don't know even though I learned about him in school. Of course, he was a figment of my imagination.
* Area 51 in the Roswell, New Mexico area is the place where extraterrestrials and we, humans, communicate in planning advanced technology. So you believe that one, too?
* The 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami was "manufactured" by the Americans and their cohorts by the use of electromagnetic pulse technology. Now some Arab news services believe that and passed it on, so who am I to doubt it?
* And then there's the one that before the U.S. landed on the moon in the late 1960s, the Nazis already had a moon base there, and get this, as far back as 1942.
The reason the masses embrace those conspiracy theories, even the ones that sound logical, is it gives misery and injustice an identity and makes life more bearable, according to magazine writer Jeffrey Bale.
“Conspiracy theories account for current crises and upheavals and explain why bad things are happening to good people or vice versa,” he once told BBC News.
So what about the latest flood of hurricanes, starting with Gustav, and followed by Hanna, Ike, Josephine, Kyle, Laura, etc., etc.?
Perhaps, a devious scheme disrupted the Republican convention in Minnesota with horrible weather.
Maybe, the conspiracy theorists will put out that statement – and soon.
After all, they are always in session and in season.

Be Afraid, Be Very Afraid Of Gustav

2008-08-28T16:02:00.000-07:00

OFTEN THE MOST significant stories are ignored in the world press; and there certainly was one on Monday from Jerusalem.
Even for someone, who had been based in the Israeli capital, I believed the “hidden” meaning of U.S. Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice’s recent visit as just another courtesy call to the Middle East.
However, I have had to backtrack from my lethargic attitude because what she indicated could dramatically change the course of world history.
I know that could be misconstrued as just being overly dramatic, but Rice’s sole purpose for being in Israel was to get a document signed by the end of the year, which would divide Jerusalem and offer the Palestinians a state as well as a huge stake in Israel’s capital city. In addition, the Jews’ most hated enemies would not only control a portion of Jerusalem, but have a major foothold in the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
It would appear the United States at the insistence of its president George W. Bush are determined to follow this course of action before either Barack Obama or John McCain assumes the presidency.
In addition to a portion of Jerusalem being given away, the Palestinians are known to covet the Temple Mount area, which happens to be Judaism’s “holiest site.”
While there have been strong denials from Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert’s office, there seems to be handwriting on the wall that it will happen and soon.
While the world press was following the Obama ascension to the Democratic throne in Denver, the Jerusalem blockbuster was largely ignored. It came to the forefront on the World Net Daily website, which I had worked for as Middle East bureau chief (1997-2000) and based in Jerusalem.
It might have been downplayed by even me, except for the haunting words, written by veteran Washington newsman Bill Koenig. He had earlier outlined at least eight major ‘Acts of God’ that coincided with the timing of U.S. pressure on Israel to give up The Land (Israel).
In his book, ‘Eye to Eye – Facing the Consequences of Dividing Israel’ – Koenig wrote about those eight “acts.” In brief, they are:
October 30, 1991: President George Bush opens the Madrid Conference with an initiative for a Middle East peace plan involving Israel’s land. On the same day, an extremely rare storm forms off the coast of Nova Scotia. It was tagged “The Perfect Storm,” which became a book and later a movie. Along the New England coast, there were 100-foot waves, causing heavy damage to the elder Bush’s home in Kennebunkport, Maine.
August 23, 1992 – The Madrid Conference moves to Washington, D.C. On the same day, Hurricane Andrew causes $30 billion in damages and leaves 180,000 homeless in Florida.
January 16, 1994 – President Clinton and Syria’s Hafez el-Assas meet in Geneva about Israel giving up the Golan Heights. Less than 24 hours later, the powerful Northridge earthquake rocked southern California.
March 1 to April 1997 – Palestinian Authority Chairman Arafat tours the U.S while Clinton rebukes Israel for not giving up her land for peace. Powerful tornadoes rip the central U.S. When Arafat leaves, the storms stop.
January 21, 1998 – Israel’s Benjamin Netanyahu meets with Clinton and is coldly received. Shortly afterwards that day, the Monica Lewinsky scandal breaks.
September 27-28, 1998 – Then Secretary of State Albright was working on a final agreement in which Israel would give up 13 per cent of the West Bank. As Clinton, Arafat and Netanyahu met to finalize the land deal, Hurricane Georges battered the Gulf Coast. Later, Arafat spoke at the U.N. about declaring an independent Palestinian state by May 1999.
October 15-22, 1998 – As Arafat and Netanyahu meet in Maryland, there is massive flooding in Texas. Clinton declares a section of Texas a major disaster area.
May 3, 1999 – This is the same day in Israel that Arafat was scheduled to declare a Palestinian state with Jerusalem as the capital. It was postponed until December 1999 at Clinton’s request. That same day, the most powerful storm system ever to hit the U.S. swept through Oklahoma and Kansas. Winds were clocked at 316 mph.
The Biblical connection apparently continued to Monday, August 22, 2005 when the last Jewish settlement in Gaza was evacuated – wrapping up Israel’s historic pullout from the coastal strip after settlers held a farewell march behind Torah scrolls and a massive menorah, then boarded armoured buses and left.
Ariel Sharon, then the vibrant Israeli prime minister now comatose, and Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas spoke by phone and expressed their comitment to peace – the first conversation between the two since the pullout started.
Then according to my notes, the next day, August 23, the day after the Gaza evacuation, the Bahamas issued a tropical storm warning for some of the islands and by Wednesday, August 24 at 11 a.m. it became Tropical Storm Katrina and at 5 p.m. Thursday, August 25, it had become a hurricane and smacked into southeast Florida.
Then it changed directions, lashing at the Gulf Coast and its bevy of oil rigs and into New Orleans. And the rest is a continuing nightmare.
So three years later, on August 25, it was learned that Rice and U.S. president Bush were planning to split Jerusalem between the Jews and their bitter enemies and today Gustav looms like the shadow of death over the U.S. Gulf Coast and the seemingly plagued city of New Orleans.

Scary storm clouds gather around the world

2008-08-26T16:22:00.000-07:00

IT STARTED as a slow news day and then before the clock had struck noon Tuesday, all it all changed.
Let’s back track just a moment:
7 a.m.: “Do we have any bologna in the house?” I yelled to The Missus. “Yes, why do you ask?” she replied. “Because there’s a great long list of recalled products from the Canadian Food Inspection Agency on the Net,” I answered.
Of course, we were both aware of the recent deaths and illness caused by “listeria monocytogenes,” but had no idea of the enormity of the problem.
“Let me see that,” she said, looking down the list which included well-known meat brands including Bittners, Schneiders, Burns, Country Morning, Hickory Farms, Maple Leaf, Overlander, Parma, Safeway, Shopsys, Western Family, etc., etc. It was a who’s who in the “meat department” and it was five pages long.
The Missus wasn’t impressed. I could tell by the determination in her voice that we wouldn’t be serving meat on the table anytime soon.
8 a.m.: That’s when I read about the death of Dave Freeman at age 47 on the Los Angeles Times website. For those, who might not know the name, Freeman was a hero of mine; although we’d never met. He died on Aug. 17 after falling and hitting his head in his Venice, California home.
The advertising genius had co-authored “100 Things To Do Before You Die” with Neil Teplica, who told the Times the title meant, “you should live every day like it would be your last, and there’s not that many people who do that.”
Among the favourite things to do in the strange travel guide, Freeman and Teplica listed the Academy Awards ceremony, the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain, the National Hollerin’ Contest in North Carolina and Australia’s Nude Night Surfing contest.
Although I consider myself an adventurer, Freeman really took it to the outer limits.
9 a.m.: While the chatterboxes on Fox were giving me an inside look at the Democratic convention in Denver, the websites were clogged with reports concerning a possible assassination attempt. Apparently it would have targeted Barack Obama during his acceptance speech Thursday night. The police rounded up four culprits.
The sinister story ground to a halt when police said there was “insufficient evidence” to charge the “drug addicts.”
10:30 a.m.: There was fright registered in the voice of the FOX weatherperson. It was concerning a hurricane called Gustav, which was churning through Haiti at about 90 mph. So what? That’s when Janice Dean said that it had almost clear sailing through the Gulf and could evidently turn into a Category 5 by the weekend.
The startling thought of a Cat 5 was almost unthinkable. After all, a lesser storm called Fay had ripped Florida time and again in the past couple of weeks. Gustav, by all early reports could equal one of most devastating blasts of this or any generation called Katrina.
Of course, as a wire story reported Haitians were used to such blasts. In 2004, some 3,000 people in the Haitian city of Gonaives were killed.
Would it reach such Biblical proportions as Katrina did in September 2005? In looking back to those days, a cold sweat broke out once again as I “saw” re-runs of TV images from New Orleans and the SuperDome “hell-hole” and all the stranded humanity which tried to stay afloat along the U.S. Gulf Coast..
And I also recall Geraldo Rivera sobbing from inside and outside that wretched Convention Centre. “Let them walk out of here, let them walk the hell out of here. Walk to some other town. Walk some place where you can help ‘em … These people in the same clothes, where do you think they go to the bathroom? They don’t wash their hands, they don’t wash their faces, these babies. What the hell?”
While the U.S. politicians patted each other on the back in Denver, Gustav roared towards its destination. Then overseas, one major headline read: Russia Threatens Military Response To U.S. Missiles.
12 Noon: Just a slow news day? I don’t think so.

Those Unfriendly Megastores vs. The Company Store

2008-08-24T15:40:00.000-07:00

I KNEW I COMMITTED the cardinal sin as soon as I had said hello to an unfamiliar face in one of those blockbuster grocery stores on Saturday.
How dare you, Corbett? Are you insane? Talking to a complete stranger and expecting a civil answer? Where do you think you are?
That was the troubling thought during the past 48 hours; that I’d actually gone shopping with The Missus on Saturday afternoon instead of being hunkered down at the Ol’ Homestead and watching the Beijing Olympics and obeying the rules of No Talking To Strangers.
Actually, I had forgotten to pick up The Megastore List of Do’s and Don’t before shopping including remembering the strict no passing zones and always silently mumbling words your mother would wash your mouth out with soap in days gone past.
However, I can’t be exoepted to remember all the Megastore regulations; after all I don’t get into the Big City that often.
But there was a time it was different. Let me tell you about the Company Store from long, long ago:
There was this bell. Tinkle. Tinkle. It always rung when you opened the door to The Store.There were other stores (lower case s) amd outlets (lower case o's) in Bass River, Nova Scotia. Whatcha think we were, hicks?
There was the Coop, Rutherford's, just past Aunt Myrtle's telephone exchange. Then, Old Man Keirstead's place, which I frequented often in hopes of getting a glimpse at his magnificent daughter, Charlotte, who never glanced my way.
And then there was Canning's dual-purposed ice cream parlour and barber shop, where in the back room they had this hydraulic chair which tilted back and forth. And a plethora of sweet-smelling aromas in tall bottles just for men. Lilac-rose.
Some day I wanted to go in that back room and sit in that barber's chair, the one that tilted back and forth, and have Mr. Canning lather up my face, and take that long straight razor and scrape that massive accumulation of peach fuzz off.
And then wrap a steaming hot towel over my face and let me then soak up the odour of lilac-rose, generously splashed on my cheekbones.
While there were assorted places, there was only one Store. That's with a capital S. There was no need to identify it as the Dominion Chair Company Store.
Everybody knew that. It loomed at the end of the Bass River bridge, a two-storey elongated gray barn of a building, with six small windows on the second level and these bay windows on the front.
On one end there was a gas pump of the leaded variety and imperial gallons and at the other end, a makeshift parking lot.
It sat underneath a cliff, where in deep winter, parents always had standing orders for their kids never to go cardboarding (a makeshift version of modern-day tobogganing, only using discarded boxes, flattened out and used by either one or two or three or four daredevils), for fear their little darlings would come off the crest of the hill, across the makeshift parking lot onto Highway 2, barely being missed by the Acadian bus going from Parrsboro to Truro and clipping the side of the post office and landing in that swirling, mighty trickle known as Bass River.
The Store had this musty smell and an ominous foreboding of hidden treasures.
There was a candy counter shielded by curved glass at the front, filled with round sweet nuggets of ecstasy.
And there was this friendly clerk, by the name of Russell, who had this bulbous nose, which even W.C. Fields would envy.
Someone told me he had this long hair in his normal-sized nose and after pulling it out, his proboscis became grotesque.
I questioned that analysis. Maybe, Russell Creelman was a silent boozer on the side. After all, he was United, you know.
My mother told me later he died from pulling that hair out of his nose. I repented.
There was hardware in the back of The Store. Great galvanized bath tubs and pipes and nails and along one side were great rolls of curtain and dress materials, managed over by a woman named Grace, who wasn't amazing.
And then there was The Office. That was at the end, through a door, next to the makeshift parking lot where Mr. James S. Creelman and his cronies made the decision affecting the life of every one in Bass River.
In one corner, was a bank vault and I knew that all the money in the entire world was locked in that vault. At least $1,000.
You could also get your ticket out of town in there. It said right on the outside of The Store that they were the official agent for Acadian Bus Lines.
Deep within the bowels of my files, I have found a picture of a defiant three-year old, Willard and Annona Corbett's little boy, Kerwood, tricycling towards the Bass River Bridge, caught by an unknown cameraperson. He'd just left The Store, where he had charged a 90-cent package of tea.
It was Kerwood's first venture away from his road and he thought that it was time to explore the world.
My parents weren't impressed.
My Dad immediately went to The Store and paid my bill.
I'm told I went to bed without my supper.
But I never again went to The Store without my parents.
However, I’d trade all the Megastores in the universe for just one last visit to The Store and being able to open the door and hear that bell. Tinkle. Tinkle.
(OK Corbett is a former editor-columnist with the Edmonton Sun and one of the originals of the Toronto Sun. He can be reached at editorcorbett@gmail.com).

BCHL Vipers certainly have look of stability

2008-08-20T03:11:00.000-07:00

MARK FERNER must be breathing easier these days. There is the promising air of stability written all over this year’s edition of the Vernon Vipers.
Even though the first few days of any training camp always brings knots to one’s stomach, there should be less reason to gulp down huge quantities of Alka-Seltzer, for the solid BCHL club has learned a great deal under Ferner’s leadership.
Despite early apprehension in the season just passed, the Vipers staved off criticism and made excellent lineup changes during the 60-game schedule and eventually stormed into the league final, losing in the sixth game to the Nanaimo Clippers.
After former Vipers’ GM Troy Mick decided to move on to a real-estate organization in Mexico; head coach Mark Holick leaving to run the WHL’s Kootenay Ice and Vipers’ associate coach Bernie Pimm joining Kal Tire’s management team, club owner Dr. Duncan Wray was confronted with a monstrous headache.
But as usual, Dr. Wray selected the right man in Ferner, one who lives by the code of “honesty, integrity and character,” which really is a rarity in these days of hyper-egos.
In a September 2007 column, Ferner told me that he hadn’t expected to join the Vipers. After being fired by a former teammate and then GM-head coach Dean Clark of the WHL’s Kamloops Blazers, Ferner had planned to “drop out” of hockey and pursue a small venture in connection with his wife Jody’s interior design business.
Then fate stepped in.
While Ferner was watching his son, Mackenzie, in a minor-league game, he had a chance to talk with Mick, who had been with the Blazers during the 2002-03 season. It was then the personable Mick told him of his real-estate plans.
Ferner was actually bent on staying out of coaching, but that was until another meeting with Mick and Dr. Wray.
“(Duncan) emphasized my own code of honesty, integrity and character during our meetings and that’s what convinced me in joining the Vipers,” said Ferner last September.
While assistant general manager and radio play-by-play broadcaster Todd Miller noted that at least 60 would be attending training camp, which opened Tuesday afternoon, a solid nucleus from last season also would be on hand.
Most notable among the missing was prolific goal scorer and leader, Hunter Bishop, who has moved on to Ohio State. However, his two linemates, Kellen and Connor Jones, will be back once again.
The popularity and skill of the Jones’ twins was sensational last season as the pair brought the Vipers’ fans to their feet time and time again.
Other returnees include goalie Andrew Hammond, along with defencemen Kevin Kraus, Kyle Bigos, Cody Ikkala, Justin Palazzo and Steve Tresierra while up front will be Braden Pimm, Chris Crowell, John Digness, Rob Short, Trent Dorais, Dallas Goodrunning and Brock Palasty.
Those moving on from last year’s contingent besides Bishop include Justin Thomas, Scott Zurevinski, Isaac Smeltzer, Greg Beller and Ryan Kakoske. Lucas Gore, who combined with Hammond in the Vernon nets last season, will be attending the WHL Chilliwack training camp.
In addition, forward Brett Switzer and defenceman Adam Thompson from the Calgary Buffaloes along with Steven Weinstein from LA are expected to be standouts during the Vernon camp.
THAT’S ICE: Ferner and assistant coach Jason Williamson will be sorting out the right combination in the next fortnight. The first BCHL game will be against the Salmon Arm Silverbacks at Wesbild Centre on Friday, Sept. 5. The following night, the two sides battle again in Salmon Arm.

Another Year Of Living Dangerously

2008-08-13T00:06:00.000-07:00

THAT SAYING “war is hell” may be trite for some; but to the likes of photojournalists Alexander Klimchuk and Grigol Chikhladze it became a definite reality. Both lost their lives this past Sunday as the Russian ‘bear’ savaged the miniscule forces of Georgia in a furious march involving the disputed region of South Ossetia.
While thousands of innocent people have been slaughtered and lands destroyed, Klimchuk and Chikhladze also became victims for they were just doing their jobs in covering the conflict. Of course, the real reason for Russia with its 90,000 troops (800 tanks and 360 combat aircraft) compared with Georgia’s 18,000 troops (128 tanks, 9 combat aircraft) venturing from Moscow could be that precious commodity -- OIL.
Before getting back to the two journalists, it would be best to explain that one of the world’s most strategic oil pipelines runs from the Caspian Sea to the Mediterranean; and it passes through Azerbaijan and Georgia to Turkey.
A key newspaper report claims that it is “the only pipeline between Asia and Europe that doesn’t pass through Russia or Iran.”
U.S. President Bush interrupted his Beijing scenario with harsh words about the Russian intrusion this week. They were definitely directed at his one-time pal, Putin, who has started to show his true militaristic colours.
And there’s the report, and I’ll quote from Arutz Sheva news wire that “Israel decided to stop its support for Georgia after Moscow made it clear to Jerusalem and Washington that Russia would respond to continued aid for Georgia by selling advanced anti-aircraft systems to Syria and Iran.”
And into this muddled mess of death and misery, there are reports of hundreds of Israeli military experts currently in Georgia.
However, this column was intended to outline the dangers of being a journalist in such a “war zone.”
Klimchuk was on assignment for the Russian news agency Itar Tass while Chikhladze was with Russian Newsweek.
The Committee to Protect Journalists – an independent, nonprofit organization dedicated to defending freedom worldwide – reported on its website that 15 journalists had been killed in 2008 prior to the Russia-Georgia “war.” It was also noted that 130 journalists and 50 media workers have been killed since March 2003 in Iraq.
Meanwhile, in a column in March 2007, the Associated Press quoted Rodney Pinder of the International News Safety Institute (INSI), based in Brussels, Belgium that “13 journalists have died in Russia since (Vladimir) Putin came to power, and there hasn’t been a conviction.”
However, the deaths of Klimchuk and Chikhladze were killed by South Ossetian militia after traveling from Georgia.
In addition, two reporters – Winston Featherly and Temutri Kiguradze of the English-language The Messenger – were hurt and hospitalized in North Ossetia in the same attack in which Klimchuk and Chikhladze died. In addition there were reports that at least eight injuries to media members on the weekend.
In emphasizing that being a journalist is indeed a dangerous occasion, the following are the 15 journalists, according to CPJ, who had lost their lives this year:
Afghanistan: 1. Carsten Thomassen, Dagblader, Jan. 15, Kabul.
Bolivia: 1. Carlos Quispe Quispe, Radio Municipal, March 29, Pucarani.
Cambodia: 1. Khen Sambo, Moneaseka Khmer, July 11, Phnom Penh.
India: 1. Ashok Sodhi, Daily Excelsior, May 11, Samba.
Iraq: 5. Alaa Abdul-Karim al-Fartoosi, Al Forat, Jan. 29, Balad, Saleheddin province; Shihab al-Tamimi, Iraqi Journalists Syndicate, Feb. 27, Baghdad; Sarwa Abdul-Wahab, freelance, Murasalon, May 4, Mosul; Soran Mama Hama, Livin, July 21, Kirkuk.
Israel-Gaza: 1. Fadel Shana, Reuters, April 16, Gaza Strip.
Pakistan: 3. Chrshti Mujahid, Akbar-e-Jehan, Feb. 9, Quetta; Siraj Uddin, The Nation, Feb. 29, Mingora.
Somalia: 2. Hassan Kafi Hared, Somali National News Agency, Jan. 28, Kismayo; Nasteh Dahir Farah, freelance,June 7, Kismayo.
THAT’S WHAT SHE PREDICTED: Bulgarian prophetess Vanga, who died in 1996 at the age of 84, apparently predicted the collapse of the World Trade Twin Towers because of “steel birds”; the Chernobyl disaster; Boris Yeltsin’s election win, and also, that Russia would one day “dominate” the world.

Superstitions Surround Beijing Olympics

2008-08-11T04:12:00.000-07:00

IT DIDN'T surprise me when the Chinese selected the Beijing Olympics to start at 8 p.m. on the eighth day of the eighth month. After all, eight has long been considered a lucky number.
For that reason, Chinese couples by the score were wed on that day just as the Games began with a spectacular light show as the world watched the proceedings from the Bird’s Nest stadium.
However, there were others in the millions which had a premonition that disasters were waiting in the wings. There have been numerous stories that the five cartoon characters spelling out “Beijing Welcomes You” really could have placed an omen on the Chinese entering the modern era.
In those reports, the five mascots of a panda, a Tibetan antelope, a flame, a fish and a swallow were somehow connected with a massive earthquake, a train collision, floods, the Tibetan uprising and even dire economic news.
And while the Games opening, seemingly, went off without a hitch, on first day of competition there were reports that two of the Games’ VIP visitors – Russia’s Putin and America’s Bush – were decidedly on opposite sides of the fence as Russia attacked U.S.-backed Georgia over the disputed region of South Ossetia. It could eventually escalate into a major confrontation between the two powers.
Then there was the savage murder of a Beijing visitor – Todd Bachman – and serious injuries to his wife, Barbara, at the Drum Tower and the suicide of their attacker. Bachman was the father of a former Olympian and the father-in-law of the U.S. Olympic volleyball coach Hugh McCutcheon.
So while superstition, curses, jinxes and sayings surrounding good and bad luck may edge towards the ridiculous, we’ve all been caught up in its wake.
How often have you crossed your fingers? What does it all mean? When I looked it up I found that making “the sign of the Christian faith with our fingers, evil spirits would be prevented from destroying our chances of good fortune.”
Then there are such common-place sayings as “Knock on wood,” and the explanation was the belief that good spirits lived in trees and with the knock those spirits were alerted to protect us from misfortune.
Some other “good-luck traits” included sleeping facing south; avoiding cracks in the sidewalk (Step in a crack, break your mother’s back); see a penny, pick it up; all day long you will have good luck.
Then there were “bad luck” omens such as Friday the 13th; walking under a ladder; black cats and spilling salt. Others in that category encompass seeing an owl during daylight; breaking a mirror means seven years of bad luck and, of course, it’s extremely unlucky to open an umbrella inside a house.
While superstitions and the like spreads into every area of our lives, whether we admit them or not, those that push the limit most often involve sports figures, which use such words as “daily rituals.”
If a pitcher in baseball is on a hot streak he might not shave for a fortnight. After all he doesn’t want to tempt fate. Is that bad fate or good fate?
One of the great “superstition” stories involved outfielder Kevin Rhomberg, who had a two-year career with the Cleveland Indians in the 1980s..
Larry Stone once wrote in the Seattle Times that Rhomberg was the Rajah of Rituals and also the Sultan of Spells. His passion and legacy was his “need to touch back someone who had just touched him.”
An example of his “fetish” was when he and Dan Rohn were playing winter ball in Venezuela. Rohn apparently touched Rhomberg and then proceeded to hid from him for hours.
Stone then related the ending of that story: “Rohn eventually returned to his hotel, thinking he had outfoxed Rhomberg. But at 3 in the morning, there was a knock at his door. A sleepy Rohn stumbled out of bed to open it.” Then Rohn added the kicker: “It was Rhomberg. He touched me and then ran away.” Now that’s perseverance.
Besides “touching” passion, Stone also related stories about Canada’s own Larry Walker, who considered the number “3” sacred; the great Wade Boggs of the Boston Red Sox, who had a definite routine in reaching the dugout after batting practice and then there was reliever Turk Wendell, who chewed four pieces of black licorice, spit it out after each inning and then brushed his teeth in the dugout.
Of course, there are other sporting traditions, also known as “rituals” from the good luck charm of tossing an octopus onto to the ice at the Joe. It must have worked for the Detroit Red Wings won the Stanley Cup earlier this year. Then there was Tiger Woods wearing a red shirt ALWAYS on a Sunday. Of course, red symbolizes good luck in Thailand, where Woods’ mother, Kutilda, was born, according to Forbes’ Tom Van Riper.
While there might not be any scientific facts connecting superstitions and omens relating to the Beijing Olympics, some have now seen any numbers reaching 8 as “unlucky.” Some online experts said the worst snowstorm struck on 25/01. That totals 8. Then the Tibetan riots were 14/03 and the earthquake occurred on 12/05. All adding up to 8 and the Games began on 08. 08. 08.

From Joy To Despair For Ethiopian Jews

2008-08-06T04:26:00.000-07:00

SOME DAYS a columnist’s work would appear easy. After all the two major stories the other morning concerned an earthquake hours before the opening of the Beijing Olympics. And then there was Eduardo churning towards Texas and Louisiana.
Both appeared to be suitable material to expound on.
However, that was before reading a small item in the Jerusalem Post: “The era of large-scale Ethiopian aliyah is over, the Jewish Agency for Israel said.”
It went on to explain that the last official airlift of Ethiopian Jews would land at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion airport, and complete 30 years and some 120,000 people’s arduous journey from the utter despair of that African country. Then there was further hope, for the story indicated that about 1,400, which had been left behind, could possibly be “rescued” in the near future.
It appeared to be a miracle as Operation Moses and the subsequent Operation Solomon during the 1980s and 1990s and even in early 2000s had brought hope to those in desperate need.
These ancient people, known by the somewhat derogatory term, Falashas, had practised their Jewish heritage while enduring the wretched conditions in northern parts of Ethiopia and suffered through the temporary camps in The Sudan where murders, rapes, diseases, robberies and hunger were common occurrence.
As I’ve written on a number of occasions, the plight of the Ethiopian Jews had become almost a personal “mission” since 1990 when I had the privilege of meeting with a group of them when they celebrated Sigd, the Ethiopian Jews’ day of prayer to return to their homeland, Israel, and the freeing of the Jews from Babylonian captivity. It’s a celebration unlike any other in Ethiopian or Jewish history.
Although I had traveled throughout Ethiopia that year, it wasn’t until the last day in that nation that I finally met these forgotten peoples.
With my friend and business partner, the late Lyle Harron, we had explored the remote country, which was being battered by a civil war, however, we were almost ready to give up our search for the Ethiopian Jews.

CORBETT'S DIARY: Thursday, Nov. 15, 1990, ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia:
"As we drove through the weaving traffic, we reached the Asmera road, which seemed to be blocked off and Sherry Yano (with CPAR -- Canadian Physicians for Aid and Relief) was told by one of the few traffic cops I'd seen in Addis, that the road was off-limits because of a celebration at the Israeli embassy.
So parking the land cruiser, we started walking along the road, filled with people going to and fro with many children in their Sunday best, along with women with great umbrellas and long, white dresses, and finely-robed men.
Everyone had a wide smile on their faces and there was an unexplainable glow.
Even the youngsters were different."I kept my vidcam recording this scene, and while the kids were curious, they allowed the three of us to be part of their celebration walk.
On the side of the hill, guarded by what I knew to be an Israeli agent, the white-robed throng poured through the gates from the embassy, well hidden in the trees."Their lilting voices lifted into heaven.
I felt a part of these radiant people.
Lyle and I were introduced to Andy, a tall, twentysomething man from just outside Washington, D.C., who was with the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry with their headquarters in New York City).
Then Andy No-Name asked me to sit down on a pile of leaves and we would talk, without the vidcam rolling.
He explained the hardships of the Ethiopian Jews from the war-torn areas of Gondar and Lake Tana, but there were survivors and they all wanted to go to Israel and they had, in small numbers.
Then it was a good thing I was sitting down, for when I asked how many Falasha Jews were in this one place in Addis, he replied:
About 22,000. There are between one and two thousand still remaining in Gondar.
Did he say 22,000? I had heard him correctly and no doubt within a couple of months' time, all the Falasha Jews -- Beta Israel -- in Ethiopia would be all in one place, ready to go home to Israel."

As I re-read those exhilarating words from the past, I decided to check on whether the Falashas had reached Israel Tuesday morning. Suddenly, any joy vanished.
Only 65 Ethiopian Falashmura families had actually reached Ben Gurion, according to one Jerusalem website, and thousands are still “housed” in transit camps because the Israeli government had decided to put a halt to the aliyah.
And still they wait, these forgotten people, who have suffered thousands of years of neglect and despair.

Remembering the fiery nightmare of 2003

2008-07-30T04:52:00.000-07:00

THE GARGANTUAN tree stretches its grotesque and blackened limbs towards the sky in a pleading fashion. It stands alone on an acre or more of burned stumps, mixed with weeds, close to Highway 97 near the Whispering Pines area of Falkland.
Each day during my travels through this devastated area, that skeleton of a once stately tree reminds me of the nightmare, which took place in what has been called the Cedar Hill Fire. However, it was just a small portion of the whole picture as the province seemed to be engulfed in flames throughout the month of August, 2003.
Before the fires were extinguished in what has been called ‘The Day From Hell’ or, perhaps, more appropriately should be called ‘The Weeks From Hell’ as scorching temperatures, coupled with tinder-dry trees and rotting underbrush, threatened everyone throughout the Okanagan. It caused massive devastation from Kelowna to Peachland to Kamloops to Barriere to Louis Creek and beyond.
And since that 2003 Falkland Fire when I pass that grotesque tree I usually murmur, facetiously: “Welcome to paradise.”
When the sun started to beat down on my valley and throughout the Okanagan the other day, my thoughts stretched back five years and I again began to re-read an e-mail from Saturday, August 16 of that cruel year.
It read: “I’m glad things are starting to get back back to normal near your place. It was a strange drive to Penticton this morning. The fire, which began last night, had spread all around the mountain by mid-afternoon, blanketing nearby Peachland and Kelowna in a thick cloud of smoke.
“I’ve driven through burnt-out Louis Creek and past the blackened hills near Whispering Pines – but neither compared to the eeriness of my hometown filled with wildfire smoke. Anyway, I’m sure you know the feeling after the events of this strange summer. Signed, David.
Besides, the e-mail, David forwarded a story he had written for August 6, 2003. It read, in part: “Black smoke still curls from patches of Shea Alexander’s backyard nearly a week after a devastating wildfire started alongside Highway 97, a stone’s throw from the teen’s house. It’s suspected the fire started after a driver flicked a lit cigarette out the window. Alexander, 15, stood in his backyard Wednesday surveying the blackened hillside behind his country home, a 10-minute drive from Falkland. He ventured up a narrow dirt road toward the highway to inspect what’s left of his stepfather’s workshop.”
In a strange twist of fate, both the e-mail and the story were written by David Wylie, who would become the first managing editor of the Vernon Daily Courier less than two years later and now works in Ottawa in 2008, and Shea Alexander, who just celebrated his 20th birthday, happens to be my grandson.
Of course, that August became an adventure for everyone, who lived in the Okanagan.
As the fire blazed towards the Ol’ Homestead, we packed Molly The Cat in the back of the car and headed to Falkland to open the community church so church visitors and even locals could congregate. They did, but Molly, then a small one, had her own adventures; first disappearing over the bank from the then Pastor Hanik’s house in the dark and then finding the crawl space behind a microwave in the church kitchen. Later, we all bunked at friends in Westwold.
One of the most concerning times was at that church, when some “know-it-all” passed on the information that our homestead, etc. had gone up in flames. That caused great consternation as well as Excedrin Headache #763.
However, after returning to the Whispering Pines area, we found our two homes were still intact, although the flames had burned within 15 feet of both.
While 2003 were the ‘Weeks From Hell,’ I was holding my breath once again in August, 2006 when lightning started “smoke and fire” near Falkland. It was quickly doused.
With such threats still on the horizon this year that’s certainly enough reason to be praying for rain throughout all of August 2008.

Terror strikes at Jerusalem's influential 'heart'

2008-07-22T15:14:00.000-07:00

WHEN BULLDOZER DRIVER Ghasan Abu-Tir crashed his heavy-equipment machinery into cars along Jerusalem’s King David Street on Tuesday it was another reminder of the continued terror war plaguing the Middle East.
However, for this former Middle East bureau chief it also gave me a sinking feeling and my first thought was “this maniac is hitting close to “home.”
Although my passport reads Canadian, after living in Jerusalem, the ancient city has become my adopted “home.” And, of course, I am not alone in that passion; thousands have felt the same way as I do.
It’s impossible to shake that emotion and it grows stronger remembering the numerous walks to the Western wall; the lengthy talks with long-time residents of the Old City; the outspoken politicians; and the almost daily lunches on the patio of the YMCA, across from the venerable King David Hotel.
And, of course, the peaceful atmosphere within the King David – an oasis for world political and business leaders in discussing issues through the decades. It also was a place for a reporter to learn a few – very few -- diplomatic “secrets.”
However, it all changed along that posh street of expensive art, jewelry and elegance Tuesday when Abu-Tir battered cars, including a Mercedes, a city bus and caused a reported 18 to 24 injuries.
Only three weeks ago a Palestinian man also boarded a heavy-equipment machine in another part of Jerusalem and before he was shot dead, three Israelis had been killed. A BBC correspondent apparently thought the operator was a disturbed individual without any political connections.
However, the latest incident in which Abu-Tir was killed by settler and IDF Company Commander (res.) Yaki Asael and Border Guard officer Amal Ganem, may have significant sinister overtones.
There have been numerous pieces to the puzzle. At the same time as Tuesday’s bulldozer incident, Israeli President Shimon Peres was meeting with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas at Peres’ Jerusalem residence. In addition, the incident occurred only seven hours prior to U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama arriving at the King David as well as former British prime minister Tony Blair.
And just who was most recent perpetrator?
At first, there were news reports identifying him as East Jerusalem resident Abu-Tir, a relative of Mohammed Abu-Tir, who has been in an Israeli jail from the 2006 Israel-Gaza conflict. Then there was a news blackout, forcing the Israeli news outlets to identify Mohammed Abu-Tir as only a relative with an orange beard.
Of course, the bearded Abu-Tir could have influenced the 22-year-old “relative,” although the news outlets will probably be prevented to expand on that assumption in the coming days.
In April 2006, I detailed the dangers of such a villain, in this manner:
“Muhammed Abu-Tir looks like a buffoon. After all who would colour their beard bright orange?
Well, he did, and he’s proud of it, patterning himself after the prophet, Muhammed.
However, this No. 2 Hamas terrorist is no crazy loon even though he spent a quarter of a century in a cell and apparently once tried to poison Israel’s water supplies. Fortunately, he failed in the 1990s.
So why mention him?
Well, for the past few days, Abu-Tir has been heard on North American radio – 230 stations, which feature the outstanding host Rusty Humphries.
And what did Abu-Tir discuss?
He railed about Jews, who had converted to Christianity, in order to influence U.S. President George W. Bush.
“I made a study and I know very well all this radicalism in some parts of Christianity (including) the Anglicans, who are being led by Bush, is because of the control of the Zionists.”
This kind of rhetoric might fill air time, but it is scary, nevertheless.
And might be a foreboding of calamities to come, particularly when a terrorist has entered another realm – the religious one.
Will it be Christianity and Judaism vs. Islam?
After 9-11 and the destruction of the Twin Towers in Manhattan, North Americans have become extremely complacent as to the dangers posed by terrorists such as Abu-Tir.
This couldn’t happen again, could it?
However, after being based in Jerusalem, and seeing the atrocities that such warped individuals can design, it could and will happen again.
Now, such thinking as Abu-Tir has been spouting about leads me to believe the next target will not be the hi-rises of some American and Canadian city, but the obliteration of your local church or synagogue.
A nerve-jangling thought. But it could happen, for the Hamas, Al-Qaeda and their ilk know this is not about economics … It is a war to death between the Judeo-Christian faith and radical Muslims.
Despite the rhetoric of the politicians, it has always been about religion and Abu-Tir’s ridiculous claim that “U.S. churches are secretly run by Jews, who converted to Christianity” completely baffles me.”
Was Ghasan Abu-Tir’s bulldozer attack on an affluent Jerusalem area on Tuesday just a random act or did a orange-bearded Hamas leader influence his “relative” to become involved in such bizarre (and fatal) behaviour?

Lorenzo's Oil Provided Reason For Hope

2008-06-01T16:50:00.000-07:00

I FIRST "met" Lorenzo Odone aboard a passenger-car ship travelling between Yarmouth, Nova Scotia and Maine in 1993.
Actually, the introduction was through an on-board movie called Lorenzo's Oil and since then I have followed the often-trying journey of Augusto and Michaela Odone's son from that stormy night until Friday when he died in his sleep at age 30.
While I have written countless times about my mother, Anne Corbett, and her divine healing from multiple sclerosis, I had never written about Lorenzo and the perserverance of his parents until now.
Lorenzo had been a normal boy in the early stages of his life as the Odones lived in the Comoros Islands in East Africa. Then there was a dramatic change, for he was diagnosed with Adrenoleukodystrophy (ALD) in 1984.
In checking with a medical profile of ALD it is described as "one of a group of genetic disorders called the leukodystrophies that can cause damage to the myelin sheath, an insulating membrane that surrounds nerve cells in the brain."
The National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Strokes, 2007, also detailed common symptoms include "visual loss, learning disabilities, seizure, poorly articulated speech, difficulty swallowing, deafness, disturbances of gait and coordination, fatigue, intermittent vomiting, increased skin pigmentation, and progressive dement"ia.
The life expectancy was minimal, however, his parents were not about to give up on their son. Augusto Odone was determined in finding a cure for Adrenoleukodystrophy.
Finally, through experimentation, Odone "discovered" Lorenzo's Oil, which combined erucic acid from rapeseed oil and oleic acid from olive oil in combatting "the Very Long Chain Fatty Acids C-24-C26."
Of course, this father's methods were scoffed at, but it gave renewed hope where there had only been despair.
Augusto Odone went on to found The Myelin Project, which is dedicated to eliminating such diseases as ALD and Multiple Sclerosis.
The 1992 movie, Lorenzo's Oil, which starred Nick Nolte and Susan Sarandon, opened the door for a possible cure to this horrific malady, however, there is still much research to be done to eliminate it.
Incidentally, the controversial Sarandon has become a spokesperson for the Myelin Project.
When the mute, deaf and blind Lorenzo died a few days in Fairfax, Va., his father, Augusto, was by his side along with long-time friend, Omouri Hassane. Lorenzo's mother, Michaela, died in 2000 of lung cancer.
***
While writing about Lorenzo's Oil, I would remiss in not mentioning my mother's "miracle," from Multiple Sclerosis.
In her own words in an upcoming book, she described vividly about the "miracle," which occurred at 10 a.m. on Jan. 27, 1951:
"Put on your shoes," these words tenderly, yet forcefully spoken penetrated the four walls of the bedroom.
It couldn't be her husband speaking; already he and his father had been at work in the chair factory the past three hours, her son was at school and in the distance she could hear the musical clatter of dishes being washed by her mother-in-law as she tidied her suite.
Urged on by an inner force, Anne obeyed.
Taking her cane in hand she reached into the inner recesses of the closet, hooked the gold-tipped crook into the toe of the military oxford that had not been worn for so long, brought forth a pair of shoes and proceeded to put them on her feet, not knowing why she felt compelled to do this.
"Walk to the kitchen" spoke the "Voice" again.
She couldn't -- Anne couldn't walk!
These legs that had been practically useless for years could not walk!
"Walk to the kitchen!""I can't walk, I can't walk," sobbed Anne.
The third time the voice spoke, Anne replied, "All right, Lord, I'll walk to the kitchen."
Only as she recognized that the Lord was speaking, could the miracle happen.
Immediately an unseen hand seemed to strike the top of her head and warm, yes, even a hot mercury-like ball streamed and penetrated to the very nerve endings of every part of her body.
She walked, once, twice, three times to the kitchen and back.
Then she ran through the kitchen, the living room, to the next suite into the arms of her mother-in-law.
Tears flowed.
A miracle had been performed that day."

All together now, Shut up, Billy Mays

2008-05-28T02:25:00.000-07:00

OF COURSE, it's rude, but I'm ready to tell pitchman Billy Mays to shut up. The problem I can't get his high-pitched and annoying voice out of my head or off my TV.
And, another one, is that fast-talking Sham something "salesman" being rude by blathering, "Did you get that camera guy?" Hey, this slickster has been working with his camera person for 7, 286 commercials now, and he still doesn't know his name. Give me a break, Sham Wow guy.
So you get my drift. I know I have been watching far too much TV, particularly those ear-piercing commercials, in hi-def or hi-tech or whatever the latest technological discovery on this planet happens to be.
While writing this mid-week column, I kept repeating to myself there were more important subjects to ponder and I started to list them: 1. The aftermath of the quake in China.2. The Israel-Palestinian situation.3. Martha Stewart.4. Quakes, hurricanes, tornadoes.
And then that voice started in my head again: "Tell 'em Billy sent you" or was that the TV in the living room giving me a less-than-subtle message?
Just last month, I was belly-aching about cell-phone abusers, which seem to flood our highways and byways, and it brought up another lengthy list of other pet peeves, which has given me Exedrin Headache #854 (see, I told you, I have been watching too much TV).
However, I am not alone in this complaint department and so I decided to check other lists (most of them now on the Net):
Take for instance:
* Grocery carts with one bad wheel or any other non-working part. Of course, whether you live in this area or on the other side of the world, you've run into that problem. And the question which keeps scurrying through this feeble brain happens to be: Where is the Used Grocery Cart hospital? Someone must have an answer. Also how much can you get for a broken-down grocery cart? Particularly, the one that has at least one bad wheel.
* Here's something that's really annoying: Essays that begin in this way: "According to Webster ..." Enough said, but according to my Funk and Wagnall ...!
* And then there's this one, which I'm certain you've heard before, or you've shouted it: "Drop it" the moment a conversation veers into an unwanted direction.
* There are also some things which should be banned in this life and that's backpacks. I say that after being blindsided (at an airport once again) by someone not accounting for that item when turning sideways in such a confined area. "Hey, Buddy, watch out where you're swinging that thing. What's in there?" Of course, there's never a "sorry" as you try to wipe the blood away from your nose.
While continuing to search the Net, these common pet peeves came to the forefront:
* Installing a toilet paper roll so that the tissue unwraps from the under side of the roll. Alright, I'll admit it, The Missus has corrected me more than once on that tissue (oops, issue).
* Also I have pleaded guilty on numerous occasions of having a drawer stuffed with cords, adapters, and electrical plugs to unknown machinery. But, but, they could become useful, if I only could figure out what they plug into.
Then there are annoying things concerning the "beast" that you're driving:
* People who take almost an eternity to leave a parking space and watch you grow into old age as you're waiting for it.
* Speed bumps you didn't see, but hit at 120 mph. There goes the shock absorbers -- again.
And then there are telephone annoyances:
* Your phone call being put on the speaker, so everyone from your office can know what's new and embarrassing in your life. Arggghhhh!
* Someone who puts you on hold and then plays that XVGH&&%%& music for an hour in your ear. Of course, you could slam the phone receiver down, but no one would hear and when you pick up the phone again, that same XH&&&&%** music is still playing.
So those annoying things burn your bippy, too, but as I finished this column, I could still hear Billy Mays' annoying pitch in the background.
Now, where on earth is his OFF button?
Kaboom! There it is. Click

Human tragedy overshadows Detroit's quest

2008-05-26T03:35:00.000-07:00

THERE ARE two photographs which have haunted me the last few days. And both show just how quickly a life can change.
The first one was of a gregarious Vladimir Konstantinov holding the Stanley Cup high over his head immediately after his Detroit Red Wings claimed hockey's holy grail in 1997. His mouth was obviously forming a whoop of exhilaration.
From that night of pure joy was another of a big man with a receding hairline, walking, well not exactly walking, but trudging up the handicap walkway to a federal building in Detroit, his hands gripping a walker.
It was still Konstantinov, however, more than a decade had passed from that night to his descent into pure hell; one filled with pain and confusion.
Of course, I had remembered Konstantinov as the Detroit rearguard, who seemed to be in control at all times while delivering out vicious hits. In fact, I've viewed his clean, but devastating hit on a pesky Claude Lemieux at least a half dozen times on the Net.
While his team, the Red Wings, have already sent the Pittsburgh Penguins reeling 4-0 in the first game of the Stanley Cup Saturday night, the image of Konstantinov painfully pushing a walker is something hard to erase from one's mind.
However, for Konstantinov and, actually, for the the entire Detroit origanization, their world as they had known it came crashing down on June 13, 1997.
It had only been six days since the Wings had claimed its first NHL championship since 1955 and some had gathered at the Orchards Golf Club in northern Macomb County before scattering to places all around the world.
Then fate drove a terrible blow into the heart of everything hockey.
In a white stretch limo were Konstantinov, Slava Fetisov and the Wings' massage therapist Sergei Mnatsakanov while Richard Gnida, who had less than a spotless driving record, was at the wheel.
On the return from the golf outing, Gnida apparently fell asleep and the limo crossed three lanes and eventually smashed into a tree. It was a crash heard around the hockey world for it nearly ended Konstantinov's life; put Mnatsakanov in a wheelchair while Fetisov had to spend time in hospital. Gnida had only minor injuries.
For a decade that crash has weighed on the NHL. It was one of those rare what-might-have-been moments.
After all, Konstantinov had been one of the brightest lights in the Detroit future, but then he was in a coma. The Detroit fans couldn't believe that their Vladinator was erased from their future.
There was a very long time when Konstantinov's life was at stake and the same applied to Mnatsakanov's as well for their head injuruies from the crash were extremely severe.
Then began the lengthy healing process, followed by a series of lawsuits against the car manufacturer and the limo services. On Friday, after nearly 11 years, they, seemingly, were about to end, one day before the start of the 2008 Stanley Cup quest for Vladdie's beloved Red Wings.
While he's attended some Detroit games and functions in the past few years, the past weeks has been bogged down in a lawsuit against the Ohio car dealership, which had supplied the limo that crashed in 1997.
It was an explosive 15 days, filled with dramatic testimony, particularly, from always feisty former Detroit star and Hockey Hall of Famer Ted Lindsay, who unleashed venom toward limo driver Gnida.
And during Lindsay's diatribe, he also lauded Konstantinov. "He was the greatest machine in the world ... Today, I see this vegetable and to me it just kind of makes me sick (compared) to what was the greatest hockey player in the world. It's a shame," he was quoted as saying in the Detroit News.
Although Lindsay, now 82, and 41-year-old Konstantinov played in different eras, they have become good friends, particularly, as both have worked out together at the Detroit training facility.
However, when the trial ended last Friday, the federal jury ruled 6-1 in favour of the car dealership and rejected a $290-million damages claim, according to wire reports.

Mental health problems come out of the shadows

2008-05-22T15:11:00.000-07:00

Are you crazy? It's a question asked a thousand times a day in workplaces throughout the land after some individual does something out of the norm.
It's usually followed by, "Oh, it's just Crazy Bob, or Bill, or Nancy, trying to show off." However, it might be one of the signs of the onset of a major mental problem.
And it has come more and more to the forefront as I discovered after once again reading a 1992 hardcover book, A Brilliant Madness by Patty Duke with Gloria Hochman. It, of course, has a subtitle of Living With Manic Depressive Illness.
Before A Brilliant Madness, the outstanding actress had written the revealing Call Me Anna and in the followup with medical reporter Hochman she went further into the destructive illness.
Duke's symptoms started in her late teens and she was not correctly diagnosed until the age of 35 "before gaining a semblance of control of her life."
Also quoting from the inside book cover, Patty recounts with painful honesty her temper tantrums, crying jags, hospital stays, suicide attempts, panic attacks, spending sprees, crushing depressions, and plunges into near bankruptcy.
Duke, who had been sensational as Helen Keller in The Miracle Worker, also revealed how the disease helped to destroy two marriages and deeply hurt her children, according to the book jacket.
In Wednesday's column, I mentioned another who has suffered through such agonies and that happens to a former Toronto Sun colleague and friend, Sandy Naiman.
One of the most insightful articles on the problems surrounding mental illness are detailed in a Globe and Mail article she penned in February 2007.
After stating in no uncertain terms that American astronaut Lisa Nowak deserved better treatment after being thrown to the "wolves," so to speak, when she was placed in handcuffs for uncharacteristic behaviour, Naiman continued with her own personal tribulations.
When she was only 12 years old, a doctor diagnosed Naiman with schizophrenia. In the ensuing years she would have 20 hospitalizations and five different diagnoses.
In her Globe article, she also admitted, in detail, to "humiliating, demoralizing things, in public. Things, I wish I could undo. Or forget."
Later, in the article, Naiman said she'd never been arrested or handcuffed, "but I spent 24 hours shackled to a hospital bed, in wrist and ankle restraints, needing a bedpan instead of a diaper."
In going back to her profile it has to be noted that it took doctors a dozen years before they deemed she was a manic depressive (bipolar disorder) and not schizophrenic and Lithium Carbonate was ordered.
It didn't work as Naiman had to endure 11 serious manic episodes and hospitalizations in the ensuing years.
However, there was hope and at the age of 40, Naiman was prescribed another drug, an anticonvulant, Tegretol, which she started to take in 1988. Fortunately, she has not had another major manic episode since.
Today, this brilliant writer, speaker and mental health advocate is married to screenwriter Martin Lager and now offers advice to employers throughout Canada.
"Corporate courage to address mental illnesses is desperately needed, and in short supply," Naiman was quoted on the Mental Health Works website. "Corporations cannot afford to have sick employees and mental illnesses and addictions are the leading causes of absenteeism and lost productivity in today's workplaces. If companies can fix computers and machines, they must ensure that the minds of their employees running those computers and machines are also treated well and safeguarded ..."
Disability management consultant Dr. Garry A. Corbett of Winnipeg noted there has been a dramatic shift in costs between occupational injuries and non-occupational (including psychological) problems. "It used to be a 50-50 split 10 years ago, however, today for every $10. spent, $3 is spent on occupational injuries while $7 are needed for non-occupational problems, including psychological.
"The most common problem would appear to be depression in the workplace.
Meanwhile, Bill Wilkerson, co-founder/CEO, Global Business and Economic Roundtable on Addiction and Mental Health, has been quoted as saying, "Upwards of 56 million people in Canada and the U.S. -- and six million in Canada specifically -- suffer mental health problems at any hour on any clock in any time zone."
However, there is hope and understanding for a disease, which for much too long has wallowed in the shadows.

Of needles, green aliens and (mental) health

2008-05-20T15:13:00.000-07:00

IT'S MIDNIGHT and I'm snoring and without warning The Missus poked me in the side and uttered these familiar words: "Wake up, it's time to take your needle."
Jabbing that "needle"filled with insulin into me has become a familiar routine. Yes, I am a full-fledged diabetic and this once mediocre athlete has turned into a 260-pound weakling and dependent on the "needle."
Of course, others have no means to vent their frustrations. I do with this column.
Before wallowing in the pit of self-pity, let me tell you I am not alone with this disease, which has sapped so many of their vitality and, in later stages of life, their memory and brought on unexpected temper tantrums (my diagnosis).
You know what I'm talking about if you are a diabetic or in the family of a diabetic. My late father also suffered through the miseries of the chronic disease
.And it's no respecter of persons. Both rich and poor can be victims of it.
The reason for writing about this disease was two fold: A list of famous persons with the disease has appeared on the Net and also an article by Michael Silver concerning Denver Broncos' quarterback Jay Cutler and his journey in the NFL.
In checking the list of athletes, who have or had diabetes, it includes hockey's Bobby Clark and the late Arthur Ashe from tennis.
Then there was the very angry Ty Cobb, the mild-mannered Joe Gibbs along with boxing's Sugar Ray Robinson, James (Buster) Douglas and Smokin' Joe Frazier. From baseball the names include Jackie Robinson, Ron Santo, Catfish Hunter and Boomer Wells.
Other diabetics, who certainly gained fame, included the likes of Thomas Edison, Jack Benny, James Cagney, Dick Clark, Larry King, Elizabeth Taylor and Mae West.
Then there was the Soul Man, James Brown, the Man In Black Johnny Cash, the great gospel singer Mahalia Jackson, Waylon Jennings, B.B. King, Neil Young and the king, himself, Elvis Presley.
In the writing trade was Ernest Hemingway and Anne Rice (Interview With a Vampire).
And the list goes on and on. So if you, too, have been prodded to take your needle, do not feel all alone.
In just the last few days I have started to re-read To Teach, To Learn, To Live by Diane O'Grady, whom I talked with at the Vernon Jubilee Hospital.
In it, one of the most striking statements was this one: "Diabetes is now a global epidemic."
Although it is called the Complete Diabetes Education Guide for Health Care Professionals, O'Grady certainly outlines the signs and symptoms in laymen's terms such as increased thirst and urination, excessive hunger, weight loss, fatigue and blurred vision.
Now excuse me while I draw some blood, take a reading, and then take another "needle."
***
Although I've written a number of columns concerning UFOs, the most striking report showed up the other day from over 'ome.The British Ministry of Defence (stiff upper lip types and all that) apparently have files on 11,000 sightings dating all the way back to the 1950s.Of course, like the U.S. Air Force the sightings have been scuttled as so many hot-air balloons, etc., etc., but it certainly makes one wonder
The archives (www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/ufos) are filled with stories and one which struck my fancy was about a 78-year-old out fishing at midnight and his account "of following aliens in green overalls onto a spaceship." According to the Reuters report, the ancient geezer was told to go away "because he was too old and decrepit for their purposes."
***
During my newspaper travels throughout the world, I have met numerous fascinating people, but Sandy Naiman rates at the top of any list. She was my friend and colleague at the Toronto Sun and an outstanding writer and speaker.
Just in the last few days I have read her autobiographical article, 'Coming Out Crazy,' which appeared in the October 1999 issue of Chatelaine.
However, Naiman has also been an inspiration to countless thousands throughout this country and the world, for my friend, Sandy, has lived with a serious mental illness since the age of 12.
Sandy Naiman has to rate as a true "overcomer."
***
Finally, speaking of an "overcomer," Boston Red Sox pitcher Jon Lester, who threw a no-hitter against the Kansas City Royals is definitely one.
Lester, a left-hander out of Tacoma's Bellarmine High School, was diagnosed with lymphoma and his chances to succeed were rated as slim and none.
However, such a fate wasn't in his future for he worked his way back and certainly has shown the meaning of "true grit."

Buried 'treasures' buried in an old desk drawer

2008-05-16T01:00:00.000-07:00

ANCIENT ANDY ROONEY, who really is older than dirt, penned a column the other day about "junk" some of his readers had sent him. One suggested there should be a picture of him on the side of a Wheaties box. Another sent him a book called 'Twenty Things You Didn't Know About Everything.'
And so while waiting for the weekend horse pull at the Falkland Stampede I dug into an unopened desk drawer to see if I could find some hidden treasures.
In a large wicker basket, complete with cobwebs and assorted germs, were 68 small paper clips, a box of Staples standard staples, a packet of business cards, starting with one advertising a large real estate firm and finishing up with one telling the world I once was with the Toronto Sun. That had to be from the early 1970s.
And under all those "gems" was a Swan Harmonica, which I hadn't played in years, and five packets of Splenda for tea I never drank.
Then there was a faded column from the Edmonton Sun, from the early, early 1980s about Shiatsu. If you are wondering what that is, let me quote a few paragraphs from the wrinkled copy. It included a large picture of yours truly before my beard and hair had barely started to turn grey.
"Quick, Nurse Goody-Goody, get Ben Casey on the phone. Page Doctor Kildare at General Hospital. I want a third opinion. Medical opinion, that is." (Ed. Note: Ben Casey, Doc Kildare? Now Corbett was really dating himself.)
"And how did all this concern about my health begin? It started the other day when Publisher Agawatchie ordered me to take something called an "executive medical." It was thorough, from blood to heart tests and Doc Mendes even made me cough although I don't have a cold. After the hour-long examination, Doc Mendes pronounced me in reasonable condition, except that I was overweight.
"Overweight? I already knew that, since earlier in the day someone tried to slap a Goodyear sticker on me so I could fill in as the Blimp when NBC televises the Rose Bowl on New Year's Day."
Then I proceeded to consult with David Yawrenko, who specialized in Shiatsu, which is Japanese acupressure.
Doc Y. then told me that acupressure is the simple pressing and rubbing of painful spots on the body by the fingers and palms of the hands. It was determined that instead of needles, direct thumb and finger pressure on the acupuncture merdian points would gain similiar results.
Continuing, the points are, in effect, the floodgates which, when stimulated with steady, direct pressure, keep the energy systems in motion.
Then that column added these words: "While Doc Y. doesn't claim that Shiatsu can cure everything, he said that acupressure's main function is to maintain health and well being. It can help overcome such ailments as fatigue, migraine, tension, eye problems, blood pressure problems, asthma, arthritis, muscle strains and sprains, neck and spinal problems, indigestion, coughing, laryngitis and shoulder and elbow problems." That list certainly covered most of my physical woes.
When Doc Y. gently touched me on the jaw, it almost brought tears to my eyes. "There's a terrible buildup in there. Your diet is a mess."
Now it's years and years later and I had almost forgotten about Shiatsu and about taking raw halibut oil three times a day.
That's when I closed that old desk drawer and promised myself not to re-read that "healthy" column again.
At least, not until after the Falkland Stampede where I'll put on the feed bag with a double order of French fries and ketchup.
***
ANSWER TO THIS TOUGHIE (From The Straight Dope): Q. Where does belly button lint come from? A: "Your navel is one of the few places on your body where perspiration has a chance to accumulate before evaporating. Lint from your clothing, cottons especially, adheres to the wet area and remains after the moisture departs."
ANSWERS FROM A FEW GOOD MEN (1992): Jack Nicholson (as Col. Nathan R. Jessup): You wants answers? ... Tom Cruise (Kaffee): I think I'm entitled ... Nicholson: You want answers? ... Cruise: I want the truth!... Nicholson: You can't handle the truth!

Deadly reasons for not watching Indy 500

2008-05-13T15:19:00.000-07:00

WHEN POLE-SITTER Scott Dixon leads the field around the Great American Cow Pasture on Sunday, May 25th, I won't be one of 200,000 to 300,000 watching the 92nd running of the Indianapolis 500 in person or one of the countless millions viewing it on TV.
This isn't a recent promise, but one that I made to myself some 35 years ago in May 1973.
And there's a definite reason for passing up the touted auto-racing extravaganza, which I've written about a number of times in the past.
***
Gordon Johncock won the 57th running of the 500 that mid-week afternoon, however, when his brilliant red STP Eagle crossed the finish line in front of 100,000 fans after only 133 laps or 332.5 miles, it was anti-climatic to the incredible events which preceded it.
It was difficult to believe that two deaths and, more than 15 injuries, added up to any kind of a victory celebration.
Rain had prevented its start on Sunday, and then it was postponed to Monday and as rain spitted all over the huge playpen the flag finally was dropped by Pat Vidan
Then young Salt Walther tried to make a hasty exit through a wire fence along the front straightaway. He missed and as a result, the modish bachelor wound up in the Downtown Methodist Hospital covered in burns to most of his body.
In the aftermath of the devastation, 13 or more spectators were burned, two teen-age girls seriously, along with minor injuries to two drivers -- Mike Hiss and John Martin. The race was then halted.
Rains again wiped out Tuesday's plans. So it wasn't until Wednesday at 2:07 before the track was dry enough to start.
The 32-car field roared off with the gleaming white Eagle of Bobby Unser charging around the first turn, and it appeared as if the difficulties of the previous few days would be forgotten by some brilliant driving.
The pattern appeared familiar as Bobby U. spread his wings in front of such dominant personalities as Mark Donohue, Swede Savage, pole-sitter Johnny Rutherford and Gary Bettenhausen.
But then the speeds, which had reached a tick of the clock away from 200 during qualifications, started to take their expected toll. First Mario Andretti, wheeling a Parnelli Turbo-Offy, went for lunch on the third lap.
Machines and drivers wheeled in and out of pit lane for the first 30 laps as Bobby Unser doggedly held onto the lead for the first 75 miles.
But, then during a pit stop, Johncock took the lead and by the 40th lap, or 100 miles, he had a safe margin over young Billy Vukovich and Savage with brothers Al and Boby Unser moving up steadily.
But any belief that this race was going to be accident-free were quickly dashed when Savage, only 26, and driving another STP machine for owner Andy Granatelli, spun on some oil on the 58th lap as he headed down the north end of the straightaway, turned sideways and slammed into the wall front first.
Alternate driver John Mahler, who was standing near the pit entrance, rushed towards the scene along with six firemen carrying extinguishers and managed to tear the aluminum away from Savage's frame and carried him to a waiting ambulance.
Swede, who had survived a near fatal crash at Ontario, Calif., in 1971 and had a memory lapse for almost six months, was taken to hospital with compound fractures to both his legs, internal injuries and burns. He would die later.
In the ensuing confusion surrounding the accident, a pit crew member for another STP team driver, Graham McRae, was fatally injured.
As I wrote on that fateful day, Armando Teran never saw death coming towards him, but thousands in the stands did.
Did you ever see a man die a violent death? I wanted to walk out of the Speedway and never return.
Armando came to Indianapolis to work on one of the STP pit crews, a chance to get away from his job as a truck driver in Culver City, Cali. He was 23, a bachelor, who didn't expect to die in the 500. He wasn't a race driver.
It was 3:10 p.m. when No. 40 -- Swede Savage -- hit an oil slick and slammed into the wall, exploding immediately and spewing fire across the track, just at the entrance of pit lane.
Armando was standing behind the wall near the starter's podium, talking with other members of McRae's pit crew.
As ambulances and fire trucks started roaring towards the accident scene, Armando leaped over the wall, started to cross the paved pit lane towards the narrow median of grass and race along with dozens of others.
Just then a fire truck, speeding at more than 60 mph, and also going in the wrong direction, blasted through the pit area and Armando was a pedestrian who wasn't looking/
.The truck struck Armando with a tremendous thud, sending the young mechanic flying through the air some 50 feet. He rolled over and over again -- like a child rolling through snow.
The crowd screamed as they lifted his body into an ambulance. The fire truck's radiator was spewing steam and a huge dent was showing on its passenger side.
It was more than an hour later the press learned of Armando's death. The crowd was never told.
When Johncock finally crossed the finish line that fateful afternoon, there was no joy in the STP camp.
For Granatelli, the usually life-of-the-party owner, it was a very bitter-sweet victory. "It's not a great day for me because Swede's in the hospital and a crew member of ours has been lost." He wiped a tear away.
Later, on the victory podium, the announcer for the festival of beer and dirt tried to engender some enthusiasm from Andy, but he turned his head toward the rain-pregnant skies and it appeared he might be thinking, "Why me, God, why did something like this happen to me?"
As for this rain-drenched road warrior, I vowed never to return to the Indianapolis 500.
I have kept that promise.

Obsessed in searching for Lost Ark of the Covenant

2008-05-11T16:41:00.000-07:00

ALTHOUGH I don't own a bullwhip and have never worn a battered fedora like Indiana Jones, I'm still obsessed with searching for the Ark of the Covenant.
In fact, as I flipped through the TV channels the other day, Harrison Ford was fighting off the Nazis once again for possession of the most important archaelogical, historical and religious object in man's history.
But that was pure fiction and well told in the hands of Steven Spielberg in the classic 1981 movie.
And just when I thought that was sufficient and this obsession would become dormant, a Sunday news story, however, jarred my interest once again.
The headline in WorldNetDaily read: Ark of the Covenant altar found in Sheba's palace, and then added: Remains of animal sacrifices discovered at home of Ethiopian queen.
Incidentally, I was once the Middle East Bureau Chief for WND, based in Jerusalem.
What was so startling was that archaelogists from the University of Hamburg were now verifying the findings that I, along with other "searchers," had made nearly 20 years ago.
In fact, after travelling to Ethiopia on the advice of Prince Stephanos (Stephen Mengesha), a great-great grandson of Haile Selassie, in 1990, I had written a five-part newspaper series along with three unpublished volumes , entitled The Glory of the King. It traced the Ark and its Ethiopian history; its sighting in Ethiopia during the 1896 Battle of Adowa and The Last Emperor of the Ark concerning Haile Selassie and his long reign, which ended with his murder in the 1970s.
Of course, another "searcher" Graham Hancock also put out a best-selling book entitled, The Sign and The Seal, published by Doubleday in 1992.
In the latest so-called "revelations," scientist Helmut Ziegert and his university team reportedly found "the queen of Sheba's palace at Aksum in Ethiopia, purported to once have been the home of the Ark of the Covenant," according to the WND report. It also claimed Ziegert's research began in 1999 with the palace only discovered three months ago.
In a full-page Ottawa Sunday Sun article in March 1992, I penned these words:
"Shrouded in mystery and intrigue and cloaked with a legacy of divine wrath for more than 3,000 years, the Ark of the Covenant is believed to be in northern Ethiopia.
After a three-year investigation, The Sun has learned that the Ark is likely buried beneath an Ethiopian Orthodox church, St. Mary of Zion, in Aksum, a "holy city" in Tigre province, 623 km north of Addis Ababa.
Its location within the archaic religious compound hasn't been divulged by either Ethiopian Orthodox officials or the secretive cadre of priests, who still guard a sacred chest, which supposedly housed the Ten Commandments.
Efforts to locate the Ark aren't new because throughout history, various individuals and even countries have tried to track it down.
It's believed with some validity that Fascist dictator Benito Mussolini hunted for it in the 1930s when the Italians occupied Ethiopia and the separatist province of Eritrea.
Through the centuries, the Ark has taken a life of its own, overshadowed by mysticism and wild claims that it houses a nuclear reactor or that it's still being used as a transmitter for aliens from outer space.
If it is such a lethal weapon, why are there adventurers combing Aksum's ancient ruins in search of the invaluable relic?
It's certain Israel has a great interest in it because it's the lynchpin of rebuilding a Jewish temple on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem, which would herald their messiah."
Besides Ziegert and his Hamburg group, there will be others launching a frantic search -- and soon.
Now where can I get a bullwhip and a battered fedora?
SOME 'ARK' FACTS: Its construction by the Hebrew patriarch Moses' chief carpenter, Bezalel, in about 1250 BC. This occurred after Moses came down Mount Sinai with the Ten Commandments ... The stone tablets were placed in a chest about four feet in length and about 2 1/2 feet high and the same 2 1/2 feet made of acacia wood and covered inside and out with gold. There were two carrying poles also covered with gold ... Inside were the two tablets, the rod of Moses' brother, Aaron, and a pot of manna (the miracle food).
ETHIOPIAN CLAIM: The fabled Ark "disappeared" from Jerusalem between the reign of King Solomon (970-931 BC) and the Babylonian destruction of the Great Temple in 586 BC. This "disappearance" sets into motion the Ethiopian claim that Menelik, a son of King Solomon and Makeda, also known as the the Queen of Sheba, took the Ark and replaced it with a replica in the Jerusalem Temple. The legend also claims it's now housed in Aksum in northern Ethiopia.

Heroes Include Wolfgang and My Brother

2008-05-09T00:09:00.000-07:00

WILLIE NELSON once warbled that his heroes have always been cowboys. However, mine include a man who uses two canes and the other happens to be my kid brother.
Both Wolfgang Zimmermann and Dr. Garry Corbett are dedicated to improving the plight of disabled workers throughout Canada and around the globe and both log countless thousands of air miles in their quest.
Take, for instance, when I contacted Zimmermann, the executive director of the National Institute of Disability Management and Research (NIDMAR) in Victoria, he was about to board a plane to once again promote "the values of disability management."
Meanwhile, my kid brother, if you can call someone in his mid-50s a kid, had just returned from a number of trips to New Zealand and Australia, giving lectures concerning the disabled and their return to the workforce.
When I tracked down Zimmermann's background, it was one worthy of a documentary or two. In fact, there have been a couple including 'Every Twelve Seconds' (which dealt with the personal and financial costs of industrial injuries) and a CBC Journal/National news documentary called 'Insult to Injury.'
Zimmermann knows about disability first hand.
Born in Dortmund, Germany and trained as a landscape gardening engineer, he arrived in Canada at age 19 in the mid-1970s and began working for MacMillan Bloedel's Sproat Lake division as a member of the brushing crew. However, after only five days into the job, tragedy struck and it changed his life, forever.
In brief a tree fell on him, breaking his back severely and with his spinal cord damaged he spent years in a wheelchair and on crutches. He now uses those canes.
Zimmermann proved to be no quitter and some 30 years later has become "the spiritual father and driving force behind provisions for the international "disability management" initiative in countries throughout the world," according to a news blurb.
The energetic Zimmermann has certainly impressed his colleagues, including my brother, the one-time president of CARP (Canadian Association of Rehabiliation Professionals), which has changed its name to VRAC (Vocational Rehabiliation Association of Canada).
"I have had the privilege of knowing Wolfgang for approximately 10 years in a variety of capacities, and am constantly impressed with his strength of conviction, tenacity and compassion for workers, who have experienced a disability," said Dr. Corbett.
"Over the years I have watched as he has tirelessly crisscrossed Canada and traveled countless miles throughout the world promoting the values of disability management. During that time he has been able to bring together business, union and government leadership from a multitude of countries into a coalition of individuals that work for the betterment of not only injured/ill workers but society as a whole."
Dr. Corbett also pointed out "the costs related to disabilities in the workplace can be staggering," and then he listed them:
* Lost wages, concurrent and future, not replaced through benefits;
* Medical expenses not compensated through compensation systems or other insurance;
* Time and resources expended by disabled worker's household in nursing and recuperation;
* Lost household production;
* Productivity of disabled worker no longer available to society;
* Increase in mental health problems;
* Earlier death rate; and spouses of unemployed workers experience increased emotional problems.
"One of the keys to Wolfgang's success is that by using an effective disability management model everyone wins," Dr. Corbett emphasized, adding, "For the employee there is a significant cost savings, they are able to keep the experience and expertise of skilled workers and increase their competitive standing within the world market.
"For unions they are able to provided needed services to their members and maintain them in a productive environment. And for society, we not only retain a productive (and tax paying) citizen, but there is a significant reduction in the use of the health care and medical systems."
In conclusion, Dr. Corbett stated, "British Columbia and Canada can be proud of being one of the major driving forces of Disability Management movement throughout the world. What started as a dream for Wolfgang and NIDMAR only a few short years ago is now a model that is used throughout the world. He has been able to clearly demonstrate that "doing the right thing" is not only ethical but financially sound for all involved."
For their work in the disability management field, both Wolfgang Zimmermann and my brother deserve to be called heroes.

2008-05-07T02:07:00.000-07:00

PERHAPS, it won't be up for a Stupid Sports Quotes Award, but Pittsburgh's Russian-born superstar Evgeni Malkin should have known better.
"That's one of the teams that it's really not a pleasure to play against. I really don't like playing against them. I don't like that team," Malkin was quoted as saying. It was long-winded for a guy with a minimal English vocabulary, but you can bet it's been written on the Philadelphia dressing-room wall.
On Friday night, the Flyers will be head-hunting against the Penguins and Malkin along with Sid Crosby when the NHL conference finals open. In the other set, Detroit Red Wings square off against the Dallas Stars. The conference champs play for the right to hold Lord Stanley's mug high in the air.
But back to Malkin's long-winded opinion piece concerning the cross-Pennsylvania foes. He probably would have been wise to shut his yap.
After all, it would appear that these 2007-08 version are a remake of the Broad Street Bullies from the 1970s.
Remember those villains, who claimed a couple of Stanley Cups and were feared for their ferocity?
Philly captain Bobby Clarke was the team leader, but Dave Schultz (aka Zeus and The Hammer) intimidated the opponents with his fists.
Take for instance when Philly upended the Boston Bruins four games to two for the Stanley Cup in the 1974 final. Schultz spent 38 minues in the "sin bin" while teammates Andre Dupont had 33 penalty minutes (PIM) and Jimmy Watson had 30.
Besides bashing the opposition, Schultz went on to co-author a book (with Stan Fischler) called The Hammer and even had a recording called Penalty Box.
Schultz also holds an NHL record for the most penalty minutes in a season (1974-75) with an astounding 472 PIM.
And the Flyers had another advantage for that era because the great Kate Smith would inspire them with her rendition of 'God Bless America.'
The Broad Street Bullies also had Fred Shero behind the bench and he once was quoted as saying: "I swear I have never told a player to attack another player. In fact, I have told my players if they ever hear me saying something like this, they can break a stick over my skull. I ask only that they play aggressively."
Malkin, meanwhile, recalls his dislike for the Flyers was intensified in March when Flyers' Mike Richards' skate ran over his cheek and left him with a nasty cut. Then on April 2, the Flyers and the Pens waged a mini-war less than a minute into the game.
So while the names may have changed from the 1970s the Philadelphia attitude hasn't in 2008 for they don't believe in turning the other cheek.
And one final note about the Broad Street Bullies of Bernie Parent, Bill Barber, Bill Clement, and, of course, The Enforcer, Schultz, Fred Shero's kid, Ray, was once a Philadelphia rink rat and followed their every move.
Today, Ray Shero has switched his loyalty from the Flyers. After all he's now the Pittsburgh general manager so he better be cheering for the Penguins.
***
SPEAKING OF STUPID SPORTS QUOTES: Former Toronto quarterback Joe Theismann apparently once said: "Nobody in football should be called a genius. A genius is a guy like Norman Einstein." ... Shaq O'Neal on whether he had visited the Parthenon during his visit to Greece: "I can't really remember the names of the clubs that we went to." ... And there's the one attributed to the late CFL and NFL GM Jim Finks, when asked after a loss what he thought of the refs: "I'm not allowed to comment on lousy officiating."
***
STUPID SPORTS INCIDENTS (From The Corbett Files): Jan. 6, 1972 -- After St. Louis Blues coach Al Arbour was showered with debris at Philly's Spectrum, Arbour and a couple of his players went after the garbage throwers; then on Dec. 29 of the same year, an idiot in Vancouver's Pacific Coliseum reached over the glass and pulled Don Saleski's hair. What happened? Six players were docked $500 when assault charges were laid ... Dec. 23, 1979 -- The infamous Mike Milbury Incident when the Boston Bruins standout grabbed a fan's shoe and beat him with it. It was all part of fight night at the Garden as the Beantowners went into the stands to take on the hostile New York fans.

The Courage of Ravensbruck Prisoner #2675

2008-05-01T07:27:00.000-07:00

CECELIA REXIN was a 19-year-old student living the "good life" in Koenigsberg, Germany in 1937 when she noticed some of her Jewish friends had disappeared. She soon discovered the awful truth that Jews from all over Germany were vanishing into the Nazi-created oblivion.
Angered by such injustice, she joined an underground movement which hid Jews and provided passports for them to flee the country. However, Rexin was arrested as a political dissident the same year.
Her life became a hell, as she was shuttled off to a number of German concentration camps, including Ravensbruck, located north of Berlin.
At Ravensbruck, where more than 90,000 perished, Rexin's barracks was next to one which housed Jews.
"I was glad to be near them and soon I had many friends there," Rexin once recalled.
Assigned to dispensary duty, she paid dearly for befriending a young Jewish girl whose family had been killed in the war.
The German authorities intended to ship the girl to Auschwitz, so Rexin hid her in the crawl space beneath the barracks. "I stole food and blankets for her. The girl became very attached to me. She called me 'Mama.'"
When the girl was discovered, Rexin was ordered flogged by her fellow inmates. However, the girl survived and they met after the war.
In December, 1944, Rexin was caught trying to smuggle bread and medicine to her Jewish friends in the adjacent barracks. She was punished by being put in a pitch-black, unheated 3 by 5-foot concrete box for eight weeks, barely surviving on water and food scraps.
Wearing only a thin dress and a pair of wooden shoes, Rexin developed pneumonia after being deprived of food for five days.
That when she prayed: "It's OK, God, if You want me to die and be with You. But I've been here more than seven years and I don't want to die now. Please let me live."
Her prayers were answered.
An hour later, a Swedish Red Cross worker unlocked her cell door.
"It was a miracle," Rexin said. "In my darkness, my Heavenly Father heard my prayer and reached down to me."
She had emerged as an 80-pound physical wreck.
Rexin -- Ravensbruck prisoner #2675 -- had witnessed unbelievable atrocities, including seeing hundreds being dragged off to the gas chambers and ovens.
One incident was forever locked in her memory. A German guard picked up two children and bashed their heads together, killing them. He dropped the lifeless pair and started laughing while walking away.
After the war, while working for an agency which identified former Nazis, Rexin settled in Bavaria, married and had a child. Her testimony helped convict several concentration camp officials.
In 1974, she joined her daughter, Nancy Evans, in the U.S. and began speaking to schools in Indiana about the Holocaust.
In 1988, both Rexin and Evans received Yeshua (Jesus) as their Messiah.
Then in 1994, she was able to realize her life-long dream of praying the Mourner's Kaddish at Jerusalem's Wailing Wall for Jewish women she had met in a Nazi concentration camp.
Two years later, she was diagnosed with cencer and was given a short time to live. However, her dying request was that she become a U.S. citizen, which she did.
In May 1997 she died of cancer at the age of 79 a true heroine during one of the most dark periods in human history and as I wrote shortly after her death, her efforts certainly rank with other heroines such as Corrie Ten Boom, whom she met at Auschwitz. Also at that time, I learned a tree would be planted on the avenue of "Righteous Gentiles" in Jerusalem's Yad Vashem.
While this writer as well as others have attempted to detail her life story, it was Cecelia Rexin's own words which have had the greatest impact.
In June 1998, her autobiography, 'Testament To Courage: The Concentration Camp Diary (1940-1945) of a Courageous German Woman Who Risked Her Life To Save Others, was published.
On Thursday as a siren wailed in Israel and the world paused in memory of six million Jews, who perished in the Holocaust, I also remembered Cecelia Rexin and her unbelievable courage.

These soaps go on and on and on

2008-04-30T02:00:00.000-07:00

I HAVE a confession. I'm hooked on The Soaps.
So bring on The Young and the Restless, General Hospital, Guiding Light, As The World Turns and even Days of Our Lives.
At one time I thought it wasn't the manly thing to do; that was until I heard a friend named Wayne Gretzky (that's right, The Great Gretzky) used to be glued to the TV set when the soaps were on. And what's more he even acted in TY&TR back in 1981 and 1983.
In addition, other Young & Restless alumni included Muhammad Ali (1999); baseball star David Justice (1992) and a (Dallas) Cowboy, Tony Dorsett.
So, suddenly, the guilt complex was swept away.
It's also the reason I can expand on the latest soaps, which you might not have heard of, namely, The Rocket and The Country Singer. It's now into Episode 2,468 and counting.
As in all soaps, characters slip in and out and even in recent months, it reached a peak as The Rocket (starring Roger Clemens) appeared before the Big Boys (the U.S. Congress).
Clemens turned on his accuser (played by The Trainer, Brian McNamee) in denying he (Clemens) had ever used steroids and human growth hormone.
The Rocket claimed The Trainer was trying to "save his own skin by making up lies."
Later on in one of the continuing episodes, Clemens spoke up and told the Congressional hearing that his best buddy and fellow Yankee pitcher (played by Andy Pettitte) had "misremembered" a conversation the two had about HGH.
Then there was a lull for a couple of months as the Other Big Boys (played by members of the FBI) started reviewing all the testimony and there were hints that The Rocket (Clemens) may have lied under oath.
A drum roll, please.
The next episode introduces us to The Country Singer (played by Mindy McCready), who apparently has known The Rocket since she was 15 years old and he was 28.
With Mindy's appearance, a little background certainly is needed; for there flashing on the soap opera screen is a picture of her with facial bruises and information about her past. In August 2004, she had been been arrested in Tennessee for using a fake prescription to buy the painkiller OxyContin and after pleading guilty, Mindy was fined $4,000 and sentenced to three years' probation.
Besides a number of charges hanging over her head in 2005, she also had boyfriend troubles. An ex named Billy McKnight allegedly broke into her house and beat and choked her.
Then in September 2007, Mindy landed in jail for violating probation. She was released in December.
During lulls in Mindy's legal wrangles she had managed to put together such super hits such as Guys Do It All The Time, Ten Thousand Angels and A Girl's Gotta Do (What a Girl's' Gotta Do).
So what about the latest connection between The Rocket and The Country Singer?
Well, after The Rocket (Clemens) filed a defamation suit against The Trainer (McNamee), "revelations" now have surfaced about a supposed long-time romance between Clemens and McCready.
What's the problem in that situation? Well, during court testimony, Clemens had adamantly claimed he was a devoted and married family man.
His wife's name happens to be Debbie Clemens. In the tangled web, it was also learned that The Trainer (McNamee) had injected Mrs. Clemens with HGH before she posed for a SI swimsuit issue.
Stay tuned for the next dramatic episode of The Rocket and The Country Singer.
***
BILLY RAY, MILEY & ANNIE: In 1994, ace reporter Joe Warmington wrote a paperback, The Cyrus Virus, which I had the privilege of publishing about the meteoric rise of Billy Ray Cyrus from Flatwoods, Kentucky to super stardom. After hits such as Achy, Breaky Heart, Cyrus went on to become a fine dramatic actor in a number of TV series. However to this generation, he's the father of Miley Cyrus, known around the world as Hannah Montana.
In the past few days, Miley Cyrus has made the headlines after posing for Vanity Fair's famed photog, Annie Leibovitz, with both father Billy Ray and mother, Tish, apparently on the same set.
The most disturbing aspect of it all was the parents didn't protest about their daughter's "provocative" poses at the time, according to newspaper reports. After all, Miley is only 15 years old.).

Yossi Harel: Now there was a true hero

2008-04-28T07:41:00.000-07:00

IN AN AGE of instant celebrities and questionable hero worship, the name of Yossi Harel may mean little.
It's really a name from the past that has been largely forgotten by a generation populated by insignificant wannabees and shallow politicians.
However, Yossi Harel was once an authentic hero of the entire globe, but over time he has been marginalized. The few exceptions are when a reader explores the inside stories concerning Leon Uris' classic novel, 'Exodus' or a movie buff goes searching for insights into Otto Preminger's brilliant recollection of the same name, which starred Paul Newman.
When 90-year-old Yossi Harel died on the weekend in Tel Aviv, the obit writers went scrambling for the appropriate words. His daughter, Sharon, said it best in the Jerusalem Post when she noted: "He was one of a generation of giants. He fought for the State of Israel and to protect and strengthen it. His courageous spirit was marked by his modesty, generosity and passion."
Perhaps, this writer has had more than a passing interest in such a true hero, after living and working in Jerusalem, but Harel's heroics were, indeed, the stuff of legends.
While the legendary ship's journey has been detailed in 'Exodus' (the book and the movie) as well as others, including Aviva Halamish's The Exodus Affair (1998), there were certainly gaps in the history of its commander.
But brilliant Israeli writer, Yoram Kaniuk, was able to give Harel his just due in his 'Commander of the Exodus' from 1999, which was translated from Hebrew by Seymour Simckes.
In brief, Harel was truly a modern-day Moses as he commanded four broken-down ships, Pan York, Pan Crescent, Knesset Israel, and the most famous, Exodus, and packed with Holocaust survivors bound for their new "homeland." Those journeys, from 1945 to 1948, were overcrowded with 24,000 'illegal immigrants' and defied the British blockade while the world closed its doors.
Harel was a compassionate and sensitive man, as Kaniuk described in his book, and he certainly was the complete opposite of any Hollywood stereotype.
Kaniuk once described him this way: "There was something very hevreman (sociable) about him. He was not the kind of clap-you-on-the-back hero. He was a man of manners, the type who didn't raise his voice. He was a man of conscience and a daring fighter."
Then Kaniuk also added in the Haaretz story that Harel's Jewishness was important, "as someone who had grown up in Jerusalem and not in Tel Aviv or on a kibbutz."
In Kaniuk's book, there's detailed passages of how Harel joined the Haganah (the Jewish militia) at the age of 14 . Then he fought the Arabs during the anti-Jewish riots of the 1930s and then the Germans in the Second World War. When that war ended, Harel fought the British and, of course, was instrumental in the birth of Israel in 1948 against such long odds.
In the June 2, 2005 issue of the San Diego Jewish Times, Donald H. Harrison related the modest Harel talking about his experiences concerning such perilous times:
"Overall, we brought 100,000 people but this was the bloodiest war we ever had. In the War for Independence, we had 600,000 Jews, and we lost 6,000 -- one per cent." Running the blockade, he said, "we lost over 3,000 people drowned in the Black Sea -- three per cent ...
"With all these casualties, they kept coming, they didn't stop. A nation destroyed was coming back to life."
After those heroic and harrowing voyages, Harel left for the U.S. to study mechanical engineering. However, he was called back to command an Israeli intelligence operation, but left the army in 1954 and entered the business world.
Today, Harel was buried in Kibbutz Sdot Yam, the communal farm which was the headquarters of the naval force of the Palmach, Israel's pre-state military, near Caesarea.
He is survived by three children, eight grandchildren and eight great grandchildren as well as a heroic legacy.
***
SPEAKING OF ISRAEL: A significant news story, involving Israel, has been, seemingly, ignored by the world press and it involves the famous actors, Kirk and Michael Douglas, as well as Canadian tycoon Leslie Dan. The three are involved in erecting a "grandiose"museum tracing Jewish history from the days of Abraham to the present. However, the most startling announcement was concerning the massive replica of the original Temple. It's being built opposite of the Western Wall in Jerusalem. The museum, itself, is expected to cost about $20 million. One of those in charge, Ephraim Shor, in commenting about the structure, said: "This will be an audio-visual experience incorporating scents, so that the act of entering the Temple will be done with awe of God."

My mother's miracle

2008-04-18T03:56:00.000-07:00

EVERY DAY I'm confronted by tough decisions.
Which side of the bed should I get up on?
And there's an even more pressing problem: How do I hide the ever-spreading bald spot on my bumpy head?
There are just no easy solutions in this life.
Another concern happens to be this space.
What should I write about to fill it?
Will it be about Oprah's "new/old religion"? That's always a page-turner.
No, I think I'll wait a few more days for that one.
Or how about my favorite phrase from the late Roberto Clemento of "baseball has been very good to me."
I'll pass on that one, too, since baseball now stretches until Christmas Eve so there's really plenty of time.
When The Missus walked into my office the other morning, I was still looking up at the ceiling, and asking, "What in the world am I going to write about?"
That's when the answer came when she sighed: "Stop your whining" and followed it up with, "Say, when's your mother arriving?"
The lightbulb suddenly went on, not about whining, but about my mother even though I've written about her a number of times before.
***
The tall, handsome mother, who had a very active life, including being on a national women's softball championship team, was suddenly struck down with the supposedly incurable disease, multiple sclerosis, in her early 30s.
It's a disease of the brain and spinal cord caused by an unknown agent that attacks the covering (myelin) sheath of nerve fibres, resulting in temporary interruption of nervous impulses, particularly in pathways concerned with vision, sensation, and the use of limbs. The hard (sclerotic) patches produced by the disease eventually result in permanent paralysis. And death.
She spent many hours in doctors' offices, attempting to alleviate the pain associated with M.S. She also spent hours and hours praying, along with her close friends, for she had great faith in her Creator.
Despite her affliction, the tall, handsome mother managed to smile and even tried to play games to alleviate the worries of her husband and young son. A daily ritual for the young boy and father was to play "choo-choo" in which the boy would stand in front of his mother and the father behind her and push her legs to move her around the small house.
However, after a year or more the disease started to take a great toll and she was forced to use a wheelchair. Her legs and then arms became, increasingly, dysfunctional. Her vision became severely impaired and her glasses resembled Coke bottles. The doctors didn't have any encouraging news. Multiple sclerosis would soon claim another victim.
The tall, handsome mother, nevertheless, still had her faith. Maybe, prayer would help. It seemed like the only answer left.
One day, as the woman wheeled into the bedroom, she heard a voice as she looked into her closet.
"Annona, put on your shoes," the voice said. The woman looked around to see who was in the room with her. "Annona, put on your shoes," the voice said again.
"You know I can't put on my shoes, Lord, I can't walk," she said. Immediately, when she said, Lord, she realized the voice wasn't human. She leaned over, put on her shoes, unused in more than a year, and shakily got to her feet.
Immediately, an unseen hand seemed to strike the top of her head and warm, yes, even a hot mercury-like ball streamed and penetrated to the very nerve endings of every part of her body.
She walked out into the kitchen of her home, where the young boy was playing.
Her mother-in-law was also standing there in awe. They all started crying. Her husband and father-in-law were just as dumfounded when they returned from work.
The tall, handsome woman abandoned her wheelchair, and within a year had a "miracle baby." The doctors had said it was impossible to have another child because of the effects of M.S.
She then returned to high school and would later obtain her teaching certificate and would teach for 22 years in the Calgary school system.
The "miracle baby" -- Garry -- grew up to be an excellent athlete, and now a noted Winnipeg psychologist.
She believes in miracles. So do I, for I was that young son, who was there when his mother walked again.
***
While you probably have read about this miracle before, it always brings tears to my eyes.
Yes, for a world filled with shattered dreams, there are also answered prayers.
Incidentally, my 92-year-old mother will walk in the door to the Ol' Homestead Monday afternoon.

Living with a new face

2008-04-18T03:41:00.000-07:00

WHAT IF YOU woke up with a new face staring at you in the mirror?
Would you be able to adjust either medically or emotionally to such a reality?
Would your family and your friends be able to accept this new identity?
Of course, changing identities has been a familiar subject in both movies and books for decades.
I've read them and, probably, so have you.
When I brought up the subject a few years ago, it was shortly after Isabelle Dinoire had received the first partial face transplant.
When I wrote that Dec. 5, 2005 column, I pointed out changing identities had been featured in Desmond Bagley's 1973 novel, The Tightrope Men, and quoting from the book blurb: "Giles Denison's life is turned upside down when he awakes to find himself in a luxurious hotel in Oslo and, peering into the bathroom mirror, discovers the face of another man.
"He has been kidnapped from his flat in London and transformed into famous Finnish scientist, Dr. Harold Feltham Meyrick. Compelled to adjust to his new persona (including meeting his daughter) and to play out the role assigned to him by his captors, he embarks on a dangerous escapade from Norway to Finland and across the border into Soviet Russia."
So in real life, how would you adjust?
Would you accept your fate or would you be a basket case if such a thing happened?
In that earlier column I quoted newsman Matthew Campbell of the Sunday Times of Britain as saying the 38-year-old Dinoire had, in November, 2005, received facial features from another 38-year-old woman, who had committed suicide.
Apparently, Dinoire had been terribly disfigured six months earlier when her pet Labrador chewed her face after she had passed out from an overdose of sleeping pills.
Of course, the story has expanded in the intervening years and now it's known that Dinoire lost portions of her nose, lips, chin and even parts of her cheeks, according to an Associated Press story.
While the surgery received world-wide attention, both physicians and psychologists commented on the emotional scars, which could remain after such a transformation.
Also In the 2005 column, Dr. James Partridge of Changing Faces, which deals with facially disfigured people, claimed that another 10 years of research was needed to alleviate those emotional issues.
Even the slightest change in appearance can have a dramatic effect on a person.
A case in point are for those, who have had massive weight loss, from anywhere as little as 10 pounds to more than 100.
It could be so much more dramatic if one would lose their previous facial identity.
I remember that a former newspaper colleagueof mine losing at least 50 pounds of body weight and her personality changed from being a dour individual to an outgoing and personable writer.
However, the transition didn't remain; for inwardly she was still insecure and, eventually, she reverted to the "dour" personality despite the "new look."
In December. 2007, the New England Journal of Medicine reported that Dinoire's recovery had been "remarkable," however, there had been complications.
According to a CTV report, those included, "kidney failure and two episodes in which her body's immune system tried to reject the new skin."
It's expected, however, any complications that Dinoire has had to endure will not deter those anxiously awaiting facial transplants in the future.
SPEAKING OF FACES: Lali has two noses, two pairs of lips and two pairs of eyes and only two ears, according to Debra Killalea in a recent London Daily Mail report. The small Indian baby, from the village of Saini, north east of New Delhi, has been greeted with cheering and offerings, rather than being rejected. While medical experts claim Lali was born with a condition known as craniofacial duplication, villagers claim she's the "reincarnation" of the Indian god Ganesha.

Lookie, Lookie, Here Comes Cookie

2008-04-12T15:15:00.000-07:00

THERE ARE ONLY a few names in sports, which stir the emotions, as Chester Carlton Gilchrist.
Utter the name, Cookie, in Toronto, Hamilton, Regina, Buffalo, Miami and even Denver and it's certain to draw either an expletive or, at least, a chuckle or a groan.
And, it's actually more than 40 years, that's right, more than 40 years since he retired from the pro football wars.
Once he was the most feared fullback, linebacker or kicker, take your pick on either side of the border.
His name came up in a conversation the other day; and, immediately, there were arguments about who was the greatest player ever -- the grouchy superstar turned dubious movie actor Jim Brown from the Cleveland Browns or Gilchrist, who was as much noted for his insolence off the field as he was for his straight-ahead style on the field.
There are some aging linebackers and defensive backs in both the ORFU, CFL and the now deceased AFL, who must still wake up from Cookie Monster nightmares.
When I tried to track Gilchrist down the other day, I really didn't expect him to answer my phone call and he didn't disappoint, for he's never been known for his public relations skills.
However, I wasn't about to give up and went looking through the Net for some answers and what I found was surprising as well as sad.
But first, a review of his journey, starting as an unstoppable 18-year-old high school fullback in western Pennsylvania where Cleveland Browns' czar, Paul Brown, put $5,000 on the table for him to turn pro. That meant he wouldn't be eligible for the 108 college scholarships that were offered him, according to the Hamilton Spectator's Ken Peters.
Because of his age, he was ineligible to be playing in the NFL and disillusioned Cookie disappeared into the ORFU (Ontario Rugby Football Union) and the $100 a week with Sarnia and then Kitchener-Waterloo and then he took his multi-talents as a fullback, linebacker, defensive end and even kicker to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 1956.
In 1957, Gilchrist tore up the turf for some 2,363 yards along with Gerry McDougall and then stormed to two TDs as the Cats walked over Winnipeg 32-7 in the Grey Cup.
But then Cookie's personality caused his being shipped to Regina, which he considered in another galaxy. Cookie had outstayed his welcome in Hamilton; getting into near fisticuffs with then coach Jim Trimble and various business ventures, some which were doomed from the beginning for failure.
Then came his tenure with the Toronto Argonauts, but he overstayed his welcome. In Craig Wallace's brilliant 'A Slip In The Rain' concerning the 1962 Boatmen, Gilchrist deserved this mention about being a brilliant running back "and a never-ending disciplinary problem."
From those days in the CFL his greatest regret was turning down a place in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. It was part and parcel with his disagreements with former coaches Trimble and Lou Agase.
Then his prowess shfted to the AFL and the Buffalo Bills where this phenomen at 6-3 and 250 pounder barrelled through the opposition, but one who ran into management troubles, particularly, in the money department. Racial issues were also a sore point for this iconoclastic player.
Respected Buffalo sportswriter Larry Felser has written extensively about Gilchrist, calling him "the greatest all-round football player ever." And few could deny such praise.
However, life has not treated Gilchrist well as he's grown older. Felser reported Gilchrist had been battling throat cancer and his weight dropped down to a frail 179 pounds and he could barely speak.
And then came Cookie's letter to Felser, which read in part: "With humility and gratefulness to so many , I am happy to say that while I still have a long way to go, my doctors have told me my cancer is in remission and the long-term prognosis is for a full recovery. From death's door and that is not an exaggeration, I am now looking forward to a full, healthy and long life. My personal faith in Christ, the skilled doctors at Alle-Kiski Medical center and my guardian angel Gale Hazlett have all been major factors to this remarkable turnaround."
Even today, Gilchrist must also remember those cries from so long ago: "Lookie, lookie, here comes Cookie."

Lookie, Lookie Here Comes Cookie

2008-04-12T14:54:00.000-07:00

THERE ARE ONLY only a few names in sports, which stir the emotions, as Chester Carlton Gilchrist.
Utter the name, Cookie, in Toronto, Hamilton, Regina, Buffalo, Miami and even Denver and it's certain to draw either an expletive or, at least, a chuckle or a groan.
And, it's actually more than 40 years, that's right, more than 40 years since he retired from the pro football wars.
Once he was the most feared fullback, linebacker or kicker, take your pick on either side of the border.
His name came up in a conversation the other day; and, immediately, there were arguments about who was the greatest player ever -- the grouchy superstar turned dubious movie actor Jim Brown from the Cleveland Browns or Gilchrist, who was as much noted for his insolence off the field as he was for his straight-ahead style on the field.
There are some aging linebackers and defensive backs in both the ORFU, CFL and the now deceased AFL, who must still wake up from Cookie Monster nightmares.
When I tried to track Gilchrist down the other day, I really didn't expect him to answer my phone call and he didn't disappoint, for he's never been known for his public relations skills.
However, I wasn't about to give up and went looking through the Net for some answers and what I found was surprising as well as sad.
But first, a review of his journey, starting as an unstoppable 18-year-old high school fullback in western Pennsylvania where Cleveland Browns' czar, Paul Brown, put $5,000 on the table for him to turn pro. That meant he wouldn't be eligible for the 108 college scholarships that were offered him, according to the Hamilton Spectator's Ken Peters.
Because of his age, he was ineligible to be playing in the NFL and disillusioned Cookie disappeared into the ORFU (Ontario Rugby Football Union) and the $100 a week with Sarnia and then Kitchener-Waterloo and then he took his multi-talents as a fullback, linebacker, defensive end and even kicker to the Hamilton Tiger-Cats in 1956.
In 1957, Gilchrist tore up the turf for some 2,363 yards along with Gerry McDougall and then stormed to two TDs as the Cats walked over Winnipeg 32-7 in the Grey Cup.
But then Cookie's personality caused his being shipped to Regina, which he considered in another galaxy. Cookie had outstayed his welcome in Hamilton; getting into near fisticuffs with then coach Jim Trimble and various business ventures, some which were doomed from the beginning for failure.
Then came his tenure with the Toronto Argonauts, but he overstayed his welcome. In Craig Wallace's brilliant 'A Slip In The Rain' concerning the 1962 Boatmen, Gilchrist deserved this mention about being a brilliant running back "and a never-ending disciplinary problem."
From those days in the CFL his greatest regret was turning down a place in the Canadian Football Hall of Fame. It was part and parcel with his disagreements with former coaches Trimble and Lou Agase.
Then his prowess shfted to the AFL and the Buffalo Bills where this phenomen at 6-3 and 250 pounder barrelled through the opposition, but one who ran into management troubles, particularly, in the money department. Racial issues were also a sore point for this iconoclastic player.
Respected Buffalo sportswriter Larry Felser has written extensively about Gilchrist, calling him "the greatest all-round football player ever." And few could deny such praise.
However, life has not treated Gilchrist well as he's grown older. Felser reported Gilchrist had been battling throat cancer and his weight dropped down to a frail 179 pounds and he could barely speak.
And then came Cookie's letter to Felser, which read in part: "With humility and gratefulness to so many , I am happy to say that while I still have a long way to go, my doctors have told me my cancer is in remission and the long-term prognosis is for a full recovery. From death's door and that is not an exaggeration, I am now looking forward to a full, healthy and long life. My personal faith in Christ, the skilled doctors at Alle-Kiski Medical center and my guardian angel Gale Hazlett have all been major factors to this remarkable turnaround."
Even today, Gilchrist must also remember those cries from so long ago: "Lookie, lookie, here comes Cookie."

Hayseed's dream now lying in Texas dust

2008-04-09T06:09:00.000-07:00

TEN YEARS AGO,, I wrote about Harold (Hayseed) Stephens and his dream about finding a gusher in Israel. I then visited the area where the Texas oilman believed he would uncover the world's largest oil field atop a salt dome at the southwest end of the Dead Sea.
This was followed up by a number of Investigative Day reports, which were carried throughout the world, of his passion in finding 'black gold' in the supposedly oil-deprived region.
As I wrote in one article that "until now (1998), Israel's Islamic enemies have possessed 75 per cent of the world's oil reserves with Israel's supply only a fraction of that. It's reported that Islamic nations such as Saudi Arabia, all sworn enemies of the tiny Jewish state, have trillions of barrels while Israel has only enough oil to supply itself for about one and a half days and depends on other countries for the remainder."
Then I continued to explain that Stephens, a one-time "hell-raiser" and former pro football quarterback with the New York Titans (now Jets) turned part-time preacher, had received approval of his lease in early September (1998) and drilling equipment would likely arrive at the site in the Dead Sea early in the New Year (1999).
"God has it all orchestrated," he said at the time.
As I also wrote, on Friday, June 26, 1999, in a hotel at the Dallas-Fort Worth airport, history may have been changed forever.
The Israeli delegation was led by Yossi Levy, director/president of the Israel Oil Company, Inc. from Petach Tikvah, Israel and Haim Tsuff, chairman of the board of the Israel Oil Company.
Astonishing geological evidence led to the signing of an historical agreement between Israel Oil Company, Inc. and Stephens' 'Christian-owned' company, Ness Energy, International.
It was believed that there were vast amounts of oil in the Dead Sea region of Israel sufficient to be free of foreign energy sources and from the economic "pressure" to give up the land for peace.
The Dead Sea, once known as the Valley of Siddim, was in ancient times, a beautiful, lush region filled with bubbly lakes of oil, according to Genesis 13:10-11 and 14:10 with Jericho being its major trading center.
Then came the dramatic destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah and the formation of the Dead Sea.
The Hebrew translation of Isaiah 45:3 reads: "I will shoot up to you deposits stored in valuable dungeon -type containers, so you will know that I Am the Lord your God ..."
Stephens took that to mean that there were massive oil deposits in the area and he and his partners were meant to find it.
Hayseed reiterated that a portion of the profits from such a massive oil find would be used to re-build the Third Temple in Jerusalem.
In 1993, according to Stephens, more than 100 earthquakes in seven days had rocked the area from Mount Carmel down to the Red Sea, redistributing the massive oil deposits buried from the days of Lot.
When Sodom and Gomorrah were destroyed, the southwest end of the Dead Sea turned into a mountain of salt, and that salt dome stretches nine miles long, 3/4 miles wide and 18,000 feet deep. The salt has acted as a preservative for the past 4,000 years. It doesn't allow oil to flow through it.
"This is the area where Sodom was located," explained Stephens. "In Genesis 19, God ignited all the oil and gas in that valley and it rained back down and blew a hole 40 miles long, eight miles wide and three miles across. Fire and brimstone fell into that hole and they eventually turned to salt. It made Sodom and Gomorrah oil boom towns."
Then, in May 2003 as Hayseed was preparing to return to Israel, he dropped dead on the front lawn of his Texas home.
The dream of finding oil in Israel didn't fade, however, as his son, Sha, took over as president and director of Ness Energy.
In the intervening years, despite optimistic and prophetic forecasts, stock in the company continued to decline dramatically into the penny range.
There was even talk about unsavoury stock manipulation, particularly, in an article entitled 'Let There Be Light Crude' in a recent issue of 'Mother Jones.'
In addition, Alan D. Stricklin, a veteran oilman headed a group of North Texas investors in taking over the company and Hayseed Stephens' dream. Besides shunting Sha Stephens to the sidelines, others let go were his mother, Mary Gene Stephens, and other family members.
Now, Hayseed's 'vision,' seemingly, has been left lying in the Texas dust, but then, again, it certainly could be resurrected. After all, Ness in Ness Energy means "miracle."

Legends and others from the passing parade

2008-04-07T06:06:00.000-07:00

CHARLTON HESTON was Moses. No one else could have played the part in 'The Ten Commandments' with such commanding presence.
Then, of course, his movie classics also include 'Ben Hur' and 'El Cid', which are landmarks in cinematic history. And then his confrontational real-life role as the president of National Rifle Association (NRA), which still has ramifications on the American public even today.
However, besides Heston, who died on Saturday, there's another passing, which has shocked movie-goers in the past few weeks and that's Richard Widmark at age 93. He was Tommy Udo, the cackling killer, in the 1947 flick, 'Kiss of Death.' He will always be remembered as the dastardly villain, who shoved the elderly wheelchair-bound woman down a flight of stairs.
Few could believe that Widmark was a quiet and very shy man off-screen , who went on to become a TV favourite in the short-lived 'Madigan.'
So thousands of words have noted Heston's and Widmark's departure, but there are others, which certainly deserve being remembered.
One was my mentor and 'teacher', George Gross, fondly remembered as 'The Baron,' a sportswriting legend, who died at his Toronto home.
However, there are other names, which you might have forgotten, who left this plane in the past month or so.
* Jake DeShazer, 95. Perhaps, you have never heard of him, but he participated in the Doolittle Raid on Japan during the Second World War. An angry S. Sgt. DeShazer was the bombardier of the B-25, the 'Bat' (Out of Hell) on that famous bombing run. Later the B-25 ran out of fuel over Ningpo, China and he and others from the Doolittle crew were imprisoned. During his 40 months of captivity, DeShazer asked for a Bible and, in turn, he became a devout Christian. He returned to Japan as a missionary in 1948. Later, the now Rev. DeShazer would meet Captain Mitsuo Fuchida, who had led the attack on Pearl Harbor, and both became Christian missionaries to Japan, according to Wikipedia
* Art Aragon, 80: Before such flamboyant boxing figures such as Muhammad Ali and Oscar De La Hoya, there was the 'Golden Boy.' Although he was married at least four times, Aragon was linked to such Hollywood types as Marilyn Munroe, Jayne Mansfield and Mamie Van Doren. While he never won a world title, he was a huge draw and loved playing the villain in his gold attire. In the ring, he fought against the likes of Carmen Basilio. Later, he would become a bail bondsman, according to an Associated Press (AP)report.
* George Switzer, 92: Of course, you've heard of the infamous Hope Diamond, but did you associate it with Switzer's name? This esteemed Smithsonian Institute scientist apparently took the diamond to Paris for a 1962 exhibition sewn inside his pants. The diamond, which carried a legacy of bad luck, is now one of the real treasures inside the Smithsonian.
There have been recent deaths certainly worth noting such as:
* Grace Thorpe, 86: A tribal judge and a Second World War vet in the Far East, she was the daughter of the great Olympian Jim Thorpe. She was also noted as a personnel interviewer for Gen. Douglas MacArthur during the Japanese occupation. Her father died in 1953.
* Billy Consolo, 73: This light-hitting but slick infielder, was a fixture for 10 years with the Boston Red Sox and other major-league teams. After Sparky Anderson became the Detroit Tigers' manager in 1979, he had his high-school pal join his staff in 1980. Consolo retired in 1992.
* Ivan Dixon, 76: Although an accomplished Broadway actor, Dixon was best remembered as POW Staff Sgt. James Kinchloe in 'Hogan's Heroes.' The Sarge was an electronic genius, who could mimic voices in the TV hit series.

The Most Unforgettable 'Teacher' In My Life

2008-03-26T04:16:00.000-07:00

THERE I WAS the other night and for whatever reason a thought popped into my head: "I wonder how Ol' George Gross is doing?"
Without any fanfare, I started to check the Internet. Did he have another Vaclav Nedomansky waiting in the wings? Of course, how could I ever forget those bygone days when he whispered on the phone about the most famous defection in hockey history. And as well, his admonition to me to keep it a secret.
While scrolling the Net these dramatic words hit me like a two-by-four: George Gross, the founding sports editor of the Toronto Sun, has died.
What? I blinked a half dozen times and rushed to wake up The Missus.
"George died," I said in a shaky voice.
"What?"
"George is dead," I repeated.
The impact was immediate on both of us.
How could this be? A legend should give at least some advance notice of their demise, but to learn of Gross' death with only a few terse words on the Net was almost indecent.
How could this pupil of a sportswriting legend even sleep while burdened with news that brought tears to my tears?
In the morning I was still shaken and wrote the following:
George Gross was one of a kind. He was wise sometimes. He was humourous sometimes. He was even hard driving at other times.
And I can say all these things, for I was his right-hand man at the very beginning of the Toronto Sun in November 1971.
Actually, I learned from this debonair man of the world during my days with the late and great Toronto Telegram. And what a learning experience that was.
When the Tely went the way of the dodo bird, Gross was an integral member of the team which began working on wooden crates in that early Canadian foundry -- the Eclipse Whitewear Building. And I was the fortunate one, being named the first assistant sports editor under his leadership.
Those days were filled with apprehension and wonderment at the Little Paper That Grew as it blossomed into a newspaper, which actually hit the streets every day.
It was a miracle.
There were nights at his home, planning the look and essence of those sports pages. It was like looking over the shoulder of a master at work.
Then there were the "chats," if his right-man man stepped out of line and words such as "okay, kiddo," which always seemed to conclude every so-called "lecture."
In those days, we were family, so when I decided to leave to become sports editor of the Edmonton Sun and later its executive editor, this man I considered to be my father in the business realm was mildly annoyed. And the communication between us became somewhat strained.
A few years late, in the mid-80s, Gross came back into my life after my relationship with the Edmonton Sun disintegrated.
That's when the "real" George Gross came to the forefront and he welcomed me back into the Toronto Sun fold, for which I will be eternally grateful.
While I retired in 1994, this wise and generous man continued to be such an influence with his writings and his generous ways.
When I heard of his passing last Friday, I went into shock, for he definitely was one of a kind.
Since then countless words have flowed concerning this man, who escaped Czechoslovakia from the Communists via a row boat or was it that he had walked on the Danube as someone once wrote?
In this day of cookie-cutter celebrities, Gross was larger-than-life, known from Prague to Moscow to Toronto to Vancouver to even Los Angeles as the stylish gentleman with the European charm and sometimes explosive temper.
The Baron, a name that most called him, was the last of a dying breed. He was definitely old school and he had been trained in the finer points of tennis, soccer, hockey and figure skating and wrote about each with style. In addition, his charity work, particularly, with Variety Village, goes unmatched.
While the deaths of sportswriting legends such as Dick Beddoes, Jim Coleman, Scott Young, Milt Dunnell, Jim Hunt, Ted Reeve and Jim Proudfoot have been dramatic, the demise of George Gross has made me feel very vulnerable, for he was not only my teacher, but my friend.
Incidentally, his scoop concerning Nedomansky's defection to the World Hockey Association in the 1970s earned him a National Newspaper Award.
Now this legend is gone at age 85, survived by his wife, Elizabeth, son George and daughter Teddy and his "pupils" of which I certainly was one.

The most unforgettable 'teacher' in my life

2008-03-22T07:39:00.000-07:00

GEORGE GROSS was one of a kind. He was wise sometimes. He was humourous sometimes. He was even hard driving at other times.
And I can say all these things, for I was his right-hand man at the very beginning of the Toronto Sun in November 1971.
Actually, I learned from this debonair man of the world during my days with the late and great Toronto Telegram. And what a learning experience that was.
When the Tely went the way of the dodo bird, George Gross was an integral member of the team which began working on wooden crates in that early Canadian foundry -- the Eclipse Whitewear Building. And I was the fortunate one, being named the first assistant sports editor under Gross' leadership.
Those days were filled with apprehension and wonderment at the Little Paper That Grew as it blossomed into a newspaper, which actually hit the streets every day.
It was a miracle.
There were nights at his home, planning the look and essence of those sports pages. It was like looking over the shoulder of a master at work.
Then there were the "chats," if his right-man man stepped out of line and words such as "okay, kiddo," which always seemed to conclude every so-called "lecture."
In those days, we were family, so when I decided to leave to become sports editor of the Edmonton Sun and later its executive editor, this man I considered to be my father in the business realm was mildly annoyed. And the communication between us became somewhat strained.
A few years late, in the mid-80s, George Gross came back into my life after my relationship with the Edmonton Sun disintegrated.
That's when the "real" George Gross came to the forefront and he welcomed me back into the Toronto Sun fold, for which I will be eternally grateful.
While I retired in 1994, this wise and generous man continued to be such an influence with his writings and his generous ways.
When I heard of his passing Friday, I went into shock, for he definitely was one of a kind.