I'm not dead!

Contrary to the way it might seem due to the lack of posts recently. Its just life intruding but in a good way, not a bad one. Business insists that I not fill in all the blanks with great detail but here's the Cliff's Notes:

Baseball season over. No playoffs this year. Won their last game of year with bottom of the 11th, first pitch, over the center field fence HR. It was beautiful.

Hiked with Vicki at beloved Powder Mountain Ski Resort. Glorious day. Saw lots of deer.

Mountain bike on EBay drawing lots of attention- no bidding yet. Auction ends Thursday. I suspect it might just jump up to a reasonable price in the last couple hours.

Winning the war on wasps. Gasoline involved. Found a second fortress and hosed it down with foamy nerve agent. Battle continues.

School continues.

Son Kye and lovely, pregnant wife Sara came for a visit. First in 10 months. They liked their Christmas presents... Baby due in January. Sara's got 2 jobs now, Kye may become stay-at-home dad after baby arrives.

Dad and Carol, Brother Tim and family survived Frances. Dad has 80 feet of fence to replace and a tree to clear. Tim had to move pigs to higher ground as they don't swim well for extended periods. More trees to cut up and haul away.

Renee is speaking to me again. The BSU- not so much.

Now work continues...

Damm, I hate that I missed this speech...

by Zell Miller at tonight's convention. Man, what a speech! I've just read the entire thing with my mouth hanging open and cheering! I don't know which part is my favorite but I really like this bit:

Senator Kerry has made it clear that he would use military force only if approved by the United Nations.

Kerry would let Paris decide when America needs defending.

I want Bush to decide.

Yeah, me too.

This part is good too.

George Bush wants to grab terrorists by the throat and not let them go to get a better grip.

I like what this guy has to say1

Public Service ads showing right now...

I guess those ads on the right really expect to see new content every day!

Sorry for the posting dearth today.

I've been busy. Work, school, homework. You know the routine. And then there was the previously mentioned scooter discussion and a truce and dinner at Sizzler. Yumm!

Anyway, I'm tired now. And I missed the convention- again...

Awesome Mountain Bike For Sale!

I've put my Schwinn Homegrown 4 Banger up for sale on EBay. I kinda hate to do it but I'm really not using it and although it is beautiful to look at, selling it will finance a motorscooter purchase. I've got another mountain bike in my shop, it is a hardtail with a lot of sentimental value and so the sexy painted, carbon fiber suspended, disc braked beauty has to go.

I've also had at least the first gruff discussion of the purchase of a scooter with the BSU tonight. She has lots of opposition and a few weak arguements about why I shouldn't/can't buy a scooter. None of her arguements were convincing and so we argued to a draw. Now I'll go do what I want to do...

Selling the bike will help.

Mostly Cajun,

All American and Opinionated has moved off Blogger and into shiny new digs with his own .com address. Be sure to update your links to a fine blogger and worthy Cajun.

One note, for one reason or another, you can't click "back" off his new page. Nothing happens.

When electrons go bad...

I discovered last night that my grocery bill that I used my debit card to pay, had in fact been deducted from my checking acount twice! The cashier, after not getting the proper response from the machine when I tried to use the card as a debit card, explained that the system had not been working properly, and could she run it as a credit instead of a debit. And of course, I said yes. It makes no difference to me how things get billed.

Except when I get billed twice! Once it was on the debit and once it was on the credit side, just like the cashier manipulated the transaction. It seems that the part of the computer deducting the money was working but the reporting back of a successful transaction wasn't reporting back as instructed.

I wasn't the only person that the electrons struck back at this weekend. After a couple of phone calls, I discovered that I was about person number 7500 to call, so far! It seems the electrons went on strike throughout the country for anyone that shopped at a DOD commissary. Oops! Some folks had their acounts hit 3 or 4 times depending on the diligence of the cashier to force the computers to comply.

I've received a promise of a call-back with the commissary's corrective action, but as I said, I'm number 7500 so I might have a long wait. The commissary is also uncertain how they will reimburse anyone who's account might have been overdrafted by their error.

Bad electrons, naughty electrons!

A little something new at WE

Over there on the right, below the archive links. I signed up for Google advertisements. I really don't expect to see all the revenue they promise, but hey, it can't hurt, right?

Interesting how the adverts, which are related to subject matter that the Google spiders find on the page immediately linked up my posts about scooters to related links. That is very cool technology.

So check them out. Maybe you will find something of interest over there you haven't seen before.

Man Who Grabbed Runner Won't Be Jailed

Instead, maybe he could have been sentenced to train for his own marathon for a year.

A defrocked Irish priest with a history of disrupting sports events was given a one-year suspended sentence and fined $3,600 Monday for grabbing a runner who was leading the Olympic marathon with three miles to go.

Seems to me like a perfect occasion for a punishment to fit the crime.

Toys depict Sept 11 Tower Attacks

There are now two different toys in thses candy bags. One of the toys has a character that looks like Osama bin Laden. This really creepy and it makes me wonder how safe the candy might (or might not) be...

And it reminds me that there are people in the world that cheered on September 11th and those people still hate us. No matter what the State Department trys to sell as a "cultural difference" that can be improved by being friendly to them.

More weekend fun

I failed to mention the 2nd scooter store that I visited on Friday. It wasn't much to look at though they did carry the Derbi line of scooters that I had not seen before. They're racy looking, have highly tweaked motors for performance and are more overpriced than the Aprillias that I saw last week.

I did get to see the new TN'G 150cc machine that I only heard about at the first store. And the guys at EcoMoto were correct about the stilted attitude of this new machine. It seem the company decided that this scoot needed 13" wheels and tires and so, to provide plenty of suspension clearance under the fender, longer springs and shocks were installed, jacking the back end of this thing way to high. It looks foolish. Having the ass end all jacked up destroys the look of the Milano while at the same time making sitting at a traffic light a very dicy situation for somebody my size. Literally, it was taller than most motorcycles and I had to slide my butt off to one side to get my foot down flat on the ground. Stupid! Its really stupid!

Oddly enough, with the 13" inch wheels, the company went with a very low profile tire and making the overall diameter of the tire no more than 1.5" taller than the 10" wheel and tire combo used on the smaller engined Milanos. But the shock absorbers and springs apear to be 3" longer on the tall machine than on the shorter one giving it that "kicked in the ass" look and tippy seat height. Too bad too, because the price of the bigger machine is just $300 more than the 125cc machine and is a bargain for its engine size and performance.

Friday night it was Raptors baseball again and Vicki joined me at the last minute for a fine evening of baseball. It was a really good time, unseasonably cool, a full moon came up over the Wasatch mountains and the Raptors beat the Great Falls White Sox in only their second shutout this year.

Saturday was a hike, planned during the baseball game, with Vicki. I might mention here, if I haven't before, that Vicki is Lily's mother, Lily being son Noah's girlfriend of two years and a multiple day road trip. Anyway, she has a trail that she likes to hike but was afraid to hike alone for fear of cougars and so we decided to go together. The trail is called Hidden Meadow and its a seldom used trail that begins just above my house. Its not well hiked because its steep! And 5 miles long too approximately, and all going up until the meadow. This is not a meandering, up and down trail, its all inclined, rocky and loose for most of the trip.

It was beautiful at the top with a fantastic view of the top of Taylor Canyon and the back side of Snowbasin Ski Resort. The canyon nixed any idea that it would be possible to hike all the way to the ski resort, doing so would require most of a day to cross from the point where we stoped hiking. We had a nice rest, a little food, I was nearly attacked by a hummingbird that swooped in to see my red t-shirt and then we headed back home.

Remember I said it was up going to the meadow? Going down is tougher than going up! Going down was also rocky and loose, this time with tired legs, toes crunching into toe boxes of boots and knees that got to crying about the amount of fat body I was subjecting them to. My knees really were hurting by the time we made it back to the car. Without being able to stride forward, and having to lean back to keep the boots under the body, my knees were done for at the end of the hike.

But beer and Aleve and rest in the shade of the backyard invigorated both of us after our hike. It turned out to be a perfect day for a walk and we enjoyed each other's company as much as the scenery and the unbelievable vistas.

I didn't do much the rest of the day though.

Gator gets venison for lunch

From Snopes.com, these pictures of a gator's successful hunt. Not a critter I want to mess with!

More Scooter Shopping-

Friday was my day off and so I used some of the time to explore a couple more scooter stores in Salt Lake City. The first was right down by the university, so parking was a chore but the shop, Eco Moto, turned out to be easy to find and a fun place to visit. The mechanic was out in the grass in front building up one of theseTidal Force electric beach cruisers while his black lab puppy played in the sunshine and smiled for all the coeds passing by.

But I was there to see the TN'G scooters that I had seen advertised in the paper and the scooters were inside, so in I went. The young fellow inside was pleased to show off his Del Ray and Milano 125cc scooters, though he did run off presently to catch a flight for his weekend in California.

The two scoots are identical under the skin with the exception that the Del Ray has a foot brake for the rear stoppers instead of two handlevers. There's also a brand new 150cc Milano which Eco Moto did not have on display. They had received and sold their first one in less than a week. The sales guy informed me that this newest model had been raised 4 inches higher, making sitting on the bike and touching the ground difficult for all but the tallest riders. Later I found out more about why.

Anyway, these are very nice looking scooters. They are manufactured in China but under contract for CMSI, a company out of the Pacific northwest. The name, TN'G stands for Twist N' Go!

Again, I didn't ride either of the scooters, though it was a strong consideration with no spousal objections to overcome but I didn't. The Del Ray is apparently being phased out and so their was the strong suggestion of a really god deal if I was interested in the store's last one, which was the display and demo model. Both models were already marked down to $2095, a $100 reduction from the retail and I gathered that I might be able to have that pretty blue Del Ray for something close to $2000 total.

I actually preferred the Del Ray's styling over the Milano with 2 exceptions. The trunk mounted high brake light has some circuitry built in that makes a swirly little blinky pattern all the time and only turns solid lit when the brakes are applied. There are also, on each side of the bike, facing rearward, blinking red and blue LEDs that are on whenever the power is on! Yikes! Very disturbing and appropriate only for the coolest of teenager cruising the 'vard seeking adulation from other teens. They would definitely be turned off immediately if I were to buy this bike!

I think I'm really interested in that blue Del Ray. I just need to figure out how to fund it. And son Noah, who's been peeking over my shoulder says I should just make this a begging opportunity- so I guess I could. His suggestion- Help me reduce our country's dependence on foreign oil!

PayPal button's still over there on the right...

Bruce hits a home run!

Bruce from mASS BACKWARDS finds another case of John F'n Kerry forgetting that there is a longer memory than his at work on the internet.

Dinner afterwards-

I almost forgot! After our little stop at the scooter store both the BSU and yours truly were ready for dinner. Tonight we went to a Macaroni Grill for the first time. It might have been our first visit but it won't be our last! What a nice dinner, chicken cannoli for me and fettucine alfredo with shrimp for the spouse. And cappuchino and tiramisu for desert, yumm!

Very nice service from our waiter Jeff who started out by impresing us by writing his name on the tablecloth with two crayons, upside down so we could read it. He also explained the color coding of the towels draped on each staff member's shoulder when I asked if they reflected a rank, which they do.

So we will go back there again. If you've never tried it, I recommend it!

Something completely different- Scooters!

Ok, here's a only slightly embarrassing secret most of you don't know about me- I like motorscooters. I've actually owned 2 different ones over the years, the last real scooter was a 1963 Lambretta 175. And I've been thinking about another scooter to ease the pain of my weekly gasoline bill for my truck and my daily commute.

Since the boy moved back into the house and began commuting to Job Corp, I've had to start driving the truck every day, and that's expensive. I'm also paying for his commuting expenses since his JC gas allowance isn't enough for his costs! Another reason to not drive the truck every day is that it has 87,000 miles on it as of tonight and I'm not anxious to replace it in the foreseeable future, so I'm willing to leave it sit as often as possible.

Today the BSU had a Dr's appointment in Salt Lake City and I escorted her as I always do since she's not safe to drive. After seeing the Doc, I asked her, as I always do, if there was anything else she would like to see or do while we are in town. And, as usual, she had nothing else on her agenda. So I asked her if she would mind a side trip to a scooter dealer that I knew about and she agreed to go along, if only to keep my enthusiasm in check.

What a neat place we found! Their website needs lots of help but the store is very nice. There were two shiny scooters outside and another dozen inside for me to look at. The proprietor there was enthusiastic, informed and friendly and he proudly let me set on most of the rigs in his showroom.

This Stella is a brand new 1970 Vespa model now proudly manufactured in India. (This really is a 2004 model.) The mint green was a very good color but there was one special model that was British Racing Green and had a brown seat and some special badging that was very pretty. Obviously this scooter retains all the traditional scooter appearance and the less obviously, it still has the 4 speed, twist-grip shift transmission. Its the only scooter that still has a manual transmission, every other one has gone to the CVT belt drive route.

The model that really caught my eye was this Mojito Custom. Make sure to click the link for the bigger picture to get an idea just how pretty the baby blue and white model is. This rig is very, very pretty! It is 50s retro cool and shiny as any Harley. Sitting on the bike I could actually see my own reflection in three places! That chrome headlight bucket facing back would be perfect for checking out the silly grin that would no doubt occupy my mug if I were riding it every day. It is available as a 50cc bike or with 150cc though that really drives the price into a tough to afford range. The proprietor assured me that the 50cc rig is plenty if its just me commuting to work but the big motor sure seems to be the rig for hauling my overweight butt around.

I didn't test ride any tonight. It was tempting. The BSU was extremely tolerant of my dawdling and questions and tire-kicking, which was surprising and pleasant. I don't have enough money to consider one of these pretty toys nor the readily available credit that would let me walk in and sign on the line for my favorite but I could, with a little effort have enough cash stashed over the winter to have one of these payed for by riding season next spring. So that's something for me to think about. There's still riding season here- really through October almost unless the winter arrives before Halloween like it did last year but I think I will have to reflect and plan for spring. And convice the spouse too of course though she didn't seem to concerned about anything except the amount of money a purchase would require.

I do have two very nice mountain bikes in my shop that I could sell... hmm.

WE- its not supposed to be an anti-Kerry blog...

At least not all the time. It has been leaning that way and if that offends you, well good. Maybe in my tiny, humble way I'll be able to find the story or the link that helps convince one person that John F'n Kerry is unfit to lead America, unfit to be the President and unfit to be Commander in Chief.

This does not mean that I believe President Bush to be unassailable as I have been criticized by my son, several co-workers and friends. To the contrary, I have been and remain disappointed by the President's performance in a number of areas.

Its just obvious to me that JFK has done nothing for America despite all his years in the Senate. I don't believe he has served anyone except himself and his aspirations of the presidency. I do not believe he is the best Democrat to represent that party and I am incredulous that the Democrats have decided to make him their torch bearer.

So, I'll try to find other stuff to write about; guns, trips to the shooting range, the cool weather here behind the Zion Curtain this week, the search for Lori Hacking's remains and whatever I can find that interests me. I'm back in school, Tuesday and Thursday nights so that will be tying up my time too.

So don't go away mad or even just go away. Keep coming back and maybe there will be fun stuff to talk about!

John F'n Kerry wasn't in Cambodia

And here's what seems to me to be an obvious proof that not enough folks have considered. Its from John Podhoretz at the NY Post and I found it through Little Green Footballs.

Consider the history. In 1973, Kerry was a leader of the anti-war movement. That same year, the American Left went nuts when the Nixon administration admitted it had secretly invaded Cambodia in 1969 and 1970 to roust out Communist fighters.

It's hard to overstate just how big an issue this was in 1973. Cambodia was officially a neutral country, and it was the contention of the anti-war movement that any movement across Cambodia's borders constituted a violation of international law.

If Kerry is to be believed, then this leader of the anti-war movement remained silent in 1973 when he could have spoken out about how he was ordered to violate Cambodian neutrality as early as 1968. Which is why Kerry is not to be believed on this matter.

It seems pretty obvious to me based upon his other noted proclivity to speak out against the war that Kerry would have been at the front of the horde railing against America's incursion into Cambodia. If he had thought up the story before 1973, he would have been shouting the loudest. Kerry's silence too strongly suggests that he had not yet conceived his "Christmas in Cambodia,"
war-hero story.

About those medal citations-

Yesterday a coworker asked my take on John F'n Kerry's service and medals. And while I know you didn't ask, I'm going to repeat it here. The connection to awards and performance reports and supervisors requesting signature-ready reports may not be unique to the military but it is certainly prevalent and maybe you don't know that. So here it is.

Jack, you have been in the military long enough to know that commanding officers do not write reports or decoration submittals, they review and approve almost anything that gets put in front of them. You probably also have known people that are at the front of the line for special treatment- Airman or NCO of the Month or Quarter or BTZ. How did they get there? They submitted themselves for the award or opportunity, just like you wrote your EPR for your boss’ signature or wrote your own decoration citation.

That’s my take on John Kerry’s Purple Hearts and Bronze & Silver Star and it explains why others that received the same medals for the same actions had different views of how things happened. It has been made very clear that John Kerry was quick to write the after-action reports and to submit the applications for his Purple Hearts. It stands to reason that he would have been equally quick to write a commendation for bronze stars for everyone involved if it meant he got one for himself. Additionally, commanders are pretty quick to sign off on decorations for their guys because it makes the commanders look good if their people are being recognized.

Remember, there was a war going on and some of those guys were in Viet Nam for a year or more and they may not have been as interested in receiving medals or what the citations said as they were about staying alive and (finally) getting home to their families, many months after Kerry. And since these vets were not coming home to a hero’s welcome, many of them stuck their medals in the bottom of a drawer or footlocker with little regard for the decoration or the words that came with the medal.

I think that JFK has made a terrible mistake by making his Viet Nam service the point on which he builds his leadership qualities. He has been proven a liar by saying that he was in Cambodia on Christmas in a number of instances when his own diaries and biographer do not support that story and now he has backed up to “sometime in January.” The Democrats have made a mistake by carrying the “military service is a prerequisite to be CiC” banner when their last beloved president for 8 years never served and was as much a draft-dodger, (using legal methods) as those they point fingers at like Cheney or Rove.

More important to me is Kerry’s claims to having the skills to change the intelligence community in our government and uses his 8 years on the Senate Intelligence Committee as his support. Since it has been proven that he missed 76% of the public hearings and won’t disclose his attendance records for the closed meetings, I wonder how this can be an asset.

Ask yourself if you could have kept your job while being unexplainably absent 76% of the time. Nate

I also noticed that this morning, Kerry's staff is reporting that maybe, just maybe, his first Purple Heart decoration was due to an accident- a self inflicted wound... Sorta like that "seared in his memory" made-up story about Christmas in Cambodia that turned out to be a lie. Details at Instapundit if you want to follow the story.

An eloquent post- "Leave it Alone"

Its from a blog I've never seen before today, Adeimantus. Its about John F'n Kerry, Viet Nam and a now disturbed and unwritten domestic truce. This writer is far more eloquent than I so go read it all.

How can it possibly be that his actions thirty years ago, which Kerry himself described as shameful war crimes, are now so undeniably honorable that no one is allowed to question Kerry's account of those actions, not even the very men whom Kerry accused of committing war crimes?

I may have to read this blog every day for a bit.

The Tracker is fixed!

We finished it up just a little while ago. The job would have been done hours ago but we misplaced a small plastic bushing in the shifter tower. It was missing and couldn't be found. Called the dealerships- missed the parts guys by one hour and so called another Tracker guy. I caught him just as he was leaving for the weekend but agreed to pull a tranny out of his garage for me to get what I needed.

Headed over to his place, found the tranny and fought just a little bit to extract the part we needed. After rescuing it we kinda figured out that our original part was probably bouncing around inside the case and after getting home, that turned out to be true! It took me several minutes to root around in there and get the bushing pulled up and out and into the right place but it had been in there all along.

So the shifters went back in and a new carpeted carmat as a tunnel cover was installed since the last one had gotten really rough. A quick road trip proved that everything was in order then the tools got hauled into the shop and the carport got a real good cleaning.

Now I'm cleaned too and we are heading out for dinner as soon as the BSU is ready!

mASS BACKWARDS added to blogroll

Everybody stop by and say hi to Bruce. He's got a spiffy design over at his blog and an intelligent take on life. And he likes gadgets! I don't know how he stays in Massachusetts.

This is MY kind of wildlife!- UPDATED

Bear guzzles 36 beers, passes out at campground

"We noticed a bear sleeping on the common lawn and wondered what was going on until we discovered that there were a lot of beer cans lying around," said Lisa Broxson, a worker at the Baker Lake Resort, 80 miles northeast of Seattle.

It turns out the bear was a bit of a beer sophisticate. He tried a mass-market Busch beer, but switched to Rainier Beer, a local ale, and stuck with it for his drinking binge.

Maybe they should name this bear Hamms! I'm with the bear on his beer choice too BTW.

UPDATE:At work this morning, I received an email about this same bear story. But it had been appended to include a tiny little detail that had been overlooked by the rest of the media reporters:

After the capture the bear was discovered to be a man dressed like a bear. The man, Scott Fickett, had been missing from work for two weeks when he was found in the bear suit. Mr. Fickett told Wildlife agents,"hey I just like Rainier beer and it's hard to find in Utah". Mr. Fickett was sobered up and should be back at work shortly.

Yeah, Scott works across the cubicle wall from me! It was our boss that added the last paragraph. Too funny!

John F'n Kerry is an Empty Shirt!

I still am amazed that so many people can be swayed by this guy. It just boggles my brain. Here's just one more reason why he is unfit to be president.

Kerry's attendance record

A Bush-Cheney '04 ad released Aug. 13 accuses Kerry of being absent for 76% of the Senate Intelligence Committee's public hearings during the time he served there. The Kerry campaign calls the ad "misleading," so we checked, and Bush is right.

There's also this bit of truth-stretching (oh, wait- lieing!)

In their eagerness to dismiss the Bush ad's charges, Kerry campaign aides claimed that the senator had been vice chairman of the intelligence committee, which isn't true. In fact, former Senator Bob Kerrey of Nebraska was vice chairman of the panel for several years while Kerry was a more junior member of the panel. John Kerry left the committee in January 2001. He never served as vice chairman, a committee spokesman confirmed to us.

This is just one example of Kerry and his people twisting history to make this poser look like a real leader. What a dumbass!

Military bloggers- another group that will accept me!

Jeff Quinton over at Backcountry Conservative is compiling a list of bloggers that have current or previous experience in the military. I guess my 21 years in the USAF on active duty and 4 additional years as a support contractor qualifies me.

Check out his list when you get a minute.

Thursday Three Responsibility- or Blame!

Well, its true, I did submit the Thursday Three questions to the originator of this most memorable and thriving meme. And, by doing so, I suppose I obligated myself to answering the questions. If I proposed the questions, I must have considered answers for the questions, right?

Not so much actually. I will admit to having watched 0 hours of the current Olympic extravaganza on television. None. Nada. I even predicted to my lovely spouse that this summer’s coverage would be the least watched of any previous games unless of course the terrorists got lucky and found one well-attended event to disrupt and so far, thankfully, that hasn’t happened.

So, what is my favorite Olympic event to watch? If we consider the summer and winter games, as opened up by Terry, I think my favorite sport to watch is the winter downhill skiing. Downhill skiing is so fast and so capable of hurting the participants that it really gets my attention. Remember, I grew up in the birthplace of downhill skiing, Indiana, so I think that has much to do with my fascination with gravity and ice. In the summer games, I do like watching some track & field events, high jumping and pole vaulting in particular but I think my favorite sport to watch might be the rowing events. Other bloggers concerns about events that involve synchronized activities notwithstanding, I like watching these very trim and strong athletes pulling oars in a rhythm that really speeds them across the water.

Its curious too, when I think about it, that rowing is really one of those left coast, ivy league kind of things that I normally disdain as effete and not worthy of real men (and women) but in spite of that, I like watching it. Go figure.

My least favorite Olympic sport to watch? Its gotta be the synchronized swimming. Come on! That’s an Olympic sport? Its not one I would spend a minute of time watching on television. I don’t care much for the weightlifting either. Or wrestling.

If I were wearing a US Olympic team jacket, I’d like it if there was a shooting team member patch on it. That 10 meter air rifle and air pistol shooting is tough stuff and I wish I was capable of accuracy just a little bit as good as those shooters.

So there’s my Thursday Three inputs. Maybe I’ll even be able to get into the habit of answering this meme!

You must go read this- take tissues

From Sgt Hook- about keeping open comments on his blog.

Thank you Sgt Hook for telling us about my son’s memorial in the plywood chapel. His Mom and I would also like to thank everybody kind and gracious enough to post their words and thoughts. I don’t know how we will be able to respond to all individually. His Mom and I are very proud of our soldier and your words and thoughts and our pride in our son will hopefully give us the strength to carry on, which we must for his siblings, his wife and his kids. Again thanks to all who have posted in this and every other blog and site.

Blas E. Galvan
MSG USA Retired

Read the entire thing including the comments. You will be reminded directly why this is the greatest country in the world.

John Kerry to address the Veterans of Foreign Wars

I heard that on the radio on my way to work this AM. I am unable to express how much I hope this goes horribly wrong for him. It is my supreme hope that these veterans bring things to throw at this guy; maybe oversized copies of his medals that he through away or just this summer's produce crop spoils.

I don't believe they will do anything untoward though. These are veterans he is addressing today and they, by and large, were taught and subscribe to better manners.

I do hope his little visit to their convention is a rousing failure though!

I took the night off

and did not work on the Tracker. My head was just too tired. And my wallet ended up just $373 lighter which was better than the earlier over $400 estimate. Anyway, the Raptors are leading agains the Billings team.

I think I'll get off this 'puter and go read a bit.

Why I hate taking my vehicles to the shop-

406 dollars! That's why! Dangitall, I'm unhappy! I wouldn't pay one place $300 because they insisted on replacing parts that didn't need replacing. So I did it myself, $60 for brake pads, another $11 for the rotor turning and I should have been done.

Except the grease seal into the axle got damaged and began puking axles grease out onto the caliper, wrecking my brand new $60 pads. In addition, the $125 parking brake shoes are also grease-soaked and must be replaced!

[Insert John Dean-like scream here]

I really, really hate situations like this. I am additionally unhappy that the Tracker is still on jackstands after much grunting and huffing and rasslin of a greasy, ungainly and heavy transmission last night. The transmission is still on the jack, not installed and I spent 20 bucks on a clutch alignment tool to replace the one that I already own that is hiding in some crevice of my workshop.

My karma is really in the toilet tight now. I suppose its really truckma but it still has me very grumpy.

There's something new up there at the top!

It just showed up- 5 minutes ago, no kidding. I have NO idea what it does and I'm a little afraid to touch it! You go try it!

Can anybody explain

the value of the little plastic rings and the clear, CD sized disc in a spindle of blank CD-Rs? What the heck are they for anyway? Does anybody have an improvised use for these bits of effluvia?

I was right...

I still have brake problems with the truck. Seems I split the grease seal getting everything back together and now its leaking onto the caliper and making a mess. Dangitall anyway!

I discovered this latest problem while running to the parts store to exchange the clutch disc for the Tracker. The geriatric guy behind the counter finally figured out that the first one was packaged wrong, then he produced one from in the back that is the right diameter and has the correct splines. It took him two tries and he never produced a box for the part, so I'm pretty certain he was hunting through boxes until he found a suitable part.

So I guess tonight I try to get the Tracker back on the road so I can put the truck into the shop tomorrow. I'm not going to mess with the truck's brakes any longer. I've done brakes all my life with complete confidence but I think I'll leave the fixes to this problem to my Ford dealer. It kinda hurts my feelers to not do it myself but brakes are important, these parts are heavy and I just don't want to wrestle it any further.

Making the Olympics Interesting- My Idea

I am sad to report that the IOC again this year disregarded my plan to make the Olympics a real spectacular spectator event.

What’s my plan?

Its simple really. Each athlete, upon entering the stadium for the big opening night ceremony, draws a slip of paper from a barrel. On each slip of paper is one event. Whatever event the athlete pulls from the barrel, that’s what they compete in during the Olympics. And no switching of slips!

Imagine weightlifters doing equestrian events, shot putters high jumping and trap shooters running hurdles! Wouldn’t that simple change make the Olympics much more fun?

Your ideas for fun match-ups go in the comments!

Oh, yeah, what else?

Well the Tracker did NOT get its clutch changed this weekend, though it would have if the parts counter guy would have sold me the correct part! Noah & I took it apart today and the tear down went so smoothly it was surprising, almost as if we had planned it. Right up until the part where I tried to fit the clutch plate onto the input splines of the tranny... Hmmm, the hole's too big!

Let me see that old plate! Rats! Definitely the wrong part. Too big overall and the hole is too big too. Done for the day. Nothing to do but cleanup and wait for the parts store tomorrow. Dang it all!

The 2000 Ford F-250 truck did get new brakes installed this weekend on Saturday. One of the discs got to squalling and I wanted the local Les Schwab store to fix the brakes but they only do them with replacement calipers as part of the job! Yikes, $305 before taxes and another $105 if the disc had to be replaced!

So I went and bought my own brake shoes and went home to do the job myself. I didn't know that the axles had to be pulled to get the discs off... But I figured it out ok, I just couldn't figure out how to move the house over the 3 inches I needed to get the axle out on that side! Just one disc got turned... And possibly one of the calipers needs changing too, it doesn't seem to be pulling back like it should and that was the side that was worn through.

I'm probably not done with brakes.

I got stung by another damm yellowjacket in my backyard this weekend and boy if that hasn't made me cranky and tired. This time it was just above my shorty sock. I swell significantly from these wretched critters and so my getting around was significantly impaired. That was Friday and I spent all evening with my foot propped up and antihistimines washed down with beer trying to reduce the swelling. Saturday I could barely get my shoe on but I stayed moving long enough to finish the truck's brake job, then called it a day. Today was better but my leg and foot are still mighty puffy.

The yellowjackets have a nest, hive, swarm, whatever hidden behind the railroad ties that elevate the veggie garden, right next to where I walk to get to the shop. Two cans of long-distance spray has not seemed to significantly reduce their numbers. I haven't felt good enough to come up with a better plan for their demise just yet. Whatever the plan, I think its goiing to require fire...

Now I must go fold laundry before bedtime. Its Sunday night and if my laundry's not folded and put away, it screws up my whole week.

I Did NOT get the 10 Million Dollars last week...

But I did get the go-ahead to find out how much it would cost to buy a couple kits and the instructions to install the modification to the landing lights. While this approval was not a full-on, "go ahead and do it" blessing, it was at least an indication that the powers that hold the purse strings are interested and willing to press futher ahead.

In case you missed it, I had a significant meeting to attend last week and my purpose was to convince the commands that own the F-16 that they should spend that previously mentioned $10 million to improve the taxi lighting system on a large number of the jets. Right now the light is on a main lnding gear strut and its light is blocked by a number of accoutrements that have been hung on the jet over the years. Moving the light out to the front of the airplane, onto the nose landing gear puts much more light out on the runway & taxiways and significantly improves the pilot's view while moving on the ground.

So I did not get the whole grundle of money. The approval to develop a cost estimate for a test or two was all I really expected and was better than my co-worker Matt got for his proposal. Woohoo! I was able to restrain myself from running a victory lap around the conference table but I was very pleased with the outcome.

I also discovered, after the conference, that the stated time to install this modification might be horribly overstated. I met up with one of the engineers that had his fingers in this program initially and he told me that the 91 hours to install was based on all the operational checks that must be accomplished whenever wire connections are disconnected.

So it was a very hectic week at the job last week. I have also inherited a program to monitor CPI, Conductive Path Infrastructure, otherwise known as wires. And wire harnesses! Its a "still-in-development," online, tracking system to monitor how many man-hours are spent troubleshooting and repairing wires in the jet. The AF has for years cared deeply about every component in the jet with a wire attached to it, they are just now figuring out that an awful bunch of manpower goes into fixing the wires. This program tracks and reports wire issues by airplane, unit, or wire but its just a developmental system and now its time to make it a real program and get it funded for every F-16. And it looks like it wil be my job to make all the arrangemenets, beg for the funding and approvals and institutionalize it. this could be fun...

More ramblings

The Tracker's busted with a cooked clutch so I guess I know what I'll do this weekend... Seems the Boy, on the first day of his summer road trip got it buried out on the Bonneville Salt Flats. He drove too close to a drainage area, (he didn't know, nothing's marked) and dropped the front wheels right through the salt crust into the water below! So girlfriend Lily had to do the rocking and revving while Noah dug and pushed and pulled until he got it extricated.

Getting free managed to get the clutch slipping pretty good and the boy didn't think to readjust the cable to the proper place afterwards. San Francisco's steep hills heated it up again and he basically learned to deal with it for the rest of the trip.

So its cooked. I've got a used pressure plate, throwout bearing and pilot bearing out in the shop, just no clutch disc. So sometime early this week I've got to get that on order someplace.

Now the question is- do we take out the engine & tranny as a unit and swap the clutch outside the car or just drop the tranny from under the car? And do we put in the recently purchased spare engine or hold it in reserve and put back in the smooth running but cracked motor? Getting the tranny out from under will be tricky, (we've done it before) because the dang thing's long, nearly 4 feet long from bellhousing flange to tailshaft. Reason being, the 4WD transfer case is integral and hangs off the back of the transmission. So its going to be a weekend of wrenching and in the mean time I'm carpooling him to the Job Corp and home again afterwards.

Now its late and Jay Leno's Tonight Show will be on in just a little while, so I'm quitting. Its Monday night so its time for Headlines, my favorite bit of television all week. I'll miss anything but Headlines!

I'm still here,

just busy and tired when I'm not busy. So apologies for not having put up anything since last week. That's lousy of me, I know. This week will not be much better. Tomorrow is a major meeting that I am a co-coordinator and that means putting on my best clothes and smile and making sure to keep the coffee pots full. My two planned briefings are Wednesday and today I learned that I will have to do a 3rd briefing Wednesday afternoon, this one to a visiting Colonel that wants to know what my plans are for his wing of airplanes.

I signed up for classes again today, Vendor Management and Intro to Computers. Both are Tuesday & Thursday nights, so I'll be in class from right after work until 10 PM those 2 nights. I could have applied for and received credit for the computer class but that wouldn't have gotten me paid by the VA. So its better to just take the easy class and get the grade and get paid for taking the class. And the Vendor Management class is going to be the last class taught by professor Wilcox who has been my instructor for the statistics and Algebra classes I've taken over the past two terms. I really like the guy and his teaching methods so I decided I should jump on this 400 level class while I could get it from him.

I built a new potato gun last week just for fun. This one is the typical pvc cannon with a 4" chamber and 2" barrel. Overall, its nearly 5', 6", taller than me. Son Noah and I took it out to the desert Sunday. It will shoot a 2" chunk of potato farther than you can see! Great fun, though its not very loud. This one seems to only make a whoosh sound rather than a bang when the thing gets lit. Maybe I just need a different brand of hairspray...

Much, much business going on

I've been PowerPointing non-stop on the job since Tuesday, now I'm cranking up to kill several trees by running them through the printer and copy machines to make handouts. I've also got to make artwork for the handouts and the table name tags and then start hole-punching all the copies piling up on the table.

And it all has to be done before Monday. Cohort Matt and I have been hard at this, calling and collecting briefings from the slow and slacker crowd that always neglects their deadlines. We are printing 15 copies each of 28 different briefings, of which we both had to prepare two each.

Monday is setup and Tuesday and Wednesday will be a medium sized conference that we are hosting, giving briefings, running the computer, taking notes and in my case, pitching a request for money to complete one of my programs.

I need $10 million to buy parts and pay for installation of an improved taxi light on 600+ F16s. The one they have now is bad, very bad. It was always bad from the beginning but other modifications have hung a large pod in front of the light making it pretty much useless for taxiing. With an agreement from the commands that own the jets I can press on with providing a relocated to the front of the airplane taxi light that really lights stuff up!

I actually think they might pay...

Best Advert Ever

Found tonight over at Redsugar Muse. Go have a laugh! Its even safe for work. This really made me laugh outloud.

John F'n Kerry- hunter and hunter's friend...

This article claims that John F'n Kerry has television ads proclaiming him to be a hunter. Not to put too fine a point on it but the photo I see is of the senator at a trap range, not hunting. I also read that JFK claimed to love deer hunting by "crawling on his belly through the woods with his shotgun..." Crawling on his belly? Oh please...

Come on- if JFK ever hunted deer by crawling on his belly, he had a camera operator there to film it for his archives. Where's the film?

The campaign is running television commercials that show Kerry hunting. It is also distributing campaign literature touting Kerry’s support of the Second Amendment.

This public-relations effort has infuriated the National Rifle Association (NRA).

“He’s not a hunter; he’s just playing one on TV,” said Chris Cox, the NRA’s chief lobbyist. “The guy has voted consistently against gun owners. It’s politics at its worst.”

And he took time out of his busy campaign schedule to vote for the Assault Weapons Ban extension few weeks back.

If you care-

I did add some links to my post about the weekend, as promised.

My new desktop picture

Is right here. Tomorrow when I get to work I am making this my background on my 'puter screen!Ilove it!

Kerry says he is ready to report to work!

Oh wait! He says he will be there"when neccesary."

Kerry said Bush should immediately call a special session of Congress to implement the recommendations of the Sept. 11 commission, and he said he would interrupt his campaigning to be there for debate and voting "when necessary."

"When we are at war, we need to do the things that make us safe rapidly, immediately," Kerry said. "If there is something that will make America safer, it should be done now, not tomorrow."

First of all, John F'n Kerry gets my back up just because, unlike Bob Dole, he hasn't had the decency to retire his Senate seat to run for president. Its wrong to be holding public office and to be absent from that duty for months at a time while off doing what you think is more important.

So I have no belief that should President Bush call Congress to a special session that Senator Kerry would be there for anything except a grandstanding speech and the voting, should there be any. He made that pretty clear I think.

Secondly, on this subject of the president implementing these changes to the intelligence world that he recommended today, what would have been John F'n Kerry's words if these ideas had been implemented two years ago? Maybe that the president was rushing into changes that weren't warranted and had not been properly researched? That proper consideration wasn't being applied to this big issue? Yeah, I think so. There is no way that any action taken by President Bush would not have been immediately condemmed, no matter what the action was.

Even the BSU, who supports JFK, said yesterday that his condecending attitude poured through when he was talking to middle-class folks and claiming to represent them. Even she could see that his words just don't ring true.

And I am sick to death of hearing him brag about his 4 months and 3 cuts from Vietnam! The man's no hero dammit! He was a cry-baby that claimed Purple Hearts for Band-Aid covered scratches that by some reports he caused himself, he had time to film himself in homemade recreations of battles and he bailed out instead of doing his time. Then he made it worse by defiling the duty and lives of all servicemen when he bragged to Congress how he had committed atrocities or seen them.

The man's a liar, a flip-flopper and does NOT represent me! Nor will he ever if I can encourage you not to vote for him in November.

Later we'll discuss his plan to hire 200,000 new military members...

Yes! Mark Hacking is in Jail!

No longer just a "person of interest," now he's a suspect and has been arrested and put in jail. Good! Not too surprising really.

Police said that 50 minutes before Hacking called police, he telephoned friends to say his wife was missing. During that time, he went out and bought a queen-sized mattress without a box spring.

Now perhaps Lori's body can be located and she can be laid to rest properly.

Did I mention I've met this guy? He was working at the same hospital where he has been a patient for the past two weeks and that's the same hospital where the BSU was a patient 2 years ago. I remember him being the orderly that helped get her checked in when she transfered from the hospital in Ogden.

The other creepy thing about this character is that his actions could easily those of the BSU's first hubby. Many of Mark's circumstances are eerily similar and the BSU could easily ended up in Lori's predicament if she hadn't left him when she did. The sub-standard performance, particularly in relation to his siblings, the lying about plans and goals, the devotion to the LDS belief system were all aspects of her first hubby that made him a scary character.

He broke into her apartment one weekend, after I moved in, loaded one of my handguns and waited for us to return on a Sunday night. Luckily, we didn't return until Monday. When the break-in and the loaded weapon and missing photographs were discovered, we had him arrested. And I carried that same gun daily for a few weeks until he moved away...

Anyway, I got distracted. Sorry. I'm just glad that Mark Hacking is on his way to a long time in lock-up somewhere.

I'm Free! I'm Free!

Well then, school’s out for three weeks. Not quite Alice Cooper’s, “School’s Out Forever,” but three weeks will be a decent break. Maybe I’ll even be able to crank up my posting quality because I realize that things have been pretty terrible lately in that regard. I did warn you about it some months ago…

So the weekend was as relaxing as I could make it. Friday involved a trip to Salt Lake for a Doc visit for the spouse and we took the opportunity to visit the Titanic artifacts display at the ZCMI shopping center. It was an interesting display and I admit the Titanic story is a fascinating one, but I was underwhelmed by the quantity of artifacts in the display. It was nice and all, it just didn’t have an abundance of things to look at. Somehow, I guessed there would be more things to see.

Something I did not know about the Titanic- it required one pound of coal to move one foot! The White Lines management was so concerned that the coal supply not run low on the ship’s maiden voyage that the coal was stacked up in the crew’s dining room!

So, I didn’t intend this post be all about boat but about the weekend. So where was I? Baseball- I went to a Raptor’s baseball game Friday night for another bit of relaxation with America’s game. I’ve actually been to Lindquist Field three times this summer and haven’t taken the time to write about the pleasure I get from going to a ball game. So Friday night was another night of watching baseball and it was a grand time. And the Raptors won, 13-10.

The rest of the weekend was spent in the yard with just a trip to the grocery store for the twice-monthly restocking of vittles. The shop got cleaned up, though that job’s not finished, the front yard received another dose of Turf Builder to get it greened up, the back yard got watered thoroughly and I finally got the guns cleaned that were used during the Oregon vacation.

Oh, I added a rear sight to my Kel-Tec P3AT too. The gun is designed with two small painted dots inset into the top of the slide and they are just barely adequate for the gun’s intended use. But one of the guys on the Kel-Tec Range developed a proper rear sight to improve the sight picture and the disparity between the point of aim and the point of impact and I decided I had to have one for my gun. The sight is a tiny bit of plastic that glues into the machined slot already in the slide. It seems to be a really well made piece and the instructions are first rate making installation simple. I’ve not yet shot the gun with its new sight but since I didn’t go shooting over the weekend, a trip to the range might be in order this week.

No links right now for all this good stuff I’ve put in this post but I will correct that this evening. Work is busy this week and the network connection has been poor. I’m also back to making PowerPoint charts for a couple briefings next week. So posting at work will be limited and I’ll do better from the homestead.

Families Call off Search

Mark Hacking has apparently been talking, just enough that the family of Lori Hacking disclosed to the media that there is no further need to search.

Police focused on Mark Hacking early in the investigation and have uncovered a life full of lies. He never graduated from the University of Utah in psychology and never applied to medical school as his family believed. Mark and Lori Hacking were just days away from moving to North Carolina; he had told family he has been accepted to the medical school at Chapel Hill.
And the morning he said his wife disappeared, Mark Hacking told police he had run his wife's normal three-mile jogging route twice. Actually, he was at a South Salt Lake furniture store, buying a new mattress. Police seized a mattress from a Dumpster behind a church. They also recovered a small amount of blood, a knife and a box spring, along with bags of other evidence, from the Hackings' apartment. That evidence is now at the state crime lab undergoing analysis.

Maybe shortly he will no longer be "a person of interest," but a real, no-kidding suspect! We can hope.

"Person of Interest" Not suspect...

What crap! Lori Hacking update. And her last name is starting to carry a little too much irony. The husband's still keeping himself stashed away at the U's psych unit while his story is unraveling faster every day. You can read about it here

"We learned a lot of things in his life that are not true," Detective Dwayne Baird said Tuesday. "Medical school was the pinnacle of that deception."

I was wondering about the timeline when Lori had been last seen by someone, this report says she and her hubby were seen together Sunday evening, the night before hubby called in her disappearance.

Its also being reported by credible sources that Mark Hacking was sent home from his LDS mission early- a terrible disgrace for any Mormon missionary. (Currently the link won't open to get you a quote. Sorry.) Anyway, its being reported that maybe Mark had a little trouble keeping his paws off the pretty girls he converted while in Canada and was sent home reprimanded and disgraced.

My Research Paper is turned in, graded and returned

Its titled, "The Second Amendment- Underenforced, Misunderstood or Simply Ignored?" If you want to read it, say so and I will gladly share it, either via email or perhaps by posting it online. If nobody cares that's ok too.

The important bit was the instructor's comments. She said:

I can unreservedly say that I've never had such a well researched essay on the 2nd Amendment. You certainly taught me a great deal.

Oh yeah, I scored 180 out of 200 possible points! That makes me very happy...

Don't I feel Special...

and not in that Nemo "special fin," let's just call a gimp a gimp kind of way either!

I did NOT attend today's staff meeting. I should have attended because since I moved over to NG, I've only managed to make it to one meeting. But staff meetings overlap with my Algebra class and the last day of review was today and the final's over the next two days- so I skipped the meeting and went to class.

And I got a present from the meeting in spite of my absence! I'm a sucker for gadgets- hey, I am a guy after all, and I was offered my choice of either a NG labeled USB 4 way splitter, a USB memory plug or a credit card sized mult-tool with a compass, can & bottle opener, magnifying glass, tweezers and two screwdrivers! Oh, and a ruler on one side.

Guess which one I chose?

I had to have the multi-tool now didn't I? Its got a compass! If it had a lcd digital clock on the front it would be completely perfect. It will never pass an alert TSA scrutiny in a carry on bag due to the pointy steel opener but hey, its got tweezers. And a magnifying glass! It makes me want to run home and play in the yard and try to locate and fry some ants!

Yeah- gadgets!

Mmm, Pears!

Well, its Terry’s fault really for putting pears and targets into the same sentence those two things reminded me of a story. I had to comment over there at Possumblog but its only fair that after dropping such a teaser, I tell the whole story.

The year is 1974, the place, my folk’s back yard in the center of the town of Alliance Ohio. I had just graduated high school. Its summer, its hot and the pear tree in the back yard has been dropping pears in the yard making a mess of things. The primary characters in this story, besides this scribe were my girlfriend, (who occasionally leaves comments around here as “BJ” and is usually referred to as the XSU), and at least 2 of my younger brothers. Tim and Mark were certainly there, I don’t recall if Pete was involved.

A little geography lesson is required in here someplace. Our house is an older place and bordered on one side by an alley that passed completely through the block. All of our parking was behind the house and off the alley and the alley from either direction was our driveway. At least we thought so. My brother Mark still owns and lives in that house BTW and it has kept him busy fixing and improving things.

Anyway, since this was 1974 and we did not yet have an internet connection or access to the World Wide Web, we knew nothing about PVC pipe potato cannons. We didn’t have any of those new-fangled electronic sparkers or multi-barreled rigs that came around with the advent of the internet. Instead, we had hand cannons! Ours were made from soda cans with the ends cut out and taped together end to end with our dad’s duct tape. (You knew duct tape was going to get into this story, didn’t you?) The can on the bottom didn’t get the ends removed, just a nail hole punched through the bottom and the normal zip tab hole in the top.

IMPORTANT SAFETY DISCLAIMER! These cannons were made from soda and beer cans back when they were still made from steel! Do not try this with aluminum soda cans! Serious injury might result. Just go drink a 6 pack of Slim-Fast, it still comes in suitable steel cans! Or experiment with PVC- its far superior.

Alright, that said, these cannons were normally about 4 or 5 or 6, 12 ounce cans tall. If you worked at it, you could carefully expand the rim of the top can big enough to load a tennis ball just to the depth of that first can. After that, with a splash of lighter fluid squirted in the bottom can through the nail hole and then evaporated through vigorous swinging of the whole contraption for a few seconds and a second person to strike the wooden kitchen match and hold it ever-so-carefully at the same draft hole, you could launch a tennis ball for two blocks!

Or the cannon would split apart at the tape seams.

Whatever the result, the entire process resulted in loud booms whenever the lighter fluid vaporized at the insistence of the match. Flames shooting out the top were pretty normal. It was possible to shoot a brightly colored green tennis ball straight up completely out of sight if you had a table to support your cannon vertically. And these fun little toys generate a bit of recoil, as you might imagine, so hanging on to one required some real determination.

Ok, you can probably see how these hand cannons were perfect toys for teenaged boys… Noise, flames, dangerous chemicals, things blowing up, what’s not to like?

So, there we were, the bunch of us, just hanging around the house on a quiet Sunday afternoon and complaining about the bees that were gathering over the rotting pears under the tree. “Hmm, are you thinking what I’m thinking?”

“Yeah! Go get a hand cannon!” While the pears did not fit as snugly as a tennis ball in the top of the can, they did make an ever so satisfying splat when they hit the street at the far end of the alley. In fact the pears made a fantastic juicy mess when they expired after a 60 yard flight! What fun! What terrific entertainment!

And our fun probably went on like that for 30 minutes or more. We all took turns holding the cannon and lighting and laughing and generally just relocating the mess in our yard into the street at the end of the alley.

Right up until the police cruiser turned up the alley… We grabbed our soda cans and everybody bailed into the basement through the stairs at the back of the house. “Maybe he won’t see us…” So I peaked out. The patrol car came half way up the alley, skidded to a stop and blocked our driveway access. “Hey! He’s got his gun pointed at our house! They both have their guns drawn!”

Hmm. Guess I ought to go out and see what the nice policemen want… Being the oldest, I headed out, trying to look sheepish, harmless and most of all, unarmed. “Can I help you officers?” Wow, look at that- both ends of the alley are blocked with patrol cars and there are serious looking policemen with shotguns pointed down our way.

“Show your hands! Show some ID!” Ok, I did that just as requested. “Where’s the shotgun?” “Shotgun, officer?” “Yes, the shotgun! We got a report that there were people shooting pears with a shotgun and the mess at the end of the street seems to support that call!”

Oh, so that’s what this is all about… “No sir, we don’t have any shotgun; that would be dangerous! Why, we’ve just been playing with these taped together soda cans…”

“Show me!” “Yes sir, you see we just squirt the lighter fluid in here, swing it around, hold the match…” “And that’s how the pears got in the street?” “Yes sir, do you want me to show you?”

“No! I want you to stop immediately with those cannons! No more in the city limits- none, nada, don’t you dare disrupt the peace and tranquility with those things again!”

And the six policemen put away their guns and three squad cars went away, leaving us to a quiet summer Sunday afternoon. Shooting the pears into a pond outside of town was never as much fun as it was that day in the back yard.

What a Ride!

I'm just guessing but I'll bet that the driver of this truck had a few bad words to say... I also hope his duffle with the clean boxers survived... Yikes!

Google is Offline...

I have NEVER seen that before! I suspect a horrible terrorist plot to disrupt the entire world's internet searching... Very weird.

Thousands of Volunteers Join Search for Hacking

Its not looking good for Lori Hacking- more than a week and no success at all in finding her. Even the authorities are saying that the searchers are probably looking for her body at this point.

The families are completely grief-stricken and have appointed a spokesperson and the cops aren't saying much at all about evidence in the case. There's details and pictures at KSL TV.

The whole story reeks of "the husband did it," after hearing the evidence that has surfaced last week. So far, the "eye witness' that saw Lori at her car stretching has recanted, the hubby was out buying a new mattress first thing on a Monday morning and then called the police to report Lori missing in less time than it takes to drive from the mattress store to their apartment. The police have impounded a dumpster, searched and removed items from the house and perhaps found a bloody knife.

And of course the hubby's bizarre behaviour since Lori went missing doesn't help a bit.

So remember- you heard it here first. Its a Laci Peterson repeat and its going to be a sordid story when it all gets displayed in the light of day.

If you were invited over to tonight's poker game...

Its off. Sorry. The BSU just rang to say she is returning tonight. We will have to try it again when she stays out of town a little longer...

Catching Up!

As long as I'm still sittin here I might as well fill everyone in on some of last week's adventures. I mentioned that our elderly Dalmation, Abigail had surgery on her foot; she's getting better and going back to the vet tomorrow for new bandages and a checkup. She and Sandy were both exceptionally happy to be home after I picked them up on Tuesday morning.

Vacation went well really, about 3 days to short but better that than 3 days too long. The BSU and I headed out last Wednesday headed for the Oregon coast after an overnight stop in Baker City Oregon. The trip was uneventful and pleasant and when we arrived Thursday afternoon, Noah and Lily were waiting for us and most of the family were on scene as well.

So our camper went up and we got settled in. There was tons of food and communal meals at Mary's camper and all the BSU's 6 sisters showed up but one. So its a relaxed time of visiting, catching up, eating and some trip over the sand dune to the beach to wade in the waves. Definitely no swimming for this thin-skinned boy though! This is the Pacific Ocean, not the the Gulf of Mexico, so its much to cold for anything but walking in!

I took two brother-in-laws and son Noah out one afternoon and we found a logging road where we could shoot my guns that I had carefully stashed away and brought along. That was a pleasant diversion for one afternoon, the next day several of us went down to the Tillamook Air Museum for a visit. This museum is housed in the largest wooden structure inthe world and the building and its story are truly as interesting as the airplanes it houses. The best part was the basketball backstop and hoop that was installed over the door like it was put there to while away the hours shooting hoops- its 120 feet above the floor! We all had a good laugh over that!

Sunday we pulled out of the campground and headed for the BSU's hometown of St. Helens where we got a room and spent the evening doing laundry and visiting at sister mary's house. Lots more food, left over from the weekend!

Anyway, as usual, the BSU was not ready to head home to Utah after getting her toes stuck in the Oregon dirt, so I left her there when I returned on Monday. She said she wasn't staying a whole week but she hasn't called yet to say that she has a flight scheduled... So, at least I've less distraction from completing my schoolwork! I guess she will let me know when I'm to be at the airport and expecting her. And I hope she's not expecting me to clean house like I normally do in her absence...

The kids, Noah & Lily finished their road trip on Sunday night, safely back in Ogden. They left the beach on Saturday and spent the night at the half-way point to avoid pulling 14 hours straight on the road in that Tracker. The trucklet made quite a fine showing for itself overall, I'm very pleased that it took them so far safely and with only the problem of the loose drum bolts causing a problem and delay. That's pretty commenable for a 15 year old rig of undeterminate history before 3 years ago.

I think they had a pretty good time overall but Lily may never agree to sleep in a tent again. She's a girly-girl and really prefers the luxury of a mattress and running water, but she survived. They did do much more driving than realxing and playing on the beach but it was a good trip for them overall. And a little surprisingly, they are still talking to each other upon their return! Good for them.

That's it in a few paragraphs. When the research paper's done maybe there will be more details. 'Night.

Its bedtime and I'm just beginning to blog...

My paper is officially late as of tonight and its only in the roughest of states. Three pages and while not incoherent, its not good. I've actually located more source data than I can use and everytime I dig a little deeper, I'm chest deep in reading the Federalist Papers and trying to understand what our Founding Fathers had in mind when they wrote and later ratified our Constitution.

That's right, I'm writing about the 2nd Amendment. I should be buying a paper from Kevin Baker over at the Smallest Minority or Oleg Volk at A Human Right or at the very least plagerizing their fine work but I'm trying to understand and develop my own paper. I've bitten off way more than I can manage! I'm also not trying to write this paper supporting one aspect of the 2nd Amendment over the other but rather I'm trying to show how throughout our history, the 2nd Amendment has been read and interpreted differently than the others, principally the 1st Amendment.

Its not possible to discuss this issue without talking about guns but I'm really trying to instead consider what our Founding Fathers meant when they wrote about "militia" and about "people." Then I want to compare the uses of those definitions as they are applied to other amendments.

Its interesting, and challenging but it is making me nuts! I'm just really having a hard time finding my voice in this paper. Anyway, its late and I hate that. The instructor will accept it through Saturday night without penalizing me so I will get it finished. I may not do much else until its done, but I will get it done!

Sounds Like Lacy Peterson all over again...

and here in Utah this time... Missing woman's in-laws: Son lied about medical school

Police: 'Probably foul play involved'

The parents of a missing pregnant woman's husband told reporters Wednesday they had just learned that their son lied about being accepted to a medical school in North Carolina.

Mark Hacking has been questioned by police about his missing wife and authorities have impounded his car. He is not under arrest.

"Mark Hacking is in a safe place and we've been talking to him," said Salt Lake City Police Detective Kevin Joiner in a phone interview with CNN.

Local news today reports that Hacking is under psychiatric care and it sounds like a suicide watch as well. But his story about going off to medical school is completely bogus. He apparently doesn't even have the Bachelor's degree that his inlaws had been told he received from the University of Utah!

Needless to say this is getting major attention from our local news agencies. Elizabeth Smart's family has jumped back into the news as well with offers of instruction to the family to help deal with the media. There's going to be much more to this story in the upcoming weeks.

There's more here.

No dirty words in our books!

Today there's this bit of wonderment from behind the Zion Curtain: Library user cutting 'bad' words from popular book series By Lori Buttars- The Salt Lake

Davis County library officials are facing a mystery that only Jessica Fletcher could solve.
It seems a library patron has been busy crossing out the "hells" and "damns" in books based on the the popular ''Murder, She Wrote'' TV series and changing them to "hecks" and "darns."
Layton library workers are at a loss as to what to do about the self-appointed censor who is blotting out the purple prose with a purple pen.

The best part is the librarian's plan to halt the offender-

"Our best hope is that this individual has a moment of revelation and desists."

Yeah, right.

Still too busy to play...

Impending algebra finals and an as yet unwritten and due Thursday night research paper are getting in the way...

I did notice that Anna's returned to blogging over at Primal Purge. Check her out if you've missed her unique take on life.
 
 

I'm Back!

But busier 'n a 3 legged cat in a litter box. No time right now to explore the new Blogger toys or to fill you in on all the fun details that can be packed into 1829 miles of driving in just 6 days!

That'a IT! I'm Outa Here on Vacation!

We're leaving as soon as I get the truck loaded up, the second dog dropped off at the vet, the firewood picked up, groceries bought and the BSU's sneakers come out of the dryer. What the heck is she doing that for? Might as well throw cinder blocks into that rotating drum!

So, lots to do before we pull out. We are on our way to the Oregon coast for the 3rd annual Sister's weekend camping trip. The BSU has 6 sisters and a plethora of hanger-on cousins and nieces so this camping weekend turns into a pretty big deal. We will be traveling as far as Nampa, Idaho tonight or maybe Baker, Oregon, spending the night and finishing the journey tomorrow.

We will be traveling back next Monday and in between we will be resting, eating, walking on the beach and generally catching up with familial gossip. I will be trying to to some Algebra as well.

The kid's are safely out at the beach having driven all the way up to Astoria, Oregon and are now apparently enjoying more beach and less driving. I'm anxious to hear the details when we catch up tomorrow afternoon.

And I will not be posting live from the beach, so you will have to catch up after I return. This will be a comletely analog weekend, no laptop, no digital camera and no wireless internet connection. So go visit the rest of the blogworld and check back next week!

Abigail the dalmation is in the hospital right now

She's our elderly and beloved spotted dog. She had surgery yesterday to remove a torn toenail. We thought the vet was actually going to remove the entire toe but instead he simply removed the broken toe and part of the nail bed. She also had a number of skin tags removed from her eyelids, a tumor removed from the same foot as the injured toe and her teeth cleaned.

We stopped in to see her last night after her surgery and she seemed to be doing pretty well. She stayed there though since the vet will be boarding her and the other dog Sandy while we are away later this week. I made certain that her tag on her cage got marked for a bed-time Milk Bone because she really likes her Milk Bones.

Anyway, I hate it that she's not feeling very good right now.

My latest religious artifact has arrived!

Its the Stevens Favorite 22 rifle that I mentioned in a previous post. Of course Bob the gun dealer called me while I was in the truck with the BSU to tell me of the arrival.

So I'm on the phone and I'm making plans to come by and pick it up and get the BCI check accomplished, and before 7PM when the BCI quits each day, and do I want to pick it up on Tuesday, all while the BSI is listening to just my side of the conversation.

"Who was that?"

"That was Bob, from work."

"Who's Bob? Why is he calling you?"

"He wants me to look at some things."

"What things?"

"Just some religious artifacts. He's a dealer in religious artifacts."

"WHAT?"

"He's a gun dealer. Its about guns. Leave it alone."

"YOU DON"T NEED ANY GUNS! YOU'RE GOING ON VACATION AND YOUR DOG'S JUST HAD SURGERY AND YOU CAN'T AFFORD ANY GUNS!"

Heh! I Didn't tell her it was already bought and paid for...

The Gospel according to Cyclic rate.

You must go read this! Its absolutely hysterical. And, of course, I want to be a member. Its only proper since I live just a couple miles from St John's home and I've already visited the shrine of his honest-to-goodness, workshop which is almost directly west of me in the Union-Pacific Station museum. Here's some highlights but go read the whole thing. And make sure to see the comments too! Thanks To Kevin at Smallest Minority for pointing me to it.

For, in the beginning, God did give a great gift upon Saint John Moses, and He said unto him:
"Go, John Moses, and create what I have designed for you to create. Create Holy Artifacts for the just and righteous to carry by their side, so that they shall not fear wherever they roam for all the days of their lives."

I've gotta get me one of those artifacts just as soon as I can...

Kid's Road Trip- Day 4

Well they didn't call home last night and the phone call we made went directly to the voice mail- again... I'm pretty certain the phone itself is at fault.

Anyway, they spent the night in Eureka California, I know that because I'm watching their ATM activity! Eureka's at least 100 miles north of Ft Bragg, so apparently they got the wheel nut and lug problems fixed and got back on their way. Good for them.

They are nearly out of California and into Oregon. I hope they are finally starting to relax and anjoy the trip instead of stressing out over the details as they have been so far. Noah did say that they stopped and played in some tide pools a couple days ago so they must be having a little bit of fun along the way.

Spiderman II, I saw it too

and I agree with Citizen Smash! I hadn't really thought it though as well as he did but I think he is spot-on for his commentary. I didn't even see Spiderman I but I really liked this current movie. The BSU hated it, told me afterwards that she almost walked out to find something else in the cineplex to watch. But I really liked it. Its a great summer blockbuster movie and I think that Smash's commentary is terrific.

And so is the movie.

A couple things that have made me laugh out loud

First there's this one and then this one and finally this one.

One more!

Kid's Summer Road Trip Update- Day 3

The kids are in Ft Bragg California, though son Noah says he saw nothing passing through the first time that indicated there was an Army base there. They actually were further north but had to retreat to Ft Bragg as the Tracker has developed a problem.

Seems the nuts that hold the brake drum to the hub on one rear wheel have worked loose and they were in danger of losing the drum and wheel! Noah of course, as is his usual, called to say that the entire rear axle was about to fall out of the car, when it reality it is some loose and now damaged lug bolts and nuts.

This is especially aggravating because I just had that brake drum off the car last week! I did use the impact gun to run the nuts back on tight, though I admit I didn't come back along with a breaker bar to double check the torque on the nuts. For some reason, this Tracker has been harder on lug nuts and studs than any vehicle I have ever owned. I've replaced all the lug nuts at least once and most of the studs, either in the drums that secure the wheel or the hub to drum studs. (The parts are all the same.) Anyway, it has been a continual problem and it has resurfaced on this trip.

They actually had to creep back into town they were so concerned and Noah found a hotel room right across the street from one of the few auto repair shops in town. Hopefully he will find some competant assistance this morning and be back on their way soon.

Noah sounded pretty stressed when he called, he's sounded stressed from the first night when he called. I'm guessing that he is thinking that he bit off a little bigger trip than he expected. He suggested last night that Lily might be a fine Valium candidate right about now... Well, they wanted to be grownups and have an adventure so I guess this is working out just about right... Traveling is tough and finding your way on unknown roads and figuring out where to find a place to sleep and managing automobile breakdowns is all part of the adventure. I just hope they relax long enough to let the fun part soak in.

His dang cell phone continues to act up, working some times and burning up the minutes in huge chunks, then not working at all. I think it is actually the phone, which you might remember, I tried to save from the landfill by reusing. Now I'm catching hell from him and the BSU about cheaping out! Its a "dammed if I do, dammed if I don't" situation so there's nothing for me to do but ride it out.

Kitten found swimming 3 miles offshore in Gulf of Mexico

How in the hell did this happen?

But as the boat got closer and slowed down, she found it was a tiny, apricot-colored kitten. Nine inches long and screaming at the top of its lungs, the cat was paddling furiously.

The story mentions 40 other boats in the general vicinity of where the kitten now named Nemo was found. I hope the kitten in the water was an accident and not an act of cruelty.

My Hot Wheels paper from last week?

I got an "A!" Hah! The BSU bet me that it wouldn't be that good. And I showed her! The instructor was very pleased with the paper and my writing style. I didn't get all the punctuation in that she thought should be there and I forgot to list my sources on the works cited page alphabetically. Somebody out there should have called me on that!

Anyway, the instructor liked it and had good things to say about my ability to make a subject that she would normally have ignored interesting and readable. Now I just have to get to work on my 2nd Amendment paper...

Kid's Road Trip Map is Online!

You can see it here. All I know for certain is that they spent the first night in Wells, Nevada and the second night in Colfax, California. No idea where they are tonight.

No phone call yet tonight and the phone still goes directly to the voice mail when calling them from home. The BSU is most unhappy with the lack of phone calls to let her know they survived another day. I still think the cell phone battery has either failed or hasn't been charged, even though he assured me that he had the charger in the pile of wires that was part of the portable cd player pile.

What do ya bet he left the charger behind? And he hasn't figured out where to buy one yet?

UPDATE: He just called. On the cell phone. It seems to be working perfectly tonight. Anyway, they are staying the night in Bodega Bay, a little ways north of San Francisco. So far everything seems to be working ok though he did manage to heat up the Tracker's clutch while climbing some of the famous hills in San Francisco today. He reports high spirits and Lily's cooking skills improving!

Very Cool Photos of Space Ship One

A friend sent me this link to 49 photos of Scaled Composites exciting space ship and the leading contender for that million dollar X Prize. There's much better pictures here than I saw on the news sites when they flew into space a couple weeks ago. Check it out!

Update on the XSU's current BSU and his medical Condition-

He's healthy! At least he is cancer-free which was the big concern after he had lymph nodes removed last week. The first set of pathology results were inconclusive and the sampled cells were sent on to Johns-Hopkins hospital for review. Today he got the good news that he is apparently cancer free!

I'm very certain that a large cloud of concern has been lifted from their household and I'm reminded that prayer, properly applied, can be a very good thing. The XSU send her thanks to any or all of you that put her hubby & family on your prayer lists since last week.

Kid's Summer Road Trip- technical note

Just as soon as I get a few more free minutes I'm going to try to upload a picture of the map of the kid's route. I got started yesterday on this, it didn't go as smoothly as I expected and then I had to get back to the paying work.

I thought a route map with each day's stop might be fun to watch.

Kid's Summer Road Trip- Day 2

No phone call last night from the kids, so the BSU called his cell phone. He answered and was just able to tell his mom that they had made it safely to California and were spending the night in some trendy little town. Then the connection died.

He didn't call back. And when the BSU tried to hit redial to call him back, she was directed straight into voicemail. Hmm, Technical difficulties. I of course caught unholy grief from the BSU for "cheaping out" on the cell service that I bought off the internet and not setting the boy up with reliable service.

But I figured it out. I'm willing to bet that he was carrying around a cell phone with a dead battery! I'm certain that he didn't have it plugged into any car chargers since at least Thursday. And I'm also certain that he didn't have it plugged in during yesterday's travels because he's using a portable cd player that uses the only power point in the car!

So of course it was my fault for not foreseeing the need and providing a power point duplexer so that he could listen to his music and charge his cell phone...

The Kid's Road Trip- part 1

At 1:45 this afternoon they finally pulled out of the driveway and headed out for their own version of the Great American Road Trip. As they pulled out they hesitated just for a moment and as they turned into the street son Noah flipped something out the open window, something red and looking like paper. Yup, a wrapper full of lit Black cat firecrackers to celebrate their kickoff went bang in the street! So off they go on a trip of 2300 miles and 12 days adventure.

They did dawdle about and overpack like crazy and I stood around and directed and duct-taped and double-checked the oil levels. They were planning on two Korean fleece blankets for the tent! King size ones! I did insist that one would be more than comfy in addition to the sleeping bags, pads and multiple pillows that went along.

Remember, they are traveling in a 1990 Geo Tracker. Its a little bitty trucklet. We did remove the back seat and the seat belts in the back to increase the storage capacity but its still plenty crowded in there. I insisted that there be an emergency tool kit packed, its in an ammo can. There's also a first aid kit, 2 quarts of oil, a gallon of coolant, a gallon of green tea, lots of food, a camp stove, a battery powered lantern and two bulging bags of clothes.

The food box has cereal and lots of canned stuffs, Beef-A-Roni and boxed rice and noodle dinners. Fresh stuff they can get along the way and no doubt they will be hitting some of America's finest fast food joints for some variety too.

The first night's stop was supposed to be Reno Nevada, but that ain't happening with such a late start. Its 556 miles to Reno, all the way across Utah and all the way across Nevada, so with a 2PM start and a 70 MPH speed limitation, its just not practical. Winnemucca maybe or Battle Mountain will be better stopping places for the night.

I did give them one must-see suggestion for the trip just before they pulled out. One of the places they want to see is San Francisco, so I told them they had to go to Haight-Asbury. These two think of themselves as hippies, its apropriate they go visit the birthplace of the hippy movement.

Lastly, they have strict instructons to call home every night so we know they are safe. I'm jealous...

A New Look over at Across the Atlantic!

Lady Shel and the fine gentleman Lionel have upgraded and moved into some new blogging digs. Seems they have dumped Moveable Type for Word Press software. Its a nice look too so go check it out and say hey while you're over there.

Well then, where was I?

When last I wrote, you might remember, I was being spirited off by the BSU to resolve her hunger issue. I promised to be back to finis my weekend update, and, as my weekend has extended into today already, I guess I can continue the weekend update.

I'm not at work today. I was supposed to be but I called in this morning and took the day off. Or at least most of the day, I do have a phone conference at 1 that I really need to participate in so I'll try to get to work in time for that. In the mean time, already this morning I've met a guy and bought a Tracker motor from him, dropped the Tracker off at Les Schwab's Tire Store for an alignment, stopped by the insurance lady's office to add son Noah back onto my auto insurance policy, had breakfast at McDonalds and unloaded the motor out of my truck. Its 9:55 as I write this.

I've also got an Algebra mid-term test that is supposed to begin at 11:30 today, the Tracker won't be off the alignment rack until 11 and I still have to do some banking with Noah & Lily before they load up and depart on their "Around the Northwest in 15 Days" tour. So I'm just relaxing, can't you see?

The kids are heading out today as soon as they get loaded up. they plan to be in Reno tonight, San Francisco the next day and spend the remainder of a week cruisisng north up the Pacific Coast Highway. They've got a new tent, new stove and lantern and enough groceries to last weeks if they get stuck going over Donner Pass. They also have a cell phone and enough money so that they won't be resorting to eating berries off bushes beside the road and brushing their teeth with bent sticks. They have maps and driving directions and an ATM card so they don't need to carry very much cash.

This does promise to be an exciting trip for the two of them. It willbe interesting to see if they are speaking when they get back! We will be meeting them a week from Thursday in Nehelem State Park in Oregon as we join up for the spouse's family weekend campout and get-together. It should be fun as always though the BSU is having fits about her sisters not approving of Noah & Lily's shared sleeping arrangements. Oh well!

BTW, the engine that I bought- $255 off of EBay and the seller lived just 70 miles away but had to pass through Ogden this morning and offered to bring it along and drop it off. So Noah and I met him at the truck stop and in 5 minutes time I was the happy owner of a spare Tracker motor. You might remember that I searched all the used engine providers in a 70 mile radius just a few weeks ago. The best price I could find was $850 for the same engine I just bought for $260. That's a much better price in my book! The guy selling really did goof I think by running his auction over the holiday weekend and ending it mid-day on the 5th. There was at least one other guy bidding on it but probably not very many others. And I sniped it like a bandit, holding off on my bid until just 20 seconds remained before closing! The bid jumped from $205 to $255 in those closing seconds and it ended up with my bid being the winning bid! Hah!

So, I gotta run. Guess I need to email my Algebra prof and tell him I'll be late or absent for today's portion of the test. Then its off to get the tracker off the alignment rack, finish the banking and kick these two kids down the road on their big adventure. More later. Maybe...

What a weekend it has been!

I'm tired, can I go back to work now?

Its been kinda like that athough not totally incapacitating. Son Noah and I did finish the transmission replacement on Lily's car on Friday evening. Everything's good with it except that it needs an alignment to get the front wheels pointing the same direction and the steering wheel turned into its normal position. The alignment is scheduled for tomorrow.

And the Tracker has to go into the alignment bay right after Lily's Subaru since we replaced the shocks and struts on that car on Saturday afternoon. But not until after Noah and I went to the in the morningCashe Valley Cruise-In. This is the largest car show in the state and it really is a must-see if you like automobiles of nearly any flavor. Not too many brass lamped antiques but lots of hot rods and muscle cars and customs and trucks and imports. The fairgrounds gets packed and its hot but boy oh boy its a car show to see. We went early, so we left early and when we stopped down the road a couple miles for sodas I was able to give away my still not cashed in entries for the 57 Belair that was being given away. Another customer stopped in to inquire about directions and I was able to not only point him in the right direction but to pay his way and his partner's into the show. Good karma I supose.

What else? I mowed the yard on Saturday too and cleaned out two flower beds on Sunday. One of them needed some dead rose bushes removed and the ground cover succulent that was threatening to take over my yard thinned out.

Sunday afternoon was a matinee of The Terminal with the BSU and the boy and the ever (still) present Lily. The movie was very enjoyable thought the love interest bit with Catherine Zeta-Jones didn't really work very well. It just fell flat and that might have actually been the point but I thought it was the only part of the movie that didn't work for me.

NOTE: The BSU just walked up and announced that it was time for me to take her to dinner. Did I know we were going to dinnner? Nope. So more later.

Trying some file uploads today, here's my Hot Wheels paper.

And so far, I've managed to upload my finished research paper. Give it a read if you like. I'd love some feedback.

I've got a couple other things to try uploading over the weekend. They might end up here in this post or in their own new posts depending on how succesful I am.

Sgt Mom hits a grand slam homerun!

Over at Sgt Stryker's Daily Briefing. This is a remarkable commentary about Texas stereotypes, immigrants to America and attitudes from "Old Europe." I especially like this comment about those that look down their nose at the immigrants to this country.

Their children and grandchildren have been and continue to be elected to office, invent the next big thing, write the literary sensation, make the next scientific breakthrough, command an army. That flaccid pink thing those descendents of political and economic migrants are handing to you? That would be your ass, and no need to thank us, the pleasure was all ours.

Go read the whole thing and compare it to this Michael Savage article that presumably is also about immigration.

I just had to read "Daisy Chain Immigration Destroys America" as a writing class assignment and write a critical review. The title of my review is "Who Publishes This Guy? And Why?

Did I mention it was a critical review I was supposed to write? I had a ball writing this paper! What an awful load of dreck this guy writes. My final paragraph is:

If I were Mr. Savage's long forgotten 10th grade English teacher, I would give this paper back to him with a big red F on it and expect him to fix it. As his editor, I would be calling Human Resourses to fire up the interview process for look for his replacement. And as a reader or listener, I would toss this article in the trash as litter with no further thought to his arguement because his sloppy work completely overshadowed his message.

And then I would hire Sgt. Mom for her intelligent, witty and thought provoking commentary to replace him.