A few weeks ago I sent Harry Reid a letter. Understandably he never replied but here is the letter:

Let me tell you a story. You should be familiar with this story since I share your religion. A great general was fighting a war far from home, and wondering why his troops were not being given the supplies or reinforcements they needed, sent a blistering letter to the leader of his country and demanded immediate support. The leader informed him that certain evil men, for political advantage, were blocking the needed supplies and reinforcements. This general took his troops home and captured or killed those evil men, then returned to the war with the materials he needed.

You might recognize this as the story of Moroni and the traitorous king men who had tried to overthrow the elected leader Pahoran.

Let’s put this in a modern context. President Bush is like Pahoran our elected leader (whether you like it or not), you are one of the leading king men attempting to overthrow the elected leader of this great nation for your own political advantage. I wonder when our Moroni equivalent will get fed up with you, march on Washington, and throw you and your ilk into prison for your treason.

I think you forget how close the election before your last was. I don’t think your next will be close, you will lose badly, I pray. You don’t represent this nation, you represent Nevada (and not very well). President Bush was elected in two national elections, you were not.

Your actions, paint you more as a Gadianton robber than a decent and honest senator, you should resign, if you have any honor left.

If you would like to read the story of General Moroni you can go here to read it.

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I received this in an email then found the source here. It's great. Here's the first part of it:

Americans must confront their axis of idiots and the media

Sgt. Major J.D. Pendry (Ret)
BrookesNews.Com
Monday 4 September 2006

Jimmy Carter, you’re the father of the Islamic Nazi movement. You threw the Shah under the bus, welcomed the Ayatollah home and then lacked the spine to confront the terrorists when they took our embassy and our people hostage. You’re the Runner-in-Chief.

Bill Clinton, you played “ring around the Lewinsky” while the terrorists were at war with us. You got us into a fight with them in Somalia, and then you ran from it. Your weak-willed responses embolden the killers. Each time you failed to respond adequately they grew bolder, until 9/11.

Read the rest here!

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I’m watching “The Great Global Warming Swindle” which is a UK Channel 4 show that they will not show in this country because it totally annihilates the man-made global warming myth. It tracks temperature change with cosmic ray levels and sunspot activity and the graphs match perfectly. Their theory is that when there are lots of sunspots the solar wind slows the level of cosmic rays striking the earth which cuts the formation of clouds and thus warms the earth. When the oceans warm they can’t hold as much CO₂ and thus CO₂ levels rise, but that it follows warming and is not the cause of it.

One scientist pointed out that if he wanted to study the nut gathering habits of squirrels he would write up the grant request as “The nut gathering habits of common squirrels with a special empathizes on the effects of global warming.” That way he’d be sure to get his grant.

Another scientist had to threaten to sue to get his name off a global warming report that he disagreed with. His only contribution had been to disagree with it! Some anti-warming scientists report death threats for their stand. Even the co-founder of Greenpeace does not believe in man-made global warming, in fact he calls the global warming people anti-human. Fascinating stuff.

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More future tech that promises to help solve the energy problem and the trash disposal problem.

The Prophet of Garbage Joseph Longo's Plasma Converter turns our most vile and toxic trash into clean energy—and promises to make a relic of the landfill.

And then there's this:

The space shuttle never was. It will be remembered as one of the most elegant, most misbegotten detours in the history of technology. It was our Spruce Goose, Howard Hughes's gigantic, eight-engine plane that flew only once.

Music Of the Spheres
Why a Moon Mission Is Worth the Money

By Charles Krauthammer
Washington Post, Friday, March 2, 2007; Page A13

This is a great article on going back to the moon. Let's do it.

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see full article at: http://blog.scifi.com/cgi-bin/blogroot/mt-tb.cgi/2118

Thin film solar tech to undercut cost of fossil fuels within five years

Solar panels that will be more efficient and a whole lot cheaper are on their way, ready to match the cost of old-fashioned fossil fuels within five years. The secret? Researchers are moving away from heavy silicon solar panels and changing the entire solar energy equation with thin-film solar panels made of rolls of dark polymer foil that can be mass-produced in any color. The thin film has already seen some great uses, such as keeping beer cooler.

Even though solar technology has made significant gains since the 1970s when it cost $100 per watt (now it's $3 to $4 per watt), that sweet spot of beating out fossil fuels is $1 per watt. Swiss entrepreneur Anil Sethi says his solar foil can hit that magic number for even less than that — $0.80/watt — within five years and beat the cost of fossil fuels by 50% in 10 years...

see full article at: http://blog.scifi.com/cgi-bin/blogroot/mt-tb.cgi/2118

Environmentalists have been freaking out about fossil fuels for years. First it was global cooling, now it's global warming all blamed on fossil fuels. Well guess what? It looks like much of the "problem" will be solved in 5 to 10 years. What will the environuts complain about then? Oh I bet they find something!

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Two recent American presidents had the courage needed for anti-appeasement: Reagan and Bush. Reagan ended the Cold War and Bush, supported only by the social democrat Blair acting on moral conviction, recognized the danger in the Islamic fight against democracy. His place in history will have to be evaluated after a number of years have passed.

Europe - Thy Name Is Cowardice

By Matthias Dopfner - January 7, 2005

The above links to an amazing article by a German man about Europe's take on the war on terror. Check it out!

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I chopped down one of my pomegranate trees Saturday. You wouldn’t believe the accumulation of garbage under that tree. I even found a little toy basketball that one of the kids lost under there years ago. Someone tried to paint it up like a Jack-O-Lantern. There was a lot of wood that needed to be moved so I tied a rope around it and tied the other end to the truck and pulled and… broke the rope! Twice—because I was stupid enough to expect a different result the second time! Third try was a chain. That did it and I only broke one sprinkler head! I dragged the whole mess out to the slew and even smoothed out the driveway in the process!

Then Jane sent me a bunch of newsletter articles. One of them told me to remove their contact information from the web. You know phone number, address, and the stuff that’s not there in the first place! Well they also mentioned name, so, okay, it’s all gone—the whole thing. Except for this message:

Because of the complaints of several people (some of whom obviously haven’t even looked at the site) about their contact information being on the web, this site has been removed. Since there was no contact information on the site—no phone numbers, no addresses—as was charged, it’s too frustrating to continue the hard work involved in putting out a newsletter twice a year and keeping this site updated. So as of now the website and the newsletter publication are suspended. If the family wants to continue the newsletter, they need to find another editor; I won’t do it any longer. I apologize to the people who have told me they enjoy the website, but the paranoia of some has made it into something I no longer enjoy doing.

So yeah, no more newsletter on the website or in print. Jane even had me password protect the pictures we’ve taken at family gatherings. Why should they have access to those? It’s made me angrier than I should be, I suppose, but I’m tired of working my butt off to put out the darn thing and getting nothing but aggravation in return. Since I doubt if anyone else is willing to do it, I guess that’s the end of it, too bad, so sad, should have done it years ago. Some may ask why I don’t just continue with the paper version. Same thing, I’ve received complaints on that too. So design it yourself, fool! I’m not doing it anymore, have a go at it!

I’m getting trunky. We’re just barely halfway through the school year, but I’m ready for summer. Spring is almost here and the asparagus is peeking out of the ground, so I want summer! It’s even feeling like spring. It’s 72°F out there at 4:27 PM! Nice… Well spring is really more than a month away…

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Via: Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth (UmmYeah.com)

I've been teaching Algebra 1 and 2 and math fundamentals in high school for more than a decade now. This video explains why I usually fail a third of each class. The students are unprepared for high school math and have no concept of a work ethic. Few will consistently do homework or even classwork. Honors classes are an exception, but even there they seem unprepared for high school math work. (The math fundamentals is a class where I teach elementary level math to students who are so far behind they haven't a chance of passing Algebra without such extreme intervention.)

My daughter-in-law teaches third grade. I just asked her about the math text she uses. She told me she hated it. She usually adds supplemental material to the text which includes lots of practice using "normal" math algorithms. It's interesting that her students test much higher in math than the others in her school, and yet she considers math one of her poorest subjects.

I recently completed my Master of Education degree. I took as many math related teaching courses as I could, unfortunately they taught teaching methods that show the same thought processes as used in the math texts mentioned in the "Math Education: An Inconvenient Truth" video. We were encouraged to teach exploration rather than use the more boring traditional math learning methods. I went along, got my degree and threw most of it away!

I believe many teachers are victims of the education system as well. We who actually try to teach and make a difference are outnumbered by the socialists who make up the bulk of the bureaucracy that controls education. Most days I feel more like a babysitter than a teacher. I love what I do, but with just a few exceptions I feel that I'm wasting my time. It would be easier to just give in to the system. But I won't. I'll keep fighting what is probably a losing battle unless something forces a change.

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We basically had a normal week this week, but Laurana livened things up Saturday. She apparently snuck over to Brown’s and was playing in their yard with the dog when it went into the house through the doggy door. Laurana followed it into the house. Well after searching through the neighborhood and getting more and more people into the search, Jane cutting her trip to Mesquite short, and calling out the cops, she finally wandered home. Robert and Shannon were frantic and hysterical. Browns came home and found toys strung around and muddy little footprints everywhere. We’re all of course glad she’s all right, now can we kill the little brat?

It also turns out that one of the Brown’s kids, when he was small, knew where the key was hidden to Robert’s and Shannon’s house back when someone else lived there and he would use it to sneak into the house when they were gone. Aren’t children wonderful?

Since Mark and Rick managed to break my cement mixer, I decided to work on it and see if it could be fixed. After considerable effort I got it all taken apart. Unfortunately it’s in more pieces than it should be since it broke. Oh well, I’ll borrow the one Rick bought and break, I mean use, it!

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Sigh, vacation’s almost over...

It was nice having everyone here (except Charlie). We had an enjoyable Christmas. I got the Pimsleur Spanish 3 set. Maybe I’ll make some more progress.

William wanted to borrow one of my guns. I didn’t want to send him out with the old Lorcin so we went down and found a Polish Makarov at Ace. It’s a really nice shooting gun. Like Robert’s it throws brass all over the place, though William’s is in 9x18 Makarov while Robert’s is 380 ACP (9x17)

I wanted to do some reloading but my press was really stiff. I called Dillon and got some instructions and basically rebuilt the press. They even sent an alignment tool to me free of charge. It works great now except I ran out of 9mm bullets! Ace doesn’t carry my powder so I’m going to try a new one. I’ve still got 380 bullets and some 38’s so I guess I could still do some reloading. Components aren’t cheap, but it’s cheaper than buying the ammo.

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Ah the upstairs bathroom! In the continuing saga, I mentioned I had to tear up part of the floor to make it drain better. That went well and I finally tried it out this morning and found it drained just fine. So I’m thinking it’s finally done. Finally, finally done. Then I go into the kitchen and there is water everywhere. So what did I do wrong this time? I finally put a cap on the pipe where the shower head goes and turned it on. It still leaked so I knew it was in the shower plumbing after the valve. It turned out that it was a cap I could tighten after removing the shower valve cover. Whew! What a relief! So finally, it’s done! (Key fanfare here.)

I got it done just in time, since Valery and family will be here this week.

I was trying to design a custom Rhapsody station for Mannheim Steamroller and Trans-Siberian Orchestra type Christmas music. Using those two groups to set the station’s tone worked okay, but I got stuff like Bing Crosby’s and Dean Martin’s non-Christmas stuff and some new age nonsense, too. Finally when I heard something I liked I’d save the whole album to a play list. Soon I had 18 hours of Christmas music I like, so I don’t need the crummy station anymore.

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Well I finally got the shower “finished” and took a shower to try it out. I had half an inch of water in two of the corners so I guess it’s not finished, huh? I tore up about two square feet and built the corners up more. Tomorrow I’ll put new tile down and grout Tuesday. Friday I’ll be able to seal it again and Saturday I’ll try it again.

It’s been dry and clear for the last few weeks. I washed every car we have except one (since I ran out of daylight) yesterday. So of course this morning it rained. It’s clear now. It just rained long enough to spot all the cars.

I was switched to the new Beta Blogger and found that my archives don’t work. I think what happened is I switched the archives to a separate folder but forgot to put the full path in the settings in Blogger. It took me a week before the darn thing allowed me to complete a republish, but the archives still won’t work. Finally I just moved all the files back to the root and they work fine. Will I have to keep moving them? Because apparently Blogger’s been saving them into the folder okay it just can’t find them in there later!

The house is looking Christmassy. William decorated the house and I decorated the yard including the pine tree and driveway marker snowflakes and the blow up Santa. Yesterday Ace was “giving” away lighted wreaths. Robert, Jessie, and my mom all wanted one too. Too late—sold out! Hey, but I got mine!

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After months (months I tell you!) of work on the bathroom, it is almost done. All that is left is to seal the tile and hook up the last plumbing. Well there are baseboards but that can wait. I can relax for a change, er no I can’t…

I was planning on getting my license renewed as soon as Jessie went on track break, but I completely forgot and now I have five days and just realized I need a physical before I can have it renewed. Plus the physical form is not available on the web so I have to go in to get one, then get the physical, then go back in for the license renewal. Of course if I decide it isn’t worth it to have a CDL I still have to go in to get a regular license so I might as well renew the CDL.

Last year Jane wanted me to decorate the tree outside, but I didn’t want to tempt anyone to cut it down and take off with it. This year it’s so big that it would never fit in anyone’s house so I went ahead and decorated it. It’s almost too tall to reach with the tallest step ladder I own.

I wanted to go out and cut a tree this year, but we simply have no time. So we’re using the artificial one again. It would be nice to have a real one, but I won’t pay the outrageous prices they charge. Of course once I pay for gas and all for a tree cutting outing, I’ve spent that much. But at least that’s a fun family outing and well worth the cost.

Today the Logandale 6^th ward (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints) put some little gingerbread type houses out on display. The Spanish Branch was just letting out. Senaida and a friend both have sons the same age and they rushed over to the houses and Senaida’s friend’s son said, “¿Comemos eso?” His mamá yelled, “No!” There was a guy from the 6^th ward sitting there with his wife and he cracked up. His wife said, “What? What did they say?” and he had to explain it to her. (Obviously a Spanish speaker to some extent.) ("Can we eat this?" is the translation.)

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I lost my election on Tuesday. In a three way race, I got 28% of the vote while Ken got 54%. Kelby got 18%. When I went bed Lanny was also losing his election. I got up at 3 and checked the results again. Lanny won by 23 votes! Rush Limbaugh says he’s liberated by the Republican loss. He doesn’t have to carry Republican water any more. He points out Republicans moved to the left and lost. Democraps moved to the right and won. (Except for the ones that only pretended to move to the right—they lost!)

We went up to St. George to go to Ashley’s sealing on Friday. We stayed overnight and went to her wedding the next day.

I’m still working on the tile in the bathroom. It’s close to being done. I may have it done when Val and family arrive. I’m not thrilled with the job I did yesterday. It’s not my best work. The first part was much better. There’s just one wall left plus a little bit of ceiling. That cheap little tile saw was worth every penny. It does a wonderful job!

We’re about to enter a full week of work again, Next week’s only three days though. Nice!

It’s getting quite cool here now. I’m looking forward to some of that global warming!

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I got the floor tile glued down in the bathroom shower—finally. I hope it turns out okay. While the glue was drying I put plastic on the greenhouse. I put notes on the wood to tell me how everything fits. It didn’t work since it was all faded out. One idea that did work, I used a $13 bathroom exhaust fan to blow up the plastic. It does a better job than that other fan. Given the price of plastic, I hope it allows the plastic to last for more than a year this time.

I got my campaign signs. They’re magnetic, and I got enough for three cars. Kelby and Ken are not campaigning at all, so with my newspaper ad and my magnetic signs maybe I can win this thing. At least they aren’t campaigning yet. Maybe when they see my ad they’ll get one of their own. There are still two newspapers coming out before the election.

Mat L. is campaigning like crazy for power board. Mike F. is running against him and has one little sign up in his yard.

My son William still doesn’t have a job. He’s really frustrated. He could get a job anywhere, easily, except in a LDS college town. There are just too many exceptional people!

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A few weeks my wife and I went to Mesquite and ate at a new restaurant. I had “Camarones Del Diablo” and it was very, very good. Yesterday we went to St. George and tried a new restaurant there. I had “Camarones al la Diable” and it was even better! Although there was a delayed reaction. After I finished the top of my head was sweating and I was sweating around my eyes, though my mouth wasn’t burning all that much. We’re talking “mucho picante!” here. Yeah, I’m ready for more. The second restaurant made a mistake, though; they used dipping shrimp that still has the tails on instead of shrimp for grilling that has the tail removed. It was messy, because of the sauce, to remove the tails. I had to remember to keep my fingers away from my eyes afterwards, because the pepper doesn’t wash off the hands very well.

We listened to the first session of conference going up to St. George, but didn’t get to hear much of the second session and it was just ending as we started to drive home. We heard the whole thing today of course.

We weren’t shopping for a vanity for the bathroom at Lowes, we were going to go to Home Depot for that, but on the way out of Lowes I noticed one I liked a lot in the clearance section outside the store. I asked the guy how much thinking if it was under $150 I’d buy it. He said, “$27.50!” Hey what a deal! Later we paid more for a medicine cabinet than that.

I was talking to another teacher and he asked me if I’d noticed a difference between the ninth graders this year and the ones from last year. I told him yes and he said they are monsters this year. Yes they are. I don’t know what they did to them in middle school last year. I’m making lots of calls home. Some times the guardian tells me the brat doesn’t live there any more because they can’t handle their behavior. It’s sad, because that means they go to live with a horrible parent or something.

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Oh, it has finally cooled off here. It’s been nice.

I’m finished with my Master’s—done—finally. It’s so nice to have that over with. Now I can have a life again.

I took the chain saw to the gooseberry bushes under the palm trees by the print shop. However, I didn’t cut one of the stumps short enough, and I bent the shaft of my brand new lawnmower, the one I bought last fall. The last lawnmower lasted many years. This one didn’t even make one.

Something I did yesterday caused me to have an allergic reaction. My hands swelled up and began to itch, but we have no idea what is causing it. We did go out to dinner the night before to a seafood buffet. I had many things I’d never had before so maybe that caused it, but I also had a reaction three months ago so I don’t think that was it.

I’ve been planning all summer to have my brakes done. Thursday they started grinding so I can’t put it off any longer. I really thought I had more pad left than that, but they wore down quicker than I expected.

I installed the new toilet in the third bathroom yesterday, so we have three again. No sink yet, and I still have to do the tile in the shower. Of course I have some time now!

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We found out something interesting. Not only does William not have a job yet, but Ivan no longer has one either. He’s even talking about going back to Chili.

I have a student whose name is Yvan. When I called his name in the correct Spanish pronunciation (Ee von) he made certain I knew he wanted it pronounced Eye-vun! I told Ivan (who also pronounces it Ee von) about it and he thought it was funny.

We went to Enterprise for Tyson’s wedding yesterday. He married a nice girl. I was impressed even though she’s not been active or maybe not even a member of the church—I don’t know for sure. We stuck around and went to the open house in Ivins. Her parents never showed up for that at all!

I only got an 80% on my project draft. I rewrote a little and turned in the final draft last night. I have no idea what I’ll get since the grading rubric is not the same as the one for the draft. They’re each 20% of my grade. The final paper is due next Sunday but it’s only 10%. The other 50% of the assignments are all 100% except for one 95%. If I get no better than an 80% on each assignment I have left I’ll still get a “B.” I’ve been approved for graduation and since I had to pay for my regalia, I might as well order it even if I don’t walk in commencement. I can wear it around the house, yeah, sure.

Our temple recommends expired in August. It’s funny but it just didn’t feel right until we got them renewed today. It still doesn’t feel right since we still need the signature of one of the stake presidency. I can see the importance of having a valid recommend even if there is not a temple near by. Just having it means you’re worthy and that’s a good feeling.

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Well, what an interesting week! We flew down to San Diego on Thursday. Friday while Jane was in meetings, Randy, Rod, Larry, and I went to the Air and Space Museum, It was hard to drag Larry and Randy out of there. Then we went sailing. We never left the lagoon but we had plenty of fun learning to sail. Supposedly this 23 footer could be handled by one person--not very easily. I worked the jib sail and the motor the 3 times we used it. We left the dock with the motor then used it when we ran aground. The stupid boat wouldn’t turn from the shallows. Finally we spilled the air from the sail and just kind of drifted lightly aground, the motor got us right out. We didn’t need it again but we were running out of time so we used it to get back in time. When it was clear we would make it, I shut it down. We sailed right up to the dock and spilled air and stopped perfectly! The man at the dock acted impressed. It was great! We even almost capsized a couple of times. Tried to go too fast – too much sail. When that happens you have to spill a little air quick. Someone else tipped but it wasn’t us!

We didn’t get to go to the San Diego temple because there was no room in the car; we went to Sea World instead. It was really crowded, but we had fun. We went with Peter and Debbie and Chuck and Kathy. We didn’t at first know Chuck and Kathy’s last name, so I didn’t recognize him as the man that ran CO Bastion the last two years I was there.

I found out you get extra security if you board with just a computer bag. Stan told me that’s probably why they did the extra search on me. The guy behind me had a roll-on bag with a computer pocket. Stan says they don’t worry about those. I guess I need one!

We stayed at a nice hotel but the restaurant really sucked! The food was good-service was lousy! We left feedback – you betchya! The weather was perfect. We never once turned on the air. Nor the heat either. It got just a little cool after sunset at Sea World.

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We flew up to Idaho non-stop in a 737 Model 700, Southwest's latest. It was packed. We would have been able to get William a ticket going up but we couldn't get him anything coming back, yet the flight up was packed. On the way back (which took three flights, Spokane to Boise, Boise to Reno, and Reno to Vegas) we were on an old 737 model 300 (two actually) and it was half empty. So why couldn't we get William a ticket?

We had a busy week. It was really hot at first, but it cooled off until the last day was actually pleasant. Today, after we left it was cool. I guess we picked the wrong week.

While we were up there the TV died. We knew it was going because the screen has been looking weird in the corners. But it was a surprise it went so quickly. I’d really like a LCD TV, but they’re a bit pricey. Even if we go with a CRT I want a bigger one than what we have so our entertainment center will be too small. Crud! I’ve looked at the big plasmas and I don’t think they’re all that great. Since digital is the wave of the future most people have to change anyway, but we don’t! Our satellite is digital, it doesn’t matter what the TV is. But we’re forced to make the change anyway.

Oh well, it’s a chance to get a new idiot box.

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