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~snip~ The chairs the ministers will use during a private meeting in Nunavut's legislature are upholstered in shiny sealskin. The servers will sport sealskin hairpins. Seal vests and mitts will be given as gifts. And Saturday's evening feast at the local school will be an Inuit “country” supper of meats and fish from the land and sea, some of it served raw. Seal is on the menu. Take that, PETA. ~snip~ The Inuit have so far lost out to the high-profile campaigns of animal rights groups like PETA, who make effective use of celebrity supporters such as Paul McCartney. ~snip~...

OTTAWA -- The Parliamentary Restaurant will soon serve seal meat to anyone with a taste for game - and controversy. Hull-Aylmer MP Marcel Proulx confirmed the addition to the menu is just awaiting hunting season, and should arrive in the new year. This is the second time the restaurant has tried to carry seal meat, he said. "In 2008 there had been a request [for seal] from a couple of senators. The problem was they could not find a supplier. "Now the chef, I understand, has found a supplier in the Magdalen Islands. I think, because of the hunting season,...

Here’s a video that’s going viral on YouTube. National Geographic photographer Paul Nicklen traveled to Antarctica to photograph leopard seals in the water. After arriving, they came across one of the largest leopard seals his experienced guide had ever seen. What happened next you’ll have to see to believe: VIDEO LINK For more on this event, you can read this interview with Paul Nicklen, and check out the photographs that resulted in this gallery.

On Dec. 4, 2009, the radical Hollywood left is poised to release its latest tribute to the men and women of the armed services, entitled "Brothers." The film stars Tobey Maguire as a military man serving in Afghanistan. When he is presumed killed in action, his wife, played by Natalie Portman, has an affair with his brother, played by Jake Gyllenhaal. Naturally, Maguire shows up at home with a tremendous case of post-traumatic disorder -- which, if we are to judge from the trailer, causes him to fire weapons at random and physically abuse his wife. "Brothers" follows hot on...

Yesterday, a squad of Navy SEALs engaged in combat operations in Afghanstan had several men badly wounded by RPG explosions. Freeper "Wardaddy" is related to one of them. Navy SEAL Bryan Stuart is Wardaddy's close cousin's son. He has been medevaced to Germany for surgery. Other details are sketchy as of yet.

To day this day it stands true that there are no women in the Navy SEALs. This has been debated by many “equal rights” groups who claim that this is a sexist law. However, there has never been a woman who could pass the strenuous physical aspects of Navy SEAL training. In fact, there has never been a woman who has qualified to even be considered to enter BUD/S Training. Though this is true of the United States Navy, it’s not true where film is concerned. Specifically for the 1997 Ridley Scott film G.I. Jane, wherein, Demi Moore plays a...

Sic Semper TyrannisRoman mythology defines the unique Great Seal of Virginia. The obverse of the seal features the Roman goddess Virtus standing over a defeated opponent. Virtus is dressed in Amazonian garb, and holds a spear and a sheathed sword. She represents the virtues of heroism, righteousness, freedom, and valor. She stands in a classical victor's pose over a fallen tyrannical foe, whose crown lies on the ground. The state's motto "Sic Semper Tyrannis" ("Thus Always to Tyrants") appears at the lower edge. The seal was approved at Virginia's 1776 Constitutional Convention, and the principal designer is said to have...

Randy Hetrick had a problem. As a special ops squadron commander deploying on ships, submarines and safe houses, he needed a way to keep his team in world-class shape without having access to world-class gyms. So during a deployment in Southeast Asia, Hetrick grabbed some parachute webbing and began stitching away. He anchored the straps, and, using his body weight for resistance, started doing presses. And flys. And curls. The prototype for his TRX Suspension Trainer was born, and since hitting the market in 2005, the portable straps have recorded more than $20 million in sales. "This thing has become...

Investigators are trying to determine whether a San Diego sailor passed Navy secrets about security weaknesses and warship movements to a British man accused of having terrorist links, according to court documents unsealed yesterday. E-mail messages from the unnamed sailor, sent in late 2000 and 2001 before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, were found in December in computer files belonging to Babar Ahmad, who was detained Wednesday in London, according to the 31-page arrest affidavit. The computer files contained details about security arrangements and movements of the San Diego-based Constellation carrier battle group, which included the destroyer Benfold, on which...

ONE evening last week, almost every seat was occupied at Au Cinquième Péché, a bistro in the bustling neighborhood called the Plateau. And almost every table was sampling an appetizer plate that included a specialty of the restaurant’s French-born chef, Benoît Lenglet: a seared, rare loin, dark red in color, with a texture and taste akin to beef tenderloin. But the meat was not beef. It was seal. Across town, at Les Îles en Ville, Andrée Garcia, an owner and chef, has elevated seal from an occasional specialty to a regular feature. The most frequent preparation there, Ms. Garcia said,...

Images of Canada's governor general chowing down on a chunk of raw seal flesh have unleashed outrage from animal welfare groups but praise from supporters of the seal hunt. Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean grossed out many Canadians when she popped a piece of bloody seal heart into her mouth during an official visit to Rankin Inlet, Nunavut, on Monday. "I'm extremely embarrassed to be associated with a governor general of my country eating raw seal meat in that manner. It's barbaric," said Paul Watson, founder of the Sea Shepherd Conservation Society. "I wonder what the Queen would think about that."...

SAN DIEGO — Officials in San Diego who want to prevent seals from taking over a popular beach are hoping that a dog's bark is worse than its bite. The San Diego Union-Tribune reported Saturday that the city will seek court approval next week for a plan to use recordings of barking dogs at Children's Pool beach in La Jolla . The city hopes the recordings will disperse about 200 seals. The plan will cost nearly $700,000 a year. Marine experts say the seals likely will adjust to the noise, but city officials say their backup plan is to add...

Background Joe Miller at Annenberg FactCheck says he was told by the Pentagon that the USS Bainbridge arrived at the hijacking of the Maersk Alabama on Friday February 10th and that authorization to send in the first SEAL team came at 8:00PM that night, rebutting a purported word-of-sailor report of a 36 hour delay. But news reports on the 9th said that the Bainbridge actually arrived before dawn local time on THURSDAY. Since 8:00 P.M. Friday was 4:00AM Saturday in Somalia, that would make the actual delay, local time to local time, about 48 hours. Bill Gertz at the Washington...

It may look like a cross between a seal and an otter; but an Arctic fossil could, scientists say, hold the secret of seal evolution in its feet. A skeleton unearthed in northern Canada shows a creature with feet that were probably webbed, but were not flippers. Writing in the journal Nature, scientists suggest the 23 million-year-old proto-seal would have walked on land and swum in fresh water. It is the oldest seal ancestor found so far and has been named Pujilla darwini.

The U.S. economy is showing only glimmers of life and two costly wars remain in the balance, but President Barack Obama's "no drama" handling of the Indian Ocean hostage crisis proved a big win for his administration in one of its first critical national security tests. Obama's two quiet backstage decisions to authorize the Defense Department to take necessary action if Capt. Richard Phillips' life was in imminent danger gave a Navy commander the go-ahead to order snipers to fire on the pirates holding the cargo ship captain at gunpoint

Retired Petty Officer Marcus Luttrell, winner of the Navy Cross for heroism in Afghanistan, says he doesn't sleep well at night. So when the trained Navy Seal heard a gunshot go off near his ranch in Walker county Texas at 1:30 in the morning, he immediately sprang into action. After first checking in on his mother, Luttrell made his way out to the tree line of his property. There he saw the headlights of a car with a handful of young men loudly joking, standing outside of it. "I could see my dog lying in the ditch," Luttrell said

HUNTSVILLE, Texas – A soldier honored for surviving the worst single-day loss of life in Navy SEAL history chased three men through three counties after suspecting they killed his dog. A Texas Department of Public Safety spokeswoman says Marcus Luttrell was involved in the high speed chase in the early morning of April 1 after finding his yellow Labrador shot outside his Huntsville home. Onalaska Police Department stopped the suspects........"

excerpt: They had a lunatic convention in Madrid yesterday. They weren’t certifiable lunatics, of course, but they might as well have been. No matter what their mental state, it certainly made the media sit up and take notice. One hundred or so senors y senoritas threw off their clothes and threw themselves on the ground in the Spanish capital to protest Canada’s annual seal hunt. We’re pretty sure there’s some sort of symbolism involved here, but we haven’t quite zeroed in on what it is. The lunatics smeared themselves with....

On 29 September 2006, 25-year-old Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor (MA2, not EOD2 as stated above) was killed during operations in enemy-held territory at Ar Ramadi, Iraq, when he threw himself on top of a grenade in order to save the lives of his fellow SEALs. As described in the final two paragraphs of a Summary of Action (SOA) regarding the circumstances of his death:

Now that FaceBook has become the popularity litmus test de rigueur, the more friends the merrier. So what's to stop you from adding an elephant seal to your growing list of cohorts? We can always use more friends, especially when they help teach us things about ourselves and the world around us. And according to NPR's All Things Considered, this was Nicole Teutschel's impetus for creating a FaceBook page for Penelope Seal.

Oh, No! Another Obama logo! This time it's a special logo for his Stimulus Plan, which he likes to call the "Recovery and Reinvestment Act." This report shows the new logo and also reviews some of the other logos/seals Obama has been enamored with in the past year. NOTE: Obama's fetish for logos that revolve around the "O" in his name is beginning to be rather obvious. Does anyone get the feeling Obama is really full of himself? . . . . . (Watch Video)

It is the most remarkable find since excavations in the heart of this 3,000-year-old capital of ancient Israel began 140 years ago: a tiny clay seal impression also known as a bulla or stamp, discovered near the ruins of what has been identified as King David's palace and bearing the name of an influential courtier mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. "It is not very often that archaeologists have surprises that bring them so close to the reality of the biblical text," said Eilat Mazar, whose pinpoint dig in a relatively small site this summer led her to a clay bulla...

On September 29, 2006, Ramadi, Iraq was considered the most dangerous city on planet earth for American servicemen. Michael Monsoor was there in the midst of it all. He was a member of the elite branch of the Navy called SEALS, which stands for SEa, Air and Land. On that day, he was on a rooftop over-watch in the most contested part of the city called the Ma’laab district. Positioned near the only exit, with an MK 48 machine gun in hand, he was providing security for two SEAL snipers who lay in prone positions on either side of him....

Mods, if one already exists (I couldn't find one), please delete this one..many thanks in advance.. First things first..what are the drinkin words? xxx = take a sip xxxx = take a gulp xxxxx = bottoms up

WASHINGTON, Aug. 15, 2008 – Coast Guardsmen soon will be training to join Navy SEAL teams, a senior Coast Guard officer said today. Rear Adm. Thomas F. Atkin, commander of the Coast Guard’s deployable operations group, said four Coast Guardsmen -- two officers and two enlisted sailors -- will be selected to begin basic underwater demolition school later this year. If they graduate, the admiral said, they will become full-fledged members of Navy SEAL teams and deploy with those teams worldwide. Atkins called the development the beginning of an exciting new era in the Coast Guard. “Certainly this is historic,...

Israeli archaeologists have unearthed a seal impression belonging to a minister of the biblical King Zedekiah, which dates back 2,600 years, during an archeological dig in Jerusalem's ancient City of David. The finding helps corroborate the story pertaining to the biblical minister's demand to have the prophet Jeremiah killed. The seal impression, or bulla, with the name Gedalyahu ben Pashur, who served as minister to King Zedekiah (597-586 BCE) according to the Book of Jeremiah, was found completely intact just meters away from a separate seal impression of another of Zedekia's ministers, Yehukual ben Shelemyahu, which was unearthed three years...

In Addition to being tacky and presumptuous, like measuring the drapes and announcing that he is going to build a basketball court in the White House. There is this little thing calledThe LAW : 18 USC Sec. 713 ... (a) Whoever knowingly displays any printed or other likeness of the great seal of the United States, or of the seals of the President or the Vice President of the United States, or the seal of the United States Senate, or the seal of the United States House of Representatives, or the seal of the United States Congress, or any facsimile...

An outrage is quietly slinking away In Barack Obama is a 1920s-style fascist, we pointed out the depth of Barack Obama's self-deluded arrogance in his use of the presidential seal.This really is disturbing: The man is drunk on the prospects of his ascension to power. He's raising huge amounts of money. He's riding high in the polls. He has armies of crazed young people—a group more naturally drawn to strong leaders anyway—thinking he's the second coming. People are fainting at his rallies, and the press is ogling him when he wears tight jeans. All of this, plus the fact that...

Boat passengers witness shark attack June 28, 2008 CHATHAM — Fourteen passengers on a seal watch boat saw a shark attack and kill a seal yesterday during a cruise to Monomoy Island. The island, which is a national wildlife refuge, is home to hundreds of seals and also a favored feeding ground of several species of sharks. Capt. Bob Littlefield is sure the shark he saw rip a seal in half yesterday afternoon was a great white. "It was a quite a bloody mess," said Littlefield, who has been a captain on Cape Cod for 32 years. Littlefield was steering...

One of those posts we pointed out earlier at the official Barack Obama Community Blogs site has now vanished down the memory hole. But if you watch closely as the page loads, you can see something else that’s very interesting: Barack Obama : : Change We Can Believe In | Invalid URL. The page background image is quickly covered up by a content box, but the image they’re using is actually another version of the Obama faux Presidential Seal. Subliminal imagery? Say it ain’t so!

After days of media mockery, Barack Obama has decided to stop using a presidential-looking seal that his campaign designed and affixed to his podium on Friday. Journalists said the seal, which features an eagle clutching arrows and an olive branch, smacks of arrogance. John McCain's camp had a field day, calling the seal “laughable, ridiculous, preposterous and revealing - all at the same time.” The seal was conspicuously missing from Obama's lectern when he spoke to a group of women in Albuquerque on Monday. Not surprising, given how much grief Obama took from a normally laudatory press corps after unveiling...

Like the man says, he insists on the suppression of ego; he just didn’t realize it might come off as egotistical to debut his very own presidential seal until his friends and allies in the media politely informed him of it. And so under the bus it goes, assuming there’s any room left under there with Wright, Pfleger, Rezko and who knows who else crowded in. I’ve had my fun with the Obama campaign’s seal, and now that fun ends. I’m told that Obama recognizes that it was a silly mistake, that the universal reaction at Wacker and Michigan was,...

The fact that something is technically legal does not make it ethical, honest, or right. Barack Obama’s use of a portion of the Presidential Seal in his campaign underscores his total lack of character, ethics, and integrity but, as he did not use the complete seal, he did not actually break the law. (Disclaimer: we are not qualified to give formal legal advice.) “What he did was dishonest and unethical but admittedly legal” is, however, very faint praise for someone who wants Americans to trust him with enormous authority and control of nuclear weapons. It is in fact a Federal...

... Obama's says 'Vero possumus', rough Latin for 'Yes, we can.' Instead of 'Seal of the President of the United States', Obama's Web site address is listed. And instead of a shield, Obama's eagle wears his 'O' campaign logo with a rising sun representing hope ahead. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Numerous Free Republic Threads on this matter exist. Of the comments on these threads, the most common is the shocking display of pure narcissism. Difficult to miss, this narcissism also suggests Obama's meaning of the word "change." What we can expect is not Obama preserving, protecting and defending our Constitution and way of life, but, rather, changes in basic institutions as determined by the will of one man and his supporters. These changes will be deep and involve basic assumptions and policies of the government and American culture. While these observations are noted here; they are noted only tangentially in...

-- snip --Barack Obama's presidential campaign raised eyebrows and elicited snickers Friday when it unveiled the Obamamania version of the presidential seal. At a meeting with Democratic governors in Chicago, Obama sat behind a rostrum with a seal that looked not-so-coincidentally like the official seal of the President of the United States...

18 USC Sec. 713 ... (a) Whoever knowingly displays any printed or other likeness of the great seal of the United States, or of the seals of the President or the Vice President of the United States, or the seal of the United States Senate, or the seal of the United States House of Representatives, or the seal of the United States Congress, or any facsimile thereof, in, or in connection with, any advertisement, poster, circular, book, pamphlet, or other publication, public meeting, play, motion picture, telecast, or other production, or on any building, monument, or stationery, for the purpose...

A Valley boy, who shared his brave story with a Navy SEAL, got a surprise visit on Wednesday. Within the last year Josh Coppoth, 10, was diagnosed with a brain tumor and has undergone a series of treatments. Recently, his school decided they would write to Navy SEALs fighting overseas in Iraq. The letters were a school project, where the students shared some interesting facts with their military pen pals. Josh decided to talk about his cancer struggle. The letter reads in part, "I've had 3 surgeries, too many hospital visits to count, one surgery is to remove a tumor...

Navy Secretary Names New Guided-Missile Destroyer USS Michael Murphy Secretary of the Navy Donald C. Winter announced today at a ceremony in Lake Ronkonkoma, N.Y., the name of the newest Arleigh Burke-class guided-missile destroyer will be Michael Murphy. Designated as DDG-112, the name honors Lt. Michael Murphy who was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor for his heroic actions during Operation Red Wing in Afghanistan on June 28, 2005. Navy SEAL (Sea, Air, Land) Lt. Michael P. Murphy lead a four-man team tasked with finding a key Taliban leader in the mountainous terrain near Asadabad, Afghanistan, when they came under...

At a ceremony on the eastern shore of Lake Ronkonkoma -- in a Brookhaven Town beach previously named after Murphy, who was awarded the Medal of Honor last September -- Navy Secretary Donald Winter said the keel of the destroyer would be laid in June 2009 at a shipyard in Maine. He said the ship would be commissioned in 2011. Winter said Navy warships have traditionally been named after major historical figures, such as American presidents. He said the naming of the destroyer after Murphy was "an opportunity to recognize this new generation of heroes." This story is based on...

An Antarctic fur seal has been observed trying to have sex with a king penguin. The South African-based scientists who witnessed the incident say it is the most unusual case of mammal mating behaviour yet known....

WASHINGTON, April 9, 2008 – Petty Officer 2nd Class Michael A. Monsoor, a Navy SEAL who posthumously received the Medal of Honor yesterday for his heroic actions in Iraq, joined a rarefied fraternity of military heroes at the Pentagon today. In September 2006, Monsoor leaped onto a grenade and used his body to absorb a blast that likely would have killed two fellow SEALs and several Iraqi soldiers. For his heroism, the Defense Department today enshrined Monsoor’s name alongside the 3,446 other Medal of Honor recipients honored in its Hall of Heroes. “To stand in this room, surrounded by...

THE PRESIDENT: Good afternoon, and welcome. The Medal of Honor is America's highest decoration for military valor. Over the years, many who have received the medal have given their lives in the action that earned it. The name of Petty Officer Michael Anthony Monsoor will now be among them. In September 2006, Michael laid down his life for his brothers in arms. Today, we remember the life of this faithful Navy SEAL. And on behalf of a grateful nation, we will present Michael Monsoor's family with the Medal of Honor that he earned. I welcome the Vice President. Secretary of...

Michael A. Monsoor, a Garden Grove High School graduate, has been selected to receive the prestigious Medal of Honor posthumously for his exceptional courage during a firefight in Iraq when he threw himself on a live grenade to save the lives of his teammates. ... "Without hesitation and showing no regard for his own life, he threw himself on to the grenade, smothering it to protect his teammates who were lying in close proximity," an incident report posted on the Navy SEAL Web site reads. "The grenade detonated as he came down on top of it, mortally wounding him."

The Grayback was to slip into North Vietnamese waters and let out several four-man SEAL teams in small, submersible vehicles just offshore on June 3. The teams were to rendezvous with the two prisoners – who had communicated their plans through a method that today remains secret – on an offshore island.

Navy officials have suspended parachute training at a facility near Marana after the second SEAL in less than a month died in an accident there. The latest incident occurred at about 8 a.m. Thursday when a SEAL suffered fatal injuries during parachute training at Pinal Airpark, according to a news release from the Navy's Special Warfare Command. The SEAL was flown to University Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead. The SEAL, who isn't being identified until his family is contacted, was based on the East Coast. In the wake of Thursday's incident and another fatal parachuting exercise on Feb....

SAN DIEGO – A rope barrier previously used at Children's Pool beach in La Jolla to protect a colony of harbor seals during their pupping season definitely won't go up this year. A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by the San Diego-based Animal Protection and Rescue League, which sought to compel San Diego to reinstall the rope. “This means the rope barrier is dead – at least for this year,” said attorney Bryan Pease, co-founder of the animal group. Pease said he will appeal the ruling. In past years, San Diego officials installed the rope to encourage the public...

CASA GRANDE, Ariz. -- A Virginia Beach-based Navy SEAL was found dead Wednesday morning on a golf course in Casa Grande. The SEAL, whose name was not released, was a Special Warfare Operator from Hampton Roads, Va. He died while conducting a parachute training operation out of Marana, about 30 miles south of Phoenix. The body was found near one of the greens shortly after 7 a.m. by a Mission Royale Golf Course maintenance worker on his morning rounds. Casa Grande police said the Navy arrived immediately to retrieve the body. "I was just coming out of the garage and...