My curlie-que lightbulbs are saving the planet!

It's working! Eco-pope AlGore the First must be bursting with pride. I actually have a couple of those world-saving fluorescent light bulbs in outdoor fixtures that we leave on all night. Now, it seems that Anchorage, AK, is having its COLDEST SUMMER EVER!!! This summer, the temperature has risen above 65 degrees F only 7 days.

You're welcome, caribou.

Now, we just have to figure out what to do with all the Mercury we're putting in the landfills when we dispose of those miracle bulbs.

Always look before you leap

I have to admit, I like my Crocs. They're comfortable, easy to take on and off, and wash clean with a blast from the hose. I've been keeping them in the garage lately, to wear when I'm working in the yard. I usually just slip my feet in them and go.

Well today, thank God, I picked them up first. They were extra nasty, so I thought I'd rinse them in the sink before putting them on. Lo and behold, I saw some spider webs. Looking closer, I was greeted by a swollen black belly with a red hour-glass! So,I commenced to soaking my shoes with half a bottle of insecticide and rinsing them in scalding water for 10 minutes.

Look before you leap!

Kindle e-book reader

One of my partners got a Kindle e-book reader from her husband for Christmas, last year. She recently brought it to the office and let me play with it. Now I've got my own, and love it!!! The technology still isn't perfect, but this has been a great new toy!

I've had my Kindle now for about 1 month, and already I've downloaded over 30 books, either in full form or sample versions. No, I haven't read them all, yet. Like any new toy, I am giving it alot of attention.

Things I love:

1. Downloading free samples. It's just like going to the book store and spending time thumbing thru the paper edition. About 1/3 of the things I've downloaded have been in this format. When I get to them, if they interest me, I'll buy the whole thing.
2. The Kindle takes up much less space on my shelf! I love reading, and I tend to buy 2 new books while I'm still reading one. This gets on my wife's nerves. So now we don't need as much storage space.
3. The Whispernet. It downloads books in mere seconds.
4. The built-in dictionary. I've found that I use it much more than I thought I would.
5. It makes me feel like I'm an officer on the starship Enterprise when I'm using it!
6. There are tons of free or very cheap books available, not just the bestsellers.
7. I've read some complaints about the lack of backlighting. I guess a lot of people want to be able to read at the bottom of Mammoth Cave. Personally, I don't care about this. I already need light to read books, so it's no biggie.
8. Changing the text size is way cool!
9. I leave my Whispernet turned off while I'm reading, so the battery life is excellent. I charge it up about once a week, but even then, the batter is not fully discharged.

Things I don't like:
1. Still not enough titles. The Kindle is too new. Hopefully with time, more and more authors and publishers will get on board.
2. It doesn't render pictures very well at all. Amazon will have to continue to improve this technology if they really want to replace the printed word (which I don't think will ever really happen-books are here to stay). I can see college kids one day having all their textbooks on a Kindle, though. But not yet.
3. Amazon.com advertises "over 140,000 books". However, I have found that alot of these books are actually repeats. I think I found 5 or 6 different versions of Ben Franklin's Autobiography, all of them being offered at different prices. Don't really understand that logic. I guess some of them may have different comments from modern editors.
4. They do need to design a better cover. As long as I hold it tight, it's fine, but it does tend to slip out quite a bit.
5. The right hand "next page" button is placed at the very edge of the Kindle. Occasionally I'll shift my grip, and accidentally turn the page.

Average Joe, American

An interesting message from Joe America to the Presidential Candidates. I don't know who this guy really is, but I wish the candidates would listen to him.







( for some reason, the youtube video won't display. click here to go to youtube.com)

Colonial Irony

According to my local paper, a huge automotive deal has just taken place. An American company, Ford Motor (based in the former British colonies), has completed a sale to an Indian company, Tata Motor, (also based in a former British colony). What was sold? The iconic British brands of Land Rover and Jaguar.

Just a bit of colonial irony, I guess. Of course, since the "sun never sets on the British Empire", it's only natural that things like this will happen more and more.

The Last Coin

After looking thru some old boxes of books I've collected over the years, I picked up "The Last Coin" by James Blaylock. I hadn't read it in 20 years, but I was surprised at how much I remembered. It's a fun, and silly, book to read, despite the heavy subject matter. Briefly, it's about the 30 silver coins that Judas Iscariot was paid for ratting on Jesus. In the book, Judas never really died, and the coins he was paid were cursed for all eternity. Judas himself was cursed to forever walk the earth, charged with keeping the coins apart. If all 30 coins are ever reunited, an evil will be unleashed unlike any on earth during the past 2000 years. The majority of the book is about how an odd, bumbling, goof-of-a-man is the unknowing Caretaker of the Last Coin.

The book got me thinking. Judas hanged himself after his betrayal. Hanging rarely kills instantly. People often survive for several minutes, if not hours, dangling by the rope. I've always assumed that Judas was bound for Hell. But now I wonder, if, with his last few moments, Judas asked the Father to forgive him; when I'm (hopefully) standing in line to enter the Pearly Gates, will Judas be right in front of me?





Galatians 5:5 (NIV)

But by faith we eagerly await through the Spirit the righteousness for which we hope.

Romans 8:25 (NIV)
But if we hope for what we do not yet have, we wait for it patiently.

Only the Government knows what's right

Senator Obama has been letting more sneak out about his true agenda. The other day in Oregon, the omniscient Senator said "We can't drive our SUVs and eat as much as we want and keep our homes on 72 degrees at all times".

How dare someone actually set their thermostat at such an unacceptable temperature? Only the enlightened Looters in Washington know the proper settings for your house. In fact, if the Looters had their way, we'd all be driving monochrome, compact hybrid cars; wearing uniform, brown suits; and going to bed at the same time. We'll all have a meal plan to ensure that no one is more nutritionally advantaged than others. Perhaps everyone's income will be legislated to be equal, as well.

Every light fixture in your house would have those magnificent, completely environmentally safe twisty-bulbs. We'll just use our collective will to keep the mercury in them from causing problems. After all, AlGore says those bulbs are the savior of the planet, right? And don't forget, corn should be used to make ethanol, not food.

Besides, America is full of too many evil, rich people. We'll just raise taxes, because who doesn't want to pay their "fair share", anyway? During the race to become POTUS, the definition of "rich" has been ratcheted down from $1,000,000.00 per year to $500k, to $250k. Now apparently $102,000 per family is rich. And since private citizens don't really know which charities to give to, the Looters will redistribute that money for us.

And, now that the Supreme Court has set the precedent with the Kelo v. City of New London decision, your home is not really even yours. If the Looters discover that you set your thermostat too high or low, leave a light on in your house, flush your toilet twice or use more that 3 squares of toilet paper, they might just condemn your house, so they can put in a shopping mall, to be built by the Looter's cousin.

Millionaire's tax

Did you read about the new "millionaire's tax" the Democrats are proposing. It's just a 1/2 % income tax on income above 1 million dollars. Mike Ross (D_Ark) says "someone who earns $2 million a year would pay $5,000. ... They're not going to miss it."

There never gonna miss it??!?!?!? That pisses me off. It's their fricken money, not yours, Mr Ross. You gonna kill their dog, too, because "it's just a dog, they're never gonna miss it"????

And to make matters worse, this really isn't even a millionaires tax. The $1 million dollar level would apply to couples. Individuals would pay the surcharge on money over $500,000. So the democrats don't even know basic stinking math. 500k doesn't a Million make.

It won't be long until the "rich" are $250k. Then $125k. Then $75k. The Looters will NEVER stop until they take everything you have, and even then they'll attempt to grind you into the ground.

Paris, France 2008

My wife and I just got back from a 1 week vacation to Paris, France. I figured with the French election of President Sarkozy, now was as good a time to go as any. I booked this vacation about 6 months ago, so the costs were all locked with a better exchange rate. With the dollar being down against the Euro, I thought for sure there wouldn't be very many Americans there, but I was wrong. There were literally tons of Americans everywhere we went.

We had an awesome time. We found the French people to be polite, kind and very helpful. I took 3 years of French in school, but had forgotten most of it during the past couple (ahem) of years, so I bought a CD set to refresh my memory. I knew enough French to get around, order at the restaurant, etc, and found that as long as you tried to speak their language, they were more than happy to switch to English when I struggled.

The monuments and attractions we saw were all incredible. We started the trip with a visit to the Eiffel tower. After waiting in line for over 90 minutes, I actually got my wife to ride the elevator to the top. Approximately 990 feet in the air. That high up, the view of Paris was incredible.

Next, we wandered around the Isle de Cite and found Notre Dame. It's quite impressive being inside this place of Christian worship. We were lucky enough to get there as they were wrapping up a night time Mass. I can still smell the incense being burned.

We also spent about 5 hours in the Louvre. To tell the truth, the last 2 hours of that time was just spent trying to find the exit. My wife finally found the door to the outside world. That place is fricking huge! The "Mona Lisa" was actually a disappointment. The painting is kinda small, and it is in a room jam packed with people, pushing and shoving to try to see it. After being impaled by about a thousand elbows, I shot a quick picture and left, not getting to really appreciate the painting. We also got to see the "Venus de Milo", "Winged Victory" and Michelangelo's "Dying Slave" and "Rebellious Slave".

We also visited Montmartre, which is a Paris neighborhood. This area contains a hill that is the highest point of land in Paris. On it's peak, is a beautiful church, the Basilica Sacre Coeur.

The best part of the trip was a tour of the Normandy Beach landing sites. My grandfather landed there on D-day, and fortunately made it home safely after the war. It was awesome (in the original sense of the word) to stand in the same spot he stood decades before. The American cemetery is breathtaking. And at Point du Hoc, there are still hundreds of craters from the American battleships' guns. Grass and flowers have grown over them, but if you close your eyes, you can still hear the explosions.



The food ranged from awesome (a Moroccan place called "404") to mediocre(cafe on the street). You could buy an entire bottle of wine for the cost of about 2 Cokes. We had snails (actually quite tasty when drowned in garlic butter), lamb, duck, quail and crepes. I liked the bread, with it's hard outer crust.

I brought a pedometer with us because I knew we would be walking quite a bit. Not counting the travel days, we walked 14.14 miles. Our feet hurt at the end of each day, but no pain, no gain, they say. We also heavily used the Paris Metro, which is clean and easy to use.

This was our second trip to Europe. The first was a guided tour in Italy. This trip was on our own. There are pros and cons to each method, so it's really hard to say which is the best way to go. However, overall, this trip was worth every Euro we paid.

Update on Ohio Supreme Court Justice DUI

The Supreme Court of Ohio justice Alice Resnick apparently pled Guilty to her DUI charges from a few years ago. She was sentenced to 3 days in either jail or a treatment facility. She wisely chose treatment.

On January 1, 2007, she stepped down from the Court, having decided that she would not attempt to run for another term.

I wish her the best in her recovery, but I'm glad she's no longer on the bench.

Is Health Care a Right?

Here's the conundrum for people who view health care as a right, especially if they support the idea of government controlled "universal health care". A "right" is something to which a person is entitled to just because they exist. It is nothing they can earn. It applies to all people equally, no matter their color, religion, sex, age, economic status or number of extremities. It is nothing that can lawfully be taken away.

The only way you can have universal health care is for the government to provide it. However, the only way a governmental system can regulate health care is to enact limits on access. This leads to rationing of services. If health care is my "right", then the government can NOT limit my access to health care. Just like they can not infringe on my right to life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness.

Can you say Catch-22? More to come...

What are the liberals to do?

Global warming is supposedly destroying our planet, and one of the "best" solutions is ethanol, right? By replacing oil with the corn-derived fuel, we will save the world for future generations. Except for the fact that ethanol production, besides being very energy intensive, is driving up the cost of food everywhere.

As more corn is being grown for ethanol, less land is used for other food crops. That means less wheat is being grown. Which makes bread more expensive. Fewer soybeans being harvested means more costly "mystery meat" burgers in schools. In addition, the price of corn is at all time highs. That raises the prices of everything, including milk, cheese, pork and beef.

In a world where liberals see everything as half empty, the world's poor are starving to death. We must lower the cost of food for their sakes. But we must raise the price of fuel for Mother Earth's sake. What are liberals to do?

The girl who cries wolf

Apparently, presidential candidate and New York Senator Hillary Clinton has a habit of "misspeaking", and the vast right wing conspiracy (which now suprisingly includes CNN) has an unfortunate habit of pointing this out.

Recently, it has been shown that Mrs Clinton lied when she talked about coming under sniper fire in Bosnia while she was First Lady. More recently, Mrs Clinton has been telling the story of a poor pregnant woman with no insurance who died after delivery of her infant. According to the presidential candidate, the woman's death was because the hospital refused to treat her since she had no insurance. Well, it turns out, suprise-suprise-suprise, that the story is not true. While the woman in question did indeed die weeks after the delivery of her stillborn baby, she was never denied treatment, and she had insurance.

Oh well. Never let the truth get in the way, I suppose.

Global Warming, eventually

I really feel sorry for Nobel prize winner Al Gore. Once again, the right wing UN is attacking Mr Gore's baby, global warming. This year is going to be cooler because of La Nina. La Nina is possibly responsible for the coldest winter on record in China and increased rains in Australia.

If, God forbid, this tragedy takes place, the global temperature will NOT have risen since 1998. That was when an evil, conservative, George Bush-loving El Nino caused the world temperature to skyrocket.

Of course, more level headed scientists are telling us to calm down, and that very soon, global warming will pick back up and turn us all in to cannibals.

And we can only pray to Gore that this hurricane season will FINALLY be as bad as the global warming alarmists say it will!

p.s. And don't forget, last years drought was caused by global warming. I'm sure this years excessive rainfall is also the fault of global warming.

Great Music

My wife and I went to see Michael Buble perform the other night. His live show is awesome. One of the best concerts I have ever seen. He has one of the best voiced I've ever heard. He's very interactive with the audience. At one point, he noticed in the second or third row a group of young girls singing along with him. He started talking with them, saying how thrilled he was that 12 & 13 year olds were loving the songs he was singing. Then he jumped off stage, went over to where they were sitting and spent about 5 minutes taking pictures with these girls. Every few songs, he'd stop, pick somebody out of the audience and talk to them. If you get the chance to see him live, don't pass up the opportunity.

His opening act was incredible as well. Naturally 7 is a group from New York that performs "vocal play". That's acapella music, but they don't just sing. Every instrument sound that is heard while they perform comes from their own voices. We got to meet them after the show, and they seemed really humble.

Another sign I'm getting older...

I read with some sadness today in the Wall Street Journal Online than Gary Gygax recently passed away. Most people probably don't know who he was; he was one of the creators of the game Dungeons & Dragons. D&D lead the revolution in fantasy role playing games, with hundreds of imitators. Even today, despite the proliferation of computer versions of similar games (PC, Wii, Playstation, etc), thousands of people still get together to roll multi-sided dice and pretend that they were heroes (or villains) out saving the world from evil dragons, vampires and trolls.

I have fond memories of being a teenager, staying awake with some friends for hours on end exploring various dungeons in pursuit of treasure and strength. Some of those guys I still talk to today.

Yes, some people became obsessed with the game, but no more so than University of Memphis basketball or University of Tennessee football fans. None of us sold our souls to the Devil; we didn't actually harm anyone (except ourselves--I drank tons of Mountain Dew and ate waay too many Little Debbie snack cakes during those adventures!) But we had a lot of fun.

RIP, Gary Gygax.

Waaah! I want a do-over..

The Democrats, not satisfied with the way real life is turning out, are crying for a "do-over" in the Michigan and Florida primaries. The states of Michigan and Florida chose to move up their primary dates, and that ticked off the Democratic party officials, so they "voided" their votes. Now that the race is waaaaay closer than anybody thought, some of those same Democrat officials want to allow Michigan and Florida to re-vote. This seems rather juvenile, and quite embarrassing, to me.

By the way, despite what the Democrats in Florida are saying, it was a DEMOCRAT in the state government, not a Republican, who originated the bill to move their primary forward, and the Democrats voted unanimously to do so, knowing full well the consequences. I forgot about that amendment to the Constitution that allows for a Mulligan when things don't go your way...

I memorized Holy Grail really well

Just in case you haven't seen this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-xEzGIuY7kw
(Youtube won't let this be embedded, anymore.)

Funniest Man in America

My wife, some friends and I went to see comedian James Gregory last night. If you've never seen him, he's pretty dang funny. I don't know if he's truly the funniest man in America, but he's pretty close. His opening act, Steve Mingolla, was hilarious as well. Both were fairly clean in their act, with only an occasional "damn" being uttered; no sexual jokes or innuendo.

If they come to your area, go see them.

Barack was broke

According to the National Review Online,2/29/08, in a speech given recently in Zanesville, Ohio, by Senator Barack Obama's wife Michelle, she addressed a group of women at a day care center. Apparently, the median household income in this area is only $37,192.00, which I think everyone can agree is not a lot of money. Mrs Obama was encourageing these people and their children to go in to a life of service, and avoid corporate America.

Mrs Obama stated "The salaries don’t keep up with the cost of paying off the debt, so you’re in your 40s, still paying off your debt at a time when you have to save for your kids." Here's what galls me. She then had the nerve to say, "“Barack and I were in that position. The only reason we’re not in that position is that Barack wrote two best-selling books… It was like Jack and his magic beans. But up until a few years ago,we were struggling to figure out how we would save for our kids.”

What a bunch of crap. Mrs Obama was a high priced lawyer who worked for the University of Chicago hospital system. She was making $121910.00 in 2004. In 2005, her salary jumped to $316962.00, the year after her husband was elected to the U.S. Senate. This is just her salary. That's a 260% raise in one year. How many of those hard working women she was addressing got that kind of raise? And this is not counting her husbands salary.

So if she wants America to believe that she and her hubby were just a poor, struggling family, she gonna have to try a lot harder than that.