McGovern to endorse Hillary

As a native of South Dakota, I am happy and proud to commend George McGovern (pictured) as a true war hero who volunteered in the Army Air Corps during World War II and flew 35 combat missions over enemy territory in a B-24 Liberator bomber (shown below).

It has always puzzled me how an ordained Methodist minister, turned politician from a conservative state could be nearly socialistic in his liberal political views.

George McGovern lost his bid for the presidency in a landslide defeat of 61%–38% in 1972.

So how much help will a McGovern endorsement be to the Hillary campaign?

One wonders if it is repaying a political debt rather than an honest endorsement. The article at the link below reports:

"I got to know her 35 years ago," McGovern said. "She and her boyfriend, Bill Clinton, took over the McGovern organization in Texas. They did a terrific job against impossible odds. I never forgot that. They worked night and day in that state."

Link

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A note about the aircraft Mr. McGovern flew during WW II:

The B-24 Liberator was sometimes called a “flying coffin” by pilots and crew. The nickname came mostly because the B-24 was prone to catch fire as a result of battle damage because of the fuel tank locations.

The B-24 was a bit larger than the B-17 Flying fortress but was not nearly as robust.

I tip my hat to anyone who completed 35 combat missions as a B-25 pilot.

Click here for pictures of the only remaining flyable B-25 taken at the Loveland/Ft. Collins airport last July 4th.

(if a picture doesn’t show, refresh your browser or click on the “red x” then select “show picture”)

Are the New Orleans Aints back?

The 1980 Saints football team lost their first 14 games and ended the season with a record of 1-15.

This year in spite of Reggie Bush, Deuce McAllister and Drew Brees they are 0-3.

Are the ‘Aints’ back?

During that disastrous 1980 season some of the Saints fans turned their frustration into sarcasm. They often wore brown paper bags on their heads with the word ‘Aints’ printed just above the eye slits, reasoning that the way the team played, they didn’t deserve to use the first letter of the team name.

They sat in the highest seats they could find in the empty ‘nosebleed’ section as a protest to the under performing team.

Actually the sarcasm of the saints fans became popular, as fans of other underachieving teams picked it up. Jets fans were seen to wear paper bags that said ‘Ets’ because they thought the team didn’t play well enough to use the fist letter of their name.

If the Saints continue to slide, the team players will still wear the fleur-de-lis on their helmets, but the fans may go back to the ‘Aints’ paper bags.

Come on you guys, give your rebuilding city something to be proud of! No more paper bags for your fans.

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Remembering Diana the peoples Princess

Britain will mark the 10th anniversary of Princess Diana's death Friday with a royal memorial service and several other tributes.

With wrangling over legacy and conspiracy theories over her death still rife, Diana's sons Prince William and Prince Harry, her ex-husband Prince Charles and Queen Elizabeth II, will mark the tragedy with a solemn service in London.

Her sons, aged 15 and 12 when their mother died aged 36 after a high-speed car crash in a central Paris road tunnel, now are officers in the British army.

Charles's second wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall -- who Diana dubbed "the rottweiler" and blamed for her divorce from the heir to the throne in 1996 -- will not be attending.

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This shoe craze is a croc

When I was a kid the footwear craze was centered on saddle shoes (upper picture). Then came penny loafers, followed by the re-birth of flip-flops with clogs and platforms sandwiched in there as well.

That was before 2002 when a couple of entrepreneurs in Boulder, Colorado began making the ugliest, least flattering items of footwear you’ll ever see.

Putting on a croc with bare feet for the first time can be a rather startling experience. When my bare feet slid into the soft, spongy foam resin I was sure I’d stepped in a bucket of earthworms and couldn’t wait to take them back off.

I thought they were the most disgusting things I had ever seen or felt on my feet.

But what do I know? There has never been a shoe craze like this! In no time, crocs were everywhere. On the beach. In gardens. In the supermarket. Even in church!

Most croc wearers swear by the comfort of the shoe. Some claim their crocs have helped with medical problems.

For whatever reason hoards of people are footing the croc craze.

Because the shoes are wide and roomy, Podiatrists say crocs can help with foot problems like severe heel pain and bunions.

One Podiatrist said that comparing crocs to flip-flops -- crocs are better because they are closed in the front providing more protection as well as support.

Well, they can have their crocs. I just don’t like the feeling of stepping in a bucket of earthworms.

Hillary fundraiser is a fugitive hiding in plain sight

A prominent fundraiser for Hillary (pictured) and other Democrats is a fugitive from justice and should be in jail as reported in the Los Angeles Times. The link below has the story.

Since 2004, one Norman Hsu has been carving out a prominent place of honor among Democratic fundraisers. He has funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions into party coffers, much of it earmarked for presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton of New York.

For the last 15 years, California authorities have been trying to figure out what happened to a businessman named Norman Hsu, who pleaded no contest to grand theft, agreed to serve up to three years in prison and then seemed to vanish.

Leaving no guesswork as to the stance of the Hillary campaign in regard to taking contributions from a fugitive from justice -- a man who should be in jail, a Hillary campaign spokesman said:

During Mr. Hsu's many years of active participation in the political process, there has been no question about his integrity or his commitment to playing by the rules, and we have absolutely no reason to call his contributions into question or to return them.

Integrity and ‘playing by the rules’ indeed. As the article points out, Mr. Hsu is clearly a fugitive from justice and should have been in prison.

It is no surprise that the Hillary campaign has chosen to ignore the obvious status criminal of Mr. Hsu. The only surprise is that a blatantly politically liberal newspaper such as the Los Angeles Times would print this story.

Link

Will there always be an England? Maybe not

There'll Always Be an England was a popular World War II song. But how true are the words today?

There is an article at the link below titled: England is Vanishing .

Perhaps there will not always be an England. An exodus unprecedented in modern times, coupled with a record influx of foreigners, is threatening to erode the character of the land of William Shakespeare and overpowering monarchs, a land that served as the cradle for much of American thought, law and culture.

The figures, making headlines in London newspapers, tell only part of the story. Between June 2005 and June 2006 nearly 200,000 British citizens chose to leave the country for a new life elsewhere. During the same period, at least 574,000 immigrants came to Britain.

Missing from the numbers shown above are the thousands of Muslims arriving in Britain illegally.

Abraham Lincoln said no nation can exist half slave and half free. Neither can a nation be sustained if it allows conditions that result in mass emigration, while importing huge numbers of foreigners who come from backgrounds that do not practice assimilation or tolerance of other beliefs.

When one factors in the high number of abortions (one in five pregnancies are aborted in England and Wales), the high birth rates of immigrants (15 times those of white Britons), it doesn't take a population expert to predict that the days of the England we have known may be numbered.

Britons give many reasons for leaving, but their stories share one commonality: life in Britain has become unbearable for them.

They fear lawlessness and the threat of more terrorism from a growing Muslim population and the loss of a sense of ‘Britishness’, exacerbated by the growing refusal of public schools to teach the history and culture of the nation to the next generation.

The greater tragedy is that the people of Britain have little say in any of this, so they are taking the road of last resort. They are leaving.

Link

Modern day cattle drive

Author Robert Day wrote a novel in 1977 about a modern-day cattle drive from northwest Kansas to Kansas City.

Robert Day and friend O. Newton King plan to re-enact part of the fictional drive Sept. 4-5 at the Dickinson Ranch in Gorham.



King, a retired pharmacy owner from Lawrence, has spent three years planning and organizing the drive.
"His idea is almost as crazy as the idea of the book," Day said.

The drive also will raise money for 4-H clubs in Ellis and Russell counties, with 50 riders each day paying $300 each to go along.

The drive will commemorate the 30th anniversary of a novel.

Author Robert Day is hoping it goes better than a practice run last year when they lost all the cattle. They ran into a milo field and, in the words of Day, "It became The Lost Cattle Drive rather than The Last Cattle Drive."

Link

We all have our blind spots

(click on cartoon for surprise enlargement)

More on unauthorized Wikipedia editing

Admitting that Wikipedia cannot control unauthorized edits, Jimmy Wales had this to say:

Jimmy Wales, founder of the Wikimedia Foundation, which runs Wikipedia, says the site discourages such “conflict of interest” editing. “We don’t make it an absolute rule,” he said, “but it’s definitely a guideline.”

By not making “conflict of interest” editing a rule, Wikipedia will continue to be rife with editing by anyone with an axe to grind.

It will take more than WikiScanner to police the millions of Wikipedia entries.

One must be naïve indeed to use Wikipedia entries as solid research material.

For more information about the online encyclopedia that anyone can edit, click on the Wikipedia category in the left sidebar of this web site.

Link to the NYT article here.

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UPDATE

Wikipedia vandalism traced to Democratic Party. Link

www.nytimes.com/2007/08/19/technology/19wikipedia.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

Illinois politics a smear on Obama resume

Barack Obama has a lot of negative baggage because of his Illinois political background according to an article found at the link below.

Is America, nay, the world, ready for a U.S. president -- Barack Obama -- who bubbled up from the sordid politics of the Illinois legislature? From a political party whose stranglehold on Illinois government has brought the state to the brink of insolvency?

The rest of America should excuse many of us here if we blanch at the idea that someone, anyone, who just a few years ago occupied a seat in Illinois' laughable legislature might soon be president.

Barack Hussein ObamaWorld leaders are sure to tremble before him

The article goes on:

The first president to emerge from the Illinois legislature was Abraham Lincoln, but that's little comfort.

Today's Illinois legislature is rock bottom, exceeded in incompetence only by the preening, useless Democratic Gov. Rod Blagojevich. And true, Obama can't be blamed for the current madness in Springfield and the Democratic Party's abject failure to govern. Yet, that's where Obama cut his political teeth.

The article concludes with:

A new day in Obama's Washington? Spare us. Obama in the White House would be an old day, incorporating the worst of the Bush administration (according to his critics) and the worst of the Clinton administration. Not to mention the Illinois legislature.

Link

Interesting pics along the way

Shown below are things you often miss when travelling in a hurry:


We didn’t know Billy Bob lived in Iowa. The solar collectors are nearly as big as the house with enough debris scattered in the yard to build a couple more. Photo taken near Dexter, Iowa


Most cannons displayed in public parks are large and impressive. This cannon is neither. Valeta poses with this lilliputian relic in Stuart, Iowa to show its relative size.


“Share the Road” signs like this can be found in Amish country near Sturgeon, Missouri.




This rock is located north of Greenfield, Iowa and is repainted every Veterans Day by local artist Ray “Bubba” Sorensen.

More about the Veterans/Patriotic rock can be found here. Pictures of this rock from prior years can be found in the Photography photo album on the right side bar of this blog.

Link here for directions to the rock.

Another patriotic symbol was found near Chappell, Nebraska in the form of an American flag painted on the side of a very large grain storage elevator.

How cheap can PC’s get?

Mike Elgan’s Computerworld article asks: What can you get for less than $700? The answer: A lot.

You've no doubt heard that Dell plans to sell PCs at Wal-Mart. It turns out that the prices of these systems will be extremely low. A Dell Dimension E521with a dual-core Athlon chip, 1GB of RAM, a 320GB hard drive, Vista Home Premium and a 19-in. monitor will cost less than $700. (Note that Vista Home Premium by itself would cost you $200.)

Meanwhile, Asus announced at Intel's Computex a $189, full-size, solid-state Linux laptop that boots in just 15 seconds from its 2GB flash hard disk. Called the 3ePC, the low-cost PC isn't a humanitarian effort for third-world kids, but a consumer product that will be sold in the U.S., Europe and elsewhere.

I don’t know about the $189 laptop, but the Dell E521 with a 19-inch monitor sounds like a great buy.

I’m all for supporting the Linux operating system but buying a flash-drive laptop doesn’t get me excited.

Link

Dry cleaning shop with sense of humor

Prince William and Kate romance is on again

The on-again off-again romance of William (upper picture) and Kate (lower picture) is on-again.

Prince William has persuaded his long-time girlfriend Kate Middleton to get back together again 12 weeks after the couple split.

Rumors that the couple, who met at university and at one stage were said to be on the verge of marriage, had decided to rekindle their relationship have been rife since she appeared on Sunday at a concert in honor of William's late mother Diana.

William has persuaded Kate the problems of dating a future king are a price worth paying.

Why do I bother with this story?

First of all, there is a category on this blog titled: British Royal Soap Opera that needs a little activity now and then.

Second of all, William is more interesting to write about. His brother Harry seems to be a bit of a brash brat. Prince Charles is a bore most of the time and a bit obnoxious when he is trying to sound like an intellectual.

Link

Fat fight fails in public schools

The public school nutrition education program is “generally not working.”

The federal government will spend more than $1 billion this year on nutrition education—fresh carrot and celery snacks, videos of dancing fruit, hundreds of hours of lively lessons about how great you will feel if you eat well.

But an Associated Press review of scientific studies examining 57 such programs found mostly failure. Just four showed any real success in changing the way kids eat—or any promise as weapons against the growing epidemic of childhood obesity.



"Any person looking at the published literature about these programs would have to conclude that they are generally not working," said Dr. Tom Baranowski, a pediatrics professor at Houston's Baylor College of Medicine who studies behavioral nutrition.

It’s difficult for any school program to convince kids to trade in their potato chips and fires for carrot and celery sticks when unhealthy “comfort foods” are readily available at home or the nearest McDonald’s.

Link

Bluegrass and Western Swing bands in Ft. Collins

Blugrass band at Civic Center Park

Western Swing band in Ft. Collins Old Town

Fairness Doctrine: down in flames 305-115

Congressional Democrats tried to re-launch the so-called “Fairness Doctrine” last week.

The measure failed by a 305-115 vote in the House. It probably would have been defeated in the Senate as well in spite of staunch support by Hillary, Kerry, Durban, Feinstein and others.

Just what is the Fairness Doctrine?
In a nutshell, the Fairness Doctrine would force radio and television outlets that broadcast “controversial” programming to devote equal time to opposing viewpoints.

The idea behind re-launching the Fairness Doctrine is a thinly veiled effort on the part of the nation’s liberals to shut down conservative political talk radio.

Commercial liberal talk radio has failed. Air America, the flagship of liberal talk radio movement, is a testament to that.

The only liberal talk radio left is (NPR) which is taxpayer funded. National Public Radio (NPR) is funded by taxpayers and is made up of Liberal talk hosts such as the unabashedly liberal Juan Williams (pictured).

Since NPR is taxpayer funded it should provide equal airtime to conservative political programs. It does not.

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What about the Fairness Doctrine and the Constitution? Should we kill free speech in the name of fairness?

The Constitution protects free speech, not equal speech.

Congress is to make no law abridging the freedom of speech whether we like the speech or not.

It's simple; speech is to be free even if it is not fair. Fair is too subjective a word. Our founding fathers guaranteed us free speech, not fair speech, and there is a big difference

If they ever want to bring the Fairness Doctrine back, they should apply it to TV and radio that is taxpayer funded.

For every Juan Williams hour on NPR there should be a Sean Hannity (lower picture) hour etc.

An equal number of hours for conservative radio as for liberal radio.

Rather than having the government regulate what people can say, we should let the market decide what people want to hear. That’s precisely why the Fairness Doctrine was abandoned, and that’s why it ought not to be revived.

Link

A serenade by Teddy before giving them all amnesty

Ted Kennedy (pictured) and other Senator’s want to give them all amnesty.

But first, he has decided to sing to them before telling them he “won’t let them down.”

The Kennedy serenade is here, if you have the stomach for it.

Kennedy leads a coalition to make all of the “undocumented workers” citizens of the United States.

I was undocumented for short time when I lost my wallet. These people are more than just undocumented. They are illegal.

What about the law-abiding aliens who are here with valid green cards working toward citizenship. It takes them about seven years to become citizens.

Teddy, and the others, are determined to have the illegal aliens become citizens with the swish of a pen.

Before you make up your mind on immigration, think about this:

The president himself says in his first five years, six million people tried to break into this country.

One in 12, which is 500,000, had criminal records.

Five hundred thousand criminals trying to break into this country! The entire Army of the United State only nuimbers five hundred thousand.

This is not immigration.This is an invasion.

Link

Gore banned the media but gets coverage anyway

Mr. Al Gore (pictured) made yet another closed door speech Saturday. This time it was at the American Institute of Architects convention.

He has banned the media many times before. Why is he afraid of the media covering his global warming alarmism?

Here is something Al Gore ignores and doesn’t want you to hear: Sunspots are causing the current global warming. Link here.

The current sunspot cycle peaks in 2011 and then all the politicians will be calling our attention to global cooling.

Mr. Gore is building his bankroll and liberal political popularity on his man-made global warming alarmism and the resultant carbon credit scam.

Link

Obama calls for Detroit to improve fuel economy

In Detroit, Barack Obama (pictured) said automakers should improve fuel economy.

Wow! What a simply ingenious idea (sarcasm intended). But what can we expect from a candidate-in-training hoping to become a president-in-training?

Maybe he is speaking into an echo chamber. How many times have we heard other candidates say the same thing down through the years?

Can computer controlled injectors be improved on? Probably not. Detroit is producing hybrids and working on more hybrids. Detroit is also building bio-fuel vehicles.

If Obama called on Detroit to build smaller cars he would lose his large base of SUV owners. It's safer to point the finger at Detroit by echoing hundreds of politicians before him by calling on Detroit to improve fuel economy.

Link