Properties of gold

A little piece from Lambert Dolphin's website at www.ldolphin.org

Gold has been known since the dawn of mankind. Not long after the creation of the earth, the book of Genesis records that the gold found in the land of Havilah "is good." There are 358 references to gold in the Bible, the last of which makes reference to the heavenly city. Only in recent years has a process been discovered for casting gold in transparent form and in gold-plating glass. Scripture records the amount of gold used in adorning the great temple Solomon built in Jerusalem 3000 years ago. It's 3750 tons of gold would be worth over 45 billion dollars today!

Gold has an atomic number 79 and an atomic weight of 196.9665. Gold is 19.3 times heavier than water, melts at 1063 degrees Centigrade, and is the most malleable and ductile of all the elements. One ounce of this metal (slighter more than a cubic centimeter) may be beaten into 300 square feet of gold leaf. Gold can be fired by a potter into clays to produce exquisitely beautiful porcelain or glass.

Gold is chemically quite inert. No single acid dissolves it. It is unaffected by oxygen or hydrogen sulfide. Gold does not rust, tarnish, corrode, crumble, decompose or decay, even after centuries on the sea floor or in a damp dripping cavern. Gold is found in nature principally as a free metal in veins of quartz, or in alluvial (placer) deposits resulting from the breakup of such rock. Gold in nature typically contains 10 to 15 percent silver in solid solution; it may also contain copper, iron, or more rarely bismuth, tin, lead, platinum, palladium, or iridium. Electrum is the usual name applied to gold containing a high silver content. Gold sometimes occurs in nature in combination with tellurium in the mineral sylvanite. Gold chlorides and cyanides also occur more rarely.

Gold is number 81 down on a list of the atomic elements in terms of relative abundance in the universe and has been highly prized for jewelry and coins since the dawn of mankind. Gold is economically mined today by open pit methods (for example in Nevada and California) even though the gold content is somewhat less than 0.1 ounce per ton of waste rock. The famous gold mines of South Africa are more than a mile deep. Gold is often recovered as a by-product of other metal mining, for example copper or lead. The total amount of gold mined in the world in the history of mankind amounts to less than 90,000 tons. If this gold were all collected together it would fit into a cube only 58 feet on a side! Total gold production per year in the world is less than 2000 tons of which about two-thirds comes from South Africa, 30% from the Soviet Union, 4% from Canada and 3% from the United States. Perhaps only 40,000 tons of gold remains in the earth yet to be mined.

Five stories below the ground at the Federal Reserve Bank in New York City is an enormous, compartmentalized vault holding some 10,000 metric tons of gold worth $117 billion - the gold reserves of some 50 nations.

The "London Good Delivery Bar," which is the standard bar used in international trade, weighs 400 ounces troy. One troy ounce is equal to 1.09714 regular (avoirdupois) ounces. These bars have a refiner name, a bar number, and other information stamped on them, and the minimum fineness must be .995, or 99.5% pure gold.

Gold leaf is widely used for lettering names on glass, for building ornamentation and gilding. In 1986 the Statue of Liberty was refurbished with 6000 squares of gold leaf. 250,000 leaves of gold can be stacked into a pile only one inch high.

Gold is a good electrical conductor - almost identical with that of aluminum and not far from silver and copper. Because of its high atomic stability gold emits no particles or rays from its nucleus. It enters into almost no chemical reactions at room temperature and therefore is impossible to detect at a distance by a remote sensing or a chemical-sniffing method.

In the United States about one-fifth of the annual production, that is about 47 metric tons, is used for electronics where superior electrical conductivity and corrosion resistance are required. Gold can be vacuum deposited on glass or plastic to make heat reflecting windows or sunglasses of superior optical screening properties.

Gold can be detected close up (for instance on the sea floor) using neutron activation. However this technique involving the use of a radioactive isotope and sensitive detectors is not much used today. The claims of some amateur prospectors that gold can be detected at a distance by a "molecular frequency detector" are unfounded according to all known legitimate science. Success, if any, obtained with one of these devices (which are in a class similar to dowsing or water-witching methods) can not be explained by any principle known to science today.

While relatively scarce on earth, gold is apparently more common than brick or asphalt in God's Eternal City, the New Jerusalem, "The wall was built of jasper, while the city was pure gold, clear as glass...And the twelve gates were twelve pearls, each of the gates made of a single pearl, and the street of the city was pure gold, transparent as glass." (Revelation 21:18, 21)

You Decide: Verdict

We had a split group. Eaglewood and Ian stating not guilty. Roci and Arielle finding guilty. Wes and Ted saying he is in for trouble with the cops either way, and Triton wanting more info possibly coming down on either side accordingly.

Well here is the way the jury saw it. Not Guilty.

“The fact that the group was not leaving and continued to engage Mr. Hill,” the foreman wrote in an e-mail to The Gazette, “led us to determine that it was reasonable for Mr. Hill to believe that the group of assailants might use physical force against him.”

“Although Mr. Knott was in his vehicle, there was no credible evidence that Mr. Knott was leaving,” the foreman wrote, adding that testimony showed some of the people were still outside a car yelling at Hill.

In an interview after the verdict, the foreman said the law offers no clear “line” where an intruder must be before deadly force can be used.

The foreman, who asked not to be identified because he feared for his family’s safety, said the way the [Colorado’s Homeowners Protection Act] is written made a guilty verdict impossible.

“All four criteria for the use of deadly force against an intruder were met,” he wrote.

The law CRS 18-1-704.5 states

(2) Notwithstanding the provisions of section 18-1-704, any occupant of a dwelling is justified in using any degree of physical force, including deadly physical force, against another person when that other person has made an unlawful entry into the dwelling, and when the occupant has a reasonable belief that such other person has committed a crime in the dwelling in addition to the uninvited entry, or is committing or intends to commit a crime against a person or property in addition to the uninvited entry, and when the occupant reasonably believes that such other person might use any physical force, no matter how slight, against any occupant.

(3) Any occupant of a dwelling using physical force, including deadly physical force, in accordance with the provisions of subsection (2) of this section shall be immune from criminal prosecution for the use of such force.

(4) Any occupant of a dwelling using physical force, including deadly physical force, in accordance with the provisions of subsection (2) of this section shall be immune from any civil liability for injuries or death resulting from the use of such force.

According to the foreman all 4 criteria were met.
1.) Unlawful entry.
2.) Reasonable belief a crime has been commited.
3.) Reasonable belief of intent to commit a crime against his person.
4.) Reasonable belief physical force (however slight) might be used against him.

It is interesting that there are so many quotes by the family of the deceased about jurors "rot[ing] in hell" and letting Hill get "away with murder" In fact a pastor of the deceased (Knott) spoke of how he was such a wonderful boy. Left out of all their comments is how Knott was demonstrably committing a crime, and a violent one at that. If indeed Knott was such a wonderful person, why had he just assualted a sleeping person? Were I to lose a loved one after they had done something as inherently dangerous as that, I would grieve but I would also realize that he had brought such a fate upon himself. If ya hadnt figured out, I am for not guilty.

Thanks all for participating. It is interesting to see where y'all stand given a brief scenario. I might have to do this again.

You Decide

Here is the scenario. Bob has a party at his house, gets into an arguement with Jill over a stolen purse, Jill punches Bob. Bob grabs a rifle and makes Jill and her friend Jenny leave. Jill and Jenny threaten to come back with their boyfriends.

Later that night, Jill and Jenny come back with their boyfriends, Joe and Rick. The four find Bob in his room sleeping and assault him. Jill punches Bob in the face (this time using brass knuckles) The four head out to the car after promising to come back (again), Bob grabs his rifle and goes to the front door. Bob shoots and kills Joe who was sitting in the car. Some of the group was at this time standing outside of the car yelling at Bob. There is no indication of if Bob was shooting at Joe in particular or missed someone else and hit Joe. Night, distance approx 90 feet.

Your verdict?

Wind-Power

Our power company sends out a little newsletter/magazine and I found an interesting item on wind-power. For starters, it provides a whopping 0.1% of the energy used in America. It lists wood and water as providing the remainder of the 6.1% that is from renewable sources.

To give an idea of how much land would need to be dedicated to wind farms it gave this factoid. The city of Denver would require 1500 square miles of land to meet it's power requirement. And that is just Denver, not the metro area.

Housecleaning

Just did some tidying up here at my cyber-home. You may notice some changes and other maybe not.

Blogroll Additions: Eaglewood, his wife Birdie, and Astrosmith. Also added the Colorado Springs' Gazette's "Out There" blog.

Pics

uh oh, I have figured out the whole image thing...

Anyways, I thought I would test it with some good ol' Calvin.

Pierced

Got pierced yesterday. The verdict is not yet in on whether or not I like it, but the Wife thinks it looks good.

Sorry, but I wont be posting pics of it!

Ted & Abortion

Concerning abortion Ted writes

*long, disgusted sigh*
I repeat the favorite prayer of Ruby Jeanette Burns: "God, save us from the freaking do-gooders! Amen."
Ted | Homepage | 12.02.05 - 10:12 pm | #

and

Speaking of black-robed (child-molesting, idol-worshipping) priests being judicial activists, the Hawaii law is Biblically spot-on (Genesis 2:7) which is much more than can be said for the Papist lies of the anti-choice crowd!

I never actually refered to a single religious text, Christian or otherwise, but since Ted provided us a Scripture I decided to compare this to Hawaiian law. Genesis 2:7 tells us that G-d formed man from dust and breathed life into him (For the sake of argument we'll assume Ted is stating this is a "person".) Hawaiian law defines "person" as "a human being who has been born and is alive." HRS § 707-700 This would tend to contradict the assumption that Hawaiian law is more biblically accurate as Adam was not indeed "born" and therefore was not a person.

The more I see our Senators, Reps and Presidents cavorting with "his hellyness" and the Vatican's backward-collared sith-lords, the more I'm led to believe separation of Cult and state is a good idea that's long overdue.

When cavorting, does one suppose our politicians are cavorting with the Pope? There are some that I think we can take off the list, such as Kennedy who would rather spend time with a bottle and a woman (willing or not) and those whose only thought is how to get re-elected (far far too many of them) What of the rest? Planned Parenthood gives a score of 47.8 for the Senate, and the Republicans put in for (and passed) a $60 million increase for Planned Parenthood. That alone shows little love for the Catholics. What else is there... Evolution in schools, condoms handed out and even demonstrated in schools, books such as "heather has two mommies", and sex questionaires for elementry children. Lets add to that the victories of groups such as the ACLU and PAW in removing religion from public life. Oh yeah, lets not forget good ol' Bush not saying anything about Christmas in his holiday cards. Honestly, the Pope must be the weakest world dictator ever.

And I think I will leave it up to Triton to explain the separation of church and state which is nowhere to be found in the Constitution or Declaration of Independence.

And PLEASE don't come at me with out-of-context quotes from Isaiah or Jeremiah and freaking "what-if!!!"s.
Ted | Homepage | 12.12.05 - 8:43 am | #

Wasn't necessary and I still havent brought up religion.

Difster's "Best Of"

Most of you already stop by Difster's blog but for those of you who don't or those who havent stopped by, you should check out this post. Ya just might find a new favorite blogger.

Difster's Best Of

Blood for Oil

Remember the "No blood for oil" slogans?
Wes

There is a little store downtown that has a campaign running right now...

"Blood For Oil"

Seems they are giving oil to those who donate blood.

Of miseducation and Ipods

I came across an interesting story in the local paper from this past sunday. It states that the students of this alternative school get free Ipods for good attendence. Not good grades, attendence. First off, where was this school when I was in jai... school? You might also be wondering where they get the money for such things. After all, schools are notorious for never having enough funding right? After all, there arent enough books to go around, bands, arts and sports are forever on the verge of being axed, and of course teachers make poverty wages. Well wonder no more. Our good friends at the NEA have helped us to answer such questions.


The good folk at the NEA have compiled a list of the pertinent data. The average per student funding across the nation is a measly eight thousand six hundred eighteen dollars ($8618.) How can anyone expect to get an education for such a small sum of money? And how can one expect to get good teachers when the average wage is on $47,808? After all the national average is $35,648.55 (per the SSA)

So lets see, the average wage for a teacher is 34% higher than that of, well, everyone else (and that does include teachers so that SSA # should be lower) and the publik schools get 229%+ what private schools get ($3757: $3267 in 2000, adding a 15% increase we come up with an estimated $3757 for 2005)

Exactly where is the problem? And why are we continually told there is no money for supplies and extracurricular activities? And why do these children perform so poorly?

And perhaps more importantly than all this is where is my taxpayer purchased Ipod?

Abortion

Well, I thought I was going to post about abortion. but now that I am sitting here trying to do it, I can't come up with anything new to say. I was going to bring up this price list for "harvested" parts. Or perhaps how Hawaii now says it is okay for a woman to harm the baby while it is still in the womb. Perhaps a study of how women who have had abortions have a much higher rate of breast cancer. Perhaps I could write on how abortions are done(caution!), or how the fetus is its own unique being from conception.

I could write upon the negative mental effects, or the various harmful physical aspects. Or how an abortion damages a woman's ability to have children in the future. I could write upon the various pro-abortion political parties, or on Planned Parenthood. Or maybe how it has been proven that PP will conceal a crime to get an abortion? But if I mention PP then perhaps I should go into how it was started by Margaret Sanger who was a leading Eugenics proponent and how PP still "caters" to the minority community.

All in all, it seems that I cant find anything new to write, so I guess I just wont. Have a good weekend y'all!

**Update**
It is now found that women who had an abortion have a 248% greater risk of commiting suicide in the following year versus women who did not. Seems there is one good thing from socialized medicine... centralized records which can be utilized by huge studies.

End Of The Econ Series

Since this blog has been completely overwhelmed by the response to the econ series, I am temporarily suspending any such further posts until we can increase the available bandwidth.

Supply

Continuing on the Econ topic I wanted to addresss the issue of Supply. That of course being one part of the Supply/Demand equation but also something else. The amount of a resource that is available.

When looking at the supply of a resource we often think in terms of "how much." As in, there are X barrels of oil left. Well, economically speaking, this is not a good line of thinking. When we say X what we really mean is that is what is economically feasible to harvest. We may be aware that there is a one ton deposit of platinum (worth approx 32 million today) deep in the crust but it may cost so much more to mine it that it wouldnt be counted in the supply. Same with any natural resource.
So X is really X+Y with Y being the stuff that isnt economically feasible to mine.

So is X+Y the sum total of all of the resource to be found in the earth? If one were to say that all the oil in the earth is X+Y one would still be incorrect from an economic standpoint (Tho perhaps not from a technical standpoint). Why? Because of new technologies and new applications. Take copper. It once had to be laid out by the truckload to handle our communications needs and looking at the forecasts of the day one would be led to believe that conservation is a must. But looking at the scene today one sees a very different picture. We now broadcast much of our communications thru fiber optics or even thru the air.

Oil is a common concern perhaps even a primary concern today but it too is not irreplacable. I found today this post on Aldogg's site. It talks of a company making plastics from corn sugars. By and large plastic has been made by the conversion of natural products or by syththesis from primary chemicals coming from oil, natural gas or coal. (Plasticresource.com) Because of the lower cost of oil this company was only able to get companies who wanted to be more "green" but with the cost of oil going up so steeply this past year this company's sales have gone up over 200%.

So in summary, the true value of X far exceeds that of the sum total of X+Y. If/when the cost of X goes up Z will inevitably come in and pick up the slack. There is always a plan B, we just won't see it until that plan becomes cost effective.

Deflationary fears

I was flipping thru the Wall Street Journal from last Sunday and came across a rather annoying quote. I dont remember who said it but he stated he was worried about deflation occuring next year. Leaving aside the whole Federal Reserve (which has kept us above 3% inflation since before I was born) I want to tackle the issue of deflation.

For the purpose of this and probable future posts I am going to define some terms.
Deflation: Less money, each unit worth more
Recession: A drop in the GDP for two or more consecutive quarters
Inflation: More money, each unit worth less
Stagnation: High unemployment
Stagflation: High inflation coupled with high unemployment (stagnation)
Depression: A period where business activity drops signifigantly

Currently the Fed is pursuing a policy of constant "controlled" inflation. Inflation is where you add to the supply of money which, after a few transactions, devalues all of the money in the supply. Your parents will tell you that they could fill a whole paper bag full of candy for $1 but because of inflation that isnt possible now. Inflation is due entirely to banks. Individuals cannot cause inflation.

Now deflation is basically the opposite. As the money supply contracts each unit of money becomes worth more. Were deflation to take place you might one day tell your kids it used to cost $25 to fill a bag of candy whereas they might be able to fill it for $1. Where inflation cannot be caused by individuals, deflation can be. A reduction in spending and/or an increase in savings. Banks can also cause deflation by printing money at less than the replacement level. Deflation can lead to a temporary reduction in jobs as the market adjusts to the higher purchasing power of each dollor. (Look at it from the boss's perspective. The income could be less than last year even tho more units and real profit could have been made. After all, it is numbers not actual value they are looking at.)

Deflation is basically unheard of. There is no way the people who benefit most from inflation would stop it. Who is it that benefits most from inflation? The Federal Gov. The FedGov is the first "person" to get to spend that money, before it causes a devaluation of the whole supply. They also do it to the tune of billions weekly, but I digress.

Adopting a policy of controlled deflation would be a great thing for our economy, or even just keeping the money at a replacement level. With "I-believe-inflation-is-good" Bernanke taking the helm of the Fed soon all those with unfounded fears of deflation can breath a sigh of relief.

Depression In Men

found an interesting article from the LA Times on "male-based depression"

Some depressed men may be plagued by impotence and loss of sexual interest, but others may become wildly promiscuous. Many complain of depression’s physical symptoms — sleep troubles, fatigue, headaches or stomach distress — without ever discerning their psychological source. Compared with women suffering depression, depressed men are more likely to behave recklessly, drink heavily or take drugs, drive fast or seek out confrontation.

Depressed men may bully and bluster and accuse those around them of failing them. For many men, anger — a masculine emotion that one “manages” rather than succumbs to — is a mask for deep mental anguish. “That’s their way of weeping,” says psychologist William Pollack, director of the Centers for Men and Young Men at McLean Hospital in suburban Boston.
“It’s embarrassing to be sad,” he says. “And the difference between being sad and lazy is hard to distinguish.”

Neither tears nor indolence, it seems, are manly virtues.
“Depression equals vulnerability and shame and lack of functioning. That takes away the man’s masculinity — and for men, that takes away the sense of self,” says Pollack, author of “Real Boys: Rescuing Our Sons from the Myths of Boyhood.” In the American ethos, Pollack says, “a man who’s vulnerable is not even a man any more. . . . It’s the equivalent of being psychologically castrated.”

...behave recklessly, ... drive fast or seek out confrontation. check check and check. Its an issue that doesnt ever quite go away but it isnt really a problem for me anymore. Hope none of you knows anyone who is depressed, but this is good info to have.

Battle Hymn Of The Republic

it just seems appropriate today

Julia Ward Howe

Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored,
He has loosed the fateful lightening of His terrible swift sword
His truth is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.

I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps
I can read His righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps
His day is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.

I have read a fiery gospel writ in burnish`d rows of steel,
"As ye deal with my contemners, So with you my grace shall deal;"
Let the Hero, born of woman, crush the serpent with his heel
Since God is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.

He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment-seat
Oh, be swift, my soul, to answer Him! be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.

In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me:
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
While God is marching on.

Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.

Unavailable

I am setting my Blog to "Away" for the next week or so. I will be checking blogs but not doing much in the blogosphere.

Ya'll take care

Shalom

Response to Roci

This is from a conversation over at Wes's Blog in the comments.

Roci writes

1. China should not be underestimated. They should be exploited. We are doing that quite nicely now.

Are we truly exploiting China? I doubt they see it that way. In fact, they have continued to help us out by not floating their monetary system which would cause huge upheavals in our economy.

2. China's submarines are quieter than our because they can't leave port under their own power. They are refurbed russian boats. We know where they are, all the time. If they come to blows with us, they won't survive long enough to be a threat. Sound is not everything.

Part of the problem (or benefit) of subs is that you dont know where they are. Sub detection technology is still very limited, and with oceans so big they are nearly impossible to find. And according to Richard Fisher, Jr., a China weapons expert and vice president of the International Assessment and Strategy Center, said China's submarine development was comparable enough to U.S. technology to be a legitimate threat. "The Type 094 will constitute the first reliable Chinese second [nuclear] strike capability," he said.

3. National debt is meaningless. What will happen when the money runs out? Ask Alexander Hamilton. He was secretary of the treasury the last time we had a balanced budget. Money is just paper. The national debt, more paper. We have lots of trees and can make a LOT of paper.

We most certainly can make a lot of paper. The problem is, who wants paper? Right now a lot of people do, and will trade for it. But paper is just that. Paper. As it has no intrinsic value it is only worth what others would give for it. Hyper inflation can and has happened in the past and can very well happen to us. As one notable example, hyper-inflation in post WWI Weimar Republic (Germany) was so horrific that by 1923 it cost 5 million marks to mail a letter.

4. The rate of inflation is a guess. Maybe it is right. A monthly rate is meaningless.

Rate of Inflation is not a guess. on 8/1/05 x = $100.00 then on 9/1/05 x = $101.90 Indeed that isnt much but that is just one month. And while it isnt wise to say that one months inflation will carry out for the whole year, once it is there it doesnt go away. (when was the last time you heard of deflation happening?)

5. 20 million man army in china? Who cares? How far can they swim? Gee that means we might have to use 5% of our nuclear arsenal.

The original point was that China isnt some 3rd world country. China is currently a top user of every commodity and will soon surpass the US in every single one for those it hasnt already. That isnt a weakness. Once they become the top consumer it would be wise of them to float their money and adjust it to its actual worth which is higher than it is now. What would that mean? It would mean that China could purchase at an even higher rate (causing us to pay more via the iron law of Supply & Demand) and bye-bye cheap imports for the US. We face more threats than simply militarily or from terrorists. Economics is going to be what takes this country down. Odd how that happens when countries become socialist.

I leave with this quote

"If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation and then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around them will deprive the people of all property until their children will wake up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered." -- Thomas Jefferson in 1802 in a letter to then Secretary of the Treasury, Albert Gallatin

Chertoff pushes Amnesty Plan

Nate posted a link to Chertoff stating we need to expel the Illegals. Nate was understandably doubtful (as were we all), and it turns out that only a couple days was needed to provide the reason. Seems Chertoff is pushing the Amnesty Plan. The following is from an article by Jennifer A. Dlouhy of Hearst Newspapers.

The federal government cannot stop the tide of illegal immigrants slipping into the United States simply by beefing up border security and cracking down on companies that employ undocumented workers, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff told Congress on Tuesday. Instead, Chertoff told the Senate Judiciary Committee, the government also has to create a program that would give millions of illegal immigrants a shot at legal, temporary work in the United States.

This is bunk, pure and simple. Chertoff plan is simple. Call the illegals "legal" and then there is no more illegal immigrants to worry about. Brilliant! It is a shame no one else had thought of such a great plan.

No matter what, Chertoff said, it would be “hugely, hugely difficult” to try and deport all of the illegal immigrants — estimated to be around 12 million people — who are in the country. “We’d have to find them, we’d have to process and remove them, they’d have legal recourse,” Chertoff said, adding that the endeavor would cost “billions and billions of dollars.”

This would of course be in addition to the "billions and billions of dollars" that the illegals are already costing us. Can't have that now can we? Perhaps I am just not old enough to remember this, but when did the various Gov Departments agree with the President on every one of his plans? Has it always been this way? Were qualified but disagreeable people ever get these posts or we they always lackeys?

I would love to see a lot more disagreement at all levels of Government. We need more officials that dont put party above all else. We need officials that don't demand that others agree with them on everything. And we need less power for each and every government official across this country but I had better save that for a different post.

Harriet Miers: Unconstitutionalist

There has been some question recently about Ms. Miers familiarity with Constitutional Law. There are at least two camps in the Repugni er Republican party over her nomination. Oddly, the Democrats favor her and even suggested her nomination. A recent story by the Boston Globe states the White House has provided transcripts to the Senate Judiciary Committee. You can read the article via the Colorado Springs Gazette here.

WASHINGTON - This year, Supreme Court nominee Harriet Miers used several speeches to push for expanding President Bush’s powers to protect the United States against terrorism, arguing that “a nation at war” needs a stronger executive branch, according to transcripts the White House has provided to the Senate Judiciary Committee.

In her speeches to conservative groups, Miers called for extension of the Patriot Act, which expands lawment agencies’ power to investigate suspected terrorists.

She defended Vice President Dick Cheney’s closeddoor energy task force as the best way for the administration to use confidential deliberations to set national policy. And she said her role as White House counsel was generally to “protect against any attempted infringement on the appropriate role of the executive branch.”

“In order to effectively serve the American people, the president’s powers must be protected,” Miers said in June, in a speech given to the conservative Heritage Foundation. “We must recognize that we are a nation at war, and that requires a strong presidency to act as commander-in-chief."

Obviously she is a hated Federalist, and has no concept of the Constitution. We are NOT at war, havent been since the 1940's. Congress doesn't have the cajones to step up to the plate and declare war, so we then cannot be at war (legally anyways) regardless of what the President says or where or what are troops are or doing. And the USA(un)PATRIOT ACT is in direct violation of the US Constitution. Support for it is support for using the Constitution as toilet paper.

A Rebuttal

On the way home tonite I was listening to a program that I believe was called "Written On The Heart" I havent yet confirmed that as a google search pulled up only a book. However, it is a Christian talk show wanting to "bring truth" about current issues (largely politics on this particular show) I hadnt caught much of the show but was able to catch many glaring errors.

1.) The Pledge of Allegiance. Once again I find a Christian railing one moment against Socialism, and then glorifying the work of a Socialist (The Pledge Of Allegiance) the next. Get it straight people. A Christian's allegiance is to Christ and Him alone. There is no room for the State. G-d is not just the G-d of the Jews, nor is He the G-d of America. The earth belongs to Him, and all that dwell therein.

2.) Constitution. The hosts of this program stated that 50 different states interpreting the Constitution their own way is "anarchy." Need we define anarchy? And isnt the Constitution dead anyways? Exactly who follows that "outdated" and "archaic" document? Certainly not any Government in the 50 states or territories.

3.) Secession. The hosts were rather adamant that there is no right to secede from the Union. That is a very interesting and all too common viewpoint anymore. It is interesting because there was never ANY doubt that the individual States could Secede from the Union. In fact, all the major newspapers even supported the Right of Secession. Those opinions did not change until Lincoln invaded the South.

4.) Reasons for the War. Hosts asserted that the reason was over 2 things. Slavery and the type of Government, namely the south wanted Democracy, the North wanted Republicanism. Rather than Slavery, the issue was Taxation. The North had placed upon the South an onerous tax that was crippling their economy. Oddly enough, taxation was the main reason the US broke from England. As for the form of Government, the South had learned some lessons from the US Constitution and corrected those errors in their Constitution Of The Confederate States. The CSA actually placed stricter controls on the Government to prevent the abuses of power and the democracy that had already crept in to the Union.

5.) Democrats and Republicans. The hosts conflated the Parties with the system of governance those names suggest. What could be further from the truth? The Democrats are quite obviously for Socialism, Democracy might be a means to get there, but it is not what they stand for. Republicans are the party of strong Government (As the hosts stated, Lincoln "started"[sic] the party) Republicans are for a strong Federal Government (as is easily seen by the last 15 years but to include every R for the last century and a half.) The better term for these people would be Federalist. Or are we to believe that the Green Party is Irishmen for the Ecology?

Had I listened to more I would have more to rant about, however I am much too sick of the whole Republicans = Good : Democrats = Evil arguments. They are both evil. They are both for socialism to one degree or another, they are both for bigger Government, they are both for screwing the American people. Anyways, I figure the length of this post ought to make up for my lack of posting all week long. Let me know what ya think, especially those of you who disagree.

Mogambo Guru For Fed Chairman

Or should that be Chairperson? Doesnt matter. Alan Greenspan is retiring in 4 months.

WE CAN DO BETTER!

Our nation cannot survive much more of the foolishness the Fed has pushed on us for the past century. We need someone in there who actually understands economics. We need someone who can halt us from going over the cliff, and let's face it, no current politician would even think of putting someone in there who might put a stop to the mad rush to inflate our currency to zero.

Richard Daughty, better known as the Mogambo Guru, is ideally suited to this post. Educated, brilliant and a tad eccentric. His columns have always shed the light of truth on our fiscal problems in this country. We need him to bring that same wisdom to the Federal Reserve (despite his insistence that he has been banned from there.)

So here goes...

I, Emunda, nominate the Mogambo Guru (Richard Daughty) to the Federal Reserve Chairman position.

Who is with me on this one? Post it on your site and link back.

Project 86: Return Return Return

The concert ROCKED. As with the last time, the band we went to see was Project 86. The other bands didnt really matter. All told, the other bands were pretty decent. I dont really like screaming and it was fortunate for me that only Spoken does that.

Project 86

Started with track #1 from their new album Sincerely, Ichabod then moved into some old favorites Hollow Again then to One Armed Man. Also in the mix were songs like PS and Another Boredom Movement (one of my Wife's favs) and one of my favs Stein's Theme

this was the 10th concert in 10 days, with two concerts having been done the day before and a drive from Salt Lake City that very day. So the band was a little tired, the drummer on crutches and then there is the altitude. As always P86 was high energy, and courted audience participation, tho honestly I think this crowd would have participated if they had a fire hose trained on them.

Final Analysis:

Project 86 is incredible. Great music, intelligent and uncompromising lyrics, and unapologetically Christian.

Go buy their music. Best Buy had the album at just $9.99

I want!

I want it! I want it now!
video here (Real Player)
pics here

This would make a PERFECT gift for newlyweds (hint hint)

Freemasonry

The subject of Masons was brought up today. As is often the case, this person was under the belief that you can be a Mason and a Christian at the same time. Interestingly, the Freemason's own literature disproves this.

From "Morals and Dogma" written by Albert Pike who is considered to be the 'Father' of American Freemasonry comes these gems.

pgs 566-567 "To retain the rays of Light still remaining among his Eons [demons per this same paragraph. ed.], and ever tending to escape and return, by concentrating them, the Prince of Darkness, with their consent, made Adam, whose soul was of the Divine Light, contributed by the Eons, and his body of matter, so that he belonged to both Empires, that of Light and that of Darkness. To prevent the light from escaping at once, the Demons forbade Adam to eat the fruit of "knowledge of good and evil," by which he would have known the Empire of Light and that of Darkness. He obeyed; an Angel of Light induced him to transgress,"

The King James says that G-d made man and it was Satan that induced man to partake of the tree.

pg 136 "When you shall have become imbued with the morality of Masonry, with which you yet are, and for some time will be exclusively occupied,--when you shall have learned to practice all the virtues which it inculcates; when they become familiar to you as your Household Gods; then will you be prepared to receive its lofty philosophical instruction, and to scale the heights upon whose summit Light and Truth sit enthroned. Step by step men must advance toward Perfection; and each Masonic Degree is meant to be one of those steps."

KJV says All men have sinned and come short of the glory of G-d (meaning we cannot even be perfect) for only Christ (the perfect lamb of G-d) has been found without fault. And in case you missed it, M&D does say "household gods" Our G-d is a jealous god and we are to have no others. Along with the previous point is this from pg 257

"Mithras was the Sun-God, invoked with, and soon confounded with him, becoming the object of a special worship, and eclipsing Ormuzd himself."

Ormuzd is a name the FM have given to Christ. What was that commandment again? No other gods above me?

There is plenty more in this work, but I think I am going to end with this bit from pgs 817-818

"The Templars, like all other Secret Orders and Associations, had two doctrines, one concealed and reserved for the Masters, which was Johannism; the other public, which was the Roman Catholic. Thus they deceived the adversaries whom they sought to supplant."

What can you say?

from Rueters comes this story

"WARSAW (Reuters) - An 18-month-old child started the family car and ran over three family members in a southern Polish village Saturday, police said.

"The child somehow started the car, whose keys had been left in the ignition, and it began reversing," police spokesman Adam Jachimczak said.

The child's mother, who tried to stop the car, and her four-year-old daughter, got run over by the vehicle which pinned the grandfather against the wall of a barn."

I asked aloud "What did they do, get behind the car and try to stop it?"

Nikki's response "They're Polish"

'nuff said

Patriotism

What patriotism isnt.

Patriotism is NOT a 3-dollar-made-in-china-flag for your car. It is NOT wearing red white and blue. It is not (G-d forbid) painting your convertable geo metro like a flag and having "patriotic" music blaring at all times while the vehicle is on. It is also not thowing a big party for the 4th, or decorating graves on Memorial Day. And it isnt standing for the Pledge of Allegiance. And it most certainly isnt blindly following the current government of the land.

Simply put, if you found your love for country after 9-11, it probably isnt really patriotism.

Project 86

One of the greatest bands EVER!

I had the distinct pleasure of cranking them up while at work today. Made the day at the office much more bearable. They are coming to Denver on October 2nd at the Bluebird Theater, tickets are $10-12. Worth every penny and then some. Also, their new album is gonna be out on Sept. 27th. "...And The Rest Will Follow"

Project 86 Check 'em out all

You can listen to some of the new album at purevolume.com/project86

Blog Roll Updates

The Ruminator shall henceforth by "The Crystal Lake Observatory" since she renamed that some forever long time ago.

An Aussie view will once again point to Jamie's new blog Knowledge and the Rythm

A new addition, tho I honestly dont know how he found me, TritonUnleashed who happens to be in the middle of a series on Nukaler power.

Also a new addition, my brother-in-law's site Rockflinger where he is documenting the rebuilding of his trebuchet.

Bush On Blacks

Found this interesting website on whether or not Bush cares about black people.

Well, as you will soon find out, the answer is a resounding yes.

Urgent Prayer Request

I don't put these up here lightly, but this is a very important need right now.
A young lady I know, Naomi, who happens to be an incredible woman of G-d, has been taken captive. I dont yet know the circumstances of how or why, but I do know that there has been no contact for over 72 hours with her captors and the "drop-time" has come and gone.
She needs your prayers.

I'll update as I can.

****Update****
(Taken from another web page with this prayer request.) She is the 25-year-old daughter of Tim Ost, the director of the Faith, Hope and Love Center churches in all of Mexico. She was kidnapped on her way to the university in Mexico City on Tuesday, September 13th. The kidnappers are asking for a ransom but again, no contact recently.

Pikes Peak Cam

Whoo Hoo!

Snow on the Peak today! Put the bike away and get those skis and snowboards ready.
WaterBoy | 09.14.05 - 5:01 pm | #

so true so true. Fall is a comin and the peaks done got snow.
Check it out at PikesPeakCam.com

(I'd try and post a pic but tis a bit too early to get one yet.)

Planned Parenthood's Relief Efforts

My wife blogged on Planned Parenthoods relief efforts for Hurricane Katrina, so I thought I'd post it here.

How Planned Parenthood "Helps" Hurricane Victims

After the news of hurricane Katrina's strike on the Gulf Coast spread, almost every major company/organization is doing something to help. Planned Parenthood is doing their part to help out. Are they sending money? No. Are they sending food? No. Are they sending clothes or blankets? Nope. What about medical supplies? Not really. They are sending out "emergency contraception kits" (aka plan B, the abortion pill). Maybe the rest of the donation money this wonderful organization receives will go to recalculating the death toll...

Oil Crisis Solution

I've got it.
It's me.
Or well, not me, but rather using what G-d gave me to move my butt around.
As a bonus I am going to be getting in better shape too (o=

Okay, in reality, I cant afford the gas, and I want to get back in shape and ride my bike again, so this works out perfectly. 3 mile ride to work and an 11 mile detour back home.

Feelin' good. (cue "Walking on Sunshine")
Ironically that song is by Katrina and the Waves.

Time To Stockpile Sudafed

It was once said that the nation is never safe as long as Congress is in session. How true. Once again the busybodies in D.C. are expanding the surveilance arm of the Gov in the name of the Drug War.

According to the AP the Senate voted by unanimous consent to add [an] anti-meth measure to the massive Commerce, Justice and Science appropriations bill, which is expected to pass the Senate next week. The bill would force stores that sell Sudafed and the like to sell the drug only from behind the pharmacy counter. (sounds fair enough, but enough is never enough with these ne'erdowells) The bill would require consumers to show picture ID and also set up a computer system to limit the amount of pills purchased in a 30 day period as well as track between stores to keep people from exceeding the limit.

How much you wanna bet that the system will keep running totals and flag those families with allergies as meth producers? Also, what will the Law of Unintended Consequences give us? Perhaps "safer" meth from Mexico? Perhaps Adrenochrome*? Assuredly it will give us a bigger and more intrusive FedGov.

*supposedly a super-secret drug extracted from a living human brain only after the subject is severly traumatized - as it is necessary for the brain to produce the drug.

Roberts Ruled On Guantanamo

John Roberts, who has been nominated for the Chief Justice position of the United States Supreme Court favored unchecked government power in a Gauntanamo Bay ruling. Bet ya didnt know that. Why didnt you know that? Cuz no one in the media has bothered to report it. Till now the worst we have heard of him is that he worked pro bono for homosexual activists.

Nat Hentoff wrote an opinion piece that brought this to light.

Hentoff writes, "Significantly, in a key decision on the president’s view of his powers as commander in chief, Roberts joined with two of his colleagues in the recent Hamdan v. Rumsfeld; the ruling gave this and succeeding presidents the unreviewable power to bypass civilian courts in the treatment of prisoners suspected of involvement in terrorism.

Salim Ahmed Hamdan has been a prisoner at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, for three years. He is now being put before a military commission, which prevents Hamdan from being in the room during crucial parts of the hearing. In addition, his attorney cannot see secret evidence against Hamdan. Moreover, the presiding officer can admit previous evidence extracted by torture. Most crucially, the final appeal is only to Bush or his designee.

As Emily Bazelon — a legal issues writer for Slate and contributing editor to Yale’s Legal Affairs magazine — emphasizes: “Roberts signed on to a blank-check grant of power to the Bush administration to try suspected terrorists without basic due process protections.”

Hentoff also point out the New York Times reporter Neil Lewis disclosed on Aug. 1, that some of the military prosecutors involved in Hamdan’s proceedings were so concerned at its lack of fairness (the very definition of “due process”) that they charged “the chief prosecutor had told his subordinates that the members of the military commission that would try the first four defendants (including Hamdan) would be ‘handpicked’ to ensure that all would be convicted.”


I dont know about you, but that sure gives me warm fuzzies about Big Brother.

Oil: That Renewable Resource

Chicken littles have been running around frightening everyone into believing that we only have X number of years left, with X usually equalling a very small 20 or less. There was a theory that the Russians and the Ukranians once held to... that oil is abiotic (not from bio-material.) This theory, which fell into disrepute, has been given new life recently and has been gaining ground amongst scientists.

Dudley Herschbach*, Dr. Russell Hemley**, and Henry Scott*** as well as other scientists have succeeded in creating Methane from purely abiotic materials, namely water, limestone, and iron oxide. An article can be read here or looked up in the autumn 2004 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences

If proven true this will change not only energy policy but foreign policy as well. Would we have gone to Iraq to protect oil when our own resevoirs may well be filling up as we speak? Would we worry quite so much about these renewable energy sources (wind/solar etc.) Some would say we need to worry about it from an enviromental standpoint and they may be right, but should we muddy the waters with irrelevant issues and scare tactics? If all you have is FUD then you dont really have an arguement but you may well have a career waiting for you here.

*research professor of science at Harvard and recipient of the 1986 Nobel Prize in chemistry
**a Harvard Ph.D. who now works at the Geophysical Laboratory at the Carnegie Institution of Washington, DC,
***of Indiana University

Armed Citizen Prevents Murder

Yup, no error in that title. A citizen actually truly stopped a crime. In fact, the intended victim would be dead if said citizen didn't intervene.

According to KRQE (Albuquerque) Felix Vigil was intent upon stabbing his ex-wife (who ended up in the hospital in critical condition) when 72 year old Due Moore (not a pun! honest) shot and killed Vigil. Fortunately and against all odds, wisdom has prevailed and Moore will not be charged by the police.

Armed Citizens 1
Bad Guys 0

Question for Hefley

Rep. Joel Hefley was on the radio today, and I figured I would try to get thru to ask him a question. Well I did, and I asked him for a statement... "This past week, Patrick Buchanan and WorldNetDaily founder Joseph Farah have called for the impeachment of Bush over the issue of illegal immigration and Bush's unwillingness to do anything about it"

Hefley replied that it is ridiculous and that this is partisan politics at its worst. Well, I guess you have to guide a congressperson moreso than I did. I should have also mentioned that both men threw their support behind Bush this past election, and both are conservatives. I guess I just figured that even the dimmer congresspersons would know Buchanan's name, and most of the rest would know Farah.

So yeah, it was a bit of a waste, but perhaps it will lead others to check out the reason why two conservatives are calling for impeachment of an allegedly conservative president.

An Old Funny

This is a bit out of date, but I still think it is funny.

Who's Where?

Yesterday, Hu Jintao was named chief of the Communist
Party in China.

SCENE: The Oval Office. Condoleezza Rice (Condi)
National Security Advisor with George W. Bush,
President of the United States.

George: Condi! Nice to see you. What's happening?
Condi: Sir, I have the report about the new leader of
China.
George: Great. Let's hear it.
Condi: Hu is the new leader of China.
George: That's what I want to know.
Condi: That's what I'm telling you.
George: That's what I'm asking you. Who is the new
leader of China?
Condi: Yes.
George: I mean the fellow's name.
Condi: Hu.
George: The guy in China.
Condi: Hu.
George: The new leader of China.
Condi: Hu.
George: The Chinaman!
Condi: Hu is leading China.
George: Now whaddya' asking me for?
Condi: I'm telling you Hu is leading China.
George: Well, I'm asking you. Who is leading China?
Condi: That's the man's name.
George: That's whose name?
Condi: Yes.
George: Will you or will you not tell me the name of
the new leader of China?
Condi: Yes sir.
George: Yassir? You mean Arafat is in China? I thought
he was in the Middle East.
Condi: That's correct.
George: Then who is in China?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir is in China?
Condi: No, sir.
George: Then who is?
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Yassir?
Condi: No, sir.
George: Look, Condi. I need to know the name of the
new leader of China. Get me the Secretary General of
the U.N. on the phone. I bet he knows.
Condi: Kofi?
George: No, thanks.
Condi: You want Kofi?
George: No.
Condi: You don't want Kofi.
George: No. But now that you mention it, I could use a
glass of milk. And then get me the U.N.
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: Not Yassir! The guy at the U.N.
Condi: Kofi?
George: No, milk! Will you please make the call?
Condi: Call who?
George: Who is the guy at the U.N.?
Condi: Hu is the guy in China.
George: Will you stay out of China?!
Condi: Yes, sir.
George: And stay out of the Middle East! Just get me
the guy at the U.N.!
Condi: Kofi?
George: All right! Light with sugar. Now get on the
phone.
(Condi picks up the phone.)
Condi: Rice here.
George: Rice? Good idea. And a couple of egg rolls,
too.

By Roger O Emerson

Pastor Ted Haggard apologizing to a despot

At one time, and for quite a long time, I proudly called myself a "New Lifer." After all, New Life Church is where I came to know G-d, and there was always a flurry of activity that allowed fellow believers to fellowship. Obviously, I no longer feel the same way. Numerous theological issues kept popping up, some so slightly off that I am hard pressed to even identify them. More immediately noticable is how the focus has changed from saving souls to filling seats. But I digress.

Pastor Ted Haggard is also the president of the National Association of Evangelicals, and has stated that he may soon be running for Congress. In today's Gazette is an article on Pastor Haggard trying to apologize to the (tyrant) Venezuelan President, Hugo Chavez, for the assasination comment made by Pat Robertson. Robertson made a shrewd assesment of the situation, and one that should not be ignored, and certainly not apologized for.

Who is Chavez? Joseph Farah wrote an item on that today, stating "This is a man who, according to his former pilot, paid $1 million to al-Qaida after Sept. 11 – a kind of reward for a job well done.

He rigs elections in his country and has brought nothing but misery to his people – expropriating millions of acres of privately held land, jailing dissidents, banning civilian ownership of guns, bedding down with Colombia's narco-terrrorists, propping up Castro in better style than the old Soviet Union ever did, buying nuclear material from Spain and attempting to build a 2-million-man army in a country not threatened by any external forces.

The chances are excellent that some day – sooner or later – American troops are going to have to deal with Chavez. "

To deal now, or to deal later? That is the question.

not really dead

Well, I dont really have an excuse for not blogging these past few months. Just got married, went on a honeymoon, and got pregnant.(YaY) Well, not me, but my beautiful Bride. Anyways, I might actually start bloging again, if anyone is around to even notice.

Shalom

Bush and the Porn Star

As I am sure you all know Mary Carey and Mark Kulkis, porn star and pornagrapher respectively, will be in attendance at a Bush/Republican fund-raiser. Kulkis' stated objective for this meeting is to buy influence with top political leaders, the Republican Party and credibility for themselves and their "profession."

Farah writes Mark my words: If Bush and the Republicans go through with this meeting, it will come back to bite them. Their hypocrisy is about to be demonstrated to the entire world. But I would have to disagree. It wont harm them at all.

Why? Cuz even a look at Focus On The Family's website doesnt show a single thing about this. If Dobson, being the anti-porn crusader that he is, can't be bothered to have his organization post something about this then what hope is there that the public could be bothered by it? And even if the public WAS bothered by it who else is there to vote for? Those evil democrats? why they havent been the party of the Christians for some 30 years. Everyone knows Christians have to vote Repugnikan right?

Pessimistic? Yeah. But watch, history will prove me right. It will be more than a few years before Christians start to leave the Repugs for parties that actually hold to a Judeo-Christian worldview such as the Constitution Party. In fact, even the Libertarian party is more Christian friendly than the Repugs are (not by words true, but by actions.)

Human Folly

Seems to me there are two follies we all fall into. Not believing facts because they go against our beliefs, which I posted on previously, and beliving other people think like us. Believing that "so and so" believed, thought, or meant what we believe think or mean. By this I mean we tend to transpose our beliefs onto others. Specifically people of great importance, such as the founding fathers or the prophets and even the Christ.

In vogue for the past 30 years or so is that there is a separation between church and state written into the Constitution. Now obviously there can be no such interpretation from a literal reading of the Constitution, the Declaration of Independence or the writings of those founding fathers or therecords of their debates over the Constitution. However, our current sensibilities tell us that they must have meant that.

Our "sensitivity" now leads us to believe that the FF would have wanted non-land-owners and women to vote. That our FF specifically allowed for abortion, and abhorred the thought of the Bible in schools. We also now believe that the Gov't. should be providing for the "welfare of the people, which leads me to something that is of greater concern... taking this attitude into religion. Going astray on a human document is a mere problem. Going astray in Theology is worse than deadly, it can imperil the soul.

By overlaying "modern sensitivities" over the Scriptures we often end up with something approaching socialism and often totally ungodly. Many times a single verse is quoted or perhaps even an old saying that is purportedly scriptural (think "Cleanliness is next to godliness")

I cant seem to finish this post so I am just uploading it anyways. Ya'll see what I mean, and you can add to it in the comments or argue with me (o= Either way is great.

Confiscated Arsenal

I think this might bring a tear to Nate's eye.

RIDGEFIELD, N.J. (AP) - A day after police escorted a disoriented elderly woman to her home, they returned with a search warrant and found a massive cache of weapons and gunpowder.

Nearly 500 guns, including AK-47s and high-powered rifles, 500 pounds of gunpowder and 100,000 rounds of ammunition were taken Wednesday from the home of Elizabeth and Sherwin Raymond, both 82.

2,000 year old Date

After 2,000 Years, a Seed From Ancient Judea Sprouts
By STEVEN ERLANGER

JERUSALEM, June 11 - Israeli doctors and scientists have succeeded in germinating a date seed nearly 2,000 years old.

The seed, nicknamed Methuselah, was taken from an excavation at Masada, the cliff fortress where, in A.D. 73, 960 Jewish zealots died by their own hand, rather than surrender to a Roman assault. The point is to find out what was so exceptional about the original date palm of Judea, much praised in the Bible and the Koran for its shade, food, beauty and medicinal qualities, but long ago destroyed by the crusaders.

"The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree," says Psalm 92. "They shall still bring forth fruit in old age. They shall be fat and flourishing."

Well, we'll see. Dr. Sarah Sallon, who runs a project on medicinal plants of the Middle East, notes that the date palm in ancient times symbolized the tree of life. But Dr. Elaine Solowey, who germinated the seed and is growing it in quarantine, says plants grown from ancient seeds "usually keel over and die soon," having used most of their nutrients in remaining alive.

The plant is now 11.8 inches tall and has produced seven leaves, one of which was removed for DNA testing. Radiocarbon dating in Switzerland on a snip of the seed showed it to be 1,990 years old, plus or minus 50 years. So the date seed dates from 35 B.C. to A.D. 65, just before the famed Roman siege.

Three date seeds were taken from Level 34 of the Masada dig. They were found in a storeroom, and are presumably from dates eaten by the defenders, Dr. Sallon says.

Mordechai Kislef, director of botanical archeology at Bar-Ilan University, had some date seeds from Ehud Netzer, who excavated Masada in the 1970's. "They were sitting in a drawer, and when I asked for one, he said, 'You're mad,' but finally gave me three," Dr. Sallon said. "Then I gave them to Elaine, who's an expert on arid agriculture and dates." Dr. Solowey said: "Well, I didn't have much hope that any would come up, but you know how Sarah is."

Dr. Sallon, who is a pediatric gastroenterologist trained at University College, London, came to Israel 20 years ago. She is the director of the Louis L. Borick Natural Medicine Research Center at Hadassah Medical Organization, which she set up 10 years ago to study natural products and therapies, from Tibetan and Chinese medicine to the indigenous medicinal plants of the Middle East. The idea is to preserve these plants and their oral histories in a modernizing region, but also to domesticate them, evaluate them scientifically and then try to integrate them into conventional medicine.

Dr. Solowey, who teaches agriculture and sustainable farming at the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies, based at Kibbutz Ketura in the southern Negev, works on finding new crops for arid and saline areas like Jordan, Gaza and Morocco. She also works with Dr. Sallon to domesticate indigenous plants that appear to have medicinal uses.

Dr. Solowey grew up in the San Joaquin Valley in California and studied horticulture, then turned away from commercial agriculture in disgust, coming here in 1971. "I don't come to organic agriculture from the hippie side, but as a frustrated agricultural scientist," she said.

"We've bred for yield and taste, but not hardiness, so we have a lot of plants as hardy as French poodles, so we have to spray to protect them, and then we pay the price," she said. "There isn't a cubic centimeter of water in the San Joaquin Valley that isn't polluted with something."

She planted the date seeds at the end of January after trying to draw them out of their deep dormancy. She first soaked the seeds in hot water to soften the coat, then in an acid rich in hormones, then in an enzymatic fertilizer made of seaweed and other nutrients.

"I've done other recalcitrant seeds," she said. "It wasn't a project with a high priority. I had no idea if the food in the seed was still good, but I put them in new pots in new potting soil and plugged them into drip irrigation and kind of forgot about them."

About six weeks later, she said, "I saw the earth cracked in a pot and much to my astonishment, one of these came up."

The first two leaves looked odd, she said, very flat and pale. "But the third looked like a date leaf with lines, and every one since has looked more and more normal - like it had a hard time getting out of the seed."

Lotus seeds of about 1,200 years of age have been sprouted in China, and after the Nazis bombed London's Natural History Museum in World War II and a lot of water was used to put out the fire, seeds of 500 years of age also germinated.

"But no one had done it from 2,000 years old," Dr. Sallon said.

In the time of Pliny, forests of date palms covered the area from Lake Galilee to the Dead Sea and made Jericho famous; a date palm features on ancient coinage, as it does on the current Israeli 10-shekel coin.

The date palm symbolized ancient Israel; the honey of "the land of milk and honey" came from the date. It is praised as a tonic to increase longevity, as a laxative, as a cure for infections and as an aphrodisiac, Dr. Sallon said. But the dates of Judea were destroyed before the Middle Ages, and what dates Israel grows now were imported in the 1950's and 60's from California and originated elsewhere in the Middle East.

The Prophet Muhammad considered the date of great importance for medicine, food, construction and income, and it is described in the Koran as a "symbol of goodness" associated with heaven.

Dates need to grow 30 years to reach maturity and can live as long as 200 years.

But it is the female date that is considered holy, and that bears fruit. "Men are rather superfluous in the date industry," Dr. Sallon said.

"O.K, I have a date plant," Dr. Solowey said. "If it lives, it will be years before we eat any dates. And that's if it's female. There's a 50-50 chance. And if it's a male, it will just be a curiosity."

Blog Roll Addition

Arielle, I added you today. It is something I meant to do a long time ago, but I finally got off my lazy arse and did it.

Monster Debt

A quick reading of TGAMM (The Great And Mighty Mogambo) led me on a pursuit to find out the debt load here in the U.S. According to the Federal Reserve the mortgage debt for 2004 was $7.542trillion and the more current number for the remaining outstanding credit is a mere $2.127 trillion (trillions ya'll) $9.669 trillion total household debt. That is $69,070 for every person (140 million of us) in America with a job. Take out the gov workers and ya have $96,698 for every private sector job.

And then there is that pesky national debt of, as of 5-18-05, $7.768 trillion

Total: $174,381

Now compare that with the average annual income of $32,000... that's umm, hmmm 5.45 years income for every private sector job.

I'm needing a raise.

Polistasi Accountability

In Sweden a pair of cops were jailed and a third fined after failing to respond when a woman was being raped. This stands in sharp contrast to the polistasi here in Amerika. Here, they have no resposibility to the citizenry.

In Warren v. District of Columbia, two women were upstairs in a townhouse when they heard their roommate, a third women, being attacked downstairs by intruders. They phoned the police several times and were assured that officers were on the way. After about 30 minutes, when their roommate's screams had stopped, they assumed that the police had finally arrived. When the two women went downstairs, they saw that, in fact, the police never came, but the intruders were still there. As the Warren court graphically states in the opinion: "For the next fourteen hours the women were held captive ... (omitted, you can fill in the blanks here)" The three women sued the District of Columbia for failing to protect them, but D.C.'s highest court exonerated the District and its police, saying that it is a "fundamental principle of American law that a government and its agents are under no general duty to provide public services, such as police protection, to any individual citizen" (Warren v. District of Columbia, 444 A.2d 1 (D.C. Ct. of Ap., 1981)

Further the court in DeShaney v. Winnebago County Department of Social Services, (109 S.Ct. 998 (1989) at 1006)held that no duty arose as a result of a "special relationship," (a SR is when the police know of a threat/danger to you) concluding that Constitutional duties of care and protection only exist as to certain individuals, such as incarcerated prisoners, involuntarily committed mental patients and others restrained against their will and therefore unable to protect themselves. "The affirmative duty to protect arises not from the State's knowledge of the individual's predicament or from its expressions of intent to help him, but from the limitation which it has imposed on his freedom to act on his own behalf"

Interestingly enough if they dont let you own/carry a firearm or any other weapon for that matter, they somehow dont see that as having imposed a limitation on you.

Now if we could just hold our boys in blue accountable for their actions...

Niggles

The Scotsman has an article about annoying habits. According to the article avoid the following 'niggles'

• Fabricating anecdotes in a desperate effort to liven up a dinner party.
• Using cringe-making terms of endearment such as ‘babykins’ in public.
• Displaying fear during horror films (if male) - this is a turn-off for women.
• Racking up excess luggage charges by going over the top with holiday packing.
• Making a partner spend far longer than they want to on shopping trips.
• Laughing at your own jokes, oblivious to the fact that no-one else is.
• Complaining about partner’s clothes.
• Changing preset controls on the car stereo.
• Tipping clutter from coffee table on to floor to make way for TV dinner.
• Failing to replace loo roll when it is finished.
• Leaving wet towels around.
• Scattering clothes about the bedroom.
• Reading e-mails while claiming to be conducting an important discussion about the mortgage or similar subject.
• Using a fork as a backscratcher.
• Nose-picking.
• Burping.
• Clipping toe-nails, even if newspaper is spread on floor to catch clippings.
• Wearing tatty clothing.
• Getting drunk despite lack of any obvious excuse.
• Failing to control flatulence.
• Being late.
• Asking for explanations of TV dramas, causing partner to miss plot twist.
• Obtaining reassurance about clothing, then changing it anyway.
• Making any attempt to complain about any of the above.

Coming Soon: Indoor Shooting Range

Whistling Pines Gun Club will be opening in November of this year. A total of 18 lanes and a limited membership of only 3,000. I am interested, but would have to shoot more than I do now to justify it. Having said that, something a bit closer and not freezing at 8AM might entice me to go shooting more. Also, they will except most ANY caliber. This includes the massive new .500 S&W Magnum which no person in their right mind would want to shoot (tho I'd like to try it once) and shotguns (sabots too) and rifles up to the .416 Rigby.

On the same subject, I found a fun little addition for an AK-47 which makes me want to go out and buy one. A 100-round clip. The mag is so big it actually loops onto the barrel. I imagine this makes the rifle excessively heavy, but how cool would that be? And in a full auto mode it wouldn't last very long anyways.

No king but King Jesus

Wes posted an item on the pledge of allegiance so I thought I'd add my two cents.

I was quite sure that I had posted on this beforebut I cant find it so I will sum it up. The Pledge was written by a socialist who wrote it to indocrinate children into the socialist way of thinking. Those words were not written by a patriotic man, nor a Christian. One thing most people do not know is that the hand over the heart is not the way it was to be recited. Rather, the original Pledge was recited while giving a stiff, uplifted right hand salute, which was criticized and discontinued during WWII. Nazis used the same salute, only palm down. And the "under G-d" bit was added by President Eisenhower in 1954.

So where does the Christian's allegiance lie? To Christ and Christ alone.
Mark 12:30 "And thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength: this [is] the first commandment."
Deuteronomy 6:5 "And thou shalt love the LORD thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might."

This is where our founding fathers placed their allegiance. On April 18, 1775 John Adams and John Hancock were at the home of Rev. Jonas Clarke, a Lexington pastor and militia leader. That same night Paul Revere arrived to warn them of the approaching Redcoats. The next morning British Major Pitcairn shouted to an assembled regiment of Minutemen; "Disperse, ye villains, lay down your arms in the name of George the Sovereign King of England." The immediate response of Rev. Jonas Clarke or one of his company was: "We recognize no Sovereign but God and no King but Jesus."

If one must say a pledge, perhaps the some Ray Boltz lyrics would work
"I pledge allegiance to the Lamb
With all my strength
With all I am
I will seek to honor His commands
To the Lamb of God who bore my pain
Who took my place, who wore my shame
I will seek to honor His commands
I pledge allegiance to the Lamb"

Memories

My thoughts today have turned to others that I have known who have since passed. I am trying to figure out my thoughts and that is part of the reason for blogging. I truly wish I could have been blogging after I heard about Julie. But work and other events didnt allow me to. They did distract me though, which was a good thing (I think)

Life is precious. And it is also frail. Truly there are so many forces that are bigger than we humans. Indeed, many times it is that which is smaller than us which does us in. If not for the hand of G-d, none of us could be here.

Sean died in an accident on his motorcycle. He was only 26 years old. He was a friend of my brother-in-law(to be) but we got along quite well. Sean was crazy, to put it midly. All the stupid things that non-crazy people would have stayed miles away from, Sean did. He was the first person to have ever put me on the wrong end of a gun. You see, that was his idea of a joke. Knocked on the door and had the gun right in my face as I opened it. It was only a 9mm but from my end it looked bigger than a 12 gauge. What do I do? hah, nothing. My brain froze up and I just stared and continued to open up the door. Took me an eternity to see past the barrel to see who held it. I suppose I should mention that that same gun, a couple months later, went off and shot him in the leg as he was putting in his waistband (no holster.)

If I left it at that you might wonder why we got along. Well, like I said, Sean was a little crazy and that made for a lot of fun.

The other person that comes to mind is Erica. An intern at my church she was just 19 when she went to be with the Lord. A yound lady of sweet spirit whom I had met just briefly, but she was one you immediately wanted to get to know better. Someone who lifted up everyone she was around, lit up the room if you will.

Well I didnt get that chance. The night before Erica's death a young lady named Jamie was praying over her and had a vision of Erica screaming and then instantaneously being in the arms of Jesus. The next morning a high speed head-on accident took her from us. But hers wasnt a life that lent itself to mourning her death. Rather, her life and the way she lived was celebrated at her funeral. Her life was a gift to those around her. A blessing. She was a shining example of Christ and His love.

Erica's last diary entry, the night before she went, said that she was finally ready to meet G-d. That she was ready to give her life in service to G-d. That she was no longer afraid and she no longer loved her life.

Makes me think on where my life is. Would others mourn my passing or celebrate my life? Would I leave a lasting impression on those who only briefly knew me? Or will I just be forgotten. Seems to me I have a lot of work ahead of me to become like Erica (1 Corithians 11:1 "Be ye followers of me, even as I also am of Christ.")

R.I.P. Julie Rifkin

Amongst all the hustle and bustle of getting the store ready for a walk-through and having to do inventory today something was brought to my attention that caused me to stop short. I dont know if any of you have heard of the lady in Colorado Springs who killed her two sons and then commited suicide, but obviously it has been all over the news here. Well, I was really trying to avoid it as that sort of story bothers me, so whats the point right? Well, I picked up a paper so I had something to read at lunch and opened up to this story and saw the picture. A family portrait of a woman I know. A woman who is no more.

Julie was a woman who spent much of her time volunteering at church. At times she seemed a fixture of the church and that isnt an easy thing to accomplish in a mega-church. Because she was always around I personally worked along-side her in times past. We would trade off working the bookstore on sundays so we didnt always get stuck working.

Looking back, I guess I can see more clearly the depression she fought with off and on thru the years. It is hard to understand the depths of despair, how wounded the spirit can truly be. Hard to comprehend that others are bleeding from their souls. Fortunately most will never be able to understand it because they will never experience it but I have been there, and I know only too well. The emotional pain becomes physical pain making it even hard to breathe.

When you begin to understand the despair of one in depression, you can see how they might be led to take their children along with them. Once the decision to take her life had been made, the thought of her children with no mother would have hurt her even more. The solution she chose was to not let them go through that pain.

I make no excuse for Julie's actions. Just expressing my sorrow. I pray that Julie had not slipped from the Hands of Grace and I pray that her children, Gabriel and Nathan, are found to have their names in the Lamb's Book of Life. Also for her husband and family, and all those who knew her. Romans 8:28 says "And we know that all things work together for good to them that love God, to them who are the called according to [his] purpose." May it be as you have said Lord.

Perhaps, like me, she spent that time serving in an attempt to feel worthy. Worthy of love, acceptance and G-d's salvation and forgiveness.

A Question of Legality

Terri Shiavo has been sentenced to death by the courts. Since this is a "lawful" action and since she is already condemned to death, what would happen if someone were to go in there and use a gun or knife to kill her? Would it be considered murder? How could it? she is already a dead woman in the eyes of the state.

Just a thought I had this morning at work.

Glorious Creation

How incredible is our G-d? If The heavens declare the glory of God; and the firmament sheweth his handywork. (Psalms 19:1) then truly our G-d is majestic indeed, and His hand mighty.

Hubble's Ultra Deep Field is a view of some of the "oldest" galaxies. Thought to be from "only" 800-900 million years old. The Hubblesite has a lot of great images on it for those interested. Also check out Jason Ware's site www.galaxyphoto.com where you can order prints/posters.

G-d has also made some incredible creatures here on Terra Firma. Magnetotactic bacteria build internal compasses inside their bodies in order to tell them which way is north (or south for those in the southern hemisphere). Why? Well it tells them which way is down so they can move that way and avoid contact with air, which is deadly to them. Another cool little critter is the Bacillus Infernus, a hyperthermophile was found some 2800 meters beneath Virginia which is good because oxygen is poisonous to it too. Instead it breaths iron and manganese dioxide.

G-d is awesome!

BOOYAH!!!

A bit of impromptu late night racing tonite!
Pulled up on Academy at Airport and (what luck!) a slightly? modified Acura and a Camaro pull up at the same time.

Well, if ya ever done any racing, then you know it is all in the tree. The lights that is. I totally had the light on Airport. not even close. Took it up to 60 and had about two car length between me and the other two so I let it go. The Camaro and the Acura were pretty much neck and neck.

Well my luck held and we all hit the next light too, which is normally my turn, but I couldnt pass up the oportunity. So we all lined up.... And we all got the light good this time. However, I failed to watch my tach coming out of first AND second gear, so my tranny kicked it out of gear and I had some dead time. Not real happy about that. The upside is that I found out the Saab kicks ya out of 2nd gear at 70MPH. The Camaro had a much better run this time, or perhaps the Acura just did really bad, not sure which. Either way, I smoked em both, both times. BOOYAH!

Evo vs Creation part II

Well I promised and here it is. Two days later is pretty rapid for me. Anyways...

Arguments Against Evolution.

Age of the Ocean

• Salinity: Max age 62 million years, given the current rate of salt deposition in the ocean, if starting with a pure body of water (0.00% salt)
  
  
• Sediment: max age 12 million years, given 25 billion tons annually and average depth of 400 meters.

Astronomy

• Galaxies: Per the Big Bang Theory, galaxies further away from the center should be less and less organized the further away they are. This is not what is observed. We find the same amount of spiral galaxies far away as we do near. Also, due to the observed different speeds of stars orbiting in their galaxy, the galaxies would be featureless discs if the age of the universe was 16 billion years old.
  
  
• Comets: Max age of a comet should be about 100,000 years. There is a proposed Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud that resupplies these comets, but no such things have been observed to date. And even if they existed, they likely wouldnt have any material left after the 5 billion years of our solar system.
  
  
• Light: It is slowing down. Yes, I realize this is controversial paper (click for a simplified version, or simply a table), but I have read the paper myself and am convinced of the truth of it. Remember that it took 50 years for scientist to accept that the speed of light was not infinite. It may take many more years for scientist to accpet this as well. If true, it will have a HUGE impact on physics. ('C' is in most every calculation, if it changes, well, so does everything else.) And it messes up all the calculations of age that we use. Including carbon/argon dating.
  
  
• Magnetic Field: Earths field is decaying too fast. At rate of decay, it could not be more than 10,000 years old. The fields total energy (different from its surface intensity) has, apparently, always devayed at least as fast as it is now. The Creationist theory matches paleomagnetic, historic, and present data, whereas the Evo Theory does not. In addition to the magnetic field of earth, the magentic fields of Neptune and Uranus were predicted by a theory created by Dr. Russell Humphreys before any info on their fields were known. Needless to say, the Creationist model was correct, and the Evolutionist was wrong.**

More to come, I figure this is enuff info for one post. If anyone would like to dispute this just throw it in the comments. Please no links to TalkOrigins. The site is a bunch of blathering idiots who would see the sky as yellow if that is what the theory of Evolution demanded. I am open to honest debate but I draw the line at wasting my time.

** "The classic test of a theory, is its ability to predict. Successful predictions are so rare that they are usually regarded as compelling evidence in favor of the underlying theory." AJ Dessler

Evolution vs Creationism

Given the recent debate amongst the Vox Volk I thought I would post something a bit more substantive. You see, I used to be an evolutionist/theistic evolutionist myself. I loved science, especially astronomy and dinosaurs. One day while reading a bit more about astronomy I found some info that truly changed my beliefs. I read the theory of the Big Bang.

What is the Big Bang theory? Well, it's detractors state it best... "First there was nothing, then it exploded." Nothing indeed! The BB wasn't an explosion of some superdense star/mass. It wasn't even a star that exploded. Nope. It was "nothing" that exploded. The BB was less than a Planck Length, or 1.6*10^-35 meters. That would be 10^-20 smaller than a proton. Nothing indeed!

From that moment on, evolution was viewed through a jaundiced eye. What was the real story and not just the headline? Was some piece of news being spun into something larger than it really was? The answer most often was "yes." Very few of the "proofs" that are pointed out are truly proofs or even supportive of the theory of evolution.

I'll post more specific things in a soon to come post.

3rd time is a charm

At least, the third time was the charm for me. I didnt fall over today!!! YaY I am quite happy about that as the last two times I rode my bike I fell over. Not crashed mind you... fell. The cause of the falling has been me unable to get unclipped from my pedals. 1st time, no harm done, 2nd time (yesterday) I am bearing wounds from it. Not too bad but I haven't done that in some time and wasn't really wanting to ever do it again. But today I rode to church (3.25 miles) then hopped the bike into beautiful Nikki's SUV and went out to lunch and rode home from there (8.75 miles). I got some good speed going too. 38 MPH in one spot and 38.5 MPH on the last hill before my house.

"How do you know" you ask? a little computer (a Cateye Enduro, avail from REI for $30) mounted on the handlebars with a sensor on the front tire. I love that thing. Helps to push me. At the push of a button I have current speed(always on), average speed, time ridden, max speed, distance ridden since last reset, and distance ridden since last battery change.

A few more rides like this and I might just feel confident enuff to hit a trail or two.

Lincoln on Slavery

As I have mentioned this to Nikki several times, and as she has yet to actually believe me since it goes contrary to textbook after textbook, I am posting some quotes by the aggressor in an unnecessary war. Abraham Lincoln. These quotes are not in any order but the all show the man's heart towards the negroes.

"I will say then that I am not, nor ever have been in favor of bringing about in anyway the social and political equality of the white and black races - that I am not nor ever have been in favor of making voters or jurors of negroes, nor of qualifying them to hold office, nor to intermarry with white people; and I will say in addition to this that there is a physical difference between the white and black races which I believe will forever forbid the two races living together on terms of social and political equality. And inasmuch as they cannot so live, while they do remain together there must be the position of superior and inferior, and I as much as any other man am in favor of having the superior position assigned to the white race. I say upon this occasion I do not perceive that because the white man is to have the superior position the negro should be denied everything."

"My paramount object in this struggle is to save the Union, and is not either to save or to destroy slavery. If I could save the Union without freeing any slave I would do it, and if I could save it by freeing all the slaves I would do it; and if I could save it by freeing some and leaving others alone I would also do that. What I do about slavery, and the colored race, I do because I believe it helps to save the Union; and what I forbear, I forbear because I do not believe it would help to save the Union. I shall do less whenever I shall believe what I am doing hurts the cause, and I shall do more whenever I shall believe doing more will help the cause.


An article of interest is posted on Lew Rockwell.com written by Myles Kantor. Kantor writes of a case Lincoln took (he was a lawyer) in Illinois concerning a woman, Jane Bryant, and her four children who were escaped slaves. Rather than taking Ms. Bryant's side, Mr. Lincoln argued for her re-enslavement.

Did I mention he was a lawyer? 'nuff said.

The Next Revolution (We're Doomed)

That's right. Doomed.

Why? Well let's look at some of the differences between two revolutions in western history. The American Revolution and the French Revolution. These have both had large impacts on history (the former moreso than the latter IMAO) The French Revolution was, well, bloody. Evil turned in upon itself at times. Both the elite and the clergy were distrusted by the masses and tortured, mutilated and killed by depraved men who saw the opportunity to act out.

In stark contrast stands the American Revolution. The revolutionaries concerned themselves (largely) with combatants or those giving direct aid to the enemy and in any case were no where near as cruel. (excepting perhaps the tar and feathering of tax men) The American revolution also lasted for over 100 years (till Lincoln) whereas the French could not have sustained theirs even without Napoleon coming along.

What was the difference? Leaders. The French were lead by some of the "great" thinkers of the Enlightenment Age like Rousseau. The Colonials were lead by men of integrity, men of education. Most often those men were their pastors or men of great faith. And that is where the problem for today comes in.

today's pastors are almost single minded in their support for the government. The old "No king but King Jesus" has been replaced by "King Bush." The willful blindness of our clergy will hand over the ideological backing of any revolution to the likes of the "freethinkers." The result? A French style revolt that would be bloody and lack the support necessary to sustain it.

And that, folks, is why we are doomed.

Unless things change that is. It isn't too late for the clergy to pick up the reins of society and lead us to freedom, either within the bounds of our current government or the next. The alternatives are horrifying.

Interesting Week

Quite the time here. I am on my fourth cell phone in a little over a week. Had my car in the shop cuz it was shredding belts, got stuck at other peoples houses for two straight nights (not bad that) and got told I cant return to work without a work release.

This cell phone seems to be working, I replaced the pulley that was shredding the belts today and that now seems to be working, and I got to play about 7 hours of Gauntlet on the PS/2 with my sister. I just might have to get me one of those.

Here's to hoping your week was a little less exciting, but that it turned out (in the end) as well as mine.

2005 Goals: Update

Well I am starting to make good on the whole goals for 2005

I went out and spent $200 on shoes (Specialized, Sport MTB) and pedals (Time, Alium) Looking at my biking equipment you might think I was rather partial to Specialized, as my bike, shoes, helmet, gloves etc. are all from them, and you would be right to think it. That is because Specialized makes some awesome bikes, tho they dont make tandems. I suppose that will have to be a Cannondale (also a fine maker of bicycles.) Tho that is a future purchase as one costs about a months pay ($2300)

And not to forget some of the other goals, I am on track to getting out of school in early March. I am aiming to have the Cisco Certification by March 15th.

Republican Trifecta

Looks like the Repugnicans are going to pull out a three-peat in the White House.

Rumours are flying of a Cheney's retirement next year with Condi Rice taking the VP position. With Rice running for Prez in '08 that will take some support away from Hillary, and put the Pugs in a good position to steal the black and Fem-First crowd away from the Demoncrats.

Funny thing is, those groups are so solidly democrat that they wont think twice about voting Republican. Still, it is a good strategic move for the Pugs.

I'm Back

It's been forever since I last posted here. No one reason, really more of a combination of them. School, work, hurt my back, more school and work... And let me tell you, working with a hurt back (cuz they made me) wipes you out. I can rarely get even 8 hours of sleep at a time but in the past week or two I managed eleven or twelve hours multiple times. I am happy to report that I am getting better, tho still not in fighting shape, if indeed I ever was in fighting shape.

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