Drippings from the crank case....

Here's what we have to do......

2009-02-22T11:34:00.001-06:00

I was glancing through some quotations today and came across one from Barack Obama.

*If the people cannot trust their government to do the job for which it exists - to protect them and to promote their common welfare - all else is lost.*

This got me thinking about how Obama perceives the purpose of government as opposed to how I (and others) see it. Dietz, Hobbes and the "Social Contract" theory defines the fundamental purpose of government much as I do:

*People in a community create and submit to government for the purpose of establishing for themselves, safety and public order.*

In other words, we, the governed, create an orderly structure which we agree to observe and which guarantees our safety.

Note that this idea does NOT include any mention of a "Common Welfare" for those being governed. *THAT* concept is found only in Obama's idea (and, I suspect, in the minds of many liberal thinkers) of what government exists for!

This explains exactly what we have seen happen since January 20th - "promotion of the common welfare". How does government do that? Well, first it has to have a majority of people in the community that either like the idea of promoting the common welfare, or, failing that, a majority of people who are not willing to participate in their government for whatever reason.

Now, the definition of "Social Democracy" is:

*The formation of a democratic welfare state that incorporates both capitalist and socialist practices.*

The words "democratic welfare state" are interesting. It basically means that through "democratic" practices, the "community" has chosen a "welfare state." And what does a welfare state do? Why, it "promotes common welfare", of course.

Sooooo...... Barack believes that the government needs to provide for your protection AND push for a democratic welfare state.

Bottom line - a good hunk of the Democratic Party in America has become a Social Democratic Party. Only the Democratic centrists still believe in a capitalistic based democracy - one where each person is responsible for their own welfare.

In effect we now have a three party system in this country. Republicans, Democrats, and Social Democrats.

Now go do your homework if you need to. Look at what the Social Democrats have accomplished elsewhere in the world and consider if you wish your government to follow suit. If you are as stunned as I am by what you see, organize other independents, moderates, and conservatives. Yes and even Democrat centrists! And most importantly, inspire the previously indifferent to get involved in their government!

We must unseat the social democrats in our local, state and national governments and we must do so quickly before the damage is too extreme to repair.

AAaarrrrh!

2008-09-19T18:01:00.004-05:00

Just a quick post to celebrate International Talk Like A Pirate Day!!!

Oooo, Arrrr me 'ardies!!!!

Ignorance and BIG OIL

2008-09-19T18:01:00.002-05:00

I'm very weary of the ignorance of the American public in general and our politicians in particular concerning the proverbial BIG OIL situation in this country. If you are not up to reading some contrasting views on this topic and believe that BIG OIL is a monster hell bent on destruction of our society, then you should probably leave this blog now. If you are still here, I congratulate you on your willingness to remain at least partially open minded. Please read on....

First my credentials. I don't claim to be any kind of expert on energy of any kind. I spent some time in the 1970s working for a company that had most of the major oil companies or drilling companies as clients. During this time I was friendly with a lot of people involved in the oil industry and gained an understanding of how it used to work. I say "used to" because things have improved a lot since those days. I also read a lot on energy because it interests me.

I see 4 major myths being perpetuated today by politicians, the media, and a lot of citizens for action groups who haven't the least idea what they are talking about. Here they are along with my rebuttal.

1. The oil companies are greedy. To keep their record profits going they lobby lawmakers to prevent development of alternative energy sources.

2. Wind, solar, biofuels, hydrogen, and compressed natural gas energy is cheap, easy and readily available

3. Oil drilling pollutes and would ruin many natural areas.

4. Oil leases currently owned by the oil companies would provide plenty of oil so no new drilling is necessary.

I'll address these one item at a time.

Myth #1 Perhaps oil companies are greedy. Like any business or industry they are in operation to make money and to try to increase their profits for their share holders. If that is your measure of greed, then you'd be more comfortable in a communist or socialist society where nobody has a opportunity to make any more money than anyone else. Go to Russia or China and see how you like this model. Now lets look at the accusation that they are trying to prevent development of alternative energy forms.

This is incredibly silly. Oil companies aren't stupid. You don't get that rich by being stupid. They know that supplies of natural gas and oil are limited. Most oil companies have long been investing money into research and development of every kind of possible new energy source available. It is part of the greed thing. Think about it. Instead of wanting to stifle development of these energy forms it is far more financially astute of them to grow and OWN these new energy sources when the legacy of natural gas and oil is gone!! Even back in the 70s, many oil industries were deeply immersed in developing these energy forms. They have put many billions of dollars into research to that end and continue to do so. If it were easy to develop these sources and bring them on line to sell to you at a profit, don't you think it would have happened long ago? That brings us to the next myth.

Myth #2 Wind, solar, nuclear, biofuel, hydrogen, and CNG.... As mentioned above, none of these are as easy and cheap to develop, store, distribute and maintain as are fossil fuels with the possible exception of nuclear generated electricity.

Wind turbines and solar cells generate electricity from a "free" source, yes. However, the wind doesn't always blow and the sun doesn't always shine and the turbines and solar cells aren't cheap and have to be constantly maintained. Electric storage must accompany these two technologies to furnish power when the turbines and solar cells aren't. When you add up the price of all of this, your kilowatt hour of wind or solar generated energy becomes more expensive than the coal, oil or gas fired generating plants we currently use. I will agree that these two technologies look very promising for the future as we learn new ways to deal with the storage and transmission problems involved but they are not yet ready to, or cheap enough to replace our present methods of electricity generation. Nuclear electricity generation is cheap and ready to go now.....but.....

Nuclear power is scary. Remember Three Mile Island? Remember Chernobyl? What about radioactive waste from the reactors? Bunk. France, whom we love to dump on for everything, has mastered all of these problems easily and now generates more than 80% of their electric power from nuclear power plants. OUR problem is that we've cow-towed to tree-huggers, the scientifically illiterate, and the "nanny state" radicals to the point where government regulations intended to "save us" from that "scary" nuclear stuff make it too expensive to develop. We desperately need to trash those regulations so that building nuclear power plants becomes economically viable to the large energy corporations who can afford to do it! Of course we need to regulate the nuclear power industry. What we DON'T need to do is to strangle it with over regulation as we have done over the past 40 years!

The madcap rush to develop ethanol and bio diesel in this country is a looming disaster. The world doesn't currently grow enough food to feed its population - a population that is growing geometrically while farm land stays the same - and biofuel nuts want to take a lot of the food we do have and make fuel out of it? It is just unbelievably stupid. Yes we can get ethanol from some plants which aren't food, (look at Brazil, but be sure to count the number of cars per capita and the cost of gasoline in that country!) but the process turns out to cost a lot more than current energy sources including oil!

Hydrogen and Compressed Natural Gas look promising. For Hydrogen we have to figure out how to produce it cheaply. We already have lots of natural gas but - guess what - to supply all we'd need to replace gasoline, we'd have to - you guessed it - do a lot more drilling! When we solve those two problems then all we have to do is figure out how to store these two fuels safely (They are highly explosive, you know! Much more so than gasoline!) and then convert cars to carry and burn them. Those conversions are pretty much available for fleet vehicles already but try pricing a conversion for your family grocery hauler! I looked. The numbers are still burned into my retina!! Anyway, lots of advocates of alternative fuels are trying hard to convince you that somehow these are simple problems that can be easily solved in a year or two. Sure. You bet.

Myth #3 The idea that you can't have clean drilling sites off shore and in the Arctic Natural Wildlife Refuge simply shows a complete lack of understanding of how drilling is done today. I would agree with this idea IF we were still using the drilling methods we used up through the 1960s. Wells from those days are the ones that have had problems. There have been virtually NO pollution issues associated with drilling since the 1970s when oil companies discovered ways to clean up their act and their image. Anyone who buys this myth knows nothing about modern oil extraction methods and is operating at a purely emotional and totally uninformed level. Are these the people you want controlling our energy policies?

Those who don't want off-shore drilling rigs to spoil their view need to be beamed up because they are definitely space cadets. In the 1970s people along the gulf coast had a bumper sticker that described their view of coastal states that proscribed off shore rigs. It proclaimed, "Let The Bastards Freeze In The Dark!". Amen.

Myth #4 That brings us to the topic of oil leases. What do you know about them? Where do they come from? What are they for? Huh? Got any answers? Yet you are willing to believe in the idea that the oil companies hold millions of these leases that we should force them to use or loose, aren't you? Okay - here's the scoop.

There is a virtual cottage industry built around buying and selling oil leases. Across the plains region of the country (and possibly elsewhere) many farmers seek to sell oil leases for their land to get a little extra money. In many cases no exploration has been done at all but they are always worth a few bucks an acre to speculators who might later resell them to someone else. Also, there is always the chance that an oil company will come along and spend the money on exploration, find some leases where the probability of oil is relatively higher, and buy the leases up from the speculator. Once they have done that they are limited by an old and existing law (No, we don't need another one of these!) to either develop the lease (drill) or turn it back after a given and relatively short amount of time.

The point is that holding an oil lease on a given piece of real estate doesn't mean that there is any oil there! You buy up oil leases as a hedge - a gamble - that there "might" be oil there. Consequently the oil companies buy up many oil leases and end up finding oil on, and developing only a hand full of them. So the story you are hearing from our congress that we should force the oil companies to use the leases they already have before allowing any additional drilling is pure stupidity. I wish I knew the percentage of oil leases that actually, eventually produce oil. I'm pretty sure it is a tiny number.

Now, let me say that I am a firm believer that we must make huge changes and make them damned soon, too! As I write this we are looking at a trillion dollar infusion from the government to save our economy. That's a lot of money! But remember that by the end of the year we will have sent 700 Billion of our dollars out of the country to the people we buy our oil from because our elected congressmen and senators have been too ignorant, lazy, and partisan to address this problem. 700 Billion and a few well chosen regulatory changes would have just about fixed the problem. Moreover, next year's 740 Billion projection added in would have solved the credit crisis completely and left us with some money in the bank.

I agree that we have to fix our oil dependency immediately, but let's not be stupid about it as a citizen. Let's read and learn what really *will* work before we go wandering off down the garden path into oblivion pinning our hopes on a fleeting wisp of ignorance. Congress will only do what we *make * them do, so let's not make them do the wrong things due to our own stupidity.

For Bob Meginnes...

2008-09-05T18:42:00.002-05:00

Hello Bob,

Since you didn't leave an email, I have no way to get back to you so I have posted this to my blog in hopes that you will read it. Please send me an email at bmwwxman "at" gmail.com

Regards,
Jim Johnson

Can you explain Kansas....??

2008-02-27T12:24:00.002-06:00

I had an email from a friend in Califonia today. He travels with a rock band and said they always dread having to drive across Kansas in their bus. In replying to him it got me to thinking about what it is that I find special about western Kansas. Here's what I wrote him....

==========================================

Yeah, Kansas is about 50 years behind the rest of the country. More than that in rural areas. The problem with driving through Kansas is that the highway engineers laid out all the roads across the most desolate and flat areas thinking they would make travel easier. It did, but it also made it deathly boring!!

You asked about Baseball.... With the possible exception of basketball, probably the greatest game in the state. There are bush league teams everywhere. Any city with more than 10k people seems to have at least one team - usually more. Farming and ranching (the state's major industry) is a hard life of sweat and muscle 24/7/365 so baseball furnishes the diversion from work. From early spring through late fall there are league games everywhere. Even during the week. And the local folks follow their teams voraciously and will drive 200 mi one way and back again for a game Those that don't drive back the same day (like for night games) jam the local motels.

Finally, Kansas has never really got the hang of tourism. We are something like 44th out of the 51 states and territories in tourism development. Consequently, only a handful of businesses have realized the financial value of having motels and restaurants along the interstate. Everything in central and western Kansas is based on the local customer so travelers find it difficult to fulfill their needs. They are looking for chain restaurants and motels catering to tourism that they are familiar with and there just aren't many of them! Mom & Pop businesses are still very much the rule here. We don't get many tourists so there's no infrastructure to support them.

I'm sure it all seems extremely rural by the standards of an Orange County resident, but once you get used to it, it is great!! I grew up in upstate New York and spent years living all across the US and Europe so rural Kansas was real culture shock for me when I first arrived some 24 years ago. Within a couple of years I realized the Agri based Mom & Pop local bias and now thoroughly enjoy it! You just have to set your mental clock back into the 1950s before interstates and Bingo! It becomes a great place to live. I know I will miss it when we move to northwest Georgia but I'm sure there will be some charming new life experiences there to replace it. Can you say "Bubba"? ;-)

And now I'm going down to the local diner for a blue plate special, cup of coffee, and a slice of home made pie..... There may be a few farmers there and we can tell lies about how good the wheat looks or how much rain we had in the gauge this morning....

I'm back, at last!!

2008-01-28T10:36:00.000-06:00

Well, here I am back again well over a year since my last post. I am now a fully retired person and I must admit what people told me about retirement is certainly true. I am busier now than ever before!! Anyway, here is my comment on the primary campaigns to date. I reserve the right to change my mind at any time I so desire in the future ;-)

***************************************************
It is patently obvious that HillaBilly have begun spinning the race issue in the opposite direction. Let us remember that there are two sides to the race card. Racism dead in America? Not as long as the Clintons are around!

How about the previous several weeks when HillaBilly was trying desperately to show that *they* (not just she) were blacker than Obama was. Incredible!! Talk about your racial enablers!! Jesse Jackson, Al Sharpton, and Louis Farrakhan have NOTHING on HillaBilly! Create racism where none exists!! I loved her "my ass is blacker than yours" attitude during the recent SC debates! Man! What nerve!! For all intents and purposes she looked Obama in the eye and told him she (and Bill, of course) was blacker than he was! Are some people really dumb enough to fall for that crap?! Apparently so.

Eventually though, I do hope Billary gets the nomination. I think her "all things to all people" positioning will NOT server her well in the general election. It causes her to make mistakes and comes off too phony.

Because of that, Billary can be beaten by McCain, Romney, Giuliani or some combination thereof. Obama with momentum would be very hard to stop. Young voters who don't know their history and who are strong idealists find his freshness attractive but I don't think he possesses the experience and judgement to run the country in time of crisis both economically and in the war against terror.

The main mistake that all the candidates are making concerning the war (and I think that will become the major issue in the general election) is their read of the American public. True enough if we believe the pollsters, the public overwhelmingly wants the war to end. Surprise! Just like WWI, WWII, Korea...etc! What the candidates are missing (all except McCain and Giuliani) is that the majority of the public still wants the war to end honorably - preferably in a victory!!

We learned about precipitous withdrawal in the 1970s. Have we forgotten that already? Maybe so. An increasing number of today's voters weren't even born yet when we ignominiously pulled out of Vietnam leaving the communists to slaughter millions of innocents and shaming America as a country that doesn't keep its promises and is growing very weak.

Group Accomplishment

2006-09-04T11:44:00.000-05:00

Recent events in my life have caused me to think about “group accomplishment”. Exactly what does it take for a group to accomplish something? Also, what happens to produce failure to accomplish?

In my estimation, for a group to accomplish something worthwhile requires vision, commitment and action.

Failure requires the lack of any one of the three and is therefore perhaps a more common theme in many groups and organizations.

Vision:

In order to accomplish something – anything – a solid vision of what will be accomplished is needed.

I like to listen to the Thomas Jefferson Hour. I have a radio in the garage which I like to have on in the background while I tinker with my old car and motorcycles. Scholar Clay Jenkinson carries, I believe, the Jeffersonian vision across to the listener exceedingly well, though I am certainly no expert on Jefferson. The other day he quoted Jefferson (or perhaps paraphrased him?). I can’t cite the exact words but it comes out to be something like, “All my public life when required to make a choice, I strived to look past immediacy and to make decisions which would be sound for the future”.

Amen. How many times do you see groups and organizations - local and national – school, church and community, applying band-aid fixes to present problems with apparent total disregard for the long term outcome? If you stop to think about it, you’ll come up with “most of the time”, I bet.

It is, I believe, a lack of vision by the whole group which causes this. Some people are natural visionaries. Others have to work at it. Sadly, most people who are not natural visionaries choose the lazy way out and don’t even try. In a group, you must not only have a common vision, but you must maintain it throughout the group’s existence. The visionary in any group or organization provides that vision, but the group leadership must sell the entire group on the vision and keep reminding them of it for it to be truly successful.

Commitment:

In order to accomplish worthwhile things, group or organizational leadership must be tenacious about working toward the vision, but also in imparting the vision to the members of the group. Once the vision has been imparted, each member of the group must make a choice. Will they support the vision – commit to working towards it – or not.

In my experience, it is at this point where group members begin to fall by the wayside. The most successful groups I have worked in or with have usually required the members to sign some sort of a commitment document saying that they will make every effort to attend all meetings, be active, and perform assigned tasks on time.

Unless the group commits to doing what is necessary to accomplish the vision – and is tenacious about following the vision – the group fails even before the first chore is undertaken.

Action:

Finally, all the vision and commitment to that vision in the world is useless unless the group can be guided to do those things which accomplish the vision. The group leaders must be able to motivate the group members to actually do the work needed and they must always keep the vision foremost in their mind when assigning tasks. Otherwise, members of the group become disenchanted as they discover that the task they have been given to accomplish toward the goal is a dead-end, busy-work task.

Action by itself is rarely, if ever, useful. It must have the direction and purpose of the vision tied inextricably to it.

I was recently involved with a group which assembled a working sports car from a pile of parts in three days. Our visionary who dreamed the whole project up provided all of us with a clear idea of exactly what we were going to accomplish at the end of three days and continued to reinforce that vision to all of us throughout the project. The members of the group had traveled from all over the country to be there and participate, donating their expenses to the project and thereby making a significant commitment to seeing the vision through to the end. The action commenced on schedule with everyone involved in tasks which were leading toward the realization of the vision. When the smoke cleared on day three, we watched the car drive around with a terrific feeling of “group accomplishment”.

Some of the members of that group plus a few more are now involved in a new and much longer term project. I sincerely hope; 1) we can come up with a vision that all can share, 2) we don’t lose too many when the time comes to make the big commitment, and 3) those who do commit to the vision can be guided to do the most productive and rewarding tasks possible to achieve the goal of “group accomplishment”.

There is no better feeling, I think, than being part of a group which has just accomplished something really exciting and worthwhile.

Vision – Commitment - Action

The French inspire a new word for your vocabulary!

2006-08-22T11:44:00.000-05:00

Our erstwhile ally Jacques Chirac and his comrades in arms have once again cast all caution to the wind and leaped into maelstrom of world affairs with gusto. Having assisted the US in crafting a truly stern, vigorous and narrowly defined Resolution 1701 in the UN Security Council, our "devil may care" friends have now struck fear into the hearts of world terrorism. Not since LaFayette's arrival on America's shores has the world seen such grim determination from the French. Surely Hezbollah and the other rag-tag middle-east riff-raff are now quaking in their boots! I say, "Vive La France!!" And thank heaven our age old benefactor has seen fit to save our very bacon once again!

Only LaFayette came ashore to do battle with more grandeur! They say that he brought his somewhat larger entourage over in an actual ship! I read that some of them had guns. And used them, too! I am so inspired that I have decided to undertake a campaign to add a new term to the English language, to whit:

French verb (french) 'ed, 'ing, 'es. 'er :

1. Of, relating to, or characteristic of fear or cowardice.
2. To renege or fail to carry out a promise, resolution or commitment: frenched on the resolution at the last minute.

n.

An act or instance of frenching as committed by a frencher.

Neofascist Jihadists

2006-08-12T05:53:00.000-05:00

Where is our civilization headed? As a nation we've had a couple of good centuries under our belt. During that time we've had to fend off attempts by others to disrupt or even destroy our freedom and our way of life.

First the Brits wanted their lost colony back - and failing that, at least bloody our nose really good. No dice. We took some lumps, but we drove them off. Then the Mexicans mounted a somewhat half hearted attempt which was quickly and relatively quietly turned away. There's not even much mention of it in the history books these days. Next came the Spaniards who really only wanted some of the territory we used for trade...Cuba. Maybe we should have let them have it. How would they have dealt with Fidel I wonder? Then came the first big one. This time we didn't wait to defend ourselves on our own soil. This time we went to Europe. And because we didn't follow through as we should have, we had to go back 25 years later as we stood off the Germans in the East and the Japanese in the west.

WWI and WWII were great wars. You knew whom to hate and could recognize them because they spoke different languages, wore different uniforms and fought us in massed formations in conventional methods.

Then it all went haywire. First in Korea where we tried to help those less fortunate than we hold off the communist juggernaut. That's when the ideological war began. The war against communism. Sometimes it was hot as in Korea and Vietnam. Most of the time, however, it was a cold war. Still in Korea and even occasionally in Vietnam we were able to fight an enemy that usually wore some identifiable uniform and fought in formation against us. The cold part of it we finally won it because the bulk of Americans refused to give in - refused to compromise away our principles.

Today we have entered into another war. Like the previous one against communism, this one is different again than all the ones that have come before it. Military people call it "asymmetric warfare" meaning nothing organized or "typical" about it. This one however is being fought for the same reasons as the others even if the threats to us look far different than previous wars. It is a war against people who have been brainwashed into believing that we are evil and must all be killed. A war against mad men and radical religious zealots - neofascist jihadists.

Sadly, this time, a larger than ever number of Americans have lost sight of why we are doing this. They have already forgotten the lesson of 9/11, the slaughter of over 250 Marines in Beirut, the bombing of the Kobar towers...etc. They seem to believe that diplomacy and negotiation will help us "live in peace" with the demented lunatics of Islamic fascism. A large number of us, possibly because of the limited scope of the media coverage, have somehow dissociated Iran, the root sponsor of this insanity since 1977, with what is happening in Iraq, Lebanon and Palestine. The majority of these people are the new, anti-war democrats and they, in their zeal to hate George Bush, have lost the connection between Iraq and the global war on radical Islam. I don't know that I particularly like Bush either, but I don't let hate blind me to what is going on in the world. Neither am I silly enough to believe that somehow I could sit down with the Iranian Mullahs and quietly convince them that they don't want nuclear weapons.

Charles Krauthammer in yesterday's Washington post put it succinctly:

This naivete in the service of endless accommodationism recalls also the flaccid foreign policy of the post-Vietnam Democratic left. It lost the day -- it lost the country -- to Ronald Reagan and a muscular foreign policy that in the end won the Cold War.

We can only hope that something similar will happen in the next few years. Before some whacko Islamic fascist gets his hands on an Iranian made nuclear weapon.

A Descent Into The Maelstrom

2006-07-02T23:54:00.000-05:00

Did I miss the whole thing? When did hatred become the acme of politics? I don’t remember from the past the kind of overt anger and bitter acrimony between political parties and between the right and the left that I see in our country today. And I don’t know why it is happening.

This all seems to have arisen in the wake of the 2000 election mess. Ever since then muttering among the Democrats has grown from grudging discontent to screaming hatred. Not to be outdone, the other side quickly grew and groomed their lions and put them on the attack.

This cannot be good for our country. Is this what we want our kids to learn about our form of government? Do we want them to grow up to treat our government as if it were a WWF spectacular? If we don’t, then we’d better fix the problem quickly, because over the past 6 years that is exactly the message otherwise responsible adults are sending our youth.

People like Howard Dean, Michael Savage, Russ Feingold, Michael Moore, and Ann Coulter are out of control. Telling cleverly crafted half truths has gone the way of the dinosaur. Today’s pundits are into slobbering animals resorting to eye gouging, biting, kneeing, elbowing, and hitting below the belt. Without a qualm, they verbally accost those who hold different opinions and show no apparent interest in knowing the other side of the equation. They are like the Visigoths descending upon cowering Romans, disemboweling their opponents with battle axes – the more blood in the streets, the merrier!

TV interviewers are barely civilized as they rudely interrupt, mock, insult and shout down their guests. They are like ravenous wolves on a short chain snapping at the very guests they have obviously invited into the studios expressly for the purpose of belittling.

This pack of savages has now conditioned a large part of America to the point where ordinary people are starting to treat each other in the same manner. One need only utter the name “Bush” and a violent fusillade of abuse erupts instantly polarizing everyone in the immediate vicinity into hate mongers on one side or the other. A simple joke with mention of a political figure in it is tantamount to a declaration of war.

Meaningful discussions of the direction of our country are no longer possible. Healthy exchange of ideas and problem solving through open-mindedness are things of the past.

What happened? And why? Or more to the point, how can we now heal this gapping wound in our society?

If you have an answer, please feel free to comment!!

Selfishness

2006-04-29T05:37:00.000-05:00

The horrible truth is that our politicians care more about their job, perks or whatever than they do about our country. As we head into a national election year, the posturing by congressmen and senators has turned into an absolute circus. Each of them is determined to gain sufficient recognition to garner a win at the polls. And not through presenting constructive measures, quality plans and new ideas, but through verbal assassination of anyone and anything they perceive the public to dislike.

Is this what our founding fathers had in mind when they framed the constitution and bylaws? I certainly hope not! It certainly isn’t how I was taught that our government was supposed to work. I have always tried to judge who to vote for based upon the candidate’s ability to articulate constructive ways to make our country stronger, safer and wealthier.

This prompts a look back through history and we can stop pretty quickly in the year 1856. On May 22nd of that year, Congressman Preston Brooks (D-SC) stormed into the US Senate chamber with a metal tipped cane and beat Senator Charles Sumner (R-MA) bloody in front of all those assembled. He did so ostensibly to defend the honor of his Senate counterpart from South Carolina, Senator Andrew Butler who had been the subject of a particularly venomous verbal assault three days earlier by Senator Sumner.

Interestingly enough, Sumner’s insults were directed at Butler because Butler favored admitting Kansas to the Union as a slave state. Here are a few quotes from Sumner’s rant.

“He has taken a mistress . . . who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to him; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in his sight—I mean the harlot, Slavery."

Okay - so we haven’t seen anything quite this distressing out of our elected officials recently - at least not yet. What recalling this abhorrent event demonstrates is that, as bad as the nasty rhetoric and personal attacks have gotten nowadays, as vicious as they may sound, we have a way to go yet before we reach the rock bottom of American politics at its absolute worst.

Of course, the Sumner beating is widely suggested to have been a major player in leading the country into a civil war. Is it possible from the increasing tempo of political rancor that we could be headed in that direction again? I don’t think so. And the reason I don’t think so is that in 1856 Senators and Congressmen were far more principled than what we see today. Today, in an election year, most of them would sell their mother into slavery for a good sound byte and a couple of votes.

Yes, today’s Senators and Congressmen have also taken a mistress… who, though ugly to others, is always lovely to them; though polluted in the sight of the world, is chaste in their sight – I mean the harlot, selfishness.

Making Changes For The Better

2006-02-08T20:23:00.000-06:00

Adam Keda had a letter in today’s paper on the op/ed page and after thinking it through; I find I pretty much agree with him though I hadn’t thought of it in his terms. He basically said that a lot of people in Dodge City go to great lengths to pontificate about things which they know very little about and it is damaging to both the local economy and the quality of life in our community. Armed with half truths, wives tales, superstition and hearsay, they feel nevertheless compelled to expound with a bewildering stream of nonsense on a wide range of things which are extremely important to our community. Moreover, even when presented with incontrovertible facts, they continue to proclaim their ignorance loudly, belligerently, and inexplicably, with apparent pride as if such behavior will outweigh the truth. It is an “Ideology of Ignorance”. It is as if these people consider knowing little or nothing about a subject to be some sort of badge of honor – some sort of noteworthy accomplishment.

This atmosphere is particularly vexing to those who are, with no personal agendas or financial interests, trying so very hard to do strong, positive and quality things for the community. Unfortunately, through my experience of dealing for the past few years with local government, I find that both our city and county commissions fall repeatedly under the sway of this “Ideology of Ignorance”. I do believe our commissioners to be well meaning. However, they seem to be unable to make rational and useful decisions in the face of the loud and negative complainers that make up the “Ideology of Ignorance”. Adam saw this too, and I join him in crying out against it. In fact, anyone who wants to see our community return to the positive, forward thinking and progressive days of the past needs to join Adam too.

There are two things we can do to change this deplorable, negative, “Ideology of Ignorance”. The first is to join together and overpower the ignorance with studied, considered, and accurate, factual data and information devoid of the emotional blackmail and backward isolationist thinking that has become ubiquitous lately in our community. The second is to demand in our upcoming primary election, and in the follow on regular election, that candidates for city and county commission who have any hope of getting our vote must be positive, forward thinking people who will base their decisions on solid research, fact, and evidence – AND be willing to stand up to and face down the perpetrators of the “Ideology of Ignorance”.

Throw the bums out...

2006-01-14T07:02:00.000-06:00

While watching the travesty of the Samuel Alito hearings this past few days I found myself wondering how the political left in this country has come to be such a vicious and insensitive group. Senators Durbin, Kennedy, Leahy and Feingold, apparently disinterested in Alito's qualifications or abilities, mounted a rabid personal attack on the judge that eventual forced Mrs. Alito from the room in tears. I was astounded to see some of our most exaulted elected officials stoop to such treachery. How can we expect to attract people of quality for the highest levels of our government if willing and qualified candidates are so greviously and openly slandered while their accusers maintain relative impunity?

Giving it more thought tonight I came to the following conclusion:

The arrival of alternative, non-network news programs via cable, talk radio, and now the blogosphere has created a huge problem for the liberal left. No longer are they able to force feed the American public exclusively on their slanted views of life and politics through the mainstream media outlets. As a result, the Democratic Party has suffered a loss of identity and purpose.

And they know it, too.

So much so that they have mounted a counter-attack, not with fresh, new ideas, but instead with a tangle of campaign-finance and media regulations in an attempt to bog down the progress so recently seen by the centrists. Not since the 1798 Alien and Sedition acts have we seen such a blatant attack on free political speech in the United States. Americans who care about our most basic rights and our civic health need to understand what is happening and take action against it.

Throw the bums out.

The Blame Game as played in Europe...

2005-12-04T19:24:00.000-06:00

I recently watched a very illuminating National Geographic Worldview program titled, “Does Europe hate the US”? Having friends in Europe with whom I correspond fairly often I wasn’t very surprised by the perceptions of the Europeans who were interviewed. However, this was the first time I had really put two and two together on this subject.

The investigative reporter came to the conclusion that Europe is essentially mooching off of the United States since the fall of communism. That is to say, they (collectively) feel that they don’t have to worry about protecting themselves from aggressors or fanatical ideologues because “good ol’” America is doing it for them. The US is spending all that money on defense leaving our European friends(?) to provide much more extensive social services for their people with the money they would otherwise have to spend on their defense. Furthermore, their increasingly liberal, socialistic trend is a result of their singular concentration on social services. As a result, it is hardly surprising that, without their even realizing it, a huge Middle Eastern population explosion has taken place across Europe.

Incredibly, most of the youngsters interviewed (and my personal contacts confirm that the majority of the younger generations who have not known war feel this way) claimed that while they really loved America (and, incidentally, American clothes, music, cars, food, stores, pizza….ad nauseam), they felt that they should be the ones to determine whether some other country represents a world threat, and then how the US should respond to such a threat. Furthermore, many of them complain that since 9/11 American immigration rules have become so restrictive that they can no longer enter *their* America whenever they want to and do whatever they want if they do get in.

The overwhelming majority of the Muslim, fundamentalist, Jihadists who wish to destroy western civilization (and whom we know now to be responsible for the attack of 9/11 among others), are of Middle Eastern decent. While our European friends(?) complain about our restrictive immigration policies, they have turned a blind eye to the flood of middle easterners in their own countries. The train bombings in Madrid and London, and the race riots across France are the result of their blindness. I doubt that many of them even realize it!

Fine. Let them continue to sit around in denial of reality and blame the US for their ills. It won't be very much longer before Middle East oil money takes over their countries bringing more Muslim, fundamentalism Jihadists with it. It is even more amusing to see that since they love all our American "stuff", they don't really want to upset us so much that we take it away from them, so they conveniently place their very vocal "blame" for all of this on one person. "President George W. Bush", the "great satan" who has taken *their* America away from them and set it on the destructive path of war!

It is hard to comprehend the arrogance of these people. People who are perfectly willing to allow the US to take care of all the dirty laundry of the world, but *only* when directed to do so by them. People who expect the US, as the strongest nation in the free world, to provide protection but who think that the US should consult them (presumably because they are so much smarter and wiser in the ways of the world) before doing things like regulating our own borders or distributing our money as foreign aid.

I, for one, have had it with their arrogance. I suppose, as we have done in WWI and WWII, we will some day have to step in and straighten out the mess their inattentiveness to reality has once again created. In the meantime, I suggest that we forget foreign relations etiquette and let them know what *we* think *they* are doing wrong instead of sitting politely by and listening to their arrogant drivel and general condemnation of what we as a country do in the world.

What do you think?

He lives!!!

2005-12-02T20:45:00.003-06:00

Yes, I'm still around. It's been a long time - 4 1/2 months since my last blog post and so much has been going on that I have had other priorities than the blog. Well, now I appear to be at least semi caught up so have time to post a few thoughts.

Controlling the Boarders:

Let's do it the way they used to! Muskets, barge poles, blunderbus and cutlasses!! Avast, me hardies!! Man the bilge pumps and full speed ahead! Stand by to repel boarders!!

Huh? What? Not that kind of boarders?? oh... nevermind...

New Word Definitions:

Liar: n. li-ar: 1) One who tells lies. [Recently added definitions:] 2) One who takes decisive action based upon possibly inaccurate or faulty information. 3) Anyone named George W. Bush.

Chameleon:

n. 1) Any of various tropical Old World lizards of the family Chamaeleonidae, characterized by their ability to change color. 2) Any of various midlatitude liberal politicians named Clinton, Kerry or Kennedy, characterized by their ability to change positions at the drop of a hat.

Oh... And here's my most recent shot at motivating Dodge Citians in a useful direction rather than their typical mode of foot shooting....

***********************************************************************************
At the recent visioning meeting held at the Civic Center, when asked
to identify Dodge City's single greatest asset, the overwhelming majority
of the participants cited our name recognition and history. They cited
it by more than 6 to one over any other identified asset.

We now have a considerable amount of money in the "Why Not Dodge"
fund which is required to be used to "enhance our economy and provide
entertainment". In the absence of a special events center, this money
should be dedicated to taking advantage of that 'single greatest asset'.
It should be used to assist in funding projects which will bring tourists
and their money to Dodge City from across the globe. We have to think
a whole lot bigger than the projects currently under discussion - a water
park and/or jail. Neither of those projects takes advantage of our name
recognition or history.

This community should establish a Western Heritage Cultural Center. A
facility which can be used as a combination of many things including (but
certainly not limited to) a Western Heritage Museum, Western Living
History, a Dude Ranch Cattle Drive, a Western Arts Center, a Cowboy
Cultural Center, a Rodeo Center/Museum, Western Convention
Center...etc. etc. etc.

Such a center would draw tourists to Dodge City from all over the world
infusing money into the local economy as well as providing entertainment.
A number of influential people from Hollywood and elsewhere have already
expressed excitement over this idea. Some have agreed to serve on an
advisory board of such an organization.

Remember, no one in Waltham, MA is going to plan a week's vacation
in Dodge City to savour the old west flavor of a water park or jail. No
money is going to come into the local economy from those projects. In
fact, they will probably end up costing us money in the long run as they
require maintanence and upkeep among other expenses.

How do we get something like this started? First we have to convince our
commissioners that it is the best use of the "Why Not Dodge" funds. Next,
we start small and work up. We buy the old Robinson Furniture building
in the historic district and start the Western Heritage Cultural Center there.
Later, as the tourism increase brought about by the center brings in more
money to the city, we build a new complex colocated with the historic
district with an old west flavored facade. The details can be worked out
as we go along, but we must get started soon or we will lose the
opportunity that the "Why Not Dodge" funds provide. Talk to your
commisioners. You can help make this a reality for our community.

From Tintagel to Dodge City

2005-07-12T19:44:00.000-05:00

While stationed in England with the USAF in the late 60's I was able to visit a lot of historic sites across the British isles and mainland Europe. One of the locations I went back to several times was Camelford and Tintagel area along the Cornish coast. King Arthur's Castle (actually Tintagel castle) is the attraction there - what little is left of it. It's worth a visit if you are ever in the area though heaven only knows what the area is like nowadays given the changes I've seen elsewhere around Britain!

I digress. The point I was going to raise here has to do with what the Cornish have done with their history. Driving along the A39 and looking west toward the Atlantic coast, one comes to Camelford and thence farther west to the coast at Tintagel. Back then, Tintagel was a charming little Cornish sea coast town and probably still is pretty much that way today in spite of McDonalds and Pizza Hut. What catches the eye however is the way that the Cornishmen, and in particular the Tintagians, have made hay with their history. Nevermind that there is absolutely no proof that Tintagel castle is, in truth, the famed and fabled castle of King Arthur in Camelot! Never mind that there really isn't very much left of the close to 1,500 year old ruin of the castle itself! Nevermind that there is considerable doubt that Arthur, Camelot, (Guinevere, Lancelot, Mordred, Merlin and the lot) ever existed! The locals have embraced the story completely and made it their passion - their heart and soul - their very livelihood!!

Every building from store fronts to private houses and even some temporary structures fairly shouts the legend! Arthur Slept Here! (B & B), Merlin's Tea Room!, Lancelot's Garage!, Guinevere's restaurant! There is almost literally no place untouched by the chance to whisk away a few "bob" from the mesmerized tourist! There are even local folks walking about town in Arthurian costume, armor and fine dresses ready to lead you to their business establishment!

Overdone, you say? Chintz? Glitz? Not a bit of it!! The hospitality is marvelous. I returned a number of times just to sample the flavor of people who so happily tried to bring the Camelot/Arthurian myth to you. It was a joy to find a room above the little "King's Arms" pub, enjoy a "Steak and Kidney pie a la Merlin" and rub elbows with the locals over a pint or two of the local bitters. Everyone you spoke to had a story about the castle and the legend. Of course most, if not all, were completely imaginary, but who cared? It was fun to spend a couple of days wandering along the cliffs near the ruins sort of mentally floating away to that long ago time in myth, legend and chivalry... of gentlemen Knights and lovely ladies...

Back to earth. The good people of Tintagel live pretty well. Their economy is based soley on the tourist trade. Lately, I see they have started appealing to surfers and other such riff-raff, but they do very well financially, thank you very much.

So.....

How about it, Dodge Citians? We don't even have to dream up imaginary legends. We've got everything we need to do exactly what the Cornish have done at Tintagel! We've got world wide name recognition, *real* history - Wyatt Earp! Bat Masterson! Doc Holliday! What more could we ask for??!! What an unbelievable Gold Mine we are sitting on here! Just take a page from the Tintagel book! Think what we could do with our economy if we just embraced our past and learned how to chat with strangers and tell them stories of the Old Dodge City that they came here to find!

Keep yer cinch up snug, pardner!!

Two little white dogs....

2005-07-04T14:04:00.000-05:00

Coming home to two small dogs is good for the ego. It matters not how difficult my day may have been or that I might have scolded them for some infraction of household etiquette that morning. All is forgiven. It is always an uplifting experience to be greeted at the door by two little 20 pound furballs of excitement, leaping around and giving off squeals of delight due merely to my presence. Why do they do this? Certainly their little brains aren't so feeble as to be unable to remember when you left. Are they really that incredibly attached and devoted to you?

Many writers have pondered this phenomena. Every year I buy a calendar with tear off pages and each page has a quote on it concerning these amazing little tonics for the human ego. But none of the observations therein, even from the literary greats, begins to capture the moment. You have to get down on your hands and knees and be one of them for a minute - absorb yourself in their licks and nuzzles as they welcome you back to the den, pushing and shoving to get closer to you as if they would be happier yet if they could crawl right inside your skin with you. Then and only then can you appreciate the boundless joy they have at the very sight and touch of you - the true depth of their love and dedication.

It's either that, or the fact that they can't fill their own food dishes......

Of tires, chicanery and the FIA...

2005-06-20T05:09:00.000-05:00

For months now I have been looking forward to Sunday's United States Formula 1 Gran Prix. I am working night shifts so I had to adjust my sleep schedule so I could get up at noon with 4 hours of sleep, watch the race and then go back to bed for another few hours. I was almost too excited to get to sleep but finally dropped off and was awoken by my alarm at noon. I went down stairs and turned on the TV just in time to see the cars lining up on the starting grid. They took their warm-up lap and came back to the grid - - - What's this??!! Fourteen cars went right back into the pits, pulled into the garages, shut down and the drivers got out!! The race started with only 6 cars on the grid!! The TV announcers started doing interviews trying to tell everyone what had happened. Something about the Michelin tires being a problem. The only cars that were racing were on Bridgestone. I was disgusted and went back to bed.

So now I've read the accounts and see what has happened. I have to think the FIA is about the most ignorant organization on earth! I knew that Ralf Schumacher and Ricardo Zonta had both crashed in qualifying but never thought of the reason. Michelin informed the GPDA and the FIA that their tires were not safe due to track conditions near the 13th turn - the final banked corner. Ralf was actually badly injured in a crash at the exact same spot several years ago.

Now both Michelin and the GPDA looked for ways around the problem and offered the FIA two possible solutions to whit: 1) Let Michelin bring in more suitable tires for the 7 teams via air from their warehouse in France and allow Bridgestone to do the same to make things equitable (new rules this year specify only one set of tires per car for the entire weekend), or 2) place a temporary chicane on the track near turn 13 to significantly slow the cars so that the existing Michelin tires could safely be used.

Incredibly, the FIA refused both of these potential solutions! As a result, all the Michelin shod teams pulled their cars and drivers out of the race rather than take the chance of someone being hurt or killed.

You can't blame the drivers for wanting to be safe. Afterall, it's their lives that are at stake! You can't blame Michelin. They were forthright about the safety of their tires even though it made their manufacturing quality look bad. Better that than have someone killed was Michelin's attitude. You certainly can't fault the individual teams for putting their driver's lives above their own interests.

So where does the fault lay? I think the long finger points directly at the FIA. Why would it have hurt to allow a new set of tires for all the cars, just this once, for the sake of safety? Doesn't the FIA care about driver safety? Failing that, what was the big deal about throwing some traffic cones up at turn 13 to put in a temporary chicane as the drivers suggested? Either of these solutions seem perfectly reasonable. Why would the FIA not sign off on them in order to save the race?

What an incredibly stupid way for the FIA to act!!

There. I feel better now!!

Ecoterrorism at work

2005-06-19T02:18:00.000-05:00

Friday's Dodge City Daily Global editorial column ran an op-ed piece on "Global Warming" attributed to the Hays Daily News with no author's name given. After reading it, I saw why the author declined to be identified. It was fraught with error, misinformation, innuendo, and personal agenda.

The writer begins with the widely accepted fact that the earth's atmosphere is undergoing warming and provides a very short paragraph of actual "numbers" to "prove" that global warming is occurring when, in fact, no one with any knowledge about the earth-atmosphere ecosystem today contests that it is occurring.

The writer claims that Scientists (What scientists? Climatologists? Physicists? Medical researchers?) predict that global temperatures (What "global temperature"? Average daily? Average Annual? Average decadal?) will rise by 2 to 10 degrees (Degrees what? F or C?) by the end of this century.

This is pure environment terrorism meant only to scare you into swallowing the writers agenda which appears to be: Bush is bad. Big business is bad. Let's do some feel good environmental stuff even if we don't know what it will do to the earth's climate. Furthermore, no source for these "numbers" is given leaving us to assume they are correct based upon the fact that anyone able to write an op-ed on global warming must, per force, be an expert in the field.

At this point the writer obviously feels that no one needs to question exactly "why" global warming is occurring. Instead, this pundit immediately leaps to the conclusion that the whole problem is somehow the fault of corporate greed, bureaucratic incompetence, and the Bush administration.

As an atmospheric scientist of nearly 40 years, let me set the record straight. Is global warming occurring? Yes. Is it caused by greenhouse gasses like carbondioxide (only one of the greenhouse gasses involved, by the way)? Yes. Is there irrefutable evidence that humans are causing the problem. No.

Consider the following points from the National Center for Policy Analysis.

A Gallup poll found that only 17 percent of the members of the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Society think that the warming of the 20th century has been a result of greenhouse gas emissions - principally CO2 from burning fossil fuels.

Only 13 percent of the scientists responding to a survey conducted by the environmental organization Greenpeace believe catastrophic climate change will result from continuing current patterns of energy use.

More than 100 noted scientists, including the former president of the National Academy of Sciences, signed a letter declaring that costly actions to reduce greenhouse gases are not justified by the best available evidence.

Here's the SOURCE for this information. I'll let you read it and decide for yourself.

There are two more things you should think about insofar as "global warming" is concerned.

Paleoclimatologists are quick to point out that the earth's climate is a long term affair while the alarm over global warming is based entirely on extremely short term data sets. That is to say, there have been other periods of both global warming and global cooling throughout the existence of the earth's climate. In short, there were periods of global warming in between each of the major ice ages. How do we know that we aren't just experiencing another of these? The answer is, we don't - so don't panic.

Finally, if we are going to blame global warming on carbondioxide emissions, we had better have another think. Mark Bahner has posted an excellent website that covers the global warming topic quite nicely. Go and look at THIS if you are concerned about global warming. Especially look at his "What will happen to us?" page and his Figure #1 in particular. You will see that for the decadal increase in Carbondioxide emissions will likely drop to near zero in the next decade or two meaning that we don't really need the Kyoto Protocol agreement, the problem is already solving itself.

This AUTHOR is happy to provide additional supporting data and research to anyone who is seriously interested in the topic. As always, name callers and crack-pots will be ignored.

Dr. Feel Good and the P.C. beltway boys...

2005-06-17T06:18:00.000-05:00

I have a hard time blaming the degradation of our educational system and the dumbing down of society in general in America entirely on politicians. I place a great deal of this travesty squarely in the lap of people like Dr. Spock, who led several generations of parents in the country to believe that it was somehow wrong to have expectations of your kids. As a result, the attitude of parents toward the educational system eventually became, "Don't make Johnny do things he doesn't like, or things that are really hard to do. Also, don't make Johnny feel bad when he cannot excel for the reasons above. Let him know that it is perfectly acceptable to be *below average*". That and a whole lot more tripe of the same ilk. The quality of our educational system is driven more by the oversight of parents than it is by politicians. Since parents pay their salaries through taxes, and since they see the parents much more often, educators respond to parents wishes far quicker than those of politicians.

I'm not arguing that there isn't runaway political correctness and enforced mediocrity in government. Quite the contrary! As a public servant of nearly 35 years, I have first hand experience with the ugly truth of bureaucracy. If the general public only knew the BS that goes on within their government bureaucracy, they'd nuke everything inside the beltway and start over again from scratch! In my experience, nothing is happening between Fredericksburg, MD and the Delaware Bay that is even worth the powder to blow it kingdom come! Any federal agency that show relative efficiency does so mainly because the federal employee minions have enough pride in their work to ignore the stupidity of the upper levels of the bureaucracy and instead do what they know to be right. Somehow, in spite of bureaucratic management's best efforts to screw things up beyond belief, the hard working and dedicated paeans manage to make things work.

Think about these things the next time you want to tee off about how dumb kids are today or about how lazy government employees are........

Remembering Dad

2005-06-13T21:23:00.000-05:00

Friday night, May 27, 2005 my father passed quietly from this world. His long battle with various ailments (cancer, heart disease, diabites, stroke) finally came to an end. My sister was there with him and Mom when he slipped away. They told me he had gone to the bathroom and had colapsed there while alone - probably a heart attack. They called 911 and the paramedics did get a heart beat again and took him to the hospital ER though he was not awake. Mom sat with him for about an hour when his heart finally stopped. He never came to, she said.

Now I am thinking back over my life and my relationship with my Dad. I'm thinking about the things I remember about him. To be honest, it's not a lot. I was the oldest of eight kids and for most of my growing up years, Dad was working hard to feed all of us. As a result, he and I never had time to do much together. I don't remember him ever attending any of the sporting events I was in or any of the school functions either. It's not that I resent that, it was just the "normal" thing to do for me. I knew why he wasn't there and I knew that I shouldn't complain because it was best for the family. As the oldest of eight, almost everything you do is overshadowed by "what is good for the family". I still operate in that mode today. I don't regret it. It's just the "right" thing to do. The way things are. There were only a couple of times I can remember doing something with Dad, just him and I. And I don't remember a whole lot about them either.

I know, for instance that he took me hunting a few times once I was old enough. I had already learned about camping and shooting a gun from the Boy Scouts, so he didn't teach me much of anything. Mainly we just walked through the woods together, didn't shoot anything, and then came home.

When I got interested in rock collecting way back in grade school, he took me to a couple of meetings of the Conneticut Valley Rock and Mineral Society (my God! I remembered that name and I haven't thought about it in decades!). Anyway, that group did an annual "rockhound" trip and Dad took time away from his work and the other kids to spend a few days taking me on the trip all the way up into Paris, Maine from our home in Ludlow, Massechusetts. I remember climbing around in a couple of rock quaries with him while we admired specimens that others had found, and I remember digging through the mine tailings with him where we found some small tourmaline (sp?) crystals. I think I still have them somewhere.

I never complained about Dad not doing things with me because I could see how all the rest of the family needed him too and that he had to spread what little time he had at home and away from work over a whole lot of people.

After I left home in the early 1960s, I saw him very seldom since I always lived so far away from them and was always wrapped up in the things I was doing. Starting in about 1984, when I was living in Kansas and he, retired, in New Mexico, Carolyn and I began taking fairly frequent trips to see Mom and Dad. For us, that meant about once a year for a few days. We helped them move to Colorado Springs when Dad's health began the downward spiral. There he would be close to my sister and her family.

Now he is gone. I will still miss him, though perhaps not as much as if I had been around him a lot more. I admired him for his intellect and his knowledge. I still admire his dedication to his wife and children, and to his work. He didn't have much time for hobbies.

I, on the other hand, seem to indulge in hobbies all the time. Perhaps it is because I saw how little time for enjoyment Dad had when we were growing up. I don't know.

I'll see you again some day, Dad. I hope we can have a chance to sit down then and just talk a lot. I'd like that. We never had the chance to before.

"Fancy meeting you here!"

2005-05-16T04:26:00.000-05:00

Serendipity. Fate. Karma. What have you. "It's a small world." Who first came up with that phrase, and why?

Recently, I contacted a travel writer for American Cowboy magazine in hopes of having him come to the Official Gunsmoke 50th Anniversary Celebration, thereby giving us some great press coverage. Turns out, he can't come, but he was nice enough to answer my email. His name is Alan Wilkinson and he lives in England. I had previously visited his web site and commented to him about the book he wrote as an apparent dig at the all powerful Manchester United football side. That's *football*, folks. Not American armored battle, but the kind of "futbol" the rest of the world plays. As John Cleese so aptly put it, the English don't generally call a match a "World Championship" unless they have invited at least one team from another country to participate.

Anyway, Alan and I got to discussing "footie" via email and we realized that we had both attended matches at Craven Cottage (Fulham's - my team - home pitch) in the late 1960s.
Hell! We could have stood there in the stands shoulder to shoulder and not realized it! It got me to thinking about the "small world" phrase.

A number of times over my 60 years of life, I've had the experience of meeting someone only to find that we have been somewhere, or done something with such proximity that we only just barely kept from becoming acquainted. This affords me some feelings of at least remote kinship with these people and is a sure way to establish a quick friendship. Does everyone have these experiences? I would think that they do but I've never really looked into it. It does seem unlikely that there are people who spend their entire life cruising around through life without ever meeting anyone of a kindred spirit that they only "just missed" meeting before. If this is pervasive as I think it must be, then the phrase "It's a small world" would seem quite prophetic!!

I think it is a blessing. It allows us to appreciate again those things we enjoyed before when times were good. By the same token, it also allows us to know that when things were bad, there was someone of kindred spirit there to share them with us so that the event doesn't seem quite so bad in retrospect. For instance, I've run into a couple of people over the years who were (without either of us knowing it) in very close proximity to me during various unpleasant military ventures. Sharing our common experience and wonderment of having been so close to meeting each other somehow puts a much different light on the misery!

It is with great enjoyment, then that I can repeat the cliche - "It's a small world!" Cheers to all who have shared it with me!

More on Historic Dodge City and the Old West

2005-05-04T21:43:00.000-05:00

I want to share with you a quote, for all the folks out there that are really negative about Dodge City. You know... This is for all the folks who don't think we can ever amount to anything... For those who think Dodge City isn't a tourist destination... For those who think we need some more ball fields, horse barns...etc. while our history crumbles away. It comes from a young lady in Denver who shall remain nameless although she gave me permission to attach her name if I wanted to.

"Thanks so much for trying to help keep the real AND ficititious citizens of Dodge in the Limelight... Both are important and draw attention to Dodge City, KS and if folks don't realize that, well then they're missing something!! There are people all over the world who know about Dodge City and believe me, it;s a lot about Wyatt Earp AND Matt Dillon!! And for some, all about Matt Dillion! I see no reason why Dodge can't focus on BOTH and keep the spirit of the Old West alive while still becoming whatever else Dodge wants to become for the future! That Old West spirit is still around in all of us Americans so we should celebrate it!!"

I think she just about sums it all up. For all of you out there that still don't "get it", talk to people from elsewhere in the world. They'll tell you how important Dodge City is. They'll let you know what you are missing - what you are quite literally trying to ignore and forget about this marvelously historic little town that we live in.

Got it? Good. Now get out and do something for Dodge City and the Old West before we ship you all off to live in Bayonne, New Jersey!

Up your nose, Kala.

2005-04-29T12:40:00.000-05:00

On Wednesday, the Dodge City Daily Globe ran a letter to the editor from one of our prize local cynics, Kala Bray. You can read it HERE if you are the type who like hearing how unimportant we are historically. In it, she observes that, (and I quote) "Dodge City is not a vacation or tourist destination".

Well, Kala, the Uvino's of Brooklyn, NY have just shoved that premise right up your nose. I had the pleasure of meeting the Uvino's the very same day your letter ran in the Dodge City Daily Globe leaving me to wonder where in the world you got your information? Certainly not from any form of reality known to the rest of us! While I agree wholeheartedly that we need to do something to revitalize and restore the Old Dodge City Historic District (You'll note that the Dodge City Trail of Fame is already working on this), our name and history is what still draws far more than a "drip" of tourists to Dodge City every year.

You really need to get out more, Kala! The Uvino family along with several of their New York friends just spent a WEEK in the Dodge City area doing the tourist thing and loving it. You can read about the great time they had, and their take on Dodge City as a vacation and tourist destination HERE! It was fun talking with these people who obviously were having a ball.

If our old west history is lost on anyone, it appears to be only you, Kala. Maybe if you went downtown into Historic Old Dodge City a little more often.... maybe if you actually talked to some of the 100,000 or so tourists who come here for western history every year.... maybe if you got out of the house a little more often... Naw. Silly me. You've already got your mind made up, haven't you?

I needed this....

2005-04-20T14:57:00.000-05:00

The long awaited short motorcycle vacation is just about to commence. Of course, it's April and the weather will be somewhat contentious, but that's okay, too. I've got the rain gear. I leave right after work today and have about 900 miles to do this evening and tomorrow. Some new roads are in the works and I always like new roads. My destination is Sturgis, Mississippi and the Vintage BMW motorcycle get together at Bench Mark Works. I plan to zip down to Oklahoma City via the "Southeast Passage" and pick up I-40 at the Cherokee Strip. Then I'll head east on the super slab until I get too tired to go any farther for tonight. Hopefully, near Henryetta, OK. On Thursday I'll forego the interstate near Fort Smith and head of south and then southeast through Hot Springs, and Pine Bluff before crossing the might Mississippi near Greenville. From there it's east on US82 crossing the Natchez Trace and dipping south to the tiny berg of Sturgis.

I'm really looking forward to this for a number of reasons. First of all, is a chance to visit the Bench Mark Works shop and Museum. This is where the engine and transmission of my old 1964 R60/2 was overhauled. Vech will be doing some seminar type sessions on these old BMW motorcycles and I sure could use the experience as I finish putting mine back together. The other great thing will be the people. Of the ones I know about, I am most excited to see my old friend Ed Youngblood of AMA fame from back in the 1970's. After that, of course, Vech, himself I've only talked with via telephone. Also in attendance will be Mark Huggett from Switzerland from whom I've purchased parts for these old bikes. He will be doing some seminars too, I think. Then too, there will be a few of the folks from my Yahoo listserv "slash2" in attendance. It will be great to put a face with some of the names I see on line regularly. Finally, I just need to get away from the overload I've had lately working on Trail of Fame things. Just a short breather to get my energy back and some renewed vigor.

As I look through the weather for the trip and the event, I see we will have to deal with a cold front and most likely some thunderstorms Friday afternoon and overnight. The trip home on Sunday and Monday also appears to be doomed to some rain. The numerical weather predicition models are forecasting a lot of rain with a new cyclone moving out of the southern Rockies into the plains. Of course, a lot will depend upon the track of the low as to where the most rain is. All this won't make any difference to me, however. I wouldn't cancel this trip for rain. Like I've done many times before, I'll just enjoy the trip regardless of the weather.

In some ways, being a weather forecaster and having a good idea what to expect is a curse. That's because you know you are going to proceed in spite of the weather. Knowing what weather you are going to have to face is worse than just stumbling into it!!

And the end approaches......

2005-04-16T15:32:00.000-05:00

What an incredible mess the National Weather Service has created with high resolution gridded, digital forecasts! The majority of our new forecasters are dependent on the output of computer numerical models to make a forecast. Couple that dependency with the "picture" forecasts produced by the present software being used and you get an obsession with forecast details beyond the capability of the science of meteorology. It's as bad as the old "street level" radar nonsense of the early '90s. Just because you can look and reproduce graphics at that resolution, does *NOT* mean you have any skill at predictions on those scales. Most especially when you extend that prediction days into the future at that resolution!

I thought I had seen the limits of idiocy among these people, but today takes the cake! I was informed by a forecaster at another office (GID) that their office policy (obviously put in place by a manager with no understanding of the science who is following PC guidelines from above) is to be sure that all the "colors blend" between their grids and those of their neighbors. In the words of Mark Twain, "I may say that I was never so confounded before!". The collaboration via "chat" sums up the whole incident Here.

The National Weather Service is headed straight for the toilet and this incredible nonsense is why. We have turned from scientists into a group of interior decorators who are mixing and matching colors. "Queer Eye for the Grids Guy".....

A rant specific to meteorology....

2005-04-13T03:48:00.000-05:00

Classical frontal analysis appears to have become passe in the National Weather Service. For the past several weeks I have read countless meteorological discussions from people whom are otherwise good meteorologists. A constant theme in them has been the identification of a Pacific origin polar frontal system as a "dry-line"... whatever that is.

I used to think I knew what a dry line was - a feature produced when dry, downslope flow into the plains from the mountains "mixes out" water vapor in the air, thereby forming an gradient of moisture which slopes eastward from the surface as one goes aloft. Furthermore, it shows a distinct diurnal cycle in its movement, mixing back to the west at night. But, from the preponderance of discourse I read and hear from modern meteorologists, I'm beginning to wonder if my understanding of the processes which form a dry-line (and its physical characteristics) is not somehow very lacking.

Frontal systems moving eastward out of the Rockies and into the plains naturally undergo some structural changes due to orographic concerns . The effects upon temperature and moisture with an airmass undergoing downslope transport of from the mountains to the plains is demonstrably (through adiabatic decent considerations) an order of magnitude or more greater than the effects of simple synoptic scale advection of the airmass. As a result, *ANY* airmass moving out of the mountains and into the plains will become much drier and much warmer than if it were moving over non-sloping terrain. If one, therefore, ignores the vertical structure of a front moving out of the mountains and into the plains, looking only at surface observations, one is going to see dry, warm air invading the plains in the wake of a surface wind shift. This may, or may not be a dry-line, however! If the structure aloft shows this to be consistent with a synoptic scale front, especially if it continues to move eastward at night, then it is most certainly a front even if it has some surface characteristics of a dry-line. As mentioned above, true dry-lines slope eastward with height whereas fronts slope at least slightly westward (baring the rather nebulous vertical characteristics of occluded fronts exiting higher terrain) toward the upper jet streak and the colder air aloft.

Vertical cross-sectional analyses of relative humidity, wind speed, and potential temperature usually are sufficient to identify the nature of a feature moving into the plains from the mountains. They are not used nearly enough in my opinion, thus the most outrageous terminology being bandied about concerning "boundaries" in meteorological discussions. It is not sufficient to look at a surface chart with plotted data on the mesoscale when one wishes to diagnose the structure (and thus the identity) of some feature in the atmosphere. Failure to do such complete analysis, whether due to lack of time, knowledge, ability, or interest, is inexcusable in my eyes. To further perpetrate the lack of proper diagnosis by discussing a feature using terminology which cannot be backed up in fact (but is clever sounding "jargon") is not science at all, but simply B.S.'ing the uninitiated reader. I, for one, abhor it.

If a meteorologist doesn't do a complete 3 dimensional diagnosis to identify an atmospheric structure in relation to some accepted conceptual model (or develop an new conceptual model from the results of such diagnosis), then he/she should openly admit that they don't know for certain what the structure is. In no case, however, should meteorological "jargon" and "buzz words" be used to discuss the feature even with other meteorologists! To do so is extremely unscientific and unprofessional and lowers our science to the realm of voodoo, smoke and mirrors.

End of rant.....

Morons and Militia....

2005-04-11T03:30:00.000-05:00

Once again a group of narrow minded, myopic, morons have scuttled Dodge City's best chance to improve it's economy and save it's history. They did so by focusing their strongly negative attitude about our city and running what turned out to be a successful campaign to defeat last Tuesday's proposition to build a special events center in Wright Park. To accomplish this feat they employed a substantial collection of lies, deceit and half truths cloked in the guise of informative assistance to the electorate. Bless them. We will remind them what they did when things get ugly in the future.

Fortunately, the Dodge City Trail of Fame can move on without any help from people who apparently want to see Dodge City's core rot and die. It will just be a lot harder now to attain our stated goal of saving the Old Dodge City Historic District.

In world affairs, I'm concerned that our European allies and the UN are not taking the threat of Hezbollah nearly as seriously as they should insofar as Lebanon is concerned. The idea that Syria is somehow running the show there is absurd. Hezbollah is running the show, just as it is running things in Syria and most probably in Tehran as well.

We seem to have greatly hampered Al Queda around the globe even though the organization is far from extinct. What are we to do about Hezbollah? There are still large numbers of people in the world who seem to think that all we need do is talk nicely and negotiate with groups like Hezbollah and everyone will walk away blissfully happy. That scares me, as nothing could be farther from the truth. Hezbollah is another muslim fundimentalist group which, though perhaps not an Al Queda today, is only a hair's breadth away from being one tomorrow. They have no intention of giving Lebanon to the Lebanese people (or Syria or Iran to the Syrians and Iranians, for that matter). The rest of the world must present a strong and united front against them or we will all pay the price.

What's Good for Dodge City...

2005-04-03T18:04:00.000-05:00

There is a city wide election on Tuesday with a number of issues on it. I'm not sure how I will vote on a couple of them, but I know I will vote "Yes" to build the proposed special events center in Wright Park. This issue has been highjacked for too long by the most negative and coarse elements of our local society. I have listened to actual cursing and name calling by those opposed to the Wright Park location. It is absolutely amazing and absolutely disgusting at the same time.

Over the past 10 years that I know of, we (the tax payer) have footed the bill for 4 different and entirely independent consultancies to study the proposed project and provide us with information as to where the special events center should be located and what it should consist of in order to realize the best economic development for Dodge City. All four consultants recommended locating the project in the "core" area of Dodge City. Additionally, I have voted in two elections already for this project. It seems that some people in city and county government don't like what the electorate has told them, so we have to keep voting again and again (apparently until things turn out the way those few people want it to!). Unless I missed something in school, that isn't democracy. The majority have had their say several times now, but the minority doesn't seem to want to accept it! This is an incredible mess. If I had the money, I'd file a lawsuit against the city and county for not following the wishes of the electorate on the first two votes!! I wonder of the ACLU would take this case. I think I'll try to contact them and see.

In the meantime, I will (once again) vote for the special events center to be located in the "core" area of Dodge City. Somehow we have to wrestle control of our future from the hands of the people who have no vision and who are against everything progressive. Somehow we have to get excited about Dodge City once again instead of being totally negative about everything our wonderful community has to offer.

Once a month - need it or not!

2005-03-08T03:10:00.000-06:00

Well, I've got this down to about once a month for my blog and I'm so proud of that (right!).

Since we last met, dear reader, the Wild Women Never Get The Blues show did it's first weekend and was at least moderately successful. For that I am grateful, but the majority of the credit really goes to the 6 cast members and the 5 band members who took my ideas to the next level. We may even do the show again after Nunsense closes!

Now down to the nitty gritty....

There are far too many people around me who are so wrapped up in the minutia of their daily lives that they have long since lost sight of what is really important. Around 150,000 of our young people are changing the world by laying their lives on the line. THAT is the bottom line.

As I listen to people obsess over Michael Jackson, Martha Stewart, Viagra, the Democrats, the Republicans, the Liberals, the Conservatives, and on and on... I begin to wonder if it ever occurs to these people that we are witnessing an incredible turn of events in world history. Around 150,000 of our young people are changing the world by laying their lives on the line.

Was it ever thus? Have people always been too myopic to grasp really historically significant events? Are people really that self centered? Around 150,000 of our young people are changing the world by laying their lives on the line.

It is just possible that 20 or 30 years from now, when the present becomes the past, historians will point to what our young people are now doing in the middle and far east as a true epiphany in world history. It is just possible that even those who profess their hatred for BushII today will have to grudginly admit that though they may have disagreed with the methodology, the results speak for themselves. He *did*, in fact, know exactly what needed to be done to stem the rising tide of terror in the world. And better yet, he ignored the moaners and nay sayers and actually did it!

Around 150,000 of our young people are changing the world by laying their lives on the line. How will you help?

No one cares about apathy anymore!

2005-02-05T15:11:00.000-06:00

In a luncheon conversation the other day, we listed the people we knew who are trying to do something positive to save the Dodge City historic district. Turns out, the vast majority of them are not native to Dodge City. Why is this? I think it has to do with being too close to things.

When I was young we lived in Silver Springs, MD, just a few miles out of the nation's capitol. We lived there about 4 years. Do you know, I never visited the Smithsonian or the major monuments and the Capitol building until my senior year of high school when we had lived in up state New York for over 3 years? That's the problem. If you live really close to something you develop myopia. You can't see the value in it because you are too familiar with it. We had to move a few hundred miles away before we realized that Washington, DC was a neat place to go visit and filled with history and things to see and do.

I think that's what is wrong with Dodge City - why we are losing what little we have left of the history. The natives here are so close to our western history that they don't see it at all the way visitors do. Consequently they have let it colapse and it seems inpossible to wake them from their slumber. They just don't see anything remarkable about Dodge City.

Well, I've got about a year and a half left to go in Dodge City and I've committed myself to do as much as I can to save the historic district. Sometimes, like very recently when listening to the insane ravings of the FFAB, I wonder if the collosal ignorance of some of our denizens won't overcome the best efforts of a lot of really good people. From time to time it gets downright depressing.

Ack!!! No time!!! Ack!!!

2005-01-01T15:50:00.000-06:00

Panic attack!! No time!! So guilty because I haven't posted in a while - well, - not really guilty I guess, 'cause this is all you're gonna get for now. Hard at work in the March show and will leave Wednesday for a few days with Jack and Marilyn. Some fun pickin' and just kicking back with an old, old pal. I may put some pictures up if I feel like going to the bother....

2004-12-17T22:38:00.000-06:00

Little of crashing interest these last few days as I have been working evenings. We are still struggling with the budget defecit for the Arts Council and that still has me worried. I still cannot comprehend why membership has dropped substantially. Obviously, the Arts Council is going to have to do something that will attract a more active member involvement. Since both federal and state funding for the arts has fallen drastically in the past several years money will have to be found elsewhere in order to continue maintaining the old Carnegie Library building and I'm not too sure exactly where that "elsewhere" is at the moment. I simply don't have the time to serve another year as president but I will continue to volunteer my time as I find it in support of the arts council.

Ol' Buddy Setheckel has a nice blog up on greed pointing out both the NHLPA and Wally-World as prime examples and I find I must agree heartily with him. You can find hs great synopsis at: saeanything.com

Work continues on the show - mostly gathering sheet music at the moment though I have a keyboard at home now so should be able to midi in to my sound card and start producing charts for the songs I can't find sheet music for.

The hydaulic clutch on the MG is giving up the ghost... DOT 3 has been running down the clutch pedal onto my new rubber floor mat lately. I ordered a clutch rebuild kit today and should have it Monday before the cold weather hits. Otherwise, I'll have to find some kind of heater for the
garage to continue working there. I still have an unexplained high frequency vibration which is very sporadic - maybe a U-joint? I dunno. I'll check the drive shaft U-joints when I go underneath to finish the clutch and connect the speedo cable.

That's about it for today. Got to get some last minute Christmas shopping done this weekend.

Catching up....

2004-12-14T19:52:00.000-06:00

After chastizing Joe for not updating his blog I have managed to go a week without updating my own. Pot and Kettle syndrome I guess. Anyway, it's time to catch up on things. All in all, it's been a pretty productive past seven days.

It looks as if we will have a couple more "Wild Blues Women" for the March show which tickles me no end. All the gals really seem to be enjoying putting this together. Carolyn has agreed to do costuming and has already met with Karen, Amy, Wendy, and Connie. Some characters, plot ideas and so forth are starting to come together. We won't meet again until January 4th so I've got my work cut out between now and then getting more music together - charts! I need charts!! - and getting a rough script ready. I talked to Don Clark in Fowler today and he may be interested in playing guitar for the show! That would be great because it frees me up for a lot of other things. I still have to get a list of other musicians from Patty Ahern to see if we might raise a horn or two....

Saturday, I forced myself to get down to work on the MG. Cleaned out the fuel lines et al. again and finally installed the new coil and cleaned everything south of the battery all the way to the plugs. Turned the key and "Bingo!" it roared to life!! I drove it around a little just to celebrate and, in fact, drove it to work tonight. I'll see now if the headlight adjustment I made helps 'cause the low beams were pretty much focused about 6 feet in front of the car! The turn signals remain somewhat of an enigma. I replaced the switch on the steering column and the flasher unit but only the left signal was working until today. Today I noticed the left one had quit too!
No turn signals at all! How many of you boys and girls remember how to use hand signals? Do they even teach that any more?

Sunday I just kinda vegged a bit and only did a little stuff on the CVB grant and grant summary for the Trail of Fame. I finished all that Monday and early today and then took it down to Andy. One day early too!! He was suitably amazed! New grant application and an actual summary of last year's grant along with a real live budget and budget projection for next year! I wonder how often they get that kind of thoroughness?

That pretty much brings things up to date....

"Let us live so that when we come to die even the undertaker will be sorry". - Mark Twain -

What the heck is going on here??!!

2004-12-07T13:09:00.000-06:00

So we have elected a president. I had hoped that would be the end of it, but very much like 2001 people who supported the losing side remain polarized with a vehement hatred for the winning side. There seems to be no middle ground for them. Of course, I can afford to examine middle ground issues since my candidate won. Nevertheless, I remain astonded at the attitude of the losing side.

I understand what it is like to have your candidate lose. Been there - done that. I did not like the administrations under Johnson, Carter and Clinton. But there is a huge difference between not liking the election results and the elected individual, and the type of pure hatred I see and hear from the losing side today. I've never seen democrats, liberal or otherwise, so upset.

There is no denying the past several elections have been very close but is that a reason to hate the winners and the people who voted for them? It is a given that the media and the public will poke fun at any current administration. That has been going on since the American Revolution. Just look at the political cartoons. However, the rancour against the present administration is totally overboard. It is not poking fun, it is vicious, libilous slander - or even worse. The losers have compared the president to Hilter, announced that the National Security Advisor is "Aunt Jimima", and the Secretary of State an "Uncle Tom".

Why is this happening? The losers would have you believe that the present administration did things (exactly what they can't pin-point) which caused this horrible rift in our society and use that as justification for their hatred. I've seen a lot of things come out of our seat of power that I didn't like during my lifetime, but have never felt compeled to "hate" the president or other members of the administration because of it. I have never stooped to name calling and racial smears. I have never suggested that the president is an idiot even if I did disagree with him.

If I were to do or say the things the losers now are doing and saying, I would rightfully be called a bigot, a racist, and totally intolerant of my fellow humans. Please, people.... Get over it! Deal with it! Losing is part of life. It won't kill you. It won't destroy civilization as we know it. It won't even be remembered 50 years from now unless you do something violent and silly in the name of hatred.

Surely, if I could deal with Johnson, Carter and Clinton without resorting to hatred and name calling, you can deal with Bush. I don't care if you dislike him and his administration. That's part of the game. Vehement hatred, on the other hand is nasty and destructive. It helps no one and no thing. All it does is tear down society.

It is *YOU* and not Bush or his administration that created the rift in our society. And hatred was your tool of choice.

There. I feel much better now......

Egad!! Two posts in one day??!!

2004-12-06T15:47:00.000-06:00

Don't panic. This will be short and sweet....

The burning question I ask of anyone who might stop by this blog and be able to provide a meaningful answer.....

"Is there truly a balm in Gilead"?

And your reponse is.....

Morbidity

2004-12-06T11:05:00.000-06:00

Just noticed that despair.com has their 2005 Calendar on line. Only a couple of months that I hadn't seen before however. Worth a look for all the down-trodden peons of the work-a-day world. I couldn't find the poster of theirs that I like best these days...

RETIREMENT - When you have given so much to the company that you have nothing else we can use....

Yeah. That's it. That's what I've been working for all these years - useless obscurity!!

Why do we all feel obligated to leave a mark upon the world? Why can't we just accept the fact that a few years after we are gone the only people who will remember us will be the lawyers squabbling over what is left of our money? Man! That's a morbid thought!

Musings....Life's puzzles

2004-11-30T11:45:00.000-06:00

When we set out to pursue a vision in life, we assemble everything we know about the subject of our vision like a giant jig-saw puzzle on a huge table top. The next thing we seem to do is to stand and stare at the piles of pieces to see if anything that make sense jumps out at us.

It is at this point where humans break into two groups. Those who see nothing in the pieces and so continue to look at them, and those who dig into the pieces and start trying to put them together.

Those who continue to stare at the pieces hoping something will materialize are finished. They will go no further and they will be critical of those who have forged ahead regardless.

Those who forge ahead will again divide into two groups. Those who diligently continue on trying to find their way through the puzzle, and those who lack persistance and determination and drop out when they cannot find the needed pieces easily. This group now joins the other idlers in standing by and casting aspersions on those who continue on.

Of the group who continue assembling the puzzle, there are two groups. Those who by either luck or attentiveness find their way through the puzzle, and those who by force and intimidation force the puzzle pieces together. Of these final two groups, the former has a nicely completed project and the latter a completed project bereft of any beauty and utility, but completed nonetheless.

Which group are you in?

Hellhound on my Trail....

2004-11-27T14:26:00.000-06:00

John Babich wrote: There is a delicious feeling when a person discovers the Blues. Many folks don't really see the light until they've attended a real throw-down Blues show. Sometimes you can see in their faces when that moment occurs.

I had time to get some work done on the blues show over Thanksgiving. The script is really rough and will need extensive re-working but the core of it is there now. I'm looking at needing somewhere around 50 pages of script including the songs. That is about the size of Smoke on the Mountain. I'm gonna bounce it off Mike Craver if he's got the time. He made the mistake of telling me he would look over anything I wrote. What a sap! ;-)

Anyway, I made a CD with most of the music on it in order of performance and have started to look at gathering charts for the songs. Some of them will have to be just lead sheets, but a couple of them I'm thinking of sending off to get full scores written.

I threw out the John Babich quote above because it kind of encapsulates what I have been doing with the gals. Some of them have a good feel and knowledge of the blues and others have nearly none so it is going to be up to me to bring everyone up to some sort of "Blues Baseline". But - they are all great gals and I'm really not worried at all about them - only ME! Can I get the band working well together in time? That may end up being the greatest challenge. I hope to get them together right after the Christmas show closes so we can see what we've got.

Thought for today......
The difference between a man and a savings bond is that the bond will eventually mature.

Thoughts on Dogs

2004-11-23T05:43:00.000-06:00

Watching my little furry kids running around the house this evening before coming to work, I had to reflect for a while on what the human fascination is with the domesticated dog, and most especially, the little Westies that have become so near and dear to us.

I mentioned the lady in California on our Westies listserv, but there are many others like her (and us, for that matter) who are absolutely besotted with these little white terriers. So why do they weasle their way so deeply into our hearts?

I think it must be their endless capacity to hold us in reverent awe. They are wildly grateful to their masters for the least little attention and would willingly lay down their life for us. Perhaps it is this dedication that we so adore.

Some doggy literature -

Somewhere a little dog doth wait
It may be by some garden gate
with eyes alert and tail attent
you know the kind of tail that's meant
with stores of yelps of glad delight
to bid me welcome home at night.
- Robert Service

Heaven goes by favor. If it went by merit, you would stay out and your dog would go in.
- Mark Twain

If you pick up a starving dog and make him prosperous, he will not bite you. This is the principal difference between a dog and a man.
-Mark Twain

Rules for being human...

2004-11-22T04:48:00.000-06:00

I don't have much to add today. Only this list that I found recently and thought worth saving...

The Rules for Being Human

You will receive a body. You may like it or hate it, but it will be yours for the entire period this time around.
You will learn lessons. You are enrolled in a fulltime informal school called life. Each day in this school you will have the opportunity to learn lessons. You may like the lessons or think them irrelevant and stupid.
There are no mistakes, only lessons. Growth is a process of trial and error, experimentation. The "failed" experiments are as much a part of the process as the experiment that ultimately "works."
A lesson is repeated until learned. A lesson will be presented to you in various forms until you have learned it. When you have learned it, you can go on to the next lesson.
Learning lessons does not end. There is no part of life that does not contain its lessons. If you are alive there are lessons to be learned.
"There" is no better than "here." When your "there" has become a "here" you will simply obtain another "there" that will again look better than "here."
Others are merely mirrors of you. You cannot love or hate something about another person unless it reflects to you something you love or hate about yourself.
What you make of your life is up to you. You have all the tools and resources you need. What you do with them is up to you. The choice is yours.
Your answers lie inside you. The answer to life's questions lie inside you. All you need to do is look, listen, and trust.
This will often be forgotten, only to be remembered again.

(Cherie Carter-Scott)

Cool Stuff!!

2004-11-20T03:12:00.000-06:00

I'm finding such cool stuff for the March show by the Wild Blues Women!! I've already started writing the script and its going together fairly easily. Much more easily than I thought. This is the part I was afraid of because it calls for a great deal of creative insight and my brain usually doesn't function that way. It prefers rather dry, hard, cold scientific fact. Intuition is not my strong suit!

So far we have Karen, Joni, Connie, Amy, Wendy, and Cindy interested in the show with some of them already excited enough to start digging into their character development and reasearching music. I found song books for Bessie Smith, Billie Holliday, Saffire, and a huge Blues fake book so we should have plenty of charts to work with. For musicians, I've got KentRoss in piano/organ, me on guitars. Hopefully we'll get Joe Walker on drums and Alec Ross on bass. We should be able to put down some real Kick - Ass blues tracks!

I started reading Chris Pyle's script today and what I have read so far is a real hoot. Chris and Sarah have asked if I would help with the musical score for their short film and I jumped at the chance. I've already got musical ideas churning around in my head for this one as well as for the Blues show.

We did the Arts Council Festival of Trees auction tonight before I came to work. I think we did fairly well on the take which will help toward the next couple of months of operating expenses, but I still have to hit our membership and the city hard in the next few weeks or we may end up having to close the building up and sell it. There must be a way for us to raise the needed capital to maintain the building *AND* run the arts council. There just must be!!

Sad News....

2004-11-18T07:43:00.000-06:00

For several years now I have been involved in several Listservs dedicated to West Highland White Terriers which is what our two dogs - Abbey and Chloe - are. I co-moderate a list called WestiesII and one of our members is an elderly woman in California who really has no family other than her Westie, Cody. About 6 months ago, her neighbor put Decon rat poison on a fnce next door to her which blew into her yard and poor Cody got into it. Since then she has had a constant, heart wrenching battle trying to save Cody's life through the veterinarys and the university animal hospitals. The poor little guy has gained a lot of weight due to the prednizone he has been taking and his blood platelette count has been extremely low from time to time. Well, about 2 weeks ago she announce to the group that his blood platelette count had returned to normal for the first time in 6 months and the vet had started reducing his medication (cyclosporin & Pred.) so it looks as if he has turned the corner and will make it. For a poor elderly lady who has no one else, this was indeed joyous news.

Then came today. When I read my list mail today there was a brief note from her. Only enough to say that she has just been diagnosed with cancer of the esaphagus (sp?). After all she has been through with her little dog.

Today will be a sad day.... probably tomorrow as well....

Ponderings...

2004-11-15T23:34:00.000-06:00

The madcap diversity of human thought and understanding is incredible. By that I mean I cannot comprehend what makes people think and believe the things they do. Not even myself. Lately it has become apparent to me that so many of my very dearest friends have vast differences from me in the way they view the current administration, the war on terror, international politics, gun control...etc...etc....etc.

It would be easy to chalk this up to life experiences, but many of these people share my experiences and still believe differently about them. Jack and Chuck are, like me, veterans and survivors of that horror in southeast Asia. Like me, both of them keep guns and defend our right to bear them. Unlike me, both detest the current administration and see Iraq, Afghanistan, and even Bosnia/Croatia as another Vietnam. They are unwilling to give the slightest benefit of doubt to the administration and seem to blame the politicians for everything that has not worked out exactly as they think it should have in prosecuting these battles. They do not seem ready to place any blame on the military commanders in the field for making not so hot decisions. Additionally, my dear old friend in England also berates the President as a dolt (and worse). I find it very hard to believe that he is any where near as stupid as these people think. Not only was he smart enough to be elected President, but he was smart enough to do so a second time. Has he made some bad decisions while in office? Undoubtably! But what President hasn't?

The common thread with all these people, I find, is the absolute horror that they hold for the fact that people die in combat situations. They constantly point to the deaths as a sign of failed this and failed that. I'm not callous about the loss of life. Lord knows I've sobbed with the best of them over the loss of a friend in war. However, I'm enough of a realist to know that dying is one of the things soldiers do in battle. It is their very purpose to be in harm's way and to continue to function. I found during Vietnam that most of the people who had problems with that war were people who never actually came to the realization that they were really *in* a war. Somehow, they were in some surreal place where things beyond their control happened around them but were never able to accept the idea that people around them, perhaps even they themselves, were going to be casualties. I had no such delusions. I knew that it was a war and that people, maybe even me, would die.

I am completely buffaloed by all this. I cannot see why so many people have an active hatred of the present administration. I didn't want either Gore or Kerry to be elected because I have some fundamental differences with their take on how the country should be run. But I certainly harbour no hatred of either of them. I disliked Clinton too, but I have never hated the man. What is going on in this country to stir up so much intense hatred - and from what I can see - largely only from one side?

Let's not talk about the courts, judges and lawyers........

Thought for the day anyway.........

2004-11-14T23:52:00.001-06:00

Okay, I do have time enough to quickly throw out my thought for the day that I had in the other blog.....

Power Corrupts. Absolute Power Corrupts Absolutely. But it *ROCKS* absolutely, too!!
- stolen from www.despair.com -

Thought for the day anyway.........

2004-11-14T23:52:00.000-06:00

Bummed out!!!

2004-11-14T23:48:00.000-06:00

I'm really disgusted now. I wrote a nice long blog about everything that's happened in the past few days with the Wyatt Earp statue, the reception, the March show, etc etc etc.... and it just disappeared when I published the post. Well, you'll just have to settle for this puny attempt at a blog for now 'cause I'm plum outta time now......

Friends, the true measure of personal wealth....

2004-11-11T23:01:00.000-06:00

I have no idea what I would have done this past week without some of the best friends a person could possibly have. It's not that there was some major crisis in my existance or anything. Just that in retrospect, I didn't really realize how far my friends would go for me. I'm not sure anyone ever really does.

Stress was pretty bad for me this past week. I worked on mounting Mary's Wyatt Earp sculpture and preparing for the unveiling and the "Thank You" reception. This was coupled with trying to get a few things done on the MG to get it running again as well as working evening shifts. Then there was caring for Carolyn who is on complete bed rest and has to have her meals prepared and be taken daily to the hosptial for her Rocefin IV. Next the visit by the Zoom Communications crew from Calgary and helping them with their pilot filming. Last but far from least has been the financial pit that the arts council has fallen into and trying to resolve that dilemma.

Now the sculpture is in and all the preparations nearly done so I have a little time this evening at the office to finally relax my mind a little. The first thing that hit me was all the help and support I got this past week from friends.

All the Trail of Famers (Pat, Richard, Dennis, John, Soni & Kent) jumping in was sort of expected, but still tremedously appreciated. More humbling was having Dana from the office show me how to change tie-rod ends on the MG - having Joe - and Seth - and Alan - and Ryan - and Mark from the theater show up to help with loading the sculpture on the trailer and then, without being asked to, sticking around and pitching in as we struggled to get it mounted. Friends like Gene Kirby and JC Huckaby who jumped right in and helped out when things got a little sticky with correct mounting - Friends like Bob Hughes and his crew from Aquila who went way beyond that extra mile to install the lighting for the sculpture and seeing to it that we got the mounting problems ironed out. And all these great people doing all of this work for no remuneration other than to know that they helped with the Dodge City Trail of Fame or (more likely?) bailed ol' Jim out of trouble.

You can't have too many friends like these folks. Just having one like them is, indeed, a blessing. Thank you all! I owe you all more than I can ever repay. Please know that you can always call on me to come to your aid. Or just to stick a brew in your hand and listen to what you have to say. You are the salt of the earth, folks, and I wonder if I'm worthy of any of you.

Things I suggest for this week....

2004-11-01T15:26:00.000-06:00

1) Go vote on Tuesday, November 2nd. Oh! And vote for Bush/Cheney. Locally, vote for Pat George and Van Hampton. I don't care what you think, just do as you are told and vote for these people.

2) Sit down.

3) Shut up.

Finally, and most important of all,

4) Ignore almost everything I tell you. I am a biased old codger who will try to sway you to my beliefs if you listen with an open mind!

Got to get everything ready for Thursday night's meeting of "Wild Women Never Get the Blues". This is going to be an interesting venture - one that may get to be crazy as time goes by, but also one that I think will leave us all very proud in the end. Ask me about it when you see me next.

What?! Two in a row??!!

2004-10-28T13:46:00.000-05:00

Yup. Its two in a row, alright. A little more time to burn again today so I can move my blog up on the priority list.

Saw Seth going out to his car on my way to work this morning. He hollered something at me as I went by on the motorcycle. I think it was an obscenity - ;-).

Final arrangements for the Trail of Fame meeting last night and finished them up this morning. I'm really over extended at the moment and its got me kind of "stressie" (Is there such a word?). I think 2005 will be a good year to chill a bit, but not until after I finish the show idea for March.

Reading up a bit on Thomas Wright "Fats" Waller and the "stride" piano stylings of James P. Johnson who taught Waller. Fascinating stuff and I love the sound of that piano. I dunno how to describe it exactly, but it certainly is compeling! Another one I need to learn a little more about is blues singer Mamie Smith who started the female blues singer recording mania with her classic "Crazy Blues". While Fats Waller died on a train near Kansas City in 1943 at age 39, Mamie, who was born in the 1880s, passed away in New York after serious illness when I was two years old (1946). I'm going to attempt to do justice to Fats' song "Ain't Misbehavin'" and Mamie's "Crazy Blues" for the Cabaret this weekend.

Lord, I miss hockey!! This lock-out is the *PITS*!!!

Ruminations from the past week or so...

2004-10-27T13:46:00.000-05:00

It's been a while since I updated my blog. I finally have the time and the inclination so here's what's been going on this past week or so.

* Carolyn first. She came home from Santa Fe with a Cellulitis infection in her leg. Four days in the hospital and then home on full bed rest. Each day I took her to the hospital for an IV of antibiotic and the progress is painfully slow for her. Finally, this past Monday, the doctor stopped the antibiotics and told her she could start using the leg a little but not too much. It is still really painful for her which makes me feel pretty helpless as there is nothing I can do to make things better for her. We'll just have to wait for the healing....

* We closed Noises Off on Saturday. A repeat from 17 years ago! It was a mixture of nostalgia (Don, Kent, Kelly, Carolyn) and bright, new futures. Jill (Austin) Smith played Poppy 17 years ago. This time it was well performed by Kent's daughter, Haley Ashcroft, who was about 8 years old last time! What a neat kid she has turned out to be! Man! It made me feel old being on stage with her, though!

The greatest surprise however was my closing night gift from Joe Walker. Boy, did he ever put one over on me! I won't go into great detail on it here. Just ask Joe about it. I don't think he'll ever get tired of telling about it! He actually wrote a song about me. He couldn't have paid me a higher honor.

* This weekend will be the Grand Opening for the Depot Theater Company and the Depot. I have the day off both Saturday and Sunday so am committed to helping during the day and doing the Halloween Cabaret each night. It should be a lot of fun. Senator Roberts will be there on Saturday since he is the honorary chair for our project. I hope I can get a minute or two to show him the Dodge City Trail of Fame.

For the Cabaret, I am doing a couple of my favorite Redbone songs - well, at least they were done by Redbone - "Ain't Misbehavin'" and "Crazy Blues". Great tunes from the 20s and 30s!

* Preparations are well underway for the Dodge City Trail of Fame Sponsor/Donor Reception and it looks as if we will be doing the unveiling of the big Wyatt Earp statue on Nov. 12th if everything goes right. There is also a film crew from Canada coming for this event and a look at Wyatt Earp from a motorcyclists perspective so the weekend after this coming is also going to be a busy one.

*Election day is fast approaching and the political crazy time is on full swing. The polls are all over the place and those involved have a million different stories for everything and a million different spins for everything their opponents are up to. The lies and truth stretching seem far worse this year by both sides than I have ever seen before - or is it just that the proliferation of news media available in this day and age means that I am finally hearing all the nonsense that was there all along? Who knows? I will be glad when it is all over but I am seriously concerned that the whole mess may go into litigation. If it does, that is the beginning of the downfall of our election process in this country. Once we let the courts decide an election (Wait! Did that already happen last election?) the legal system, with all its flaws and lack of public representativeness , will have put control of everything in this country into the hands of the trial lawyers. What a horrible thought that its!!

Midnight shifts suck!

2004-10-15T03:51:00.000-05:00

Boy! Are there ever some different people in this world. You'd think at my age one would cease to be amazed, but every time I get to thinking I've seen it all, along comes another weirdo! Without listing specifics (like name and location) I will say that the guy who called the office early this morning has a pretty warped idea of how he can be helpful to people. I better not say much more than that - I would like to retire soon ;-)

Doctor says Carolyn can come home tomorrow so I'll pick her up at the hospital at 4:00 pm and bring her back to the house where Chloe and Abbey will be over-joyed to see her. She has to stay off her feet for quite a while I guess (they'll give me the particulars tomorrow - or is it today!). I also have to keep taking her back to the hospital for more IV's of antibiotic to make sure we kill all the bacterial infection in her leg. I think they scared her pretty good about staying off her feet this time. Evidently the doctor came right out and mentioned the possibility of loosing her leg if she didn't take care of herself!! Anyway, I've had to take some time from work so that I can take care of her and we will see about putting a hospital bed in the living room since she won't be able to get upstairs for a while.

Joke of the day:
A blonde goes into the Chase Bank in New York city, takes out a loan for $5,000 and hands the banker the keys to a Rolls-Royce to hold as collateral. The banker is amazed at this but dutifully drives the car into the bank's underground parking garage and parks it. A week later the blonde returns, pays back the $5,000 plus $15.41 in interest, picks up her keys and starts for the door. The banker stops her and informs her that his curiousity had got the better of him. He had investigated her and found that she was a multi-millionaire!! He asked why, if she had millions, would she borrow the small sum of $5,000 and leave a $250,000 car as collateral. She smiled and informed him that for $15.41 total cost, she had parked her car safely in downtown New York City for a week while she was in Europe - considerably cheaper and safer than the airport parking.

Thought for the day:
There are three kinds of people. Those who can count, and those who can't.

All the news that's fit to print - even some that may not be!

2004-10-14T05:47:00.000-05:00

A couple of busy days trying to get things done for TOF and other projects. Have yet to get time to install the new coil in the MG so it still waits for me. Carolyn has been in the hospital since Monday night with infection in her leg. I hope she'll get to come home in another day or two. Then all I have to do is figure out how to keep her off that leg until she's fully healed! Not easy to do as she hates to be sick. Abbey and Chloe are still trying to figure out where she is.

Had a phone call last night from a Todd Langrille of Zoom Communications in Calgary. Looks like we will be doing something along the lines of a Wyatt Earp travelog/documentary from a motorcyclist view point. They are hoping to be here early November to film some bits. Should be good for Dodge City and I'll try to spin the Depot Theater into the mix along with the Dodge City Trail of Fame and Boot Hill. Should be a lot of fun!

Joke for today:
Then there was the dyslexic ACLU lawyer who wanted to eliminate our second amendment right to "arm bears".

Thought for the day:
"I don't understand..."

Yes, It's my fault!

2004-10-11T19:28:00.000-05:00

First of all, I haven't taken time to post a blog in days. Yes, it's my fault! I'm the one who took on way too much and now can't seem to get to all of it. So what, might you ask has kept me from updating my blog? Read on, dear reader.....

1) I was going to get the MG running this past weekend. Simple thing really, I thought. Just replace the fuel lines in places, the fuel filter and the fuel pump. Then fuel should get to the carb and it should start right up just like it used to until last week when it suddenly went dormant on me and decided on long term residency in the garage. Yes. Well, that was the theory anyway. Now I have fuel getting to the carb and the cylinders (I know this because every time I try to start it, it floods out!). However, it hasn't fired a single cylinder. I changed out the plugs (Bosch Platinums) with new NGK's and it still doesn't fire. I had bought a new Crane coil earlier intending to give it a bit more spark than stock so I started installing that on Sunday, but found I didn't have all the little connectors I need. Those I bought today at O'Reilly's where MJ Straight tried to give me a hard time about little British cars.... Maybe I can get it running tomorrow. It's not really such a big deal today however since I still don't have the required header bar so that I can put on the new convertible top and it's been raining all day. No way am I taking a little British rust bucket out into the rain with no top on it! Yes. It's my fault!

2) Last week something mysteriously happened to the Winsock file in the desktop computer rendering it useless for email and internet traffic. Of course, I didn't *know* it was the Winsock file. I had called up Alan and he suggested I try my wireless laptop connection and see if that worked. (DUH!) It did, of course, at which point he sent me a file to fix the Winsock in the Windows XP partition. By the time I'd got it however, I was working on the car, taking care of Abbey and Chloe (a full time job when Carolyn is gone!!), and doing the show each night. To make a long story short, I didn't get the Winsock file repaired until about 3 am Sunday morning right after watching the Japanese Grand Prix which Michael Schumaker won (again - yawn!). Yes. I know. It's my fault.

3) Today was pretty much a loss except for taking Abbey and Chloe out for a ride and picking up the auto parts mentioned. Yes. I know. It's may fault again - I was tired and slept in for a while.

So... in summation, I didn't get anything done for the TOF or the Arts Council in the past 3 days. Yes. Don't tell me.

Carolyn is now back from Santa Fe as I write this, but she is having trouble with her leg where the spider bite is and they took her straight to the emergency room. I'll meet her up there shortly.

The joy this week, however, has been some really great evenings spent with some really good friends at the theater and our two little "fur kids" who have been constantly at my feet and in my lap. Several trips to the park earlier in the week yielded a whole bunch of squirrels to bark and whine at and they have both been glued to my side when I get home from the theater. They didn't like going outside much today what with the rain falling. They are such dainty little things about getting their feet wet.

Well, that about brings things up to date. Bush had his head up and locked during the latest debate and didnt' jump Kerry in a lot of places so he's continuing to slip in the polls. His advisors haven't helped him much since the debates began. Oh, and FactCheck.org has now moved to big-time server support so apparently a lot of people are as hungry for the truth as I am. At least they provide their references so you can see where they got the stuff they use to dispute the politicians. Gawd!! What a miserable situation! I've never seen the country so divided over political BS. Especially considering that both candidates have been fabricating an awful lot of stuff and distorting the facts and figures! Maybe I should take a closer look at Nader? Naw!
I still have a bad taste in my mouth about him when he was saving us from ourselves.....

A new week on the way....... Yes, I know. It's my fault!!

What are we supposed to believe?!

2004-10-06T19:28:00.000-05:00

I stayed up until nearly 3:00 am last night so I could watch the Cheney/Edwards debate being rebroadcast. By the end of the debate, I was left wondering whether I'm living in the same country that John Edwards is talking about. I can say that I have never personally witnessed any of the things he kept saying were wrong with America. Perhaps my problem is that I long ago learned to read and listen critically. I seldom swallow anything I see or hear from the media without checking the facts first. And usually, like the fake ANG documents concerning Bush and the fabricated New York Times Stories of early this year, the facts simply don't add up to what the media is presenting. If I would just start accepting without question everything Kerry and Edwards say about Iraq, Afghanistan, the economy, health care, Haliburton, Cheney, Bush, Rice, Rumsfield...etc. life would be so much easier!!

The problem I have is that nothing Kerry and Edwards are saying about the President and Vice-President adds up. Furthermore, as I witnessed during the debate last night, the two of them now seem to have resorted to name calling and personal attacks. One of Kerry's newest ads on TV actually shows in print that Bush "is lying". They actually used the "L" word! Bush, of course, hasn't been perfect either as he has occasionally taken things Kerry has said out of context, but he has never resorted to name calling and flat out character assassination.

A great article about the "truth" involved in this debate can be found at http://www.factcheck.org/article.aspx?docID=272 but I warn you in advance it is only for the independent thinker! Those who are already in tow behind the dogma of one side or the other will no doubt find little consolation at factcheck.org!

Never argue with an idiot. People watching may not be able to tell the difference.

What? A new post? Finally!!

2004-10-05T23:46:00.000-05:00

Okay, Okay. So I haven't exactly been good about updating my blog lately. I'm even short on time tonight, but I'll have time to dig into it tomorrow....

This is just to let you know I haven't forgotten, only been too short on time.

Long discussion on one of my listservs today and it led to a history lesson. Know who William, Duke of Cumberland was? Any idea what a "croft" is? How about the Jacobites and Bonnie Prince Charlie?? While you think about those, I'll close for the day and go home. It's nearly midnight.

Cheez!! It's been busy the past few days!!

2004-09-19T13:56:00.000-05:00

I got next to nothing done that I intended after my round of midnight shifts. I did get "The Song" mostly recorded though I want to go back and add mandolin and/or fiddle to it. It came out even better than I had hoped! I'll have to see if Steve can do an MP3 file of it and put it up on line somewhere for people to listen to. I was even late for the Southwest Kansas Art Educators exhibit opening Saturday night at the Carnegie Arts Center as I wasn't feeling well all day Saturday. That's about all the positive things I accomplished in the past few days aside from rehearsals for Noises Off which are going swimmingly if I do say so myself! On top of my miscues, the Direct TV people who were supposed to come Thursday afternoon and put in our local channels didn't make it and I had to rescheduled them for next Friday.

Crazy time now... Linda says the big statue for the Dodge City Trail of Fame may get here this coming week and then, of course, we have the Beaux Arts Ball this coming Saturday which I have to get ready for. I'll have to give a short talk for that and I have no idea what to say. Paul said he'd help me with ideas so that will be a relief.

Mostly, right now, I miss Carolyn and the two fur kids who are all in Georgia.

Somehow I should find a little time for work.........

2004-09-19T13:55:00.000-05:00

Last midnight shift!!! Yippeee!!

2004-09-15T04:17:00.000-05:00

Less than two hours to go for this last night shift for about 3 weeks! One thing about it though, working nights allows you to avoid all the useless "drones" that inhabit this place during the day. I'm constantly amazed at how we got by just fine for all those years without them. To hear it from them, that would be impossible. Oh, the joys of a bureaucracy!!

Been watching Ivan this morning taking a bead on the gulf coast. It could get ugly down there - this thing reminds me a lot of Camille, but, of course, we didn't have all the wonderful satellite pictures back then. I'm a little concerned for Carolyn and the kids in north Georgia. Even if they don't get the hurricane force winds, they are going to get a lot of rain. It might even linger into the weekend and ruin the show that she was going to do. I hope not becuase she was counting on that one....

I wonder what it is that makes people think they should stay when everyone around them is evacuating because of the storm? After having seen what these things do, there's no way I'd hang around waiting to be drown. I guess it's the old "Can't happen to me syndrome"! Either that or simple natural selection at work... ;-)

Good rehearsal tonight! Everyone is doing great. Joe was out sick so I hope he's feeling better by tonight.

I'll just catch a little nap this morning then start running errands - groceries, land-fill, TOF stuff, Arts Council software, yada - yada - yada - I'll be in and out if you're trying to get in touch with me.....

Damn! I screwed up the link to the MG pictures.....

2004-09-14T02:36:00.000-05:00

So here goes again...... http://www.starrtech.net/~jimj/mg/midget.html Hope this works........

Thanks and no thanks....

2004-09-14T02:02:00.000-05:00

First, thanks to "The Seth" for including my Blog in is Blogroll. Amazingly enough, a few people actually read some of the drivel I've written so far! Today/tonight, however, is a bummer. I am really tired on this next to last midnight shift and I'm going to get out of here on annual leave a little early this morning and try to get caught up on rest. I need to get up today soon enough to get some errands run as I'm almost outta food! One of the things that kept me up yesterday was messing with MS Front Page (which I've never used before) to create the raw beginnings of a web site for the MG. You can view it HERE.

While I was messing around yesterday I listened to the news on TV. Yeah, Yeah....I know! Ready made depression. Anyway, the Liberals were still whimpering about the useless "assault weapons ban" expiring... as if they knew anything about assault weapons. Of course, Kerry was already accusing Bush of murdering women and little children by not doing anything about the ban expiration - never mind that most of the Democrats with even half a brain have long since figured out that the bill had done little or no good anyway as it was far to weak and watered down. Fox did the fair and balanced thing and brought on a proponent of renewing the ban as well as Wayne LaPierre (sp?) from the NRA. After the whiner finished, Mr. LaPierre assured the interviewer that the ban had been worthless to begin and that the NRA would certainly have supported a bill which would have addressed the problem. I pulled my NRA card out of my wallet and looked. Yup. I'm still on board and Wayne is a pretty darn good representative of my views. I'm a gun owner. A responsible one. I haven't murdered anyones mother or babies in many years now... but at the rate some of these bleeding heart Liberals are going..................

Anyway, Kerry came off looking like an ignorant Bozo on the gun issue too, so I imagine he'll be hard pressed to gain any ground on Bush there either. He might have had a chance if he hadn't dragged Vietnam into everything. In my experience when someone screams that loudly about unfair criticism and wounded pride, they are usually trying desparately to cover up something dirty down below. What's more, who would leave their combat outfit 8 months before their tour was up unless they absolutely couldn't help their buddies fight any more? Nobody I ever knew in my 13 years of military service would have left after only 4 months of a one year tour knowing their buddies were still there fighting. You'd have had to tie most of them up and carry them to get them away from their unit. Too much about Kerry reeks of lies, deceit and self-agrandizment.

Rehearsal went by in a flash last night. I do enjoy that bunch of people so!

Watching those I value being defrocked...

2004-09-13T05:37:00.000-05:00

It really sucks to see people that mean something in the world, people who hold some truth and some grit in their lives, get the big red banana! Long conversations today via chat and email. Conversations concerning the things that some of us believe will wreck quality in the exercise of our science. Al#1 and Al#2, bc, Roach, Rogellio, Jason and Ed all participating - and providing some damned fine thinking and ideas. Probably doesn't mean much to anyone else. Does to us. Maybe I should have them put "Screw the rest of you!" on the tombstone. I could have it made up now and set it on the front porch until it's needed. F#*king government bureaucracy!

Today, after I got up, I put the last of "The Song" together. Now I have to set up a recording session with Steve and get it on CD. I'm gonna give it to Mark Bennett. It would be a real kick if Kansas Heart used it in a show!! Don't like to brag, but I think this one is a lot better than most of the other ones I've written over the years. Maybe somebody else will think so too.

If a fancy picture and a slogan are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have one of those jobs that will soon be taken over by automation.

Selsden lives again tonight, what?

Kick Ass Bluegrass!!

2004-09-12T07:03:00.000-05:00

Went down for about an hour and listened to "Kansas Heart" at Cowtown. Man, Jimmy Pryor just blows you away with his guitar work! Anyway, that was the nice part of my evening as I had to go to work later and am still sitting here bleary eyed at 7:00 am. Before going down to the Cowtown on the bike, I tried to go in the MG. No luck. Still have the stalling problem which acts like fuel starvation. This time I was lucky enough to hear the fuel pump ticking continually in the garage before I left so I'm guessing I've either got a bad fuel pump or a gunk blockage somewhere in the fuel system. Damn! Guess I'll have to take down the fuel system, clean it all out and test the electric fuel pump. RPITA!