Pavarotti is very ill

In light of my recent discovery of Paul Potts, I was saddened to read today about the serious illness of one of the greatest voices in the history of man - Luciano Pavarotti.

He has been ill for some time now, suffering from pancreatic cancer and its complications. Apparently now he is in a coma from kidney failure.

We are only on this planet for a short time, but the world was made a better place by the man known around the world simply by his last name: Pavarotti.

Paul Potts

I can't believe I've just now heard this guy sing. His name is Paul Potts, and he was the winner of 2007's "Britain's Got Talent."

Even if you are not a fan of opera, you will be brought to tears by his amazing voice. This may not be the best version of "Nessun Dorma", but it's up there!

His story is very touching as well. Of course, the world if full of people who hate to see anybody succeed. There are already people out there saying that he isn't genuine. Let those sad, sad critics cry themselves to sleep. You will love this guy!!!

Carbon Offsets

On September 2, 2007, the LA Times ran an interesting article about the effectiveness of (or lack of ) buying carbon offsets. The LA Times is hardly a bastion of right wing extremism.

In short, carbon offsets provide no real offset at all, at least for the next decade. It is a good way, though, for people to get rich off other people's guilt.

In addition, the August 4, 2007, issue of World magazine uses a great term for people's reliance on this concept: "checkbook environmentalism."

Don't get me wrong. I love the idea of getting power from ANYTHING besides mid-east oil. But I don't buy for one minute that my giving some company a couple of hundred bucks in any way will decrease global warming.

Misc

A couple of things in the news today caught my eye.

The first is the resignation of White House press secretary Tony Snow. I like this guy. I admire the way he has faced his cancer. I love the fact that he knows he is a role model for other cancer patients in the world. He is intelligent, funny, and telegenic. However, the reason he gave for leaving office sorta bothers me. He stated that he was leaving because he was "running out of money." I googled the Press Secretary's salary, and it was $161,000.00 back in 2005. I know he lives in the DC area and it's expensive there. But surely 161-K/year is enough money.

Second, the attorney who was involved with the Duke University Lacrosse rape case is dirty. He lied during the trial, and he almost destroyed those innocent boys' lives. He is a scumbag and deserved to get his license revoked. However, today he was sentenced to a whopping 1 day in jail!! One whole day. For being purposefully deceitful. Maybe he'll get to read the same Bible that Michael Vick and Paris Hilton got to use. Come on!!!

Bad news on the adoption front

We got a call today from our adoption agency (Children's Hope International). They were just calling to touch base with us and see if we needed anything. Unfortunately, they also had some bad news. It looks like it's taking longer and longer for China to process the adoptions. The wait time when we filed our paperwork was 15 months. It's now 21 months, and they anticipate it may get to 30-36 months. Which means that all of our paperwork will expire waaaaay before we get to go to China. We'll have to repeat almost all of it, and of course it'll cost us a couple of grand more.

CRAP!

Dolphins in the news again

A species of dolphin thought previously extinct has been spotten in China. I guess it didn't get the memo about leaving the planet!!

...thanks for all the fish

Scientists are concerned about the dolphin population in the north Atlantic's Bay of Biscay. Apparently, over the past year, the witnessed dolphin population has dropped by 80%.

These scientists are frantic over this dilemma. They think the mammals might be getting accidentally killed by commercial fishermen. Or maybe it's because we are destroying the fish population by overfishing.

However, they seem to be missing the most obvious cause. As diligently reported by Douglas Adams over 20 years ago, they dolphins have simply left the planet.

If you haven't read the "Hitchhiker" books, pick up the entire series and read them now, before it's too late. And don't forget your towel!!!

I knew it would happen.

I knew it would happen. When Google Earth announced it was using satellite imaging to map the entire planet, liberals everywhere shouted for glee. When it was discovered that not only could you see your "house from here", you could count the hairs on your neighbors back, very few people seemed alarmed. Especially that bastion of liberal hope, the ACLU.

But God forbid, when the government decides to use that technology to fight terrorism, the ACLU is back!

The New York Times is reporting today that the ACLU and its ilk are concerned that the agencies using this technology "could not be trusted to supervise themselves." But GOOGLE could???

Now, don't get me wrong. I do NOT like even GOOGLE looking at my house, much less Big Brother. I don't want anyone to have this technology. But it's here none-the-less. Besides, I actually trust that the government won't allow public access to images like this.

Global Warming Mania

Why are so many people in our society so convinced that global warming is the end of the world? Why do they just scream and holler when they are confronted with evidence against man-made warming? They'd rather insult you and your mother than actually debate you on facts. It's fairly typical of the liberal left..."If you don't agree with me, then you are a big, mean dummy!!!"

On July 26th, 2007, Fox News.com ran an article about Nevada having record high temperatures. They even quoted a Stephen Rowland, Professor of Geology at University of Nevada, Las Vegas. He is reported as saying, "the scientific evidence of global warming is incontrovertible, and Nevada is feeling the heat more intensely than most of the rest of the U.S." However, a quick check of the NOAA website shows quite clearly that the average high temperatures were higher in the 1940's than they have been since then. Does that mean that Man was emitting more carbon 60 years ago than she is today? And, just as a side note, the population of Clark County Nevada was about 100 times less back then than it is now.

Also, you may have heard that 1998 was the warmest year on record. Probably the warmist year in 1 million years!!! Well, folks, that was wrong. While the media blasted that info over the airwaves, they don't seem to be giving the correction much air time. It seems that NASA miscalculated their numbers a while back. Actually, 1998 was the SECOND warmest ever. In reality, the warmest year on record was 1934. Wasn't that just a bit before the SUV's were taking over the universe? And the third warmest year must have been after 1998,right? Wrong. Try 1921. In fact, 5 of the 10 warmest years on record now all occur before the Second World War.

And, while I admit that this does not disprove global warming, it sure is a blow to all the global warming alarminsts out there.

Scooter "Pardon"

First of all, Scooter Libby was not pardoned. His sentence was commuted. While Mr Obama and others on the Left may claim this is the type of politics that we much change, it is enshrined in our constitution that the Chief executive can commute sentences, in addition to straight pardons. And lest we forget, the superhero of the left, President Clinton, pardoned plenty of scumbags. See the official Department of Justice website for his list.

Autism & Vaccines

Here we go again. Parents of children with autism are asking judges to decide whether or not vaccines are the cause of autism. Now don't get me wrong. I really feel for these parents. Autism in it's extreme forms can be incredibly difficult to deal with. But study after study after study have NOT found any correlation between thimerosal and autism.

So, much like global warming and the other liberal causes-de-jour, if you can't prove it via science, let the courts decide. After all, a judge did go to law school, right? Which of course makes him or her imminently qualified to decide delicate scientific distinctions.

Global Cooling

A new ice age is upon us. Where's AlGore now? Why isn't this information plastered on the front pages of every newspaper and newscast in the country?

It seems that the month of April, 2007, was the 47th coolest in 113 years!!! A massive 0.3 degrees F colder than the average for the entire 20th century!!! If only I could find a way to display a completely distorted graph or pie chart (like the rest of the media does) to stress the importance of this information!!

Get out your parkas!!!

Democracy Inaction

This is embarrassing. Our fair city of Jackson, TN, just has the first election for a new City Mayor in almost 20 years when no incumbent was running. Everything was up for grabs. And, I just heard on WNWS, 101.5 FM, that less than 20 percent of the voters turned out. I don't know if that number is final, but it sure stinks.

Even the FRENCH turn out more voters. Over 80% of their potential voters showed up to vote for a new President. Now, mind you, a presidential election gets out more people that a small town Mayor. BUT COME ON PEOPLE!!! Don't complain when you don't like what Jerry Gist is doing if you didn't bother to take 20 minutes to vote!!!

Honeybees

Anyone else out there concerned about the sudden disappearance of the honey bees? What am I talking about?

In addition to making that honey that Winnie-the-Pooh loves so much, a significant source of our food comes from the pollination provided by those little stingers. A problem known as Colony Collapse Disorder seems to be causing the bee population to die off. It seems to have begun in the Eastern United States, but seems to be spreading to Europe as well.

The Mid-Atlantic Apiculture Research and Extension Consortium (that's a mouthful, I know) has some interesting, but technical information on this problem.

The cause, who knows. Some people blame cell phones. Others say parasites or pathogens. And I'm sure a significant portion of people out there blame Karl Rove & Dubya.

What ever the cause, the impact of this could be HUGE!

China adoption

To all our friends and well-wishers, I'm going to try to update our adoption process. We've gotten official confirmation from the government of China that they have accepted our paperwork. It took 6 months just to get to this point in the adoption process.

All we can do right now is pray & wait. The wait times now are 15-18 months, but those numbers change almost daily. As many of you may be aware, the government of China is making changes in their adoption policy in attempt to limit the number of children that are adopted out of country. With official acknowledgement from them on a "log in date", we are supposed to be unaffected by any changes made from that day forth. But who really knows.

Danger, Will Robinson

That wacky North Korean cat, Kim Jun-be-illin, has said "Piss off" to the rest of the world and has tested a nuclear weapon this morning. This proves that he lied to President Clinton, Jimmy Carter and the rest of the world a few years back when Mr. Carter was awarded that whole "Peace Prize" thing. President Kim Jung-Il has had his minions down in their labs all along making purified plutonium like Sam Malone made cocktails.

The world is in DANGER if a mad man like this actually has a nuclear weapon. And I predict that the "international community" will do nothing about it but whine. China, who sits right on North Koreas door step should be preparing for an all out invasion right now. Japan should be ready for annihilation. And the big brother of the world, the USofA, has too many frickin troops in the Middle East to be able to launch any significant campaign.

Danger, Will Robinson, danger.

Middle East Crisis

Everywhere I turn I'm hearing about the violence in the middle east. Bombs and missiles flying day and night. Hundreds of innocent civilians on both sides are being hurt in the mayhem.

However, what seems to be sticking out like a sore thumb in the reporting is the whining people are doing. Marines have landed in Beirut to help evacuate the American citizens who are vacationing in Lebanon. What the crap are people doing vacationing in a part of the world where school buses full of children are being blown up by homicide bombers?

And to top it off, they are complaining about the rescue effort! According to the website Myway.com, these spoiled Americans think the rescue effort is unorganized and too slow. I've read where these refugees think the cruise ships aren't comfortable enough. Too crowded, the food is "inadequate."

Usually when you decide to travel, you have to actually foot the bill. However, if I'm not mistaken, these people are being "rescued" at taxpayer expense. So this will be, and should be, a no-frills operation. BYOB. So shut up and get in line.

Thank "nothing" for the MPAA

The Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) has for years been rating films based on violence, language, and content to give us, the peasants, a guide to movies (G, PG, PG-13, R, etc). Now , in their infinite wisdom, they have come up with a new criteria.

The film "Facing the Giants" has been given the rating of PG. Because of fart jokes and sexual innuendo? Nope. Apparently, the makers of this film had the audacity to be openly Christian. How dare they?!?!?!?

Apparently faith in God is now being equated by the MPAA with curse words and potty humor.

Global Warming

I'm tired of listening to AlGore say that all scientists agree with his position on the cause of global warming. According to CanadaFreePress.com on June 12, 2006, the vast majority of AlGore's "experts" are not climate change experts at all. And they are basing their decisions on computer models that are wrong more than they are right. Just watch your local TV meteorologist to see an example of this.

Not many people deny that the planet may be warming up, but "all scientists" do not agree that it is fossil fuels that are doing it. We are in the middle of a cycle that will repeat itself long after we are dead and gone and the roaches rule the world!

Feminist hysterics

Feminists are apparently up in arms about the fact that Elizibeth Vargas has stepped down from the anchor position at ABC News to raise her family. According to Newsmax.com on June 2, 2006, Eleanor Smeal, of the group Feminist Majorityy Foundation, sees this as "a demotion."

I hate to disagree with Ms Smeal, but being a full time mother is NOT a demotion from anything. Taking the time to raise your child is the most honorable occupation one can undertake. I guess Ms Smeal defines her life based on how much money she brings in, and not on how much she influences the future thru her children.