Blue Star Chronicles

Imagine the horror that Joan Najbar must have experienced when she got a letter returned that she had mailed to her Soldier son with ‘deceased’ stamped on the envelope. It’s hard to believe such a thing could happen, but it did to this Duluth, Minnesota woman. Now the Soldier’s mom is suing over the returned letter.

Najbar filed suit against the Postal Service last month in U.S. District Court in Minneapolis. Her suit claims emotional distress and negligence. As the mother of a son who has been deployed and was deployed during the same time period as her son, I can’t even imagine the emotion distress something like this would cause, which is why I wouldn’t be picked for a jury in this case.

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Australian and Austrian researchers are reporting that kangaroos may provide skin cancer cure. Understanding how kangaroos repair their DNA may be key in preventing skin cancer. Read about it below.

Dr. Linda Feketeova and Dr. Uta Wille are from the ARC Centre of Excellence for Free Radical Chemistry and Biotechnology at the University of Melbourne in Australia. They, along with scientists from the University of Innsbruck in Austria, are leading research into how kangaroos and other organisms repair DNA, particularly as it relates to skin cancer in humans. There is a DNA repair enzyme in kangaroos as well as well as other organisms that is not found in humans. This DNA repairing enzyme has been found to be very effective in healing damage linked to most skin cancers.

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Officials in the United Kingdom have identified the members of the racing yacht crew that were captured by Iran on November 25, 2009. Iran is holding the British crew and yacht. The crew members are identified as Olly Smith, Sam Usher, Luke Porter, Oliver Young and Dave Bloomer. The yacht is owned by Sail Bahrain and is named the Kingdom of Bahrain.

The British racing yacht crew were detained by the Iranian Navy when it is alleged that they strayed into Iranian waters while on its way from Bahrain to Dubai. They are said to have been traveling to the starting point for the Dubai-Muscat Offshore Sailing Race. The 360-nautical mile race started from Dubai on November 26, the day after the yacht crew were taken hostage by the Iranian Navy.

It is thought they were approached and captured by an Iranian gunboat. The crew and yacht were part of the Sail Bahrain project that began this month. The purpose of the yacht racing from Bahrain to Dubai is to bring international sailing and water sports events to Bahrain and to develop a top-class water sports academy.

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Island Def Jam Records Executive James Roppo was arrested on Friday for not tweeting the cancellation of a Justin Bieber event. Bieber was scheduled to sign autographs at a mall that day, but when over 10,000 fans showed up and got out-of-control the police canceled the event. Roppo continued to tweet about the autograph signing even after it was canceled and ended up being arrested for reckless endangerment among other crimes.

James Roppo - Mugshot

Teenage heartthrob Justin Bieber was scheduled to meet fans at Roosevelt Field Mall in Garden City, Long Island, New York on Friday, November 20, 2009. He was promoting his new album ‘My World’ at the clothing store Justice there. He is signed with the label Island Def Jam Records and they were promoting it online. James Roppo is the 44-year-old senior vice president of sales with the record label and sent out messages on the internet to over 3,000 Justin Beiber fans. The plan was for him to sign autographs, hand out yellow bracelets. But the event was not to happen.

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Stephen Colbert was on the David Letterman Show the other night and took a mild swipe at Barack Obama. The liberal comedian talked with Letterman about Obama’s acting abilities and called Obama the ‘Meryl Streep of Presidents’. Oh, ouch. How harsh! (That’s sarcasm).

It seems that Obama had exceptional confidence in his acting ability and declined assistance from Colbert to perform his part of a skit he was doing with Colbert. The comedian says Obama knocked out the lines in the first take and then took off to do whatever he does when he’s not acting. I suppose he might have gone to the golf course.

I can’t see how this is really news. First, Colbert talks about doing a skit with Obama. Barack Obama doing television skits is not news. Then he tells David Letterman and his audience that Obama is supremely confident in his abilities. Obama’s arrogance is not news. Then he tells everyone that Obama is really a good actor. Can that fact possibly be news to ANYONE? This is a man who was whatever the crowd he was standing in front of wanted him to be. He acted throughout his entire two-year campaign. He pulled off the multiple personalities of Obama, with the help of the main stream media of course.

Well, the left is touting this little friendly conversation between Letterman and Colbert as proof that the liberal television personalities aren’t giving Obama a pass on any and everything he does. Wow, Colbert really slammed Obama. I don’t see the slam, just more proof that he is their messiah and is, you know, like, totally awesome and cool in their eyes.

Here’s the video of their conversation. You be the judge.

Here’s the video!

University of Georgia mascot UGA has been buried Between the Hedges. UGA VII died of an apparent heart attack at just 4-years of age. He was buried next to his father in Sanford Stadium at the University of Georgia. It’s a sad day for Georgia Bulldog fans!

You have to understand Georgia football to understand the love people have for UGA, the English Bulldog who has been Georgia’s mascot for as long as I can remember (and much longer than that). UGA VII was the most recent in a series of English Bulldogs to hold the coveted name. He was owned by Sonny and Cecelia Seiler of Savannah, Georgia and was in his second season cheering on the Georgia Bulldogs. His absence at Georgia’s final home game, played against Kentucky, was marked by fans wearing black and a wreath adorning the doghouse at the stadium.

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Sarah Palin’s book “Going Rogue” has 432 pages, and if you work for the AP you’re going to become very familiar with it. All of it. The Associate Press has assigned 11 reporters (a small army) to comb through Sarah Palin’s book and “fact check” it in its entirety.

Supposing that all books from high profile politicians were given such scrutiny, the AP’s overzealous fact checking party wouldn’t seem so, well, overzealous. The Associated Press was the first media agency to get their grubby little hands on a copy of Palin’s book and immediately began to claim she was making things up.

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Today is Friday the 13th! How is it going for you so far? If days like today scare you, or if you don’t go on the 13th floor of a building, or if you get an even dozen rather than a baker’s dozen, then you might be suffering from triskaidekaphobia, the fear of 13!

Triskaidekaphobia the the fear of the number 13! Many people are morbidly afraid of Friday the 13th and some of the number 13 in and of itself, also known as paraskavedekatriaphobia or friggatriskaidekaphobia. Seriously. I’m betting there are support groups for these phobias.

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Army Paratrooper Benjamin Sherman died in Afghanistan attempting to save another Soldier. At a memorial service for Sherman on Veterans Day, his mother, Denise Sherman pleas with Obama to make an Afghanistan decision. Sherman is just one fallen Soldier of the many who have died while Obama delays any decision as to their fates.

Benjamin Sherman, Fallen Soldier

Benjamin Sherman jumped into a river in Afghanistan in an attempt to save a fellow soldier. The two were swept away in the current and missing for a week. Sherman’s body was recovered on Tuesday, November 10, 2009. On Veterans Day, his family and friends remembered him in his hometown of New Bedford, Massachusetts. Benjamin Sherman was an American hero, one of our volunteer army that stands in harms way in the rugged terrain of Afghanistan. His mother tearfully pleaded with the President to make a decision to either bring all of our Soldiers home or ‘finish it’, finish the war there. Her words resonate with those of us who will have, do have or have had sons and daughters deployed in the Global War on Terrorism.

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It was first reported that Kimberly Munley shot and brought down Major Nidal Malik Hasan, the man who perpetrated the terrorist attack at Ft. Hood Army base in Texas last week. The reports mentioned she was with her partner, but never mentioned what her partner was doing while she was shooting and being shot. It turns out, her partner, Mark Todd shot the Fort Hood suspect and brought him down. Here’s more of the story.

It’s not uncommon for the initial stories to come out of a traumatic event to be jumbled and misrepresented. It’s called the ‘fog of war’. Different people see and remember different things. Reporters are in a hurry to get stories out, to take a different angle and to scoop their competitors. Therefore, the stories are not always accurate in the beginning. Most of us know that and realize that it’s understandable.

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Here are the details of Applebees Veterans Day offer in which both active-duty military and veterans can eat free food. Good for them, and for Krispe Creme Doughnuts which is doing the same thing. See the video and information below.

Where is an Applebees near you? Find out!

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Meet Kimberly Munley, police officer, mother and Ft. Hood massacre hero. In the biography section of her twitter page, long before the events of this week, she describes herself as ‘I go to sleep peacefully @ night knowing that I may have made a difference in someone’s life.’ And she certainly has. She is a true American heroine!

Officer Kimberly Munley was doing her job, directing traffic on the Ft. Hood Army base in Killeen, Texas. She and her partner just happened to be walking by the deployment processing center when shots rang out. She was the first responder on the scene where Army Major Nadal Hasan had trapped a large number of Soldiers in a waiting area and begun shooting them. She is credited with taking down Hasan and saving untold lives, even after she was wounded herself.

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