Wednesday, November 21, 2012

Barker's Newsbites: Wednesday, November 21, 2012


Today's a bad day.

Nope. Not politics.

I'm talking about real bad... personally bad... real life bad...

I just received an email informing me that a good friend who has been battling cancer is now at hospice.

This guy has a wife... kids... friends... people who love him.

I love him.

I had been under the impression he was battling back. A couple weeks back he announced on his Facebook page that after a set-back he had fought back to where the doctors were happy with "his numbers."

I hadn't heard from him over the past week so I emailed him the other day; earlier today I received a response from a work colleague who was dealing with his emails... and that's how I found out that they don't expect my friend to make it through Thanksgiving.

I'm angry at God. Really angry. I thought we had a deal. I thought that our deal was that He'd screw around with me on anything and everything that wasn't really important... stuff like my career... but that in return I got to keep my loved ones.

I can't believe this is happening.

My buddy Mike Dalaker is my age... maybe a year younger. We attended college together. We dormed together. We ate, drank, listened to music, and sang together. We were tight.

Were...

After college... we lost touch.

About a year ago... maybe a year and a half ago... out of the blue... Mike "found" me on Facebook.

We've been chatting - mainly via email - ever since.

Twice since our getting back together I've been up to his neck of the woods (literally... New Hampshire) and at least once he's been down my way (to visit his parents in Long Island)... but due to his treatment schedule we didn't meet up those times. It looks like I'll be regretting that for the rest of my life. 

Anyway... I've cried. No doubt I'll cry again. I expect to lose it when his suffering is over and it's posted on Facebook or I'm notified by email.

I don't even know his wife...

I don't know his kids...

I know of them. I know he loved them. I know that they are his strength... his pride and joy.

Mike loves the blog. I'm gonna blog today. I'm gonna do some newsbiting today. 

Still... this sucks. 

See ya on the other side, buddy.

3 comments:

William R. Barker said...

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/21/us-israel-telaviv-bus-explosion-idUSBRE8AK0HS20121121

A bomb exploded on a bus in central Tel Aviv on Wednesday, wounding 15 people in what Israeli officials said was a terrorist attack...

Celebratory gunfire rang out across Gaza as the news spread...

Hamas praised the bombing, but no one claimed immediate responsibility.

* AND THESE ANIMALS DESERVE TO BREATH THE SAME AIR AS CIVILIZED PEOPLE...???

Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri hailed the explosion. "Hamas blesses the attack in Tel Aviv and sees it as a natural response to the Israeli massacres...in Gaza," he told Reuters. "Palestinian factions will resort to all means in order to protect our Palestinian civilians in the absence of a world effort to stop the Israeli aggression."

* ANIMALS. SAVAGES. IT'S AS SIMPLE AS THAT.

* NO... NOT EACH AND EVERY ONE... NOT EACH AND EVERY INDIVIDUAL MAN, WOMAN, AND CHILD... BUT MORE THAN ENOUGH TO DOUBT THAT "PALESTINIAN CULTURE" AS A "SOCIETY" CAN OR SHOULD CO-EXIST WITH CIVILIZED PEOPLES.

Sweet cakes were handed out in celebration in Gaza's main hospital, which has been inundated with wounded from the round-the-clock Israeli bombing and shelling.

* WHICH WAS IN RESPONSE TO...

(*SMIRK*)

* WHICH WAS TARGETED AT...

(*SMIRK*)

* LISTEN... IF THE CIVILIZED PALESTINIANS DIDN'T ALLOW HAMAS TO LAUNCH MISSILES FROM POPULATED CIVILIAN AREAS THE ISRAELIS WOULDN'T HAVE TO RISK - AND CAUSE - "COLLATERAL DEATHS AND DAMAGE" VIA THEIR RESPONSES.

"You opened the gates of hell on yourselves," Hamas's armed wing, the al-Qassam brigades, said on Twitter. "Oh Zionists, you have to drag yourselves out of hell, go back home now, go back to Germany, Poland, Russia, America and anywhere else."

* HOW DO YOU NEGOTIATE WITH THAT...? HMM...?

Hamas militants have fired at least four rockets at the laid-back Mediterranean metropolis over the past week...

* HOW MANY MISSILES HAVE THESE ANIMALS FIRED AT CIVILIAN TARGETS IN ISRAEL OVER THE PAST YEAR...?!?!

* FOLKS... UNDERSTAND... THE MSM LARGELY DOWNPLAYS PALESTINIAN TERROR AND UPPLAYS ISRAELI RESPONSES IN ORDER TO CREATE A FALSE DICHOTOMY. NOPE... THE ISRAELIS AREN'T PERFECT... BUT RELATIVELY... THEY'RE THE GOOD GUYS.

Israel launched its air offensive with the stated aim of halting all missile launches out of the Gaza Strip...

* SOUNDS REASONABLE...

U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon denounced the attack, saying nothing justified the targeting of civilians.

* TALK IS CHEAP. WHY AREN'T UN PEACEKEEPERS POSTED THROUGHOUT HAMAS CONTROLLED TERRITORY TO PREVENT TERROR ATTACKS IN THE FIRST PLACE?!

The United States, Israel's main ally, also condemned the bus bombing. "These attacks against innocent Israeli civilians are outrageous," the White House said.

* AGAIN... TALK IS CHEAP.

* FOLKS... WHETHER YOU LOVE OR HATE OBAMA... DON'T YOU THINK HIS PRESIDENCY AND RE-ELECTION HAS SOMETHING TO DO WITH HAMAS BELIEVING THEY CAN GET AWAY WITH SUCH GAMBITS AS THIS?

* FOLKS... NO DOUBT WHEN THERE'S A CEASEFIRE U.S. DOLLARS WILL START FLOWING TO HAMAS IN EVEN GREATER NUMBERS.

William R. Barker said...

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/333731/america-s-slide-greatness-conrad-black?pg=1

[T]he U.S. is also the victim of its own optimism: It is an upbeat, self-confident, and Americocentric place, and has drunk the American-exceptionalist Kool-Aid to the lees, to the point that it is poorly equipped psychologically to recognize how under-competitive it now is, on the face of the human and economic development in other nations.

(*SAD NOD*)

* FOLKS... I'D LIKE YOU TO READ THIS PIECE IN ITS ENTIRETY.

William R. Barker said...

http://www.nationalreview.com/articles/333812/squanto-worldly-indian-who-dazzled-pilgrims-deroy-murdock

* READ THIS!

* HECK... READ IT TO YOUR KIDS!