Its....Governor Palin for Veep!

McCain chooses Governor Palin for his vice president pick!


P A L I N!

What does she bring for the Republican party?


Palin is open to ANWR drilling.

She visits our wounded troops in Germany while Obama does not.

Palin is against earmark spending.

She's has 5 years of executive experience which is way more than "O"bama which he has 0 (zero) experience and plus many more years in political office than "O"bama.

Sarah Palin began serving in political office in 1992. Barack Obama began serving in 1997. (For the benefit of our resident hippie trolls, I'll do the math for you: Palin's been in public office FIVE years longer than the Messiah.) Joe Biden has been in the U.S. Senate forever. So, in terms of total years of public service, the three stack up as follows:

1. Biden
2. Palin
3. Obama

In terms of executive experience, there's not even a contest. Sarah Palin first served in an executive capacity in 1997, and took over her first state-level executive branch position in 2003. From what I can determine, Barack Obama has never served in an executive capacity at any level, and Joe Biden has never served in an executive capacity at any level. So, in terms of executive experience, the three stack up as follows:

1. Palin
2. Biden and Obama (tied, with zero each.)

She voted NO to the bridge to no where.

Several staunch Hillary supporters who refuse to vote Obama do like her

She had done so much to cut wasteful spending in Alaska. Her approval rating in the 90s and is the most popular governor in Alaska (probably in any state), when she took office in 2006.

She is a conservative.

She is a lifetime NRA member.

She is a mother.

She gave birth to a son last year with Down Syndrome and while she was pregnant she took a genetic screening test of her fetus and found out her unborn son has D.S. The doctor suggested to her three times on aborting her son. She refused! A staunch pro-life supporter, obviously.

She fiscally conservative and has proven it over the last two years since 2006 as governor of Alaska by curtailing wasteful government spending. Even reducing her own salary and getting rid of a corporate jet that cost tax-payers too much money.

She is certainly NOT a protectionist.

Palin's son is about to go to Iraq. He's in the Army.

She's an athlete.

Snow mobiler champion, I believe.

Loves hockey.

A solid, fiscally responsible, conservative Republican. A reformer on spending. And just an all around smart and classy lady. Even James Dobson today said that he'd pull that lever and vote

Her nick name given to her while in high school? "Baracuda." Her nickname is apt now if you read this story about her. And more stuff on her here.

Now, I feel much better on voting for McCain than I did before. No nose plug for me on this one. I will now throw my full support behind McCain and Palin for 2008.

McCain/Palin for 2008!

Imagine...no deaf babies.

To celebrate the recent news of the advancing biotechnology that will one day, very soon, offer those with hearing loss the opportunity to have their hearing loss cured, I have a new product at my Kokonut Pundit's store. I am introducing a new design on a t-shirt for those who share the same hope that someday biotechnology will offer a medical solution to help restore or cure hearing loss that affect 30 million people in the United States. And help spread the awareness of these amazing biomedical advances.

Deafness Cure One Step Closer.....

And, no, this isn't a fake news but a real one where scientists have gotten one step closer, very close I might add, to help solve an age old problem on how to restore hearing loss in deaf and hard of hearing people.

Deaf people could one day have their hearing restored through a ground-breaking gene therapy technique, scientists reported yesterday.

They showed that they can trigger the growth of new hair cells in the inner ear that are crucial to hearing as they pick up sound vibrations.

In tests on mice they showed that stimulating these usually irreplaceable cells to grow resulted in new cells that helped detect noise.

Researchers believe the approach could eventually be used to improve or restore hearing to the 9 million people in Britain classified as deaf or hard of hearing.

Dr. Mark Downs, of the Royal National Institute for Deaf People, said: "This is an exciting development which completes another important piece of the jigsaw in understanding how we might use gene therapy to eventually restore hearing loss.

"It is no longer a pipedream to talk about cell and drug-based solutions. There is a long way to go, but the journey towards new treatments is certainly under way."

Read more here. And even more details here.

Once scientists began to unravel certain key but crucial elements on how to unlock the mysteries of deafness by restoring hearing will only mean that the dominos will fall faster as more scientists join in on the search to finally help restore hearing loss. This news discovery today will only mean that research will step up even more quicker and the time til the first deaf person to have his/her hearing restored will be even more closer and not some distant pipe dream.

Amazing science!

And here's to for the restoration of hearing loss!

News! First Deaf Baby Naturally Cured of Hearing Loss

Breaking – First Deaf Baby Cured of Hearing Loss with Stem Cell Therapy

Jonathan Wiley, of England, at age 10 months became the first deaf baby in the world to be cured of his bi-lateral hearing loss through a scientific breakthrough method using a patented and specialized technique of stem cells implantation targeting the nerve cells and ear hair cells of the cochlea. Dr. Joyce Wyner, world renowned physiobiologist, describes this scientific first,

“I’m absolutely thrilled that this procedure I developed over the past several years has worked remarkably well for Jonathan. Over the course of 13 weeks the implanted stem cells have enabled Jonathan to regain all of his hearing, 100 percent. He can now lead a normal and healthy life.”

News of this spectacular success sent biotech stock named, ironically, BULL, soaring today the company that patented the process on restoring sensorineural hearing loss. CEO, Erik Venekman, of the biotech company based out of Copahagen, Denmark, talks about the next step for this amazing medical cure,

“This trial with Jonathan Wiley has obviously been a tremendous success and this is the first step of the many, many steps to help treat and cure sensorineural or nerve deafness for all babies born with a hearing loss to adults who have lived with sensorineural hearing loss. It is my expectation that in a few years this process will be available in many medical establishments around the world. Just like polio it took a world wide effort to eradicate that horrible disease, hearing loss will soon be eradicated as well. ”

Now, for those who have read this far this story is a hoax but with the advancement of stem cells or other biotechnological developments how would you react to a sudden news development that sensorineural hearing loss of a sudden can now be restored? And that babies born deaf (with nerve deafness) can now be treated and restored their hearing loss?

When a Picture Says a Thousand Words

Lucy the Deaf girl takes off her mask

Matt Hamill vs Rich Franklin

This would be Matt Hamill's (4 - 1) biggest UFC challenge to fight the very well known and popular favorite Rich Franklin (23 - 3) in the upcoming September 6th UFC 88 "Breakthrough" fight that will take place in Atlanta, Georgia. As you know I have done many interviews with Matt and he's one of the best and most humbling UFC fighter around who happens to be deaf.

400,000 Hits! A New Milestone

My blog is still going strong though I took a brief break lasting a few months but I'm quite proud of the fact that my blogsite managed to hit the 400,000th mark today! Scroll at the bottom of my blogpage to see my current number of hits.

My blog went live on October 22, 2004, nearly 4 years ago. But it was a year ago when I hit my 200,000th mark around August 28, 2007 and so I am happy that the number of hits went up since last year. When it comes to politics and blogging, people just eat 'em up. How long will my blogging continue? I cannot say. Only time will tell.

Thank you all readers (deaf, Deaf, hh, and hearing) for taking the time to stop by and read my blog posts and for some of you to leave your comments behind.

In Praise of the CODA Brothers

I’ve watched some of the CODA Brothers videos (Olsen twins they're not) on YouTube and noticed some of their sight gags while I listened to the video's voice over background while they signed cracking jokes and pretty much ad lib-ing over each other. Though a bit ironic watching a video that came with voice over ASL interpretation to a hopefully receptive hearing crowd to their favor. I wonder why? A disinformation campaign?

Now, using sight gags in order to take advantage of the current sentiments with the Deaf crowd is one way of trying to be funny just to be on their “side” which comes with the territory I suppose. But it is another thing knowing how such sight gags can affect others who don’t exactly see eye to eye such as using gags like an overly used and much abused hyperbole. For example, one sight gag in this video doing a cochlear implant impression by using what looks like sawed off portion of a small aluminum can seeing how it protrudes quite noticeably from the side of their heads and with great effects I should say. Nice visual gag by making fun of those who wear CI like this screen capture of the video gag below.



I know. I know. CODA brothers meaning no harm. Just “joking,” right? Kind of like when a bunch of hearing students at a regular high school making fun of those that wear a hearing aid by using a ketchup cup over their ear to imitate a hearing aid at a school’s cafeteria. Yeah, that happened to me one time when I was in high school. Did I think it was funny? No, but I had to tactfully inform my friends on what they did showed ignorance and disrespect. And I pretty much took care of that problem right away, and they apologized afterwards, too, realizing their mistake and ignorance. Doesn't hurt to quickly inform people of their mistakes. Right, CODA brothers?

Next sight gag on the CODA brothers video? Remember the hyperbole remark I mentioned earlier? Well, let’s take “oral” Dan in this video who went to great lengths to imitate a deaf oralist but with exaggerated lip movements, the thick “nerd” glasses, the deep “duh” voice while signing haltingly so reminisce of what a beginner signer may behave while wearing, no less, an AGBell t-shirt (though not everybody is a product of AGBell anyway, at least I wasn't).



It’s one thing when there are some deaf people who may have the tendency to talk in an exaggerated fashion although no fault of their own. Others do not even come remotely close to "oral" Dan. Even more bizarre is that these guys are hearing who do not have these “impediments” in the first place. Oh, I know. I know. It‘s just a “joke” and people shouldn’t take “offense” at this but I am sure the CODA brothers know better. And I’m just rolling with the punches here. I'm sure the CODA brothers will find this video here breath-takingly funny as well with comedians in the "Absent Minded Comedy" show signing and mimicking like an expert ASL interpreter.

Keep it up, CODA brothers. Hope you roll in tons of money off of this venture of yours. And you have a DVD, too! Congrats.

Here's a video message for the CODA brothers.