Rest in Peace Mary Jo Kopechne

What's It To Ya?

My family and I visited a new church this morning. The pastor there used a phrase in passing that stuck out to me. He said that something was a "blazingly beautiful experience." Those that have been around here for quite some time might recall that beauty is something that I hold dear. In fact I am in a never ending pursuit of the beautiful. Beauty is something that has not been talked about much on this blog lately and that is something that I am going to change. In that vein, I would like to ponder here what a "blazingly beautiful experience" would be to me. Beautiful is the word here that stands out to most and can be defined as: "delighting the senses or exciting intellectual or emotional admiration." Though this is the most commonly used word in the phrase it is also perhaps the toughest to nail down. By it's own definition it is the essence of subjectivity. So I say: why try?

What have I experienced that I would classify as blazingly beautiful? As with the pastor, the first thing that comes to mind is my experience as a child where I chose to place my life in the hands of an Almighty God. That experience is etched on my mind and is one that I will take with me as long as I have breath. The moment I stood with my wife in front of a large group of friends and family and professed my love for her and my desire to forever join my life with hers. That was a blazingly beautiful experience. The morning that I watched as my twin girls were brought into this world and I held them in my arms and stared at their beautiful faces and held their tiny fingers in my seemingly gigantic hands. That was a blazingly beautiful experience. These are earth shattering and life changing experiences. Easy to see how they could be blazingly beautiful. However, I would offer that the majority of blazingly beautiful experiences in my life are very quiet and unassuming. Things that may be easily passed over by an onlooker. Yet to me they are times of magnitude. Standing in my plain white sheet "ghost" costume as a child waiting to take my first breath of cold Michigan air and mutter the words "trick or treat." My father taking the time to walk around the neighborhood and just talk with me as a child. My mother laying me on her lap in the car and gently breathing warm air in my ear to soothe the pain of an earache. Staying up all night with my wife on accident. Sleeping in my chair while holding my daughters. Watching a child at that very moment when they "get it" and learn something. Sitting in the woods holding a gun and watching intently for anything through the mist of warm breath and cold air. A perfect meal. A sunset shared with my family. And a thousand things in between all these events.

What do you find to be a blazingly beautiful experience?

Obamacare - The Reality Of It

Any Thoughts?

Happy Birthday???

I would like to wish our President a happy birthday today. Of course, since his birth certificate is still as elusive as Bigfoot we don't really know how old he is or if today is even his birthday at all. So Happy Birthday Mr. President.........maybe.

Red Stripe, Blue Moon, and the White House

How many beers does it take to solve a dispute falsely labeled a race issue? If you find yourself in a dispute maybe you too can go drinking with the President of the free world. We'll just call it diplomacy for dummies (or drunks).

Car Allowance Rebate System

First things first folks. My apologies for my disappearance. I offer no excuses just a simple apology. I'll try not to be gone so long in the future. Now on to the new post.....

By now you have certainly heard of the "cash for clunkers" legislation (or as it is actually called the Car Allowance Rebate System.) I have been saying for a long time now that the best way to help the American car companies was not to just hand them billions of dollars but to instead give that money to citizens in the form of a rebate for buying new cars. That way your money goes twice as far since you have helped the common consumer as well as got the needed revenue into the hands of the car companies. Not only that but you helped them while increasing their sales and not just "bailed them out" but did nothing to help the real problem which is the fact that they were not selling cars. Enter the new CARS legislation. This program would appear to be doing exactly what I thought would be a better idea. One little problem. The legislation and the program is not focused on helping the American car companies or you and I for that matter. Instead the main focus of the program is on continuing the agenda of so-called environmentalists. The government does not care if one single American car is bought. They only care that we get more fuel efficient vehicles on the road no matter who they come from. Here's a little excerpt from their FAQ section:

"I don't drive an American car but I would like to trade in my old car for a newer, more fuel efficient one. Is this program only for American cars?
No. You may trade in or buy a domestic or a foreign vehicle."

I hope the other countries of the world are grateful for our continued pursuit of minding their interest and not our own.

Sweet Land of Liberty

My country,' tis of thee,
sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing;
land where my fathers died,
land of the pilgrims' pride,
from every mountainside let freedom ring!

My native country, thee,
land of the noble free, thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
thy woods and templed hills;
my heart with rapture thrills, like that above.

Let music swell the breeze,
and ring from all the trees sweet freedom's song;
let mortal tongues awake;
let all that breathe partake;
let rocks their silence break, the sound prolong.

Our fathers' God, to thee,
author of liberty, to thee we sing;
long may our land be bright
with freedom's holy light;
protect us by thy might, great God, our King.

God is Great...Beer is Good...and People are Crazy

Moron of the Day

I would like to award the Moron of the Day award to Rudy Clay, the mayor of Gary, Indiana. In his bid to persuade the Jackson family to bury Michael Jackson in Gary, Indiana he offered the following:

"I believe that his body will lie in state in Gary, Indiana. Now, it may not happen, but I believe it will." He added it will be: "a memorial that's fit for the prince of peace and a memorial that's fit for Gary, Indiana's favorite son, the greatest entertainer that ever lived."

I would like to inform the mayor of Gary, Indiana that the title of Prince of Peace is already taken. Unless, of course, he would like to push the person to whom that title belongs off His throne. You, sir, are a moron. Not a very good week for mayors. SHEESH!!!

Coup in Honduras

Caracas, Venezuela, 28 June 2009. The democratically elected President of Honduras, Manuel Zelaya, has been abducted by the local Air Force from the government Palace at Tegucigalpa early this morning. The kidnapping took place on the very same day Honudurans would vote over a referendum call for a Constituent Assembly. Such political initiative caused opposition at some conservative cadress and the destitution of the Chief of the Honduran Army Romeo Vásquez Velásquez. The ongoing coup has been fueled by military sectors that opposed the attempt to change presidential terms by a Constittutional reform. Zelaya was initially supported by conservatives but then rejected once his government followed a left leaning agenda and established close ties with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez and joined ALBA. Pro government supporters of President Manuel Zelaya have been protesting at the presidential palace and confronted military personnel. Power supply has been disrupted. Radio Station are unable to broadcast on the current crisis. Opposition led Honduran channel 11 has been broadcasting cartoons instead of reporting on the coup. The local governmental TV station - Channel 8 -has halted its transmission. Very few private stations are reoporting on the ongoing coup. Only two days ago, OAS had expressed concern over ottempts to ovewrthorow the democratically elected government in Honduras. During a Telesur interview with Hector Zelaya, son of the ousted President, unconfirmed information suggested the Head of State was taken out of the country. It is believed Zelaya is at Costa Rica or Guatemala. All other Minister- except Honduran Foreing Secretay Patricia Rodas- had been abducted too.

Michael Jackson Dead at Age 50

Michael Joseph Jackson was born on August 29, 1958 and died June 25, 2009.

Just Sayin'

Now what do we all know of that draws flies???

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC)

Our family spent the last week on vacation in Kentucky and Tennessee. We had the pleasure of going to Mammoth Cave National Park and Great Smoky Mountain National Park. Much of what we enjoyed there was built with the blood and sweat of the Civilian Conservation Corps.

The Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) was a public work relief program for unemployed men, focused on natural resource conservation from 1933 to 1942. As part of the New Deal legislation proposed by U.S. President Franklin D. Roosevelt (FDR), the CCC was designed to aid relief of high unemployment stemming from the Great Depression while carrying out a broad natural resource conservation program on national, state and municipal lands. Legislation to create the program was introduced by FDR to the 73rd United States Congress on March 21, 1933, and the Emergency Conservation Work Act, as it was known, was signed into law on March 31, 1933. The CCC became one of the most popular New Deal programs among the general public and operated in every U.S. state and the territories of Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands. While FDR is given credit for the idea of this program, in truth the suggestion came from Republican Senator James Couzens of Michigan, who was given the idea in a letter from a constituent, Archibald Sun of Detroit, Michigan.

The CCC put many young men to work doing worthwhile projects across the USA. The men were paid one dollar each day and were given three hot meals. This is the origin of the phrase "Another day, another dollar." This is part of what they accomplished:

* restored 3980 historical structures
* developed 800 state parks
* built 28,087 miles of trails
* built 38,550 vehicle bridges
* built 3116 lookout towers
* built lodges and museums
* worked on National Parks

Breaking News.......Literally!!!

The White House says Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor has broken her ankle after an airport stumble in New York City.
Sotomayor fractured her right ankle Monday morning at New York's LaGuardia Airport before boarding a shuttle to Washington for an afternoon of meetings with senators.


The accident occurred when this man...

...decided to pull a childish prank and offered a...

...to Supreme Court nominee...

...Knowing full well that liberals are too stupid to walk and chew gum at the same time.