This great Mike Shelton cartoon appeared in the Las Vegas Review Journal.

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Mike Shelton

THE ORANGE COUNTY REGISTER

Just a few years ago I went to watch one of the final test flights of Space Ship One. Todays Las Vegas Review Journal has a story on XCOR Aerospace's Xerus. It won't be too much longer before commercial space ventures start to really take off!

Then this from Debbie Schussel

It's Islam, stupid!

A couple of day's ago Oprah featured two 9/11 widows on her daytime talk show. They raised money to help Afghani widows start businesses and support themselves. "We gave them this opportunity, so that they'd get out of poverty, so that 9/11 would never happen again."

I was shouting at the TV: They commited this terrorist murder of 3,000 Americans out of hate bred by their Islamic ideology, NOT out of economic status. (Many, including Mohammed Atta, were wealthy and educated.)

The 9/11 widow's myth has been repeated by Aerosmith's Steven Tyler, President Bush, Mrs. Bush, Oprah herself, and your average dummy on the street who watches her. More here.

From the New York Post we have this:

ISLAM'S PROBLEM

WE MUST STOP DENYING OUR RELIGION'S ROLE IN VIOLENCE

By IRSHAD MANJI

Mohammed Bouyeri

July 8, 2007 -- LAST week, two very different Brits had their say about the latest terrorist plots in their country. Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the nation that "we have got to separate those great moderate members of our community from a few extremists who wish to practice violence and inflict maximum loss of life in the interests of a perversion of their religion." By contrast, a former jihadist from Manchester wrote that the "real engine of our violence" is "Islamic theology."

Months ago, this young man informed me that as a militant he raised most of his war chest not from obscenely rich Saudis, but from middle-class Muslim dentists living in the United Kingdom. There's sobering lesson here for the new prime minister.

So far, those arrested in connection to the car bombs are, by and large, medical professionals. The seeming paradox of the privileged seeking to avenge grievance has many champions of compassion scratching their heads. Aren't Muslim martyrs supposed to be poor, disenfranchised, and resentful about both?

WE should have been stripped of that breezy simplification by now. The 9/11 hijackers came from means. Mohamed Atta, their ringleader, earned an engineering degree. He then moved to the West, pursuing his post-graduate studies in Germany. No servile goat-herder, that one. More here.

And of course now Cindy Sheehan demands Pelosi either impeach Bush or she'll run against her in the next election, gasp! Horrors! I mean as if Cindy could win! Hell, what if she did, would she be any worse than Pelosi?

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http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/ has a wonderful Harry Reid picture. Enjoy the picture then check out the site. It's great!

Also, I found a great piece by Ted Nugent at Opinion Journal. Having lived through the sixties myself and embraced the soul stealing sex and drugs lifestyle for a (thankfully) short time, I can agree with Nugent whole-heartedly!

The Summer of Drugs
Forty years ago, dirty, stinky hippies converged on San Francisco to "turn on, tune in and drop out."

BY TED NUGENT
Wednesday, July 4, 2007 12:01 a.m. EDT

This summer marks the 40th anniversary of the so-called Summer of Love. Honest and intelligent people will remember it for what it really was: the Summer of Drugs.

Forty years ago hordes of stoned, dirty, stinky hippies converged on San Francisco to "turn on, tune in, and drop out," which was the calling card of LSD proponent Timothy Leary. Turned off by the work ethic and productive American Dream values of their parents, hippies instead opted for a cowardly, irresponsible lifestyle of random sex, life-destroying drugs and mostly soulless rock music that flourished in San Francisco.

The Summer of Drugs climaxed with the Monterey Pop Festival which included some truly virtuoso musical talents such as Jimi Hendrix and Janis Joplin, both of whom would be dead a couple of years later due to drug abuse. Other musical geniuses such as Jim Morrison and Mama Cass would also be dead due to drugs within a few short years. The bodies of chemical-infested, brain-dead liberal deniers continue to stack up like cordwood.

As a diehard musician, I terribly miss these very talented people who squandered God's gifts in favor of poison and the joke of hipness. I often wonder what musical peaks they could have climbed had they not gagged to death on their own vomit. Their choice of dope over quality of life, musical talent and meaningful relationships with loved ones can only be categorized as despicably selfish.

I literally had to step over stoned, drooling fans, band mates, concert promoters and staff to pursue my musical American Dream throughout the 1960s and 1970s. I flushed more dope and cocaine down backstage toilets than I care to remember. In utter frustration I was even forced to punch my way through violent dopers on occasion. So much for peace and love. The DEA should make me an honorary officer.

See the rest here.

I didn't listen to Cat Stevens in the sixties, but I did listen in the early seventies. I wish I could rip his songs out of my ears as if I'd never heard them. This guy is scum.



Extremist Muslim Cat Stevens/Yusuf Islam & His Extremist Muslim Family

I don't get it. Why does any European or American embrace Islam? Well, I can understand a male chauvinist pig (the real ones--not the ones given that label by feminazis) doing it, but why would any woman embrace such a religion?

And of course, how do you spell chutzpah? I spell it B i l l C l i n t o n... How dare that hypocrite complain about any Bush pardon? This sleaze-bag did it for money!

And check this out!

Even independent-minded celebrities are now questioning the establishment media orthodoxy that the debate over global warming and its effects are all but over. In a phrase familiar to those who study pop culture, it appears that the global warming scare may have "jumped the shark."

And finally, on the global warming front, apparently the earth has been much warmer in the past, and the glaciers didn't melt, the seas didn't inundate the land and we didn't roast! From Brietbart.com:

Oldest DNA ever recovered shows warmer planet: report
Jul 5 03:14 PM US/Eastern

Scientists who probed two kilometers (1.2 miles) through a Greenland glacier to recover the oldest plant DNA on record said Thursday the planet was far warmer hundreds of thousands of years ago than is generally believed. DNA of trees, plants and insects including butterflies and spiders from beneath the southern Greenland glacier was estimated to date to 450,000 to 900,000 years ago, according to the remnants retrieved from this long-vanished boreal forest. That contrasts sharply with the prevailing view that a lush forest of this kind could only have existed in Greenland as recently as 2.4 million years ago, according to a summary of the study, which is published Thursday in the journal Science. The samples suggest the temperature probably reached 10 degrees C (50 degrees Fahrenheit) in the summer and -17 C (1 F) in the winter. more

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I just discovered Michael Yon (michaelyon-online.com). He's a reporter who actually reports the truth of what's happening in Iraq.
Let me warn you, there is some heartbreaking content on the site. Like this report:

On 29 June, American and Iraqi soldiers were again fighting side-by-side as soldiers from Charley Company 1-12 CAV—led by Captain Clayton Combs—and Iraqi soldiers from the 5th IA, closed in on a village on the outskirts of Baqubah. The village had the apparent misfortune of being located near a main road—about 3.5 miles from FOB Warhorse—that al Qaeda liked to bomb. Al Qaeda had taken over the village. As Iraqi and American soldiers moved in, they came under light contact; but the bombs planted in the roads (and maybe in the houses) were the real threat.

The firefight progressed. American missiles were fired. The enemy might have been trying to bait Iraqi and American soldiers into ambush, but it did not work. The village was riddled with bombs, some of them large enough to destroy a tank. One by one, experts destroyed the bombs, leaving small and large craters in the unpaved roads.

The village was abandoned. All the people were gone. But where?

See the rest here.

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Another gem from Cox and Forkum.

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There is a great new Ross Mackenzie piece I read in the Las Vegas Review Journal. I couldn't find it on their website so I have to link to the Sacramento Bee which did have it.

Here is just a piece of his article:

Global warming and global terror

We know the truth about global terror and malign jihad -- emphatically, flat-out, now. About global warming we "know" a multiplicity of things not necessarily so. In the success of the war against global terror lies the salvation of liberty and mankind. In the war to make the world safe from climate change we invite outcomes unknowable and known -- among the latter the destruction of free economies and free societies in order to save them.

Relentlessly prosecuting the war on terror to a more beneficial result seems clearly the prudent choice -- even if it turns out to take the better part of this century.

Click here for the rest. I highly recommend it.

Actually, I just found out if you click one of the above links it takes you to a sign in page. If you cut and paste this address: http://www.sacbee.com/debate/story/210492.html in your web browser it takes you directly to the article.

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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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