Ask them this question!

I know most of you that read this blog are going to vote for McCain this November. But for those few of you that are thinking about voting for Obama or have friends/acquaintances that may vote for Obama, Ask them this question -

If Obama wins this election you will effectively give control of the United States to the two most liberal people in Congress today. Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama. Do you want those two setting the agenda and direction of the United States for the next 4 years?

I can't think of anything more frightening!

John McCain

I've posted several items on Obama and why we should be very scared of him and why I think we shouldn't vote for him as our next President.

But I haven't said much about McCain and why I think you should vote for him as our next President. Part of that is because I've never been a huge McCain fan. As most conservative Americans aren't. John McCain has always marched to be beat of his own drummer. And a lot of times that has taken him pretty far away from some conservative values and ideas. Such as McCain/Feingold Campaign Finance law. Or the McCain/Kennedy Immigration bill. Both of those bills were strongly fought against by the conservatives and left a real bad taste in their mouths about McCain. Including me!

So why am I now getting on the McCain bandwagon. Is it a classic case of the lesser of two evils? Am I selling out my conservative ideas by saying you should vote for him instead of the Libertarian candidate, Bob Barr? Am I holding my nose and choosing anything but Obama?

If I'm totally honest I'd have to say that some of the above is true. But there is a more fundamentally important, and very valid reason for choosing McCain. Something that allows me to overlook and forgive (but maybe not forget) his past dalliances with the left. Something that permits me to look myself in the mirror and say Yes, America should vote for John McCain. That one thing is our Security. America's Security.

No one doubts that we live in some troubled times right now. Probably as tough as I've seen in my lifetime. By that I mean that the opportunity/chance for some major calamities, either natural, fiscal or militarily to occur is very high. I could chronicle them, but you know what I'm talking about - Iran, the economy, natural disasters, etc.

So that makes the election of the next President as important as any we've had since Reagan. Then we were coming off the Carter years and a weak military, a weak economy and a still active Cold War. Now, whether you want to call the problem the Bush years, ( which I don't totally subscribe to) or something else, I feel the next 4 years are more critical for the coming generations than any other period in decades. Maybe ever.

And McCain has some unique abilities, experiences and traits that I feel will be critically needed in the coming years if we do have some or all of the potential crisis's occur.

1. Militarily he has the background and understanding to quickly judge and decide prudent actions or non-actions in the case of a military event. No, he doesn't have the command background of a Powell, but he has a lot of experience with the military, he understands their capabilities and limits while fully understanding the political ramifications of their actions. He's doesn't seem to be a loose cannon, but nor does he seem to be one that if military action is needed would first run to a focus group, like Clinton did, to see what the reactions of the public would be.


2. Fiscally he has a long career and experience in the public sector, working both sides of the isle to come to a mutual agreement. Right now our Congress is almost totally frozen by partisan politics. McCain, like it or not, has shown the willingness and ability to pull together coalitions to get things accomplished. Something that would be critical in an economic crisis.


3. Natural disasters would also require a sound but forceful and measured response. Again, he's proven his capabilities in this area, including the need to develop bipartisan agreement.

So right now, given the situation we're in with the economy and the War on Terror and also the other potential problems lurking out there, McCain has the right stuff, the right make-up to help us get through some tough times. He is the right choice for 2008.

Ted Kennedy's Real Legacy

I'm sorry Ted Kennedy has cancer, I really am. I don't wish pain and suffering on anyone. But let's not let his unfortunate situation cloud who he is and what his legacy REALLY is!

Here's a great bit telling the REAL story about Ted Kennedy. Thanks Sis for sending this to me.

As soon as cancer was found, I noticed the immediate attempt at canonization of old Teddy by the main stream media .. telling us what a 'great American' he is.

I say, let's get a couple things clear & not twist the facts to change the real history .. he was caught cheating at Harvard .. while attending, he was expelled twice, once for cheating on a test, and once for paying a classmate to cheat for him... While expelled, Kennedy enlisted in the Army, but mistakenly signed up for four years instead of two.. great .. the man can't count to four .. His father, Joseph P. Kennedy, former U.S. Ambassador to England, pulled the necessary strings to have his enlistment shortened to two years, and to ensure that he served in Europe, not Korea, where a war was raging... no preferential treatment for him like he charged President Bush received ... Kennedy was assigned to Paris, never advanced beyond the rank of Private, and returned to Harvard upon being discharged... imagine a person of his 'education' NEVER advancing past the rank of Private ...

While attending law school at the University of Virginia , he was cited for reckless driving four times, including once when he was clocked driving 90 miles per hour in a residential neighborhood with his headlights off after dark. Yet his Virginiadriver's license was never revoked. He passed the bar exam in 1959 ... amazing !! In 1964, he was seriously injured in a plane crash, and hospitalized for several months. Test results done by the hospital at the time he was admitted had shown he was DUI .. the results of those test remained a 'state secret' until in the 1980's when the report was unsealed ..

ON 19 JULY, 1969, Kennedy attended a party on Chappaquiddick Island in Massachusetts.

At about 11:00 PM, he borrowed his chauffeur's keys to his Oldsmobile limousine, and offered to give a ride home to Mary Jo Kopechne, a campaign worker. Leaving the island via an unlit bridge with no guard rail, Kennedy steered the car off the bridge, flipped, and into Poucha Pond. He swam to shore and walked back to the party -- passing several houses and a fire station -- and two friends returned with him to the scene of the accident. According to their later testimony, they told him what he already knew, that he was required by law to immediately re port the accident to the authorities. Instead Kennedy made his way to his hotel, called his lawyer, and went to sleep.

Kennedy called the police the next morning. By then the wreck had already been discovered. Before dying, Kopechne had scratched at the upholstered floor above her head in the upside-down car. The Kennedy family began 'calling in favours', ensuring that any inquiry would be contained. Her corpse was whisked out-of-state to her family, before an autopsy could be conducted. Further details are uncertain, but after the accident Kennedy says he repeatedly dove under the water trying to rescue Kopechne, and he didn't call police because he was in a state of shock. It is widely assumed Kennedy was drunk, and he held off calling police in hopes that his family could fix the problem overnight.

Since the accident, Kennedy's 'political enemies' have referred to him as the distinguished Senator from Chappaquiddick... He pled guilty to leaving the scene of an accident, and was given a SUSPENDED SENTENCE OF TWO MONTHS. Kopechne's family received a small payout from the Kennedy's insurance policy, and never sued. There was later an effort to have her body exhumed and autopsied, but her family successfully fought against this in court, and Kennedy's family paid their attorney's bills... a 'token of friendship' ?

Kennedy has held his Senate seat for more than forty years, but considering his longevity, his accomplishments seem scant. He authored or argued for legislation that ensured a variety of civil rights, increased the minimum wage in 1981, made access to health care easier for the indigent, and funded Meals on Wheels for fixed-income seniors and is widely held as the 'standard-bearer for liberalism'. In his very first Senate roll, he was the floor manager for the bill that turned U.S. immigration policy upside down and opened the floodgate for immigrants from third world countries. Since that time, he has been the prime instigator and author of every expansion of and increase in immigration, up to and including the latest attempt to grant amnesty to illegal aliens.

Let's not allow the spin doctors make this jerk a hero -- how quickly the American public forgets what the real legacy is...


For more of the real facts on Teddy check out this site!

Apollo Astronaut claims Aliens exist

Here's an article from an Australian paper. Maybe this will start crumbling the wall of secrecy that our governments have built around UFO's and contact with the Aliens.

FORMER NASA astronaut and moon-walker Dr Edgar Mitchell - a veteran of the Apollo 14 mission - has stunningly claimed aliens exist.And he says extra-terrestrials have visited Earth on several occasions - but the alien contact has been repeatedly covered up by governments for six decades.

Dr Mitchell, 77, said during a radio interview that sources at the space agency who had had contact with aliens described the beings as 'little people who look strange to us.' He said supposedly real-life ET's were similar to the traditional image of a small frame, large eyes and head. Chillingly, he claimed our technology is "not nearly as sophisticated" as theirs and "had they been hostile", he warned "we would be been gone by now".

Dr Mitchell, along with with Apollo 14 commander Alan Shepard, holds the record for the longest ever moon walk, at nine hours and 17 minutes following their 1971 mission. "I happen to have been privileged enough to be in on the fact that we've been visited on this planet and the UFO phenomena is real," Dr Mitchell said. "It's been well covered up by all our governments for the last 60 years or so, but slowly it's leaked out and some of us have been privileged to have been briefed on some of it. "I've been in military and intelligence circles, who know that beneath the surface of what has been public knowledge, yes - we have been visited. Reading the papers recently, it's been happening quite a bit."

Dr Mitchell, who has a Bachelor of Science degree in aeronautical engineering and a Doctor of Science degree in Aeronautics and Astronautics claimed Roswell was real and similar alien visits continue to be investigated. He told the astonished Kerrang! radio host Nick Margerrison: "This is really starting to open up. I think we're headed for real disclosure and some serious organisations are moving in that direction."

Mr Margerrison said: "I thought I'd stumbled on some sort of astronaut humour but he was absolutely serious that aliens are definitely out there and there's no debating it."

Officials from NASA, however, were quick to play the comments down. In a statement, a spokesman said: "NASA does not track UFOs. NASA is not involved in any sort of cover up about alien life on this planet or anywhere in the universe. 'Dr Mitchell is a great American, but we do not share his opinions on this issue.'

No Smoking Hot Spot

Here is an article by Dr. David Evans, an Australian scientist who has changed his mind on Global Warming.

Dr.David Evans July 18, 2008

I DEVOTED six years to carbon accounting, building models for the Australian Greenhouse Office. I am the rocket scientist who wrote the carbon accounting model (FullCAM) that measures Australia's compliance with the Kyoto Protocol, in the land use change and forestry sector.
FullCAM models carbon flows in plants, mulch, debris, soils and agricultural products, using inputs such as climate data, plant physiology and satellite data. I've been following the global warming debate closely for years.

When I started that job in 1999 the evidence that carbon emissions caused global warming seemed pretty good: CO2 is a greenhouse gas, the old ice core data, no other suspects.
The evidence was not conclusive, but why wait until we were certain when it appeared we needed to act quickly? Soon government and the scientific community were working together and lots of science research jobs were created. We scientists had political support, the ear of government, big budgets, and we felt fairly important and useful (well, I did anyway). It was great. We were working to save the planet.

But since 1999 new evidence has seriously weakened the case that carbon emissions are the main cause of global warming, and by 2007 the evidence was pretty conclusive that carbon played only a minor role and was not the main cause of the recent global warming. As Lord Keynes famously said, "When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?"

There has not been a public debate about the causes of global warming and most of the public and our decision makers are not aware of the most basic salient facts:

1. The greenhouse signature is missing. We have been looking and measuring for years, and cannot find it.
Each possible cause of global warming has a different pattern of where in the planet the warming occurs first and the most. The signature of an increased greenhouse effect is a hot spot about 10km up in the atmosphere over the tropics. We have been measuring the atmosphere for decades using radiosondes: weather balloons with thermometers that radio back the temperature as the balloon ascends through the atmosphere. They show no hot spot. Whatsoever.
If there is no hot spot then an increased greenhouse effect is not the cause of global warming. So we know for sure that carbon emissions are not a significant cause of the global warming. If we had found the greenhouse signature then I would be an alarmist again.
When the signature was found to be missing in 2007 (after the latest IPCC report), alarmists objected that maybe the readings of the radiosonde thermometers might not be accurate and maybe the hot spot was there but had gone undetected. Yet hundreds of radiosondes have given the same answer, so statistically it is not possible that they missed the hot spot.
Recently the alarmists have suggested we ignore the radiosonde thermometers, but instead take the radiosonde wind measurements, apply a theory about wind shear, and run the results through their computers to estimate the temperatures. They then say that the results show that we cannot rule out the presence of a hot spot. If you believe that you'd believe anything.

2. There is no evidence to support the idea that carbon emissions cause significant global warming. None. There is plenty of evidence that global warming has occurred, and theory suggests that carbon emissions should raise temperatures (though by how much is hotly disputed) but there are no observations by anyone that implicate carbon emissions as a significant cause of the recent global warming.

3. The satellites that measure the world's temperature all say that the warming trend ended in 2001, and that the temperature has dropped about 0.6C in the past year (to the temperature of 1980). Land-based temperature readings are corrupted by the "urban heat island" effect: urban areas encroaching on thermometer stations warm the micro-climate around the thermometer, due to vegetation changes, concrete, cars, houses. Satellite data is the only temperature data we can trust, but it only goes back to 1979. NASA reports only land-based data, and reports a modest warming trend and recent cooling. The other three global temperature records use a mix of satellite and land measurements, or satellite only, and they all show no warming since 2001 and a recent cooling.

4. The new ice cores show that in the past six global warmings over the past half a million years, the temperature rises occurred on average 800 years before the accompanying rise in atmospheric carbon. Which says something important about which was cause and which was effect.

None of these points are controversial. The alarmist scientists agree with them, though they would dispute their relevance.

The last point was known and past dispute by 2003, yet Al Gore made his movie in 2005 and presented the ice cores as the sole reason for believing that carbon emissions cause global warming. In any other political context our cynical and experienced press corps would surely have called this dishonest and widely questioned the politician's assertion.

Until now the global warming debate has merely been an academic matter of little interest. Now that it matters, we should debate the causes of global warming.
So far that debate has just consisted of a simple sleight of hand: show evidence of global warming, and while the audience is stunned at the implications, simply assert that it is due to carbon emissions.
In the minds of the audience, the evidence that global warming has occurred becomes conflated with the alleged cause, and the audience hasn't noticed that the cause was merely asserted, not proved.
If there really was any evidence that carbon emissions caused global warming, don't you think we would have heard all about it ad nauseam by now?

The world has spent $50 billion on global warming since 1990, and we have not found any actual evidence that carbon emissions cause global warming. Evidence consists of observations made by someone at some time that supports the idea that carbon emissions cause global warming. Computer models and theoretical calculations are not evidence, they are just theory.

What is going to happen over the next decade as global temperatures continue not to rise? The Labor Government is about to deliberately wreck the economy in order to reduce carbon emissions. If the reasons later turn out to be bogus, the electorate is not going to re-elect a Labor government for a long time. When it comes to light that the carbon scare was known to be bogus in 2008, the ALP is going to be regarded as criminally negligent or ideologically stupid for not having seen through it. And if the Liberals support the general thrust of their actions, they will be seen likewise.

The onus should be on those who want to change things to provide evidence for why the changes are necessary. The Australian public is eventually going to have to be told the evidence anyway, so it might as well be told before wrecking the economy.

Dr David Evans was a consultant to the Australian Greenhouse Office from 1999 to 2005.

You should watch this

Here's an excellent little film that won the Short Film award at the Cannes Film Festival. This has nothing to do with politics or global warming. It's just a nice reminder of what life's about.

Take the time to watch it (5 min). You'll be glad you did.


HISTORIA DE UN LETRERO (THE STORY OF A SIGN)

It's Time for Some Campaignin'!!

This little ditty sums up the election better than anything out there! Enjoy!!

Make sure your sound is turned up!

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Toobee's

I was looking in a closet for something today and came across a few Toobees. I had forgotten I had those. Boy do they bring back some memories. For those that may not know what a Toobee is, here's a photo of one of mine and here's the website for Toobees.

Back around 1980, while living in Dallas and just newly married, I saw an article in Sports Illustrated about this new flying can called a Toobee. Man did that thing look cool. It was basically a cut-off beer or coke can with the top cut out. But when you threw it, it'd fly over 50 yards! Boy was it sweet!

Thinking I was onto the next hula-hoop or frisbee, I quickly contacted the inventors out in California and asked if I could be their distributor in Dallas. I figured I could get all the stores in the area to sell them and I'd get rich! They said they'd give me an exclusive for Dallas, so I bought a few hundred and hit the street. How many did I sell? Nada, zippo, nothing! What I learned the hard way was that there just wasn't enough markup available in them to make it worthwhile for any of the retailers to buy them. The only way I could sell any was to go to the park and throw them around. Everyone would gather around and I could sell a few, but I ended up having a box of them left over. So much for getting rich quick.

Atlanta Farmers Market

Denna, Adam and I went to the Atlanta Farmers Market today and what a pleasant surprise!

We've been in years past and while it's always had a good selection of fruits and vegetables, it just seemed cleaner, with a better selection today. We picked up some squash, onions, bell peppers, watermelon, garlic and limes. Pretty good prices and everything seemed very fresh.

The watermelon I picked was yellow. I've seen those, but never had one before. It's a beautiful color, but unfortunately it's not quite as sweet as the red melons that I've had. Sweet, but not quite as sweet as I'd like.

But look how beautiful it looks.

After shopping we dined at the Oxford Restaurant there at the Farmers Market. Another pleasant surprise. As you would expect they had lots of vegetable to pick from, great sweet tea, and a very nice homemade banana pudding. Not quite as good as Taylor's, but still durn good.

Are People that Stupid?

At the risk of offending a few of the readers of my blog, I can't be civil any longer about Obama.

He was here in Cobb County today, speaking before some rally and I heard a few of the clips from the event on the news. The guy is a good speaker, I'll give him that. He's not great, but compared to everyone else that ran this year, Republican or Dem, he's the best out there.

But do any of you supporters of Obama really understand and want the type of America he's talking about? Do you really want to shift this country that far left, to the nanny state he espouses? Do you really believe that the best way to solve our problem is through MORE GOVERNMENT? That the government, whether it's at the local, state or federal level is the best deliver of goods and services? Such as Healthcare?

What about the tax upon tax upon tax that he wants to place on the achievers in this country? Are you so ignorant of the basics of supply and demand, of capitalism, of free enterprise, to really believe that his plan of shifting even more of the tax burden on the top income earners will bring this country out of the problems it's in? How will it do that? Please, someone tell me.

Would just one of his supporters tell me how ANY of his plans will solve the fiscal issues we now face? How will his plan to nationalize healthcare, creating a HUGE government bureaucracy, help to bring down the cost of healthcare? How will it provide better coverage? HOW?

Are you really so brain-numbed by the reality shows , by the American Idol shows or the rest of the garbage that passes for network TV that you're willing to give over your freedom, your livelihood, your money in order to not have to deal with issues and problems yourself? Do you really believe the government is there to take care of you from cradle to grave?

I know some of you are voting for Obama in a reflex action against Bush and the Republicans. I can understand that. While I still support Bush and his war on terror and the War in Iraq, I agree that he's been a very controversial President and his fiscal and social policies and programs could hardly be considered conservative. And the Republican nominee, McCain isn't a dynamic politician that inspires and excites the masses. Admitily our choices this year are pretty pitiful.

But my god people, do some reading, do some research! Try to understand what Obama really means when he talks about change. Look at his voting record, look at why he's been judged the most liberal voting Senator in the Senate today. Even more liberal than Ted Kennedy! Get past the platitudes and the feel good rhetoric and look at what his election would mean for you, your family and your country. How safe are you going to be under Obama?

4th of July - Georgia Country Style Blueberries, Peaches and Sunflowers

For the 4th we went berry picking with our friends Mike and Beth.

They had located a U-Pick'em blueberry farm about 30 mile east of Atlanta. We got up early to try and beat the heat and got to the place mid morning. What a wonderful berry farm. They had 20 rows, each about 100 yards long, of 20yr old plants, just bursting with berries. They supplied you with a gallon bucket, a length of rope to tie the bucket to your waist and let you go at it. The first thing we did was sample the various varieties to find the flavor and sweetness we liked. We settled on the Climax berry. It had lots of thumb-sized berries and was deliciously sweet. I took the high level, where there were lots of unpicked jumbo berries, while Denna worked below. In just a little while we had our buckets full. What a great start to the day!

On the way out to the berry farm we had seen some small signs for the Sunflower Fest, so afterwards we took off to see what that was all about. But before we got there we saw a sign for Peaches, so we made a detour to the Peach stand. There, they had boxes of fresh Georgia Peaches, just picked from their small orchard. We bought some, with thoughts of fresh peach cobbler in mind!

Then it was off to the Sunflower Fest. What a serendipitous find! There, about 10 miles back in the middle of central Georgia was a 10 acre patch of sunflowers with a festival going on under the trees beside the field. There had to have been a couple of thousand people there with vendors selling funnel cakes, barbecue, antiques, what-nots and bird feeders. They even had a small stage with a band playing some darn good country western songs. We had never heard of this festival, but what a nice little event it turned out to be.

There was a huge thunderstorm coming our way so we had to cut short our stay at the fest, but we did run out quickly to the sunflower field where for $10 you could cut a vase full of flowers to take home. Unfortunately it turned out I was in too big a hurry and while I got a lot of big sunflowers, they didn't work out too good once we got them home. Of course Mike, with his knowledge of flowers and artistic touch, cut the perfect bouquet of flowers. Boy did I catch it for that.

We then took off back to Mike and Beth's where they fixed a great summer feast of ribs, beans, cole slaw and sumptuous margaritas. Topped off with a fresh blueberry and peach cobbler!

We were too tired and full to take in the fireworks so Denna and I headed home and were safely in bed before the first fireworks went off! But I did tivo the Boston Pops 4th of July celebration, which we watched the next morning.

The next day, as we were sorting through our berries and peaches, telling Angela about them and the Sunflower Fest, we decided to make another run out to the fest, taking Angela this time. Also, we wanted to have more time to enjoy the flowers and to cut a better bunch of sunflowers. Unfortunately, we got out there just behind a huge thunderstorm that had shut the festival down. But the sun was coming back out and they were still letting you out into the field to cut sunflowers so we got out and cut some more. This bunch was a lot better!

Here's a link to ALL of the photos from the 4th!

First Tomato of the Summer!

Doesn't seem to matter when I plant 'em or what type I plant, the tomatoes always seem to start ripening on the 4th of July. This year's no exception.

I planted a cherry tomato and a regular tomato this year and right on schedule I got my first ripe red cherry tomato today. They seem to be pretty good this year and I haven't had to battle too many bugs or blights, so maybe in another week or so I can pull off a red ripe tomato for the first sliced tomato, Dukes Mayonnaise and white bread sandwich of the year! Yum!

Age and Wisdom

Here's an interesting bit from Charles H. Green from Trust Matters. I really like his take on the mathmatics of Age and Wisdom. I instinctively knew what he was saying, I just hadn't worked out the numbers before.

Time goes faster as we get older.

This makes intuitive sense if you assume time has a subjective flavor, in addition to an objective meaning. A year at age 10 is a tenth of one’s live; at age 50, it’s only 2% of one’s life. The rate of passage of time, measured by our perception of change, indeed increases.

Now apply that concept to age and wisdom. How much wiser is a 60-year old person than a 20-year old person? Three times wiser? I would argue at least a multiple of six. If not more. Here’s how.

Let’s define wisdom in a narrow, simple way: the ability to perceive patterns from the data of life. And I don’t mean book-data. Any young trader on Wall Street can cite statistics about past bear markets. But the old traders will tell you, until you’ve been through one, you’ll behave stupidly when presented with it the first time.

A 20-year old person has seen 20 years of life. A 60-year old person has seen 3 times that much. Without complicating the math, the oldster has got 3 times more direct experience—more data from which to mine patterns.

But add subjectivity. A 60-year old has not only his or her own life at close hand, but the prior 60 or so years take on a new light. They become more accessible.

Born in 1950, World War II seemed impossibly distant for me at age 10. After all, it had started more than a lifetime ago—for me. At age 40, I was shocked that college freshmen viewed the Vietnam War as similarly distant. Like all boomers—veterans especially—the passage of time has brought those two wars much closer together.

My son, who is now 19, met my grandmother, who lived to 100. She listened to Civil War stories, first-hand, at the feet of soldiers who fought it. That’s one degree of separation from the Civil War to a PS3 gamer.

Yet that feels less remarkable to me now than it used to. I can now envision the 1920s far more easily than previously; but the 1890s still feel quite beyond my grasp.

So here’s my mathematical rule of wisdom: you can mine the history of 2x your age for wisdom.

Thank god wisdom doesn’t depend much on memory. That seems to work in the other direction.

Dance Lessons

Denna and I recently took some dance lessons. It's amazing how light on my feet I feel! Sometimes it seems like I can Fly!

Click on the movie below to see us in action.

If the movie doesn't show on your browser, click this link to view it.
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