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...'Van Gogh's Ear: Paul Gauguin and the Pact of Silence' contends Van Gogh and Gauguin got into an argument over a prostitute named Rachel outside the brothel where she worked. Gauguin, an excellent fencer, drew his sword and cut off Van Gogh's left ear. "The left ear fell. We cannot say if it was deliberate or an accident. In this situation, the protagonists vowed to keep silent. Then Gauguin disappeared, abandoning his friend," Kaufmann said, according to the Daily Mall. Gauguin, according to the book, dumped the sword in the nearby Rhone River. Van Gogh handed the severed ear to...

President Obama's tour of government agencies has had the feel of campaign rallies -- screaming supporters, stump speeches, etc. And today at the FBI came another similarity -- an employee at the event apparently fainted... He told the workers that it happened all the time while he was running for president last year, and the person was almost always just fine. "People were falling out all the time," he said with a [nauseating] smile [and nose in the air].

The election may be over, but not the controversy. Just when you thought the flap over the genuineness of Barack Obama's birth certificate was all said and done...

But this is a positive move for these numbers in almost every state. Especially PA. There are other polls in PA that don't show it this close but they've also moved in GOP direction over the past few days. Ras has it at -6, SUSA at -7, Morning Call at -7. A week ago MC was at -13, heck all the polls were in the double digits. This is excellent corroboration of Rick Davis' statement about them being close in PA.

Tonight, on "Hannity and Colmes," Sean revealed that Ayers' 1974 book, "Prairie Fire," is dedicated to Sirhan Sirhan, among 99 other people. Sirhan Sirhan assasinated Robert F. Kennedy. Sean mentioned that Ayers' book is extremely difficult to obtain.

In her 2006 song 'Dear Mr. President,' Pink asked George W. Bush a few probing questions. Now she's got some choice words for a certain vice presidential candidate. "If I were writing a letter to Sarah Palin," Pink told PopEater during her Sessions taping on Thursday, "it would be a lot of whys and hows. Who are you? Do you know? Why do you hate animals? Please point out Iraq on a map ..." What scares Pink are women who consider the Alaska governor's selection a feminist victory. "This woman hates women," the singer said. "She is not a feminist....

Wichita, KS - June 24, 2008 - A murder investigation has been opened involving Shelley Sella, a California abortionist employed by George Tiller, who is reported to have intentionally stabbed to death an infant born alive during an abortion at Tiller's Women's Health Care Services abortion clinic in Wichita, Kansas. Operation Rescue reported the incident to the Wichita Police Department after a former Tiller employee, Tina Davis, told Troy Newman and Cheryl Sullenger of the stabbing in April. It is believed that the alleged infanticide took place sometime in the past two years. In addition, the incident has been reported...

When Greenpeace co-founder Patrick Moore first began second-guessing his opposition to nuclear power, he did what any good environmentalist would do: He buried it. The activist had already helped spearhead Greenpeace’s fight against nuclear testing and had gained international recognition after being arrested for shielding a baby seal from a hunter’s club. “I had always been afraid of nuclear waste,” he said in an interview. “I thought if I got anywhere near it, it would kill me. But deep down, intellectually, I knew it could work.” As global warming grew from scientific theory to public concern in the late 1980s,...

...Wright's strong sentiments were echoed in the Sunday morning service attended by NewsMax. Wright laced into America's establishment, blaming the "white arrogance" of America's Caucasian majority for the woes of the world, especially the oppression suffered by blacks. To underscore the point he refers to the country as the "United States of White America." Many in the congregation, including Obama, nodded in apparent agreement as these statements were made...

My issue of Slow, the magazine of the Slow Food movement arrived the other day. (One of the loveliest things in print.) One of its articles, “China is Nearer,” contains extensive quotes from a two year report in Lettre International (2006) by Beijing journalist, Zhou Qing, about food safety in China. Here’s an excerpt from Qing’s report: Towards the end of the year when farmers clean out the bottom of their fishponds, not only is sludge removed but the bottom of the pond is covered in a thick layer of contraceptive pills. Considerable quantities of them are also mixed into...

Hyannis, MA - September 28, 2007 - Eileen Smith has come forward in order to keep her daughter's abortion death from being "swept under the rug." Her 22-year old daughter, Laura Hope Smith, died on September 13, 2007, during an abortion done by Rapin Osathanondh at Women Health Clinic in Hyannis, Massachusetts. Smith told Operation Rescue that she had no idea that her daughter was 13 weeks pregnant and considering an abortion. A friend accompanied Laura to the clinic. Early reports indicated that Laura died of hemorrhage, but Smith says that her daughter died on the abortion table. "There was...

Wichita, KS - As late-term abortionist George R. Tiller faces a possible 19 years in jail on charges he committed illegal post-viability abortions, his infamous abortion clinic, Women's Health Care Services will remain closed for at least another week, Operation Rescue has confirmed. Tiller surprised pro-lifers when no abortions took place on July 31, 2007, as scheduled. His clinic has been closed to patients since. WHCS was also closed the first week in July, but according to his web site, that closure was a scheduled one. Abortion patients continue to be turned away with clinic personnel telling callers that WHCS...

Gov. Deval Patrick envisions free education for every Massachusetts resident from age 3 through community college. To help him make that vision a reality, Patrick on Monday appointed an 18-member panel to draw up blueprints for the 10-year plan. "We need to change fundamentally the way we think about and most of all deliver public education in this commonwealth," the Democratic governor said. "Everything is on the table." The leadership team will work under former Boston Public Schools superintendent Thomas Payzant, EMC Corp. chairman and CEO Joseph Tucci and Wheelock College President Jackie Jenkins-Scott. That trio has until March to...

Many informed American Catholics are familiar with the actions that the bishops took at their Dallas meeting in 2002, when they adopted the zero tolerance policy for priests who had sexually abused children, a policy that, with the approval of the Apostolic See, became canon law for the United States. This was a drastic measure, meant to deal with drastic facts. It resulted in the removal of over 700 priests from ministry. However, very few people are aware of what led up to Dallas. What did the bishops do before 2002 while the disaster was building? In the middle of...

(AP) A railway worker who emerged from a 19-year coma woke to a radically altered Poland and is learning to adapt to his new life, Polish media reported. "I wake up at 7 a.m. and I watch TV," Jan Grzewski, 65, told TVN24 Television over the weekend, smiling slightly as he lay in bed at his home in the northern city of Dzialdowo. "I could not talk or do anything, now it's much better," he said in a weak but clear voice, some two months emerging from his coma. Wojciech Pstragowski, a rehabilitation specialist, said Grzewski was shocked at the...

Accuses KS Governor of protecting Tiller New York City, NY - May 31, 2007 - Fox News host Bill O'Reilly rebounded from a six-month silence to issue a scathing segment on the notorious late-term abortionist George R. Tiller that aired the evening of May 30. During the segment, O'Reilly blasted Tiller for "executing fetuses" for "vague medical reasons."He was equally critical of Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who vetoed a bill that would have required Tiller to provide specific medical reasons for abortions after 21 weeks of pregnancy. "Incredibly, Gov. Sebelius is protecting Tiller," O'Reilly said during his broadcast. "And Gov....

Facing another withering controversy, Gov. Deval Patrick apologized yesterday for intervening in a financial deal involving an embattled mortgage lender - a mea culpa that came as the Herald learned that the Ameriquest official who requested his help was also a campaign donor. Patrick made a phone call to a top Citigroup official at the urging of Adam Bass, a top Ameriquest lawyer who gave a maximum $500 donation to Patrick’s campaign in February 2006, financial records show. Patrick previously served as a director for the mortgage company, which has faced accusations of predatory lending. The governor’s intervention occurred despite...

PARIS (Feb. 28) - At least two Picasso paintings, worth a total of nearly $66 million, were stolen from the artist's granddaughter's house in Paris, police said Wednesday. The paintings, "Maya and the Doll" and "Portrait of Jacqueline," disappeared overnight Monday to Tuesday from the chic 7th arrondissement, or district, a Paris police official said. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak to the media, said they were worth nearly $66 million. The director of the Picasso Museum, Anne Baldassari, said several paintings and drawings were stolen from the home of Diana Widmaier-Picasso....

Former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy advised her sister-in-law, Joan, to stop being a doormat for her philandering hubby, Ted Kennedy - and if he didn’t shape up, to move out, according to letters up for auction tomorrow in Connecticut. “This is the 20th century - not the 19th - where the little woman stayed home on a pedestal with the kids and her rosary,” Jackie wrote in an undated four-page note to the senator’s wife and miserable mother of three. “Your life matters - as much as him - you love him - but you can’t destroy yourself.” The hand-written...

Woman with four children had no idea abortion kills a “live” baby Wichita, KS – A couple who intended to abort their fifth child at George Tiller’s Wichita abortion mill changed their minds after seeing photos of aborted babies on Operation Rescue’s Truth Truck, which is parked outside the entrance every day the mill is open. Remarkably, the pregnant woman, Francisca, was unaware that her developing baby was alive even in the first trimester even though she has givin birth to four children. “I am so glad that we found out about it BEFORE we went through with it!” Francisca...