Thursday, July 05, 2007
Summer Hills
The first two are in Pioneer State Park, and the bottom two were in Preparation Canyon State Park, both of which are West of Hwy 183 South West of Moorhead.
Treason
“Impeachment should be reserved for treason, bribery, and high crimes and misdemeanors where the president's actions are great and dangerous offenses or attempts to subvert the Constitution and the most extensive injustice.”
~George Mason,
(Delegate from Virginia to the U.S. Constitutional Convention. He is called the "Father of the Bill of Rights".)
So let's see... Former President George H.W. Bush (Sr.) , also a former director of the CIA said that leaking the dentity of a CIA agent was TREASON. Yet his son, just commuted the sentence of Scooter Libby who was convicted of purgery for trying to hide the fact that Vice President Cheney blowing Vallery Plame's cover because her husband, Ambassador Joe Wilson exposed that George W. was lying when in his State of the Union Address, he claimed that Iraq trying to get materials for making nukes from Africa. We have evidence that this Bush administration started looking for ways to attack Iraq as soon as they came into office.
What part of that is NOT treasonous? How many more American's have to die in Iraq? How much more "collateral damage?" How much more does our reputation in the world have to be damaged before we bring these traitors to justice? They aren't looking out for American interests or protecting or defending the Constitution.
Congress can't understand why their poll numbers are almost as low as Bush's. Maybe if they would at least stop enabling him and get us out of Iraq, or better yet, get to the bottom of all of this and impeach both he and Cheney, or try Cheney for treason- maybe Americans would think that Congress was doing what we elected them to do!
Wednesday, July 04, 2007
You have become your mother, country
Indedependence Day should be more than just a dayCharter Oak-Ute NEWSpaper — Schleswig Leader, Thursday, July 5, 2007 – Page 3
I like to write a special column for the Fourth of July because it is one of my favorite holidays. Unfortunately I missed my chance to write one before the Fourth and because of the way it lands in the middle of the week, few of you will read this one on the Fourth, most of you will get your paper on July fifth. But that’s okay.
Really, it could be a whole season. Virginia Delegate Richard Henry Lee introduced a resolution calling for independence from Britain on June 7. The Congress passed another resolution calling for independence on July 2 already. The Declaration was really just a formality, after all a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that you should declare the causes which impel you to separation from your mother country.
John Hancock, as president of Congress was the only delegate to really sign it by the Fourth. Most of them didn’t sign it until August 2. Thomas McKean of Delaware didn’t get around to it until 1781. The first newspaper to print the Declaration was the Pennsylvania Evening Post on July 6, 1776. On July 8th the Declaration had its first public reading in Philadelphia's Independence Square.
This column has really been getting too long. I get to writing and just get carried away. Before I know it, I’m up to 8 or 900 words and poor Michelle at the newspaper office can only fit one recipe at the bottom of the page. I really need to keep it down between 500 to maybe 750 tops. When Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration, it was 1,817 words; Congress made 68 changes, killing 480 words- far be it from the patriots to criticize King George for the practice of slavery.
So I’m a day late. Hallmark doesn’t have any “belated Independence Day” cards that I’ve found, so I just have to count on your good natures to forgive me.
It’s the thought that counts, doesn’t it? How do you send a birthday card to a country?
Why do I love this crazy, uncouth, 231 year old amalgamation of people and cultures from all over the globe, ideas, hopes, dreams? I think it’s because it at least used to be founded on principles drawn from the philosophies of the Age of Enlightenment that promised fairness and honor.
That core second paragraph says it all;
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”
In other words, it ought to be obvious that no one is better than anyone else because of where they come from. Every human being on Earth is entitled to certain God-given rights. Since it’s human nature to trample on each other’s rights, we establish a system of laws in order to balance all of our competing interests and make sure that the playing field is evened out for everyone.
What do you do when you loved ones just aren’t themselves? Let’s say someone in your family is acting different, maybe due to mental illness, or someone’s diet has them headed for complications of diabetes or high blood pressure? How about when a friend is in a destructive relationship, or has started abusing drugs or alcohol? Do you hold an intervention? Do you try to talk with them, lovingly yet honestly? Do you confront them? Do you abandon them? The least you can do, which sometimes ends up being the most powerful, is to pray for them.
So here we are, 231 years after dissolving our bonds with England, I wonder if we aren’t more like the old British Empire than we care to admit. Does everybody have to turn into their parents? When I read through the long list of offences that make up the bulk of the Declaration (that most of us never bother to look at) I wonder how many people around the world could accuse us of.
Secret prisons, secret “courts,” torture, spying on our own citizens, reversing desegregation, a regressive tax structure, staggering trade deficits, and lest we forget, using false intelligence to justify unilateral and preemptive invasions of countries that don’t have weapons of mass destruction and occupying them for years.
With Jefferson, “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.”
But he provided the solution; “when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
So that the REAL way to celebrate the Fourth of July is not with fireworks in the summer, but by taking some time to caucus in January and casting your ballot on the first Tuesday in November.
Okay, now I'm pushing 900 words again. Ah, but Jefferson didn't have a blog- I can post this in it's entirety, and cut out a good 300 words or so before I turn it in for printing.
Happy Birthday America, now knock this shit off, you're not acting like yourself. Act your age, not your President's IQ. Thank you.
Really, it could be a whole season. Virginia Delegate Richard Henry Lee introduced a resolution calling for independence from Britain on June 7. The Congress passed another resolution calling for independence on July 2 already. The Declaration was really just a formality, after all a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that you should declare the causes which impel you to separation from your mother country.
John Hancock, as president of Congress was the only delegate to really sign it by the Fourth. Most of them didn’t sign it until August 2. Thomas McKean of Delaware didn’t get around to it until 1781. The first newspaper to print the Declaration was the Pennsylvania Evening Post on July 6, 1776. On July 8th the Declaration had its first public reading in Philadelphia's Independence Square.
This column has really been getting too long. I get to writing and just get carried away. Before I know it, I’m up to 8 or 900 words and poor Michelle at the newspaper office can only fit one recipe at the bottom of the page. I really need to keep it down between 500 to maybe 750 tops. When Thomas Jefferson wrote the first draft of the Declaration, it was 1,817 words; Congress made 68 changes, killing 480 words- far be it from the patriots to criticize King George for the practice of slavery.
So I’m a day late. Hallmark doesn’t have any “belated Independence Day” cards that I’ve found, so I just have to count on your good natures to forgive me.
It’s the thought that counts, doesn’t it? How do you send a birthday card to a country?
Why do I love this crazy, uncouth, 231 year old amalgamation of people and cultures from all over the globe, ideas, hopes, dreams? I think it’s because it at least used to be founded on principles drawn from the philosophies of the Age of Enlightenment that promised fairness and honor.
That core second paragraph says it all;
“We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed…”
In other words, it ought to be obvious that no one is better than anyone else because of where they come from. Every human being on Earth is entitled to certain God-given rights. Since it’s human nature to trample on each other’s rights, we establish a system of laws in order to balance all of our competing interests and make sure that the playing field is evened out for everyone.
What do you do when you loved ones just aren’t themselves? Let’s say someone in your family is acting different, maybe due to mental illness, or someone’s diet has them headed for complications of diabetes or high blood pressure? How about when a friend is in a destructive relationship, or has started abusing drugs or alcohol? Do you hold an intervention? Do you try to talk with them, lovingly yet honestly? Do you confront them? Do you abandon them? The least you can do, which sometimes ends up being the most powerful, is to pray for them.
So here we are, 231 years after dissolving our bonds with England, I wonder if we aren’t more like the old British Empire than we care to admit. Does everybody have to turn into their parents? When I read through the long list of offences that make up the bulk of the Declaration (that most of us never bother to look at) I wonder how many people around the world could accuse us of.
Secret prisons, secret “courts,” torture, spying on our own citizens, reversing desegregation, a regressive tax structure, staggering trade deficits, and lest we forget, using false intelligence to justify unilateral and preemptive invasions of countries that don’t have weapons of mass destruction and occupying them for years.
With Jefferson, “I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just; that his justice cannot sleep forever.”
But he provided the solution; “when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”
So that the REAL way to celebrate the Fourth of July is not with fireworks in the summer, but by taking some time to caucus in January and casting your ballot on the first Tuesday in November.
Okay, now I'm pushing 900 words again. Ah, but Jefferson didn't have a blog- I can post this in it's entirety, and cut out a good 300 words or so before I turn it in for printing.
Happy Birthday America, now knock this shit off, you're not acting like yourself. Act your age, not your President's IQ. Thank you.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
WallaceWatchers.com :: The Official Site of The Wallace and Ladmo Show: wallacewatchers
WallaceWatchers.com :: The Official Site of The Wallace and Ladmo Show
If you grew up in Arizona between the years 1954 and 1989, these words are familiar. Our pal Wallace, also known as Wallboy, greeted us every morning or afternoon (depending on their time slot) during the week and the fun began.
The Wallace & Ladmo Show is truly an Arizona icon. The show had a remarkable 35 ½ year run on local television station KPHO-TV5 in Phoenix. It was eventually seen all over Arizona, northern Mexico and towns in California that were near the Arizona border. The show was even briefly syndicated to Los Angeles and New York.
Apart from their television appearances, the trio that made up the show (Bill “Wallace” Thompson, Ladimir “Ladmo” Kwiatkowski and Pat McMahon) also made thousands of personal appearances all over the state. Their sports team, the Ladmo Jets, raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for local charities.
Wallace & Ladmo provided a daily dose of classic cartoons and live skits that lampooned local and national news, politics and life in general. Regular characters such as Marshall Good, Captain Super, Gerald, Aunt Maud and Boffo the Clown provided humor that the adults could relate to while the kids in the audience waited for the next cartoon.
Down by the riverside
These were taken at the Decatur Bend Oxbow along the Missouri river. The one that got away this time was a beautiful blue heron, but hey, the ladybug almost makes up for it. I understand that Decatur Bend is a great spot for watching bald eagles in the Fall and Spring. They must all be up in Alaska during the summer heat.
On the Mighty Mo in 1804
These were all taken at Louis and Clark State Park, aboard the "U.S.S. Best Friend," a 2004 replica of the Corps of Discovery's keel boat. 
Paint Jam
Monday, July 02, 2007
Back in time
Above is one more from Lighthouse Marina. The three below are all from the "Museum Complex" in Onawa, Iowa. A Vietnam era Huey Bell helicopter, a one room school house from the turn of the century (19th to 20th, not 20th to 21st), and the main room of the Berry family log cabin, circa 1800 something.
Rodney and Mo
The two above were taken at "Peter's Park" around the Rodney Pit. The one below is across the Missouri from the pier at Lighthouse Marina.
Saturday, June 30, 2007
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