The one armed paper hanger.......
Digital publishing has been taking very much a back seat to real life of late. I/We/Us, Julie and I, have been very busy with trying to rearrange our lives to merge them into one household. We have been eating, sleeping and dreaming of fabrics, rugs, and window treatments while trying to decide which avenue to approach with the goal of redecorating the Estate. We may have made some progress. While these important decisions were being formulated we also had to finally buck up and decide just where and when we would actually tie the knot. That, thank goodness, is finally decided. The nuptial union will be performed the afternoon of December 30, 2003 at the First Presbyterian Church in Midland.
We think.
While visions of fabrics danced in my head, I've also been spearheading an October reunion of my old fraternity boys from Trinity University. One of our very own, my very close friend Gen. Tom Hill is being honored as the University Alumni of the Year. Tom is a four star general and the commander of SouthCom where he overseas all U.S. military operations and personnel in Central and South America. We're proud of Tom and his wife Toni and I've been trying to get as many frat brothers as possible from our era to come to San Antonio next month to honor him. In a word, trying to get 40 or 50 people from all over the country to merge together at one time is like herding worms. I am making progress.
And for the next five days my attention turns to The CAF AirSho where I hold the exalted position of Transportation Chairman! The crux of this high level assignment is basically imposing upon friends, family [Julies] and neighbors to give up part of their weekend driving vehicles that carry guest and VIPs around the air show grounds. I have a good crew this year and the operation really runs itself once everything is set up prior to the show. But, tomorrow, it is out to the airport for the first inspection of the equipment, obtain volunteer passes......and get Julie a flight suit to befit her positon as "supervisor" of the Transportation Chairman.
The AirSho is a large scale operation, one of the largest tourist events of the year in Midland......and is important in honoring those who have given so much to their country. Downright entertaining too, seeing so many historic warbirds in the air at one time. And just as important is meeting so many of the men who flew them in WWII. This year we have as our feature, The Canadian Snow Birds who are a spectacular show. Also The Bob Hope USO collection from his decades of entertaining the troops. This is only one of two times this exhibit will be shown in the US at a private event. And Bob's long time press agent will be here to help put it into perspective. Also actor Cliff Roberston and Sen. George McGovern will be here to honor author Stephen Ambrose along with Ambrose's son. Ambrose's book, "The Wild Blue", chronicles McGovern's years as a B-24 pilot. I'm looking forward to meeting the Senator. I didn't agree with his politics, particularly, but I always respected him. He came from a time when politics was not based upon personal attacks on the opponents, < oldperson > a somehow better time and one that I miss.< /oldperson > I hope to see you there!
Sunday, September 21, 2003
Saturday, September 20, 2003
Mars......
If you have missed your close encounter with the planet Mars this month, here's an upclose and personal view. Amateur astronomers at our planetarium were out last night allowing the public a great chance to see the red planet. The amateur telescopes were impressive, some linked into computers to allow viewing on laptops and to automatically track Mars as it moved across the sky. The photo above was taken by simply [and carefully] applying my digital camera to the viewing piece of a rather large instrument. Note the ice cap at the north pole!
A flashback in history....
Via email comes this "what if" satire originally written by Rand Simberg. What if.....today's standards of political short sightedness and media bias were applied to the situation in 1945. Interesting.
August 12, 1945
WASHINGTON DC (Reuters) President Truman, just a few months into his young presidency, is coming under increasing fire from some Congressional Republicans for what appears to be a deteriorating security situation in occupied Germany, with some calling for his removal from office.
Over three months after a formal declaration of an end to hostilities, the occupation is bogged down. Fanatical elements of the former Nazi regime who, in their zeal to liberate their nation from the foreign occupiers, call themselves members of the Werwolf (werewolves) continue to commit almost-daily acts of sabotage against Germany's already-ravaged infrastructure, and attack American troops. They have been laying road mines, poisoning food and water supplies, and setting various traps, often lethal, for the occupying forces.
It's not difficult to find antagonism and anti-Americanism among the population--many complain of the deprivation and lack of security. There are thousands of homeless refugees, and humanitarian efforts seem confused and inadequate.
In the wake of the budding disaster, some have called for more international participation in peacekeeping.
A Red Cross official said that, "...the German people will be more comfortable if their conquerors weren't now their overlords. It makes it difficult to argue that this wasn't an imperialistic war when the occupying troops in the western sector are exclusively American, British and French."
The administration, of course, claims that, given the chaos of the recent war, such a situation is to be expected, and that things will improve with time. As to the suggestion to internationalize the occupying forces, the administration had no official comment, but an unofficial one was a repetition of the quote from General McAuliffe, when asked to surrender in last winter's Battle of the Bulge--"Nuts."
In an attempt to minimize the situation, a White House spokesman pointed out that the casualties were extremely light, and militarily inconsequential, particularly when compared to the loss rates prior to VE Day. Also, the attacks seem to be dying down with each passing month. But this statement was leaped upon by some as heartless, trivializing the deaths and injuries of young American men.
Many critics back in Washington seem now to be prescient, with their previous warnings of just such an outcome a little over a year ago. One congressman said that "...it's time to ask whether the German people are better off now than they were a few months ago. Yes, a brutal dictator has been deposed, but at least the electricity and water supply were mostly working, and the trains running on time. After years of killing them and destroying their infrastructure with American bombs, it seems to me that the German people have suffered enough without the chaos that our occupation, with its inadequate policing, is bringing."
It's not clear how much support the Werwolf has among the populace, who may be afraid to speak their true minds, given the fearfully overwhelming "Allied" presence in the country. But it is possible that, like the guerilla forces themselves, the people have been inspired by Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels' pre-victory broadcasts, and those of Radio Werwolf.
"God has given up the protection of the people . . . Satan has taken command." Goebbels broadcast last spring. "We Werewolves consider it our supreme duty to kill, to kill and to kill, employing every cunning and wile in the darkness of the night, crawling, groping through towns and villages, like wolves, noiselessly, mysteriously."
While no new broadcasts of Goebbels' voice have been heard since early May, no one can be certain as to whether he is alive or dead, and continuing to help orchestrate the attacks and boost morale among the forces for German liberation. As long as his fate, and more importantly, that of the former leader Adolf Hitler himself, remains unresolved, the prospects for pacifying the brutally conquered country may be dim.
Although Grand-Admiral Donitz made a radio announcement of Hitler's brave death in battle to the beleaguered German people on the evening of May 1, some doubt the veracity of that statement, and there has been no evidence
to support it, or any body identified as the former Fuehrer's. Rumors ofhis whereabouts continue to abound, including reported sightings as far away as South America, and many still believe that he is hiding with the "Edelweiss" organization, with thousands of Wehrmacht troops, in a mountain stronghold near the Swiss border.
Many have criticized flawed intelligence for our failure to find him, causing some, in the runup to next year's congressional elections, to call for an investigation. A staffer of one prominent Senator said, "For months, starting last fall, we were told by this administration that Hitler would make a last stand in a 'National Redoubt' in Bavaria. General Bradley diverted troops to the south and let the Russians take Berlin on the basis of this knowledge. But now we find out that there was no such place, and that Hitler was in Berlin all along. And now we're told that we can't even be sure of where he is, or whether he's alive or dead."
For many, marching in the streets with signs of "No Blood For Soviet Socialism," and "It's All About The Coal," this merely confirmed that the administration had other agendas than its stated one, and that the war was unjustified and unjustifiable. General Bradley's staff has protested that this is an unfair criticism--that the strategic decision made by General Eisenhower was driven by many factors, of which Hitler's whereabouts was a minor one, but this hasn't silenced the critics, some of whom have bravely called for President Truman's impeachment, despite the fact that most of these decisions were made even before he became president in April.
But some have taken the criticism further, and say that failure to get Hitler means a failed war itself. "Sure, it's nice to have released all those people from the concentration camps, but we were told we were going to war against Hitler, even though he'd done nothing to us," argued one concerned anti-war Senator. "Now they say that we have 'Victory in Europe,' but it seems to me that if they can't produce the man we supposedly went to war against, it's a pretty hollow victory. Without this man that they told us was such a great threat to America, how can even they claim that this war was justified?"
Via email comes this "what if" satire originally written by Rand Simberg. What if.....today's standards of political short sightedness and media bias were applied to the situation in 1945. Interesting.
August 12, 1945
WASHINGTON DC (Reuters) President Truman, just a few months into his young presidency, is coming under increasing fire from some Congressional Republicans for what appears to be a deteriorating security situation in occupied Germany, with some calling for his removal from office.
Over three months after a formal declaration of an end to hostilities, the occupation is bogged down. Fanatical elements of the former Nazi regime who, in their zeal to liberate their nation from the foreign occupiers, call themselves members of the Werwolf (werewolves) continue to commit almost-daily acts of sabotage against Germany's already-ravaged infrastructure, and attack American troops. They have been laying road mines, poisoning food and water supplies, and setting various traps, often lethal, for the occupying forces.
It's not difficult to find antagonism and anti-Americanism among the population--many complain of the deprivation and lack of security. There are thousands of homeless refugees, and humanitarian efforts seem confused and inadequate.
In the wake of the budding disaster, some have called for more international participation in peacekeeping.
A Red Cross official said that, "...the German people will be more comfortable if their conquerors weren't now their overlords. It makes it difficult to argue that this wasn't an imperialistic war when the occupying troops in the western sector are exclusively American, British and French."
The administration, of course, claims that, given the chaos of the recent war, such a situation is to be expected, and that things will improve with time. As to the suggestion to internationalize the occupying forces, the administration had no official comment, but an unofficial one was a repetition of the quote from General McAuliffe, when asked to surrender in last winter's Battle of the Bulge--"Nuts."
In an attempt to minimize the situation, a White House spokesman pointed out that the casualties were extremely light, and militarily inconsequential, particularly when compared to the loss rates prior to VE Day. Also, the attacks seem to be dying down with each passing month. But this statement was leaped upon by some as heartless, trivializing the deaths and injuries of young American men.
Many critics back in Washington seem now to be prescient, with their previous warnings of just such an outcome a little over a year ago. One congressman said that "...it's time to ask whether the German people are better off now than they were a few months ago. Yes, a brutal dictator has been deposed, but at least the electricity and water supply were mostly working, and the trains running on time. After years of killing them and destroying their infrastructure with American bombs, it seems to me that the German people have suffered enough without the chaos that our occupation, with its inadequate policing, is bringing."
It's not clear how much support the Werwolf has among the populace, who may be afraid to speak their true minds, given the fearfully overwhelming "Allied" presence in the country. But it is possible that, like the guerilla forces themselves, the people have been inspired by Propaganda Minister Josef Goebbels' pre-victory broadcasts, and those of Radio Werwolf.
"God has given up the protection of the people . . . Satan has taken command." Goebbels broadcast last spring. "We Werewolves consider it our supreme duty to kill, to kill and to kill, employing every cunning and wile in the darkness of the night, crawling, groping through towns and villages, like wolves, noiselessly, mysteriously."
While no new broadcasts of Goebbels' voice have been heard since early May, no one can be certain as to whether he is alive or dead, and continuing to help orchestrate the attacks and boost morale among the forces for German liberation. As long as his fate, and more importantly, that of the former leader Adolf Hitler himself, remains unresolved, the prospects for pacifying the brutally conquered country may be dim.
Although Grand-Admiral Donitz made a radio announcement of Hitler's brave death in battle to the beleaguered German people on the evening of May 1, some doubt the veracity of that statement, and there has been no evidence
to support it, or any body identified as the former Fuehrer's. Rumors ofhis whereabouts continue to abound, including reported sightings as far away as South America, and many still believe that he is hiding with the "Edelweiss" organization, with thousands of Wehrmacht troops, in a mountain stronghold near the Swiss border.
Many have criticized flawed intelligence for our failure to find him, causing some, in the runup to next year's congressional elections, to call for an investigation. A staffer of one prominent Senator said, "For months, starting last fall, we were told by this administration that Hitler would make a last stand in a 'National Redoubt' in Bavaria. General Bradley diverted troops to the south and let the Russians take Berlin on the basis of this knowledge. But now we find out that there was no such place, and that Hitler was in Berlin all along. And now we're told that we can't even be sure of where he is, or whether he's alive or dead."
For many, marching in the streets with signs of "No Blood For Soviet Socialism," and "It's All About The Coal," this merely confirmed that the administration had other agendas than its stated one, and that the war was unjustified and unjustifiable. General Bradley's staff has protested that this is an unfair criticism--that the strategic decision made by General Eisenhower was driven by many factors, of which Hitler's whereabouts was a minor one, but this hasn't silenced the critics, some of whom have bravely called for President Truman's impeachment, despite the fact that most of these decisions were made even before he became president in April.
But some have taken the criticism further, and say that failure to get Hitler means a failed war itself. "Sure, it's nice to have released all those people from the concentration camps, but we were told we were going to war against Hitler, even though he'd done nothing to us," argued one concerned anti-war Senator. "Now they say that we have 'Victory in Europe,' but it seems to me that if they can't produce the man we supposedly went to war against, it's a pretty hollow victory. Without this man that they told us was such a great threat to America, how can even they claim that this war was justified?"
Thursday, September 18, 2003
More benevolence for Veterans....
In the continuing story of how our lawmakers treat the very heart and soul of our society, the Veteran, we have the story of the disability squabble. Read as: how can we spend less money on Veterans than we promised.
I am not a retired veteran, nor a disabled veteran, but I spent over 17 years of my life in some form of the military, including ROTC, the Regular Army, the National Guard and the Army Reserves. I have many close friends who are in the retired, disabled or the retired and also disabled category. From the later I have been kept abreast of the government's campaign to short change the ones who have given the most to their country.
Under current mandate, if you are a retired veteran who happens to also be disabled, the total amount of your disability payment is deducted from your retirement pay. Some veterans who are 100% disabled, receive no retirement stipend at all, only disability. In other words, if you flew 100 deadly missions over Hanoi for your country's sake, but were shot down, spent 7 years as a POW, were tortured to the point that you ended up as a quadriplegic, all you could collect is your disability payment. A payment intended to help defray the cost of your injuries. You would kiss your retirement pay, based on 30 years of selfless service good-bye.
Now after years, and legions of veterans explaining how unfair this is, the Congress is prepared to rectify this injustice. And how do they propose to do this? As Joe Galloway explains in his current article Robbing Sgt. Peter to Pay Sgt. Paul the "honorable" men on the Potomac are set to pay current veterans what they are due by not paying future veterans what they might be due. I can see the volunteer ranks swelling when the potential recruit learns that losing a leg might be, according to the new philosophy, only a minor injury.
In the continuing story of how our lawmakers treat the very heart and soul of our society, the Veteran, we have the story of the disability squabble. Read as: how can we spend less money on Veterans than we promised.
I am not a retired veteran, nor a disabled veteran, but I spent over 17 years of my life in some form of the military, including ROTC, the Regular Army, the National Guard and the Army Reserves. I have many close friends who are in the retired, disabled or the retired and also disabled category. From the later I have been kept abreast of the government's campaign to short change the ones who have given the most to their country.
Under current mandate, if you are a retired veteran who happens to also be disabled, the total amount of your disability payment is deducted from your retirement pay. Some veterans who are 100% disabled, receive no retirement stipend at all, only disability. In other words, if you flew 100 deadly missions over Hanoi for your country's sake, but were shot down, spent 7 years as a POW, were tortured to the point that you ended up as a quadriplegic, all you could collect is your disability payment. A payment intended to help defray the cost of your injuries. You would kiss your retirement pay, based on 30 years of selfless service good-bye.
Now after years, and legions of veterans explaining how unfair this is, the Congress is prepared to rectify this injustice. And how do they propose to do this? As Joe Galloway explains in his current article Robbing Sgt. Peter to Pay Sgt. Paul the "honorable" men on the Potomac are set to pay current veterans what they are due by not paying future veterans what they might be due. I can see the volunteer ranks swelling when the potential recruit learns that losing a leg might be, according to the new philosophy, only a minor injury.
Tuesday, September 16, 2003
We Support our Troops.....But!
"Jeebus h. Christ! Is about the only thing I can think of to say in response to this one".
That was the accompanying comment written by my friend, author Joe Galloway, when he sent me this article from the Stars and Stripes newspaper. Apparently in it's infinite wisdom the Department of Defense is making some soldiers wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq pay for their meals while in the military hospital.
Surprising? Not really when you consider some of the other pronouncements coming from DoD recently. Like the "study" currently being done that would aim to considerably lower benefits to Veterans in the future. Veterans benefits, like a free education, decent retirement pay and medical benefits, have long been a lure to young people in joining the military and a just reward for a hard life of service in harms way. Now the reasoning seems to be that American citizens volunteer for our armed services, they know the dangers in the job, and so they should not receive any special treatment beyond the abnormally low wages received for serving and protecting the Nation.
Despite all the election time high speaking from most politicians about how we love and support our servicemen and women, the sad truth is that mostly it's a lot of hot air. The bottom line is money and a reelection ticket that can show that "we lowered our spending" for you the taxpayer.... and oh yeah, the voter. This reminds me of the situation currently ongoing in our area of West Texas. The Veterans Administration is "studying" the possiblity of closing the large regional Veteran's Hospital in Big Spring and transfering services to smaller clinics. The V.A. press releases state something to the effect that they are doing this "to better serve our servicemen and women......." Sadly, whenever I see that the Dept. of Veterans Affairs is doing something to "better serve me", I know I'm screwed.
******************
The following comment arrived by email from a retired Army Officer......
"Ah, but you don't know the half of it. Lets say I'm so *Bleep*ed up I'm on IV drip for six months in a coma. Under the current miserly government regulations which are passed by Congress and not the military, I would be charged for three meals a day for six months or about 180x$8.10 a day. We are the only *Bleep*ing army on the planet that charges its troops to eat in the field and in combat!!!! During DS/DS the *Bleep*suckers took my BAS back each month because they were giving me MRE's and other crap for the 7 1/2 months I was deployed. I lost 30 lbs on their largesse. Congress needs to fix it for everybody, not just the wounded. Why should a soldier give up his Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS) WHICH IS TAX FREE AND DONE IN ORDER TO INCREASE HIS MEASLY *Bleeping* PAY because he is now being shot at??? How could we be so stupid!!??"
"Jeebus h. Christ! Is about the only thing I can think of to say in response to this one".
That was the accompanying comment written by my friend, author Joe Galloway, when he sent me this article from the Stars and Stripes newspaper. Apparently in it's infinite wisdom the Department of Defense is making some soldiers wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq pay for their meals while in the military hospital.
Surprising? Not really when you consider some of the other pronouncements coming from DoD recently. Like the "study" currently being done that would aim to considerably lower benefits to Veterans in the future. Veterans benefits, like a free education, decent retirement pay and medical benefits, have long been a lure to young people in joining the military and a just reward for a hard life of service in harms way. Now the reasoning seems to be that American citizens volunteer for our armed services, they know the dangers in the job, and so they should not receive any special treatment beyond the abnormally low wages received for serving and protecting the Nation.
Despite all the election time high speaking from most politicians about how we love and support our servicemen and women, the sad truth is that mostly it's a lot of hot air. The bottom line is money and a reelection ticket that can show that "we lowered our spending" for you the taxpayer.... and oh yeah, the voter. This reminds me of the situation currently ongoing in our area of West Texas. The Veterans Administration is "studying" the possiblity of closing the large regional Veteran's Hospital in Big Spring and transfering services to smaller clinics. The V.A. press releases state something to the effect that they are doing this "to better serve our servicemen and women......." Sadly, whenever I see that the Dept. of Veterans Affairs is doing something to "better serve me", I know I'm screwed.
******************
The following comment arrived by email from a retired Army Officer......
"Ah, but you don't know the half of it. Lets say I'm so *Bleep*ed up I'm on IV drip for six months in a coma. Under the current miserly government regulations which are passed by Congress and not the military, I would be charged for three meals a day for six months or about 180x$8.10 a day. We are the only *Bleep*ing army on the planet that charges its troops to eat in the field and in combat!!!! During DS/DS the *Bleep*suckers took my BAS back each month because they were giving me MRE's and other crap for the 7 1/2 months I was deployed. I lost 30 lbs on their largesse. Congress needs to fix it for everybody, not just the wounded. Why should a soldier give up his Basic Allowance for Subsistence (BAS) WHICH IS TAX FREE AND DONE IN ORDER TO INCREASE HIS MEASLY *Bleeping* PAY because he is now being shot at??? How could we be so stupid!!??"
Thursday, September 11, 2003
The Homecoming........
It's homecoming weekend for my alma mater, Midland High School, and the big parade was this afternoon. The parade route takes the extravangza by the park two blocks from my house so we are able to walk to view it. As Julie, Jack and I stood by the street with the crowds of Bulldog fans and alums gathering, I realized what a great way that this was to spend September 11th and honor those who were lost that day two years ago. No rousing patriotic speeches, no extreme flag waving...just ordinary citizens coming together to do something completely American.
I lived in Dallas, a very large city, for many years, and so I still appreciate the way that Midland, Texas is. The small town quality. I know that people have their close neighborhoods in the bigger cities, but there is something beyond that in a small city the size of Midland. In the short walk to the parade, we pass a friends house in the next block. I've known Scott since I was 11 years old, we were in Boy Scouts in the same troop and toured the US on a bus together in 1964. Scott was at the parade. While waiting for the parade to begin, we saw Julie's old friend Maedee. Maedee is the sister of my partner Wes, who went to high school with my younger sister. You see how it goes.......
Everyone feels connected to each other. When we go to events like the parade, the crowd is not just made up of nameless faces. When the floats go by we yell at the kids, because we know their parents, their grandparents or because our kids know them. We know the homecoming queens parents and we know the brother of the twirler in the PeeWee cheerleader squad. We're proud of the kids on the floats. And the kids are proud of themselves. We clap for all the kids on the floats whether it is the Football Team, the Future Farmers of America, Distributive Education, the Ice Hockey Team that we didn't even know we had or the Foreign Language club. We know someone connected to all these activities.
It's a special feeling and a great American feeling, knowing your neighbors. It's what keeps us strong, we can count on each other, and in some ways we're accountable to one another. Let's hope the smaller towns and cities of the United States don't loose this feeling.
Wednesday, September 10, 2003
From those left behind....
The reunion of the Ia Drang Veteran's Reunion is held every year on Veteran's Day in Washington D.C. The Veteran's not only includes the battle tested men of that conflict, but also the families of the survivors and those tragically lost all those years ago in 1965. The long years have not washed away the loving memories and the pain. One of the families I have had the privelage to meet is that of Sgt. Jack Gell who was killed in action at LZ Xray. Sgt. Gell's daughter, Carol Gell Crowley, sent me this poignant and timely story yesterday................
"I flew my three youngest children to New Orleans in mid August to visit some family and friends in Slidell. Upon arriving to the airport, we were coming through the security area. I observed a rather large group with a FOX camera right outside that area. Looking at the "Welcome Home " signs, and matching red Marine T Shirts, and seeing the excitement bursting from each one of them, I quickly realized they were awaiting their own Marine's return from Iraq. I asked my children to stand beside me, and told them to watch what was happening. I told them a young man was coming home from war. I stood silently as I heard the happy chatter and anticipation.....I thought of my friend Johnny Privette and knew he had been through this recently when his own son came home. Emotions were soaring and the thrill of a homecoming was powerful.
"There he is! There he is!" I heard...The Fox news camera man swirled his camera back and forth from family to the exiting passengers...I stood right with them, and felt almost like a part of their unit. My heart beat faster as I smiled, beaming with pride for a young man I did not know, for his great service to our country. My throat began to ache and tears formed in my eyes, but I stood fast and smiled just the same. His wife and father could no longer stand back and ran to him as his foot stepped out of the secure area. They cried and smiled, and hugged, and kissed. My ears burned and my face felt the hot tears swelling in my eyes.
I just stood there. My feet were implanted firmly and my body could not move. I realized my 7 year old daughter was pulling on my shirt. I looked down at her to see she a concerned little face.The boys were ready to go on. "Mommy, why are you crying?" she asked me in her sweet caring voice.
I smiled and hugged her tight and whispered in her ear, "Because he just came home to his family." She hugged me back and said, "Are you sad because your daddy didn't come home?"
Her small and tender voice hit me like a bolt of lightening. My heart raced, my blood rushed into my head, reality flooded my insides. The tears became bigger, now streaming down my cheek pushing against my eyes from behind. In a barely audible voice, I managed to whisper, "...I am, honey...but I am just happy for these people."
My heart ached for something that could never be... If only my Mom could have been so blessed to have had the experience of a homecoming like this. Unfortunately, hers was tragic and painful, in the form of a telegram delivered and left alone with her grief and three small kids. My heart ached for her in a way that hurt beyond words.
A thousand thoughts raced through my mind within mere seconds. I thought of my sister and brother. I thought of Veterans I have met who knew my father, the great men that I see as Heros from the Ia Drang Battle in Vietnam... wondering how they must feel about this war. I thought of my Dad's sisters and close family friends. I closed my eyes and saw images of the War clips where the Walter Cronkite bulletin aired my young mother reading my Dad's letter, her sad face missing him. A lifetime of thoughts and memories raced through my head....Almost like what you may feel before you die.......
As if a flash came over me, I whispered "My God....." and sensed an overwhelming presence with me that eased my yearning and racing mind. I opened my eyes and was suddenly comforted, and thankful for so much. God was there. God is always there. I wiped my eyes and regrouped.
I took my daughters hand and gathered my bags, glancing at the family who swarmed so close to this very fortunate hero. Tears and smiles were hard at work! The marines eyes briefly met mine as he lifted his neck from one of his welcomers. A fleeting glimpse of concern and wonder came across his face. He surely wondered who I was and why I was there, with tears in my eyes. He glanced around as if to see that I may be waiting too? That still instant of my life was surreal. I put my arm around my son, and walked away, refocusing on the direction of meeting my party at baggage claim. I did not look back, but the image was engraved in my head. I explained to my kids how great it was for us to have seen such a joyous event. They listened, but I am certain they are to young to grasp the emotions in their deserving form.
I wonder today what that young Marine thought about me, there with his family and friends, standing with my own children. Perhaps he didn't think twice about it. Perhaps he just knows that one more person appreciates his service. Whatever it is, I feel like there is a reason that I was there at that very moment. I am all the more reminded to appreciate life, Freedom, Veterans who have served, and those who now serve and protect the greatest Nation on earth. I am the proud daughter of a Vet who died for us all. His memory and honor is with me always.
I am continually disappointed to see so called "Americans" who do not respect or appreciate these sacrifices and try to rob us of freedoms and rights that our very Country was founded on. Shame on them.... To that I end: Let us not tolerate those who disrespect the red, white, and blue... and AS ALWAYS..."GOD BLESS AMERICA"
The reunion of the Ia Drang Veteran's Reunion is held every year on Veteran's Day in Washington D.C. The Veteran's not only includes the battle tested men of that conflict, but also the families of the survivors and those tragically lost all those years ago in 1965. The long years have not washed away the loving memories and the pain. One of the families I have had the privelage to meet is that of Sgt. Jack Gell who was killed in action at LZ Xray. Sgt. Gell's daughter, Carol Gell Crowley, sent me this poignant and timely story yesterday................
"I flew my three youngest children to New Orleans in mid August to visit some family and friends in Slidell. Upon arriving to the airport, we were coming through the security area. I observed a rather large group with a FOX camera right outside that area. Looking at the "Welcome Home " signs, and matching red Marine T Shirts, and seeing the excitement bursting from each one of them, I quickly realized they were awaiting their own Marine's return from Iraq. I asked my children to stand beside me, and told them to watch what was happening. I told them a young man was coming home from war. I stood silently as I heard the happy chatter and anticipation.....I thought of my friend Johnny Privette and knew he had been through this recently when his own son came home. Emotions were soaring and the thrill of a homecoming was powerful.
"There he is! There he is!" I heard...The Fox news camera man swirled his camera back and forth from family to the exiting passengers...I stood right with them, and felt almost like a part of their unit. My heart beat faster as I smiled, beaming with pride for a young man I did not know, for his great service to our country. My throat began to ache and tears formed in my eyes, but I stood fast and smiled just the same. His wife and father could no longer stand back and ran to him as his foot stepped out of the secure area. They cried and smiled, and hugged, and kissed. My ears burned and my face felt the hot tears swelling in my eyes.
I just stood there. My feet were implanted firmly and my body could not move. I realized my 7 year old daughter was pulling on my shirt. I looked down at her to see she a concerned little face.The boys were ready to go on. "Mommy, why are you crying?" she asked me in her sweet caring voice.
I smiled and hugged her tight and whispered in her ear, "Because he just came home to his family." She hugged me back and said, "Are you sad because your daddy didn't come home?"
Her small and tender voice hit me like a bolt of lightening. My heart raced, my blood rushed into my head, reality flooded my insides. The tears became bigger, now streaming down my cheek pushing against my eyes from behind. In a barely audible voice, I managed to whisper, "...I am, honey...but I am just happy for these people."
My heart ached for something that could never be... If only my Mom could have been so blessed to have had the experience of a homecoming like this. Unfortunately, hers was tragic and painful, in the form of a telegram delivered and left alone with her grief and three small kids. My heart ached for her in a way that hurt beyond words.
A thousand thoughts raced through my mind within mere seconds. I thought of my sister and brother. I thought of Veterans I have met who knew my father, the great men that I see as Heros from the Ia Drang Battle in Vietnam... wondering how they must feel about this war. I thought of my Dad's sisters and close family friends. I closed my eyes and saw images of the War clips where the Walter Cronkite bulletin aired my young mother reading my Dad's letter, her sad face missing him. A lifetime of thoughts and memories raced through my head....Almost like what you may feel before you die.......
As if a flash came over me, I whispered "My God....." and sensed an overwhelming presence with me that eased my yearning and racing mind. I opened my eyes and was suddenly comforted, and thankful for so much. God was there. God is always there. I wiped my eyes and regrouped.
I took my daughters hand and gathered my bags, glancing at the family who swarmed so close to this very fortunate hero. Tears and smiles were hard at work! The marines eyes briefly met mine as he lifted his neck from one of his welcomers. A fleeting glimpse of concern and wonder came across his face. He surely wondered who I was and why I was there, with tears in my eyes. He glanced around as if to see that I may be waiting too? That still instant of my life was surreal. I put my arm around my son, and walked away, refocusing on the direction of meeting my party at baggage claim. I did not look back, but the image was engraved in my head. I explained to my kids how great it was for us to have seen such a joyous event. They listened, but I am certain they are to young to grasp the emotions in their deserving form.
I wonder today what that young Marine thought about me, there with his family and friends, standing with my own children. Perhaps he didn't think twice about it. Perhaps he just knows that one more person appreciates his service. Whatever it is, I feel like there is a reason that I was there at that very moment. I am all the more reminded to appreciate life, Freedom, Veterans who have served, and those who now serve and protect the greatest Nation on earth. I am the proud daughter of a Vet who died for us all. His memory and honor is with me always.
I am continually disappointed to see so called "Americans" who do not respect or appreciate these sacrifices and try to rob us of freedoms and rights that our very Country was founded on. Shame on them.... To that I end: Let us not tolerate those who disrespect the red, white, and blue... and AS ALWAYS..."GOD BLESS AMERICA"
Tuesday, September 09, 2003
A Remembrance.....
For many months in 2001 I had been looking forward to attending the annual reunion of the survivors of the battles of the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam, which were recounted in my good friend Joe Galloway's book We Were Soldiers Once and Young, co-written with Gen. Hal Moore and the basis for the film We Were Soldiers. I had been friends with many of the participants for years and knew stories of the others, but one name kept coming up. "You've got to meet Rick Rescorla", I was told....."he's one hell of a guy". I didn't take this lightly, the recommendation coming from some of the people I respect most in the world, and one hell of a group of guys themselves. Rick was the keeper of the 1/7th Cavalry regimental bugle, captured in Vietnam, and which played a role in the film, kniting the beginning and the end together. I was anxious to meet Rick.
I didn't get that chance. The reunion was in November, on Veteran's Day, 2001 and Rick died September 11th at the World Trade Center. Internet blog pal, Greyhawk has written a magnificent piece on Rick, his life and it's meaning and why we should remember his contribution to our freedom. A great read as we remember 9/11/01.
911 Remembered, Rick Rescorla was a soldier
For many months in 2001 I had been looking forward to attending the annual reunion of the survivors of the battles of the Ia Drang Valley in Vietnam, which were recounted in my good friend Joe Galloway's book We Were Soldiers Once and Young, co-written with Gen. Hal Moore and the basis for the film We Were Soldiers. I had been friends with many of the participants for years and knew stories of the others, but one name kept coming up. "You've got to meet Rick Rescorla", I was told....."he's one hell of a guy". I didn't take this lightly, the recommendation coming from some of the people I respect most in the world, and one hell of a group of guys themselves. Rick was the keeper of the 1/7th Cavalry regimental bugle, captured in Vietnam, and which played a role in the film, kniting the beginning and the end together. I was anxious to meet Rick.
I didn't get that chance. The reunion was in November, on Veteran's Day, 2001 and Rick died September 11th at the World Trade Center. Internet blog pal, Greyhawk has written a magnificent piece on Rick, his life and it's meaning and why we should remember his contribution to our freedom. A great read as we remember 9/11/01.
911 Remembered, Rick Rescorla was a soldier
Monday, September 08, 2003
Raindrops......
Raindrops, heck, it was a deluge. From one lone thunderstorm sprouted 70 mph winds, hail, and one boatload of rain. Close to an inch and a half by my measured eye. The winds and hail weren't too bad, as wind and hail go out here, and Lord knows we need the rain. Needing rain is a constant condition in West Texas and this downpour actually put us over the "average" mark for the year. Something in this drought ridden decade that hasn't happened often.
The rain cleansed my soul.....yeah right, but it sure cleansed my street and it's curbside gutters that had many months worth of decaying detrial material from the pecan trees. So much decayed pecan matter that the street had been stained brown in front of the estate. But, hopefully, this is history.....floated off down The Draw on it's way to the Colorado River. For out of towners, our Draw is what you would call a dry creekbed. The Draw wends it's way through town becoming the main mechanism for carrying off our excess water since we don't really have a storm drain system. A dry, sullen, weed choked gulley except when it rains hard like this when it quickly becomes a raging torrent sweeping away unattended children, pets, and Yugos.
The downside of the storm which blew hard first from the East, then the West, was that the one foot high accumulation of pine needles on the roof of the estate came wafting down on the patio [have you ever tried sweeping pine needles...it's hell]. Additionally I discovered that my recent roofing repairs need a tad more work. One of my chimneys still has a minor leak somewhere, directing it's disgorge down through the canned recessed lighting in the den. *Memo to self: don't turn on the den lights in a heavy downpour* But none-the-less the rain was appreciated.
And in ongoing news, I've made real progress on my website project, the $25 interior designer is coming back tommorow with fabric samples and ideas, and we've gotten into action on the redo of the estate. Well actually Julie has gotten into action, purchasing a new desk/bookcase piece for Jack's new room......some assembly required.
Thursday, September 04, 2003
Que Paso....?
Blogging, both reading and writing, has been at a bare minimum this week due to a flurry of mundane workday activity and of course, trying to get started on the nuptials. Actually, our biggest tribulation seems to be our quandry as to how to fit two households into one house. We agree that a few redecorating items are in order at the Pancho Estate, soon to be the Pancho/Julie/Jack estate. We are starting with the thought of repainting walls, ditching furniture, re-covering furniture and redoing some floors to make some semblence of decorating taste. Luckily, I have the services of a professional interior designer at our beck and call, having bid on and won this service at an auction benifitting Jack's previous school. He was supposed to come today, but alas, he was stuck at another clients home. I hope he gets here soon!
Other busyness includes the upcoming Air Show, for which I am a commitee chairperson, starting a new venture in the oil and gas business, trying to organize an October college reunion and a rush Internet project for a friend. The friend is paying very good hard U.S. currency, so this seems to be taking priority. I hope to be back to the normal earth shattering stories that this space is famous for in the near future. But in the meantime, hopefully the comments are back in working order.....or amuse yourself with international weather reports at Weather Talk.
Blogging, both reading and writing, has been at a bare minimum this week due to a flurry of mundane workday activity and of course, trying to get started on the nuptials. Actually, our biggest tribulation seems to be our quandry as to how to fit two households into one house. We agree that a few redecorating items are in order at the Pancho Estate, soon to be the Pancho/Julie/Jack estate. We are starting with the thought of repainting walls, ditching furniture, re-covering furniture and redoing some floors to make some semblence of decorating taste. Luckily, I have the services of a professional interior designer at our beck and call, having bid on and won this service at an auction benifitting Jack's previous school. He was supposed to come today, but alas, he was stuck at another clients home. I hope he gets here soon!
Other busyness includes the upcoming Air Show, for which I am a commitee chairperson, starting a new venture in the oil and gas business, trying to organize an October college reunion and a rush Internet project for a friend. The friend is paying very good hard U.S. currency, so this seems to be taking priority. I hope to be back to the normal earth shattering stories that this space is famous for in the near future. But in the meantime, hopefully the comments are back in working order.....or amuse yourself with international weather reports at Weather Talk.
Saturday, August 30, 2003
California Dreamin'.......
Being from Texas, I'm used to the usual line of jokes about the state and it's inhabitants, which we take in good humor. But in honor of the California Gubernatorial follies, I thought I'd offer this payback.
You know you live in California if..............
1. Your coworker has 8 body piercings and none are visible.
2. You make over $300,000 and still can't afford a house.
3. You take a bus and are shocked at two people carrying on a conversation in English.
4. Your child's 3rd-grade teacher has purple hair, a nose ring, and is named Breeze.
5. You can't remember...is pot illegal?
6. You've been to a baby shower that has two mothers and a sperm donor.
7. You have a very strong opinion about where your coffee beans are grown and can taste the difference between Sumatran and Ethiopian.
8. You know which restaurant serves the freshest arugula.
9. You can't remember.....is pot illegal?
10. A really great parking space can totally move you to tears.
11. A low speed police pursuit will interrupt ANY TV broadcast.
12. Gas costs $1.00 per gallon more than anywhere else in the U.S.
13. A man gets on the bus in full leather regalia and crotchless chaps. You don't even notice.
14. Unlike back home, the guy at 8:30 am at Starbucks wearing the baseball cap and sunglasses who looks like George Clooney IS George Clooney.
15. Your car insurance costs as much as your housepayment.
16. Your hairdresser is straight, your plumber is gay, the woman who delivers your mail is into S & M, and your Mary Kay rep is a guy in drag.
17. You can't remember...is pot illegal?
18. It's barely sprinkling rain and there's areport on every news station about "STORM WATCH 2003."
19. You have to leave the big company meeting early because Billy Blanks himself is teaching the 4:00 PM Tae Bo class.
20. You pass an elementary school playground and the children are all busy with their cell phones or pagers.
21. It's barely sprinkling rain outside, so you leave for work an hour early to avoid all the weather-related accidents.
22. Hey!!!! Is Pot Illegal????
23. Both you AND your dog have therapists
Being from Texas, I'm used to the usual line of jokes about the state and it's inhabitants, which we take in good humor. But in honor of the California Gubernatorial follies, I thought I'd offer this payback.
You know you live in California if..............
1. Your coworker has 8 body piercings and none are visible.
2. You make over $300,000 and still can't afford a house.
3. You take a bus and are shocked at two people carrying on a conversation in English.
4. Your child's 3rd-grade teacher has purple hair, a nose ring, and is named Breeze.
5. You can't remember...is pot illegal?
6. You've been to a baby shower that has two mothers and a sperm donor.
7. You have a very strong opinion about where your coffee beans are grown and can taste the difference between Sumatran and Ethiopian.
8. You know which restaurant serves the freshest arugula.
9. You can't remember.....is pot illegal?
10. A really great parking space can totally move you to tears.
11. A low speed police pursuit will interrupt ANY TV broadcast.
12. Gas costs $1.00 per gallon more than anywhere else in the U.S.
13. A man gets on the bus in full leather regalia and crotchless chaps. You don't even notice.
14. Unlike back home, the guy at 8:30 am at Starbucks wearing the baseball cap and sunglasses who looks like George Clooney IS George Clooney.
15. Your car insurance costs as much as your housepayment.
16. Your hairdresser is straight, your plumber is gay, the woman who delivers your mail is into S & M, and your Mary Kay rep is a guy in drag.
17. You can't remember...is pot illegal?
18. It's barely sprinkling rain and there's areport on every news station about "STORM WATCH 2003."
19. You have to leave the big company meeting early because Billy Blanks himself is teaching the 4:00 PM Tae Bo class.
20. You pass an elementary school playground and the children are all busy with their cell phones or pagers.
21. It's barely sprinkling rain outside, so you leave for work an hour early to avoid all the weather-related accidents.
22. Hey!!!! Is Pot Illegal????
23. Both you AND your dog have therapists
Wednesday, August 27, 2003
Professional Assesment
Submitted by friend Joe H. a career Green Beret operative.........
from Tech Central Station
Eliminating Smoldering Coals
by Gordon Cucullu
In the Vietnam War, when I first felt the pride of placing a green beret on my head, we in Special Forces had a dual mission: we were fighting an unconventional war in Vietnam and simultaneously training to be guerrillas. Our primary unit mission was to carry out a resistance movement behind enemy lines. We trained in sabotage, ambush and guerrilla warfare -- tactics of the weak -- for we were not strong enough to engage the enemy in positional warfare.
These tactics are roughly similar to those employed by what Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld calls "dead enders" who are fighting our troops in Iraq today. These guys are former Baathist regime holdouts, committed to Saddam Hussein, and joined by foreign jihadists infiltrated from such garden spots as Syria, Iran, Afghanistan and Palestine. The tactics used by these dead enders -- hit and run, assassination, ambush, sabotage, intimidation of the population -- are clearly indicative of a group struggling simply to stay alive.
Paradoxically, the more horrific the targets for attack, the weaker the terrorists. The truck bombing of UN headquarters in Baghdad is a classic example. Unable to pull off something of that magnitude against an American or British military outfit, the terrorists pick a soft, innocent target upon which to vent their murderous nature. After all, in a country awash in munitions, putting together a truck bomb is no great shakes. Killing for the sheer horrific effect makes them feel successful. Only a sociopath gloats over murdering innocents. So they blow up children, women and bystanders in their random acts. But each attack underlines the fact that they are becoming progressively weaker.
The wonder to those of us who trained to be guerrillas is not that there is so much activity right now in Iraq but so little. If the situation was reversed and our special ops guys were advising the resistance, the entire country would be aflame. A well-trained, organized force supported by a significant percentage of the Iraqi population would have scores of bombings daily along with dozens of assassinations.
What this tells us is that 1) the terrorists are strictly on their own. Most of the Iraqi population does not support the terrorists yet fears a return of the Baathists. That is why icing Usay and Qusay was so important and why double-tapping Saddam will usher in a new era to Iraq. And, 2) these terrorists are typical of the Middle East variety: poorly trained, uneducated hate machines bent on martyrdom. Fortunately, they have come to the right place to accomplish that goal.
Criticism is surfacing that President Bush has turned Iraq into a battleground for terrorists. If that is truly the case then, well, good: better to fight them in Iraq where they are isolated, vulnerable and the rules of engagement permit our professionals to engage and eliminate them, than to have to fight them here (!!!). If Iraq is the catalyst that is bringing these vermin out of their holes in Syria, Iran, Afghanistan and Palestine, then, hooray, we have achieved yet another tangential benefit by fighting the war:
Some say that some of these fighters have emerged simply because the opportunity to fight Americans is available to them. In other words, that if left alone they would not have posed a threat. It is tough to know with hypotheticals, but the case can be made that some of these thugs would have been prime recruits for al Qaeda, Hamas or any of the other alphabet soup of fundamentalist Islamic terror groups. Better to eliminate them where we can rather than risk confronting them elsewhere.
We are engaged in the end game of a war, the dirty days of snuffing out the last of the opposition. Just like firefighters extinguishing a blaze, we know that eliminating the last smoldering coal is sometimes tougher than fighting roaring flames. But like iron tempered in the fire, the new Iraq will emerge over time stronger, freer and more resilient than ever.
Gordon Cucullu is a former Green Beret lieutenant colonel and writer. His book, Separated at Birth: How North Korea became the Evil Twin, will be released by Simon & Schuster this fall.
Submitted by friend Joe H. a career Green Beret operative.........
from Tech Central Station
Eliminating Smoldering Coals
by Gordon Cucullu
In the Vietnam War, when I first felt the pride of placing a green beret on my head, we in Special Forces had a dual mission: we were fighting an unconventional war in Vietnam and simultaneously training to be guerrillas. Our primary unit mission was to carry out a resistance movement behind enemy lines. We trained in sabotage, ambush and guerrilla warfare -- tactics of the weak -- for we were not strong enough to engage the enemy in positional warfare.
These tactics are roughly similar to those employed by what Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld calls "dead enders" who are fighting our troops in Iraq today. These guys are former Baathist regime holdouts, committed to Saddam Hussein, and joined by foreign jihadists infiltrated from such garden spots as Syria, Iran, Afghanistan and Palestine. The tactics used by these dead enders -- hit and run, assassination, ambush, sabotage, intimidation of the population -- are clearly indicative of a group struggling simply to stay alive.
Paradoxically, the more horrific the targets for attack, the weaker the terrorists. The truck bombing of UN headquarters in Baghdad is a classic example. Unable to pull off something of that magnitude against an American or British military outfit, the terrorists pick a soft, innocent target upon which to vent their murderous nature. After all, in a country awash in munitions, putting together a truck bomb is no great shakes. Killing for the sheer horrific effect makes them feel successful. Only a sociopath gloats over murdering innocents. So they blow up children, women and bystanders in their random acts. But each attack underlines the fact that they are becoming progressively weaker.
The wonder to those of us who trained to be guerrillas is not that there is so much activity right now in Iraq but so little. If the situation was reversed and our special ops guys were advising the resistance, the entire country would be aflame. A well-trained, organized force supported by a significant percentage of the Iraqi population would have scores of bombings daily along with dozens of assassinations.
What this tells us is that 1) the terrorists are strictly on their own. Most of the Iraqi population does not support the terrorists yet fears a return of the Baathists. That is why icing Usay and Qusay was so important and why double-tapping Saddam will usher in a new era to Iraq. And, 2) these terrorists are typical of the Middle East variety: poorly trained, uneducated hate machines bent on martyrdom. Fortunately, they have come to the right place to accomplish that goal.
Criticism is surfacing that President Bush has turned Iraq into a battleground for terrorists. If that is truly the case then, well, good: better to fight them in Iraq where they are isolated, vulnerable and the rules of engagement permit our professionals to engage and eliminate them, than to have to fight them here (!!!). If Iraq is the catalyst that is bringing these vermin out of their holes in Syria, Iran, Afghanistan and Palestine, then, hooray, we have achieved yet another tangential benefit by fighting the war:
Some say that some of these fighters have emerged simply because the opportunity to fight Americans is available to them. In other words, that if left alone they would not have posed a threat. It is tough to know with hypotheticals, but the case can be made that some of these thugs would have been prime recruits for al Qaeda, Hamas or any of the other alphabet soup of fundamentalist Islamic terror groups. Better to eliminate them where we can rather than risk confronting them elsewhere.
We are engaged in the end game of a war, the dirty days of snuffing out the last of the opposition. Just like firefighters extinguishing a blaze, we know that eliminating the last smoldering coal is sometimes tougher than fighting roaring flames. But like iron tempered in the fire, the new Iraq will emerge over time stronger, freer and more resilient than ever.
Gordon Cucullu is a former Green Beret lieutenant colonel and writer. His book, Separated at Birth: How North Korea became the Evil Twin, will be released by Simon & Schuster this fall.
Friday, August 22, 2003
New Math.........
From email reports........
Teaching Math in 1950:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100 His cost of productionis 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?
Teaching Math in 1960:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100 His cost of productionis 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?
Teaching Math in 1970:
A logger exchanges a set "L" of lumber for a set "M" of money. The cardinality of set "M" is 100. Each element is worth one dollar. Make 100 dots representing the elements of the set "M." The set "C," the cost of production contains 20 fewer points than set "M." Represent the set "C" as subset of set "M" and answer the following question: What is the cardinality of the set "P" of profits?
Teaching Math in 1980:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.
Teaching Math in 1990:
By cutting down beautiful forest trees, the logger makes $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the forest birds and squirrels "feel" as the logger cut down the trees? There are no wrong answers.
Teaching Math in 2002:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100 His cost of production is $120. How does Arthur Andersen determine that his profit margin is $60?
Teaching Math in 2010:
El hachero vende un camion carga por $100. La cuesta de production es........
From email reports........
Teaching Math in 1950:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100 His cost of productionis 4/5 of the price. What is his profit?
Teaching Math in 1960:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100 His cost of productionis 4/5 of the price, or $80. What is his profit?
Teaching Math in 1970:
A logger exchanges a set "L" of lumber for a set "M" of money. The cardinality of set "M" is 100. Each element is worth one dollar. Make 100 dots representing the elements of the set "M." The set "C," the cost of production contains 20 fewer points than set "M." Represent the set "C" as subset of set "M" and answer the following question: What is the cardinality of the set "P" of profits?
Teaching Math in 1980:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100. His cost of production is $80 and his profit is $20. Your assignment: Underline the number 20.
Teaching Math in 1990:
By cutting down beautiful forest trees, the logger makes $20. What do you think of this way of making a living? Topic for class participation after answering the question: How did the forest birds and squirrels "feel" as the logger cut down the trees? There are no wrong answers.
Teaching Math in 2002:
A logger sells a truckload of lumber for $100 His cost of production is $120. How does Arthur Andersen determine that his profit margin is $60?
Teaching Math in 2010:
El hachero vende un camion carga por $100. La cuesta de production es........
Thursday, August 21, 2003
The New Quagmire......?
From the Washington Times...by Jack Kelley.
It's amazing how many people who've never been to either place say Iraq is "another Vietnam." There are a few differences worth noting. To begin with, at no point in the Vietnam war did the United States utterly destroy the North Vietnamese Army; occupy North Vietnam; send Ho Chi Minh into hiding, and kill or capture most of his Politburo. Had we done so,the war might have had a different outcome.
Vietnam is mostly jungle. I don't like jungles, but guerrillas do. There is plenty of cover and concealment. There is plenty of water. There are a lot of things to eat. Creepy crawly yucky things, but you can eat them if you have to. A large guerrilla force can live, relatively securely, in jungles for long periods. Iraq is mostly desert. Desert offers little cover or concealment, less food and water. Large guerrilla forces cannot live in the desert, period, much less live without detection.
The North Vietnamese and their Viet Cong allies were bright, skilled, resourceful, well-led, and very brave. In Iraq, we're fighting Arabs. In South Vietnam, we were burdened by supporting an unpopular, corrupt and incompetent government that was riddled with spies. In Iraq, we overthrew an unpopular, corrupt and incompetent government whose surviving officials are being ratted out by the local population.
In Vietnam, the war progressed in classic Maoist fashion: from terrorism, to guerrilla warfare, to conventional combat between main force units. In Iraq, Saddam's forces have regressed from Stage 3 all the way back to Stage 1. Once in absolute control of the entire country, the Ba'athist remnant is now restricted to sniping and remote ambushes. Saddam is spending more time and effort fleeing for his life than in plotting a comeback.
In Vietnam, more than 58,000 Americans lost their lives. At the height of the war, 500 soldiers were being killed each week. In the Iraq war and the subsequent occupation, we have lost fewer men to hostile fire than in a single terrorist attack in Lebanon in 1983. We've been losing about a soldier a day since the first of June. At this rate, we'll reach the Vietnam total in about 158 years.
In Vietnam, the communists received massive assistance from China and the Soviet Union, and had sanctuaries from which to operate in Laos and Cambodia. The Ba'athist remnant is receiving some support from sources in Syria and Saudi Arabia, and the Iranian government is doing what it can to stir up trouble among Shi'ite Islamic fundamentalists. But this "outside interference" is nowhere near as great as it was in Vietnam, and there are signs that the governments in both Syria and Saudi Arabia are beginning to crack down on terrorists.
It is, moreover, not such a bad thing that al Qaeda types have been drawn to Iraq. It is not good to have Islamic terrorists attacking American soldiers. But if Islamic terrorists are going to be attacking Americans somewhere, better to have them attack U.S. soldiers in Iraq where there is a high likelihood they will get their one way ticket to Allah punched than to have them attacking women and children in Chicago.
The Canadian columnist David Warren has suggested the U.S. has a "flypaper strategy" to entice terrorists from the region into Iraq, so that they might be killed there. This is not the sort of policy one announces, but it could be true, and it would be shrewd if it were true.
Finally, those who draw the comparisons between Vietnam and Iraq tend to forget that the U.S. military did not lose the Vietnam war. The U.S. military did not lose a single battle in the Vietnam war. It was American politicians who lost the war, by failing to come to the aid of the South Vietnamese in the face of a North Vietnamese invasion three years after almost all U.S. troops had come home.
The one similarity between Vietnam and Iraq is that the only way we can lose in Iraq is the way we lost in Vietnam through a failure of political nerve.
Jack Kelly, a syndicated columnist, is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. He is national security writer for the Pittsburgh (Pa.) Post-Gazette.
From the Washington Times...by Jack Kelley.
It's amazing how many people who've never been to either place say Iraq is "another Vietnam." There are a few differences worth noting. To begin with, at no point in the Vietnam war did the United States utterly destroy the North Vietnamese Army; occupy North Vietnam; send Ho Chi Minh into hiding, and kill or capture most of his Politburo. Had we done so,the war might have had a different outcome.
Vietnam is mostly jungle. I don't like jungles, but guerrillas do. There is plenty of cover and concealment. There is plenty of water. There are a lot of things to eat. Creepy crawly yucky things, but you can eat them if you have to. A large guerrilla force can live, relatively securely, in jungles for long periods. Iraq is mostly desert. Desert offers little cover or concealment, less food and water. Large guerrilla forces cannot live in the desert, period, much less live without detection.
The North Vietnamese and their Viet Cong allies were bright, skilled, resourceful, well-led, and very brave. In Iraq, we're fighting Arabs. In South Vietnam, we were burdened by supporting an unpopular, corrupt and incompetent government that was riddled with spies. In Iraq, we overthrew an unpopular, corrupt and incompetent government whose surviving officials are being ratted out by the local population.
In Vietnam, the war progressed in classic Maoist fashion: from terrorism, to guerrilla warfare, to conventional combat between main force units. In Iraq, Saddam's forces have regressed from Stage 3 all the way back to Stage 1. Once in absolute control of the entire country, the Ba'athist remnant is now restricted to sniping and remote ambushes. Saddam is spending more time and effort fleeing for his life than in plotting a comeback.
In Vietnam, more than 58,000 Americans lost their lives. At the height of the war, 500 soldiers were being killed each week. In the Iraq war and the subsequent occupation, we have lost fewer men to hostile fire than in a single terrorist attack in Lebanon in 1983. We've been losing about a soldier a day since the first of June. At this rate, we'll reach the Vietnam total in about 158 years.
In Vietnam, the communists received massive assistance from China and the Soviet Union, and had sanctuaries from which to operate in Laos and Cambodia. The Ba'athist remnant is receiving some support from sources in Syria and Saudi Arabia, and the Iranian government is doing what it can to stir up trouble among Shi'ite Islamic fundamentalists. But this "outside interference" is nowhere near as great as it was in Vietnam, and there are signs that the governments in both Syria and Saudi Arabia are beginning to crack down on terrorists.
It is, moreover, not such a bad thing that al Qaeda types have been drawn to Iraq. It is not good to have Islamic terrorists attacking American soldiers. But if Islamic terrorists are going to be attacking Americans somewhere, better to have them attack U.S. soldiers in Iraq where there is a high likelihood they will get their one way ticket to Allah punched than to have them attacking women and children in Chicago.
The Canadian columnist David Warren has suggested the U.S. has a "flypaper strategy" to entice terrorists from the region into Iraq, so that they might be killed there. This is not the sort of policy one announces, but it could be true, and it would be shrewd if it were true.
Finally, those who draw the comparisons between Vietnam and Iraq tend to forget that the U.S. military did not lose the Vietnam war. The U.S. military did not lose a single battle in the Vietnam war. It was American politicians who lost the war, by failing to come to the aid of the South Vietnamese in the face of a North Vietnamese invasion three years after almost all U.S. troops had come home.
The one similarity between Vietnam and Iraq is that the only way we can lose in Iraq is the way we lost in Vietnam through a failure of political nerve.
Jack Kelly, a syndicated columnist, is a former Marine and Green Beret and a former deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force in the Reagan administration. He is national security writer for the Pittsburgh (Pa.) Post-Gazette.
Wednesday, August 20, 2003
Out of the woodwork....
By email reports from an unknown source, comes this news........
Now that Uday & Qusay have been eliminated, a lot of the lesser-known family members are coming to the attention of American authorities.
Among the brothers:
Sooflay ............the restauranteur
Guday...............the half-Australian brother
Huray...............the sports fanatic
Sashay..............the gay brother
Kuntay & Kintay.....the twins from the African mother
Sayhay..............the baseball player
Ojay................the stalker/murderer
Gulay...............the singer/entertainer
Ebay................the internet czar
Biliray.............the country music star
Ecksray.............the radiologist
Puray...............the blender factory owner
Regay...............the half-Jamaican brother
Tupay...............the one with bad hair
Among the sisters:
Lattay..............the coffee shop owner
Bufay...............the 300 pound sister
Phayray.............the zoo worker in the gorilla house
Sapheway............the grocery store owner
Ollay...............the half-mexican sister
By email reports from an unknown source, comes this news........
Now that Uday & Qusay have been eliminated, a lot of the lesser-known family members are coming to the attention of American authorities.
Among the brothers:
Sooflay ............the restauranteur
Guday...............the half-Australian brother
Huray...............the sports fanatic
Sashay..............the gay brother
Kuntay & Kintay.....the twins from the African mother
Sayhay..............the baseball player
Ojay................the stalker/murderer
Gulay...............the singer/entertainer
Ebay................the internet czar
Biliray.............the country music star
Ecksray.............the radiologist
Puray...............the blender factory owner
Regay...............the half-Jamaican brother
Tupay...............the one with bad hair
Among the sisters:
Lattay..............the coffee shop owner
Bufay...............the 300 pound sister
Phayray.............the zoo worker in the gorilla house
Sapheway............the grocery store owner
Ollay...............the half-mexican sister
Monday, August 18, 2003
The information highway...and farming
My family owns a farm in Stoddard County, Missouri that has been in our possesion since my Great Grandfather migrated from Germany and made it his home. For the last two generations we have had great tenant farmers, partners really, who share with us the profits, good or bad, of their efforts on our land. Now, finally, this family no longer has anyone interested in taking over the duties at the farm, so we are at a crossroads. Sell or find another way to keep the farm going.
Without "share cropping" partners, the only other option is to do a full lease of the land to a farmer willing to pay rent to work it as his own. Luckily our departing partner has a neighbor amenable to this arrangement and he has presented us with an offer to lease. The problem is, not being attuned to this kind of arrangement, we were completely at a loss to determine if the offer is good, bad, or ugly. I needed to find someone who is experieced in this sort of transaction.
So..to the internet. Opting to start with a real estate firm, I Googled up *real estate, Stodard County, Missouri*. Several names popped up. I perused several webpages, but none looked liked they had what I wanted. However, there was one of those ubiquitous Google ads on the page.....for a bank in Dexter Mo. the site of our farm. It occured to me that in small towns, the bankers know everyone. Pow/Click.....I go there and view a list of names and phone numbers. I call for one of the bank V.P.'s but the secretary tells me he is not in, but would I like to speak to the President. Sure. The Prez is a very affable fellow, and when I describe my question he relates that they are really not in the agricultural lending business, but he knows someone who is. He gives me the phone number to Mike Pobst at the Alliance Bank in Sikeston, Mo. another small town near the farm.
Mike, Senior V.P.-Ag Lending, is my kinda' guy. A bubba banker. I pose my question to him...."do you know anything about farm leasing rates in the area"? Mike gives me a chuckle, and says that he grew up on a farm, worked on a farm until he graduated from college, his family still owns a farm in the area, and he's been lending money to farmers for over 20 years. He proceeds to give me the "Farm Leasing for Dummies" short course. What are you raising? If it's corn you should get more per acre.....corn prices are good. Are you raising soy beans? You get less money. Irrigated land brings "X" percentage more. Mike reckons that our deal with irrigated and non irrigated land and raising soy beans, wheat and some corn is mostly a fair deal, but he'd go for a three year lease instead of a five year deal. Three years is enough time for the leasee farmer to amortize his costs in his fertilizer program.
Damn. Mind you this whole process took approximately one half of an hour. Back in the old days, BTI [before the internet] I suspect I would have had to go to Stoddard County, Missouri and spend three days to learn what I did in this half of an hour.......ain't the Internet great!
My family owns a farm in Stoddard County, Missouri that has been in our possesion since my Great Grandfather migrated from Germany and made it his home. For the last two generations we have had great tenant farmers, partners really, who share with us the profits, good or bad, of their efforts on our land. Now, finally, this family no longer has anyone interested in taking over the duties at the farm, so we are at a crossroads. Sell or find another way to keep the farm going.
Without "share cropping" partners, the only other option is to do a full lease of the land to a farmer willing to pay rent to work it as his own. Luckily our departing partner has a neighbor amenable to this arrangement and he has presented us with an offer to lease. The problem is, not being attuned to this kind of arrangement, we were completely at a loss to determine if the offer is good, bad, or ugly. I needed to find someone who is experieced in this sort of transaction.
So..to the internet. Opting to start with a real estate firm, I Googled up *real estate, Stodard County, Missouri*. Several names popped up. I perused several webpages, but none looked liked they had what I wanted. However, there was one of those ubiquitous Google ads on the page.....for a bank in Dexter Mo. the site of our farm. It occured to me that in small towns, the bankers know everyone. Pow/Click.....I go there and view a list of names and phone numbers. I call for one of the bank V.P.'s but the secretary tells me he is not in, but would I like to speak to the President. Sure. The Prez is a very affable fellow, and when I describe my question he relates that they are really not in the agricultural lending business, but he knows someone who is. He gives me the phone number to Mike Pobst at the Alliance Bank in Sikeston, Mo. another small town near the farm.
Mike, Senior V.P.-Ag Lending, is my kinda' guy. A bubba banker. I pose my question to him...."do you know anything about farm leasing rates in the area"? Mike gives me a chuckle, and says that he grew up on a farm, worked on a farm until he graduated from college, his family still owns a farm in the area, and he's been lending money to farmers for over 20 years. He proceeds to give me the "Farm Leasing for Dummies" short course. What are you raising? If it's corn you should get more per acre.....corn prices are good. Are you raising soy beans? You get less money. Irrigated land brings "X" percentage more. Mike reckons that our deal with irrigated and non irrigated land and raising soy beans, wheat and some corn is mostly a fair deal, but he'd go for a three year lease instead of a five year deal. Three years is enough time for the leasee farmer to amortize his costs in his fertilizer program.
Damn. Mind you this whole process took approximately one half of an hour. Back in the old days, BTI [before the internet] I suspect I would have had to go to Stoddard County, Missouri and spend three days to learn what I did in this half of an hour.......ain't the Internet great!
Saturday, August 16, 2003
Sister Cities.....
Since the announcement that I have named Coober Pedy, Outback, Australia as my personal sister city, nominations and suggestions have been flooding in for additional affiliations. One comes from Canadian ex-patriate Lisa who now resides in Cambridge, England. Lisa writes.....
Chibougamau looks like it might qualify. It's a town built on mining and it advertises itself as "Your best choice for your next Northern Adventure". I like a town that sees itself as a place for adventure, especially Northern Adventure. I haven't had a Northern Adventure in quite some time. Other advantages include, "All the services of a big city can be found in Chibougamau including four modern motels". It's good to have a choice of modern conveniences when visiting a sister city. But perhaps the best indicator of a town worthy of sister city status is the names of the surrounding communities. There are some great ones here, including Mistissini, Oujé-Bougoumou, Nemaska and Waswanipi . Waswanipi, the name just sings out "visit me, I am adventure".
I'll have to make contact with a local citizen in Chibougamau and feel out the tone of the place, personal relationships are the key to sister city status. And speaking of personal relationships, Coburg, Ontario seems to be the Canadian capital of such activity. A Google search revealed that almost every website associated with the town involves some manner of people getting together from Pen Pals, dating services and designer love to Catholic singles groups. They certainly appear to be a friendly lot, or perhaps lonely. Coburg certainly deserves a second look, they may be very grateful to gain a new a friend.
In other sister city news, Gary in Coober Pedy comments about the adviseablity of honeymooning in his town.....
"Honeymoon - I don't think so. I've been here 20 years and the first ten years are the hardest. I remember spending half a day once walking 3 km to town and back home again with a backpack, to buy 20 cents worth of fresh water".
Sound advice, I'd hate to send a new bride all that way for water. Gary also informs me that The Coober Pedy News will be taking a break while he treks to Adelaide to sell opals. Good luck Gary.
Since the announcement that I have named Coober Pedy, Outback, Australia as my personal sister city, nominations and suggestions have been flooding in for additional affiliations. One comes from Canadian ex-patriate Lisa who now resides in Cambridge, England. Lisa writes.....
"....Chibougamau, Quebec would love to be your sister city. Alternatively, may I suggest Orangeville, Ontario [the perfect mix of lifestyle, prosperity and location] or Coburg- home of the big apple (literally, it's a big giant apple that houses a shop). One of my best friends is from Coburg and could put in a good word for you".
Chibougamau looks like it might qualify. It's a town built on mining and it advertises itself as "Your best choice for your next Northern Adventure". I like a town that sees itself as a place for adventure, especially Northern Adventure. I haven't had a Northern Adventure in quite some time. Other advantages include, "All the services of a big city can be found in Chibougamau including four modern motels". It's good to have a choice of modern conveniences when visiting a sister city. But perhaps the best indicator of a town worthy of sister city status is the names of the surrounding communities. There are some great ones here, including Mistissini, Oujé-Bougoumou, Nemaska and Waswanipi . Waswanipi, the name just sings out "visit me, I am adventure".
I'll have to make contact with a local citizen in Chibougamau and feel out the tone of the place, personal relationships are the key to sister city status. And speaking of personal relationships, Coburg, Ontario seems to be the Canadian capital of such activity. A Google search revealed that almost every website associated with the town involves some manner of people getting together from Pen Pals, dating services and designer love to Catholic singles groups. They certainly appear to be a friendly lot, or perhaps lonely. Coburg certainly deserves a second look, they may be very grateful to gain a new a friend.
In other sister city news, Gary in Coober Pedy comments about the adviseablity of honeymooning in his town.....
"Honeymoon - I don't think so. I've been here 20 years and the first ten years are the hardest. I remember spending half a day once walking 3 km to town and back home again with a backpack, to buy 20 cents worth of fresh water".
Sound advice, I'd hate to send a new bride all that way for water. Gary also informs me that The Coober Pedy News will be taking a break while he treks to Adelaide to sell opals. Good luck Gary.
Friday, August 15, 2003
The Blackout of '03....
First let me state that I do have great empathy for the people in the Northeast United States, and those in Canada for the loss of their electric power. It's a major inconvenience and can cause some serious problems. Secondly, I have NO empathy for the major media based in the Northeast. By the tone of the reporting you would have thought that this was the prelude to the end of the earth. Funny, that tone always appears when some major news story is breaking in their own backyard.
If this had happened in Texas, the ABC Nightly News story would have said, "Power out in Texas.....they know how to handle the heat.......now for our story on how drug prices affect homeless teenagers". Or in California...."California without power, they deserve it.....stand by for our interview with Gary Coleman". But when it happens to the media guys in the East, they preempt all other news and have roving reporters in the streets interviewing the common man for his indignant reaction. Problem is...no one seemed indignant, they just wanted to get home. The appearance was that every one was orderly and going about their business, and that this didn't suit the reporters. I almost expected them to shout, "New Yorkers, you have no power....run for your lives".
They did, however, manage to dredge up some indignant politicians who all said "I told you this would happen, now maybe my new power transmision bill will pass.....yadda, yadda". The probem is they didn't have a clue that this could happen, and further nothing will now happen. The reporters were searching for some sort of mass chaos story and they didn't get it and the tone of Ted Koppel's serious disaster voice made me think he was going to cry. Come on Ted, buck up, it'll be over soon.
For more fun comments read James Lileks. And I'm glad the lights are coming back on, but if they'd just pay their electric bills........
Additional photo and coverage can be found at Blackout 2003
First let me state that I do have great empathy for the people in the Northeast United States, and those in Canada for the loss of their electric power. It's a major inconvenience and can cause some serious problems. Secondly, I have NO empathy for the major media based in the Northeast. By the tone of the reporting you would have thought that this was the prelude to the end of the earth. Funny, that tone always appears when some major news story is breaking in their own backyard.
If this had happened in Texas, the ABC Nightly News story would have said, "Power out in Texas.....they know how to handle the heat.......now for our story on how drug prices affect homeless teenagers". Or in California...."California without power, they deserve it.....stand by for our interview with Gary Coleman". But when it happens to the media guys in the East, they preempt all other news and have roving reporters in the streets interviewing the common man for his indignant reaction. Problem is...no one seemed indignant, they just wanted to get home. The appearance was that every one was orderly and going about their business, and that this didn't suit the reporters. I almost expected them to shout, "New Yorkers, you have no power....run for your lives".
They did, however, manage to dredge up some indignant politicians who all said "I told you this would happen, now maybe my new power transmision bill will pass.....yadda, yadda". The probem is they didn't have a clue that this could happen, and further nothing will now happen. The reporters were searching for some sort of mass chaos story and they didn't get it and the tone of Ted Koppel's serious disaster voice made me think he was going to cry. Come on Ted, buck up, it'll be over soon.
For more fun comments read James Lileks. And I'm glad the lights are coming back on, but if they'd just pay their electric bills........
Additional photo and coverage can be found at Blackout 2003
Wednesday, August 13, 2003
Travel destination......Coober Pedy
It seems to me that there are very few truly unique travel destinations left in this ever smaller world. Spots that offer something no one else on the planet has, albeit it not for the faint of heart. Coober Pedy appears to be one of those locales, after all this is where Mad Max was filmed. In exploring my new Sister City online I've discovered some things that are really amazing. Like... some large degree of the population of the town lives underground. The Cooberites, Gary there tells me they are called, are not particularly to be considered troglodytes, they are just wise since the temperatures in the middle of the Outback can get, in a word, scorching. They also have an almost unlimited supply of tunnels created by opal mining with which to set up house.
Some of the businesses just bespeak adventure and the out of the ordinary experience. On my trip to to Coober Pedy, I think I'd like to stay at The Mud Hut Motel. I like the thought that one of the best places in town to stay on vacation is called The Mud Hut. Besides, the picture shows a windmill on the property, making me feel right at home. And so not to have to wilt in 100° heat, I believe I'll eat underground at the Old Miner's Dugout Cafe where, it is advertised, "some of the dishes have never been served in Australia before...". Makes one wonder, but this is an adventure vacation.
But perhaps the most interesting adventure item, and one I've never seen anywhere else is the 12 hour Mail Truck Run. As advertised....."A 12 hour, 600km adventure visiting remote Australia on the Coober Pedy – Oodnadatta – William Creek Mail Truck. Drive with the mailman and visit remote outposts as we deliver the mail. Walk around towns we pass through and visit many points of interest". You tell me where else can you pay to go ride for 12 hours with a mail truck. As I've mentioned before.....this looks like my kind of place!
And there's more to do in Coober Pedy than can be described in this short space. Like the Night Sky Tour. If you are a city slicker and have never seen the night sky in a remote area of the world, you would be stunned. Then there is the Outback Camel Tour and Desert Cave Tour. Like I said, just too much to do in the Greater Coober Pedy area!
In a token of friendship to the Sister City, I have been in contact with Gary, purveyor of The Coober Pedy News, and we should begin work soon on transfering their online newspaper into a more functional Blog version of the News. And thanks to "Slatts" for his mention and assistance in helping to make Coober Pedy a household word here in the United States.
It seems to me that there are very few truly unique travel destinations left in this ever smaller world. Spots that offer something no one else on the planet has, albeit it not for the faint of heart. Coober Pedy appears to be one of those locales, after all this is where Mad Max was filmed. In exploring my new Sister City online I've discovered some things that are really amazing. Like... some large degree of the population of the town lives underground. The Cooberites, Gary there tells me they are called, are not particularly to be considered troglodytes, they are just wise since the temperatures in the middle of the Outback can get, in a word, scorching. They also have an almost unlimited supply of tunnels created by opal mining with which to set up house.
Some of the businesses just bespeak adventure and the out of the ordinary experience. On my trip to to Coober Pedy, I think I'd like to stay at The Mud Hut Motel. I like the thought that one of the best places in town to stay on vacation is called The Mud Hut. Besides, the picture shows a windmill on the property, making me feel right at home. And so not to have to wilt in 100° heat, I believe I'll eat underground at the Old Miner's Dugout Cafe where, it is advertised, "some of the dishes have never been served in Australia before...". Makes one wonder, but this is an adventure vacation.
But perhaps the most interesting adventure item, and one I've never seen anywhere else is the 12 hour Mail Truck Run. As advertised....."A 12 hour, 600km adventure visiting remote Australia on the Coober Pedy – Oodnadatta – William Creek Mail Truck. Drive with the mailman and visit remote outposts as we deliver the mail. Walk around towns we pass through and visit many points of interest". You tell me where else can you pay to go ride for 12 hours with a mail truck. As I've mentioned before.....this looks like my kind of place!
And there's more to do in Coober Pedy than can be described in this short space. Like the Night Sky Tour. If you are a city slicker and have never seen the night sky in a remote area of the world, you would be stunned. Then there is the Outback Camel Tour and Desert Cave Tour. Like I said, just too much to do in the Greater Coober Pedy area!
In a token of friendship to the Sister City, I have been in contact with Gary, purveyor of The Coober Pedy News, and we should begin work soon on transfering their online newspaper into a more functional Blog version of the News. And thanks to "Slatts" for his mention and assistance in helping to make Coober Pedy a household word here in the United States.
Tuesday, August 12, 2003
Coober Pedy.....
Actually, I had heard of Coober Pedy , Australia in the past, but barely. The town is synonomous with opals, those milky gems that adorn so many rings, pendants and brooches. It took my online friend, journalist Bernard Slattery in Geelong Australia to bring the town to my attention in a more intimate way. Slatts, being the professional journalist that he is, has been intriqued by the towns newspaper which is viewed online at, The Coober Pedy News. Directed there by Slatts, I too now enjoy the news from Coober Pedy and have become enthralled myself. This is life, news the way it's supposed to be, information by and for the people.
To tell you the truth, perhaps I was attracted to Coober Pedy because it seems to me to be a lot like many smaller towns in West Texas. Honest, hard working, hard living folks who keep going in a tough business because they are optimists. Down in the mines they think themselves one shovel load away from wealth and eternal ease, which is the mentality at heart with those of us in the oil and gas business. That next well will produce the motherlode! Most don't, some just break even, a few make a fair return, but hope springs eternal for the really BIG ONE. Optimism keeps poor people happy.
Midland, Texas has several official Sister Cities, most notably Dongying, China a large and vast new city which is the hub of the Chinese oil industry. That's all well and good, but I'm chosing Coober Pedy to be my personal Sister City, I identify more with the Bubba's of the World and anything I can do to promote their cause, I will. I hope you'll keep in touch with The Coober Pedy News. You never know what the Cooberites are up to! And by the way, the last three lines of the current issue quote me. Well actually a comment I made on Slatts News, but any newspaper that quotes me, even slightly has my undying support.
Actually, I had heard of Coober Pedy , Australia in the past, but barely. The town is synonomous with opals, those milky gems that adorn so many rings, pendants and brooches. It took my online friend, journalist Bernard Slattery in Geelong Australia to bring the town to my attention in a more intimate way. Slatts, being the professional journalist that he is, has been intriqued by the towns newspaper which is viewed online at, The Coober Pedy News. Directed there by Slatts, I too now enjoy the news from Coober Pedy and have become enthralled myself. This is life, news the way it's supposed to be, information by and for the people.
To tell you the truth, perhaps I was attracted to Coober Pedy because it seems to me to be a lot like many smaller towns in West Texas. Honest, hard working, hard living folks who keep going in a tough business because they are optimists. Down in the mines they think themselves one shovel load away from wealth and eternal ease, which is the mentality at heart with those of us in the oil and gas business. That next well will produce the motherlode! Most don't, some just break even, a few make a fair return, but hope springs eternal for the really BIG ONE. Optimism keeps poor people happy.
Midland, Texas has several official Sister Cities, most notably Dongying, China a large and vast new city which is the hub of the Chinese oil industry. That's all well and good, but I'm chosing Coober Pedy to be my personal Sister City, I identify more with the Bubba's of the World and anything I can do to promote their cause, I will. I hope you'll keep in touch with The Coober Pedy News. You never know what the Cooberites are up to! And by the way, the last three lines of the current issue quote me. Well actually a comment I made on Slatts News, but any newspaper that quotes me, even slightly has my undying support.
Sunday, August 10, 2003
When indeed.....?
Well they say, they being everyone, when is the wedding? We say, this is a good question, but we just don't know. Not long, but really not too short a period of time. Not June of 2004, but not next month either.
There really is much to be done prenuptially. Get Julie's house on the market. Get young Jack started at his new school. Decide which pieces of two sets of furniture stay, which go. Clear space in the Bedford Drive residence for two more occupants...and another dog. Then there is the Air Show in late September of which I am commited to assist in running. A reunion in San Antonio late in October that we don't want to miss, a reunion in D.C. in early November that we don't want to miss......and then those pesky holidays Thanksgiving and Christmas.
And don't even get started on where......my oh my, where? Today while talking to an old friend who is now in Miami, I had a suggestion for where and when. The suggestion was made so that she and her husband could be sure to attend. They have been some of my closest friends over the years, such good friends that I lived with them at Ft. Benning, Ga. in 1971. Tom, is one of the highest ranking Generals in the Army, Four Stars, and travels constantly so it would be nice be able to accomodate them. Plus, I don't know many people who have Four Star Generals in their wedding....so that would be memorable. We'll see.....and don't worry the "where" in the suggestion was not Miami.
So for now, we'll concentrate on first things, first. We are still trying to choose between two rings for Julie. We'll decide on the ring this week and move on from there.........
Well they say, they being everyone, when is the wedding? We say, this is a good question, but we just don't know. Not long, but really not too short a period of time. Not June of 2004, but not next month either.
There really is much to be done prenuptially. Get Julie's house on the market. Get young Jack started at his new school. Decide which pieces of two sets of furniture stay, which go. Clear space in the Bedford Drive residence for two more occupants...and another dog. Then there is the Air Show in late September of which I am commited to assist in running. A reunion in San Antonio late in October that we don't want to miss, a reunion in D.C. in early November that we don't want to miss......and then those pesky holidays Thanksgiving and Christmas.
And don't even get started on where......my oh my, where? Today while talking to an old friend who is now in Miami, I had a suggestion for where and when. The suggestion was made so that she and her husband could be sure to attend. They have been some of my closest friends over the years, such good friends that I lived with them at Ft. Benning, Ga. in 1971. Tom, is one of the highest ranking Generals in the Army, Four Stars, and travels constantly so it would be nice be able to accomodate them. Plus, I don't know many people who have Four Star Generals in their wedding....so that would be memorable. We'll see.....and don't worry the "where" in the suggestion was not Miami.
So for now, we'll concentrate on first things, first. We are still trying to choose between two rings for Julie. We'll decide on the ring this week and move on from there.........
Wednesday, August 06, 2003
A Love Story.....
I almost did not go to the Christmas party that friends Lori and Joe were having during the holiday season of 2001. I wasn't sure I really felt like going alone. But I did go. Joe and Lori are interesting people and neighbors and I usually see friends from my high school days, business acquaintances or older couples who are friends of my folks and whom I've known for 40 years. I went, and I did see many friends......however I didn't see the girl who saw me.
Joe and Lori live in the next block, and their alley is on my regular dog walk route, so it didn't surprise me when I saw them several days later. What did surprise me was that Lori said there was someone at the party who had asked about me. Who was I and was I unattached? A tall blonde girl Lori added. It had been a moderately large party and I had been speaking with friends, so I said, no I had not noticed and then I wracked my subconscious mind trying to remember a tall blonde. Lori asked if I might be interested in being "fixed up" with the tall blonde, Julie . Frankly I was in no hurry to be fixed up, but I consented.
Lori told me that Julie was also in no hurry, having things in her own life that needed to be attended to, so months went by with Lori asking me periodically if I was still interested. I was, but nothing seemed to happen to move the situation forward. Then sometime in April, with Lori asking me once again.....we decided that I would just give this Julie a call. So, call I did, and call and call. The line always seemed busy or the answering machine engaged. I was about to give up, when one day there was a message on my answering system from "Julie" indicating that she heard that I was trying to call....and to please try again. Luckily I did, we talked and made a date to go to a baseball game.
It seems like yesterday that I was readying myself for my first blind date in decades, if indeed I had ever gone on a blind date. I can't remember. But go I did, driving to her house and again I can still feel the nervous anticipation of a first meeting as if it just happened. Then the door opened and I saw a beautiful smiling face. After the first few moments, I can't recall any jitters between us and certainly no lack of conversation. Julie is interested in art, as am I. Julie is interested in history, as am I. No subject was foreign to our common interests. We had a great time at the ballgame, and I took my first picture of her there. When I look at that photo today, I still have the feeling I had then......"this girl is something special".
The next day Julie stopped by my house and we went to an art show where she helped me pick out a perfect oil painting for my fireplace.....our fireplace actually because this last Sunday Julie said that she would be my wife.
Julie is a sophisticated small town girl. A sweet, kind, beautiful, intelligent, loving person. My best friend, and a terrific mother to her kids Amanda and Jack. I never dreamed that I would find anyone so perfectly matched to me. Although I think that at times Julie had her doubts about the outcome of our relationship, probably caused by me. I have never had anyone who so obviously loved and adored me, and tells me so on a daily basis. I suppose I really didn't know how to fully react to this. I do now. I want her to be my wife and tell her every day how much I love her and what she means to me. And to have Jack in our family with all the joy that brings to enhance my.....our lives.
The engagement was made "official" last night when I asked nine year old Jack for his Mom's hand in marriage. Graciously and gladly he consented, adding with a sly boyish grin, "I suspected something like this........" So did I.
I almost did not go to the Christmas party that friends Lori and Joe were having during the holiday season of 2001. I wasn't sure I really felt like going alone. But I did go. Joe and Lori are interesting people and neighbors and I usually see friends from my high school days, business acquaintances or older couples who are friends of my folks and whom I've known for 40 years. I went, and I did see many friends......however I didn't see the girl who saw me.
Joe and Lori live in the next block, and their alley is on my regular dog walk route, so it didn't surprise me when I saw them several days later. What did surprise me was that Lori said there was someone at the party who had asked about me. Who was I and was I unattached? A tall blonde girl Lori added. It had been a moderately large party and I had been speaking with friends, so I said, no I had not noticed and then I wracked my subconscious mind trying to remember a tall blonde. Lori asked if I might be interested in being "fixed up" with the tall blonde, Julie . Frankly I was in no hurry to be fixed up, but I consented.
Lori told me that Julie was also in no hurry, having things in her own life that needed to be attended to, so months went by with Lori asking me periodically if I was still interested. I was, but nothing seemed to happen to move the situation forward. Then sometime in April, with Lori asking me once again.....we decided that I would just give this Julie a call. So, call I did, and call and call. The line always seemed busy or the answering machine engaged. I was about to give up, when one day there was a message on my answering system from "Julie" indicating that she heard that I was trying to call....and to please try again. Luckily I did, we talked and made a date to go to a baseball game.
It seems like yesterday that I was readying myself for my first blind date in decades, if indeed I had ever gone on a blind date. I can't remember. But go I did, driving to her house and again I can still feel the nervous anticipation of a first meeting as if it just happened. Then the door opened and I saw a beautiful smiling face. After the first few moments, I can't recall any jitters between us and certainly no lack of conversation. Julie is interested in art, as am I. Julie is interested in history, as am I. No subject was foreign to our common interests. We had a great time at the ballgame, and I took my first picture of her there. When I look at that photo today, I still have the feeling I had then......"this girl is something special".
The next day Julie stopped by my house and we went to an art show where she helped me pick out a perfect oil painting for my fireplace.....our fireplace actually because this last Sunday Julie said that she would be my wife.
Julie is a sophisticated small town girl. A sweet, kind, beautiful, intelligent, loving person. My best friend, and a terrific mother to her kids Amanda and Jack. I never dreamed that I would find anyone so perfectly matched to me. Although I think that at times Julie had her doubts about the outcome of our relationship, probably caused by me. I have never had anyone who so obviously loved and adored me, and tells me so on a daily basis. I suppose I really didn't know how to fully react to this. I do now. I want her to be my wife and tell her every day how much I love her and what she means to me. And to have Jack in our family with all the joy that brings to enhance my.....our lives.
The engagement was made "official" last night when I asked nine year old Jack for his Mom's hand in marriage. Graciously and gladly he consented, adding with a sly boyish grin, "I suspected something like this........" So did I.
Tuesday, August 05, 2003
Bill of No Rights.........
Perhaps you have read the following which has been attributed to State Representative Mitchell Kaye from Georgia. If you haven't you will be glad you did.
Thanks to alert reader Don Dulin
Perhaps you have read the following which has been attributed to State Representative Mitchell Kaye from Georgia. If you haven't you will be glad you did.
"We, the sensible people of the United States, in an attempt to help everyone get along, restore some semblance of justice, avoid any more riots, keep our nation safe, promote positive behavior, and secure the blessings of debt free liberty to ourselves and our great-great-great-grandchildren, hereby try one more time to ordain and establish some common sense guidelines for the terminally whiny, guilt-ridden, delusional and other liberal bed-wetters. We hold these truths to be self-evident: that a whole lot of people are confused by the Bill of Rights and are so dim that they require a Bill of No Rights."
ARTICLE I:
You do not have the right to a new car, big screen TV or any other form of wealth. More power to you if you can legally acquire them, but no one is guaranteeing anything.
ARTICLE II:
You do not have the right to never be offended. This country is based on freedom, and that means freedom for everyone -- not just you! You may leave the room, turn the channel, express a different opinion, etc., but the world is full of idiots, and probably always will be ... and like the rest of us you need to simply deal with it.
ARTICLE III:
You do not have the right to be free from harm. If you stick a screwdriver in your eye, learn to be more careful; do not expect the tool manufacturer to make you and all your relatives independently wealthy.
ARTICLE IV:
You do not have the right to free food and housing. Americans are the most charitable people to be found, and will gladly help anyone in need, but we are quickly growing weary of subsidizing generation after generation of professional couch potatoes who achieve nothing more than the creation of another generation of professional couch potatoes.
ARTICLE V:
You do not have the right to free health care. That would be nice, but from the looks of public housing, we're just not interested in public health care.
ARTICLE VI:
You do not have the right to physically harm other people. If you kidnap, rape, intentionally maim, or kill someone, don't be surprised if the rest of us want to see you fry in the electric chair.
ARTICLE VII:
You do not have the right to the possessions of others. If you rob, cheat or coerce away the goods or services of other citizens, don't be surprised if the rest of us get together and lock you away in a place where you still won't have the right to a big screen color TV, pool tables, weight rooms or a life of leisure.
ARTICLE VIII:
You don't have the right to a job. All of us sure want you to have a job, and will gladly help you along in hard times, but we expect you to take advantage of the opportunities of part time jobs, education and vocational training laid before you to make yourself useful.
ARTICLE IX:
You do not have the right to happiness. Being an American means that you have the right to PURSUE happiness --which by the way, is a lot easier if you are unencumbered by an overabundance of idiotic laws created by those of you who were confused by the Bill of Rights,"
ARTICLE X:
This is an English speaking country. We don't care where you are from. We welcome you here. English is our language and like the one you left behind, we also have a culture. Learn it or go back to the country and the living conditions you were fleeing.
Thanks to alert reader Don Dulin
Sunday, August 03, 2003
Praise be...!
There will be news of glad tidings and great joy to be announced shortly.......
stay tuned. :>)
No Joy.......
And in this time of personal joy....condolences to James Likeks
There will be news of glad tidings and great joy to be announced shortly.......
stay tuned. :>)
No Joy.......
And in this time of personal joy....condolences to James Likeks
Saturday, August 02, 2003
Tuesday, July 29, 2003
I knew it.....!
Research reported in the British Journal of Ophthalmology on Tuesday showed that a tight necktie elevates blood pressure in the eye, raising the risks of developing glaucoma. I would add that my studies show that it also adds to the risk of tinnitus...or ringing in the ears. My eyes aren't the greatest anymore and I have had tinnitus for a decade, at least that's what I think they said.....I couldn't hear the doctor all that well.
Thankfully we here in Midland Texas were well aware of the deadly necktie syndrome years ago. We don't wear ties here except to church and most funerals. Those who do wear ties [along with the dreaded "Suit"] are undesireable types such as lawyers, bankers and people from big cities like New York. This informal dress code has it's advantages in that if we see someone approaching on the street wearing a necktie, we can be fairly certain that they fall into the "undesireable class" mentioned above and we can do our utmost to avoid them. It works fairly well, except when cornered in small confined places like offices or restaurants.
Having gone tieless for over 12 years now, I think I may have saved my eyesight, but the ringing in my ears [actually more of a whining, hissing sound] is permanent and has caused me much personal consternation. The doctors told me that most likely the tinnitus was caused by my years in the Army....of firing large weapons and having explosions and helicopter transmissions in close proximity to my ears.
But now I know better. It was the neckties. I'm not going to live like this anymore without some sort of financial compensation. Most of my assorted ties were nondescript brands of which the makers are probably now defunct. But......my two favorites, which I wore often were original Jerry Garcia's . I'll bet the Grateful Dead made a ton of money and being the socially responsible band that they are they probably have a permenant fund set up to take care of tinnitus victims like me.
Research reported in the British Journal of Ophthalmology on Tuesday showed that a tight necktie elevates blood pressure in the eye, raising the risks of developing glaucoma. I would add that my studies show that it also adds to the risk of tinnitus...or ringing in the ears. My eyes aren't the greatest anymore and I have had tinnitus for a decade, at least that's what I think they said.....I couldn't hear the doctor all that well.
Thankfully we here in Midland Texas were well aware of the deadly necktie syndrome years ago. We don't wear ties here except to church and most funerals. Those who do wear ties [along with the dreaded "Suit"] are undesireable types such as lawyers, bankers and people from big cities like New York. This informal dress code has it's advantages in that if we see someone approaching on the street wearing a necktie, we can be fairly certain that they fall into the "undesireable class" mentioned above and we can do our utmost to avoid them. It works fairly well, except when cornered in small confined places like offices or restaurants.
Having gone tieless for over 12 years now, I think I may have saved my eyesight, but the ringing in my ears [actually more of a whining, hissing sound] is permanent and has caused me much personal consternation. The doctors told me that most likely the tinnitus was caused by my years in the Army....of firing large weapons and having explosions and helicopter transmissions in close proximity to my ears.
But now I know better. It was the neckties. I'm not going to live like this anymore without some sort of financial compensation. Most of my assorted ties were nondescript brands of which the makers are probably now defunct. But......my two favorites, which I wore often were original Jerry Garcia's . I'll bet the Grateful Dead made a ton of money and being the socially responsible band that they are they probably have a permenant fund set up to take care of tinnitus victims like me.
Monday, July 28, 2003
Thanks for the Memories...
Bob Hope is gone and there won't be another like him. He was the consumate entertainer, movie star and luminary whose career spanned nine decades in two different centuries and progressed from the vaudeville stage, through radio, to film and then into television. A man who was born when Teddy Roosevelt was President and whose lifetime lasted through 17 different Presidents, but who was always on top of current events in order to keep his act fresh.
But as much as he will be remembered as the biggest name entertainer in the world, there are countless millions who will remember him for his work in bringing some small joy to our troops in every conceivable locale in the world. The photo of Joey Heatherton, above, was taken by my friend Joe Galloway at the Bob Hope Christmas show in An Khe, Vietnam in 1965, one of the first of very many shows Mr. Hope brought to Vietnam. Veterans will always have a soft spot in their hearts for this man who brought one small little bit of home to servicemen far from friends and loved ones. So much so that a special Veterans Bob Hope Memorial is being built in San Diego to show our gratitude. It's the least we can do.....thanks Bob, for the memories!
Sunday, July 27, 2003
Lance....!
Congratulations to fellow Texan Lance, "chamois in his Lycra pants" Armstrong in his record tieing fifth win in the Tour de France! A magnificent performance in a sport that is little appreciated in his home country, and is one of the most grueling events in all of sports.
The beauty of this triumph beyond the sporting aspect is the severe pain it must cause the French, for which the Tour is a national obsession, in watching an American rider dominate. Lance rides for the U.S. Postal Service team, and I count the small amount of tax dollars outlayed on supporting the team some of the best money spent if it makes the Frogs choke on a big lump of rotten limburger cheese!
Congratulations to fellow Texan Lance, "chamois in his Lycra pants" Armstrong in his record tieing fifth win in the Tour de France! A magnificent performance in a sport that is little appreciated in his home country, and is one of the most grueling events in all of sports.
The beauty of this triumph beyond the sporting aspect is the severe pain it must cause the French, for which the Tour is a national obsession, in watching an American rider dominate. Lance rides for the U.S. Postal Service team, and I count the small amount of tax dollars outlayed on supporting the team some of the best money spent if it makes the Frogs choke on a big lump of rotten limburger cheese!
Saturday, July 26, 2003
How It All Began - Conservatives And Liberals...
A great piece by Fritz Pettyjohn of Stanford Ca. Forwarded by email by an old Huey driver...
The division of the human family into its two distinct branches, liberals and conservatives, occurred some 20,000 years ago. Until then all humans coexisted as members of small bands of nomadic hunter/gatherers. A thousand generations ago, in the pivotal event of societal evolution, beer was invented. This epochal innovation was both the foundation of modern civilization and the occasion of the great bifurcation of humanity into its two distinct subgroups.
Once beer was discovered, our prehistoric forebearers decided it was time to settle down. Making beer required grain, and securing a steady supply of it ordained the invention of agriculture. After that was accomplished, ancient man quickly, and unfairly, consigned actual cultivation to women. Men couldn't just run off, willy-nilly, however. Neither the glass bottle nor the aluminum can had yet been invented, so it was necessary to stick pretty close to home, and the brewery. This left our male ancestors with a lot of time on their hands, and led to the division of the species, which persists to this day. Some men tried to conserve remnants of the old way of life (hence the term "conservative") by spending their days in the open field in the dangerous pursuit of big game animals. At night they would roast their prey at a big barbecue, and afterwards sat around the fire drinking beer, and telling off color jokes.
Other, more timid, souls stayed closer to home. They are responsible for the domestication of cats and the invention of group therapy. Mostly, they sat around worrying about how life wasn't fair and concocting elaborate schemes to "liberate" themselves from inequity (thus their designation as "liberals"). In the evening they gathered around their fire, nibbling on fruit and nuts, sharing their innermost feelings. Today some liberals try to pretend they're really sort of conservative, and sometimes succeed in confusing people. The following are a few tips to use in distinguishing the two types.
By definition liberals believe in big government and high taxes. Life is unfair and the government is there to do something about it. Most people are too stupid to spend untaxed income wisely, they say, and high taxes allow liberals in government to do a better job of it. Conservatives don't like government, and, aside from the military, wish it would just go away. They hate taxes, regulations, speed limits, and small cars. Typical conservatives are Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ronald Reagan, Rush Limbaugh and, up there with the Big Man in the Sky, the incomparable John Wayne. Typical liberals are Dustin Hoffman, Shirley McLaine, Pee Wee Herman, Martin Sheen, Sean Penn, Barbara Streisand, Ted Turner and his former wife, the traitor Jane Fonda.
All conservatives drink beer. American beer. Some liberals like imported beer, but most prefer white wine or foreign water from a bottle. Liberals like to drive Volvos and Saabs because they're made in socialist Sweden. They like to eat weird food because it's un-American. Your basic conservative vehicle, especially in Texas, is the Chevy Suburban. It's big, it's American, it's four wheel drive, and it sucks up the gas. Conservatives eat beef, which they (surprise!) like to barbecue. Big game hunters are conservative.
Interior decorators are liberal. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule in baseball because it wasn't "fair" to make the poor pitcher take his turn at bat. Conservatives, inspired by a remark of the legendary Pittsburgh Steeler linebacker Jack Lambert, believe quarterbacks should be required to wear skirts, so they can more easily be distinguished from real football players. James Brown and Ray Charles are conservatives. Michael Jackson and Milli Vanilli are liberals. Most social workers, personal injury lawyers, journalists, and group therapists are liberals. Most ranchers, loggers, professional soldiers, and oil field workers are conservatives.
Liberal jurors distrust the prosecutors and police. Conservatives figure the defendant must be guilty or he wouldn't be on trial. Most conservatives not only believe in the death penalty, they would cheerfully implement it, personally, if called upon to do so. Liberals think capital punishment is a barbaric relic, and unfair to boot. Liberals believe Europeans are, generally speaking, far more enlightened than Americans. Conservatives think they're basically decadent, as evidenced by their complete absence in wars. Typical conservative movies are "Raising Arizona", "Patton", and "Conan the Barbarian". Typical liberal movies are "Prince of Tides," "Last Tango in Paris," and "The Big Chill."
The quintessential liberal is the handicapper, the person who decides how much extra weight to saddle the faster horses with in order to make the race "fair". The American cowboy, of course, is your basic, full bore conservative. A hundred years ago an Englishman in South Dakota was trying to find the owner of a huge cattle ranch. He rode up to one of the ranch hands and asked, "Excuse me, but could you tell me where to find your Master?" To which the cowboy replied, "That sumbitch hasn't been born yet."
By Fritz Pettyjohn
A great piece by Fritz Pettyjohn of Stanford Ca. Forwarded by email by an old Huey driver...
The division of the human family into its two distinct branches, liberals and conservatives, occurred some 20,000 years ago. Until then all humans coexisted as members of small bands of nomadic hunter/gatherers. A thousand generations ago, in the pivotal event of societal evolution, beer was invented. This epochal innovation was both the foundation of modern civilization and the occasion of the great bifurcation of humanity into its two distinct subgroups.
Once beer was discovered, our prehistoric forebearers decided it was time to settle down. Making beer required grain, and securing a steady supply of it ordained the invention of agriculture. After that was accomplished, ancient man quickly, and unfairly, consigned actual cultivation to women. Men couldn't just run off, willy-nilly, however. Neither the glass bottle nor the aluminum can had yet been invented, so it was necessary to stick pretty close to home, and the brewery. This left our male ancestors with a lot of time on their hands, and led to the division of the species, which persists to this day. Some men tried to conserve remnants of the old way of life (hence the term "conservative") by spending their days in the open field in the dangerous pursuit of big game animals. At night they would roast their prey at a big barbecue, and afterwards sat around the fire drinking beer, and telling off color jokes.
Other, more timid, souls stayed closer to home. They are responsible for the domestication of cats and the invention of group therapy. Mostly, they sat around worrying about how life wasn't fair and concocting elaborate schemes to "liberate" themselves from inequity (thus their designation as "liberals"). In the evening they gathered around their fire, nibbling on fruit and nuts, sharing their innermost feelings. Today some liberals try to pretend they're really sort of conservative, and sometimes succeed in confusing people. The following are a few tips to use in distinguishing the two types.
By definition liberals believe in big government and high taxes. Life is unfair and the government is there to do something about it. Most people are too stupid to spend untaxed income wisely, they say, and high taxes allow liberals in government to do a better job of it. Conservatives don't like government, and, aside from the military, wish it would just go away. They hate taxes, regulations, speed limits, and small cars. Typical conservatives are Arnold Schwarzenegger, Ronald Reagan, Rush Limbaugh and, up there with the Big Man in the Sky, the incomparable John Wayne. Typical liberals are Dustin Hoffman, Shirley McLaine, Pee Wee Herman, Martin Sheen, Sean Penn, Barbara Streisand, Ted Turner and his former wife, the traitor Jane Fonda.
All conservatives drink beer. American beer. Some liberals like imported beer, but most prefer white wine or foreign water from a bottle. Liberals like to drive Volvos and Saabs because they're made in socialist Sweden. They like to eat weird food because it's un-American. Your basic conservative vehicle, especially in Texas, is the Chevy Suburban. It's big, it's American, it's four wheel drive, and it sucks up the gas. Conservatives eat beef, which they (surprise!) like to barbecue. Big game hunters are conservative.
Interior decorators are liberal. Liberals invented the designated hitter rule in baseball because it wasn't "fair" to make the poor pitcher take his turn at bat. Conservatives, inspired by a remark of the legendary Pittsburgh Steeler linebacker Jack Lambert, believe quarterbacks should be required to wear skirts, so they can more easily be distinguished from real football players. James Brown and Ray Charles are conservatives. Michael Jackson and Milli Vanilli are liberals. Most social workers, personal injury lawyers, journalists, and group therapists are liberals. Most ranchers, loggers, professional soldiers, and oil field workers are conservatives.
Liberal jurors distrust the prosecutors and police. Conservatives figure the defendant must be guilty or he wouldn't be on trial. Most conservatives not only believe in the death penalty, they would cheerfully implement it, personally, if called upon to do so. Liberals think capital punishment is a barbaric relic, and unfair to boot. Liberals believe Europeans are, generally speaking, far more enlightened than Americans. Conservatives think they're basically decadent, as evidenced by their complete absence in wars. Typical conservative movies are "Raising Arizona", "Patton", and "Conan the Barbarian". Typical liberal movies are "Prince of Tides," "Last Tango in Paris," and "The Big Chill."
The quintessential liberal is the handicapper, the person who decides how much extra weight to saddle the faster horses with in order to make the race "fair". The American cowboy, of course, is your basic, full bore conservative. A hundred years ago an Englishman in South Dakota was trying to find the owner of a huge cattle ranch. He rode up to one of the ranch hands and asked, "Excuse me, but could you tell me where to find your Master?" To which the cowboy replied, "That sumbitch hasn't been born yet."
By Fritz Pettyjohn
Thursday, July 24, 2003
Gotta' love those Cubans...
Ever inventive, a truckload of Cuban emmigrants was stopped on the high seas Wednesday as they attempted to drive their '51 Chevy truck across the Straits of Florida. The "Boruck" [boat/truck] was held up on a makeshift pontoon with a marine propeller attached to the drive train. Only 40 miles short of their objective of Miami, the Coast Guard deemed their drive a little too risky and took them into custody. I only wish that I had been on the Cutter that spotted the "ship". "Sir, pick-up truck off the port bow"!
General Motors engineers are hoping to capitalize on this new technology for an off-off road sport utility vehicle tentatively named the Chevrolet Mallard. I hope their vehicle ends up on Ebay©.
Ever inventive, a truckload of Cuban emmigrants was stopped on the high seas Wednesday as they attempted to drive their '51 Chevy truck across the Straits of Florida. The "Boruck" [boat/truck] was held up on a makeshift pontoon with a marine propeller attached to the drive train. Only 40 miles short of their objective of Miami, the Coast Guard deemed their drive a little too risky and took them into custody. I only wish that I had been on the Cutter that spotted the "ship". "Sir, pick-up truck off the port bow"!
General Motors engineers are hoping to capitalize on this new technology for an off-off road sport utility vehicle tentatively named the Chevrolet Mallard. I hope their vehicle ends up on Ebay©.
Thursday, July 17, 2003
To Taos.......
Daily postings will be absent for some days as Julie and I take a break with a trip and photo shoot to Taos, New Mexico. For out of towners, Taos is about an hour north of Santa Fe and sits nestled beneath Wheeler Peak, the highest point in New Mexico at 13,161 ft. Taos is also home to what many scholars consider to be the oldest continuously occupied building in North America, the Taos Pueblo.
As anglo settlers began to settle the area, Taos was a center of the fur trade and in fact was the home of Kit Carson. Later as settlement progressed Taos became a favorite haunt for newly arrived artists and the "New Mexico" school of art was founded here. Consquently there are many great museums and galleries in Taos today. We plan to hit a few.
Today, Taos has grown a bit from my earliest visits, but is still a Mecca for art and photograpy along with some great dining and just sitting and enjoying the cool air laced with pinon pine smoke. We plan to do all these....and possibly more! :>)
Wednesday, July 16, 2003
Caribbean Visitor......
We always welcome visitors in West Texas, especially one's bearing rain. Tropical Storm/Hurricane/Tropical Storm Claudette now sits about 100 miles to the south of Midland, and she's brought some great weather! Mid July weather in Western Texas can be the dog days. They can be unbearably hot, deathly still and without a single cloud in the sky for weeks on end. Thanks to Claudette we have a 86°, a strong breeze and thunder showers in the area.
We are not total strangers to used up hurricanes, but usually we receive the benefit of Mexican storms coming in from the Pacific. Being so far west, we actually are almost as close to the Pacific Ocean's Gulf of California as we are to the Atlantic's Gulf of Mexico. Claudette was a wimpish storm as far as hurricanes go, but she is long lived and is bringing great rains to areas of Texas that really need it. Perhaps the Rio Grande will start flowing again! Yes, for out of towners, this great river virtually stopped flowing and for several years now, it has not even been able to muster up the spit to make it all the way to the sea.....it just stops or rather, just peters out in southern Texas.
What made me chose this topic this fine evening was a thought I had as I was walking the Big Gold Dog and watching the moving bands of thunder storms in the area. It occured to me what an amazing thing this is....this storm that had it's origins in the Caribbean thousands of miles away over lush tropical isles, raining itself out over hundreds of square miles in the deserts of the Southwest. It makes one feel rather small. I think that this is a good feeling sometimes.
We always welcome visitors in West Texas, especially one's bearing rain. Tropical Storm/Hurricane/Tropical Storm Claudette now sits about 100 miles to the south of Midland, and she's brought some great weather! Mid July weather in Western Texas can be the dog days. They can be unbearably hot, deathly still and without a single cloud in the sky for weeks on end. Thanks to Claudette we have a 86°, a strong breeze and thunder showers in the area.
We are not total strangers to used up hurricanes, but usually we receive the benefit of Mexican storms coming in from the Pacific. Being so far west, we actually are almost as close to the Pacific Ocean's Gulf of California as we are to the Atlantic's Gulf of Mexico. Claudette was a wimpish storm as far as hurricanes go, but she is long lived and is bringing great rains to areas of Texas that really need it. Perhaps the Rio Grande will start flowing again! Yes, for out of towners, this great river virtually stopped flowing and for several years now, it has not even been able to muster up the spit to make it all the way to the sea.....it just stops or rather, just peters out in southern Texas.
What made me chose this topic this fine evening was a thought I had as I was walking the Big Gold Dog and watching the moving bands of thunder storms in the area. It occured to me what an amazing thing this is....this storm that had it's origins in the Caribbean thousands of miles away over lush tropical isles, raining itself out over hundreds of square miles in the deserts of the Southwest. It makes one feel rather small. I think that this is a good feeling sometimes.
Tuesday, July 15, 2003
Down Home....
One of the real advantages of living in a smallish city is that there are some things that just never change. There are those places surviving that will take you back many decades both with the decor and in the patron's encountered there. One of those places in downtown Midland, Texas is Johnnie's Barbecue. Johnnies is essentially as it was the first time I walked in the door in 1960. The layout is the same, the chairs have been inhabitants for 50 years as have some of the patrons and of course, there is Johnnie. I can't remember a time that I have entered the joint that Johnnie wasn't been behind the serving area, as well as a few of his employees who have earned 50 year service pins.
Johnnie's constitutes a time warp. There just aren't too many places in this modern world that one can reenter his youthful haunts to find things completely unchanged. Where else can you sit in a chair you probably sat in 42 years ago with some of the same diners sitting opposite you? A place to not only remember your past, but to participate in it. Despite comments about the dubious cleanliness of the place, the methods of potato salad production, and the smoke from the septigenariuns cigarettes, Johnnies has a charm to old time West Texans that is unmistakeable. Johnnies, as mentioned, is downtown where the oil business is. Johnnies has been synonomous with lunch to old time oilmen since the 1950's the way "The Spot", several blocks over, is to breakfast and the way the much lamented and now defunct 007 Club was to strong drink and riotous living. These places are where the deals were made in the oil business. Some of the men you encounter at Johnnies today became fabulously weathly, some went broke, some did both.
Occasionally when Julie and I have lunch, I'll want to go to Johnnie's as we did today. Julie complains about having to wash the smoke out of her clothes after the meal, but the food is pretty good...standard barbecue fare. More than the food though is just the opportunity for me to travel back in time and I suppose to reconnect to my roots.
And there is always the opportunity to see a friend not recently seen. Today it was George O'Brien. George lives somewhat across the street from my folks and is someone I've always liked, a rather quiet, modest guy who is also in the oil business. He, his wife Sandy and I walk our dogs on the same route some days. George is a friendly, regular sort of guy except for one small thing...he won the Medal of Honor in Korea. You never know who'll you'll run into at Johnnie's.
One of the real advantages of living in a smallish city is that there are some things that just never change. There are those places surviving that will take you back many decades both with the decor and in the patron's encountered there. One of those places in downtown Midland, Texas is Johnnie's Barbecue. Johnnies is essentially as it was the first time I walked in the door in 1960. The layout is the same, the chairs have been inhabitants for 50 years as have some of the patrons and of course, there is Johnnie. I can't remember a time that I have entered the joint that Johnnie wasn't been behind the serving area, as well as a few of his employees who have earned 50 year service pins.
Johnnie's constitutes a time warp. There just aren't too many places in this modern world that one can reenter his youthful haunts to find things completely unchanged. Where else can you sit in a chair you probably sat in 42 years ago with some of the same diners sitting opposite you? A place to not only remember your past, but to participate in it. Despite comments about the dubious cleanliness of the place, the methods of potato salad production, and the smoke from the septigenariuns cigarettes, Johnnies has a charm to old time West Texans that is unmistakeable. Johnnies, as mentioned, is downtown where the oil business is. Johnnies has been synonomous with lunch to old time oilmen since the 1950's the way "The Spot", several blocks over, is to breakfast and the way the much lamented and now defunct 007 Club was to strong drink and riotous living. These places are where the deals were made in the oil business. Some of the men you encounter at Johnnies today became fabulously weathly, some went broke, some did both.
Occasionally when Julie and I have lunch, I'll want to go to Johnnie's as we did today. Julie complains about having to wash the smoke out of her clothes after the meal, but the food is pretty good...standard barbecue fare. More than the food though is just the opportunity for me to travel back in time and I suppose to reconnect to my roots.
And there is always the opportunity to see a friend not recently seen. Today it was George O'Brien. George lives somewhat across the street from my folks and is someone I've always liked, a rather quiet, modest guy who is also in the oil business. He, his wife Sandy and I walk our dogs on the same route some days. George is a friendly, regular sort of guy except for one small thing...he won the Medal of Honor in Korea. You never know who'll you'll run into at Johnnie's.
Sunday, July 13, 2003
Gone West.......
Aviation can be a dangerous business, especially when flying aircraft that are 60+ years old. We at the Commemorative Air Force, the CAF, have lost another aircraft and her crew. Our Heinkel He-111 went down in Cheyenne, Wyoming this week after taking off from Midland on it's way to an airshow in Montana. Apparently an engine was lost on final approach into the airfield in Cheyenne. Two of our pilots lost their lives and the aircraft is a total loss.
Of course first and foremost, condolensences go to the families of these fine men. It is heartbreaking to lose anyone in a tragic accident of this kind. I know first hand. I lost two good friends in separate aviation crashes two years ago...within one month of each other and flying the same type of vintage aircraft. It'a hard to believe that these friends are gone, and both skilled and experienced pilots. But I can state with certainty, that these men were proud of what they were doing and felt a great degree of privelage in flying this aircraft.
Equally distressing is the loss of this aircraft, the only operational and flying HE-111 in existance. The HE-111 was one of the two principle types of German bombers involved in the Battle of Britain and is a symbol of that contest, along with the English Spitfire and German ME-109. This particular Heinkel, which I photographed [above] just last year, was built in Spain not long after the Spanish civil war, and was rumored to have been Francisco Franco's personal aircraft.
We at the CAF have had discussions about flying these "one of a kind" aircraft, started seven years ago after our B-26 Marauder went down with all hands aboard here in Midland. The Marauder was the sole remaining aircraft of it's type also. Our charter has as one of it's principles "to preserve in flying condition.....". It would be a tough decision to ground any of these rare birds. I don't know how I would vote, I do love the sound of those big engines as they pass proudly overhead.
Friday, July 11, 2003
Supporting our Veterans.....??
One of the great things about America is that we can support our government, and in particular our President, but still be vociferously opposed to some of the things they [He] does. I think President G.W. Bush is doing a magnificent job on many fronts including strong action against terrorism and those who oppose our way of life.
However......there are some things that gall me and I don't mind telling the public that I think some mindsets and priorities need to be changed in the Republican led government. Today's focus is on the treatment of our Veterans and the fulfillment of our promises to Vets in trade for their service in harms way. Almost every Republican candidate in the State of Texas courts the Veteran's vote, promising in an orgy of patriotic flag waving to "honor our Vets" and "take care of our Vets". We recently elected a new congressman, who during a public TV debate not more than two months ago intoned, "we need to honor our commitment to the Veterans". OK Randy, here's your chance.
As pointed out in Joe Galloway's syndicated column, to put it succinctly, Vets are once again being given the short shaft. Veterans who complete a military career are promised a retirement stipend based upon their years of service and pay grade upon retirement. That is unless the veteran is disabled. Then the Vet will have his retirement pay deducted by the amount of his diability pay. This means that a Vet who is judged to be 100% disabled is entitled to only his disability and his retirement pay is negated. For many this means they take home less money monthly than if they had never been disabled in the service of their country.
For the record most legislators [82%] know this and had intended to rectify this injustice by approving a bill to overturn the military retirement/disability law. That is until now. Now the President's office conjectures that this would cost the budget billions of dollars over the years and is putting pressure on congress to table this bill. The pressure may work, George is a popular President and his wishes have been their commands.
I urge the President to think twice. Veterans are, by and large, a conservative voting group, they are his supporters. But as a Veteran myself, I remind George that this sort of treatment, trading veterans rights for dollars, has been going on for decades and we've about had it! And what does this tell our current troops in the "all volunteer" Army. It's a great career, just don't get seriously wounded!
One of the great things about America is that we can support our government, and in particular our President, but still be vociferously opposed to some of the things they [He] does. I think President G.W. Bush is doing a magnificent job on many fronts including strong action against terrorism and those who oppose our way of life.
However......there are some things that gall me and I don't mind telling the public that I think some mindsets and priorities need to be changed in the Republican led government. Today's focus is on the treatment of our Veterans and the fulfillment of our promises to Vets in trade for their service in harms way. Almost every Republican candidate in the State of Texas courts the Veteran's vote, promising in an orgy of patriotic flag waving to "honor our Vets" and "take care of our Vets". We recently elected a new congressman, who during a public TV debate not more than two months ago intoned, "we need to honor our commitment to the Veterans". OK Randy, here's your chance.
As pointed out in Joe Galloway's syndicated column, to put it succinctly, Vets are once again being given the short shaft. Veterans who complete a military career are promised a retirement stipend based upon their years of service and pay grade upon retirement. That is unless the veteran is disabled. Then the Vet will have his retirement pay deducted by the amount of his diability pay. This means that a Vet who is judged to be 100% disabled is entitled to only his disability and his retirement pay is negated. For many this means they take home less money monthly than if they had never been disabled in the service of their country.
For the record most legislators [82%] know this and had intended to rectify this injustice by approving a bill to overturn the military retirement/disability law. That is until now. Now the President's office conjectures that this would cost the budget billions of dollars over the years and is putting pressure on congress to table this bill. The pressure may work, George is a popular President and his wishes have been their commands.
I urge the President to think twice. Veterans are, by and large, a conservative voting group, they are his supporters. But as a Veteran myself, I remind George that this sort of treatment, trading veterans rights for dollars, has been going on for decades and we've about had it! And what does this tell our current troops in the "all volunteer" Army. It's a great career, just don't get seriously wounded!
Thursday, July 10, 2003
Hack 'em up.......
Last week's organized "hack-a-thon" involving one hell of a lot of work by the hackers, apparently only created some small degree of mischief. Defacing a few minor websites, knocking some off the web in denial of service attacks but generally small potatos stuff. Oh boy, big fun. Time not well spent.
Now I'm no hacker, I don't have the time nor the skills at this point. But it sure sounds interesting. I have thought for some time now that if I were a hacker I would use my skills for the good of mankind. That good would be knocking scumbag spammers off their digital perches. Slamming them, causing their servers to fry and if I could, blowing up their mobile homes via the Internet, generating fake messages telling them that their Rent-a-Center furniture is being repossesed and in general causing mischief designed to make their lives miserable.
Perhaps there are hackers out there at this very moment carrying out devious plans against these spamming scabs on the butt of humankind, but I never hear about them. And I would really like to. It would give me a vicarious pleasure. So if by some mistake my small site is hacked, here for you dear hacker is an IP address to start in on: 217.107.216.18. They're home, I just heard from them tonight.
Go to the Spews Spam Report and read all about these criminals. Perhaps you'll recognize some of the fine products they want to sell you. From fake Viagra to fake sex.....they stock it all. Also notice that, as usual, the spamsite host declines to do anything about these vagrants. Where is a good hacker when we need one?
Last week's organized "hack-a-thon" involving one hell of a lot of work by the hackers, apparently only created some small degree of mischief. Defacing a few minor websites, knocking some off the web in denial of service attacks but generally small potatos stuff. Oh boy, big fun. Time not well spent.
Now I'm no hacker, I don't have the time nor the skills at this point. But it sure sounds interesting. I have thought for some time now that if I were a hacker I would use my skills for the good of mankind. That good would be knocking scumbag spammers off their digital perches. Slamming them, causing their servers to fry and if I could, blowing up their mobile homes via the Internet, generating fake messages telling them that their Rent-a-Center furniture is being repossesed and in general causing mischief designed to make their lives miserable.
Perhaps there are hackers out there at this very moment carrying out devious plans against these spamming scabs on the butt of humankind, but I never hear about them. And I would really like to. It would give me a vicarious pleasure. So if by some mistake my small site is hacked, here for you dear hacker is an IP address to start in on: 217.107.216.18. They're home, I just heard from them tonight.
Go to the Spews Spam Report and read all about these criminals. Perhaps you'll recognize some of the fine products they want to sell you. From fake Viagra to fake sex.....they stock it all. Also notice that, as usual, the spamsite host declines to do anything about these vagrants. Where is a good hacker when we need one?
Tuesday, July 08, 2003
Hillbillies Revisited...
I kept looking at the picture of Buddy Ebsen as Uncle Jed posted yesterday and I thought....wow what a great show, I wish we had something like that now. Younger readers will think, "yeah, right Dude, people back in the early 60's must have been real rubes to have watched that hick show"! Simple people in simple times who would lap up anything and call it entertainment.
Not so! During the first years that TBH's was on the air we had some of the most difficult events to handle that the 20th century offered. We had a President assasinated and we thought anarchy might reign, the democratic system could collapse. We were within a cat's whisker of a real nuclear war with the Russkies over Cuba, we know only now just how close. When TBH's had been on a few years, we started losing hundreds of young men every month in Vietnam, escalating to 1000's. These were serious and tough times.
And this is the reason that The Beverly Hillbillies was so immensely popular across a wide spectum. Why? Because it was funny and it was really stupid. And.....we laughed and we knew it was really stupid. It was supposed to be stupid and we needed and appreciated stupid. Compare this to the immensely popular show genres of today, the "reality shows". The Discovery Channel has probably five shows based on the "Trading Places" premise: turn a perfectly good room into something belonging in a cheap trailer park. The major networks each seem to have several shows based on "The Bachelor" premise: get people without a real life themselves to believe that two people can actually meet in a staged competition, get married and live happily ever after.
Like The Beverly Hillbillies these shows provide some form of entertainment and are really stupid, but the difference now is that a large sgement of the population doesn't seem to know that they're stupid. So as I set down by the cement pond with a mess of hog jowls and use my 5th grade education to do some 'cypherin', I conclude that I miss shows like The Beverly Hillbillies and that 20 years from now young people will look at Trading Places reruns and think, "What a bunch of pathetic losers people were in 2003.....didn't they have lives of their own, the rubes".
I kept looking at the picture of Buddy Ebsen as Uncle Jed posted yesterday and I thought....wow what a great show, I wish we had something like that now. Younger readers will think, "yeah, right Dude, people back in the early 60's must have been real rubes to have watched that hick show"! Simple people in simple times who would lap up anything and call it entertainment.
Not so! During the first years that TBH's was on the air we had some of the most difficult events to handle that the 20th century offered. We had a President assasinated and we thought anarchy might reign, the democratic system could collapse. We were within a cat's whisker of a real nuclear war with the Russkies over Cuba, we know only now just how close. When TBH's had been on a few years, we started losing hundreds of young men every month in Vietnam, escalating to 1000's. These were serious and tough times.
And this is the reason that The Beverly Hillbillies was so immensely popular across a wide spectum. Why? Because it was funny and it was really stupid. And.....we laughed and we knew it was really stupid. It was supposed to be stupid and we needed and appreciated stupid. Compare this to the immensely popular show genres of today, the "reality shows". The Discovery Channel has probably five shows based on the "Trading Places" premise: turn a perfectly good room into something belonging in a cheap trailer park. The major networks each seem to have several shows based on "The Bachelor" premise: get people without a real life themselves to believe that two people can actually meet in a staged competition, get married and live happily ever after.
Like The Beverly Hillbillies these shows provide some form of entertainment and are really stupid, but the difference now is that a large sgement of the population doesn't seem to know that they're stupid. So as I set down by the cement pond with a mess of hog jowls and use my 5th grade education to do some 'cypherin', I conclude that I miss shows like The Beverly Hillbillies and that 20 years from now young people will look at Trading Places reruns and think, "What a bunch of pathetic losers people were in 2003.....didn't they have lives of their own, the rubes".
Monday, July 07, 2003
Spam on Rye..
As mentioned previously, Spam is one of my pet peaves. True, it's easy enough to hit the delete button, and by having my own domains with the ability to easily change addresses it's fairly easy to manage and keep the crap to a minimun. But, some still gets through, most recently thanks to Earthlink, who didn't have tight enough security on their mail servers to stop a spam house from sending through an "alphabet attack". For you novices, this involves a spammer hitting a mail server with millions of mail request using computer generated alpha letter combinations and seeing which ones are "bounced" and which are not. The "non-bouncers" are then stored in the scumbags data file for future spamming. So...I'm getting a few spam sandwiches to my default generic Earthlink address. Thanks Earthlink!
The real reason I hate Spam is that I just don't like the thought of these morons being able to do this with impunity. Which they are generally able to do because A] it's not against the law, B] they have sophisticated software and C] because the people who could put a dent in it...won't.
I'm not naive enough to think that making Spam illegal will stop it all, but it will provide a legal basis for bringing lawsuits against the scum and make it easier to win MONEY from the spammers...which is all they care about and which will hurt them. It would also allow the legal system to keep track of those offenders who are convicted and start up new spam operations. At present, when a spammer is cut off from his ISP or Internet backbone connection, it is a matter of days before they spring up elsewhere.
The software developed for the spam industry is significant. Just several years ago, I could trackback through the email header and generally tell the IP address and the point of origin of the spam message. Not today. Their software creates fake email headers and shows fake IP addresses as the rule. It does no good to try and trackback. The reply addresses are fake as are the ID message lines. I have a little program which creates fake "bounce" messages, designed to send mail back to spammers announcing that "this is not a good address" and hopefully they would delete my address from their database. This is no longer useful.
There is one source link to the spammers that can still be traced. In order for the spammer to sell you some fake Viagra, he has to have a point of sale...usually a website. Now some of these are "confuscated" web addresses, in other words they are written in various coding that the average person could not decipher in order to report. But through the links I'll provide below you can do this. Many addresses linked on spam are normal Dot.Com addresses. The trick is to find out who is really behind this address. Be forewarned that the owners listed are mostly fake names and addresses commonly now coming from China or Brazil. But, and a big But....what you want to determine is how, what route and backbone server, does the URL get from the spam site to your computer. Sad to say, this is commonly through large well known companies such as Verio, ATT, Cable and Wireless or Verizon who really don't give a crap about your little complaint. Until, hopefully, they get hundreds of thousands or millions of complaints. These are the people who have the power to shut spam sales sites down, by blocking the IP addresses of the offenders. This is why I still send Abuse reports on every piece of spam I receive. If everyone did, perhaps they'd listen.
OK, here are two useful sites to start to chase Spam.
Sam Spade: allows you to do WHOIS searches, i.e. see how owns the site, do a TRACEROUTE to determine where the spam site URL enters the Internet backbone [usually a large well known company 5 or 6 hops up the list]. Allows you to deciper the "confuscated" URL's.
UXN Spam Combat: Here I utilize the Traceroute function and the very important SPEWS refernce. SPEWS keeps track of well known spam operations and can help you figure out the latest. You'll need the numeric IP address for this one. [many Spams are using html formated mail "right click" and use "source" to see the associated URL for the site.]
While using these tools remember: Never send a reply back to a spammer, nor use their "take me off your list" return address. This just confirms that your address is active...! You can send complaints to legitimate ISP's or Backbone providers by using the email address abuse@whomever.net. Always send a copy to the Federal Trade Commission at uce@ftc.gov. They won't act on the complaint but they are providing the statistics on Spam to the Congress [don't laugh, please].
There is some thought that since, hopefully, fewer and fewer people are buying anything from these scum, they will eventually implode. The biggest source of their revenue seems to come from selling spam email lists and spam software to each other. But until that happens, report the scumbags. Good luck and good hunting!
As mentioned previously, Spam is one of my pet peaves. True, it's easy enough to hit the delete button, and by having my own domains with the ability to easily change addresses it's fairly easy to manage and keep the crap to a minimun. But, some still gets through, most recently thanks to Earthlink, who didn't have tight enough security on their mail servers to stop a spam house from sending through an "alphabet attack". For you novices, this involves a spammer hitting a mail server with millions of mail request using computer generated alpha letter combinations and seeing which ones are "bounced" and which are not. The "non-bouncers" are then stored in the scumbags data file for future spamming. So...I'm getting a few spam sandwiches to my default generic Earthlink address. Thanks Earthlink!
The real reason I hate Spam is that I just don't like the thought of these morons being able to do this with impunity. Which they are generally able to do because A] it's not against the law, B] they have sophisticated software and C] because the people who could put a dent in it...won't.
I'm not naive enough to think that making Spam illegal will stop it all, but it will provide a legal basis for bringing lawsuits against the scum and make it easier to win MONEY from the spammers...which is all they care about and which will hurt them. It would also allow the legal system to keep track of those offenders who are convicted and start up new spam operations. At present, when a spammer is cut off from his ISP or Internet backbone connection, it is a matter of days before they spring up elsewhere.
The software developed for the spam industry is significant. Just several years ago, I could trackback through the email header and generally tell the IP address and the point of origin of the spam message. Not today. Their software creates fake email headers and shows fake IP addresses as the rule. It does no good to try and trackback. The reply addresses are fake as are the ID message lines. I have a little program which creates fake "bounce" messages, designed to send mail back to spammers announcing that "this is not a good address" and hopefully they would delete my address from their database. This is no longer useful.
There is one source link to the spammers that can still be traced. In order for the spammer to sell you some fake Viagra, he has to have a point of sale...usually a website. Now some of these are "confuscated" web addresses, in other words they are written in various coding that the average person could not decipher in order to report. But through the links I'll provide below you can do this. Many addresses linked on spam are normal Dot.Com addresses. The trick is to find out who is really behind this address. Be forewarned that the owners listed are mostly fake names and addresses commonly now coming from China or Brazil. But, and a big But....what you want to determine is how, what route and backbone server, does the URL get from the spam site to your computer. Sad to say, this is commonly through large well known companies such as Verio, ATT, Cable and Wireless or Verizon who really don't give a crap about your little complaint. Until, hopefully, they get hundreds of thousands or millions of complaints. These are the people who have the power to shut spam sales sites down, by blocking the IP addresses of the offenders. This is why I still send Abuse reports on every piece of spam I receive. If everyone did, perhaps they'd listen.
OK, here are two useful sites to start to chase Spam.
Sam Spade: allows you to do WHOIS searches, i.e. see how owns the site, do a TRACEROUTE to determine where the spam site URL enters the Internet backbone [usually a large well known company 5 or 6 hops up the list]. Allows you to deciper the "confuscated" URL's.
UXN Spam Combat: Here I utilize the Traceroute function and the very important SPEWS refernce. SPEWS keeps track of well known spam operations and can help you figure out the latest. You'll need the numeric IP address for this one. [many Spams are using html formated mail "right click" and use "source" to see the associated URL for the site.]
While using these tools remember: Never send a reply back to a spammer, nor use their "take me off your list" return address. This just confirms that your address is active...! You can send complaints to legitimate ISP's or Backbone providers by using the email address abuse@whomever.net. Always send a copy to the Federal Trade Commission at uce@ftc.gov. They won't act on the complaint but they are providing the statistics on Spam to the Congress [don't laugh, please].
There is some thought that since, hopefully, fewer and fewer people are buying anything from these scum, they will eventually implode. The biggest source of their revenue seems to come from selling spam email lists and spam software to each other. But until that happens, report the scumbags. Good luck and good hunting!
Thursday, July 03, 2003
Independence Day...!
God Bless America, land of the Free and Home of the Brave...
And as a reminder that Freedom is Not Free, and why we should remember at what price our liberty is held and what the cost is when we take it for granted, please take the time to view Why we should not forget!
God Bless America, land of the Free and Home of the Brave...
And as a reminder that Freedom is Not Free, and why we should remember at what price our liberty is held and what the cost is when we take it for granted, please take the time to view Why we should not forget!
Wednesday, July 02, 2003
Mysterious Blob.....
Scientists in Chile are studying the remains of a mysterious huge gelatinous creature that has washed ashore on the coast of that South American country. The animal, which was discovered June 23 washed up on a Chilean beach, was described as a 40-foot-long (12-meter) mass of rotting grey flesh that scientists estimated to weigh about 13 tons.
My first thought as to it's identity was this:
Has Michael Moore been reported missing?
Scientists in Chile are studying the remains of a mysterious huge gelatinous creature that has washed ashore on the coast of that South American country. The animal, which was discovered June 23 washed up on a Chilean beach, was described as a 40-foot-long (12-meter) mass of rotting grey flesh that scientists estimated to weigh about 13 tons.
My first thought as to it's identity was this:
Has Michael Moore been reported missing?
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