Accomplished fiddler and step dancer, Julie Fitzgerald, was allegedly the first family member to confirm the infamous “Eagan-Fitzgerald Cabal“, a term coined by famous crokinole player and analyst Eric Miltenburg of Toronto. In the World Crokinole Championship’s very backyard in Tavistock, in early July 2010, Fitzgerald explained in great detail to Bill Gladding of the Tavistock Gazette the importance of her family’s contribution to crokinole’s history. Fitzgerald stated that many of Thomas Eagan’s descendents still play dominant crokinole, but are now scattered across the continent, with some in the Greater Toronto Area, the Ottawa Valley, remote areas of Northern Ontario, British Columbia, and San Francisco. The family do not participate in the World Crokinole Championships, because they consider the level of competition inferior to their own and concentrate on developing their family’s skills. Fitzgerald boasted about the family’s political connections and stated they are developing crokinole software with an unnamed technology company in Sunnyvale, California. Unfortunately, the story was never published in the Tavistock Gazette. Bill Gladding and Julie Fitzgerald have since denied any conversation taking place. However, Julie’s sister Kerry and brother Tom have confirmed they were in Tavistock with Julie and that she spoke to Gladding on two separate occasions on July 2 and 3, 2010.

It’s also going mainstream! 2010 WCC champ Justin Slater, was the first to secure a major sponsor in his exclusive arrangement with O’Neill Canada. Justin is also rumoured to be “the face” of Nova Scotia crokinole manufacturer Muzzies Canada, once he attends university there in the Fall of 2010.

Javad Shamqadri, an art advisor to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, accused the new movie of being “part of a comprehensive U.S. psychological war aimed at Iranian culture”, according to a report in Xinhua People’s daily online news.

“Following the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Hollywood and cultural authorities in the U.S. initiated studies to figure out how to attack Iranian culture,” Shamqadri added “certainly, the recent movie is a product of such studies.”

http://people.monstersandcritics.com/news/article_1276346.php/Irans_Ahmadinejad_faults_300

With a review like that from a source like that, how can we not see the movie?

http://english.people.com.cn/200703/12/eng20070312_356565.html

As metastasizing regulations and laws circumscribe the individual citizen ever more closely, such prosecutorial power becomes ever more arbitrary. Instead of keeping citizens secure in liberty, the “rule of law” renders them helpless against what is in effect despotic caprice. The Duke lacrosse case is another example.
********
(VDH, the last sentence in your Lesson #3 about Armitage puzzles me. Is there a typo?)

Re: “300″. I enjoyed it. Visually incredible. I don’t think it will be a classic though. A bit too much yelling by the Spartans which seemed a bit counter to their laconic way of speech. And it got a little wearing.

The freakish and bizzare ghouls that kept popping up on screen were incredibly distracting – and rather silly. Lord of the Rings was a fantasy book. The Battle of Thermopylae was a historical event. This movie had a little too much of a “Clash of the Titans” feel to it (hope everyone got that cheesy reference).

I know it was based on the graphic novel, but it doesn’t work on screen. Imagine a future filmaker doing something similiar with D-Day. Doesn’t work.

Worth seeing, but it could have been something that lasted beyond this year.

Let’s hope Steven Pressfield’s “Gates of Fire” gets made into a ten-part series on HBO – “Band of Brothes” treatement.

I am also frustrated how people like Joe Wilson and (for example) Yassir Arafat get treated by the
MSM as respectable figures. Joe Wilson has been proven to be a liar and a blowhard, yet he still is treated as if he’s saved the country from a runaway executive.

Yassir Arafat was treated as a peace seeker victimized by the evil Israelis when in fact he was nothing more than a terrorist. A peaceful death was not what he deserved. Speaking of which, does anyone know what his cause of death was? To my knowledge, it has never been publicized. I find it hard to believe that it couldn’t be discovered. I’d have to guess that it was something embarrassing. I recall rumors of AIDS.

Anyway, it seems to me that if someone opposes the Bush admin or Israel, they either are given default credence by the MSM or if they are especially outrageous, then a pass.

I Googled Scooter Libby defense fund and found http://www.scooterlibby.com.

I made a donation.

Thank you for writing about the Scooter Libby matter. A few more items:

1. Joe Wilson, unlike all other special CIA workers, wasn’t required to sign a non-disclosure agreement before his trip to Niger. I also think the CIA did not have to approve his famous NYT op-ed. Why do think that was? A: The anti-Bush cabal in the CIA wanted to undermine the President publically through the press.

2. My criminal law professor said the same thing as your mother: the prosecution has enormous power with its ability to exercise its discretion to charge. In this particular case Fitzgerald’s gross abuse of discretion may lead to a reversal and dismissal. Why? Fitzgerald knew at the very, very beginning that it was Armitage who told Novak and there was NO crime in making the leak. In the normal world outside the Beltway, that’s the end of the investigation. It strikes me as unconstitutional to continue to investigate after the “crime” had been solved and set perjury traps against citizens after that stage. While I’m not an expert in this era, Libby has plenty of lawyers who are. I know that $3m was raised for his defense.

3. It would be a gross miscarriage of justice if Mr. Libby served one day in jail.

4. Agreed. Joe Wilson and his wife both make me want to puke. And they are living in Santa Fe, NM on government pensions. Double puke.