Deportation By Attrition

While surfing for "odd news" I ran across this article. It is about illegal immigrants returning to Mexico because of stricter laws going into effect in Arizona.

Just a couple exerts from the article: (emphasis mine)

Dozens of immigrants are leaving the U.S. daily, and even more are expected to leave once the sanctions law takes effect in January, provided the law survives a last-minute legal challenge, said Rosendo Hernandez, president of the advocacy group Immigrants Without Borders.
"If people can't find work, they won't be able to pay their bills, so they will leave," Hernandez said. [Thats the idea]
In what are considered bellwethers of permanent moves back to Mexico, the Mexican consulate in Phoenix has seen a dramatic increase in applications for Mexican birth certificates, passports and other documents that immigrants living in Arizona will need to return home.

The situation of the specific family featured in the article is described:(again, emphasis mine)

They and their two children had originally entered the United States legally with tourist visas and then stayed beyond the expiration dates. The couple had no legal status to work in the U.S., but both were able to get jobs using fake documents, Jorge at a small landscaping company, Liliana at a Burger King. Two years ago, their third child, Michael, was born in Arizona, making him a U.S. citizen.

Just a heads up - some of the comments on the article are just flat racist. Two communication problems can be seen when the issue of immigration is discussed:
1) Some people have a problem expressing their political views without stating their prejudice; this gives rise to the other problem
2) Some people seem to feel that any comments concerning the illegal immigration problem are inherently racist.

Look folks, any country that cannot (or will not) defend its borders ceases to be a sovereign nation. Illegal immigration in this country is a problem and it's not racist to say so. To ignore the problem of illegal immigration is tantamount to putting your head in the sand.

Merry Christmas.

Eye are a kowledge stewdant (again)

Okay, just under the wire (with a little less than 22 hrs left before the end of early registration) I am registered for the Spring 2008 semester at the University Texas - Brownsville (UTB) in their brand new online Bachelor's degree program in cancer registry. And it's only 2:15 am.

I would have been registered for the beginning of the program (Fall 2007) but I ran into a snag. Let's just say that I was sorely tempted to deny that I took one lousy class at another university in Texas because it was SUCH a hassle getting my transcript from them.

But all the paperwork is in, I'm registered, I'll contact my advisor tomorrow (during business hours) to let her know. Then, Jan 14 I can officially add another thing to my busy schedule. It occurs to me that I should have my head examined but, since I'll have to take a psych course anyway, maybe I can get college credit for it.

Then, I promise to get all the "catch up" entries posted.

Maybe.

Happy Anniversary VoG

December 12 is a big deal in Mexico. According to news shows on all the local Spanish channels this morning, the Virgen de Guadalupe (Virgin of Guadalupe - i know, you never would have guessed, right?) appeared to Juan Diego on this day 476 years ago.

The easiest way to tell that this is a big deal in Latin American culture was NOT the costumes, NOT the parades, NOT even the cheering crowds. No, the easiest way to tell that this is a big deal in Latin American culture is the fact that all three psuedo news shows used this as their Lead Story at the Top of the Hour superseding the morning Bush-bashing.

It really is humorous how predictable the Spanish-speaking "drive by media" (to use a Rushism) is in their "reporting". And as far as fact-finding goes, they make CBS look good. Sightings of chupacabras are reported just as seriously as if they were a train wreck or chemical spill with hundreds injured. More than once I have heard the statement "No one has ever seen chupacabras, This is what it looks like." (When i see that "artist rendition" the first thing i think of is a "gray")

I can hear it now - "You're White, you can't say stuff like that!" Whatever. Obama wasn't weak on foreign policy because he's black, he was just weak on foreign policy. Hillary isn't wrong on healthcare because she's a woman, she is just wrong on healthcare. McCain is overreacting to all the waterboarding nonsense - the fact that he's a former POW doesn't add any actual weight to his opinion on the matter.

The truth hurts.

Jeff Foxworthy is talking about me

Redneck Fashion Tips (this is part 2) The part where my friends will recognize me starts at about 3 minutes 38 seconds and runs up to 4 minutes 23 seconds (give or take). The only difference is that my windbreaker advertises my kid's school (I don't smoke).

And honestly, for most self-respecting Rednecks you could include "ballcaps" on that list as well.

Hectic Day - But I asked for it

[Sunday] This day has been hectic (starting entry at 1:00pm - i'll finish it later tonight - maybe) but it beats having to get up WAY BEFORE the chickens to catch an airplane that leaves at 5:30am tomorrow morning. I complained enough ( you know - in a "nice" and "professional" way :-) last time I traveled that this time they gave me the option of flying out the night before.


One problem - our local international airport only has 3 flights a day to Houston. These would be: 5:30am, 11am & 6:40pm.


[Monday] Wow! It was so nice to be able to take my time coming in to the hotel last night. No panicky, rushed feeling "I'mgonnabelate, I'mgonnabelate".


Last night I took a leisurely, unintentional scenic turn on the way in, then I stopped at a little out-of-the-way eatery for dinner. (that would be a euphemistic way to say "i got lost". poetic, doncha think?)


Anyway, today [Monday] I had a good day of meetings, I have felt rested all day and I think that I'll retain more than I would have if I'd caught a 5:30 am flight this morning. Right now it's 10:30pm and I'm about to turn in - just have to get to my room. (We're staying in a big name hotel but there is no wireless access outside of the lobby so here I am, but that's a rant for another day)

Huckabee Endorsed by Republican Sportshooters Association

I'm a few days late seeing this one but according to Mike Huckabee's website, he recently received the endorsement of the Republican Sportshooters Association. (heck, I didn't even know there was such an association but I like it)

You may ask yourself "Why is he checking out Huckabee's news releases?" Well I'm still trying to make up my mind.

What I've figured out so far:

Guiliani - lots of name/face recognition ("America's mayor" for one) but a LOUSY record on abortion, immigration and gun control. I'm really hoping that a true conservative gets the GOP nomination.

Thompson - lots of name/face recognition (Law & Order, several movies, a stint in Congress) and from what I can tell, Fred is solid Pro-Life, solid anti-amnesty and a solid supporter of the 2nd Amendment.
[ Here is my more thorough analysis of "Rudy vs Fred" ]


Huckabee - some name/face recognition (as former Governor of Arkansas he claims that he has "beaten the 'Clinton machine' twice"). Mike states that he has "been in the pro-life camp since [he] was a teenager" and his record as Governor supports a strong Pro-Life position. Some have debated this but his quotes need to be taken in context.
From what I can tell, Huckabee is anti-amnesty when it comes to people who broke the law to get and/or stay here BUT NOT their children. Some have taken his remarks and actions to be a "soft" position on immigration but not when you see the whole picture. (The "drive-by media" is so good at twisting soundbites)
And, according to the Republican Sportshooters Association and ontheissues.org, Huckabee's position on the 2nd Amendment is right on target. (i'm allowed the occasional pun, yes?)

Romney - some name/face recognition (former governor of Massachusetts - how did a Republican get elected governor of "Kennedyland"?) One of my friends is quite vocal about the fact that he won't vote for the man simply because he's a Mormon. I have to agree that if a person can be duped by Joseph Smith I'm not real comfortable with that person being the one on the business end of "the red phone". That being said, I think it is frankly contrary to the principles that our country was founded on to vote for or against someone simply on the basis of their religion. Not to worry - I believe there are several (non-religious) reasons that Romney is not the right candidate for the GOP.
Mitt claimed that he said he was "personally against abortion" but his record as Governor was decidely wishy-washy (at best). His ads make him out to be a firm, "black and white" Pro-Life candidate but his change to a Pro-Life stance has been a recent one. Romney was not as tough on immigration as he would like for us to believe. And all the quotes that I find for him on the subject of gun control are just vague. I could argue any one of these for either side (so he's NOT clearly a defender of the 2nd Amendment). And don't even get me started on his use of the useless phrase "assault weapon".

McCain - quite a bit of name/face recognition (he's been a senator for as long as I can remember and chaired a few important committees). What can you say about John McCain on the issues? The ONLY thing that is consistent about John McCain is that, given any issue (abortion, immigration, gun control, etc), he will consistently make every effort to straddle the fence and take no solid stand on anything. Yes, McCain has made some good statements but his statements kowtow to his audience - not the kind of guy that we need in the White House.

If you are a booklover, you NEED to read this

I was going thru the "Book Buying Addicts" group on goodreads.com and ran across this thread posted by Seth.

Seth has been helped by medication. (that's not a joke but his post is hilarious)

If you like reading books or collecting books or talking about books (i like all three) then goodreads is a good place to hang out - and it's free (i like free, too).

Creative "Solutions" to Immigration

Its not a joke - somebody is actually trying to get a game show produced called "Who Wants to Marry a U.S. citizen?" Reuters has an article about it.

This is like a bad SNL skit.

Por que no te callas?

This is just the short version of the video (and it's in Spanish) so let me set it up for you. You can easily find longer clips on YouTube.

Saturday (November 10), at an Ibero-American summit in Chile, Venezuelan president Hugo Chavez repeatedly referred to Spain's former Prime Minister as a "fascist". Normally this would just be a standard "Hugo-ism" and wouldn't get much press outside of Venezuela. But the summit was attended by Portugal, Spain and representatives of most of the countries of Central and South America so this was a little different.

When it came his time to speak, the current Prime Minister of Spain urged Hugo to be more diplomatic. A reasonable request, right? Not for Hugo Chavez! He just keeps talking back and interrupting the Spanish PM (Hugo's mic was turned off because, remember it's not his turn) and finally Spain's King Juan Carlos leaned forward and said to Hugo "Por que no te callas?!" (loosely translated: "Why don't you shut up?!"




I heard about this because the King's "Por que no te callas?!" is being sold in Spain as a cell phone ring tone and has, according to this story, already (by Monday November 19) generated over $2.2 million in ring tone sales alone.

Figures for t-shirt sales were not included but some sources mention that t-shirts with the phrase have been seen in Spain and in Venezuela worn by Chavez opponents. (sweet)

In his illustrious career and rise to power, Hugo somehow missed basic common courtesy (maybe he slept through that class?) and is now demanding that King Juan Carlos apologize to him! Can you say "clueless"? I knew you could.

As John Gibson put it in his FOXNews.com piece:

Also a winner is Spain's king Juan Carlos. He told Hugo Chavez to shut up. Hugo never hears that anymore because if it's not a king who says it, he thinks about having that person shot, or run over, and most often they just get locked up.

I have nothing against Hugo Chavez. Except the fact that he's a jerk. (and that's the nicest thing i can say about the guy - my mom sometimes reads this blog)

Even if you don't speak Spanish you shouldn't have too much trouble understanding this:



As long as we have politicians, comedians will never be out of work. :-)

How much do you tip the Animal Control guy?

First off I don't want anybody to freak out - Caspian is still warm and dry and a cherished member of our family.

The reason the local Animal Control guy was called was because two large white pit bull terriers (that do NOT belong to us) were camped out in our back yard.

This is how our little drama unfolded:

6-ish in the evening: I heard a loud noise coming from near the front door (but it also sounded like it was coming from under the house), I poked my head out the door, I saw the bull terriers, I yelled "YgitoNNouttahyeea!!!" [not sure of the exact spelling] and they (apparently) ran off.

7-ish in the evening: Diana opened the back door to take Caspian for a walk and (thankfully) she saw the bull terriers before they could make an hors d'oeuvre out of Caspian. Not ever having had to call anybody for something like this before, I just called the first number that came to mind - 9 1 1 . (They very pleasantly gave me the number for the local police department)

7-ish in the evening [plus a couple minutes]: I called the Police Department and they (after making sure that everybody was safe) told me that they would call the Animal Control guy.

10 to 12 minutes later: The Animal Control guy called and told me "I'm involved in a case right now. I'll be there in 20 - 30 minutes." This seemed believable - we live in a small town.

Just shy of 2 hours after my first call to 9 1 1 : The Animal Control guy (i think he said his name was "Steve") showed up. I told everybody to get in their rooms and I brought Steve through the house. It just seemed "poor form" to ask Steve to go around the shed and potentially get maimed but a wild bull terrier. (They had growled at me earlier.)

I told Steve "One of 'em is sitting next to my shed but there was two of them earlier." As soon as Steve stepped out the back door (I was holding Caspian) he said "The other one is under the step - I can feel her moving the steps."

So just as I'm thinking "Wow, those dogs looked solid to me - i was right!" and "Man alive I'm glad a professional is taking care of this instead of me" Steve hollers "um...I'm going to need your help on this."



oh.



Crud.



Long story short (too late, right?) Steve tells me what he needs and, after I retrieved the other pole from his truck, he took the (larger) male dog to the truck and I followed with the female. I can now check Leading an animal on the end of a dog-catcher's pole off of my list of "Stuff to do before I die". (Just kidding - I had never imagined that this kind of "opportunity" would arise. It's not the sort of thing that I would go looking for.)

After we got both dogs into cages in the truck, Steve told me that he was "pretty sure" that the terriers lived at a house down the street.

Steve and I shook hands and parted ways and only after he had driven away and I was in the house did it occur to me "Was I supposed to tip the Animal Control guy??".

Will the real Conservative please stand up?

Rev Donald Wildmon, founder of the American Family Association, has endorsed GOP candidate Mike Huckabee.

Former Arkansas governor Huckabee has, from what I can tell, consistently maintained conservative points of view. That's not to say that I am endorsing him. As yet, I have not picked a horse in this race. (Give me a break - it's not even January 2008 yet)

And while Guliani has been endorsed by Pat Robertson, some have stated that Robertson's action is "beyond the pale" and he has "abandoned the beliefs he supposedly defends". Robertson has been losing support (and he's not even running for anything) for quite some time. One commentator has stated that Robertson's decision is just business - follow the money.

Brownback, who was looking good to social conservatives, dropped out of the race and announced his support of McCain. In an unrelated but interesting note, supposedly McCain has referred to Robertson as "an agent of intolerance" and has said that Robertson's support of Guiliani has left him "speechless".

And (I'm always the last to find out things like this) Fred Thompson is "bleeding staffers". There has to be a better way to put that.

Do You Hear What I Hear?

Today was an important seasonal first. Today I heard my first 2007 "Christmas music in a public venue".

I had lunch with a co-worker at a local Jason's Deli. I excused myself to the men's room and there, reverberating off the terra cotta tiles, I heard "Do you hear what I hear?". Aargh! Two weeks before Thanksgiving!

Is it strange that two of my [Christian] friends have told me that they are really annoyed by Christmas music played in stores? Is it strange that the fact that they are annoyed amuses me?

The Real LOST

This is from an email update from NewsMax.com

To get the total scoop on how Bush is once again siding with liberals go here.

Rudy Giuliani has become the latest Republican presidential candidate to denounce the controversial Law of the Sea Treaty now working its way through the Senate. The treaty, called LOST by opponents, would empower a United Nation-affiliated organization to control the world’s oceans. On Wednesday (October 31) the Senate Foreign Relations committee voted 17-4 to send the treaty to the full Senate for ratification.

U.S. participation in the treaty, which has been signed by 154 other countries, has been held up since 1982 when concerns about deep-sea mining rights arose during the Ronald Reagan administration. President Bush favors signing the treaty, and the Pentagon has called fears about ceding U.S. sovereignty to the U.N. unfounded.

But in a statement posted on Giuliani’s campaign Web site on Oct. 30, he said: “I oppose ratification of the Law of the Sea Treaty. I believe the treaty is well intentioned, and I appreciate the hard work of U.S. negotiators who sought to resolve problems in the treaty first identified by President Reagan. "I also understand the arguments of those — particularly in our military — who claim that this treaty will enhance America’s ability to guarantee freedom of the seas for all peace-loving nations. “But I believe that the treaty is fundamentally flawed. I cannot support the creation of yet another unaccountable international bureaucracy that might infringe on American sovereignty and curtail America’s freedoms. I oppose ratification of this treaty as along as it fails to address these concerns.”

GOP presidential candidates Mitt Romney, John McCain, Fred Thompson, and Mike Huckabee had previously come out in opposition to the treaty. [Guiliani is late to the band wagon on this one.]

The Coalition to Preserve American Sovereignty, an organization that opposes LOST, has charged that it would force the U.S. to give up certain controls of its territorial waters. It said in a press release: “The emerging debate about the Law of the Sea Treaty will enable the electorate to choose between those who favor … greatly empowering world government agencies and unaccountable international bureaucracies on the one hand and those who are intent on preserving and promoting American sovereignty and interests on the other.”

Despite passage of the treaty by the Senate committee, it faces stiff opposition from Republicans in the Senate. “This treaty will not be adopted,” said Sen. Kyl, R-Ariz. “There aren’t the votes to pass it.”

Why do politicians not understand that surrending American sovereignty is not good for America? Defending the interests of a nation is part of a politician's job. Politicians around the world are looking out for their own interests - why is Bush so spineless when it comes to defending this country?

The return of PBA?

From an email I received...

After all our efforts to see the horror of partial-birth abortion officially banned in this country ...

After Congress voted to ban it, the President signed the bill into law, the Supreme Court of the United States upheld that law ...

Even after all this, within minutes of that Court ruling, pro-abortion members of Congress introduced a bill which would totally thwart the will of the people - reversing the decision of Congress and the President and undoing the ruling of the Supreme Court.

These members of Congress have put some ''spin'' on their bill: they call it the ''Freedom of Choice'' Act - but it's not really about freedom of choice.

It's actually a slap in the face to the American people ... it's a tip of the hat to the abortion doctors and their lobbyists ... and it's a very real threat against the lives of unborn babies.

Support for this bill flooded in from the entire abortion lobby -- the ACLU, Planned Parenthood, N.O.W., NARAL: Pro-Choice America, and others. Which means millions of dollars will almost certainly flow into the campaign for this legislation.

The bill(s) in question are HR 1964 and S 1173. Despite their name (Freedom of Choice), the purpose of these bills would be to re-instate the (completely medically unnecessary) practice of Partial Birth Abortion in this country.

Partial Birth Abortion is exactly what it sounds like. If this "procedure" were performed 2 minutes later it would be infanticide and we would bring formal indictments against anyone who perpetrated it.

It is a travesty that 121 members of Congress are proud to have their names listed as sponsors or co-sponsors of these bills. This just goes to show the depths that we as a nation have lowered ourselves to.

I won't list all the (101) Representatives connected to the bill but I will list the (20) Senators.

Sponsor:
Sen. Barbara Boxer [D-CA] (no surprise)
Cosponsors [as of 2007-10-20]
Sen. Max Baucus [D-MT]
Sen. Jeff Bingaman [D-NM]
Sen. Sherrod Brown [D-OH]
Sen. Maria Cantwell [D-WA]
Sen. Benjamin Cardin [D-MD]
Sen. Hillary Clinton [D-NY]
Sen. Dianne Feinstein [D-CA]
Sen. John Kerry [D-MA]
Sen. Frank Lautenberg [D-NJ]
Sen. Joseph Lieberman [I-CT]
Sen. Robert Menéndez [D-NJ]
Sen. Barbara Mikulski [D-MD]
Sen. Patty Murray [D-WA]
Sen. Barack Obama [D-IL]
Sen. Bernard Sanders [I-VT]
Sen. Charles Schumer [D-NY]
Sen. Debbie Ann Stabenow [D-MI]
Sen. Jon Tester [D-MT]
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse [D-RI]

(see any familiar names?)

On GovTrack.us you can look up bills and (just for fun) you can see where your Senator and Representative lies on political spectrum map.

Time Traveling and Day of the Dead

Okay, I know, I'm like way behind schedule posting. My problem has been that I'll start a post and not be able to finish it (normally because I find something interesting on Wikipedia or Yahoo! News) so this is what I'm going to do.

With this version of "time traveling" (strictly forward and linear - shucks) I'm just taking advantage of the fact that I started a post several days ago. I'll go ahead and finish the blog entries that I started and post them ASAP and hopefully I'll get caught up to the present! Right now it's November 12 but I'll finish this post for November 1 - Dia de los Muertos.

Day of the Dead...keeping the tradition alive

From Articulos en Yahoo!

Toys are brought to the cemeteries as offerings to deceased children and Tequila, Mescal and Pulque, traditional Mexican liquors, are common offerings left on the graves of adults.

My wife (born and raised in Mexico) finds it humorous when people are surprised that the offerings are gone the next morning. She told a group of our friends that all you have to do is hide and watch. A short while after dark you will see vagrants eating the food, drinking the liquor and taking the toys.

Some have said that it is very important to keep these traditions alive as part of Hispanic culture. I know this is not the most "PC" thing to say but personally, I find Dia de los Muertos creepy. I guess it is realistic in it's fatalism but it's still creepy.

Is it Bigfoot?

From the Odd News Department:

** THE ASSOCIATED PRESS CANNOT AUTHENTICATE THE CONTENT OF THESE IMAGES ** This image provided Monday, Oct. 29, 2007 by hunter Rick Jacobs shows an image taken by a camera with an automatic trigger set up in Pennsylvania's Allegheny National Forest on Sept. 16, 2007. The only thing certain about the critter photographed by a hunter's camera is that some people have gotten the notion it could be a Sasquatch, or bigfoot. Others say it's just a bear with a bad skin infection. (AP Photo/Rick Jacobs)

I'm no wildlife expert but it just doesn't look like a bear to me. I think the legs look way too long to be a bear. There's not a lot in the "mystery picture" to give an idea of scale but what bothers me is that the legs appear so long in proportion to the rest of the body. So I looked around the net and found these pictures of standing bears - see what you think.

Black Bear

Brown Bear

Grizzly Bear

.

.

(this one is stuffed - apparently when a Grizzly rears nobody stays close enough to get a photograph of it)

Kodiak Bear

and just for good measure a Polar Bear

Hey, I know this not my normal [political] kind of post but it's a weird time of year. Tell me what you think.

Fred vs Rudy - ontheissues.org

This information is from ontheissues.org
They list Fred Thompson as a "Moderate Conservative" and Rudy Guliani as "Moderate Libertarian Conservative"

Here are some one-line summaries of statements the fellas have made on four issues:Abortion, Gun Control, Immigration and War & Peace. Go to each man's ontheissues.org page to get the full quotes they made on these issues. I have put my opinion of the candidate's stance in italics following each set of issue statements.

Fred Thompson on Abortion:
Roe v. Wade was bad law and bad science. (Jun 2007)
Appoint strict constructionist judges. (Jun 2007)
Has never been pro-choice despite 1994 news reports. (Jun 2007)
Voted YES on maintaining ban on Military Base Abortions. (Jun 2000)
Voted YES on banning partial birth abortions. (Oct 1999)
Voted YES on banning human cloning. (Feb 1998)
Fred is strong Pro-Life.

Rudy Guliani on Abortion:
Ultimate decision by woman, her conscience & her doctor. (Aug 2007)
Allowing choice keeps government out of people's lives. (May 2007)
Seek bipartisan ways to reduce abortion & increase adoption. (May 2007)
Giuliani donated to Planned Parenthood throughout 1990s. (May 2007)
Ok to repeal Roe v. Wade, but ok to view it as precedent too. (May 2007)
Allow states to fund or not fund abortion. (May 2007)
Encourage adoptions; ban partial-birth abortion. (May 2007)
Embryonic stem cell research ok if limited properly. (May 2007)
FactCheck: Encouraged adoptions; but over-stated results. (May 2007)
Pro-choice; no ban on partial-birth abortions. (Dec 1999)
Rudy is Pro-Choice but is trying to appear "centrist".

Fred Thompson on Gun Control:
Allowing concealed carry could have limited VA Tech massacre. (Apr 2007)
Voted NO on background checks at gun shows. (May 1999)
Voted NO on more penalties for gun & drug violations. (May 1999)
Voted YES on loosening license & background checks at gun shows. (May 1999)
Voted YES on maintaining current law: guns sold without trigger locks. (Jul 1998)
Fred is a strong supporter of the Second Amendment.

Rudy Guliani on Gun Control:
Focus on criminals, not on guns. (Sep 2007)
NYC gun control laws made NYC safest big city in US. (Sep 2007)
Gun control reduces urban crime; no effect on hunting. (Feb 2007)
NYC sued two dozen major gun manufacturers and distributors. (Jun 2000)
All gun owners should pass written test. (Mar 2000)
Rudy supports Gun Control.

Fred Thompson on Immigration:
Opposes amnesty in any form. (Jun 2007)
Nation loses sovereignty if it cannot secure its own borders. (Apr 2007)
Voted YES on allowing more foreign workers into the US for farm work. (Jul 1998)
Voted YES on visas for skilled workers. (May 1998)
Voted YES on limit welfare for immigrants. (Jun 1997)
Fred is a supporter of Border Security (but he could have done better).

Rudy Guliani on Immigration:
Declared NYC a sanctuary city, and crime fell. (Sep 2007)
Need tamper-proof IDs, and database for immigrants. (Jun 2007)
Reform bill fails to document who left US and who's here. (Jun 2007)
Shouldn't be debating LEGAL immigration, only ILLEGAL. (Jun 2007)
Allow immigrants to work, with tamper-proof ID cards. (May 2007)
Change rule barring immigrants from running for president. (May 2007)
Supports Senate guest worker plan & path to citizenship. (Nov 2006)
Rudy seems to support Border Security but he needs to understand - there is no such thing as "tamper-proof" only "tamper-resistant".

Fred Thompson on War and Peace:
I would do essentially what the president's doing in Iraq. (Jun 2007)
Take any chance to not get run out of Iraq. (Jun 2007)
Internationalizing war effort will not win the war. (Jun 2007)
President must decide on war based on unclear evidence. (Jun 2007)
Prophets of doom are wrong--we can't cut-and-run. (Jun 2007)
Goal of Iraqi enemies is to demoralize us. (Jun 2007)
Serious & painful international sanctions on nuclear Iran. (Jun 2007)
Voted YES on authorizing use of military force against Iraq. (Oct 2002)
Voted YES on allowing all necessary force in Kosovo. (May 1999)
Voted NO on authorizing air strikes in Kosovo. (Mar 1999)
Voted YES on ending the Bosnian arms embargo. (Jul 1995)
Condemns anti-Muslim bigotry in name of anti-terrorism. (Oct 2001)
Move the US Embassy to Jerusalem. (Nov 1995)
Fred is strong on finishing the job we started in Iraq.

Rudy Guliani on War and Peace:
We've never won a war while discussing how to retreat. (Sep 2007)
Negotiate with Iran, but fully prepared for force. (Sep 2007)
Winning in Iraq is one battle in overall terrorist war. (Aug 2007)
Keep option open to attack Al Qaeda in Pakistan unilaterally. (Aug 2007)
Iran's danger is handing nukes over to terrorists. (Jun 2007)
Keep option for tactical nukes to prevent Iranian nukes. (Jun 2007)
Take on nation-building in Iraq, to reduce US terrorism risk. (Jun 2007)
Democrat timetable for retreat "fundamentally irresponsible". (May 2007)
We did not invite the 9/11 attack by attacking Iraq. (May 2007)
FactCheck: Did say GOP is fundamentally irresponsible on war. (May 2007)
Only thing worse than invading Iran is Iran having nukes. (May 2007)
Withdrawal from Iraq encourages future terror attacks. (Nov 2006)
Liberating the Iraqis is something we should be proud of. (Aug 2004)
The terrorists have heard from us. (Aug 2004)
Removing Saddam needed to be accomplished. (Aug 2004)
You are either with civilization or with terrorism. (Oct 2001)
No need to understand reasons for terrorism-just stop them. (Oct 2001)
Iraq: More inspections; counter OPEC’s oil production cuts. (Feb 2000)
Rudy is strong on finishing the job we started in Iraq.

Fred is looking better to me but I'm not quite ready to join the Friends of Fred just quite yet.

Do you feel lucky?

I don't know if this guy honestly is THE LUCKIEST PERSON ALIVE but I'm betting he's in the top five.

Listen to what the man says when the reporter interviews him at the end of the film clip.

Life in the Valley

Here's a joke I saw in a local freebie newspaper. It is so appropriate for the valley.

A Highway Patrolman pulled a car over and told the driver that because he had been wearing his seat belt, he had just won $5,000 in the statewide safety competition.
"What are you going to do with the money?" asked the policeman.
"Well, I guess I'm going to get a driver's license." he answered.
"Oh, don't listen to him," yelled a woman in the passenger seat. "He's a smart aleck when he's drunk."
This woke up the guy in the back seat who took one look at the cop and moaned, "I knew we wouldn't get far in a stolen car."
At that moment, there was a knock from the trunk and a voice said, in Spanish, "Are we over the border yet?"

Yup, art imitates life.

Political Bliss, Logistical Nightmare

Since my good friends Johnny & Amanda have moved to California, I have been forced to re-think my opinion of "Californians". While searching the internet "to see if there's any more gold in them thar hills", I ran across the blog California Conservatives for Truth .

It looks like it was a good site but, sadly, it appears that it hasn't been updated in over a year. But, true to my mission, I scanned through the archives to get an eye for the content - it does have a lot of links - I gotta give 'em that.

Anyway, I found a humorous piece that the blog author pulled from dumblaws.com :

Idiots may not vote.

CONSTITUTION OF THE STATE OF NEW MEXICO
ADOPTED JANUARY 21, 1911
Article VII. Elective Franchise
Section 1. [Qualifications of voters; absentee voting; school elections; registration.]

Every citizen of the United States, who is over the age of twenty-one years, and has resided in New Mexico twelve months, in the county ninety days, and in the precinct in which he offers to vote thirty days, next preceding the election, except idiots, insane persons and persons convicted of a felonious or infamous crime unless restored to political rights, shall be qualified to vote at all elections for public officers. The legislature may enact laws providing for absentee voting by qualified electors. All school elections shall be held at different times from other elections.

Personally, I think this law is a great idea but it presents a logistical nightmare. To be able to justy say that idiots cannot vote, you would be faced with the monumental task of getting the idiots out of Congress. I have to agree with Mark Twain on this one: "Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself." [Mark Twain, c.1882] Some people would say that this would extend to the White House but George Bush is no idiot. Crazy like a fox, maybe, but not an idiot.

Border Fence Update

Checking back over my blog I realized that there are quite a few "loose ends" that I needed to "tie up". So here's a quick update on the one of the local "hot button" issues.

The Border Fence. Private citizens are taking action (and actually accomplishing something) here and here . Here is a good example of a low tech fence actually working. Where is the high tech "virtual fence" we've heard will solve our problems? After Boeing "reported it solved most of the computer glitches" (famous last words) it will finally begin testing a section of virtual fence in Arizona later this month.

"But a fence sends the wrong message" , you say? Really? Here is an example of three wanted sex offenders that were nabbed as they came through border check points. With completely open borders, these fellows (and other sex offenders) will be able to sneak into the country undetected. By further closing our porous southern border, we increase our chances at catching these scum bags.

And agents at border crossings continue to find marijuana and cocaine (the pot was in a charter bus).

Locally we won't have to worry about the "ominous shadows" of an actual border fence for quite some time to come (if ever) because some boneheaded bureaucrat planned the fence to cut through the middle of Brownsville, TX. This would have put part of the UT-Brownsville campus south of the fence.

More updates on other stuff later.

Bookshelf

Way back in July our good friends John and Amanda moved to California. The most I could do was help them pack the truck the Tuesday before they left. Owing to space considerations in the truck (and because I'm such a book nut) my buddy John gave me one of his bookcases.

The next day, another buddy of mine, Dennis, got the bookcase here with only a couple of drops of rain on it while I got turned around and drove through the rain.

Ever since it got here, the bookcase has been sitting in the middle of my office, waiting for me to figure out:
1) How am I going to rearrange my books,
2) Where exactly am I going to put the bookcase and
3) Should I go ahead and bring more books from storage or just rearrange what I already have here?

(The mess in my office is a post for another day) but while trying to "sort" books (with the help of goodreads) I had an epiphany.

"The apple does not fall far from the tree" - my daughter is just as bad about book collecting as I am. Now the bookcase sits in my daughter's room (its the tall one) and it is now home to a several of her series of books and quite a few stuffed animals. The best part of this is that stuffed animals are light enough that they can "live" almost anywhere so my daughter can use this for books for quite some time to come.

THANK YOU JOHNNY!!!

Okay. Here it is. The long-awaited "Blog Action Day" post.

1) Plant a tree.

2) Give yourself a hug.

Don't you feel better?

Where's George?

So I got a 20 dollar bill out of the ATM at the bank the other day. I registered at Where's George? and listed the bil. Where's George? told me:

This bill has travelled 466 Miles in 1 Yr, 199 Days, 7 Hrs, 40 Mins at an average of 0.83 Miles per day. It is now 466 Miles from its starting location.

I'll spend it in a few days and then check back on it in a week or so.

A sign?

I reward myself for getting up early by going to "Sixbucks" and right after I ordered something with the word "latte" in it, a woman walks back in with her coffee and says "I think your milk is spoiled."

Oh well, so far, so good. We'll see how the rest of this "Friday the 12th" turns out. :-)

John Glenn vs Howard Metzenbaum

I'm sure many of you have seen this email but, if you haven't I'll let you in on it since I seem to get all sorts of interesting stuff from my friends (if you have my email address and you aren't sending me interesting stuff, this is a hint :-)

While the heart of the email is true, parts of it are just plain wrong. Let me show you the good stuff and then let you know what got embellished and/or changed. The point here is that many times those on the far left are so outrageous in their statements that there is no need for us to embellish the truth.

From the email:

Some people still don't understand why military personnel do what they do for a living. This exchange between Senators John Glenn and Senator Howard Metzenbaum is worth reading. Not only is it a pretty impressive impromptu speech, but it's also a good example of one man's explanation of why men and women in the armed services do what they do for a living.

This IS a typical, though sad, example of what some who have never served think of the military.

Senator Metzenbaum (speaking to Senator Glenn):"How can you run for Senate when you've never held a real job?"

Senator Glenn (D-Ohio):"I served 23 years in the United States Marine Corps. I served through two wars. I flew 149 missions. My plane was hit by anti-aircraft fire on 12 different occasions. I was in the space program.

It wasn't my checkbook, Howard; it was my life on the line. It was not a nine-to-five job, where I took time off to take the daily cash receipts to the bank.

I ask you to go with me ... as I went the other day... to a veteran's hospital and look those men - with their mangled bodies - in the eye, and tell them they didn't hold a job! You go with me to the Space Program at NASA and go, as I have gone, to the widows and Orphans of Ed White, Gus Grissom and Roger Chaffee... and you look those kids in the eye and tell them that their DADS didn't hold a job.

You go with me on Memorial Day and you stand in Arlington National Cemetery, where I have more friends buried than I'd like to remember, and you watch those waving flags.

You stand there, and you think about this nation, and you tell me that those people didn't have a job? I'll tell you, Howard Metzenbaum; you should be on your knees every day of your life thanking God that there were some men - some men - who held real jobs. And they required a dedication to a purpose - and a love of country and a dedication to duty - that was more important than life itself. And their self-sacrifice is what made this country possible.

I have held a job, Howard! What about you?"

For those who don't remember - During W.W.II, Howard Metzenbaum was an attorney representing the Communist Party in the USA.
Now he's a Senator!
If you can read this, thank a teacher. If you are reading it in English thank a Veteran.

Supposedly this took place as an exchange between Senators Metzenbaum and Glenn (both Democrats btw) on the Senate floor January 26, 2004.

Now the entire truth (according to truthorfiction.com's answer ) is a bit different but for those of us who are concerned about truth, I think it is important.

The email says that Glenn's reply is "a pretty impressive impromptu speech". The truth is that it is impressive even though it was not improptu. Also it did not happen in 2004 and it did not happen on the Senate floor.

From truthorfiction.com:

"It happened during the campaign debate in 1974 when Metzenbaum was running for reelection and Glenn was challenging him. Metzenbaum made a widely publicized statement that said that Glenn had never met a payroll (he didn't actually say that he'd never held a real job). In other words, Glenn had been a military man not a businessman, like Metzenbaum, who had created a major newspaper and a nation-wide parking company."

So, this was a prepared speech from Glenn, a very respectable man that, if I'm understanding this correctly, wasn't yet a Senator.

Also truthorfiction.com mentions that they can find no evidence that Metzenbaum was ever a "lawyer for the communist party". I also checked out wikipedia's article on Metzenbaum, and, even though wikipedia can "tend towards the left" (but that's another post) they will, from what I can tell, include any skeletons in the closet of public figures. btw, Metzenbaum did support Glenn for the presidency in 1983.

Once more, what is the point? The point is this - Senator Howard Metzenbaum implied that being prepared to die for the cause of freedom was not as significant as "making a payroll".

But you say "He said this in 1974 - why do I care in 2007?" One simple reason. We. Are. At. War. But you say "I don't see any invading armies, I don't see this "war on terror", it's just a political ploy." Let me tell you, you have the right to express your opinion - that is one of the great things about the United States of America. Do you know why you have that right?

You have the right to express your idiotic, namby-pamby little opinions because of people who were prepared to die for the cause of freedom, that's why.

Don't dare ever forget that.

Don't dare let your children forget.

Blog Action Day (BAD) Reminder

Today I received an email from "The Blog Action Day Team" (BAD Team) Now Blog Action Day (BAD) is up to "over 7,500 bloggers!" so i guess it really is officially a "movement".

The email contains a link to another Blog Action Day (BAD) video and a "What Type of Blogger Are You? " quiz.

Here is my badge for taking the quiz




It says I'm a "Purist" b/c I have no ads (i'm in this for the sheer joy, not the money) an "Expert" b/c I've been doing this over a year and I'm involved in more than one blog and "Undiscovered" because I don't have 1000's of readers.

This is so par for the course. The fact that it's only a "quiz" (not a test) let's you know this is gonna be pretty unscientific but the fact that the answers are given as extremes is exactly what one would expect from alarmist environmentalists who would rather "have a movement" than pay attention to the facts.

A few facts:

On at least two occassions (one known as the Medieval Warm Period and one as the Holocene Thermal Maximum ) the planet has been significantly warmer than it is now. And you know what? The polar bears did just fine. (they're still here, aren't they)

Oh well, if you're still having trouble sleeping because of your imagined "environmental guilt" then go buy yourself some Carbon credits.

(um, if buying Carbon credits actually helps you sleep better then maybe you need some professional help :-)

Even MORE book stuff

More booksites that I am still checking out (in alphabetical order):

http://bookins.com/ - a bookswap site "Every book you get is $4.49 regardless of weight"

http://www.booksfree.com/ - "Paperback and audiobook rental service...starting at $9.99 a month" On one of the goodreads.com discussion groups somebody described this site as functioning "like Netflix for books"

http://www.bookswim.com/ - bills itself as "the first online BOOK RENTAL LIBRARY CLUB lending you paperbacks and hardcovers directly to your house WITHOUT THE NEED TO PURCHASE!" but their website is still in beta testing and they only claim 150,000 books

http://etext.lib.virginia.edu/ebooks/ - "Free ebook Library for the Microsoft Reader and palm"

http://books.google.com/books?hl=en - Google has this in beta testing. Every time you refresh it randomizes a new selection of books. I like it and i haven't even really used it yet. (i could spend way too much time just surfing book titles)

http://www.mobipocket.com/ - ebooks - "39,000+ Premium titles, 10,000 free ebooks" and other cool stuff. I spent a little while scanning the free titles and while most of what i saw could be subtitled "If you're having trouble sleeping, read this" there is bound to be some good stuff in there. Wait there's "Treasure Island", "The Life of Buffalo Bill Cody", "Robin Hood", "Last of the Mohicans", "Pride and Prejudice", "The Raven" and hmm - Filosofia Fundamental, Volumen III. As yet i don't have anything that handles "mobi' files and i'm still not ready to spring for a Palm Pilot but this would go a long way toward giving me an excuse....

http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page - Project Gutenberg "The first producer of free ebooks"

Of course I have to mention the one book club that I have come closest to joining (on several occasions, in fact) http://www.conservativebookclub.com/ -

"Get 3 books for $1 each"

"1000's of conservative titles"


i might join just to get this book :-)

Book stuff

One of my favorite sites on the web is goodreads - thank you Manda!

Goodreads has a lot of cool features (plus it's free!!!) and they are making improvements all the time. I'm in 3 discussion groups right now and the one that I think is the most fun is "Book Buying Addicts Anonymous". No, I didn't start the group, but I could have.

One of our discussions has been "where do you get books cheap?" and (even though I haven't completely checked these sites out yet) here are (in alpha order) some of the online sources that people have mentioned.

http://www.abebooks.com/ - Mentioned as a great way to connect with independent booksellers
http://www.bookcloseouts.com/
http://bookmooch.com/ - Give away books, get points, ask for books from other people using your points
http://www.fictionwise.com/ebooks/freebooks.htm - supposed to be a great way to get "free e-books" but I'm still reading the fine print. That and the fact that I haven't yet decided if I want to try "e-books" or not. Part of me finds the concept somehow "Orwellian" and part of me is afraid that I will go absolutely nutso for "e-books". You know, something like "Reports are coming in of a strange man running around the airport screaming 'Do you see this i-pod? i have the every book on the first floor of the Library of Congress on this i-pod and you can't have it!"
http://www.frugalreader.com/ - another bookswapping site
http://www.halfpricebooks.com/
http://www.paperbackswap.com/ - "Currently free" bookswapping site that uses the 'send a book, get a book' idea. They claim over 1.6 million books available at this time
http://www.poshpoints.com/ - this is sort of "e barter" - they trade a lot more than books
http://www.titletrader.com/
http://whatsonmybookshelf.com/ - a smaller relatively new site still in the beta stage

And of course I would be remiss if I didn't mention that bookswapping is facilitated on goodreads.com by allowing you to mark "I have a copy that I'd like to swap" any time that you rate or review a book.

This of course is not intended as any "exhaustive" list (amazon, borders and ebay all go without saying, you know) but these are sites that have been listed in our online discussion. Enjoy.

Just for fun

Yes, the last couple blogs have been a little "heavy" (but life's like that) so let's lighten things up for a little bit.

Here is "Baby Got Book" - a funny and "safe" vid about girls who have big Bibles. It uses the tune from "Baby Got Back"



The Interactive LED Coffee Table Demo



Space Toilet



and finally "Will It Blend - Chuck Norris". We showed this one at Youth Group last week and the kids thought that it was a hoot.



Have fun.

Illegal Immigration and the Environment

I would like to post a slew of pictures of the littered Arizona border and the other evidence of "destruction of the environment" that I have seen at times on the net. Unfortunately, it seems that I'm not hitting the right search terms today.

Here is one interesting pic that I was able to find (found it here - Coalition Against Illegal Immigration CAII). Can you see where the man is pointing? It says

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"All persons and vehicles must enter the United States at a designated port of entry only. This is NOT a designated port of entry. Any person or vehicle entering at this point is in violation of 19 USC 1459 and or 19 USC 1433 and is subject to a $5,000.00 penalty".

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And then the whole thing is written in Spanish. I can't see the whole sentence before "U.S. Customs Service" (the man's arm is in the way) but the translation of the Spanish is

"All vehicles and merchandise that enter here will be confiscated"

So, according to this, the minimum penalty for illegal border crossing is five grand plus you lose your vehicle and any stuff that you are carrying.

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Now I know they'll never pay the fines but just for fun let's do the math. $5000 times 12 million illegal aliens (conservative estimate) works out to $60,000,000,000.00 - that's sixty billion (yes, with a "b") dollars. So even if only 12 million of all the illegals currently in the country paid the fine, that would go a healthy distance toward off-setting some of the free goods and services that they are receiving, thanks to our tax dollars. Good grief, healthcare and education alone have to be astronomical costs.

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Oh look, I hardly even mentioned the poor 'ole little "environment". Too bad.

Thompson vs Dobson ?

I was kinda stunned when I saw this article on NewsMax. Hopefully this will turn out to be nothing more than "grist for the mill" and not actually a serious conflict between two men that I respect.

Environmental blogging - 2nd Amendment Style

Well let's see how this "environmental" stint goes. I'm going to try to write blog entries (for a few days at least) about "the environment" but put my own "2nd amendment spin" on it. Now that I think about it, the phrase "Second Amendment Spin" sounds like a fun way to say "rifling".

In just a few minutes (with the help my favorite search engine) I located this shocking evidence of environmental pollution.

Air pollution Senegal, 2005

The is a horrible example of wanton disregard for public safety (in the form of air pollution and toxic gases) in the Phillipines, 2007.

This is a picture of children in Sri Lanka in 2005 being encouraged to build fires and create unhealthy air pollution.

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This is air pollution in Uganda. Note that several of these fires have not even been "contained" in a fire retardant bunker but have merely been set ablaze where a child could easily run into them.

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This smaller picture (the tower of burning guns) is more air pollution in Rio de Janiero.

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But if anybody should be outraged over all this needless air pollution, it should be the people of Cambodia.

Air pollution Siem Reng, Cambodia

Air pollution Kampon Thon, Cambodia, 2004

Air pollution Stung Treng, Cambodia 2003

Air pollution Kampot, Cambodia 2003

From

http://www.iansa.org/

"[Locals surrendered] weapons to the local authorities in exchange for 20 community-owned water wells."

The iansa (International Action Network on Small Arms) has been a long time supporter of the "air pollution for clean drinking water" exchange program. Even when not using some excuse like "clean wells" the iansa has been working hard to spread air pollution to many third world countries.

Haven't these people ever heard of Al Gore? Put out the fires already, the planet is hot enough!

Of course I am expressing my opinion very tongue in cheek. I am much more worried about an international organization that wants to take away a woman's right to defend herself (iansa) than I am about a little air pollution. And the whole "guns are evil" idea does nothing to help us teach the next generation about personal responsibility.

Thank God for the Second Amendment, I'll see you at the range!

All I got was a lousy PG?

When I told the "Rating Widget" to rate my blog it gave me a PG and said that it was based on the appearance of the following words:

gun (7 times)

kill (1 time)

Well obviously I'm not talking enough about the SECOND AMENDMENT. Yes, sweetheart, the first amendment gives you the right to call the President a fathead (or whatever). But (while you are harping about your favorite section of the Bill of Rights) don't forget that it's the Second Amendment that guarantees that you can keep the other nine amendments.

Blog Action Day (BAD)

Just in case you haven't heard yet, let me tell you what's going to happen on October 15.

Its the First, Annual, International, BLOG ACTION DAY. What is Blog Action Day (BAD) you say? I'm so glad you asked. This is when everybody who participates in the whole ever lovin' blogosphere is supposed to get our collective knickers in a knot about the [insert favorite adjective] environment. Right now they claim to have 6,475 blogs with a "readership" on this issue of over 4.4 million people. Using their exact numbers I crunched it and got just a hair over 690 readers per blog. Interesting...

When you go to pretty much any place on the blogosphere, what do you see but links and links to other blogs. And what are many blog posts about? Reading other blogs! So how many "unique" readers do you think we're actually talking about? More on that later.

On the Blog Action Day (BAD) websites ( http://blogactionday.com/ and http://blogactionday.org/ ) they give you an opportunity to participate. They encourage you to "Register your Blog". Ostensibly this would be so that you (as a "concerned blogger" or some such rot) could be kept "in the loop" with new and exciting "blog action items" on the environment, right? Nah, it says right on the page where you register that

The readership figure is purely for the purpose of generating an exciting statistic!

In other words pay no attention to these statistics - they're meaningless! WHAT???? Environmentalists with meaningless statistics???? Frankly, I'm shocked.

[If you haven't picked up on my sarcasm yet then I'm just not trying hard enough]

But even a cynic like myself has to admit that these Blog Action Day (BAD) people are thoughtful. Why they've even included a way for me to prove my "personhood". Right on the form to register it says

Are you human? Please type '210'

And let's not forget the importance of "warm fuzzies". These Blog Action Day (BAD) people know how important the environment is to me - the button at the bottom of the registration page doesn't say "register" or "submit" - no no - it says "Make a Difference". So, in some inexplicable way, just by giving my email address to the Blog Action Day (BAD) people, I have "Made a Difference" [i think i feel a tear welling up]

And, gosh those Blog Action Day (BAD) people are tech-saavy. They even have a Blog Action Day (BAD) video posted on youtube. click for BAD video

Al Gore, living proof that the Oscars are motivated by art, not politics (HAHAHAHA - well I tried to say that with a straight face) must be very proud of his Blog Action Day (BAD) friends. They are working so hard to make everybody get really "conscious" about the environment.
Now those of us who were too young to "make a difference" at the original (1970) Earth Day can be on the ground floor of a "movement".

This will really give me a chance to stretch my satirical muscles, so to speak. There is so much raw comedic material to work with - I think I'm going to enjoy this ;-)

My new best friend

We picked the lessons out of a hat to see "who gets to teach which lesson" and the first lesson that I got (drumroll please) is The Great Flood.

This website has become my new best friend. So tonight at 7pm, the teenagers get both barrels of literal interpretation.

Stuff I forgot

It has occurred to me that I neglected to mention (in my September 3 list of all the "online" stuff that I do) that I also "maintain" a website for my parents (although it's not updated as often as it should be) and I am on the "Website Committee" of my state professional organization. I know what you're gonna say but we are working on it.

And right now I need to quit "blogging" and finish the presentation for tomorrow's church service.

I must quickly mention that we were invited to the home of some really good friends to help them celebrate a birthday and I believe I met a new friend or two. We had a great time hanging out with our friends and talking.

Life is good.

Mexican 300

I've been pretty busy lately so I've taken sort of a hiatus from blogging. But this was sent to me in an email today and it's just "over the top" enough that I have to share.

It would be funny if it wasn't so true.

Nine Eleven

Well campers, it's been six years - are we safer? Despite the fact that the left spews an amazing amount of vitriol at President Bush, the simple fact is that we are safer now than we would have been if either Gore or Kerry had made it to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

You are welcome to disagree, but that's the beauty of America - you can stand on a street corner with a "honk for peace" sign and be just as oblivious as you want to be.

Why I don't "myspace"

Who has time to "myspace"? According to wikipedia, as of September 8, 2006 (yeah, almost a year ago) there were 106 million MySpace accounts. As I heard it stated the other day, if MySpace was a country, it would have been the 11th largest country on the planet. At the rate MySpace was growing then, it would have somewhere between 75 - 85 million more accounts by now. So one could say "How could almost 200 million people be wrong?"

Well, I'm not saying that they're "wrong". But I am saying that I have too much electronic "stuff" in my life already.

email
GoodReads
Blogger
UltraCorps - electronic RPG
Wikipedia
Google Earth
MapQuest
YouTube
eBay
NewsMax
(seems like I'm forgetting something)

Offline I have church committees and that annoying but necessary activity know as "Work"

Yup, my plate is full - sorry MySpace.

The Mighty Righty

This is a conservative blog that I found recently. Here is the discussion that led me to the blog.

Enjoy!

Proposal for California's Electoral Vote Could Benefit GOP

The article is here and, lest you think this some kind of "Republican plot", here is a very interesting quote from Bob Mulholland, campaign adviser for the California Democratic Party (emphasis mine):

The California Democrat later compared the Electoral College to the Mafia, saying that the founders created it "because they had little faith in the voters, and this was a check made on the voters. The voters could 'make the wrong decision" in the general election, and the electors could put the fix in. Well, that's like the mob. That's kind of outdated."

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At least he's not bitter about the 2000 presidential elections, right? Bush lost the popular vote in 2000 but won the electoral vote and in 2004 he won both the popular and the electoral vote. Incidentally, the Bush "upset" was the third time a US President has won the electoral vote without getting the popular vote. But I digress...

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Mulholland (the Cali Dem advisor) had just finished basically accusing Arnold (the Governator) of trying to force the issue onto the ballots. Hm.....the Governor of California is trying to let the people of California decide how the electoral votes of the people of California are allocated. Yeah, somebody tell me - what is the problem when people govern themselves - isn't that what we're all about?

The French are so funny

Now I realize that being on a game show is stressful and people on game shows sometimes have trouble recalling the simplest of facts but this is really funny. If the video doesn't display, you can find it here.

This really doesn't make French public education look very good.

Letters from a Skeptic

We are discussing the book "Letters from a Skeptic" in our Sunday School class (I can't remember if I'd mentioned that before or not) and it makes for lively discussion. Granted, I don't always agree with the defenses that the author makes (or the way he chooses to employ a defense that I do agree with) but that keeps it more interesting for me. The discussion has been really good and Lily has been posting some of her notes here.

A couple things about this class have given me pause to think: 1) The specific "attendees" and 2) The reaction to the book.

The people who have been coming into class for the discussion have been, for the most part, people (like myself) who were raised in church - traditional evangelical church, too boot. The Sunday School teacher, the pastor and myself were all thinking that this would be a good "entry class" for people new to the faith with some still unanswered questions, but we haven't been overwhelmed with "newbies". At first I was dismayed by this. But not any more.

You see, we have been running a "blurb" about the class for a few weeks in the bulletin and I've made sure that a slide promoting the book and class has been in our announcement "slideshow" that runs before the worship service starts. This would generally include cover photo of the book, class location and the next couple specific questions coming up for discussion.

I was so pleased when Lily told me this morning that nearly all the books are gone! My wife and I are sharing a copy and I know that other couples in the class are also sharing a copy and I only knew of one person outside the class that said she and her husband wanted a copy to read. But lo and behold, other people are picking them up!

Okay, so I'm rambling. The point is that people are not afraid to confront this material! One of the guys in class put it really well this morning - he said "as I've grown older, I've been thinking more about things that I used to just accept". (he's younger than me) Some of us sometimes like to "discuss" things too much (that would be me) - I am so charged that people want to "read the hard questions" and I will be perfectly happy if we need to order more books!