Free Republic

But with all the hoopla of jumping on a bed and all of the fun, are there cons to meet the pros of bed jumping? Yes, there were good reasons for our parents to yell at us for jumping on beds. I didn't run across any negative articles about bed jumping, but I am willing to be one of the first.

THURSDAY, July 16 (HealthDay News) -- Deaths and injuries on America's interstates have increased since the repeal of the federal 55-mile-per-hour speed limit in 1995, a new study finds, and some believe it's time to slow down again. Researchers tracking fatalities attributed 12,545 deaths and 36,582 injuries in fatal crashes to higher speed limits implemented during the 1995-2005 study period. "Our study clearly shows that policy can directly result in more deaths as well as reducing deaths on our country's roads," said lead researcher Lee S. Friedman of the division of environmental and occupational health sciences in the School of...

A tremendously important story has gone virtually untold by the media, ignored by our political leaders and unknown to the American public. Despite the extraordinarily high price they have paid, America's severely wounded veterans are enduring humiliating financial hardships of epic proportions. Home evictions, utility shutoffs, car repossessions and foreclosures are commonplace. Spouses have to give up their jobs to become caregivers, cutting family incomes by up to 50 percent or more. Most disabled vets receive much less in compensation and benefits than they did while on active duty, reducing incomes even further. Many are too dysfunctional to hold a...

This is so like Barack Obama. The man who is responsible for piling on more debt than every president from George Washington to George W. Bush - COMBINED - while simultaneously preaching "fiscal responsibility" can pretty much twist anything into anything. So no one should be very surprised that Obama would tout his championing of Veterans' issues even as he moves behind the scenes to commit the mother of all backstabbings. As CNN reported: WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki confirmed Tuesday that the Obama administration is considering a controversial plan to make veterans pay for treatment of...

ER doctors observe chokings, sprains, broken teeth, ravaged vocal cords. On the Super Bowl field? No, it's in the den, where Dad and Uncle Bob are going berserk for their teams.

WASHINGTON, Dec. 9, 2008 – The Air Force’s only traumatic brain injury center, at Elmendorf Air Force Base, Alaska, is diagnosing and treating predominantly Army patients with a focus on improving their chances of a full recovery. The center began as an ad-hoc clinic in February 2007 to treat redeploying soldiers at neighboring Fort Richardson, Air Force Maj. (Dr.) Peter Osterbauer, chief of neurology services for the 3rd Medical Group, told American Forces Press Service. The Army mobilized a team of 13 medical specialists to help the Air Force screen and treat the 25th Infantry Division’s 1st Stryker Brigade soldiers...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18, 2008 – Despite losing a leg in combat, Army Sgt. Chris Alvin Burrell is focusing on his rehabilitation to one day return to what he calls his “normal day of work.” Army Sgt. Chris Burrell is focused on his rehabilitation since losing a leg in an explosion in Baghdad's Sadr City neighborhood on Dec. 26, 2007. He hopes to return to his job as a canine handler. Courtesy photo  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “My main focus right now is to heal properly and quickly in the right timeframe, and just make sure I’m healed...

WASHINGTON, Nov. 18, 2008 – When Navy Lt. John Pucillo enlisted after high school to be an explosive ordnance disposal technician, he knew the risks involved. Navy Lt. John Pucillo displays a tatoo on the remainder of his left leg, which was amputated following a bomb blast in Iraq in May 2006. Courtesy photo.  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Pucillo knew his choice in Navy jobs would eventually land him in Iraq and that he would be exposed to more danger there than with other specialties he could have chosen. No matter, the young Pucillo yearned for the...

In its zeal to get tough on Sen. John McCain, who has taken the lead in the presidential race, Sen. Barack Obama's campaign released a television ad today, titled "Still," making fun of Sen. McCain for being old fashioned. In the ad, the Obama campaign says that McCain hasn't changed much since he went to Congress in 1982, to make the case that McCain's campaign does not represent change. But the campaign crossed a line when it ridiculed McCain because he "can't send an e-mail," and unwittingly embroiled itself in another controversy that will throw the campaign off message. The...

WASHINGTON, Jan. 28, 2008 – Army Col. (Dr.) Loree Sutton is a woman on a mission. Army Col. (Dr.) Loree Sutton, chief of the newly created Defense Center of Excellence for Psychological Health and Traumatic Brain Injury, sits in her temporary Rosslyn, Va., office suite. The Defense Department created the center in its effort to step up the quality of care for wounded warriors and their families. Photo by Fred W. Baker III  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. The military psychiatrist has, for the last month, ricocheted across the Capital Beltway landscape and beyond, setting up a Defense...

SCHWEINFURT, Germany, Dec. 10, 2007 – A pilot program is assessing soldiers returning here from Iraq for possible mild traumatic brain injury. Mild traumatic brain injury, or mTBI, has been called the signature wound of the war on terror. Identifying and treating that injury has become a priority for Army medical commands worldwide. The pilot testing program uses “automated neuropsychological assessment metrics” to identify affected soldiers. The first post-deployment mTBI screenings are being conducted here as part of the reintegration process for soldiers of 2nd “Dagger” Brigade Combat Team, 1st Infantry Division. “The screening is intended to take pre-deployment measurements...

ST. JOHN, U.S. Virgin Islands, Nov. 1, 2007 – The calls family members receive about a servicemember’s injury come out of the blue at all hours of the day and night, and they all have the same general effect. Susanne Rooney and her husband, Army Sgt. Peter Rooney, enjoy the warm weather and water of Jost Van Dyke, British Virgin Islands, on Oct. 20, 2007. The couple was part of a small group of wounded veterans and their spouses who participated in a kayaking trip to the Virgin Islands. Photo by Samantha L. Quigley  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image...

CAMP VICTORY, Iraq — High blood pressure, bad backs, bum knees and other mundane health problems put three and a half times more troops on planes to hospitals in Germany or the United States than do snipers and roadside bombs, say front-line experts in Iraq . "There's nothing about being deployed or being in an austere environment that protects you from the normal maladies that people encounter in the United States ," said Lt. Col. Ron Ross , a preventive medicine officer with the U.S. Army's 62nd Medical Brigade in Iraq . From the invasion in March 2003 through Oct....

DEKALB, Ill. - Media reports say spectators have been injured after a monster truck crashed into a crowd during a demonstration in DeKalb. WDKB in DeKalb is reporting that the truck was doing a jump during the demonstration and lost control, hitting the crowd and eventually landing on a set of railroad tracks. Ambulance crews are on the scene and several people have been taken to area hospitals. Train traffic through the northern Illinois town has been halted. DeKalb police would only say that a "major incident" happened downtown.

WASHINGTON, June 27, 2007 – A former 82nd Airborne Division soldier who has been living with traumatic brain injury for the past seven years is reaching out to recently wounded veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan to help them learn to live with the disease. Retired Army Pfc. Chris Lynch uses his own experience with traumatic brain injury to help inspire others. The former 82nd Airborne Division soldier is pursuing his education, runs marathons and competed in the National Disabled Veterans Winter Sports Clinic in April. Photo by Donna Miles  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Pfc. Chris Lynch was...

WASHINGTON, Feb. 21, 2007 – No one was seriously injured when a U.S. Army UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter went down near Baghdad today, military officials reported. Meanwhile, coalition forces killed seven terrorists and detained 13 others, and local citizens and Iraqi police denied an al Qaeda convoy entry into a village over the last two days in Iraq. The helicopter went down today north of Baghdad while conducting operations. No serious injuries or fatalities occurred. Nine military personnel were on board, and all were evacuated successfully, officials said. The cause of the incident is under investigation. In other developments, coalition...

WASHINGTON, July 20, 2006 — The morning of Feb. 20 was like any other for Air Force Office of Special Investigations Special Agent Adele Loar, who was assigned to the Strategic Counterintelligence Directorate in Baghdad, Iraq. Her mission, along with the joint team assembled there, was to gather information from Iraqi civilian sources to ascertain current threats to coalition forces. Performing a mission for which she is trained and one that she loves, Loar said it did not matter when or where she worked or the dangers she might face. She especially reveled in the opportunity to be working on...

WASHINGTON - On the eve of the nation's noisiest holiday, the Consumer Product Safety Commission responded to growing fireworks injuries by quietly reopening the question of how it should police explosives for backyard entertainment. Without a public meeting, the three commissioners voted unanimously by ballot late Friday to begin a study of whether to tighten their regulation of fireworks, commission spokesman Scott Wolfson announced Monday. Their notice seeking public comment will appear soon in the Federal Register. The notice cited a disturbing increase in injuries and a decrease in compliance with safety regulations as reasons for the first major review...

Her son, 3 others rammed in DWI BY RICHARD WEIR DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER The mother of a young bouncer mowed down by an alleged drunken teen who drove his Jaguar into a crowd outside the Glen Cove Golf Club said yesterday that seeing her son in the hospital is "heartbreaking." Maureen Basdavanos spoke before the arraignment of 19-year-old Sayed Khaled El-Waraky, the Virginia college student accused of turning his luxury car into a weapon and plowing it into her son, Sean, 22, and three other young men. Sean Basdavanos of Glen Cove, a part-time bouncer at the golf club's...

BAGHDAD, June 12, 2006 – Abu Musab al-Zarqawi died of blast injuries sustained by the coalition bombing of his safe house June 7, coalition officials said today. The officials also said that DNA testing proves that the body is that of the terrorist leader. "We have clear evidence he died of blast injuries," said Army Dr. (Col.) Steve Jones, the command surgeon in Iraq. "There is no evidence to suggest that he was beaten and I have no reason to suspect that happened." Jones and coalition military spokesman Army Maj. Gen. Bill Caldwell briefed reporters on the results of the...

A man who was competing in a jet boat competition on Lake Ming died after he lost control of his vessel and was thrown to the ground as it went more than 130 mph, authorities said. Edward Jay Wallace, 43, of Las Vegas, was pronounced dead at 8:40 p.m. Saturday from injuries he sustained in the crash earlier that day, according to the Kern County coroner's office. Wallace was competing in the last semifinals race of a National Jet Boat Association weekend event called May Shootout when the throttle on his boat likely got stuck, organizers said. Going more than...

WASHINGTON, May 1, 2006 – For the past two and a half years, veterans of wars past have been helping heal the latest generation of wounded troops every Friday in a basement steakhouse here. Members of Disabled American Veterans help a wounded servicemember before the final Friday night dinner for wounded troops at Fran O'Brien's steakhouse in downtown Washington, D.C. Groups like DAV and Helping Our Heroes Foundation bring dozens of wounded troops out to the Friday dinners, which now will be held at various locations in the nation's capital, beginning May 5. Photo by Paul X. Rutz  (Click photo...

HADITHA, Iraq (April 6, 2006) -- Lance Cpl. Matt Calvert accepts the wound he received March 25 from a rocket-propelled grenade attack in Iraq. It comes with the territory of being a Marine in a combat zone. The infantryman from Blue Springs, Mo., said he was unfazed by the wound, caused when insurgents attacked his unit’s patrol in western Al Anbar Province. “I did not hear the insurgent fire the RPG (rocket-propelled grenade) until the round exploded against the wall near me,” said Calvert, 22. Calvert was injured when shrapnel from a rocket-propelled grenade caught him in the chest and...

PINE VALLEY – A race to avoid the Border Patrol yesterday ended when a speeding car flipped and ejected five passengers, killing one of them, authorities said. Three of the four survivors were hospitalized with life-threatening injuries, said Officer Brian Pennings of the California Highway Patrol. The fourth survivor was less seriously injured. The car, a blue Ford Probe, failed to stop at a checkpoint on westbound Interstate 8 east of Pine Valley, said Richard Kite of the Border Patrol. He said agents headed after the Probe and came upon it, overturned, on Olde Highway 80 just west of Pine...

Hi ya'll - I'm new here so correct me if I am out of line with posting this here. I invite you to please visit our website (very easy one - only one page plus one additional page for a February newsletter update) to see what it is we are doing. Basically we purchase basic laptops and add webcams with mics on them so they can stay in contact with their family and friends, play games, etc. Also accept PC games and original playstation games as a lady in Georgia packed up her family's playstation and sent it to me...

AL ASAD, Iraq (Feb. 7, 2006) -- On Jan. 5, a suicide bomber tried to interrupt Iraq's rebuilding process at a police academy in Ramadi, but honor, courage and commitment by Iraqis and Marines alike was the only lasting result from the attack. The bond between one Marine, Cpl. Brendan N. Poelaert, a military working dog handler with 5th Battalion, 14th Marine Regiment Provisional Military Police Battalion, and an East Kingston, N.H., native, and his MWD, Flapoor, a 4-year-old Belgium Malinos, came through the carnage unscathed, even if the pair did not. Poelaert, an Exeter High School graduate, joined the...

As if two bad knees aren't bad enough for the Steelers, now this: The thumb on Ben Roethlisberger's throwing hand is causing discomfort. "It is pretty painful," he said prior to Thursday's practice, in which he participated with gloves on both hands. Roethlisberger, who missed three consecutive games while healing from arthroscopic surgery on his right knee, returned to the lineup Monday night in a 26-7 loss to the Colts in Indianapolis, where he sustained the thumb injury. The second-year quarterback wouldn't talk about the extent of the injury. But he said the thumb was sore and that the training...

CAMP FALLUJAH, Iraq (Oct. 25, 2005) -- The Marines of Iraqi Army Platoon, Echo Company, 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion, 2nd Marine Division, clashed with insurgents in the month leading up to the unit’s relief in place. Nearing the end of their seven-month deployment and after spending more than a month in Ferris Town and Al Amariyah in support of Operation Southern Fire, Sgt. Joe Gonsalez, platoon sergeant, IA Platoon, was conducting a familiarization foot patrol in Al Amariyah with the incoming team from 1st Reconnaissance Battalion. On Oct. 2, as the patrol came to a halt in front of Al Amariyah’s...

10/14/2005 - SOUTHWEST ASIA (AFPN) -- Should deployed troops need on the spot surgery, there is a five-person mobile forward surgical team on standby, ready to deploy at a moment’s notice to help them. The team -- an MFST -- can deploy in 24 to 48 hours. It is the smallest forward-deployable surgical team that can do field surgery. The team, part of the 379th Expeditionary Medical Group, has been deployed here for a month. It has performed 38 operations and seen 107 clinic patients. Once on location, the team can set up to operate within 15 minutes of arrival....

40 Hurt as Plane Runs into Turbulence Some 40 passengers and crewmembers were hurt when a Korean airliner flying from Bali, Indonesia to Incheon International Airport suddenly lost altitude in turbulence.  Korean Air and the Seoul Regional Aviation Administration said Thursday that Korean Air Flight 630, which took off from Bali's Denpasar Airport at 4:15 a.m., ran into "clear air turbulence" while cruising at 38,000 feet just before entering Malaysian airspace. The aircraft suddenly dropped about 100 meters. Four of the 257 passengers sustained injuries like cuts to their foreheads when they hit their heads on the overhead baggage...

A deliberately set bomb blast has injured 13-2 critically-in the capitol of Trinidan and Tobago. A man was seen placing a parcel in a dumpster shortly before the container exploded.

The Pinellas County medical examiner's office in Florida plans to release its autopsy report tomorrow on Terri Schiavo – findings her family hopes will shed light on the cause of the collapse that left her severely brain-damaged 15 years ago. Schiavo, 41, died March 31, nearly two weeks after the feeding tube that had kept her alive was removed under a court order obtained by her husband, Michael Schiavo. Her death ended a bitter legal battle between Michael Schiavo, who said his wife did not want to be kept alive artificially, and her parents, Bob and Mary Schindler. Both Michael...

As it says in the title. More than a dozen known dead, 100's injured. The danger to our military and to us as citizens due to Newseek's irresponsible lies. They need to be sued individually and as a class action. Unlawful death and injury is serious. The editors and writers also must be sued individually.

TWO people were injured by centipedes, and no fewer than 22 suffered mishaps involving nightwear. Britain is a perilous place in all sorts of unusual ways, according to new statistics on hospital admissions. The Department of Health data, reported in The Times newspaper, also included people requiring hospital treatment in Britain for accidents which happened overseas. Thus, of the near-million people seen by emergency hospital staff in the 12 months to April 2004, six had been stung by scorpions, 451 had been stung by hornets and 24 had been bitten by rats. The house was no haven, with nine needing...

Cynthia Piccione could barely look at her son, a once-strapping Marine lying helpless in a bed from a grenade wound to his head. Lance Cpl. Raymond Preston Warren, 23, couldn't move. Couldn't talk. Couldn't speak. But there was Mom -- from a world far away. "He was like a pumpkin head. His face was so swollen you couldn't see his features," recalled Piccione, 41, of Northridge, of her visit to see her son at a naval hospital in June. "I said, 'It's Mom, it's Mom.' "And a tear came from his eyes as he squeezed my hand." Warren is one...

Running out of places to care for patients, London's busiest hospital emergency room shut its doors to all but the most severe injuries from outside the city for the first time in its history last week. Two trauma patients had to be diverted during the shutdown, with one patient sent to a hospital in Toronto and the other to Hamilton. The situation hit amid recent reports some London patients have had to wait as long as three days for a hospital bed to become available. "We were in a crisis situation," said Dr. Gary Joubert, chief of emergency medicine for...

The Span of War Caring for the Wounded: The Story of Two Marines by Joseph P. Shapiro Morning Edition, March 8, 2005 · Last November, 1st Sgt. Brad Kasal and Lance Cpl. Alex Nicoll were seriously injured in one of the fiercest battles of the Iraq war. Kasal and Nicoll had been with a Marine unit conducting house-to-house searches for insurgents in Fallujah. When fellow Marines entered one house, they were injured by insurgents inside. Nicoll and Kasal went in to retrieve their comrades, but soon were severely wounded themselves while temporarily cornered in a room on the bottom floor....

Breaking the Silence 20-year wait to hear their daughter speak again is over for parents of near-fatal accident victim By Clara Kilbourn The call came Feb. 4. "Are you sitting down? There's someone here who wants to talk to you." Betsy Scantlin recognized the caller, Jennifer Trammell, director of social services at Golden Plains Health Care Center. The next voice was different. "Hi, Mom." "Sarah, is that you?" "Yeah." "Hi, Dad," she said, then, slowly drawing out the words, "Happy Valentine's Day." For 20 years, Betsy and Jim Scantlin had waited to again hear their daughter's voice. Jim wanted to...

(IsraelNN.com) Sporadic exchanges of gunfire were reported in northern Gaza this morning, east of Beit Hanoun. IDF troops were engaged in exchanges of gunfire with terrorists in the area, PA sources reported. No additional information is available regarding the incident. There were no reports of injuries.

The story of Marine Staff Sgt. Robert Arellano's wound is not exactly heroic. He was sitting in a tent in southern Iraq when the 9mm handgun he was repairing went off, sending a bullet through his left leg. advertisement That's why his heart sank in spring 2003, when he heard that he would receive the Purple Heart as he recovered at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda.

WASHINGTON - The number of U.S. troops wounded in Iraq since the start of the war in March 2003 has surpassed 10,000, the Pentagon said yesterday in a delayed update of its casualty data. Of the 10,252 total wounded, the Pentagon said 5,396 were unable to return to duty and 4,856 sustained injuries that were light enough to allow them to resume their duties. The total is normally reported each week, but the Pentagon had not updated the figures since Dec. 22, when the number of wounded stood at 9,981. The number of U.S. military deaths in Iraq stood at...

Bullets Come Down: Help Stop Celebratory Gunfire this New Years Action AlertBrady Campaign to Prevent Gun ViolenceUnited with the Million Mom March1225 Eye Street, NWWashington, DC 20005www.bradycampaign.orgBrady/MMM is joining with America's police departments to urge Americans not to engage in what police call "celebratory gunfire" -- the indiscriminate firing of weapons into the air. On New Years Eve, scores of people will place others at risk of injury or death because of celebratory gunfire. When a bullet is fired into the air, the bullet has to come down somewhere. This holiday season, help spread the word about the dangers...

The purpose of FreeRepublic.com's multiple message boards is to limit the topics for each board to particular topics. Posting the same message on all the boards defeats the purpose of multiple-boards for special topics. It is very annoying to see the same message on every bulletin board. PLEASE! DO THE READERS A FAVOR. STOP CROSS-POSTING YOUR MESSAGES!

Recent Poll Reveals Most Americans Think Abortion Hurts Women CHICAGO, November 26, 2004 (LifeSiteNews.com) - A recent nationwide survey conducted by Wirthlin Worldwide has found that a majority of Americans believe that abortion is "almost always bad" for women. The findings reflect the earlier findings of an Elliot Institute poll, which found that a majority of Americans believe abortion makes women's lives worse. The poll of 1,001 Americans, conducted on behalf of Americans United for Life, found that 61 percent felt that "abortion is almost always a bad thing for a woman," whereas only 23 percent said it was almost...

An SUV jumped a curb and struck a mother as she pushed her baby boy in a jogging stroller at Ponce de Leon Avenue and Lullwater Road Monday, police said. The impact threw the woman into a nearby ravine, but left the toddler crying in the stroller where it remained on the sidewalk. Both victims are expected to be okay. Atlanta police said the accident happened just before 10 a.m. as the woman walked eastbound on Ponce de Leon Avenue. The driver, identified as 32-year-old

A drunken 15-year-old boy lost control of a BMW, slammed into a one-story house on Long Island and ran from the horror scene leaving two injured friends behind in the car, police said. The teenage driver, whose name was not released, left a nearby block party at about 10 p.m. Saturday and was traveling north on Wyandanch Road in Sayville near the intersection with Loop Drive, witnesses said.

KARACHI, September 15 (PNS): Sitting in a black sedan, four agents of the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) watched intently as a posse of Pakistan military intelligence and police officials climbed a narrow staircase to enter a second floor apartment of a four-apartment building in Karachi's posh residential district of Defence Society early morning on September 11. The raiding party had specific information from two Yemenis arrested in another raid a few hours earlier that a "bunch" of al-Qaeda suspects was hiding in the Defence Society apartment. As the uniformed and plain clothes intelligence operatives and policemen barged...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - First there was the girl who fell off her bike fleeing a flying cicada. Then a boy trying to swat a cicada out of the air with a baseball bat instead hit his friend in the nose. The final straw came when another child hurt his hand trying to squish a cicada under a car's tires. Dr. Ray Baker of Cincinnati Children's Hospital was convinced -- cicadas can be a safety hazard to children. Starting this week and lasting into June, billions and possibly even trillions of cicadas will emerge across much of the eastern half of...

Four British soldiers have been injured when they came under attack while patrolling a village in south-east Iraq. "We can confirm that UK patrols came under fire while patrolling the village of Qal at Sahil in the Maysan province," a ministry spokesman said. "The patrol returned fire after receiving fire from heavy machineguns and a rocket-propelled grenade," the spokesman said, adding the injured soldiers were from the Second Light Infantry. The four soldiers, whom the spokesman declined to identify, were admitted to the Shaibah military hospital near Basra where they were being treated for "non-life-threatening injuries", the spokesman said. The...

Much more of a success off the court than on it, Anna Kournikova might be making a permanent move to a life outside tennis. Kournikova, a 22-year-old Russian, told the London Evening Standard on Monday that she plans to quit tennis early next year and devote herself to becoming an actress and TV awards presenter. "Acting and presenting are definitely things I enjoy doing," Kournikova, who was in Monte Carlo hosting the World Music Awards, told the newspaper. "I'd love to appear in something like 'Sex and the City' or 'Friends.' I get offered lots of those sorts of jobs,...