WHY?

What is it about us that makes us want what we can't have? When on a diet, all I ever think about are the foods on my 'no' list--and that is ALL I want to eat. When someone tells me I can't do something, that is EXACTLY what I want to do. Human nature, I guess.

Today, the temp was hovering in the 90 degree area all day. I didn't want to leave the house and have to put up with the heat. Thank goodness, I didn't need to go anywhere. All well and good because I COULDN'T go out: the public works department was working on the sewer pipe at the top of our street, so I couldn't go anywhere even if I wanted. Yet, all I could think about was how unfair it was that I was stuck in the house against my will! (We live on a dead-end street, so the work completely cut us off from being able to drive off of our street. Of course, K parked one of our vehicles on the other side of the construction in case we HAD to get somewhere--we just would have had to walk a couple of blocks to get to the vehicle.)

I have always had the nature where if I am told I CAN'T do something, or I HAVE to do something, I want to do just the opposite. Even if it is what I wanted to do in the first place! When I was pregnant for my second, I was put on bed rest for about a week. Now, any woman who chases after a five year old child day in and day out, DREAMS of being able to stay in bed and do nothing. BUT, the minute I was told I HAVE to stay in bed, it was the LAST thing in the world I wanted to do. It actually ranked below 'clean up the mess the child with the flu just did' in terms of what I wanted to do.

And so, today, I felt as if I was a prisoner, trapped and forced to do something I didn't want to do. And as soon as the road opened up again, I felt no need to leave the house! Freud would have had a field day analyzing me! :)

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Terrorism is the price of empire. If we do not wish to pay it, we must give up the empire.

--Patrick Buchanan

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Ron Paul's Iraq Strategy: “Just leave.”

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Outsourcing Intelligence: How Bush Gets His National Intelligence From Private Companies

Over the past six years, a quiet revolution has occurred in the intelligence community toward wide-scale outsourcing to corporations and away from the long-established practice of keeping operations in US government hands, with only select outsourcing of certain jobs to independently contracted experts. Key functions of intelligence agencies are now run by private corporations. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) revealed in May that 70 percent of the intelligence budget goes to contractors.

For all practical purposes, effective control of the NSA is with private corporations, which run its support and management functions. As the Washington Post's Walter Pincus reported last year, more than 70 percent of the staff of the Pentagon's newest intelligence unit, CIFA (Counterintelligence Field Activity), is made up of corporate contractors.

Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) lawyers revealed at a conference in May that contractors make up 51 percent of the staff in DIA offices. At the CIA, the situation is similar. Between 50 and 60 percent of the workforce of the CIA's most important directorate, the National Clandestine Service (NCS), responsible for the gathering of human intelligence, is composed of employees of for-profit corporations.

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A New Week

Famous people born on this day who

are actually older than me:

Arnold Schwarzenegger
Paul Anka
Peter Bogdanovich
Buddy Guy
Edd "Kookie" Burns


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I don't know how many of you remember Tom Snyder. He hosted 'Tomorrow' on NBC--which followed 'The Tonight Show.' He also hosted 'The Late, Late Show' on CBS--which followed 'The Letterman Show.' Sadly, he lost his battle with leukemia and has died at the age of 71.

I always felt that his laid-back style and the (mostly) quiet conversations on his show were a very good way to wrap up the day. Of course, seeing as the show was on so late, I didn't get to see it as often as I would have liked, but I was a fan of his nevertheless. I really feel sad about this. RIP, Tom--enjoy your colortinis for all eternity!

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I did laundry yesterday and every time I opened the dryer door, I smelled this god-awful odor! I would have stopped using the dryer, but we were in desperate need of clean clothes, so I kept on. Today K got a chance to pull the dryer vent apart--he was working last night--and found a dead chipmunk in the hose. Oh, yay. Now we need ANOTHER new hose. He just has to figure out a way to keep them out of the vent. I don't understand why we are having so many problems now--after all, we've lived here for almost 30 years and this year is the first time for this.

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We are having a heat wave. And I am not happy. The temp has been up to 93 here at our house--NOT the official temp, of course--and is supposed to go higher over the next few days. They are saying that we should break the old record of 91 on Wednesday! Obviously, I won't be leaving the house during the day for a while.

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And now for your amusement. At least I THINK you will be amused--I know I was!

About a month ago, our local paper started publishing the police log. Nothing very interesting, just a lot of parking violations and lock-out assistance. Of course, you had the public intoxication and the minor in possession, the marijuana busts and loud noise violations, too. As I said, nothing too interesting and nothing too unusual--that is, until Friday's log. Here are the police calls that I found the most amusing:


2:49 AM: loud bongo noises
(didn't know Matthew McConaughey was in town)


it gets better


3:58 AM: male streaker wearing socks
(why wear socks? And WHY specify the socks in the police log?)


and better, still


are you ready?


you won't believe this


12:47 PM (this is the middle of the DAY, people!): loud noise complaint, singing in the shower
(so, does someone need a life? Or was this a pissed off roommate? And WHY, dear Lord, are you complaining about someone singing in the middle of the day? Was the singing THAT bad?)


Hope YOUR day is going well! :)

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Under Mr Putin, Russia is sliding into fascism, with state control of the economy, media, politics and society becoming increasingly heavy-handed.

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The Coelacanth: A Fish For Time … Any Time

Graphic fact file on the coelacanth, a rare fish once thought to be extinct for millions of years until one was caught in 1938 off the coast of East Africa. A living specimen was caught in Indonesia this year, only the second ever in the region. Image Credit: AFP Graphic

The Coelacanth: A Fish For Time … Any Time

The Coelacanth is just this type of ocean creature.

It has become a fish of our time in that the sightings are so rare that these these occurrences create international attention in the scientific community.

Most scientists believed that this fish was extinct until one was caught and catalogued about 70 years ago, in the Commoros archipelago, off of the coast of Eastern Africa.

Until this latest catch, there was only one other sighting in Indonesia (in the same area, Manado, as this sighting) back in 1998.

Coelacanths, closely related to lungfish, usually live at depths of 656-3,200 feet. They can grow up to 6.5 feet in length and weigh as much as 200 pounds.

This catch was equally unusual, in that, it came on the end of a 360 foot line … about half of the depth that scientists understood this fish could live.

Further, this Coelacanth is a fish for time … any time because it only took a little over two months for information on this capture to make it to general news distribution.

An unidentified researcher measures a coelacanth after it was caught by fishermen at a depth of about 100m off Nungwi, northern Zanzibar July 14, 2007. The fish weighed 27kgs with a total length of 134.8cm. The coelacanth, known from fossil records dating back more than 360 million years, was believed to have become extinct some 80 million years ago until one was caught off the eastern coast of South Africa in 1938 -- a major zoological find. Image Credit: Picture taken July 14, 2007. REUTERS/Dr Narriman Jiddawi/Institute of Marine Sciences in Zanzibar/Handout (TANZANIA)

This from Agence France-Presse (AFP) via Yahoo! News -

Scientists excited by Indonesian-caught coelacanth
By Ronan Bourhis - AFP - Sat Jul 28, 11:06 PM ET

MANADO, Indonesia - Two months ago Indonesian fisherman Justinus Lahama caught a fish so exceptional that an international team of scientists rushed here to investigate.

French experts equipped with sonar and GPS asked Lahama to reconstruct, in his dugout canoe, exactly what it was he did that enabled him to catch a rare coelacanth fish, an awkward-swimming species among the world's oldest.

Indonesian fisherman Justinus Lahama displaying to international researchers how he managed to capture a giant and very rare coelacanth fish in Manado, North Sulawesi, in June. Their fossil records date back more than 360 million years and suggest the animal has changed little in that time. Image Credit: AFP/File/Ronan Bourhis

Last May 19, Lahama and his son Delvy manoevred their frail canoe into the Malalayang river, on the outskirts of Manado, on northern Sulawesi island. Like any other morning, they rowed out to sea and fished within 200 metres (yards) of the beach.
----
"I very quickly unrolled the usual trawl line with three hooks, about 110 metres (yards) long, and at the end of three minutes, I felt a large catch," Lahama recounts.

The pull was strong: "I had painful arms -- I felt such a resistance, I thought that I was pulling up a piece of coral."

After 30 minutes of effort under the searing tropical sun, he finally saw a fish swishing at a depth of about 20 metres (65 feet).

"The sea was very calm this day. There was no wind, no clouds, no current. The water was very clear. The fish let itself be drawn in from there," he says.

"It was an enormous fish. It had phosphorescent green eyes and legs. If I had pulled it up during the night, I would have been afraid and I would have thrown it back in," he exclaims.
----
Lahama, 48, has fished since he was 10 years old, like his father and his grandfather before him. But he was unlikely to have ever run into this "living fossil" species, as scientists have dubbed the enigmatic fish.

Fin of a very rare coelacanth fish in Manado as Indonesian, Japanese and French specialists (unseen) carry out an autopsy, North Sulawesi, in June. Coelacanths are among the world's oldest fish species. Their fossil records date back more than 360 million years and suggest the animal has changed little in that time. Image Credit: AFP/File/Ronan Bourhis

Lahama's catch, 1.3 metres long and weighing 50 kilograms (110 pounds) was only the second ever captured alive in Asia.
----
Their fossil records date back more than 360 million years and suggest that the fish has changed little over that period.
----
Returning to port, he [Lahama] showed it off to the most senior fisherman, who became alarmed.

"It is a fish which has legs -- it should be given back to the water. It will bring us misfortune," he told him. But the unsuperstitious Lahama decided to keep it.

After spending 30 minutes out of water, the fish, still alive, was placed in a netted pool in front of a restaurant at the edge of the sea. It survived for 17 hours.

The local fisheries authorities filmed the fish swimming in the metre-deep pool, capturing invaluable images as the species had only previously been recorded in caves at great depths.

----
The site of capture, so close to the beach and from a depth of 105 metres, had intrigued the scientists. Does the Indonesian coelacanth live in shallower waters than its cousin in the Commoros?

Lahama's fish is to be preserved and will be displayed in a museum in Manado.
Read All>>

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Saturday

Famous people born on this day who
are actually older than me:

Sally Struthers
Jim Davis
Rick Wright
Bill Bradley

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The Crossroads Guitar Festival is going on at Toyota Park in Illinois today. Of course, I managed to forget and didn't start listening to the live broadcast until a couple of hours ago, but I DID get to see BB King! It doesn't get any better than that. At the age of 81 and he still can play. I would love to see him in concert--we really should have gone to see him when we were in Niagara Falls last year, but... I guess at his age we better hurry and do it or we will miss our chance.

Unfortunately, John Mayer came on right after BB--I'm really not a big Mayer fan. However, I have seen Robert Cray, Robert Randolph, as well as others--and I will hang in there till Clapton does his next (?) set. I want to see Doyle Bramhall II, Derek Trucks, and Jeff Becks, but am not sure if they played yet. I will just have to keep watching. I'm a happy camper!

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I'm really having a hard time these days: NO news from the Red Wings on ANYTHING! NOTHING to feed my addiction! And I have 52 days to go before the first pre-season game...one I can't even be sure of being able to see. Oh, misery...no wonder I love the blues! ;)

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Looks like we might have someone living with us for a while. K's nephew's son has one more class to take at our local university so that he can graduate and we were asked to put him up for the fall semester. I REALLY have been leaning toward saying 'no,' but K is all for it. My two biggest problems with this: 1) we only have ONE bathroom and 2) we really have become set in our ways, we enjoy the empty-nest thing an awful lot. I LOVE the fact that I can walk around my house NAKED if I want--not that I EVER do it, of course--and not have to worry about other people. The grand-nephew is a very good kid, nice, doesn't get into trouble, etc. He will get into town on Mondays and leave to go home on Thursdays, so it isn't like he will be here ALL of the time, still... And this will be from the end of August through the middle of December--not a real long time. I just hate change so damn much! :) Oh, well, I will have to put on my big girl panties and deal with it.

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And just in case someone wasn't too sure, here is a 'before' and 'after' video of some celebrities--just to prove they weren't all that different from the rest of us before the surgeon got hold of them. Some were better BEFORE the surgery!

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If the founding fathers were alive today, I am sure that they would be bloggers. Thomas Paine for sure. A blogger named Enlightened Despot has two blogs worthy of your attention, Thomas Jefferson Speaks and Alexander Hamilton Speaks, consisting of quotations from the writings of the great men. A sample:

Alexander Hamilton:

"As riches increase and accumulate in a few hands; as luxury prevails in society, virtue will be in a greater degree considered as only a graceful appendage of wealth, and the tendency of things will be to depart from the republican standard.”

"The rich must be made to pay for their luxuries; which is the only proper way of taking their superior wealth.”


Thomas Jefferson:

"And the day will come when the mystical generation of Jesus, by the supreme being as his father in the womb of a virgin will be classed with the fable of the generation of Minerva in the brain of Jupiter."

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In Fawnskin ... It’s Short Size That Matters

Downtown Fawnskin looking to the Southeast. The Doo-Dah Parade approaches toward this direction and ends at this corner on Highway 38. Image Credit: Mike Manning

In Fawnskin ... It’s Short Size That Matters

Fawnskin, California: Image Credit: ©2006 Mike Manning

Here on the Oblate Spheroid, up in the San Bernardino mountains, about 100 miles East of Los Angeles, around Big Bear Lake this weekend, the world’s shortest parade - The Fawnskin Doo-Dah Parade, proclaimed as being listed in the Guinness Book of World Records, takes place in a town on the North shore of the lake.

The Fawnskin Doo-Dah Parade even features a “Fly-Over” by two civilian prop-driven planes. Image Credit: Millener Productions

The areas where the parade participants get together and then end are larger than the parade.

This approximately 40 minute parade is one of two parades staged over the summer celebration event here in the Big Bear Lake valley area known as “Old Miners' Days.

Here is what the official website says about Old Miner’s Days and the event:

Old Miners' Days

The Old Miners' program has been an institution in the Big Bear Valley since 1949, with many of the events dating back as far. This year the 4 weekends of festivities will begin with the Picnic at the Lake, a fundraiser to help support other activities, mainly the OMD Parade, and ends with that annual parade - traditionally the first Sunday in August.
Reference Here>>

Old Miners' Days Doo Dah Parade
Saturday, July 28

This parade is in the Guinness Book of World Records for the shortest parade at 3 blocks long, but what a punch it packs!

Off-the-wall, cheeky, and outright funny is how this event is often described by those that attend. You'll have a good belly laugh at this one-of-a-kind parade that spoofs the Old Miners' Day Parade in August.

"Nuns" - Big Bear Valley C.A.T.S. (Community Arts Theater Society) - Image Credit: ©2005 Edmund Jenks

Don't be surprised to see men dressed as nuns, toilet paper floats, and everything else imaginable. The DooDah Parade is only 3 blocks long, so get there early for a good seat because anything goes at this sometimes odd but tremendously fun event!!
Reference And Additioal Information Here>>

Additional information about the history and background of Fawnskin -

Fawnskin, California

Fawnskin, California is an unincorporated community of San Bernardino County located on the north shore, more specifically at Grout Bay, of Big Bear Lake in the San Bernardino National Forest. It sits at an elevation of 6750 feet at the north end of Grout Bay and is bordered by Big Bear City to its east. Directly across the lake is the incorporated City of Big Bear Lake, California.

The small township was once an artist’s colony. Mountain travelers in the 1800s came to the Big Bear Valley through Fawnskin on the rough road by stagecoach and later motorcars. Several other names were temporarily chosen for the North Shore village including Cline-Miller, Bald Eagle Valley, Big Bear Village, Oso Grande and Grout.

The village has always been an attraction to vacationers seeking a retreat from city life in its mountain terrain. Several hundred homes are in the forested mountainside adjacent to the forest.

Gold miners, loggers and hunters were drawn to the adjacent Holcomb Valley during the 1800s. One urban legend is that some hunters discovered deer (fawn) skins stretched out to dry in the sun. Hence, the area became known as Fawn Skin and later Fawnskin.
Fawnskin was once the hub of lakeside acivity, serving as a stagecoach stop and tourist attraction with hotels and dining.

The town includes the Fawn Lodge, built in 1917, but now closed. The Pedersen Saw Mill, which lies just west of the lodge, and the historic post office which lies to the east of it, which is now a private home rental. Downtown Fawnskin has some of the oldest buildings in the valley.

Once popular for camping, the Lighthouse Camp and Landing is the only surviving north shore camp from the 1920s. Hanna Flats and a YMCA camp located within the forest above Fawnskin remain favorites of vacationers.

Image Credit: ©2005 Edmund Jenks

Fawnskin events include the comic Doo Dah Parade, the Loggers’ Jubilee and the Fawnskin Festival. The town also claims the only "honest" election in the nation: anyone can vote for the Fawnskin Mayor, votes are donations of a quarter. The candidate who wins is the one who raises the most money. Hence, the town "buys" their politicians.

Today Fawnskin is designated as a protective habitat for Golden and American Bald Eagles. They return annually to the valley from November to April.

In 1998, the multi-million dollar Big Bear Discovery Center was built and plans to expand. The facility is operated by a partnership between the US Forest Service and the San Bernardino National Forest Association. The grounds around the center are the projected new home for the Big Bear Zoo, presently located at Moonridge on the south shore.

A variety of celebrities live in the area. Two publishers operate out of Fawnskin and several writers live there full time including Bradley L. Winch, Diana L. Guerrero, Rita Robinson, and William Sarabande. Actress/singer Shirley Jones and her husband actor/comedian Marty Ingles also own a home in Fawnskin. Marty Ingles and Shirley Jones created Fawn Park in downtown Fawnskin to prevent development. This park has been closed since July 2006 due to a dispute between Marty and the residents.

The small area contains other parks such as the Old Miller School House Park, Dana Point Park, and the Don Conroy Memorial Park.
Reference Here>>

ADDITIONAL PARADE PHOTOS CATALOGED HERE>>

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Return from Spookyville

On June 2 I posted a piece called A short trip to Spookyville , concerning the incredible allegations of Dr. Sue Arrigo M.D., allegedly an "ex- CIA physician with high level access".

Briefly, she maintained that HIV/Aids was deliberately unleashed on the world and that there is a vaccine which has been kept secret. She also described running secret missions for Dick Cheney and to have twice treated Osama bin Laden after 9/11. My post was picked up by several conspiracy sites.

It's not that I wasn't skeptical of her claims. In fact I wrote: "Just because someone has an M.D. after her name does not mean that she may not be suffering from mental illness. "

One thing that did intrigue me, however, was that her sister Maria Arrigo, Ph.D., described herself in a paper as "a social psychologist studying intelligence ethics and as daughter of an undercover intelligence officer."

As it turns out Sue Arrigo has another sister, Linda Gail Arrigo, Ph.D. in Sociology, who left a comment on my original post stating in part:

I am sorry to say that my sister Sue Ann Arrigo has periodic episodes of paranoid schizophrenia, and this has been over a period of ten years at least. It is amazing how her wild stories have proliferated all over the web.

I have since exchanged a few emails with Linda Arrigo. She writes:

I believe that my sister Sue Ann has been having periodic bouts of paranoid schizophrenia since about 15 years ago. She is convinced that our father was both a member of the CIA and the Mafia, and that he inducted her at a young age into intelligence activities, and that she has been under mind control since then, and subject to frequent kidnapping and threats by agents, wherever she is in the world. However, she has no material or historical evidence of this other than her later memories and physical symptoms, as she reported recently for supposedly being kidnapped in Ireland in early June 2007. I talked by telephone with my mother who was with her right afterwards and accompanied her to the doctor and the police, and my mother now believes Sue Ann is subject to hallucinations.

Our father, born 1914, served 20 years in the U.S. military, about 1941-61, in Europe, the Pentagon, Korea, Japan, and Taiwan. His work was logistics, not intelligence. I lived with him in Taiwan 1963-68; my sisters had virtually no contact with him after 1962. He is senile now, in San Francisco, and I sorted through most of his papers during the last few summers. He is not a pleasant personality, but I am certain he had no such CIA contacts or capacity.

If any consistent check were made on Sue Ann's schooling and employment for the last 30 years, it would be obvious that her current allegations of service as a CIA medic are pure fantasy, even if well-informed by public knowledge of current issues in U.S. government behavior.

There are enough real victims of U.S. military and intelligence actions; it is not surprising, perhaps, that victims of schizophrenia like my sister should feed on these accounts.

Given the incredible allegations of Dr. Sue Arrigo, the complete lack of supporting evidence, and this statement by her sister, I see no reason to give any credence to her claims. I wish her well.

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Apparently just mentioning Ron Paul on your website will, like, quadruple your traffic. Give it a try! OK.

Update: mentioning Ron Paul on my website did not quadruple my statistics. Two or three people stopped by after googling "Ron Paul". Please come again. But let's try this:

Ron Paul raped Lindsey Lohan!

Update 2: OK this seems to have given me a bump in my statistics, and I didn't even spell Lindsay Lohan's name right. Mostly, however, this is because blogger Joseph Cannon put a link to this blog at Reddit. I would reciprocate but Joseph is looking to reduce the number of visitors to his blog, looking for quality rather than quantity (go figure). Welcome people who googled "Ron Paul" and "Lindsay Lohan". You people who were googling "rape"(you know who you are) can go just go away.

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"We have to be connected to Israel to enjoy the second coming."

--Congressman Tom Delay

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A Little Of This, A Little Of That

I've been kind of MIA these past few days because NOTHING is going on in my life. The weather has been hot, the humidity has been disgustingly high, K has been home for the last ten days, and my girls are having relatively calm existences, so nothing big to report. But, I will attempt to thrill and chill with the following:

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The cat has decided to go on an all hard food diet--or so it seems. I have been trying to feed her the new stuff (canned) that we bought while out of town and I SWEAR I saw her spit on it before she turned and walked away. So, it looks as if Science Diet canned is NOT going to be on her menu. Also, I had to throw the 'vitamin, glucosamine, older cat' treats away. The look she gave me when I tried feeding those to her! I KNOW she was looking at my throat, trying to decide how best to open my carotid artery! Oh, well, at least I tried.

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The youngest daughter finally got to go home for good on Monday. She had been pet/house sitting for two weeks and she said it was the LONGEST two weeks of her life! She also is making a move with her work: she now will be working full time at one of the clinics she has been at and will no longer work at the other one. It is a good move for her: she will have regular, NON-split shift hours, benefits, and better pay. And her husband's hours of work are changing, so it looks as if they will be a little closer to normal working schedules.

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I had to get a package out to the grandson. It seems as if the newest, greatest toy/s he can think of having are keys, so I had to make up some key rings and get them to him. Why me? Well, my father-in-law saved everything. Listen to me: my father-in-law SAVED EVERYTHING!!! They had a four-car garage and couldn't fit ONE car in it because of everything he had stashed away there. So, after he died, K came home after one of his trips to see his mother with a box full of keys that his father had kept. There were keys of every shape, size, and use that you could think of. Everything from skeleton keys to those little keys that came with those dime store diaries we used to get as little girls--they all were in that box. And, of course, they got stashed away in MY house--as if I need any more junk here! Well, C called the other day and said she remembered the keys and could I send some her way. Thank goodness, I now got rid of a few MORE things from my house. At this rate, the girls WON'T have to sort through too much junk after I'm gone. :)

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One example of my f-i-l and the stuff he saved. While he and my mother-in-law were cleaning out the garage one day, she came across a piano hinge from a piano keyboard cover. They NEVER owned a piano. They knew NO ONE who owned a piano. Why did he save it? Because SOME DAY, someone might need one and he would have it for them.

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Again with the in-laws. The day they cleaned out the garage I thought was going to be the last day they were married. As m-i-l carried 'junk' out of the garage and put it in the back of the pick up, f-i-l would sneak the same thing back INTO the garage and hide it. I still am amazed that she was able to get as much stuff thrown away as she did. And he was completely HEARTBROKEN because she was getting rid of the stuff. After all, as he said, "It's not like any of that stuff is a bother. It doesn't need to be fed, it isn't in anyone's way, it doesn't need to be taken care of." He TRULY couldn't understand why he had to dispose of any of it. (I would have agreed with him, but there wasn't anything worthwhile to be had, so...)

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My childhood friend emailed me the other day asking for the Finnish term for a word she remembers from when she was young. While we both grew up in Finnish households, her mother used different words than mine did, at times. I couldn't remember the word she wanted and haven't had any luck with the English/Finnish dictionaries online. She could be thinking of one of the various 'Finglish' words that we grew up with. I have forgotten almost all of the Finnish I knew when I was younger. When things like this come up, it is one of the very few times I wish I was speaking to The Mother--she would know what I was looking for.

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Al Qaeda's safe haven in northwestern Pakistan is largely inaccessible to outside forces and unlikely to be eliminated soon by the U.S. or Pakistani military, top intelligence officials said on Wednesday.

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Guy Banister and UFOs

FBI Special Agent W G Banister examines Fu-Go that fell in Kalispell, Montana on December 11, 1944.

BUTTE, Mont, July 11 - AP - FBI Agent W. G. Banister said an object which appeared to be a "flying disk" was found early today at Twin Falls, Ida. , and turned over to federal authorities there.

From the Project Blue Book Files

Guy Banister's Grave

(Note the Masonic logo.)

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UFO sightings bring town to a standstill

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CIA Bin Laden Chief: Next Attack ‘Bigger Than 9/11'

If al-Qaida does launch an attack inside the U.S., as the U.S. government suggests, "it will be much bigger than 9/11."

This prediction of a nightmarish terror attack comes from Michael Scheuer, the retired CIA veteran who headed the agency's secret unit dedicated to capturing Osama bin Laden.

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Milwaukee Election Records Indicate Apparent Forgery,
Ballot Box Stuffing in 2004 Presidential Election

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The unfolding of events over the past 7 years and the recent emergence of certain key facts point to the prospect of an ominous conclusion: before the summer is up, America will be brought under martial law with George W. Bush and Dick Cheney at the helm.

So says Elliot D. Cohen, Ph.D., who has written a book The Last Days of Democracy. I think he's wrong. I hope he's wrong.

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A total of 71% of Americans say they disapprove of the way George W. Bush is handling his job as president according to the latest survey from the American Research Group.

Among all Americans, 25% approve of the way Bush is handling his job as president and 71% disapprove. When it comes to Bush's handling of the economy, 23% approve and 73% disapprove.

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The American ambassador in Baghdad, Ryan C. Crocker, has asked the Bush administration to take the unusual step of granting immigrant visas to all Iraqis employed by the U.S. government in Iraq because of growing concern that they will quit and flee the country if they cannot be assured eventual safe passage to the United States.

Washington Post via Mike

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The Pasty

*Slight edit.

The Upper Peninsula is well known for the pasty. Most, if not all, of you reading this will automatically pronounce 'pasty' as 'pace-tee.' (Such as what strippers use.) WRONG! The correct pronunciation for 'pasty' here in the UP is 'pass-tee.' And we are talking about food here, people.

The pasty is, as best as can be described, an individual meat pie. And it looks like this:


Cornish miners brought the pasty here to the UP. Pasties were easy for the miners to bring for lunch, so many other miners adopted this food, too. No other ethnic group took to the pasty quite like the Finns did. Eventually, most people thought it was the Finns who brought this delicacy to the region. There still are many who would argue about the origin of the pasty and insist it was a Finnish dish.

A pasty consists of potatoes, rutabagas, onions, salt, pepper, and round steak mixed together and baked inside a pastry. When I make my own, I always add carrots to the mix and usually use a very good grade of ground beef instead of steak. Most people eat pasties with ketchup. *It is perfectly acceptable to eat them without ketchup, too--K eats them without most of the time--but I just can't understand why! :)* Some people put gravy on their pasties--a practice which most Yoopers find a little disgusting. While pasties are not hard to make, they are time consuming. This is why I don't make my own--we have a little shop here that makes excellent ones and I get from there when I need to cure a pasty craving. For those who would like to try, the recipe for pasties follows. And they ARE worth the effort.

Pasties (about 4 or 5)

1 lb. round steak--diced
1 cup potatoes--peeled and diced
1 cup rutabagas--peeled and diced
1 onion--chopped fine
1 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. pepper
enough pastry dough for a double-crust pie
(ALL ingredients can be adjusted for individual tastes. I NEVER use a recipe--I just peel veggies till the mix 'looks right.' :))

Mix first 6 ingredients together well. Divide dough into 5 pieces. (Depending on how many pasties you want to make, you can divide the dough into more or less pieces.) Roll one piece of dough into a circle--much like you would do for a pie crust. Place a heaping amount of meat mixture on one half of the dough. (If meat has very little fat, put 2 T. butter on top of mixture. Otherwise, the pasty will be too dry.) Fold the other half of the dough over the top of the meat mixture and seal the edge. *Cut a small 'air hole' in the pastry so steam can vent out.* Place on jelly-roll pan. Continue doing the same with the rest of the dough and meat mix. Bake at 350 degrees for 1 hour, or until the vegetables are cooked through. Pasties can be served hot or cold.

As I said, you can make pasties as big or small as you want. Some pasty shops in the area make teeny tiny ones--about three or four bite sized--as party food. Pasties are quite filling, so I usually don't make them overly large--but it is an individual preference.

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John Conyers: "What are we waiting for? Let's take these two guys out!"

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“Emotionally Double-Parked”: Big Reaction To A Small Town Honor

Great American Race 2007 competitors arrive on the tarmac at the Big Bear Lake Airport for the final pitstop of the race. Image Credit: KBHR

“Emotionally Double-Parked”: Big Reaction To A Small Town Honor

For many decades now, there has been a hamlet in the rugged, Ponderosa and Fir covered mountains of San Bernardino located about 100 miles East of LAX, that has provided an island of serenity and small town charm with little fanfare and recognition.

Last week, all of that lack of recognition changed just a little when The Great American Race bestowed the honor of the title - Great American City!

Map of the Great American Race 2007 route. Image Credit: The Great Race

At last weekend's awards ceremony in Anaheim, the drivers of the Great American Race named Big Bear Lake the Great American City out of their 43 cross-country pitstops (roughly 4,000 miles), from Concord, North Carolina to Anaheim, California.

The Great American Race began in 1982 when an auto enthusiast, Curtis Graf, and
a close friend, Tom McRae, both of Dallas, Texas, learned about a cross-country
rally for classic cars. They approached Norman Miller, a fellow Texan and
president of Interstate Batteries, about sponsoring the pair if they entered the
race. Miller agreed. Within weeks, the original promoter had lost interest and
the entrepreneurial McRae soon found himself in partnership with Miller in
promoting the inaugural Interstate Batteries Great American Race.

Knott’s Berry Farm, an amusement park in Buena Park, Calif., hosted the
official start when 69 classic cars took the green flag, waved by Tony Curtis,
star of the 1960s movie “The Great Race.” Seven days later, 62 vehicles finished
in Indianapolis, Indiana, and the Great Race was on its way. (ht: The Great Race)

The race for 2007 (the 25th anniversary edition) decided to include Big Bear Lake on the list of cities in which to stage a pitstop due largely to the lobbying efforts of the president of Bear Valley's own antique car club - Cliff Fowler.

To people who are familiar with Big Bear, Cliff Fowler is a recognizable fixture and personality in that he can be heard on the local radio station, 93.3 FM - KBHR (K-Bear), delivering the weekly fishing report titled "Fowlers Fish Tales". Most people tune in to hear some of Cliff's most famous phrases, delivered in a studied and punctuated style, that may include "that beautiful blue jewel located 7,000 feet up in the San Bernardino mountains", "for the bait boys ... a sliding egg sinker and Goo [Eagle Claw Nitro, Power Bait] or Wigglers off the bottom for some good action along the shore”, and ".... so pull up a rock and teach a worm how to swim, this is Cliff Fowler … for this week’s edition of … Fowler’s Fish Tales".

Great American Race participants made their way up Cushenbury Grade to Big Bear Valley on July 13. They left from Laughlin, Nev., on that morning for what turned out to be a long day. Fowler called the penultimate day of the Great American Race brutal for the drivers.

Cresting the mountain at Cushenbury Grade road that leads from Lucerne in the Mojave desert before a relaxing stopover at the Big Bear Lake Airport. Image Credit: Great American Race

This from The Great Race website –

Big Bear Lake, California wins 2007 Great American City Award
ANAHEIM, CALIFORNIA - July 15, 2007

After the 2007 Great Race participants visited 44 different communities; enjoying celebratory welcomes all the way across America, they voted Big Bear Valley, California the best of the best, giving them the prestigious Great American City Award and $5,000 for their local library. The Big Bear Lake Antique Car Club spearheaded the event and started working on it five months before the arrival of the Great Race. The event was held at the Big Bear Airport as a Pit Stop for the racers on Friday, July 13th, which was also the last day of competition.

“I’m emotionally double parked,” stated Cliff Fowler, Big Bear Lake Antique Car Club President. “Earning the award was something I had a personal vision to do everything in the world to accomplish. I was so honored that thousands of people in town came out for this once in a lifetime event, that’s what Big Bear is all about. We only have 17,000 people who live here, but when it comes to a common cause like this they show their true colors.”

In a scene reminiscent of the 1960’s movie “The Great Race,” thousands lined the winding mountain roads leading into and out of town to cheer on the racers. The reception was a welcome relief after their drive out of the California desert and 120 degree temperatures in Laughlin, NV. Locals waved home made banners, posters and American flags while cheering the racers up the mountain to the community’s 7,000-foot elevation.

“It was a tough choice for the racers with so many great stops to choose from,” said Bill Ewing, CEO of Rally Partners, Inc. “There were so many memorable stops that it was a difficult choice, but Big Bear’s enthusiasm and warmth won out.” With the help from many local sponsors they were able to shower the racers with gifts such as a commemorative hat, a coffee mug and a wooden carved bear driving a red sports car which was raffled off at the competitors final awards ceremony.

“Big Bear was one of my favorite towns,” said Bob LaBine, winner of the 2007 Great American Race. “It was great traveling up the roads and seeing so many people greeting you with signs.”

Portions of Blake Edwards’ 1965 film “The Great Race” were filmed in Big Bear Valley, among other locales in the Big Bear mountain region. The movie was loosely based on the original Great Race that took place in 1908. In 2008, the Great Race will commemorate the 100th anniversary of the 1908 race from New York to Paris with The Great Race 2008: New York to Paris.

This was the first time the Great Race had ever been through Big Bear, but it will not be the last.
Reference Here>>

And these excerpts from the Big Bear Grizzly -

Drivers overwhelmed by Valley hospitality
By JUDI BOWERS - Saturday July 18, 2007 - Big Bear Grizzly

They came, they saw and they definitely liked Big Bear. So much so, the Great American Race drivers voted Big Bear as the Great American City.

When the Great American Race 2007 rolled into Big Bear July 13, they were welcomed by thousands of open arms. The Big Bear community turned out to greet the drivers and navigators as they made their way from Yucca Valley up Highway 18 to Big Bear Airport. The welcome didn’t stop there.

Competitors get a grand sendoff as they crest the Onyx Summit when they left Big Bear Lake and the Big Bear Valley, down highway 38 on to the finale in Anaheim. Image Credit: The Great Race

Big Bear also waved goodbye as the teams left Big Bear Airport and headed out of town on Highway 38 over Onyx Summit. Groups of people waited at turnouts along the highway and at Onyx Summit waving, sporting signs and cheering the drivers on.
----
Cliff Fowler of the Big Bear Antique Car Club organized the pit stop in Big Bear. He said the community support put Big Bear over the top as the drivers voted for their top pit stop. There were 45 to choose from. The racers left Concord, N.C., June 30 and made 45 stops along the way.

“It was miraculous,” Fowler said, adding the town came together for a common goal.

Pam Heiman, branch librarian, is thrilled. “We’re pretty ecstatic around here,” Heiman said. She gushed about how fun the event was, how the community under Fowler’s leadership and organization put forth a combined effort. She said it was fun and whether Big Bear won or not, it was a positive experience.
----
Big Bear Lake Airport Landing (tarmac location)

In Big Bear, the flavor of the town began as the cars made their way up the highway from Yucca Valley. Greeters lined the road with signs and flags and more. When the cars arrived at Big Bear airport, they were greeted by hundreds on the tarmac. The drivers and navigators were given gifts and food, and a ticket. The ticket was for a drawing to be held at the rally’s end July 14. George Crezee of Unreal Furnishings, created a bear carving commemorating the Great Race. The carving was sent to the finale site and presented to the holder of the winning ticket there, Fowler said.

Fowler said that Wayne Stanfield, chief operating officer for race organizers Rally Partners, told him the Great Race hadn’t seen this type of enthusiasm from a community in 20 years.

“I could not be prouder of this town,” Fowler said. He said the experience and winning the award leave him very emotional.

Fowler thanked the sponsors, the city of Big Bear Lake, San Bernardino County, the Resort Association, Chamber of Commerce, KBHR and Stater Bros. for the financial support. He said the town couldn’t have pulled off a pit stop of this magnitude without them.

The participants in the Great American Race 2007 left Big Bear with a warm and fuzzy feeling, which is just what Fowler had planned.
Reference Here>>

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8 Things College Edition Meme

Burg posted this meme the other day and left it open for anyone to do. I found it was something I actually could write about, so here goes.

There are a few rules:
- Each player must post these rules first.
- Each player starts with eight random facts relating to college.
- Tagged people post their eight things and these rules.
- End your post by ‘tagging’ eight new people to play.
- Don’t forget to leave them a comment telling them they’re tagged, and to read your blog for these instructions.


1) I have been to two universities and I'm still at the freshman level.

2) The first university I went to was right after high school. It was--and is--very well known as an engineering school. NOT exactly up my alley, but I couldn't afford to go away to school.

3) I left the first school shortly after midterm of the first semester I was there. K had just been home on leave and our talks were beginning to get 'serious,' so I figured we weren't too far off from getting married. I decided to find a job so I could save money for 'when.' We married a year later.

4) I slept through every one of my algebra classes at this school. The teacher gave me dirty looks every day--that is until she handed me my graded midterm exam. I got every answer correct. That's when she understood that I slept out of pure boredom. (I should have been in a more advanced class, but I figured it was an easy 'A.')

5) The second university I attended was here where we live now. It is more of a liberal arts school--perfectly suited for what I wanted. I started out wanting to get my high school teaching degree, majoring in math. I then changed to English as a major. I only went for a year to this school because of financing--couldn't afford it anymore.

6) My second semester at this school I got a 4.0 grade point average and got on the Dean's list. I was very proud. And I did it while raising two girls, taking care of the house, and having a border living with us. It was a bit hectic.

7) At the time I attended the second school, there weren't all that many non-traditional students. A good many of my classmates were young enough to be my kids. The age of the students didn't bother me too much, but the day I walked into a class where I was the oldest one there--and that included the TEACHER!--I wondered what the hell I was doing.

8) The last time I thought about going back to school, I decided I would go into computer sciences of some sort. That was a few years back. Today, I don't really care if I never get a degree. I take classes of all sorts whenever the mood strikes--whether on the college level or 'enrichment' type--and that is more than good enough for me.

Like burg, I won't tag anyone for this. Just do the list if you should happen to feel like doing it--and let me know so that I can read your list, too.

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We're Back ...and Other Nonsense

We got back from the road trip early on Friday. The town we go to is about three and a half hours away--close enough to do a day-run, but far enough to (kind of) warrant an overnight stay. Sometimes I wish we went to Milwaukee: that at least is a 5 hour or more trip! It would actually seem worth it to stay the night.

Found some food for the cat. I didn't find too much, but at least there was enough to have a variety for her to taste. Knowing her and her finicky ways, she probably will spit on most of it. I hope she at least likes the Science Diet foods--they are easy enough to find.

I was able to get a couple of tops for C--poor girl still has some of her maternity tops from her first pregnancy: 11 years ago. Old Navy had new stock in at reasonable prices. Thank goodness 'baby doll' type tops are fashionable right now.

Otherwise, I went to Hancock Fabrics and picked up some material on sale--we'll see if I ever feel like actually making something out of it. I just love fabric stores and I buy just to have. Well, you NEVER know when the sewing bug might bite.

I finally bought my last (?) knife. I have been buying some Wusthof brand knives over the last couple of years and I needed one more to complete the collection I wanted. At least I THINK I'm done. Who knows, I just may buy more. I never realized how much help a REALLY good knife is in the kitchen. This is the one I just bought:

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I don't know what was wrong with Site Meter, but none of the visits to this blog were recorded for two days. When I looked at the blog, the Site Meter counter was invisible, so I had to put a new one on the sidebar. Very strange--I don't know what happened. But, it seems to be working okay now.

**********

The friends we go to see when we do our road trips are going to an all-inclusive resort just south of Cancun in November. They want us to go with them. I really don't know if it will happen--even though I would LOVE for it to--because it won't coincide with K's long weekend and K has his heart set on going to Vegas this winter. I really, really could see myself sitting in the hot Mexican sun for a week--but, then I really would like to see Elton in Vegas before he quits performing. Damn. Maybe we'll win the lottery and will be able to do BOTH! If only. Anyway, the picture here is from the resort--NICE!

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The BBC's Flawed RFK Story by Jefferson Morley and David Talbot

On November 20, 2006 -- the day that would have been Robert Kennedy's eighty-first birthday -- the BBC program Newsnight aired a startling report alleging that three CIA operatives were caught on camera at the Ambassador Hotel in Los Angeles on the night of Kennedy's assassination. The story suggested that they were involved in his killing. The BBC broadcast, produced by filmmaker Shane O'Sullivan, identified the three CIA operatives as George Joannides, David Morales and Gordon Campbell. All three were known to have worked for the Agency in Miami in the early 1960s when the White House ordered up a massive, not-so-secret effort to overthrow Fidel Castro's communist government in Cuba.

The report was wholly mistaken.

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Did a decorated CIA officer run a covert action operation involving Lee Harvey Oswald three months before the assassination of President John F. Kennedy?

Morley v. CIA, now pending in federal appeals court, seeks to answer this question.

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Congressman Hales Boggs was a member of the Warren Commission. In 1972 the twin engine airplane in which Boggs was traveling over a remote section of Alaska disappeared. The plane presumably crashed and was never found.

After Hale's disappearance, Lindy and Hale's brother, a Jesuit priest in New Orleans, were fearful that he had been murdered because of his inside knowledge about the role of the FBI, CIA, and organized crime in events leading up to the Kennedy assassination--knowledge that he had acquired as a member of the Warren Commission and that might also have some relevance to Watergate.

Congresswoman Boggs had expressed her fears to Congressman Bill Hungate as well as to me and Peter Rodino in the strictest confidence.

In 1971 Boggs had made an extraordinary speech on the House floor. The then-majority leader accused the Department of Justice of using "Gestapo-like" police-state tactics that included bugging the offices and homes of members of Congress and other political leaders--and in some cases using illegally obtained information to blackmail public officials.

The unreported truth was that when Boggs made the speech he ws undergoing psychiatric treatment for manic depression, and the CIA and FBI were concerned that his judgement had become sufficiently impaired to endanger national security.

Without Honor: The Impeachment of President Nixon And The Crimes of Camelot by Jerry Zeifman

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Larry Flynt Says He’s Found Five Hookers ‘So Far’ Who Had Sex with Sen. Vitter in New Orleans

FLYNT: There’s been about five we’ve been able to track down so far. So you see what happens when you’re a guy like him and you’re not completely honest, see, he didn’t even have to bring that up. And now that he’s brought it up, everybody is all over it, including us.

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US says Iraqi rebel head is an invention

IN MARCH, he was declared captured. In May, he was declared killed, and his purported corpse was displayed on state-run TV.

On Wednesday, Omar al-Baghdadi, the supposed leader of an al-Qaeda-affiliated group in Iraq, was declared non-existent by US military officials, who say he is a fictional character created to give an Iraqi face to a foreign-run terrorist group.

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WorldNetDaily has been pushing Iraqi cannibalism stories

Report: Al-Qaida bakes little boys

"Perhaps it's urban legend. I have no idea.

More cases of terrorists 'baking' children cited
Researchers say Muslim history includes cooking human victims

Policy Analyst Jeremy Sewall calls such reports "pretty extreme."

You think?

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Road Trip

Boy, you would think we are NEVER home with the amount of road trips we do! But once again, this is only going to be an over-nighter. One of the reasons we have to go is so we can get to a pet store. The cat is supposed to be eating 'senior formula' food and I have had no luck finding any senior food in cans. It is easy enough to find dry, but the wet will have to be found in a big pet store. Or I will have to order it online. Oh, yay. If I don't get a chance to post while we are gone, I will be back on Friday.

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Fun, Fun

*Meleah had problems with the link. Now, if you click on the link, there should be a pop-up box asking for your name. Type in your name--or whatever you want--and go from there. Hope the link works now.

As mental_floss says, this is the first thing you should do every day when you go on the internet:

click here

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The Sauna Experience

Sauna is pronounced 'sow (like a female pig)-na.' It is NOT pronounced 'saw-na.' I REPEAT it is NOT pronounced 'saw-na'!
To read the generalized article on Wikipedia about saunas, go here. To read the article on Finnish saunas, go here.


There are very few things that I miss by not being 'with' The Family, and the number one thing I miss is the sauna. It has been at least 5 years since I actually had a sauna and I am beginning to feel my Finnish ancestors booing and hissing from beyond the grave! This is a completely unheard of situation for a Finn--and I am not too sure how I am going to fix it. We don't have our own sauna--yet--and I am not sure if we will build one before we build our new house (hopefully it will happen).

The sauna experience I am used to is probably quite different from any you may have had. The sauna, to us, is where we bathe. We are completely naked in the sauna and would laugh our asses off if someone tried to go into the sauna wearing a bathing suit. (We once had friends ask if they needed to bring their swimsuits in order to go into the sauna--we laughed.)


A sauna is not a very big building/area--at least the ones I was ever familiar with. A lot of the saunas I was in as a child looked a lot like this:


When you first walk in the door, there is a changing room where you, well, change. Actually, you take your clothes off before proceeding into the next room, which is the washroom. In the washroom there are several benches made of wood attached to the walls on one side--usually two, sometimes three levels of benches. Close to the benches is the stove. Our 'authentic' saunas here have wood-burning stoves in them. Some municipalities don't allow wood-burning saunas to be built in homes, so a lot of people have electric heat. Anyway, on the top of the stove is a layer of rocks. They usually are a nice size, about as big around as a baseball, and are quite flat. A good place to get these rocks are on the shore of Lake Superior. The rock level is several inches deep. In the really old saunas, there is a water tank next to the stove. This was from when saunas didn't have running water and all of the water had to be hauled in. The stove heated the water needed for bathing. In some saunas, the cold water was kept in milk cans. There are always buckets at the ready--this is where you would prepare your wash water. Even today, with running water and showers in saunas, there still will be wash buckets.

I always preferred to go into the sauna after everyone else had been. I like it when the fire is just beginning to burn down. I also find the temp of 120-150 to be the best for me. Some people like it very hot: 170+ degrees! Sitting on the top bench makes one sweat--and that is what the sauna is for. The sweating process helps rid the body of toxins and does great things for the skin. Just when you are getting used to the heat, it is time to 'take steam.' Remember those rocks on the stove? They are there just for this purpose. The fire has heated the rocks very, very much and to 'make steam' you pour water onto them. Believe me, if you aren't used to this, you want to do it v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. If you pour too much water, too fast on the rocks, it can literally take your breath away. NOT a good feeling. And once again, you sit and sweat. Some people like to 'beat' themselves with birch or cedar branches, once they have gotten to this point. It is supposed to get the circulation going and help release more toxins. NOT for me--I guess I'm just not into S&M. Once you get too hot, you can always go into the changing room to cool off for a while and then begin the process all over again. Of course, if you were lakeside, you could jump into the lake to cool off--bathing suit optional. But, the sauna experience for me is all about the cleansing. Some people will repeat the process over and over for several hours.

When all of the sweating is over, then it is time to wash. The Parents have a shower right in the washroom. How convenient! Other saunas have showers separate from the steamroom--for the most part, these would be newer ones. Again, the washroom/steamroom was one and the same in the older saunas because of the lack of running water.

The WORST part about the whole sauna experience is trying to quit the sweating process. Unless you stand outside in the snow and cold, it takes a while. In the summer, there are times where you feel as if you haven't bathed at all. Depending on how many times you do the steam/cool down bit, you can feel very 'drained' when you are done. It is a great sleeping aid!

Saunas are, for the most part, ALWAYS heated on Saturday. And most people who have saunas can pretty much count on having 'sauna company.' These are people who don't have their own saunas, so they visit on sauna night so they can use yours. While I was growing up, we didn't have a sauna, so we would always visit somewhere on Saturday. We usually would go to my aunt and uncle's farm--they had kids around my and The Brother's age, so we would have someone to play with. We always got there early and left late.

This is how my Saturday nights went when I was growing up:

We would get to the farm where the cousins, The Brother, and I would get to play for a few hours. Depending on the time, we sometimes went to get the cows from the field for milking. Sometimes we would play in the hay barn or watch the milking process. But, mainly, we would just run around, having a good time. Eventually we would be called in so that we could start the sauna process. The youngest kids--usually The Brother and the cousin his age--would go and have their baths first. (This was when the sauna was the coolest.) The Mother and my aunt would go in and wash the boys up--at least when they were too young to wash themselves. When they were done, my cousin and I would go in and wash. Then the grownups would go--usually a husband and wife would go together--until everyone was done. During this entire evening, food was being prepared and served. And there was TV watching to be done! First came 'The Lawrence Welk Show.' (Not a favorite of ours.) After that came 'Gunsmoke' followed by 'Have Gun Will Travel.' The evening was topped off with 'Saturday Night Fights' or 'Hockey Night in Canada' during the winter. By this time, it was time to get home and into bed.

There definitely are times that I get nostalgic and would like things to be different between me and my family--and then I remember why things are as they are. I think I will just keep my memories and thoughts of a simpler time all to myself.

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Republican David Vitter claims he only visited one prostitute

Talk about lowering the bar.

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Fred Thompson is hesitant to announce his candidacy for President because he is bisexual and is known to frequent male prostitutes.

There is at least one person willing to come forward when/if Fred announces.

So says dweeb, who adds "my sources are personal and first-hand knowledge."

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Fox guest claims CIA 'sabotaging our own War on Terror'

Fox News on Tuesday interviewed veteran Pentagon reporter Rowan Scarborough about his "startling allegation" that "elements within the CIA are sabotaging our own War on Terror." Scarborough, a former columnist for the Reverend Sun Myung Moon-owned Washington Times, is the author of Sabotage: America's Enemies Within the CIA, which claims that "CIA bureaucrats are undermining President Bush and the War on Terror through disinformation, incompetence, and outright sabotage."

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Angry CIA Operatives Torpedoed Rumsfeld

Dissident U.S. intelligence officers angry at former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld helped a European probe uncover details of secret CIA prisons in Europe, the top investigator said on Tuesday.

"The Americans themselves admitted there were secret prisons, that they abducted people from the streets, that people were handed over to countries like Syria, Yemen, Egypt where they were tortured," he said.

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A Wing For Life?

In an interview with a Swedish newspaper, Henrik Zetterberg said he would like to play in Detroit for the rest of his career. Considering he is only 26, that is probably another 9 years or so. It would be great to have another player stay in Detroit for his entire career--a good thing, too, considering he probably will be named 'captain' as soon as Lidstrom retires. :) Please, please, hockey gods, make it be so!!

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Eating Diet Food

The other day I went into the pantry to find something to eat. Because I wasn't really, truly hungry, I knew that the only reason I was looking for food was pure boredom. And that is a big part of my weight problem. But, I'm not going to talk about my weight.

After rummaging around the pantry for a few minutes, I came across a semi-empty package of Weight Watcher dessert cakes. I believe they were double-fudge chocolate or something along those lines. Anyway, the words 'chocolate,' 'cake,' and 'dessert' all screamed 'EAT ME,' so I did. Has anyone noticed that when you are not on a diet, diet food DOES. NOT. TASTE. GOOD? I found that out very quickly. (I also ignored the fact that I don't remember WHEN I bought said dessert cakes. It has been a loooooong time since I pretended to be on a diet, so that just may be part of the reason why the cakes didn't taste very good.)

It is truly amazing how, when one is very hungry--like when on a diet--the most God-awful stuff tastes decent. I mean, really, when would you VOLUNTARILY eat a rice cake, other than when on a diet? Brussel sprouts wouldn't be around if it wasn't for people dieting. (I do have to admit to liking them--but only if they are floating in butter and are sprinkled with salt! NOT recommended when one is dieting.) Most of the Weight Watcher frozen dinners don't taste much better than the cardboard box they come in--unless you are 'on program.' THEN they are the most delicious things ever made. There must be a mathematical equation that can explain the ratio between how hungry a person is compared to how good diet food seems to taste. There MUST be an equation, but I'm not the one to come up with it!

One thing that should have been a clue to how good/bad the 'cake' would taste is this: the fact that it is a 'diet dessert.' Now, isn't that what is called an oxymoron--of the highest level? I'm sorry, but it is my experience that if something is called 'diet,' good for you,' healthy,' or 'low calories,' it probably is not going to taste good. Some may disagree with me, but I stand by my opinion.

And on that note, all of this talk about food is making me hungry. I know I have strawberries in the frig (fruit: good for you), and angel food cake (egg whites and flour: good for you), and vanilla ice cream (milk--okay, cream, but still dairy: good for you), so I think I will go and make myself a strawberry shortcake. I guess I was wrong--you CAN eat stuff that is good for you and have it taste delicious!

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Bradley Ayers: A Soldier's Voice

I believe the Bush-Cheney-Rumsfeld Iraq War will go down as one of history’s major military blunders, exceeding the Vietnam debacle, and making a mockery of all those in the political-military establishment who swore it would never happen again in the exercise of US foreign policy.

The motives for going to war were fabricated, intelligence was manipulated, and our military leadership was stupidly coerced by a cabal of ideologically conservative, obsessive-compulsive draft dodgers into putting American forces in the no-win, catastrophic situation

.

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William Kristol on the Iraq War:

a war in Iraq that has been very difficult, but where -- despite some confusion engendered by an almost meaningless "benchmark" report last week -- we now seem to be on course to a successful outcome.

There's optimism and then there's stupid.

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The U.S. military's top general said Monday that the Joint Chiefs of Staff is weighing a range of possible new directions in Iraq, including, if President Bush deems it necessary, an even bigger troop buildup.

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The balance in the internal White House debate over Iran has shifted back in favour of military action before President George Bush leaves office in 18 months . . .

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The Era Of General Fiber Ethanol Begins

How It Works (steps and link below) - Image Credit: Range Fuels

The Era Of General Fiber Ethanol Begins

Range Fuels, a company that is in the lead on building conversion plants that can take ANY fiber material (switch grasses, chaff, wood chips, mown grass, fallen tree limbs, waste stalks from corn production as opposed to the food – corn, and etc.) and convert it to Ethanol fuel has just been selected to construct the first commercially viable “Cellulosic” based power plant by the state of Georgia.

The reason this is truly “Peachy” isn’t that Georgia is the leading producer of a nuisance waste plant - KUDZU – but that this type of Ethanol production is the path to the change over from finite fossil fuels to renewable, human produce-able fuel resource.

This type of fuel production is very efficient. Cellulosic Ethanol can contain up to 16 times more energy than is required to create it! This is quite impressive when one considers that fossil fuel gasoline contains only 5 times more energy than was required to create it … and corn or sugar based ethanol contains only 1.3 times the energy required to create it.

So, let the era of sustainable general fiber Ethanol fuel production begin!

Image Credit: Range Fuels

Excerpts from the Range Fuels website –

Range Fuels awarded permit to construct the nation’s first commercial cellulosic ethanol plant
Independence Day marks the start of our country’s independence from fossil fuels
Range Fuels News Release - Palo Alto, CA. and Broomfield, CO – July 2, 2007

Range Fuels announced today that the company was awarded a construction permit from the state of Georgia to build the first commercial-scale cellulosic ethanol plant in the United States. Ground breaking will take place this summer in Treutlen County, Georgia for a 100-million-gallon-per-year cellulosic ethanol plant that will use wood waste from Georgia’s forests as its feedstock. Phase 1 of the plant is scheduled to complete construction in 2008 with a production capacity of 20 million gallons a year.

“We are thrilled to receive this permit and anticipate the construction of many plants throughout Georgia and the Southeast using wood waste to make ethanol,” said Mitch Mandich, CEO of Range Fuels. “With Independence Day on July 4, we are excited to begin the march toward independence from our country’s reliance on fossil fuel.”
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"The Department is pleased that the country is one step closer to making the widespread use of cellulosic ethanol a reality," U.S. Secretary of Energy Samuel W. Bodman said. "This furthers the President's goal of deploying clean, renewable energy into the marketplace, and we are eager for the results of Range Fuels’ work, and the work of the other biorefinery grant recipients, to help increase energy security and enhance economic growth."

Range Fuels is at the forefront of new proprietary technology for producing cellulosic ethanol. While most domestic ethanol production requires corn as a feedstock, Range Fuels' proprietary process does not. The country’s ability to make corn ethanol is limited by the agricultural land available to grow it. The latest estimates predict that corn ethanol can only produce up to 15 billion gallons per year. On the other hand, the U.S. Department of Energy, in their joint report with the USDA, has identified over one billion tons of biomass annually that could be converted to biofuels, like ethanol. Range Fuels’ technology can transform all of this biomass, including wood chips, agricultural wastes, grasses, and cornstalks as well as hog manure, municipal garbage, sawdust and paper pulp into ethanol. The company has already successfully tested close to 30 types of biomass for producing ethanol.

Image Credit: Range Fuels

The company’s technology completely eliminates enzymes which have been an expensive component of cellulosic ethanol production. Range Fuels’ thermo-chemical conversion process, the K2 system, uses a two step process to convert the biomass to synthesis gas, and then converts the gas to ethanol. In addition to the ability to process a broad range of potential biomass feedstock, the K2 system benefits from a modular design.
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The company selected Georgia for its first plant based upon the abundance of forest refuse and the renewable and sustainable forest industry. The state has demonstrated great stewardship of its forest lands and environmental sensitivity. The forests of Georgia can support up to 2 billion gallons a year of cellulosic ethanol production.

Range Fuels, with Governor Perdue, announced plans to build the plant on February 7 of this year.
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Technology

Range Fuels has invented a two-step thermo-chemical process to produce cellulosic ethanol. Even if these words are foreign to you, the positives are sure to resonate: the process is self-sustaining, produces virtually no waste products, emits very low levels of greenhouse gases, and produces high yields of clean ethanol.

A Design Driven by Efficiency
Our focus on efficiency goes beyond how we produce ethanol – it also extends to where we produce it. Our distributive design lets us bring systems to sources where biomass is most plentiful, instead of having to transport biomass to a central processing site. This reduces transportation costs and related transportation fuel consumption. Our modularity also allows the system to grow as more biomass becomes available. Simply adding another module – which is easy to ship and install – immediately doubles the output. We put our systems where they are needed, in just the size that is needed.

Nature’s Way
Our entire approach is based upon the invention of eco-friendly technology. The best evidence of this is that we produce more ethanol per energy input than competing technologies. Nature likes this. Especially since everything going in is plant and waste material that serves no useful purpose. We call this conversion "waste to value," and this thrust is what motivates us to keep working our hardest.

Our Two-Step Thermo-Chemical Process

Step 1: Solids to Gas
Biomass (plant matter) that cannot be used for food and currently serves no useful purpose, such as agricultural waste, is fed into a converter. Using heat, pressure, and steam the feedstock is converted into synthesis gas (syngas), which is conditioned before entering the second step.

Step 2: Gas to Liquids
The conditioned syngas is passed over a catalyst and transformed into alcohols. These alcohols are then separated and processed to yield a variety of liquid products, specifically ethanol of a quality suitable for use in fueling vehicles.

Image Credit: Range Fuels

A Simple Process
Because Range Fuels’ process utilizes a thermo-chemical process, it relies on the chemical reactions and conversions between forms that naturally occur when certain materials are mixed under specific combinations of temperature and pressure. Other conversion processes use enzymes, yeasts, and other biological means to convert between forms.

Feedstock Flexibility
The Range Fuels process accommodates a wide range of organic feedstocks of various types, sizes, and moisture contents. This flexibility eliminates commercial problems related to fluctuations in feed material quality and ensures success in the real world, far from laboratory-controlled conditions.

Tested and True
Range Fuels’ technology has been tested and proven in bench and pilot-scale units for over 7 years. Over 8,000 hours of testing has been completed on over 20 different non-food feedstocks with varying moisture contents and sizes, including wood waste, olive pits, and more. This technology will be used in our first facility planned for a site near Soperton, Georgia.

Range Fuels K2 Process Graphically Explained Here>>

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