Michael Moore, Dan Rather. Is there really any difference between them? The animosity each has towards the Bush administration is well documented. Moore’s manipulation of the facts to create his fictional “documentary”, Fahrenheit 9/11, is well documented by Newsweek reporters, Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball.
In Rather’s case, his team supposedly spent 5 years, 5 years, documenting their story only to have an expert analyst warn the foundational document was a forgery on the eve of broadcasting it. Rather chose to ignore the warning instead of committing another week to investigate further and now he’s in “deep do-do.”
Both of these men have an agenda that they will not let the facts get in the way of. Isn’t that exactly what they are accusing the Bush administration of? Going to war in Iraq “blinded by agenda in the face of the facts?” Seems to me they looked for in others that which they knew themselves capable of.
Rather has been quoted, I’m paraphrasing, that the content was believable despite the questionable source. Believable by whom, Mr. Rather? I thought the foundation of news reporting is documenting the facts, verify them, and don’t go public unless you have accurate information to give them.
Dan Rather and CBS have chosen to ignore that tenant and put agenda before public service. Now they reap the reward of their disservice.
Be sure to visit Letters From Iraq
Friday, September 17, 2004
Thursday, September 16, 2004
The Pigeon & the Eagle - Part III
Tony has been competing in pigeon racing since he was a boy in New Jersey. One of the local men there introduced him to the sport and it was love at first flight. He spent his life indulging his love of the birds. In time he became a respected breeder and auctioneer known around the world for his acute memory for trivia bringing a close and personal touch to these sale events, and “a smile you could see through the telephone.”
And events they are. These grand affairs attract “birdmen” from around the world and while sale prices average between $100 and $1000, the highest known price for a racing pigeon is $225,000. It’s offspring sell for thousands of dollars.
The prices can sometimes be worth it. In competitions where entry fees can range from $100 to $1000 per bird and the field can include up to 30,000 individual pigeons, the purse will range from $30,000 to several that pay over $1 million to the winners. This is a major sport!
While there are some new youngsters coming into the sport, sadly it is becoming a diversion of the more mature men, and a few women, of the world. Sportsmen range from Europe to Japan and from Saudi Arabia to the Philippines. Obviously from the costs involved, it is also a sport of men of means.
While individuals of modest means can compete, to be a real contender you must have deep pockets. Prince Abdul-Rahman is among the devotees. The ranks of famous pigeon fanciers include Roy Rogers, Elvis Presley, Walt Disney, Paul Newman, Scott Baio and Wayne Newton.
Around the world there are thousands of devotees and the center of the sport is Belgium where 60,000 people breed, raise and race pigeons. While the Spring Hill area boasts 50 “birdmen” and the area including Brooksville and Tampa Bay is home to 150 racers, it is growing rapidly and becoming widely known as the “Little Belgium” of pigeon racing. Tony Melucca is one of the reasons for the swift growth.
I’m thankful for the opportunity to meet Tony and learn more of this interesting sport. While I had known generalities of pigeon racing, my 2 hours visiting with him resulted in a vast increase of my knowledge, and more importantly I enjoyed the pleasure of meeting this open, friendly and respected icon of the world of pigeon racing.
While the “eagle” may have saved the pigeon, the "eagle" also gained much from his encounter.
Be sure to visit Letters From Iraq
Tony has been competing in pigeon racing since he was a boy in New Jersey. One of the local men there introduced him to the sport and it was love at first flight. He spent his life indulging his love of the birds. In time he became a respected breeder and auctioneer known around the world for his acute memory for trivia bringing a close and personal touch to these sale events, and “a smile you could see through the telephone.”
And events they are. These grand affairs attract “birdmen” from around the world and while sale prices average between $100 and $1000, the highest known price for a racing pigeon is $225,000. It’s offspring sell for thousands of dollars.
The prices can sometimes be worth it. In competitions where entry fees can range from $100 to $1000 per bird and the field can include up to 30,000 individual pigeons, the purse will range from $30,000 to several that pay over $1 million to the winners. This is a major sport!
While there are some new youngsters coming into the sport, sadly it is becoming a diversion of the more mature men, and a few women, of the world. Sportsmen range from Europe to Japan and from Saudi Arabia to the Philippines. Obviously from the costs involved, it is also a sport of men of means.
While individuals of modest means can compete, to be a real contender you must have deep pockets. Prince Abdul-Rahman is among the devotees. The ranks of famous pigeon fanciers include Roy Rogers, Elvis Presley, Walt Disney, Paul Newman, Scott Baio and Wayne Newton.
Around the world there are thousands of devotees and the center of the sport is Belgium where 60,000 people breed, raise and race pigeons. While the Spring Hill area boasts 50 “birdmen” and the area including Brooksville and Tampa Bay is home to 150 racers, it is growing rapidly and becoming widely known as the “Little Belgium” of pigeon racing. Tony Melucca is one of the reasons for the swift growth.
I’m thankful for the opportunity to meet Tony and learn more of this interesting sport. While I had known generalities of pigeon racing, my 2 hours visiting with him resulted in a vast increase of my knowledge, and more importantly I enjoyed the pleasure of meeting this open, friendly and respected icon of the world of pigeon racing.
While the “eagle” may have saved the pigeon, the "eagle" also gained much from his encounter.
Be sure to visit Letters From Iraq
Wednesday, September 15, 2004
The Pigeon & the Eagle - Part II
On the way home I thought I’d try to call again and this time I struck pay dirt! I asked Al Christeleit, president of the Mt. Sopris club about the band numbers and after checking his records told me he had sold the bird to Tony Melucci in Spring Hill. FL. After getting Mr. Melucci’s phone number I called and asked if he was missing a pigeon. He immediately responded, “yes!” and briefly told the story.
On the Wednesday previous he had gone to Trenton, FL for a practice release, a competition was coming in two weeks, and the release had gone bad. Over twenty birds had failed to make the trip back to their Spring Hill loft. When this happens it is a rare occurrence that they are ever seen again. Usually dehydration, under-nutrition, exhaustion and predators take their toll.
The reason for the loss of direction in these highly skilled navigators is not fully known, but the best guess in this instance is the unusual atmospheric conditions due to Hurricane Frances recent foray through this north central Florida area. Some how this one bird had found sanctuary on the dock of the Maricamp Branch of the Ocala Post Office, some 60 miles from their release point.
After getting directions I turned my Jeep around and headed back to the Branch to collect the bird and headed out to Trenton. The 75-mile trip took about an hour and 45 minutes and when I pulled in the drive I located Mr. Melucci in the back yard tending to his flock.
After introducing ourselves, Mr. Melucci, Tony, as he likes to be called, showed me around his loft and introduced his 160 racing pigeons. The loft is actually two buildings, each 8 feet wide by 24 feet long and about 10 high. Inside the birds feed and water, and at night roost. Outside in the caged areas the birds spend most of their day doing whatever birds do. That is when they are not getting their daily exercise, competition training or flying for their lives from the local Cooper’s Hawks which wait in the top of a few tall trees near the lofts waiting for the “delicatessen” to open.
Make no mistake, for a hawk to catch one of these pigeons he has to be very good and very fast. These are not your garden variety of pigeon, but sleek, thoroughbred athletes. Capable of speeds of 60 miles per hour over the extended distances of competition which are usually 70 to 100 miles in length with some in the range of 500 miles. Most of the time the pigeons win as they wing their wild maneuvers desperately trying to elude the predator. The hawks win often enough to keep them coming back.
This particular bird has had a difficult recent history. She, yes it’s a female, barely escaped with her life a few months previous when she flew into a chain link fence fleeing a hawk. She almost lost an eye in the encounter. Then a few weeks ago she exhibited a condition sometimes suffered by these birds where for an unknown reason they begin to ingest great amounts of water and the excess nearly drowns them. Tony told me it is rare for birds suffering from this to survive very long.
Now she had lost her way and flown to where she could get help to find her way back home. This bird may have her problems, but she is a survivor.
Final tomorrow.
Be sure to visit Letters From Iraq
On the way home I thought I’d try to call again and this time I struck pay dirt! I asked Al Christeleit, president of the Mt. Sopris club about the band numbers and after checking his records told me he had sold the bird to Tony Melucci in Spring Hill. FL. After getting Mr. Melucci’s phone number I called and asked if he was missing a pigeon. He immediately responded, “yes!” and briefly told the story.
On the Wednesday previous he had gone to Trenton, FL for a practice release, a competition was coming in two weeks, and the release had gone bad. Over twenty birds had failed to make the trip back to their Spring Hill loft. When this happens it is a rare occurrence that they are ever seen again. Usually dehydration, under-nutrition, exhaustion and predators take their toll.
The reason for the loss of direction in these highly skilled navigators is not fully known, but the best guess in this instance is the unusual atmospheric conditions due to Hurricane Frances recent foray through this north central Florida area. Some how this one bird had found sanctuary on the dock of the Maricamp Branch of the Ocala Post Office, some 60 miles from their release point.
After getting directions I turned my Jeep around and headed back to the Branch to collect the bird and headed out to Trenton. The 75-mile trip took about an hour and 45 minutes and when I pulled in the drive I located Mr. Melucci in the back yard tending to his flock.
After introducing ourselves, Mr. Melucci, Tony, as he likes to be called, showed me around his loft and introduced his 160 racing pigeons. The loft is actually two buildings, each 8 feet wide by 24 feet long and about 10 high. Inside the birds feed and water, and at night roost. Outside in the caged areas the birds spend most of their day doing whatever birds do. That is when they are not getting their daily exercise, competition training or flying for their lives from the local Cooper’s Hawks which wait in the top of a few tall trees near the lofts waiting for the “delicatessen” to open.
Make no mistake, for a hawk to catch one of these pigeons he has to be very good and very fast. These are not your garden variety of pigeon, but sleek, thoroughbred athletes. Capable of speeds of 60 miles per hour over the extended distances of competition which are usually 70 to 100 miles in length with some in the range of 500 miles. Most of the time the pigeons win as they wing their wild maneuvers desperately trying to elude the predator. The hawks win often enough to keep them coming back.
This particular bird has had a difficult recent history. She, yes it’s a female, barely escaped with her life a few months previous when she flew into a chain link fence fleeing a hawk. She almost lost an eye in the encounter. Then a few weeks ago she exhibited a condition sometimes suffered by these birds where for an unknown reason they begin to ingest great amounts of water and the excess nearly drowns them. Tony told me it is rare for birds suffering from this to survive very long.
Now she had lost her way and flown to where she could get help to find her way back home. This bird may have her problems, but she is a survivor.
Final tomorrow.
Be sure to visit Letters From Iraq
Tuesday, September 14, 2004
The Pigeon & the Eagle
The following is pretty lengthy so I'll spread it out over several days.
I arrived at work on Saturday, September 11, to find a homing pigeon in the swing room walking ‘round just having a grand time. Homing pigeons have a very acute sense of direction and when released will fly directly home, sometimes over great distances. This one had lost it’s way though and had landed on our dock the previous afternoon and had somehow entered the building and spent the night. During the early morning hours after we arrived the bird walked pert’ near the whole building, exploring every nook and cranny.
Since he had to be hungry and thirsty I thought he would be getting pretty weak and dehydrated so we tried to feed it what ever we had, which at the moment was broken up sandwich cookies. He had to be hungry ‘cause he set to eating them right up.
After a couple hours I got to thinkin’ that shortly the carriers would be coming in and with another 100 or so people in the building, incoming trucks with the mail, rolling containers going everywhere, that bird’s life was going to be pretty short. So my supervisor, Vern, and another employee, Jim, corralled him and when he tried to escape me he ran right into Jim’s hands.
We took him to the dock and when Jim released him he flew about 30 feet and stumbled to a landing. That’s when I knew this bird, if it got off the ground, wasn’t going to last very long. We left it with food and water and went back to work pondering what we should do.
After a while I remembered Hurricane Ivan was coming and if our bird did get in the air he definitely was a gonner. There was no way he would have the strength to withstand the winds of a storm. I had to find another way to get him home.
I searched the Internet and found the phone number of the local racing pigeon club and after several tries managed to reach someone. He asked about the number and some letters on the leg band. I had the number, but had seen no letters. When I mentioned it, he said he would have the club president call me to see if we could find the owner.
While waiting, I sensed the letters were important and went back to the bird and managed to retrieve them, AU MSR. After a short while I got the call and when I gave these to the caller he said he didn’t recognize them but would check and get back to me.
After several hours with no word I thought, “I can run a search on the internet and surely I can find this myself.” And low and behold I did locate the corresponding reference to this code, it was the identifying code of the Mt Sopris RPC in Gypsum, Colorado.
I called the number listed and got no answer. Then I ran a search for the club president’s name in Gypsum and found three possible numbers, including the one I had, for him or a relative. All calls were fruitless with no answer, but one had an answering machine so I left a message.
Several hours later, after getting no response and needing to go home, I recaptured the bird, set him up in a borrowed transport cage with food and a moisture supply and arranged for someone else to take him home to care for over the weekend. Our cat would have had lots of fun with that bird.
Part II tomorrow.
Be sure to visit Letters From Iraq
The following is pretty lengthy so I'll spread it out over several days.
I arrived at work on Saturday, September 11, to find a homing pigeon in the swing room walking ‘round just having a grand time. Homing pigeons have a very acute sense of direction and when released will fly directly home, sometimes over great distances. This one had lost it’s way though and had landed on our dock the previous afternoon and had somehow entered the building and spent the night. During the early morning hours after we arrived the bird walked pert’ near the whole building, exploring every nook and cranny.
Since he had to be hungry and thirsty I thought he would be getting pretty weak and dehydrated so we tried to feed it what ever we had, which at the moment was broken up sandwich cookies. He had to be hungry ‘cause he set to eating them right up.
After a couple hours I got to thinkin’ that shortly the carriers would be coming in and with another 100 or so people in the building, incoming trucks with the mail, rolling containers going everywhere, that bird’s life was going to be pretty short. So my supervisor, Vern, and another employee, Jim, corralled him and when he tried to escape me he ran right into Jim’s hands.
We took him to the dock and when Jim released him he flew about 30 feet and stumbled to a landing. That’s when I knew this bird, if it got off the ground, wasn’t going to last very long. We left it with food and water and went back to work pondering what we should do.
After a while I remembered Hurricane Ivan was coming and if our bird did get in the air he definitely was a gonner. There was no way he would have the strength to withstand the winds of a storm. I had to find another way to get him home.
I searched the Internet and found the phone number of the local racing pigeon club and after several tries managed to reach someone. He asked about the number and some letters on the leg band. I had the number, but had seen no letters. When I mentioned it, he said he would have the club president call me to see if we could find the owner.
While waiting, I sensed the letters were important and went back to the bird and managed to retrieve them, AU MSR. After a short while I got the call and when I gave these to the caller he said he didn’t recognize them but would check and get back to me.
After several hours with no word I thought, “I can run a search on the internet and surely I can find this myself.” And low and behold I did locate the corresponding reference to this code, it was the identifying code of the Mt Sopris RPC in Gypsum, Colorado.
I called the number listed and got no answer. Then I ran a search for the club president’s name in Gypsum and found three possible numbers, including the one I had, for him or a relative. All calls were fruitless with no answer, but one had an answering machine so I left a message.
Several hours later, after getting no response and needing to go home, I recaptured the bird, set him up in a borrowed transport cage with food and a moisture supply and arranged for someone else to take him home to care for over the weekend. Our cat would have had lots of fun with that bird.
Part II tomorrow.
Be sure to visit Letters From Iraq
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