"It just went off by accident"

The Supreme Court upheld the conviction of a clumsy bank robber whose gun was discharged, supposedly by accident , during the commission of the crime.

“A gun went off accidentally during the attempted robbery when Dean tried to switch the weapon from one hand to the other.”

{…}

“Chief Justice John Roberts, who called it "the case of the bungling bank robber" in his bench statement, said the law "does not require that the discharge be done knowingly or intentionally."”

The ruling made clear the consequences for going into a crime armed with a weapon making the claim, “It just went off by accident” irrelevant. The criminal intent to do harm becomes automatic the moment the weapon is brought to the crime.

This is no different than the folks who go drinking at the bar, drive under the influence and then “accidentally” have a wreck that kills somebody. The accident, if you can call it that, happened the minute the drunk driver got behind the wheel and it’s only luck that these folks manage to get home without killing or injuring someone else.

“Justices John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer dissented, saying Congress intended the automatic sentence to only apply to intentional discharges of weapons.”

Here is the reason for separation of powers in our nation, the legislators write the laws and judges are supposed to rule based on what is written in those laws. Activist judges can’t seem to discipline themselves and are constantly attempting to insert their own opinions rather than work with the laws which are in place.

Apparently Justices John Paul Stevens and Stephen Breyer don’t understand or have decided to ignore the centuries old idea that Justice is Blind and not swayed by feelings or other outside influences. (Photo courtesy of Statues.com)

Out of the mouths of babes…

We had the grandchildren over for diner the other evening; this was while the rains were covering us . Lucy had made spaghetti and there was plenty for everyone. The table conversation was focused on the weather. We were concerned about the creek coming out of its banks and the question was asked, “Where is all that rain going to go?”

Without missing a beat our three year old Jocelyne responded, “On the plain.”

“By George, she’s got it!” I let go with the next line from My Fair Lady. Lucy and I could hardly contain our laughter. We’ve been working with Jocelyne to improve her enunciation of words and sentences.

“And where’s that soggy plain?”

“In Spain, in Spain.”

“The rain in Spain stays mainly in the plain.”

Mormons Can’t Send Flowers

A friend of mine sent this to me; not much you can add to it.

We Got Rain

The grandchildren where over for dinner last night and after the Astros game ( Astros beat Cincinnati 4 – 1), after the game we watched the movie, Evan Almighty , about a fellow picked by God to build an Ark in our day. I mention that because here in Houston we got lots of rain ; some places got 6 – 7 inches yesterday afternoon while up around our area we “only” got 3 inches.

It rained most of the night with lots of thunder and lightning. I turned on the local news when I got up and instead of the Today Show there was a special broadcast of the flooding which was going on here. The Katy area west of us got an additional 6 – 7 inches of rain and our area got about 4 inches on top of the rain from yesterday.

Anyone with a lick of sense would have stayed home and chalked it off as smart; but we are not blessed with a huge percentage of smart folks apparently as the freeways and service roads were nothing but huge parking lots filled with frustrated commuters. I’m guessing there won’t be much, if any, locksmith work today.

I went over to the new bridge which crosses Cypress Creek, the one which opened just a while back. I’d taken some pictures of the creek that day ( third picture in the set) and wanted to gauge how much it had risen with all this rain. I talked to a lady who had been there earlier this morning and she told me the level had gone down about a foot; I’m impressed.

April 27 Late Afternoon Storm

Astros are in Cincinnati and the game just came on; but we’ve been watching a line of heavy storms moving into our area for the past hour. I think the worst has past us and all we got was a bunch of heavy wind and maybe two or three inches of rain. The tornado watch, severe thunderstorm warning and flood watch are in effect and make for awesome radar pictures.

The radar image at the top was at 6:00pm and the other was about 15 minutes earlier. Our house is about a fourth of an inch south of the "S" in Spring and a quarter of an inch to the west. That outside band of freeway is Beltway 8 and we are north of that.

HB 1388 - You Cannot Serve Two Masters

A piece of legislation which may have slipped under the radar, HB 1388, named the “Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education” bill (GIVE), has some interesting and alarming inclusions for young people who accept a student loan. The strings attached to such student loans would be mandatory service for a minimum of three months in “Obama’s Youth Brigade”.

The kind of service required brings to mind a brown shirted youth brigade, reminiscent of Hitler’s Nazi Germany, and has yet to face much if any public scrutiny; however, SEC. 1310 SEC 132A, which was removed and previously listed as SEC. 1304. Section 125, basically forbids church attendance in any way shape or form.

While written in such a way as to prohibit persons from using their position as volunteers to actively promote a specific religion, which would violate the current interpretation of separation of church and state; 1310 SEC 132A also acts to prohibit that same volunteer from participating in his/her private religion through simple attendance of a religious meeting or witnessing of the truthfulness of the gospel.

Our constitutional form of government defines, and supposedly protects the rights of individuals from abusive and tyrannical government usurpations of power, to either participate in religious endeavors or to be free from such participation, not by governmental decree; but through individual choice granted established by our Creator.

From what I’ve observed, the Obama administration and their efforts to alter America from its foundations which at one time clearly established this nation “Under God”; but which now point toward a socialist/communist replacement form of totalitarian tyranny (my way or the high way, or as I’ve heard it expressed, “We won so shut up!). The clarity of HB 1388’s purpose becomes “self evident” ( I couldn’t resist, my apologies); if you accept money from the government you forfeit (GIVE-UP, again my apologies) your inalienable birth right of choice as guaranteed under the First Amendment.

Simply put if you are in Obama’s Brigade government becomes your god; you cannot serve two masters .

"The First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution is also the first section of the Bill of Rights. It is arguably the most important part of the U.S. Constitution, as it guarantees freedoms of religion, speech, writing and publishing, peaceful assembly, and the freedom to raise grievances with the Government. In addition, it requires that a wall of separation be maintained between church and state. It reads:"

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the government for a redress of grievances."

You will notice the particular article from which I linked has included a statement, “requires that a wall of separation be maintained between church and state”, which the Supreme Court has ruled is included within the wording of the First Amendment and which, if you read the words printed therein, do not appear.

I find the modern day attempts to remove religion from our history by altering and destroying references in our founding documents more than alarming; this should be considered criminal, and yet, this is what we as a people have come to expect from our government.

What the First Amendment says is, “Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof…”, a far cry from the modern day interpretation intended to remove God from America. HB 1388 is, by its own definition, in direct violation of constitutionally guaranteed individual rights by “prohibiting the free exercise thereof”.

I’ll go a step further by reminding anyone interested; America’s foundations are rooted in the Judeo/Christian acknowledgement to our Creator Who provided His people the fundamental laws by which to live through the Ten Commandments. Here again, modern interpretation of our history would have us ignore such a statement; however, the symbols of the Ten Commandments are embedded in many of our national buildings to include the Supreme Court.

Obama’s Brigade volunteers will have the government as its god, for you cannot serve God by legislative decree. I guess “Thou shalt have no other gods before me” must have been replaced with HB 1388, at least as long as you are a “government volunteer”.

Many believe as I do that America is the “promised land”, not much different than Israel was the “promised land” to those escaping Pharos enslavement in Egypt. It is the land where our Creator established a righteous government, one which would always recognize Him as the head and Author of individual Rights and Liberty.

Our Declaration of Independence was written to establish a new nation and to escape the rule of tyranny under King George III in favor of self governance under the “Laws of Nature and of Nature's God”; a far cry from the imagined “separation of Church and State” imposed by a Supreme Court’s intentional misrepresentation of history.

“And if it seem evil unto you to serve the Lord, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.” Joshua 24:15

Rabid Dogs in a Feeding Frenzy

President Obama’s stimulus package of never ending debt threw an 8 Billion dollar carrot to be used for the building of high speed rail in Texas. It would be nice to have “Tomorrow Land’s” sleek bullet train features rocketing between Houston, Dallas, San Antonio and Austin; but at what price?

We don’t have the money! Don’t you get it; we don’t have the money! We are a nation of spoiled brats where anything we want or need must instantly materialize; just put it on credit and we’ll pay it off in installments. That 8 Billion dollars doesn’t exist, at least not in the real world; the bank account for America has already spent every penny we had as of April 26th; but I keep forgetting, we no longer use the antiquated system of having to show where money came from prior to spending it.

The Federal Government is going to jump start Texas’ high speed train package with 8 billion dollars; free money for a project that will bring us closer to the future, a place where rail transit should be instead of a bunch of rusty old cattle cars clickity-clacking past a row of cars waiting while the crossing arms hold up progress. We won’t need cars and it will be just as fast, or even faster than jumping on a jet plane.

Deborah Hastings, in an AP story posted on Daily Herald that came with this neat picture of a bullet train, pointed out the futility of implementing the dream of high speed rail as opposed to the reality which would, in all probability, be a total disaster both performance wise and monetarily. In spite of the huge difference between wanting the dream and throwing money at the endless pit, some folks just refuse to accept the enormous price we, our children and our grand children would end up paying for that which we cannot afford.

“The economic benefit is enormous, the president said. "Railroads were always the pride of America, and stitched us together. Now Japan, China, all of Europe have high-speed rail systems that put ours to shame."”

Excuse me; what economic benefit? Maybe this explains why Obama doesn’t see a problem with spending trillions, with a “T”, trillions of dollars which do not exist for social programs we cannot afford; he simply changes the words “excruciating inescapable debt” with “economic benefit”, passes a magic wand over the whole mess and nobody sees the shackled future of America.

“Railroads were always the pride of America”, railroads which made possible the great strides in industry which built America by making it profitable to move vast amounts of goods across the country. Obama couldn’t be talking about Amtrak because as a “for profit” passenger conveyance system Amtrak has required financial assistance each year just to stay in operation.

About the only “shame” Obama could be referring to would be how are heads hanging down low for spending money we flat out don’t have, for being so irresponsible in our spending as to create an America which will be in debt to the world for generations to come. Keeping up with the Jones just got a whole lot more expensive.

Talent Show Material?

My daughter sent this to entertain my grand daughter; that gets one “atta boy” and a gold star on the class poster board at the front of the room.

Maybe we could sign the bird up for a cabinet position in the Obama administration; more than likely the bird won’t owe any back taxes, that’s a plus.

Napolitano - Hypocrisy or Just Plain Stupid

“Stupid is as stupid does”, is a line from the movie Forrest Gump. It might as well be the tag line for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano. In the short time she’s been at her position we’ve heard how returning Vets are a security risk as they might be recruited by radical right wing terrorists. The other day she managed to antagonize the folks in Canada with a remark about the 9/11 terrorists having entered the United States through the open border to our north followed by a hasty apology to our “close ally” and then there’s yet another face plant regarding the Real ID Act of 2005.

Napolitano wants to do away with the Real ID Act , “She said she wants to substitute the federal law with "something else that pivots off of the driver's license but accomplishes some of the same goals.” No details on what would take its place; she just wants something different.

We mustn’t antagonize anyone attempting to obtain important identification instruments, illegal aliens or terrorists trying to duck under the radar. This is similar to the folks who don’t want valid identification at the voting booth; a general relaxation of common sense.

“While Napolitano is looking for ways to repeal Real ID, her department's Web site continues to espouse the law's merits.

"Raising the standards of state-issued identification is an important step toward enhancing national security," the Web site says.

"Because a driver's license serves so many purposes [access to federal buildings, nuclear power plants, boarding aircraft, etc.], terrorists actively seek fraudulent state-issued identification. The Real ID rules will make it more difficult for them, while making it easier for law enforcement to detect falsified documents," it says.”

Maybe Napolitano has watched the movie Hitman (give it a few seconds to load); can we expect the next level of ID to be bar codes tattooed on the back of our necks. That would make it easier to “needle” the citizenry and she wouldn’t need a microphone.

No, my guess would be something similar to night club stamps that showed you paid at the door, the kind that glow under a black light so you can go to work the next day and impress your fellow workers, “I went clubbing last night”. I went to Jones Beach when I was a kid and the man at the gate stamped the top of my hand with a rubber stamp, a water proof image of a sea horse; that was cool!

I can see the headline now…

“Terrorist arrested at Logan International Airport”. Details are sketchy; however, it appears an elderly lady was trying to get through security with a Chuck E. Cheese ID stamped on her wrist. Wilma Snodgrass, age 72 from Oxsnort, Vermont was pulled out of line and searched for weapons after TSA officials were unable to identify the smeared identification stamp on her wrist. Mrs. Snodgrass stated that she had taken her grandson to Chuck E. Cheese for a pizza party to celebrate his 5th birthday.”

In a statement to reporters at the hospital where Wilma Snodrass was taken after suffering what appeared to be a heart attack, Janet Napolitano explained, “TSA scanners were unable to verify her citizenship because the Chuck E. Cheese stamp was smeared and only idiots work in important positions”. Homeland Security Secretary Napolitano then cleared her throat and asked, “Did I really say that into a microphone?”

Earth Day (spit)

To be perfectly clear about this Earth Day nonsense , I haven’t sipped the environmentalist’s Kool-Aid, I’m not wearing biodegradable underwear and I still use my pickup truck to run locksmith calls instead of riding a bike to jobs.

“April 22, 1970, Earth Day marks the beginning of the modern environmental movement.”

If you want that translated into English, “April 22, 1970, Earth Day marked the day when we turned over a perfectly good Republic to a bunch of crazy environmental socialists intent on destroying the free market system and anything which might remind the “sheeple” that our nation was founded on Christian principles and values.”

{…}

“Founded by the organizers of the first April 22 Earth Day in 1970, Earth Day Network promotes environmental citizenship and year round progressive action worldwide. Earth Day Network is a driving force steering environmental awareness around the world. Through Earth Day Network, activists connect change in local, national, and global policies. Earth Day Network’s international network reaches over 17,000 organizations in 174 countries, while the domestic program engages 5,000 groups and over 25,000 educators coordinating millions of community development and environmental protection activities throughout the year.” (emphasis in italic added)

Promoting progressive action worldwide is one of those not so subtle ways of saying their efforts are intended to promote socialism through forced policy changes such as the most recent efforts to saddle the United States with Cap and Trade Limits .

I find it mildly amusing, (spit), how we celebrate all that God has given us, the abundance supplied through the earth’s resources, by tying it in with godless social revolutionaries who hate the foundations upon which our nation was established, hate our freeways and the use of fossil fuels which power everything from industry to our family sedan or pickup truck. Were it not for living in a land which has been so blessed these moronic malcontents would still be living in tents or caves and bathing only when the rivers were not covered with ice.

These pictures are of the tomato plants which I finally got into the garden along with two that are in planter bowls. Having a garden doesn’t make me a member of the global warming ecological whacko religion any more than believing in the Constitution and conservative values makes me a terroristic threat .

The cool weather made picking a date to plant rather interesting this spring because up until 2 weeks ago the temperatures were still dipping down into the mid 30’s. I’ve gambled with cold weather before and found my tomato plants never quite made a come back if they got nipped; a waste of money and time. This year I got lucky and a friend of mine had hundreds of extra Roma Tomato plants he was giving away; Thank You Roger Lyon. We transplanted 18 of his tomato plants into our limited growing area and, as they say, “We shall see what we shall see.”

I put two established store bought tomato plants in portable planters to see if moving them around might protect them from the hot sun months from now; extend their productivity even if for just a couple of weeks. Now that Lucy has become proficient in canning we’re hoping to have plenty of tomatoes for making spaghetti sauce; she put up twenty pounds of fajita seasoned pork yesterday to go along with all the fajita seasoned chicken she did last week.

I also purchased some very hazardous material to spread over my yard, insect killer designed to wipe out fire ants, ticks, fleas and cutworms. I’m sure any points I scored with the Earth Day crowd just got removed when I destroyed the environment with insecticides that might seep into the sewer and be flushed into the marshlands where an exotic endangered tree toad might ingest the toxic water.

The Greatest Play in Baseball

Hope you’ve seen this before; no, it’s not a triple play, not a no-hitter and there is no play like it in all of baseball.

Ahmadinejad Only Wants Peace

Some of you may remember a Mel Brooks film, To Be Or Not To Be , set in WWII. There’s a skit showing Hitler on stage explaining how he only wants peace, “A…little piece of Poland…a little piece of Greece…a little piece of Hungary…” and so on.

In a FoxNews story regarding the U.N. Racism Conference , “Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addresses the Durban Review Conference on racism at the United Nations European headquarters in Geneva.”

“Ahmadinejad, on the eve of Holocaust Remembrance Day, said the U.N. Security Council enabled the "occupancy regime" of Israel and "gave it free hand for its crimes." He added that "world Zionism personifies racism."”

Ahmadinejad wants to get rid of racism in the world; the first race he wants to eliminate, Israel . Following Israel would be the United States and any other non Islamic nation.

There’s a continual effort to have the world believe that the creation of a Palestinian State along side of Israel would solve all the problems in the Middle East. History would prove this to be a false ray of hope since this proposal has been rejected in favor of simply eliminating Israel altogether.

Getting back to the movie, To Be Or Not To Be; there was a politically incorrect joke about Hitler, something to do with a pickle. Was that a kosher pickle or just the run of the mill Dill?

I Fit the Terrorist Profile

First off, a tip of the cap to my friend Mike for posting a copy of the terrorist certificate radical right wing conservatives must now display as a warning to anyone coming in contact with us.

My fingerprints are already stored in a dusty file cabinet somewhere in Washington as Arlo Guthrie would say, “comin’ around once more on the guitar”, as another verse of Alice’s Restaurant played on. I hope to be a continual pain in the rear worthy of warrantless wire taps, black SUV tails and even one of those fancy quiet mode black ops helicopters following me around town.

I suggested to my Bishop in a meeting early this morning that we, as a group of religious right wing radicals might have to post a copy of this terrorist warning on our official bulletin board. One of my jobs as executive secretary is to add humor into an otherwise serious meeting.

More Global Warming Misinformation Scare Tactics

The liars from the global warming movement are continuing their scare tactics in spite of overwhelming scientific data which refutes their fallacious computer generated predictions. In a FoxNews story by Major Garrett, “Energy Secretary Offers Dire Global Warming Prediction” , Steven Chu all but gave the last rites to folks living close to the water’s edge.

“Caribbean nations face "very, very scary" rises in sea level and intensifying hurricanes, and Florida, Louisiana and even northern California could be overrun with rising water levels due to global warming triggered by carbon-based greenhouse gases, Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Saturday.”

{…}

“Let me state what the official IPCC (the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) prediction is: It (sea levels) could go up as much as three-quarters of a meter in this century, but there is a reasonable probability it could be much higher than that," Chu said.”

However, a little further down in the article “Marc Morano, executive editor of ClimateDepot.com and former top aide to global warming critic Sen. Jim Inhofe, R-Okla.” pointed out. “…Chu is out of date on the science and is promoting unverified and alarming predictions that have already been proven contrary.” (emphasis added)

“Secretary Chu's assertions on sea level rise and hurricanes are quite simply being proven wrong by the latest climate data. As the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute reported in December 12, 2008: There is 'no evidence for accelerated sea-level rise.'” (emphasis added)

The leaders of the “global warming religion” depends on misinformation and out right lies to promote their faith. I posted a similar article on Saturday as congress was pushing for stronger measures that would cripple American industry’s ability to compete by shutting down the use of reasonable and reliable fossil fuel energy supplies in favor of more expensive and less reliable alternative green energy.

The IPCC’s (the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) so called scientists have already admitted altering their measured data on sea level changes, data which proved sea levels had remained basically stable, with computer generated “correction factors” in order to show the trends which they needed to extend their fraudulent claims of eminent disaster; in other words, they lied. What else would you have expected from anything associated with the United Nations?

EPA Global Warming Conspiracy Phase II

The Environmental Protection Agency has been stoking the fires of fear for so long as to make their repeated lies sound so much like the truth as to be taken as the truth. It wasn’t so bad when our congress was split down the middle, deadlocking major alterations to the foundations of our society; however, with a strong majority of Democrats in control things (Phase II) might change and with Obama in the Oval Office there won’t be any veto signature to hold back bad legislation.

A sampling of articles, some fact based while others are simply “stories”, which need a second look are available for anyone really interested. I’ll start with one about a panicked congress putting together major legislation after having listened to the doom and gloom reports by our good buddies, the EPA. (note: same link is provided in the title bar since the embedded link did not work properly)

“Both sides of the debate on global warming are poised to clash over the legislation after the Environmental Protection Agency on Friday said rising sea levels, increased flooding and more intense heat waves and storms that come with climate change are a threat to public health and safety. The agency predicted that warming will worsen other pollution problems such as smog.”

That part about rising sea levels falls under the category of “stories” which are not based on actual scientific data; they are in fact a lie which can be proven scientifically. There are several articles available on sea levels if you look them up on Google; however, you have to go past the first set of “preferred” articles which claim the sea levels are rising, go to the articles which don’t show up on the first page; I wonder why that is? (conspiracy)

Dr. Nils-Axel Morner, (sorry, I didn’t include the double dots over the “o”), a sea level specialist and president of INQUA, an international fraternal association, their Commission on Sea-Level Changes and Coastal Evolution, from 1999 to 2003, has stated without equivocation that the figures being supplied by the EPA have been falsified to match with their particular agenda. As a historical observation, Democrats in general are more interested in “how things feel” much more than determining issues based on facts.

“…in 2003, the same data set, which in their (IPCC's) publications, in their website, was a straight line—suddenly it changed, and showed a very strong line of uplift, 2.3 mm per year, the same as from the tide gauge. And that didn't look so nice. It looked as though they had recorded something, but they hadn't recorded anything. It was the original data which they suddenly twisted up, because they entered a "correction factor," which they took from the tide gauge." (emphasis added)

"So it was not a measured thing, but a figure introduced from outside. I accused them of this at the Academy of Sciences meeting in Moscow—I said you have introduced factors from outside; it's not a measurement. It looks like it is measured from the satellite, but you don't say what really happened. And they answered, that we had to do it, because otherwise we would not have gotten any trend!” (emphasis added)

Going back to statements made by the Democrats trying to rush through garbage legislation, “Every year since 2001 has been among the 10 warmest years on record. Sea ice in the Arctic and glaciers worldwide are melting.”

Well I hate to break it to you; but according to folks who have actually drilled holes in the ice shelf to determine the thickness and trends of either growth or deterioration, overall, “Sea ice conditions have remained stable in Antarctica generally,” at least according to “Australian Antarctic Division glaciology program head Ian Allison said sea ice losses in west Antarctica over the past 30 years had been more than offset by increases in the Ross Sea region, just one sector of east Antarctica.”

“Ice core drilling in the fast ice off Australia's Davis Station in East Antarctica by the Antarctic Climate and Ecosystems Co-Operative Research Centre shows that last year, the ice had a maximum thickness of 1.89m, its densest in 10 years. The average thickness of the ice at Davis since the 1950s is 1.67m.” (emphasis added)

I’m all for taking care of the planet and the environment; however, when it comes to creating legislation which will destroy any hope of America’s industrial free market system’s recovery through imposed penalties for energy consumption based on falsified data, the sole purpose of which was to influence and frighten, then it’s time to put a spot light on the liars and watch them scurry into the dark corners just like roaches in a dirty kitchen avoid being spotted. I almost forgot, “…you are asking people to worry about their grandchildren or their children…”; save our children!

April Showers Bring May Flowers

Yesterday we had a couple of strong thunderstorm cells move through our area. Up here on the north side of Houston we got somewhere around 3 inches of rain; but west of us there were folks who got upwards of 8 – 10 inches when a storm settled in and kept pounding them. There were reports of roofs being torn off and windows breaking with gusts of wind in the 60mph range.

The picture shows what we have lined up for today, not as scary looking as yesterday; but has the potential of causing problems since we already had lots of water in the run off systems. I don’t figure on doing much locksmith work; rotten weather puts a damper on making keys for cars.

Speaking of flowers, you might keep Dana, A very nearly tea , in your thoughts and prayers as she is in the hospital with a bum hip. I emailed her flowers, in digital form, as they are stored in my computer to send out when one of my blogging buddies needs them. Originally they belonged to Ethne ; but she stopped blogging a while back.

Never Mind Principles – Just Get Elected

Here’s a line from a FoxNews story by a so called conservative which pinpoints what the term RINO means. The idea was expressed by Steve Schmidt, former top advisor to John McCain during the last presidential campaign. Mr. Schmidt was talking before the convention for “Log Cabin Republicans, a grassroots group of gay and lesbians”.

With advisors like this you can see why so many real conservative Republicans were not thrilled with John McCain heading the presidential ticket in the last election; after all, you are known by the company you keep. If you take that to the natural next level, what does that say about Barrack Obama’s close knit company of friends?

Steve Schmidt pointed out, “If you put public policy issues to a religious test, you risk becoming a religious party,” he said. “And in a free country a political party cannot be viable in the long-term if it is seen as a sectarian party.”

I suppose what Steve Schmidt is really trying to say, “Never mind the principles which define conservatives; try to get along with everyone regardless of how you really feel about their particular state of degeneracy and you might get elected in spite of the “R” next to your name on the ballot.”

It could be said, in a more common tone, “You really don’t believe all the crap in the Bible, now do you?” The average person starts to get a little annoyed when you start trashing their most basic beliefs, “ You believe in God, oh give me a break ; you still believe in eternal consequences for your actions too?”

There has been a concerted effort to separate religious foundations from America for as long as I’ve been alive. However hard the godless try they cannot understand that having solid core values rooted in the Bible does not disqualify a person from being elected to any office here in the United States of America. To the contrary, being of strong character should be one of the first and maybe the most important qualifying test for folks entering into the service of their fellow beings .

I’ll tell you this Steve Schmidt, I believe in God, that Being mentioned in the Declaration of Independence as the Creator. I believe in eternal consequences for my actions and I really do believe the principles taught in the Scriptures are the foundations of our country.

I believe that marriage between a man and a woman is ordained of God and that deviant behavior through gay and lesbian relations is an abomination which destroys individuals who chose to participate. The lessons taught regarding Sodom and Gomorrah or any other principles of righteous living are as pertinent today as they were thousands of years ago.


The “in your face” confrontational gay and lesbian politics of the left are an affront to God and have no place in this nation, a nation which He established through divine inspiration given our Founding Fathers. The outspoken gay and lesbian’s efforts serve to identify those who clearly have decided to follow the temptations offered by Satan, which temptations serve to thwart those trying to be obedient to God’s Plan of Happiness .

While I sympathize for individuals involved in self destructive behavior I cannot condone their efforts to inflict such a deplorable state of living upon the rest of our society through legislative alterations or judicial actions intended to destroy the fabric of a God serving public.

In short, I’m one of those radical right wing conservatives Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano fears; the kind of person who poses a real danger to the current administration because I refuse to sit back and let morally corrupted individuals such as Steve Schmidt speak for the real grass roots conservatives. I’m not looking to be popular and my line is drawn in the sand without apology.

Government Licensed Journalists?

FoxNews had an alarming piece on their site this morning which would spell the end of an independent news media. Rosa Brooks, a former journalist for the L.A. Times and member of the Obama administration acting as an advisor to the Pentagon wants to save the floundering media by having “direct government support for public media” and, oh yes, “creating licenses to govern news operations.”

L. Brent Bozell, president of the Media Research Center, a conservative watchdog group, shares my concern.

“"Since when did our Founding Fathers envision that ... you could exercise your right to freedom of speech provided you had a license from the federal government? This is the kind of stuff you have revolutions about," he told FOXNews.com.”

The government has been trimming away basic rights and freedoms a little piece at a time for years. We have become a nation of cowards and fools trading liberty for the promise of safety and security. Benjamin Franklin's warning has been ignored time and time again, “Those who sacrifice Liberty for security deserve neither”.

Next thing you know government will be requiring occupational licenses for bloggers. What’s that you say; a license to express your opinion? What’s the difference between an independent blogger with a politically active site and large media outlets? There isn’t any!

I wrote about the government licensing of the locksmith industry and their continual assaults on private enterprise over the years; but that small insignificant industry take over didn’t seem to bother too many folks. I continue in my attempts to reverse the trend, to what extent is possible, through my individual efforts; however, I don’t have a staff of competent lawyers to file motions before the courts and there’s that minor detail of having to make a living.

Where is America headed when folks sit quietly and watch radical changes to our basic structured society and do nothing? Maybe when you pick up your state owned and run copy of the newspaper, the one where everything has been filtered of anything resembling a critique of the powers in office, maybe then folks will figure out what’s happening to the America of our Founding Fathers; only it will have been too late!

Angel From Montgomery

I had part of an old John Denver tune try to surface from the cobwebs today; wouldn’t leave me alone as I tried to find a copy of it on one of the CD’s in my collection unsuccessfully. I could hear his clear voice singing the chorus, “Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery, make me a poster of an old rodeo, just give me one thing…” and the words to the tune eluded my memory at that point. I looked it up and found several versions on YouTube, none of them by John Denver; but some were quite well done.

I guess I was mistaken about John Denver having written the tune; looks like a fellow named John Prine deserves the credit. That having been said; I still hear John Denver’s voice echoing in the corridors of my mind. The YouTube video down below has the sound which best fits with my recollection of how the song should be heard; thought it was John Denver when I stumbled upon this one.

Angel From Montgomery
John Prine

I am an old woman
Named after my mother,
My old man is another
Child that's grown old
If dreams were lightning
And thunder were desire
This old house would have burnt down
A long time ago

Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery,
Make me a poster of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to,
To believe in this livin' is just a hard way to go

When I was a young girl
I had me a cowboy
He weren't much to look at,
Just a free ramblin' man.
But that was a long time
And no matter how I try,
The years just flow by
Like a broken down dam.

Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery,
Make me a poster of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to,
To believe in this livin' is just a hard way to go

There's flies in the kitchen
I can hear 'em in there buzzin'
And I ain't done nothin'
Since I woke up today.
How the hell can a person
Go to work in the mornin'
Come home in the evenin'
And have nothin' to say?

Make me an angel that flies from Montgomery,
Make me a poster of an old rodeo
Just give me one thing that I can hold on to,
To believe in this livin' is just a hard way to go
(Repeat Chorus)

Mozart and Home Security

I don’t know about the rest of you; but something strikes me as wrong with all these Czar appointments, the term Czar sounding like something from the Bolsheviks side of the world. Maybe President Obama thinks we live in the Balkans or some other place where the elite rulers manage the subjects rather than America where government acts upon the direction of the citizenry.

Fox News reported that an Obama’s administration official, speaking on condition of anonymity said, “Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano is expected to name Alan Bersin to the position on Wednesday during a visit to the Southwest border.”

{…}

“…Bersin and Napolitano were both U.S. attorneys during the Clinton administration.”

“During his final three years, Bersin doubled as the U.S. attorney general's Southwest border representative, or "border czar."”

We’ve gone from having border representatives to having a border czar; that’s an issue, at least it is with me. One thing hasn’t changed much, the shady dealing we became familiar with under the Clinton administration seems to have morphed into what is now the Obama administration. All we need now is for Sandy “Burglar” to show up and start stuffing important documents down his pants to make the circus act complete.

One of the problems with illegal immigration is the ease with which folks are able to cross the border. The elusive fence which was supposed to be built keeps falling into the category of “castles in the sky”, which castles are fine until you try to move in to them as the saying goes. Build the fence, or better yet, dig a continuous moat the length of our southern border and fill it with nasty predatory beasts like crocodiles or piranhas. Then in place of a border czar we could have a…are you ready….drum roll in 4/4 time…a Moat Czar.

Is “Bite Me” Politically Correct?

I see where Mexico’s ambassador to Spain has his boxer shorts in a bind over, of all things, a hamburger ad which Burger King is running.

Burger King’s “Texican Whopper” is touted, in a Spanish language ad, “inspired by the land where a man ‘aint afraid to sink his teeth into something hot and spicy.”

Let me put this in order of importance; corruption at nearly every level of government in Mexico, drug cartels run the show from behind closed doors, a good portion of the population can’t make a living in Mexico so they cross into America illegally, and Mexico’s ambassador to Spain is upset about a hamburger ad.

“Jorge Zermeño asked Burger King to pull the ad and apologize for offending Mexican cuisine.”

If Burger King hasn’t said it already, “Bite Me!”, and that goes for your little dog too.

Comment Section 101

Folks in small towns don’t need a psychiatrist because if you do something stupid the whole town’s going to know about it anyway; at least that’s what I heard. The same could be true about blogging and the ever present comment section. I enjoy reading comment sections, often times far more entertaining or informative than the original article.

While going over the morning “reads” I ran across a reference library on the subject of blog comments , so to speak, written by Michael S. Malone, which had been linked via Say Uncle. Following the thread of comments became an education in human ego trips. If you have an hour or so to invest try reading all 222 comments to see how it works.

Easter Weekend

I know we’re not supposed to bring it up; but, this is the weekend we celebrate the Savior’s victory over the grave. If it were not for the resurrection of Jesus Christ then His birth, which we celebrate as Christmas, would have no more meaning than anyone else’s birthday. Okay, that’s been covered insufficiently; if you want to know more try reading the scriptures , on to other things.

A good portion of the readership was scared away with the title alone, much less that first paragraph which makes lots of folks very uncomfortable. I heard one of the talk show hosts, I think it was Glenn Beck; but don’t hold me to that, where was I; anyway he was explaining how many folks feel guilty for not attending church all year long and figure they NEED to attend at Easter. His advice was to stay home if that’s the only reason for attending.

He quickly added that the purpose of attending church was to get folks to change their way of living to one more in tune with the way God intended us to live. If all you can do is better yourself on Sunday then that’s a start; but remember the goal is to eventually be in tune all the time, so get Sunday under control, add Monday for a while and then Tuesday and so on until you are a better person seven days a week. Good advice, hard to do; but good advice.

There’s lots of talk about how Christianity is “on the way out”, just a matter of time before it becomes a footnote in American history. Books and articles abound with the decline, almost like there was a betting pool to see who can guess the date, sometime in the near future, when Christianity will have the same number of adherents as folks buying the Boston Globe newspaper. Last time I looked at the Gallup Polls , percentages were about 82% of Americans claimed to be Christians.

I heard a sports figure talking about Nolan Ryan, the Hall of Fame pitcher with a blazing fastball. Nolan had been pitching for many years and had lost some of the zip off that famous fastball, from 96 mph down to 94mph. In a quiet joking matter of fact way the sports figure mentioned that Nolan would be down to 91 mph if he were to keep pitching at age 58. I guess at the rate of decline, the number claiming to be Christians might be down to 80% some time soon; say the year 2050?

Here’s a “change of pace”, a neat segway (sp) away from Nolan and baseball; articles posted by other bloggers. I’ll start with a neat visual by Mover Mike showing what a Trillion Dollars looks like. Thank you, Mike.

Next on the list of wonderful articles would have to be a combined effort from Dana, Principled Discovery , and her daughter, the “Science Mouse”, who posted, a day with the sandhill cranes containing lots of pictures and observations from the standpoint of a young person. I couldn’t resist leaving a comment, in part, “That will get each of you one “atta boy” and a green star on the chart at the front of the classroom.”

Neal Boortz had a neat “citizens who were not going to wait for government to help” article which should make the American Spirit grow. Private citizens finished the project of repairing flood damage which occurred from flooding to Polihale State Park, complete with restoration of a destroyed bridge, in 8 days instead of the 2 years projected and they did it with their own funding and labor. Everyone involved in the project should get a serious and sincere tip of the hat from their fellow Americans; but more especially, teach the government contractors a thing or two about efficiency in action.

Thank goodness the “boys of summer” are back; going all winter long without baseball pushes my limits. The Houston Astros could use a pitcher or two; maybe we could get Nolan Ryan to come out of retirement after having been embarrassed badly by the Cubs , giving up 8 runs in the first two innings of the rubber game to close out the home opener series 1 and 2.

I managed the Point Control softball team , one of Houston’s Finest police league entrants back in 1976. We gave up ten runs in the first inning one time, mostly on sloppy ball handling rather than bad pitching. I told the guys, as they came back to the dugout with their heads hanging pretty low, “That takes a lot of confidence to spot the other team a ten run lead.” I laughed and then encouraged them to have a go at getting back in the game a run at a time. We eventually came away with the win and made it into the playoffs that year.

In case you’ve lost sight of the original message, Happy Easter. Take a moment to thank your Lord for the gift of the resurrection and the atonement. Remember, if it were not for the Easter Bunny jumping over the moon we would have no colored Easter Eggs.

Tattoo Shop Details

One of my favorite black and white movies with Clark Gable was, Teacher’s Pet . He’s a hard nosed news paper editor and knows how to get the most information in a small space because the paper doesn’t make money from extra words that could have been used for advertisements. He goes head to head with a journalism professor, played by Doris Day, at the local college. She wants students to do “think pieces” full of emotion to set up the story. The link gives more details along with a short movie clip.

There was an “almost story” about a killing at a tattoo shop in the news this morning. I say almost because the basics; who, what, when, where, why and how didn’t quite make it into the article. What was the name of the tattoo shop? The dead person’s name wasn’t given; next of kin may not have been notified, so they get a free pass. Going past that; was he or she going in for a tattoo, running from someone, going to rob the place? White, Black, Asian or is that important for this story? What part of the body got hit by the gun shot(s)? What kind of clothing was he or she wearing; or, since it’s a tattoo shop, perhaps clothing was optional.

You might be chuckling about that last line, “perhaps clothing was optional”. There used to be a tattoo shop at the corner of Commonwealth and Westheimer here in Houston. I walked in to see the owner about the possibility of letting us put a police fund raising gum ball machine in the entry way; part of a “get to know the folks you police” kind of social meeting. There was a contest to see which officer could place the most gum ball machines; but that’s another story.

When I walked in there was a very shapely woman without a stitch of clothing bent over a chair getting a very flattering rose tattoo on her backside. She seemed quite comfortable, things as they were, with a cop standing there talking to the fellow embroidering her flesh with a rather attractive piece of art; a rose by any other name is still a rose.

I was distracted from my line of thought and was quite surprised when I was given permission to deliver the familiar gum ball machine. Some times I miss being a cop and the interaction with the community, going to art galleries or what ever.

In a related story covered by KPRC, I learned the name of the shop, that the victim was the owner/artist, how many customers were in the shop at the time of the robbery, the number of suspects, the get away car’s description. I went back to see how the Chronicle had updated the information and found a bit more; but not nearly as much as with the KPRC report. I guess it’s just another murder in Houston, no big deal.

Odds and Ends

I was leaving a building this morning and noticed a lady about to get into her bright red BMW convertible. The car was polished to the “9’s” and I couldn’t resist saying something to compliment her neat looking set up.

“You might as well let me call a cop to write you a speeding ticket as hot as that car looks”. Most folks would smile and glow a bit; not this lady.

“I already got a speeding ticket down the street on my way here”. Oh, well; the car really did look great.

The other night we got to watch the grandkids and the first thing JJ noticed was the green CERT hard hat which Lucy earned by completing the first responder’s course. There’s a strapped on flash light so you can keep both hands free to work while directing an intense beacon of light. JJ knew right away that it had to be a mine digger’s hat, perfect in case we had a cave or a mine nearby.

Lucy suggested a walk to look at the bridge which was nearing completion ; the ribbon cutting ceremony is scheduled for Wednesday afternoon. JJ had the hat just in case they stumbled on to or into a mine he’d be ready. Jocelyne was just as excited at the sight of JJ wearing the mine digging hat. “We have one!” she wasn’t sure what we had but what ever it was we had one.

They spotted several man-hole covers and drain entrances; but JJ was told they weren’t mines and that he shouldn’t go down there because of the snakes. Having a mine digger’s hat complete with lamp is important; more so than I ever would have imagined.

If you’re a fan of Rush Hour movies, in the second Rush Hour, Chris Tucker’s character takes Jackie Chan to a “brother’s” billiard parlor/bar. Tucker’s use of the language between brothers, unacceptable in our PC society of mixed races, is interpreted as, “While in Rome…” Jackie Chan attempted to establish a conversation with the bartender and called him over with the exact same vocabulary.

“What’d you just say?” Too late and not having a clue as to why the “brother” was angry, Jackie repeated the same phrase and nearly caused a riot; bar stools flying, billiard sticks broken and anything else not nailed down; all because he used a grouping of words which sounded a whole lot like, “What’s up Mine Digger”.

This afternoon I was picking up something at one of the parts departments of a car dealership and happened to notice how an avid fisherman sees life. The antenna on his pickup truck had been made to look like a fishing rod complete with reel, line and even a fish hook that looped into the line feed loops. I gotta’ get some of these for some folks I know who’d rather take the day off and get fired rather than pass up a chance to go fishing.

Let’s Be Nice?

Listening to the Glenn Beck program on the radio turned one of my hot buttons on a while ago. Glenn has the 9/12 project , a reference to the united will of Americans the day after being attacked and which I think is a step in the right direction; however, today he was talking about a big “tea party” get together in San Antonio; but that’s not what got my hot button lighted.

He kept going on and on about showing up to shout about what’s right, not to make this a political bashing about one political party or another. This tea party should bring us together with what will make things right.

Where’s my friend Jack Hecker when I need sound effects? Jack could make the perfect, “Wrong!” sound effect for folks offering a plausible answer and yet far enough off the mark as to make a gong sound or that annoying power grunt, similar to when a child has been forced to swallow bad tasting medicine; only much more pronounced and directed.

The purpose of a tea party is to show government just how close we are to burning down the town and then hanging all government representatives responsible for enslaving the citizenry. Government should be brought to the realization that normal happy citizens are ready to move toward mob mentality; and, mob mentality isn’t pretty, it isn’t nice and it tends to get out of control in a heartbeat.

The Boston Tea Party was an act of civil and criminal disobedience which led to the closing of Boston Harbor and eventually to the war of independence. Are we supposed to gloss over an ugly part of our history in order to propose our modern day tea parties are afternoon social gatherings, our tea cup in hand to offer a show of solidarity; give me a break!

Don’t ask me to be a Pollyanna, a person with positive solutions and thoughts while attending a tea party intended to scare these usurpers into backing off or doing what they already know should be done; positive solutions and thoughts are for a different stage and time, not at the tea party. I want each government representative and bureaucrat to look into my eyes and see the anger which has been choked off or held down and is now about to boil over.

I want my government representatives to familiarize themselves with that human emotion which we all possess, to know how close this country is to that unpredictable violent edge which civilized people discipline and manage to control; that such civility is being pushed to the limit and when the most civilized citizen’s veins start popping it should be a sign that chaos isn’t far behind.

T C Jester Bridge over Cypress Creek

The work is nearly completed, only a few minor details left prior to next weeks opening of the bridge which will connect FM 1960 with Cypresswood via T C Jester.

There is a section of guard railing which separates the pedestrian walkway from vehicular traffic that should be completed tomorrow and I noticed the traffic lights were being worked on at the Cypresswood intersection.

This falls under the category of “Curse and Blessing” as it will make it possible for us to get to destinations north quite easily while at the same time it will increase traffic through the middle of our neighborhood considerably. I’ll lobby the traffic department for installation of a four way stop, either at Ivy Falls or at Autumnbrook by the park, to slow traffic coming south; before someone gets seriously injured or killed.

Lucy and I enjoy evening walks, this bridge having made for a wonderful chance to observe Cypress Creek which runs along the back of our sub-division. I wish they’d put sidewalks along both sides of the street leading up to the bridge since they already have the pedestrian sections built in; maybe that’s a project scheduled “down the road”.

General Conference Weekend

Twice a year the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints holds General Conference . With the modern technological advances available throughout the world many more are able to enjoy talks given by the First Presidency and other leaders of the Church.

I found a neat “ children’s pack ”, a way to help young people enjoy quiet time by coloring or doing puzzles especially made for General Conference. I looked the pack over and thought it would be nearly as much fun for adults so you might want to get another box of Crayons and print out a second set of pages. Thanks and a tip of the cap to Jen.

Edited same day:

One of Lucy's friends sent the following joke:

President Thomas Monson was returning to Salt Lake City after a speaking engagement and when his Plane arrived there was a limousine there to transport him to his home.

As he prepared to get into the limo, he stopped and spoke to the driver. 'You know' he said, 'I am getting pretty old and I have never driven alimousine. Would you mind if I drove it for a while?'

The driver said, 'No problem. Have at it.'

President Monson gets into the driver's seat and they head off down the highway. A short distance away sat a rookie Highway Patrolman operating his first speed trap.

The long black limo went by him doing 70 mph in a 55 mph zone.

The trooper pulled out and easily caught the limo and he got out of his patrol car to begin the procedure. The young trooper walked up to the driver's door and when the glass was rolled down, he was surprised to see who was driving. He immediately excused himself and went back to his car and called his supervisor.

He told the supervisor, 'I know we are supposed to enforce the law.. But I also know that important people are given certain courtesies. I need to know what I should do because I have stopped a very important person.'

The supervisor asked, 'Is it the governor?'

The young trooper said, 'No, he's more important than that.'

The supervisor said, 'Oh, so it's the president.....'

The young trooper said, 'No, he's even more important than that.'

The supervisor finally asked, 'Well then, who is it?'

The young trooper said, 'I think it's Jesus, because he's got President Monson for a chauffeur!'