With a prosthetic leg.

Before Cpl. Dan Lasko lost his left leg from the knee down as a result of a 2004 bomb blast in Afghanistan, he didnÂ’t consider himself a runner. He didnÂ’t spent much time distance running, and preferred team sports to the open road.

That all changed after Lasko, 25, joined Team Semper Fi, a group of injured Marines who raise money for the Injured Marine Semper Fi Fund.

Sunday, Lasko completed the Marine Corps Marathon on his prosthetic leg, finishing in 5 hours, 30 minutes, 43 seconds. He can add it to a post-blast resume that includes several triathlons, the Army Ten-Miler and the Bataan Memorial Death March, a marathon-length march through White Sands Missile Range, N.M.

“My friends think I’m nuts,” said Lasko, who was medically retired by the Corps in 2005. “Before I got injured, I was never a runner.”

I don't think you're nuts Marine. I think you are inspiring. God bless you.

via eddiebear over at The Splitters. One of which I still am.

Posted by: Dave in Texas at 06:38 AM | Comments (78)
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Seven days 'til the end of the world.

Posted by: Gabriel Malor at 05:28 AM | Comments (183)
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Checked a lottery winner? Lie. The automated system notes payouts and alerts the proper agency that more child support may be due. No one just looked that lottery winner up.

I'm [familiar with] the Florida Department of Children and Families.

Now, I can't necessarily speak for Ohio, but as far as Florida's concerned, what these people did is so fucking illegal, so tremendously bad, that it got a couple people fired here a couple years back for checking into baseball player Elijah Dukes.

Look, the way the system works in FL, NY, TX, and I assume OH, is that nobody goes "looking" for anything. Why? Fucking illegal.

Instead, Dept of Revenue (or whatever) is linked to CSE (In florida - Child Support Enforcement) is linked to DLES (Dept of labor and employment statistics or equivalent,) and the DES-zero social security databases. Every couple days, all these systems talk to each other, intra- and inter-state, and generate DEALS, data exchange alerts, or whatever they're called in the other states. And then you have the various case maintenance units in each state pore over these matches or mismatches and throw out the junk. Whatever remains gets fowarded electronically to the appropriate department,

Nobody. NOBODY, in the state of Florida, to my knowledge, has the authority to just "check in on someone" that comes their way without something coming through official channels. A lottery win comes though the dept of revenue and the DEAL hit is processed accordingly. An increase in a disability payment comes through the DES0 pipe, ditto. The reason for this is simple... the potential for the abuse of power is tremendous otherwise.

Like I said, I work in FL, not OH, but it's inconceivable that we'd pass federal waivers as far as communicating with these other states if they didn't have at least minimal safeguards in place.

This goes for all the agencies mentioned, by the way.

Name and precise occupation withheld for prudence.

Gonna be wonderful with Obama's thugs manning the bureaucracies.

Posted by: Ace at 10:01 PM | Comments (156)
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I was going to give this another flaming skull, but, I've yet to hear back from Ace on an upgrade to flaming.

LGF has the link, here's the money quote:

“...just to take a, sort of a realist perspective...there’s a lot of change going on outside of the Court, um, that, that judges essentially have to take judicial notice of. I mean you’ve got World War II, you’ve got uh, uh, uh, the doctrines of Nazism, that, that we are fighting against, that start looking uncomfortably similar to what we have going on, back here at home.”

OTOH, I could be wrong. He could be comparing America to Uh Uh Uh.

In Fairness [ace]: He was talking about the racial apartheid in America in the Jim Crow era.

It's fair, I think, to speak of the "contradictions" here. Overstated? Maybe, but if I were black I might not think it was all that overstated. Either way it's not plainly objectionable, I don't think, and can't get traction, except as part of some broader argument about Obama's long-standing grievance-mongering against a country he clearly disdains.

But that's a long argument, and we don't have time to make it. If it hasn't sunk in by now, it's not sinking in before the election.

The fucker's spiritual mentor is an America-hating anti-semitic anti-white bigot, and his close associates are terrorists, foreign (Khalidi), domestic (Ayers), and Joker (Dohrn).

If America hasn't gotten yet that this Marxist bastard might not be a fan of the US, a Nazi quote isn't going to seal the deal.

Posted by: Open Blog at 10:00 PM | Comments (60)
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A brief print mention of it is adequate, they've Decided.

Posted by: Ace at 08:48 PM | Comments (83)
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With bonus empathy!

Obama said she and her husband had a policy of spending their own money on their clothes. But she said she wanted to be "empathetic."

"A V.P. pick, it's like being shot out of a cannon. All of a sudden you're at the center of attention, and you want to look good," said Michelle Obama, adding she has never met Palin. "You're living in your home, minding your business, and all of a sudden you're on the national stage and everyone's watching."

Can you say jealous? Sarah Palin gets a measly $150,000 in totally hot, awesome, sexy thigh boots clothes and poor old Michelle MyBelle is stuck with J. Crew and shopping online. Wah fucking wah, coming from the campaign that's spent A HALF A FUCKING BILLION DOLLARS ALREADY!!!! Give me a fucking break.

That's my take, at least. This story has condescension written all over it. But, wait, how does this benefit Michelle Obama's children? Not at all, they're suffering, absolutely distraught over Dad's multimillion dollar half hour ad coming up:

Ten-year-old Malia's reaction to her father's plans to air a 30-minute paid advertisement on national TV Wednesday night?

"'You're going to be on all the TV? Are you going to interrupt my TV?'" her mother said Malia asked.

She said Barack Obama reassured his daughter that he hadn't purchased time on the Disney Channel.

That's right, little Malia, you're leftist indoctrination by Disney would never be co-opted by the leftist indoctrination your dad is trying to foist on the rest of us. more...

Posted by: Open Blog at 08:07 PM | Comments (55)
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Yeah, why let viewers hear the actual recorded evidence?

They might come to the wrong conclusions that way.

Better to tell them what they're supposed to think and send them on their way.

People aren't good at thinking. That's why we have the media. They do our thinking for us.

Posted by: Ace at 07:54 PM | Comments (39)
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I always sortaÂ’ figured the birds would get to us first. At least thatÂ’s what Hitchcock promised us. But now, according to this article, bees can count up to the number four.

”SYDNEY - Researchers in Australia have discovered that honey bees have the ability to count — at least to the number four.”

Posted by: Open Blog at 07:50 PM | Comments (21)
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How about Wayne Huizenga, owner (for now) of the Miami Dolphins?

Mr. Huizenga, who has owned the Dolphins for 19 years, is about to sell 45% of his team to a different investor (who currently owns 50% of the team). Huizenga's rationale?

He doesn't want to pay higher capital gains taxes under a President Obama.

Dolphins owner H. Wayne Huizenga said Sunday no date has been set for selling up to 45 percent more of the team to Stephen Ross, but the presidential election is among the issues weighing on his decision.

That's because a Barack Obama administration is expected to mean higher capital-gains taxes.

"He wants to double the capital gains tax, or almost double it," Huizenga said. "I'd rather give it to charity than to him."

I applaud this decision, Mr. H. Should the unthinkable happen, I hope you take advantage of every benefit that current law affords to you.

And when you build a Scrooge Mcduck like vault to store the money you won't be giving to the government, I hope you invite me over to swim through the cash.

I always wanted to try that. Looks like fun.

Posted by: Jack M. at 07:41 PM | Comments (18)
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"At the innermost point of the circle are the things that really matter: family, faith, love. These things stay with you until the day you die. At the very end, because the circle has shrunk down to its center, theyÂ’re all you have left. But as we approach that end, we finally realize that all along, they were what mattered most. As a consequence, life often remains beautiful and worthwhile right up until the end."

-- The Plucky Smart Kid with the Fatal Disease:A Life with Cystic Fibrosis by Dean Barnett

Quote via VanDerLeun.

More farewells collected at The Weekly Standard.

Posted by: Ace at 07:29 PM | Comments (10)
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