How bad of a newspaper is The Baltimore Sun?  How poorly do they cover news?  How lousy is their grasp of information in our state, the Mid-Atlantic, the nation, and the world?

They had to use an utterly dispicable and poorly written AP wire to announce the passing of Tony Snow.

Good Girls Go to Heaven and Bad Girls Go Everywhere.

Two big stories this week on the good and the bad.

By now, everyone knows that 4 Boy Scouts died at Camp Little Sioux this week when the camp was hit by a horrifying tornado.

But what you might not know is that some organizations on the extreme socialist left in this country are trying to score points off those deaths by hawking the tornado as the result of global warming.

Over at Mahmoud Albero's cyberterrorism headquarters, he is all excited because the Powellville Volunteer Fire Departmet allowed him to pariticipate in a live fire training exercise.  There is just one problem:  they may have violated NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) Standard 1403: Standard on Live Fire Training Evolutions.

TomCat points this out on his blog "A Class Act".

The number two most hated company in my pantheon of "Most Hated Companies" is FedEx.  In the eleven years that I have lived in the house, NOT ONCE has FedEx ever managed to deliver a package, parcel, or letter (regardless of service level) on time or correctly.  In fact, I no longer purchase from companies that only ship through this shitbag company.  Unfortunately, I don't always have a choice when I am expecting something really important -- like the final payout of vacation from my previous job.

We have big news here at the Gunpowder Chronicle.  Next Thursday, April 17, 2008, I begin a new job.  I have been offered and have accepted at position at the University of Maryland, Baltimore in the Department of Pychiatry.  I will be working as a web developer for KidNet, an online product produced as part of the Children's Outcomes Management Center.

Charlton Heston has died at 84.

May he rest in peace.

One of Heston's most famous roles was as Judah Ben-Hur, based on the novel by my great-great-grandfather, Major General (Brevet) Lew Wallace, former military governor of Maryland and minister plenopetentiary to the Ottoman Empire.

Wallace -- with his friend Robert Ingersoll -- was an avowed atheist at the time, and was researching the great libraries of Europe and the Middle East to disprove Christianity.  He couldn't, and became a steadfast believer.  Ben-Hur, A Tale of the Christ was an emphatic product of his faith.

We have to give Indiana University's Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences an award for stating the obvious:

More often than not, guys interpret even friendly cues, such as a subtle smile from a gal, as a sexual come-on, and a new study discovers why: Guys are clueless.

That's according to a story on LiveScience.com.

Next up, the Indiana University Department of Earth Sciences will announce that the sun will rise in the east tomorrow morning.

The question is-- with Universities both public and private sloughing at the public trough -- who pays for this?  Are these types of studies what causes college educations by outpace inflation by almost 1000%?  Is the expenditure of money on these things the reasons why colleges push more for and more student loan availability and bigger Pell grants?

Anyone wonder I have so little regard for a modern college education?

This Thursday, March 6, 2008, at 11 am, Peninsula Regional Medical Center will unveil its newest tool in community outreach and occupational health services, the Wagner Wellness Van.  The Wagner Wellness Van is named in honor of my stepmother, Debra J. Wagner, R.N, who passed away on December 23, 2006 after a long battle with ovarian cancer.

Debbie was a 30-year veteran of Peninsula Regional Medical Center, and the Wagner Wellness Van is a fitting and just memorial to her committment to the community, outreach, and health care on the Lower Eastern Shore.

See pictures of the van below the fold, and don't forget to join us for the dedication at 11pm this Thursday.  I think we will be on the west side of the Education Center.