This is the Chinese charactor for Otter.
Why you ask?
Well, I have always wanted a Siamese cat, and I never buy an animal only adopt.
There are very few siamese put up for adoption.
Bonnie, while visiting her mother in the hispital, saw an ad for a 6 year old Siamede that needs a home.
She is beautiful and shy and she looks like an Otter!
The chinese charactor is prounounced Ta
So her new name is Ta-Ying
(meaning girl otter in English)

Van Gogh


Keep smoking and you may look like this!

The Gnome Liberation Front

The Gnome Liberation Front

Dear gnome supporters, i sent this email just tonight, 11/25/03. If there be any sympathetic souls in the fair country of America, I implore you yo do what you can to help.




Dear SPRKTHDVL,

Is that a Gnomish name? Be that as it may, our reason for contacting you is that ex-Parish Councillor Julius Blaah is planning an Ideal Gnome Exhibition in Wymsey. This will not go down well with citizens who are famously anti gnomic after the Millennium Gnome debacle.

As a newly independent state, albeit surrounded by the English, we wish avoid the shedding of gnomic blood. At the moment Julius Blaah has been detained under the North & South Disease Regulations after a packet of Spangles were found in his jacket pocket when re-entering Wymsey from England.

The State Council wonder if you would be in a positon to rescue any gnomes that found their way into Wymsey. We will assume that you can as that is what you do and annouce the fact in the up-coming edition of the Wymsey Chronicle. This may well help prevent the shedding of blood as most citizens are at bottom lazy.

Yours,

Mel.

All governmental enquiries should be directed to diplomat@wymsey.co.uk

_Send all donations to:
Mel the Elf
General Delivery
Dudleyville, Alabama

________________________________
NoNomesNohow - the party that performs

Garden Gnome Liberation Front strikes Paris show
November 13, 2003
Web posted at: 8:25 a.m. EDT (1225 GMT)

PARIS -- The dormant Garden Gnome Liberation Front has sprung back to life, stealing about 20 gnomes during a nighttime raid on a Paris exhibition.

"We demand ... that garden gnomes are no longer ridiculed and that they be released into their natural habitat," the Front's Paris wing said in a statement following its weekend strike.

France's first garden gnome exhibition in the exclusive Bagatelle park on the outskirts of the capital opened last month and has been a hit with the public as chic Parisians develop a taste for kitsch culture.

The Garden Gnome Liberation Front vanished from the public eye in 1997 after a northern French court handed its ringleader a suspended prison sentence and fined him for his part in the disappearance of around 150 gnomes.

The only suspected sighting of the organization since then was a mass suicide of gnomes at Briey in eastern France in September 1998, when 11 of them were found dangling by their necks under a bridge.

A letter found nearby said: "When you read these few words we will no longer be part of your selfish world, where we serve merely as pretty decoration."

Now, the sight of 2,000 of the gaudy, colorful creatures dotted around the Bagatelle gardens has clearly proved too big a temptation for the group to avoid.

The supposed leader of the Garden Gnome Liberation Front is someone named Mel.
Not much is known about this individual except that he is very short.

It warned that it would strike again unless the show was closed and all the gnomes released.

Organizers told the daily Le Parisien that they had no intention of bowing to the Front's demands.

the front has recently been suspected of hacking into Web blogs.

Reuters

gnomes

Join the worldwide gnome club

Send all your Gold coins to Me!!!
/8^)=]=<. Mel

Stop Oppressive Gardening

I've taken over!!!!
MEL the ELF rules!!!




I have found a cause that Anna and the Horse with no name can buy into.
Any contributions can be sent to me, so that I can help these poor innocent Gnomes.

Send all donations to:
Mel the Elf
General Delivery
Dudleyville, Alabama

Click here to help the cause Stop Oppressive Gardening

/8^)=]=<. Mel

: "Worshipping JFK
40 years later.
By: Bill Buckley

I was asked by a television network to comment on the career of President Kennedy. I agreed to do so and do not know how many other views were solicited, or when the program was aired. I have to assume that it went out because the fortieth anniversary of the assassination seemed to wipe out all unrelated television fare with the exception of Michael Jackson, who got if not equal time, very nearly that. Curiosity just goes on and on about Mr. Kennedy, and I subscribe to it, having recorded (but not yet seen) the two-hour show presided over by Peter Jennings at which we shall have one more chapter of Grassy Knoll. The advertisements promise a computer recreation of the assassination. I think it's about as clearly established that Lee Harvey Oswald killed Kennedy as that John Wilkes Booth killed Lincoln, but seeing it all again, you can use up a little agnostic curiosity on that morbid episode, draining it for a year or two. It is always exciting to read about the assassination of Julius Caesar, particularly when the tale is told by the greatest tale-teller in dramatic literature, never mind that we know that Brutus did it. It goes that way, also, for JFK.
But the question I was asked didn't have to do with who killed JFK, but with what was his legacy. It was, said I, entirely personal. Nothing that Mr. Kennedy did in the way of public policy was either singular or enduring in effect. In foreign policy, he lost out on Berlin, presiding over the death of the Four Power Agreement over that city. He did not consummate his war against Castro at any level. At the military level, he failed in the Bay of Pigs. At the dirty-dog level, he failed in four or five attempts to assassinate Castro; failed with toxic cigars, impregnated wetsuits, and poison pills. At the diplomatic level, we focus more appropriately on the arrival of Soviet nuclear missiles in Cuba than on their withdrawal. It is acknowledged by everyone that we very nearly had a nuclear exchange in October, 1962, and historical adjudications correctly deal rather with the fact of the missiles being deployed there, than of the fact that they were finally shooed away.

It is pointed out, even by the school of political thought least anxious to associate itself with low taxes, that JFK called for tax reduction — which he did, though it was left to Lyndon Johnson to consummate the proposal. Civil Rights is adduced, and it is true that Mr. Kennedy came eloquently to the cause — after hearing Martin Luther King give his great speech, and weighing the implications of it. He arrived finally (sooner than I did) to the cause of equality under the law, but was a recruit to it, spurred by others. It was only in the summer of his last year that he turned to the subject of a Civil Rights Bill. In Vietnam, he engaged the Communist aggressors intending two things, the first, to abide by George Kennan's long-standing doctrine of Containment, the second, to challenge the evaluation of him by Khrushchev as a "pygmy." That was the character reading by Khrushchev, who proceeded, after their personal encounter in Vienna, to build the Berlin Wall, and to send missiles to Cuba. Maybe, if Kennedy had lived, he'd have reversed the course he took in Vietnam, adopted by his successor, Lyndon Johnson, who continued to press the doctrine of containment. But it is asking too much, at eulogy time, to compliment a dead man on the grounds that you feel certain he'd have proceeded, if he had lived, to undo what he did when alive. I can think of any number of reforms I would myself undertake, after I am dead.

What I said to the interviewer was that the legacy of John F. Kennedy is his sheer . . . beauty. I have visited yurts in Mongolia, adobe huts in Mexico, and rural redoubts in Turkey and seen framed pictures of John F. Kennedy. He was all-American, splendid to look at, his expression of confident joy in life and work transfiguring. Add to this that he was slaughtered, almost always a mythogenic act, and what we came to know about the awful physical afflictions he suffered, making his appearances as a whole, vigorous man, the equivalent of seeing FDR rise from his wheelchair and play touch football.

That is why JFK is worshipped, which word exactly describes the attitude we have toward him.
"

DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2003®

DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2003®

NFL.com - NFL Standings

- NFL Standings
notice that the Seahawks are still in fiest place

A Mother's Salute
My son laid down his life for freedom.

By Julie McPhillips

My son, Brian McPhillips, signed letters he addressed to me, "Love Always, Your Son." It is a great privilege to be Brian's mother — not simply because of his ultimate sacrifice for me, as his fellow American, but because from his first to his final hour, I shared in his gift of eternal love.














As his father, sister, and I wrapped him in our love for the last time, and laid him to rest, I prayed the whole world would grow silent for just a moment to hear his heart beat once more in this, the country he loved, protected and served so well — and in Iraq, where he laid down his life for freedom.

Truly "a man for others," Brian was born with a rare "fullness of life," a gift from his Creator, a gift into which he grew more and more of a man each passing year. It was a joy to watch his independent thinking emerge, to follow him as his new interests peaked, and to understand that his natural kindness toward others had the ability to change hearts and minds forever — to know that he died as he loved to live — as a leader of men.

We will all remember him as a regular boy, a watchful and caring older brother, who shared an extraordinary friendship with his father, and a deep and understanding love for me, for our family, our country, and for the world. We are all in awe of our young hero, not only for the courage that sealed his final hour, or for the four years he served in the U.S. Marine Corps, but for everything about him that culminated into the decision he made to serve America and our world.

Since the predawn hours of April 6, when the walls of our home reverberated with pounding on the door and the solemn pronouncement that our son had died in battle, so many broken hearts have passed our way. Grown men weep openly.

Well-wishers from near and far send their condolences, and we are most grateful.

But I am asking something more. To thank our son for freely giving his life, my response to those who ask what they can do for us is, "Please, in whatever way you can, take a lasting step closer to your God today. Please do this, so together we can go on to build a better world."

Making the ultimate sacrifice, Brian "laid down his life for his friends." A man of faith, he knew to Whom he should turn when life was difficult. We often talked about his role as "father" to his 111 men.

"Pray, Bri, when your men stand in formation before you. Pray for them." "I will, Mom."

When the terror of the battlefield entered my own heart and the agonizing weeks of waiting stretched on and on, I found comfort in knowing that Brian knew his Lord.

When I learned of his death, I was consoled by his true gift of love for all people.

In the days and weeks and months that are ahead — as we get used to our lives without Brian, I will pray that each one of you, who has let me share the "story" of just one of America's great heroes, will help us in our grief, by accepting the light of God's love from Brian's hand.

Hold it and pass it on. Please let Brian who died, and Jessica Lynch and all the rest who lived, know there are many with the courage to rescue our world with love, and make it new again.

To you my dear and faithful son, from earth to heaven I salute you, and may you stand forever in the brilliance and the glory of Our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

— Julie McPhillips, of Pembroke, Mass., is the mother of 1st Lt. Brian M. McPhillips (USMC), killed in Iraq on April 4. This appeared in April in the Providence Journal

BMLwalker

This is a very cool little website ... go play around.

The David Kay report
by David Kay, c/o nonanarchist Saturday October 04, 2003 08:46 AM


In case you haven't read it, and, judging from comments, you haven't. Neither has the media.

We have discovered dozens of WMD-related program activities and significant amounts of equipment that Iraq concealed from the United Nations during the inspections that began in late 2002. The discovery of these deliberate concealment efforts have come about both through the admissions of Iraqi scientists and officials concerning information they deliberately withheld and through physical evidence of equipment and activities that ISG has discovered that should have been declared to the UN.

[...]

A clandestine network of laboratories and safehouses within the Iraqi Intelligence Service that contained equipment subject to UN monitoring and suitable for continuing CBW research.

* A prison laboratory complex, possibly used in human testing of BW agents, that Iraqi officials working to prepare for UN inspections were explicitly ordered not to declare to the UN.

* Reference strains of biological organisms concealed in a scientist's home, one of which can be used to produce biological weapons.

* New research on BW-applicable agents, Brucella and Congo Crimean Hemorrhagic Fever (CCHF), and continuing work on ricin and aflatoxin were not declared to the UN.

* Documents and equipment, hidden in scientists' homes, that would have been useful in resuming uranium enrichment by centrifuge and electromagnetic isotope separation (EMIS).

* A line of UAVs not fully declared at an undeclared production facility and an admission that they had tested one of their declared UAVs out to a range of 500 km, 350 km beyond the permissible limit.

* Continuing covert capability to manufacture fuel propellant useful only for prohibited SCUD variant missiles, a capability that was maintained at least until the end of 2001 and that cooperating Iraqi scientists have said they were told to conceal from the UN.

* Plans and advanced design work for new long-range missiles with ranges up to at least 1000 km - well beyond the 150 km range limit imposed by the UN. Missiles of a 1000 km range would have allowed Iraq to threaten targets through out the Middle East, including Ankara, Cairo, and Abu Dhabi.

* Clandestine attempts between late-1999 and 2002 to obtain from North Korea technology related to 1,300 km range ballistic missiles --probably the No Dong -- 300 km range anti-ship cruise missiles, and other prohibited military equipment.

I love carving pumkins with my kids.
Check out the ghosts in the background.
Made from carving out the back of the pumpkin.

Sliding Block Home Page

Sliding Block Home Page

If you like sliding block games you will love this site.

Please read the post below.
We hear constantly how we are doing badly in Iraq.
THat we are failing.
That they hate us over there.
Its just not the case

We are in a cabin deep down below decks on a Navy ship jam-packed with troops that’s pitching and creaking its way across the Atlantic in a winter gale. There is a man in every bunk. There’s a man wedged into every corner. There’s a man in every chair. The air is dense with cigarette smoke and with the staleness of packed troops and sour wool.

“Don’t think I’m sticking up for the Germans,” puts in the lanky young captain in the upper berth, “but…”

“To hell with the Germans,” says the broad-shouldered dark lieutenant. “It’s what our boys have been doing that worries me.”

The lieutenant has been talking about the traffic in Army property, the leaking of gasoline into the black market in France and Belgium even while the fighting was going on, the way the Army kicks the civilians around, the looting.

“Lust, liquor and loot are the soldier’s pay,” interrupts a red-faced major.

The lieutenant comes out with his conclusion: “Two wrongs don’t make a right.” You hear these two phrases again and again in about every bull session on the shop. “Two wrongs don’t make a right” and “Don’t think I’m sticking up for the Germans, but….”

The troops returning home are worried. “We’ve lost the peace,” men tell you. “We can’t make it stick.”

A tour of the beaten-up cities of Europe six months after victory is a mighty sobering experience for anyone. Europeans. Friend and foe alike, look you accusingly in the face and tell you how bitterly they are disappointed in you as an American. They cite the evolution of the word “liberation.” Before the Normandy landings it meant to be freed from the tyranny of the Nazis. Now it stands in the minds of the civilians for one thing, looting.

You try to explain to these Europeans that they expected too much. They answer that they had a right to, that after the last was America was the hope of the world. They talk about the Hoover relief, the work of the Quakers, the speeches of Woodrow Wilson. They don’t blame us for the fading of that hope. But they blame us now.

Never has American prestige in Europe been lower. People never tire of telling you of the ignorance and rowdy-ism of American troops, of out misunderstanding of European conditions. They say that the theft and sale of Army supplies by our troops is the basis of their black market. They blame us for the corruption and disorganization of UNRRA. They blame us for the fumbling timidity of our negotiations with the Soviet Union. They tell us that our mechanical de-nazification policy in Germany is producing results opposite to those we planned. “Have you no statesmen in America?” they ask.

The skeptical French press
Yet whenever we show a trace of positive leadership I found Europeans quite willing to follow our lead. The evening before Robert Jackson’s opening of the case for the prosecution in the Nurnberg trial, I talked to some correspondents from the French newspapers. They were polite but skeptical. They were willing enough to take part in a highly publicized act of vengeance against the enemy, but when you talked about the usefulness of writing a prohibition of aggressive war into the law of nations they laughed in your face. The night after Jackson’s nobly delivered and nobly worded speech I saw then all again. They were very much impressed. Their manner had even changed toward me personally as an American. Their sudden enthusiasm seemed to me typical of the almost neurotic craving for leadership of the European people struggling wearily for existence in the wintry ruins of their world.

The ruin this war has left in Europe can hardly be exaggerated. I can remember the years after the last war. Then, as soon as you got away from the military, all the little strands and pulleys that form the fabric of a society were still knitted together. Farmers took their crops to market. Money was a valid medium of exchange. Now the entire fabric of a million little routines has broken down. No on can think beyond food for today. Money is worthless. Cigarettes are used as a kind of lunatic travesty on a currency. If a man goes out to work he shops around to find the business that serves the best hot meal. The final pay-off is the situation reported from the Ruhr where the miners are fed at the pits so that they will not be able to take the food home to their families.

“Well, the Germans are to blame. Let them pay for it. It’s their fault,” you say. The trouble is that starving the Germans and throwing them out of their homes is only producing more areas of famine and collapse.

One section of the population of Europe looked to us for salvation and another looked to the Soviet Union. Wherever the people have endured either the American armies or the Russian armies both hopes have been bitterly disappointed. The British have won a slightly better reputation. The state of mind in Vienna is interesting because there the part of the population that was not actively Nazi was about equally divided. The wealthier classes looked to America, the workers to the Soviet Union.

The Russians came first. The Viennese tell you of the savagery of the Russian armies. They came like the ancient Mongol hordes out of the steppes, with the flimsiest supply. The people in the working-class districts had felt that when the Russians came that they at least would be spared. But not at all. In the working-class districts the tropes were allowed to rape and murder and loot at will. When victims complained, the Russians answered, “You are too well off to be workers. You are bourgeoisie.”

When Americans looted they took cameras and valuables but when the Russians looted they took everything. And they raped and killed. From the eastern frontiers a tide of refugees is seeping across Europe bringing a nightmare tale of helpless populations trampled underfoot. When the British and American came the Viennese felt that at last they were in the hands of civilized people. But instead of coming in with a bold plan of relief and reconstruction we came in full of evasions and apologies.

U.S. administration a poor third
We know now the tragic results of the ineptitudes of the Peace of Versailles. The European system it set up was Utopia compared to the present tangle of snarling misery. The Russians at least are carrying out a logical plan for extending their system of control at whatever cost. The British show signs of recovering their good sense and their innate human decency. All we have brought to Europe so far is confusion backed up by a drumhead regime of military courts. We have swept away Hitlerism, but a great many Europeans feel that the cure has been worse than the disease. [Emphasis mine]

The taste of victory had gone sour in the mouth of every thoughtful American I met. Thoughtful men can’t help remembering that this is a period in history when every political crime and every frivolous mistake in statesmanship has been paid for by the death of innocent people. The Germans built the Stalags; the Nazis are behind barbed wire now, but who will be next? Whenever you sit eating a good meal in the midst of a starving city in a handsome house requisitioned from some German, you find yourself wondering how it would feel to have a conqueror drinking out of your glasses. When you hear the tales of the brutalizing of women from the eastern frontier you think with a shudder of of those you love and cherish at home.

That we are one world is unfortunately a brutal truth. Punishing the German people indiscriminately for the sins of their leader may be justice, but it is not helping to restore the rule of civilization. The terrible lesson of the events of this year of victory is that what is happening to the bulk of Europe today can happen to American tomorrow.

In America we are still rich, we are still free to move from place to place and to talk to our friends without fear of the secret police. The time has come, for our own future security, to give the best we have to the world instead of the worst. So far as Europe is concerned, American leadership up to now has been obsessed with a fear of our own virtues. Winston Churchill expressed this state of mind brilliantly in a speech to his own people which applies even more accurately to the people of the U.S. “You must be prepared,” he warned them, “for further efforts of mind and body and further sacrifices to great causes, if you are not to fall back into the rut if inertia, the confusion of aim and the craven fear of being great.”

Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Culture - Proverbs

Republic of Turkey, Ministry of Culture - Proverbs: "Examples of Turkish proverbs:
- A gold sword opens an iron door.
- A horse leaves the ring behind when it dies, but the hero leaves glory.
- A whole is better than a half.
- Anyone can make a spoon, but not everyone can make the handle.
- Chickens do not drink on rainy days.
- Children are the fruits of a home.
- Children pick up habits from one another.
- Do as the imam says, not as he does.
- Do not smell the rose out of gratitude or the thorns will prick you.
- Do not speak out of turn.
- Feed a crow and it will pluck out your eyes.
- Flowers make spring lovely.
- He who earns little earns a lot, he who earns a lot earns nothing.
- He who eats honey eventually gets sick of it.
- He who falls from a horse does not die, but he who falls from a donkey does.
- He who is no use to his father is no use to anyone.
- He who spends little in days of plenty, will spend much in days of want.
- If a fool has a lot of grease he will wipe it on his beard.
- If the patient survives, he will oppose the doctor.
- If you do it, so will your livestock, and that is how we progress.
- If you have a thousand horses ride and rest, if one have only one, get off and rest.
- If your enemy is an ant, you be an elephant.
- Intelligence is the capital of the young man.
- It is easy to take, but hard to pay.
- Make hay while the sun shines.
- May 6 is the beginning of summer, its storms last for seven days.
- May your blood boil in August, but your cooking pot in winter. Mistaking a white dog for a sheep.
- More haste, less speed.
- No good comes of a woman who rises after her husband. Problems stay with those who hide them.
- Some people spoil the vineyard, "

Butterfly

The Butterfly heory
How can a Butterfly flapping his wings in Central park cause an Earthquake in China?

Encarta On This Day

Encarta On This Day: "On This Day

October 14Select another date


This Day in History

1066: Harold II Godwinson, last Anglo-Saxon king of England, falls in the Battle of Hastings against William I's Norman forces at Hastings, Sussex, England.
Learn more about the Battle of Hastings.

1912: Theodore Roosevelt, the presidential candidate for the Progressive Party, is shot at close range by a would-be assassinator.
Learn more about Theodore Roosevelt.

1947: American pilot Chuck Yeager flies faster than the speed of sound in the experimental X-1 aircraft built by the Bell Aircraft Company.
Learn more about Chuck Yeager.

1962: Little known American Neil C. Anderson was born in Philadelphia P.A.

1964: American clergyman Martin Luther King, Jr., wins the Nobel Peace Prize.
Learn more about Martin Luther King, Jr.

1968: Apollo 7 astronauts give a tour of the inside of the spacecraft and show views through the windows in the first live telecast from space.
Learn more about the Apollo Program.

1979: Over 100,000 supporters march on Washington, D.C., in the first national gay rights march.
Learn more about gay rights.




Today's Web Pick




The Battle of Hastings 1066
This privately maintained site offers information about the Battle of Hastings, which was fought on this date in 1066. William the Conqueror's victory in the battle opened up England to the Normans. The site includes maps, photographs, and a glossary.





Born on this day




Dwight D Eisenhower, 34th president of the United States (1890)"



Born on this day;


Dwight D Eisenhower, 34th president of the United States (1890)

E. E. Cummings, American poet (1894)

Ralph Lauren (Lifshitz), American fashion designer (1939)

Roger Moore, British actor (1927)

Refdesk: reference, facts, news, free and family friendly

Refdesk: reference, facts, news, free and family friendly: " 'Liberty has never come from the government. Liberty has always come from the subjects of the government. The history of government is a history of resistance. The history of liberty is the history of the limitation of government, not the increase of it.' - Woodrow Wilson"

We tend to think of the US military as some big impersonel entity.


But these are real people, True Americans, caring loving people.


A connection made. Old hatreds fade for a new generation.


What you hear on the news is not the whole story.


How can the Europeans think we are evil?
How could Democrats think we should not have helped?

The Inscrutable 8-Ball Revealed

The Inscrutable 8-Ball RevealedEver wondered what it might look like inside?

World Beard and Moustache Championships Carson City 2003

World Beard and Moustache Championships Carson City 2003
I'm going to grow my beard like one of these champions!

Trouser Semaphore

Trouser Semaphore
Click on the demo, its a riot!

The Seasick Giraffe - The World's Greatest Giraffe Site

The Seasick Giraffe - The World's Greatest Giraffe Site This site was voted #1 by the "Yahoo Giraffe lovers club"!!!!

Rich Lowry: What Democrats believe

Rich Lowry: What Democrats believe:
"A presidential primary is a way for a political party to make up its mind. Through the process of nominating a candidate, a party figures out its stances on the new issues and what adjustments, if any, it will make in its positions on the old. So with that, through their collective rhetoric and actions, the 10 Democratic candidates have arrived at the outlines of a rough philosophy --

the credo of the Democrats of '04.

This credo is often nonsensical and hypocritical, but it is clearly discernible.

The Democrats of '04 believe:

That wars should be authorized, but never fought.

That the United Nations is the world's last, best hope, and every jot of its writ should always be respected, unless it inconveniences Saddam Hussein.

That nation-building is always a humanitarian and just cause, unless it is undertaken in Iraq.

That anyone who said Saddam had weapons of mass destruction prior to the war was lying, unless his or her name is Bill Clinton, Al Gore, Madeleine Albright, Bill Cohen, John Kerry or Joe Lieberman, or the person ever served in the Clinton cabinet or as a Democratic senator.

That French Foreign Minister Dominique de Villepin is always right.

That President Bush isn't devoting enough resources to the reconstruction of Iraq, and that -- in light of his $87 billion aid proposal -- he is devoting far too many resources to the reconstruction of Iraq.

That George Bush maneuvering the United States into war is an act of manipulative genius, and also is very stupid.

That (fill in blank with latest conflict here) is another Vietnam.

That the U.S. military is overextended -- and should be
smaller.

That unilateral U.S. diplomatic pressure is always wrong, unless it is brought to bear on Israel.

The Taliban File

The Taliban File
Very interesting read.
COme to your own conclusions.

Global Rich List

Global Rich List
Click here to see how rich you are
compared to everyone else in the world.

Pravda.RU Federação Russa

Pravda.RU Federação Russa
Sometimes I feel as if the world is in a different language than the one I speak.
As you may have noticed the links here are not very pertinent.
I just use the blogthis ability. I hit one button and it posts whatever page I am on and I can type whatever I want.


I ordered my laptop!
It will be here around the 25th.
I can't wait

A long highway, rain, at the break of dawn

Headline news from Sky News - Witness the event

Smiling from the womb

Chuck Colson: Terrorism, War, and Evil

Chuck Colson: Terrorism, War, and Evil: "There’s something sacred about a day on which three thousand innocent American civilians died in a barbaric terrorist attack. As I reflect again on that bright September morning just two years ago, a number of thoughts come to mind.
First, I’m reminded that evil is real. Through the nineties, we hung onto the utopian notion that history had come to an end, ushering in peace and happiness evermore. September 11 shattered that—and, thankfully, our worldview has become more realistic and more biblical since then.
Second, I remember that we’re in a war against terrorism that is, in some ways, more threatening than World War II—for, here, the enemy is disguised. But the terrorists have the same goal as our enemies at that time: the destruction of Western civilization. Read what Osama bin Laden and other Islamist activists have said. They’re not hiding their purpose. September 11, 2001, was a declaration of war against, not only the United States, but also the civilized world.
Our response was absolutely correct in the wake of September 11. We went to Afghanistanto break the back of the Taliban and deny al Qaeda its base of operations. It was clearly a just war, the only possible response to a deadly attack on American citizens. And it has turned out to be a huge setback for al Qaeda. We’ve been on the offensive ever since, and we’ve put them on the defense—the best military strategy there is.
What about Iraq? Iraq, as I have argued, is the second theater in the war on terrorism. The evidence makes it clear that Saddam has strong ties to terrorists. That includes the al Qaeda cell that operated in northern Iraq since June 2001 and is, in part, responsible for terrorism in Iraq today.
In recent days we’ve heard the chorus of the critics: “We didn’t plan well. W"

Alife @ Fusebox

Alife @ FuseboxA morph lab using phenotypes and genotypes.
Alot of fun to be had here.

The Death Clock

The Death Clock
Acording to the death clock I have 1,453,316,073 seconds to live
That would put me at 98 years old. They obviously don't know me

If only I may grow: firmer, simpler, -- quieter, warmer.
-Dag Hammarskjold

ABS - Bamboo Bicycle

ABS - Bamboo BicycleLearn all about Bamboo

The Outhouse Gallery of Don Ponder - Photo Collection

The Outhouse Gallery of Don Ponder - Photo Collection

Apple picking time!


Apples come in all shades of reds, greens, yellows.
Two pounds of apples make one 9-inch pie.
Apple blossom is the state flower of Michigan.
2500 varieties of apples are grown in the United States.
7500 varieties of apples are grown throughout the world.
100 varieties of apples are grown commercially in the United States.
Apples are grown commercially in 36 states.
Apples are grown in all 50 states.
In 2001 United States consumers ate an average of 45.2 pounds of fresh apples and processed apple products. That's a lot of applesauce!
61 percent of United States apples are eaten as fresh fruit.
39 percent of apples are processed into apple products; 21 percent of this is for juice and cider.
The top apple producing states are Washington, New York, Michigan, California, Pennsylvania and Virginia, which produced over 83 percent of the nation’s 2001-crop apple supply.
Apples are fat, sodium, and cholesterol free.
A medium apples is about 80 calories.
Apples are a great source of the fiber pectin. One apple has five grams of fiber.
In 2001 there were 8,000 apple growers with orchards covering 430,200 acres.
The pilgrims planted the first United States apple trees in the Massachusetts Bay Colony.
The science of apple growing is called pomology.
Apple trees take four to five years to produce their first fruit.
Most apples are still picked by hand in the fall.
Apple varieties range in size from a little larger than a cherry to as large as a grapefruit.
Apples are propagated by two methods: grafting or budding.
The apple variety ‘Delicious' is the most widely grown in the United States.
In Europe, France, Italy and Germany are the leading apple producing countries.
The apple tree originated in an area between the Caspin and the Black Sea.
Apples were the favorite fruit of ancient Greeks and Romans.
Apples are a member of the rose family.
Apples harvested from an average tree can fill 20 boxes that weigh 42 pounds each.
Americans eat 19.6 pounds or about 65 fresh apples every year.
25 percent of an apple's volume is air. That is why they float.
The largest apple picked weighed three pounds.
Europeans eat about 46 pounds of apples annually.
The average size of a United States orchard is 50 acres.
Many growers use dwarf apple trees.
Charred apples have been found in prehistoric dwellings in Switzerland.
Most apple blossoms are pink when they open but gradually fade to white.
Some apple trees will grown over forty feet high and live over a hundred years.
Most apples can be grown farther north than most other fruits because they blossom late in spring, minimizing frost damage.
It takes the energy from 50 leaves to produce one apple.
Apples are the second most valuable fruit grown in the United States. Oranges are first.
In colonial time apples were called winter banana or melt-in-the-mouth.
United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) forecasts the 2000 apple crop to be at 254.2 million 42 pound cartons.
Total apple production in 2001 was 229 million cartons valued at $1.5 billion.
The largest U. S. apple crop was 277.3 million cartons in 1998.
In 1999 the People's Republic of China led the world in apple production followed by the United States.
Apples have 5 seeds. There are five seed pockets, each with a seed, in an apple.
China is the leading producer of apples with over 1.2 billion bushels grown in 2001.
World's top apple producers are China, United States, Turkey, Poland and Italy.
The Lady or Api apple is one of the oldest varieties in existence.
Newton Pippin apples were the first apples exported from America in 1768, some were sent to Benjamin Franklin in London.
In 1730 the first apple nursery was opened in Flushing, New York.
One of George Washington's hobbies was pruning his apple trees.
America's longest-lived apple tree was reportedly planted in 1647 by Peter Stuyvesant in his Manhattan orchard and was still bearing fruit when a derailed train struck it in 1866.
Apples ripen six to ten times faster at room temperature than if they were refrigerated.
A peck of apples weight 10.5 pounds.
A bushel of apples weights about 42 pounds and will yield 20-24 quarts of applesauce.
Archeologists have found evidence that humans have been enjoying apples since lat least 6500 B.C.
The world's larges apple peel was created by Kathy Wafler Madison on October 16, 1976, in Rochester, NY. It was 172 feet, 4 inches long. (She was 16 years old at the time and grew up to be a sales manager for an apple tree nursery.)
It takes about 36 apples to create one gallon of apple cider.

Guardian Unlimited | Life | 'Science cannot provide all the answers'

'Science cannot provide all the answers'
I have always believed that science tells us How things happened and the Bible Tells us why God did them!
Alot of people now think that they are mutually exclusive.

icecube's keep

How much wood can a Woodchuck chuck?
Not as scientific as "Is Kansas flatter than a pancake" but interesting nonetheless.

geeks4dean.com

Startrek on ice

Tutorials Home

Tutorials Home
Learn how to Argue!
Great little site..............no it isn't.............yes it is!
I came here for an argument...............No you didn't
Yes I did!

ICYouSee: T is for Thinking

ICYouSee: T is for Thinking
What you see on the web is not always acurate.
This web site has valuable info on researching on the web

Yahoo! News - Offbeat Photos - AFP

A german man forced the social welfare system to pay for his Miami beachfront property because Living in Germany depressed him!

John Derbyshire on National Review Online

The Importance of Not Thinking Too Much
Foundational crises.
It is conventional wisdom among soldiers, at any rate in the British army, that a man is no good for combat after the age of 35 because he thinks too much. I suppose that in the particular case of soldiering, and strictly from the actuarial, as opposed to career, point of view, you could argue that thinking too much is therefore a good life strategy. In general, however, it is a bad one. It would not do for the concert pianist to think about every note before he struck it, or for the tennis player to perform a mental exercise in mathematical ballistics before swinging the racquet, or for the courtroom lawyer to carefully ponder the pros and cons of each question before addressing it to the witness.

In Focus Article

In Focus Article: " Cultural Relativism"
A very good article about the choices we make and how Culteral relativism falls apart.

my birthday is 10 / 14 / 1962
which means I am 40 years old and about:
36 years 4 months younger than Andy Griffith, age 77
32 years 10 months younger than Dick Clark, age 73
31 years 7 months younger than Leonard Nimoy, age 72
29 years 6 months younger than Carol Burnett, age 70
26 years 9 months younger than Alan Alda, age 67
25 years 3 months younger than Bill Cosby, age 66
19 years 11 months younger than Linda Evans, age 60
17 years 9 months younger than Tom Selleck, age 58
14 years 10 months younger than Ted Danson, age 55
12 years 6 months younger than Jay Leno, age 53
8 years 9 months younger than Oprah Winfrey, age 49
7 years 8 months younger than Kelsey Grammer, age 48
4 years 5 months younger than Drew Carey, age 45
1 year 4 months younger than Michael J. Fox, age 42
2 years 1 month older than Calista Flockhart, age 38
6 years 4 months older than Jennifer Aniston, age 34
10 years 2 months older than Alyssa Milano, age 30
15 years 1 month older than Colin Hanks, age 25
20 years 10 months older than Mila Kunis, age 20
28 years 8 months older than Madylin Sweeten, age 12



and that I was:
1 years old when the Addams Family first appeared on TV
3 years old at the time the first Star Trek episode was televised
8 years old when All in the Family was first shown
9 years old at the time the TV series M*A*S*H began
12 years old when Saturday Night Live first aired
15 years old when CBS introduced Dallas
18 years old during the first airing of Hill Street Blues
19 years old at the time the first Cheers episode was televised
23 years old when L.A. Law was first aired on TV
24 years old at the time the series Married with Children began
27 years old when Seinfeld was first televised
28 years old in the month Home Improvement began
31 years old at the time the TV series Friends began
33 years old when Everybody Loves Raymond first aired
36 years old when Who Wants To Be A Millionaire began in the US

Dharma Rain Zen Center Home Page

Dharma Rain Zen Center Home Page

Balloon art

U.S. DOL - The History of Labor Day

The History of Labor Day an interesting read

DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2002®

DRUDGE REPORT FLASH 2002®

Drudge outlines a new book by Richard Miniter
"Losing BIn Laden"
How Bill Clinton missed so many oppertunities to get Bin Laden.

Castles made of sand

Why do sand castles work?
I love to build sand castles, maybe I will post some pics although I never liked them being photographed.
The essence of them is in the building of them, not the final productCastles made of sand

Whats going on out there?

This article is a must read for those who would like to know why things are as they are. I think it hits the nail right on the head!Whats going on out there?

"I Have A Dream"
by Martin Luther King, Jr,


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1963. Source: Martin Luther King, Jr: The Peaceful Warrior, Pocket Books, NY 1968
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------




Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of captivity. But one hundred years later, we must face the tragic fact that the Negro is still not free.

One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languishing in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land.

So we have come here today to dramatize an appalling condition. In a sense we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir.

This note was a promise that all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation.

So we have come to cash this check -- a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and the security of justice. We have also come to this hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to open the doors of opportunity to all of God's children. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood.

It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment and to underestimate the determination of the Negro. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end, but a beginning. Those who hope that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights.

The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges. But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred.

We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. we must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force.

The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom.

We cannot walk alone. And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" we can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no, we are not satisfied, and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by the storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.

Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed. Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today, my friends, that in spite of the difficulties and frustrations of the moment, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.

I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident: that all men are created equal." I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slaveowners will be able to sit down together at a table of brotherhood. I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a desert state, sweltering with the heat of injustice and oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice. I have a dream that my four children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character. I have a dream today.

I have a dream that one day the state of Alabama, whose governor's lips are presently dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, will be transformed into a situation where little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls and walk together as sisters and brothers. I have a dream today. I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together. This is our hope. This is the faith with which I return to the South. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.

This will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with a new meaning, "My country, 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my fathers died, land of the pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring." And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. So let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania! Let freedom ring from the snowcapped Rockies of Colorado! Let freedom ring from the curvaceous peaks of California! But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia! Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee! Let freedom ring from every hill and every molehill of Mississippi. From every mountainside, let freedom ring.

When we let freedom ring, when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children, black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics, will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual, "Free at last! free at last! thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Kansas Is Flatter Than a Pancake
In this report, we apply basic scientific techniques to answer the question “Is Kansas as flat as a pancake?”





While driving across the American Midwest, it is common to hear travelers remark, “This state is as flat as a pancake.” To the authors, this adage seems to qualitatively capture some characteristic of a topographic geodetic survey 2. This obvious question “how flat is a pancake” spurned our analytical interest, and we set out to find the ‘flatness’ of both a pancake and one particular state: Kansas
by Mark Fonstad 1, William Pugatch 1, and Brandon Vogt 2

Read the whole very funny article

Very cool


Do you think they feel like they are cowboys?

Fear knocked at the door.
Faith answered.
And lo, no one was there.

Given to me by Lola

Do you have a wish?
When we write our wishes down they become real, they become powerfull.
Believe in the wish and write it down on a piece of paper, or click on the link below and put your wish on the wishing tree.
:: The wishing tree

About to name your baby boy?
Don't give him the middle name of Wayne!

Recently arrested for murder:
Michael Wayne Sears, 54, Charlottesville, Va. (May);
Dale Wayne Eaton, 58, Denver (April);
Ricky Wayne Brown, 39, Manassas, Va. (wanted in Florida) (May).
Sentenced for murder:
Michael Wayne Fisher, Chester County, Pa. (March).
Executed for murder:
Allen Wayne Jenecka, 53, Huntsville, Texas (July);
Bobby Wayne Swisher, 27, Jarratt, Va. (July).

Black Eyed Susans


A burst of orange!
Exploding out of their black eyes,
Not full and lush as other flowers,
More basic,
Their petals thrust outward and upward,
as if they would dislodge from their stems,
and Soar up and away!
Black eyed susans are not solitary,
always found in bunches,
All straining towards the sun,
A riotous group, though still,
seem to be in action,
You cannot ignore them,
They demand your attention,
if the Rose is the sedate Elder statesman of the flower world,
The Black eyed susans are a gaggle of preschoolers who've had to much sugar!

Gary player quote

"The fox fears not the man who boasts by night,
but the man who rises early in the morning."
Gary Player

Pop some bubbles

What is so fascinating about bubbles?

Dear Friends

Dear friends, reproach me not for what I do,
Nor counsel me, nor pity me; nor say
That I am wearing half my life away
For bubble-work that only fools pursue.

And if my bubbles be too small for you,
Blow bigger then your own: the games we play
To fill the frittered minutes of a day,
Good glasses are to read the spirit through.

And whose reads may get him some shrewd skill;
And some unprofitable scorn resign,
To praise the very thing that he deplores;
So, friends (dear friends), remember, if you will,
The shame I win for singing is all mine,
The gold I miss for dreaming is all yours.

Edwin Arlington Robinson (1869–1935). Collected Poems. 1921.

"In order to be irreplaceable, one must first be different." - Coco Chanel

"A wise and frugal government ... shall not take from the mouth
of labor the bread it has earned." --Thomas Jefferson

I will strive to be as optomistic as Pooh today.
But it is my day off you know!

"Those who dream of the banquet may weep the next morning, and those who dream of weeping may go out to hunt after dawn. When we dream we do not know that we are dreaming. In our dreams we may even interpret our dreams. Only after we are awake do we know that we have dreamed. But there comes a great awakening, and then we know that life is a great dream. But the stupid think they are awake all the time and believe they know it distinctly.

"Once I, Chuang Tzu, dreamed I was a butterfly and was happy as a butterfly. I was conscious that I was quite pleased with myself, but I did not know that I was Tzu. Suddenly I awoke, and there was I, visibly Tzu. I do not know whether it was Tzu dreaming that he was a butterfly or the butterfly dreaming that he was Tzu. Between Tzu and the butterfly there must be some distinction. [But one may be the other.] This is called the transformation of things."
Chuang Tzu

I peed with Paulie Walnuts
Yesterday a friend of ours called to say say if we picked her up from the train At Newark , She and her husband would take Bonnie and I to the Springstien concert!
14 th row in the first tier just off stage left.
Anyway, Just before the concert started I went to the bathroom, while doing my business I see a guy come in and start doing his business right next to me.
I glance over and who is it? Paulie Walnuts from the Soprano's!
Who's real name is Tony Sirico.
I say "Hey, Whats going on?" really casual.
He smiled and said "Just taken care of some business." and smiled with a little chuckle.
We washed up siliently and I think he appreciated the fact that I did not hound him for an autograph or talk incessantly.
We both left and were walking together and he went down my aisle?! He was sitting about ten rows above me!
When he went to get in his row he looked at me and winked, like we were old friends who shared a secret.
The concert was as great as the first one, but I will always remember peeing with paulie walnuts!

You are not forgotten


South Koreans look at a giant bronze statue, which will be dedicated on July 27 to the tens of thousands who died during the 1950-53 Korean War
(AFP/Choi Jae-Ku)

A story
A man sits alone at his computer early one morning before the sun is up. He wonders about where his life is going and whether there will be anyone at his funeral. He is tired and confused, always trying his very best to make everyone happy yet he has seemed to fail. There is such misery in the world, how can one man possibly fight all the demons? How much energy is in him? He thinks about all the evil done to him in his life, all the bad people that have shaped his life into what is is. Why? As he sits there all alone he begins to realize that, actually, he is not sitting in the dark alone. There is a light shining from somewhere. He looks around to find the source of the light but cannot find it. 'Am I going mad?' He thinks.
But with the lights off and just the glow of the computer he still senses a light, a light that surrounds him, makes him warm inside. He suddenly aware that the light is coming from inside him! An energy that he had forgotten, an energy he had known he had when he was young. A tear fell from his eye unexpectadly, He was not alone after all. God was shining his light through him, giving him all the energy needed to fight the fight. His life was worthwhile and there was more good in the world than evil. The sun broke over the horizon as an answer to his questions. Another day. Another battle. A new life!

The world is at our finger tips,
My fingers are sore,
The world is my oyster,
I'm allergic to shellfish,
There is a world of possibilities,
How do I choose?

Did you ever sit in traffic complaining about the road work up ahead?
Did you ever hit a pothole and it shakes your car and you curse the lousy road?
To give you some perspective: This was not thast long ago.

"I Lost My Hat!"


Why won't anyone talk to me?

To Have and to Hold: The Key
To Wife Carrying Is Upside Down




Take it from a world champion: The best way for a man to carry a woman is to dangle her upside down over his back, with her thighs squeezing his neck and her arms around his torso.



By ROGER THUROW




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