This past Sunday, Mike Wallace, on the television show 60 Minutes, somehow managed to overcome the MSM/DEM bias and present a rather moving pictorial of a wounded soldier who has returned from Iraq, Jessica Clement.

Her statements were simply moving, and her way of thinking selfless and honest. I present them here as they are in stark contrast with today’s mainstream media and society in general.

I reproduce the applicable portion here in full because we all need to know and understand the sacrifices that our young American soldiers are making and, further, understand the cherished values, mores and hopes displayed by the people who continue to make our country safe. From the 02-12-06 episode of 60 Minutes:

Doctors also worried that another vet from Iraq, Jessica Clements, might be a vegetable after a roadside bomb shot shrapnel into three lobes of her brain.

Jessica had been a model in Akron, Ohio, when she left high school to join the Army. As a staff sergeant in Iraq, she spent her days driving fuel trucks. “I remember days driving down the road thinking to myself, ‘Is today the day I’m gonna get hit?” Or, ‘Am I gonna get shot today?’ And just praying, ‘OK, keep us safe. Let us get where we need to go without any casualties,'” she explains.

Her luck ran out on May 5, 2004, when a bomb exploded under her truck, shooting shards of shrapnel – large and small – into her brain. “I still have shrapnel that’s remaining in my brain,” she says. “This right portion here, you can see a little, the line. . .from where my skull was removed. The neurosurgeons physically cut the right portion of my skull and removed it.”

The doctors removed a part of her skull because the swelling would have caused so much pressure that it could have killed her. They kept the right half of her skull off for four months, and for much of that time Jessica remained in a coma.

“They only gave me a two-percent chance of coming out of the coma and living, surviving,” says Jessica. “Somebody has to be in that two percent, though. Why not me?”

She remembers enduring a “ridiculous amount” of pain along the way. “I hate to admit this, but there were days when I wondered to myself if I would have been better off had I not made it because I was in so much pain,” she says. Asked if she is still in pain, Jessica says, “Right now I have a shooting pain that’s going from right above my ear over to this side. It’s kind of going diagonally across. But it’s nothing. I’m used to it.”

The constant pain, sporadic seizures, and bouts of anger still can’t compare with what she’s already endured: re-learning how to walk and talk and more.

“Basically I had to relearn how to think again and how to figure things out. I did have to learn how to walk again,” she explains. “One day I remember I sat back in bed and I moved my leg about an inch trying to get it up on the bed. I had only moved about an inch. But I had never been so happy before. I was just excited. Okay, great. It moved an inch. So that motivated me. Okay, tomorrow, I’m gonna try for two inches, see if I can get it going again.”

Jessica says believes she survived for a reason and that she now knows what that reason is.

“I believe that it’s to help other people. So I decided to go into social work,” she says.

“I would like to work for the VA or the DAV, the Disabled American Veterans association. So I can help other veterans. I’m still a soldier at heart,” she says. “I’m still a soldier. Even though I’m discharged from the Army—medically discharged, I’m always gonna be a soldier,” Jessica says.

“And I’m always gonna have that mentality. So if I can continue to help other soldiers, other veterans, that’s what I really want to do.”

What message would she like to send to other wounded vets? “I would love to tell them just to not give up,” she says. “And, no matter how bad your pain is, remember that tomorrow is a new day. Just keep that in mind, and just please stay positive. And you will get through this.”

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Hollywood cannot understand, and never will.

Jessica Clement: Today’s Hero.

In a continuing clash of cultures, the European Union finally appears to be understanding the breadth and depth of the problem that it collectively and individually advanced over the years and that, in order to survive, it must begin to craft a firm stance against violence and delineate accepted practices in its member countries — and acknowledge that “acceptance” and “tolerance” does not always = smart.

From the Associated Press:

Thousands rampaged through several cities in Pakistan’s worst violence against Prophet Muhammad caricatures, burning buildings housing a hotel, banks and a KFC, vandalizing a Citibank and breaking windows at a Holiday Inn and a Pizza Hut.

At least two people were killed Tuesday in Lahore, where intelligence officials suspected outlawed Islamic militant groups incited the violence to undermine President Gen. Pervez Musharraf’s U.S.-allied government.

Europeans Grow Some Vertebrae:

In southern Iraq, Basra’s provincial council demanded the withdrawal of Denmark’s 530-member military contingent from the region unless the Danish government apologizes for the cartoons – which it refuses to do, saying it has no influence over the media.

The president of the European Commission backed the Danish government’s refusal, saying freedom of speech cannot be compromised. “It’s better to publish too much than not to have freedom,” President Jose Manuel Barroso told Jyllands-Posten, the paper that first published the drawings.

QUAILGATE!

The DEM (Defeatist, Elitist Media) have their collective panties in a bunch once again, only this time it’s about VP Cheney sending birdshot into his 78-year-old friend — who is sitting up in bed this morning and laughing about the incident.

If you read closely between the lines and listen to the news conference, the complaint is that it took 14 hours for the DEM to be “notified.” Their issue — I should say, the WASHINGTON media’s issue — is that some rinky-dink “local” paper (in Corpus Christi) was notified by the ranch owner but no one placed THEM, the VERY IMPORTANT Washington Press Corps, into the loop. They got scooped! Zounds! Heresy!

About the $7 upland game bird stamp? What you won’t read is that this new law came into effect as of January 1st, 2006, and the Veep already had a check in the mail. From the Drudge Report:

— A member of the Vice President’s staff wrote a check for 140 dollars understanding that this would purchase a Texas non-resident season hunting license that would permit the Vice President to hunt quail in Texas. It appears now that the license itself cost 125 dollars, and an extra 15 dollars covered the cost of a Federal migratory bird stamp. The Vice President did not need the Federal stamp, as he already possessed one.

— The staff asked for all permits needed, but was not informed of the 7 dollar upland game bird stamp requirement.

— Because the requirement is new, the Department has informed us that it is issuing warnings, and the Vice President expects to receive one. He will take whatever steps are needed to comply with applicable rules.

CHENEY NEEDS TO RESIGN! was the mantra at the news conference. Poor Scott McClellan — but at least he had the huevos to counter the charge with “that’s a ridiculous question.” The real issue is that the DEM became offended: they got scooped by “lesser mortals!”

Remember “back then” when the public was told it was no one’s business if Clinton unzipped his pants in the Oval Office? So now it’s everyone’s business when there’s a hunting accident, off duty, on the weekend, on a private person’s ranch, involving a VP “less than popular” with the DEM?

I’m certain your employer, hearing that you got into a vehicle accident and another party was injured, would fire you in response to the rest of your co-workers calling for your head.

When it was discovered that Cheney shot a Republican lawyer, his popularity jumped 20 points.

Q: What’s the difference between Gore and Cheney?

A: Gore shoots his mouth off.

About that Al Gore — and again, what you WON’T READ:

On Sunday, speaking in Jiddah on Saudi Arabian soil, at the Jeddah Economic Forum, Al Gore said that the U.S. government committed “terrible abuses” against Arabs after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, and that most Americans did not support such treatment. Gore said Arabs had been “indiscriminately rounded up” and held in “unforgivable” conditions. The former vice president said the Bush administration was playing into al-Qaida’s hands by routinely blocking Saudi visa applications.

“The thoughtless way in which visas are now handled, that is a mistake,” Gore said during the Jeddah Economic Forum, at the Jeddah Hilton. “The worst thing we can possibly do is to cut off the channels of friendship and mutual understanding between Saudi Arabia and the United States.”

Gore told the largely Saudi audience, many of them educated at U.S. universities, that Arabs in the United States had been “indiscriminately rounded up, often on minor charges of overstaying a visa or not having a green card in proper order, and held in conditions that were just unforgivable.”

Who sponsored Al Gore’s presence at the conference? That would be The Bin Laden Group among others, per Bill Bennett.

Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad continues to be what I would quantify as one of, if not the “Most Dangerous Man In the World.” While North Korea is a thorn in our side in terms of producing counterfeit US $100 bills and producing counterfeit American cigarettes under the name of Marlboro, etc., Kim Jong-il is not rattling nuclear sabers to the extent of Ahmadinejad.

On Saturday, Ahmadinejad said:

We ask the West to remove what they created sixty years ago and if they do not listen to our recommendations, then the Palestinian nation and other nations will eventually do this for them.

Ahmadinejad made the comments in Tehran whilst celebrating the 27th anniversary of the Islamic revolution there; he continued more to the point when the Bangkok Post reported him as saying:

“Do the removal of Israel before it is too late and save yourself from the fury of regional nations,” the ultra-conservative president said. He once again called the Holocaust a “fairy tale” and said Europeans have become hostages of “Zionists” in Israel. He also accused Europeans for not allowing “neutral scholars” to investigate in Europe and make a scientific report on “the truth about the fairy tale of Holocaust.”

Further: “Those who insulted the prophet should know that you cannot obscure the sun with a handful of dust. The dust will just get back and blind your own eyes,” he said. The crowd replied to his remarks with “Death to Denmark” slogans.

Plans Are Made:

In a prior post I indicated that, before his massive stroke, when asked if Israel would use military force to take out Iran’s weapons program, Ariel Sharon said they would not. “We are not going to do the world’s dirty work,” the Prime Minister said.

Leaving, as I pointed out, the US to once again become responsible for completing the World’s Dirty Work. From the London Telegraph News:

Strategists at the Pentagon are drawing up plans for devastating bombing raids backed by submarine-launched ballistic missile attacks against Iran’s nuclear sites as a “last resort” to block Teheran’s efforts to develop an atomic bomb.

Central Command and Strategic Command planners are identifying targets, assessing weapon-loads and working on logistics for an operation, the Sunday Telegraph has learnt.

Republican Senator John McCain said about a month or so ago, that “there is only only one thing worse than the United States exercising a military option, and that is a nuclear-armed Iran.”

So true Senator, so true. And in the meantime, Ahmadinejad does his best to fan the flames of Islamism and destabilization.

The saga continues. . .

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THIS JUST IN:

The Associated Press indicates an unidentified “leaker” says Iran has already produced a small amount of enriched uranium.

My, things have been busy whilst I’ve been gone. I just flew in from San Diego and boy, are my arms tired!

First, I visited the wonderful city of San Diego the past week, one of the few cities I’ve attended in which I can actually kinda sorta navigate — but only because I finally figured out the ocean is on one side and the hills on the other. Luckily that doesn’t change or I’d be in big trouble.

FYI, I’ll be gone one week per month on business to San Diego the rest of the year; yes, it breaks my heart to go there — NOT. Despite the local corrupt politics and it being Illegal Immigrant and Illegal Mexican Drug (and tunnel) Central for Fornicalia, no one can deny its incredible weather, beautiful surroundings and military background.

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And on to a few topics at hand:

The Cartoons Controversy Continues:

Fundamentals and/or Islamists seem to indicate that there can be no portrayals of the prophet Mohammed at all. Yeah? Says who? Seems that Islam has no hard and fast rule that The West is directly breaking.

The Koran, Islam’s holiest book, condemns idolatry, but has no direct condemnations of pictorial art. Direct prohibitions of pictorial art, or any depiction of sacred figures, are found in some hadith, or recorded oral traditions. The Koran, Islam’s holiest book, mentions nothing about pictorial art.

So why all the rioting? And why all the rioting since the original “cartoons” were printed in Denmark almost 6 months ago (September of 2005)? I would submit: a sense of entitlement. Provided, of course, by the Western World.

The U.S. Wimps Out:

Denmark printed the cartoons. France printed the cartoons. I reproduced the only funny one but, if you’d like, I’ll reproduce them all; I couldn’t care less. Come one loony Islamist, come all. Seems like our own American media, bastions of the liberal and free press, have decided to take a stand based in fright and realization.

Yes, it’s apparently just fine to portray the 1987 “art” exhibit Piss Christ and then, a short time later, take those Christians to task who had the temerity to actually object to their religious symbols portrayed in such a fashion. Those damnable Christians; they should be more accepting! Let us not forget Madonna and Child II (1989), for example, in which the subject is similarly submerged in urine but not nearly so well known as Piss Christ.

But of course that was then and this is now: we have clearly loosened our inhibitions towards the portrayal of various artistic themes in the media, have we not?

Well, it’s now 17 years later and the answer is: apparently not.

Here is where the media is hyper-hypocritical:

So: it’s okay to portray Christianity in this fashion. Apparently NOT okay to portray Islam in this fashion by merely reproducing the cartoons so that American viewers have an idea of the nature of the issue.

They are bending over backwards to accommodate Islam in an attempt to minimize heartache, or protests, or even (gulp!) overt v-i-o-l-e-n-c-e.

The MSM DEM media maintain that Islam should be understood.

Well first: what happened to the understanding of Christianity?

What This Reveals:

That those who believe we shouldn’t attempt to protect our national boundaries, that we shouldn’t be monitoring transmissions between suspected terrorist parties, somehow, now, “get it” that Islamists mean business and can kill or hurt people. Only when it was personalized (i.e., via Bob Woodruff and Doug Vogt) did the media remotely seem to understand lines in the sand. Some ridiculous reporter actually said on the radio: “Until Bob (Woodruff), this didn’t sink home for us.” Really? I suppose those 2,000 + soldiers laying down their lives didn’t mean much if we go by that man’s statement.

Islamists are killing and injuring people in other countries. Is it an act of courage not to print the cartoons? Or is it a decision based in fear and the ultimate knowledge that Islamists are actually Bad People — ?

Sorry DEM; can’t have it both ways. Sometimes things just are black and white.

Like you just discovered.