Middle America's Worldview

I wanted to share these links.

Here is a 73 minute YouTube video entitled "23 minutes of Hell

23 minutes of Hell

Within the above video, he mentions Mary K Baxter. I looked up her webpage and she also has a means for you to download her story regarding Hell. It is in MP3 format.

Her webpage is found here.

I haven't listened to Mary Baxter's story yet. I am downloading it tonight.

One more YouTube video I found to be really good. It's less than a minute long.

This one is entitled Rapture are you ready?

I am having a hard time sleeping tonight. We received word yesterday morning on our sons results. In addition, the school board is coming up pretty quick.

Interesting, Kel and the kids left Sunday morning and technically as of Tuesday, they were gone less than 3 days. Yet, I miss them like crazy. I wanted to talk to the kids yesterday evening, but by the time I could, they were already in bed. Perhaps I can hear them today.

It's currently 3 a.m. local time. I have another 4 scheduled conference calls today. In addition, I need to run to the local town (about 15 minutes away) to work on someones P.C. This week has flown.

Last night I cooked myself Oyster stew. I was able to, since the wife and kids were not here. They can't even stand the smell of it. LOL

Today will be election day for the United States. Across the Nation the people will have their one chance to voice their opinions regarding who will or will not be held in office. A lot of people around here watch the football games with fever. I will actually be watching the news tonight to see what occurs.

Oklahoma will have the following on their ballot. Personally, I will be voting on both sides of the fence, both Democrat and Republican. As a registered Independent, this is the only one (other than the main Presidential votes) that I will be able to attend at the polls.

Governor
Brad Henry (D)
Ernest Istook (R)

Lietutenant Governor
Jari Askins (D)
Todd Hiett ( R)
E.Z. Million (I)

State Auditor
Jeff A. McMahan (D)
Gary Jones ( R)

State Treasurer
Scott Meacham (D)
Howard Barnett (R )

Superintendent of Public Instruction
Sandy Garrett (D)
Bill Crozierr (R)

Commisioner of Labor
Lloyd L Fields (D)
Brenda Reneau (R )

Insurance Commissioner
Kim Holland (D)
Bill Case (R )

Corporation Commissioner
Cody Graves (D)
Bob Anthony (R )

District 2
Dan Boren (D )
Patrick K Miller (R )

District Judge Office one
Danita S. Williams
Mariaon Daly Fry

State Senator No 4
Kenneth Corn (D )
Thomas E. Lannigain (R )

There are also 4 state questions and one proposition.
The proposition asks if a 50 cent tax can be placed on cell phone usage. I don’t see that passing.

These and 12 Judges up for election should make for more than a few to come out to vote in Oklahoma.

Kel called yesterday around 12:30 p.m. to let me know they made it to their aunts house safely. I was glad to hear it. In addition they went onto the hotel near the hospital around 7 p.m.

Now I wait with anticipation to hear the results of our son's procedure.

I know I will begin cleaning the house today as I work. I have free reign all this week and plan to utilize it to its fullest extent. Primarily, I will hit a room individually and do a thorough cleaning.

Yesterday evening, I took my dad over to Hastings. He wanted to look for a game. In my surprise I found the movie Target. I grabbed it for 11 bucks. I have been looking for it the past 3 months. Blockbuster nor the other rentals in my area hadn't even carried it to rent. So, I watched it last night. Great, great movie.

I should also have my evaluation from my primary job today as well. I have been waiting since July for it.

2 a.m. and both Kel and I are awake. She stayed in bed till 3 a.m. and was ready to go.
I filled the car with gas while she checked her email on my P.C.

The kids were awaken at 3:30 a.m. and all three are already headed out. I feel anxious and worried already.

We said a prayer before they left. Kel feels like this will be the last trip, where resolution will be found. She also feels it will not go as we expect it too. But then again, we find ourselves in a new world of alternative medicine and homeschooling. Something, I would never have dreamed of.

It has come upon this dad one of the fears of having a daughter. I shall explain.
Here is the conversation of my now (gulp) 9 year old daughter today.

daughter: Dad, I need to call my friend Rachel.

me: (on a conference call with mute) What? Rachel who?

daughter: My friend Rachel. She may have heard from Allie and Allie may not have my number.

me: Uh. I think your a bit young to be calling.

daughter: Dad. Allie had to have some blood work and I am really nervous about it. Rachel is my first homeschool friend and she is 11. Can I please call her?

me: (looking into this sincere 9 year old eyes. Man, she seemed to be a teen already).

I made the call. Explained to the mom on the other end and she allowed her daughter to speak to mine. I was still on the conference call and only heard a bit of the conversation. Basically it was, "have you heard from Allie" and my girl giving this other 'friend' our home number. Oh man, it's already begun.

Later this evening as we are leaving for church, she is looking in the hallway mirror and asked out loud..."Is that a zit? My first zit."

I looked in astonishment and it did look like a zit. Geez, shouldn't she be like 13?

Oh man, I am feeling old.

I had picked up two movies yesterday since I was off today. I rented Curious George for the kids and A America Haunting for myself. I knew I would be watching it alone when the rest of the crew went to bed.

First, I would say Curious George was a cute movie, as expected.

Second, the scary movie A America Haunting was not as I expected. The back of the movie stated it was based off a true story. The setting is back before the Civil War where a family is haunted by a spirit that actually killed a family member. It also stated the source of the curse. Well, nearly the whole movie was indeed intense. Supposedly this family committed usury over some land. The lady that had owned the land put a curse on the family. This led to the Bale Witch curse, ect. ect.

The story was written by a local teacher that witnessed the events that occured to the family.

Anyway, why I say it's a let down is througout the movie, it intense. The girl was persecuted by the entity, and the family could not stop it. When it wasn't attacking the girl, it attacked the dad. (the curse of the bale witch was primarily on those two of the family).

Nearly the whole movie showed what was occuring, then something odd happened at the last 12 minutes of the movie. It did a complete 180 degrees. It insenuated the attacks of the girl was made by the father. Kindof like a incest rape thing going on. The daughter had killed the dad, through meds, for payback.

Totally bizarre turnaround. It never explained all the other witness's view of the girls attacks, the voice everyone heard throughout the movie, ect. Made no freaking sense at all. What a let-down.

I pulled another weekend on my part-time job. Saturday, I just could not keep up with the customers. As soon as I fill the aisles with Soda, it seemed to disapear.

Walmart's 2 liters are on sale for 88 cents a piece. All Pepsi 2 liters. Needless to say, many took part of the sale. They simply moved and moved quickly. Crud, even the non-sale items seemed to be snatched up Saturday.

Saturday night,I had the pleasure to go out with Kel. After not seeing her all week, it was nice to go out with just the two of us. Tired or not. (smile)

Sunday was equally busy, but its over now. I managed to mow the front yard after I came in today. It needed it bad. I was hoping a cold snap would kill the grass, but no luck.

I am off tomorrow and the next day from my primary job. I look forward to it.

The plane arrived home about 1:15 p.m. local time yesterday. I was glad of it. Kel and the kids picked me up and we headed for some errands. Since Kel had a doc appt. I utilized the time to pick up the groceries with the kids. It was nice to be with them again.

Kel had a nice crockpot full of hot food cooking. The temp was around 53 with it looking about to rain. Nice chow for that type of weather.

Up early this morning to head to Pepsi. I have a couple additional errands to run during this day. I hope I don't forget them. (smile) The first one is to put gas in the vehicle. Not sure how Kel does it, she manages to always have the car on empty when I need it. (smile)

I continue to find it fascinating when I come to Corp. I look at the week I will be up here alone, thinking I have some time alone to do some personal stuff.

Yet, when I am up here, the time still flies and I have yet to open that magazine I brought to read. Unreal.

Now its my last night here and the week has literally flew. I didn't get to do those personel things I wanted to do. Oh well.

I tried to get to bed early tonight, due to having to get up around 4 a.m. I have an early flight and it always takes time to drive back to Philly, drop the rental, ect.

I crashed around 8:30 but awoke at 10:30, not able to sleep. I am watching the 100 scariest movie moments on T.V.

I am ready to go home. Crud, I am already packed and ready to go.

Why is Canada doing the right thing here, while United States seem to stall? Personally , I don't want to go through another voting fiasco. Either party will call foul when the tallies are in. It doesn't matter one way or the other.

While the U.S. mid-term elections are going full steam ahead with a myriad of maybe-reliable and not-so-reliable electronic voting systems in place, Quebec is pulling back from its adventures in e-voting, after the province's chief electoral officer Marcel Blanchet delivered a harsh report on the 2005 municipal elections. The voting machines were used in some 140 municipalities in the province last year but, according to the report, they went down like bad plate of poutine, suffering from blackouts and transmission errors, resulting in unreliable results -- although he adds that there's nothing that can be done about the results now except to move on. He also reported that the electronic voting machines weren't any faster or more economical than manual counting. As a result of the report, Quebec's Municipal Affairs Minister Nathalie Normandeau is accepting Blanchet's recommendation that the current moratorium on electronic voting put in place after last year's elections be maintained, apparently indefinitely.

Voting is about 2 weeks away and it's becoming all too obvious on the TV and radio. I bet the stations love this time of the year.

The problem I have is all the advertising posed by the candidates usually is anti-opponent. Rather than each candidate coming out to say, I voted for...., I supported x.... the groups trash the opponent. Come on people, let's not trash, rather promote what you actually have done to improve this country and it's people.

Realistically, you can find any little thing against someone else. It's not hard, and if you can't find anything juicy, they can simply lie.

I actually acquired sleep last night. It took 2 benadryls plus an extra green pill, but it worked.

My lovely wife snuck the movie Sneakers in my bag for my trip. I was wanting to watch it and she must have found a copy on Ebay or something. Thank you honey! I will probably watch it tonight.

Last night, I did my routine of hitting TGIF, grabbing a Tostado Nacho and heading to the hotel. I was exhausted from hitting the hotel the night before at 2 a.m. with little sleep, so I didn't walk too much of the Mall. I did notice the KBToys was finally out, replaced by another Cingular store.

I uploaded another vid on youtube. I find it just another portal for communication and sharing.

Today, I am looking at 4 scheduled conference calls, plus being on support. The norm everytime I come up here. But it is nice to see everyone again.

Am I reading this right? First North Korea, now Tehran, Iran is in the Nuclear arms race? If I am, then surely it's only a short matter of time, before the end.

Iran to EU: you will lose if you back U.N. sanctions

Wed Oct 18, 2006

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran's chief nuclear negotiator told European states on Wednesday they would be the losers if they joined the United States to push through a U.N. Security Council resolution punishing Tehran for its nuclear program.
Ali Larijani's comments to the semi-official Mehr News Agency came a day after the European Union backed limited U.N. sanctions against Iran for not halting uranium enrichment, a condition for starting talks on an atomic incentives package.
"If the other side (the EU) yields to American pressure, it is natural that the situation will become radical. The world will not end but it will affect all our cooperation, in which I think the other side will lose more," Larijani said.
He did not specify what cooperation would be affected, but Iran has in the past threatened, if pushed, to review dealings with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N. watchdog that routinely inspects Iranian atomic facilities.
"Definitely, if a new resolution is issued by the Security Council, we will not be at the point that we are in now for the continuation of talks," he said.
One Iranian lawmaker was more explicit, however. "If any sanction against Iran is ratified, parliament will oblige the government to have minimum cooperation with the IAEA," Hamidreza Haji Babaie was quoted as saying by Mehr, adding that this would start with barring inspectors.

The West accuses Iran of seeking to enrich uranium to build atomic bombs, but Tehran insists it only wants to master the technology to make fuel for nuclear power plants.
The five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council -- the United States, Russia, China, Britain and France -- plus Germany have offered Iran political and economic incentives on condition Tehran first stopped enrichment.

But Washington has been pressing for moves toward sanctions as talks aimed at coaxing Iran to suspend the work dragged on.

"If it is imagined that it is possible to simultaneously use the policy of 'carrot and stick', it is an error in calculation," Larijani said.

The incentives package did not threaten penalties if Iran refused, but the failure of months of talks between Larijani and EU foreign policy chief Javier Solana prompted EU foreign ministers to back incremental measures.

"If the P5+1 really intends to reach a compromise, the joint effort with Solana has paved the way for that to some extent," Larijani said.

© Reuters 2006. All Rights Reserved.

I had a late flight yesterday to Pennsylvania. It was scheduled on purpose due to my daughters 9 year birthday yesterday. Hard to believe that one.

Irregardless, the flight went well. We actually touched down to Philly 25 minutes earlier than expected. Once I hit the airport, I pick up a National car rental and drive to King of Prussia. Being 1:20 a.m. in the morning, traffic was light.

I arrived at the hotel near 2 a.m.




My home for the next 4 days.


Sleep is always an issue for the first 2-3 days. So by the time I adjust, I will be back home.

Corporate is low on cubicles. Normally we are assigned to whatever is availiible. Fortunately, for me, I have one dedicated cube for my 4 days here. Normally, you hop from one empty place to another.




Here is a shot of the cube as I am upgrading my Lotus Notes. Yes, a cup of supremo black coffee sits by it. A perk for physically being here is to be able to hunt down the people with the new software, ect.

The pics were taken by the work cell.

I would first like to say, this is simply my view.

I am seeing a growing trend in the way people are thinking. This trend is the concept of accepting all and everyones view. Whether that refers to religion, characteristics, philosophy, sexual behaviour,ect. The idea of accepting all views, in my opinion, is totally illogical. However, it seems to be spreading more rapidly in the past 10 years.

Let me provide some scenarios to explain my thoughts on this.

Religion is a sensitive subject irregardless of what view you share. However, when you have two opposing thoughts on it, IE evolution/creation, one has to be wrong. There cannot be two rights.

Sexual behaviour is another hot topic. Who is to say the love of a man to woman, man to man, woman to woman, man to boy (nambla), ect. is right or wrong? Can one person really dictate what another person should or should not have sex with? Realistically, no one person can say what the other person should love or not love. Personally, I do not go with the thought we are inherently born a certain way when it comes to our attraction to a certain sex. The reason I do goes two fold. On a evolution worldview level, this cannot be good for the species. The race would die out. So, if you take the evolution view, homosexuality would have already phased out. On a creation worldview, the bible makes it clear woman was made to be with a man. It still stems to two different worldviews. Back to the issue both cannot be right.

Irregardless of two opposing views, the idea to accept both views as equal halves or equally correct is simply wrong.

How can two opposing views be correct? In my opinion, you cannot. You can have two individual having different views, but that does not make those two individuals both correct. So the new culture idea is to give both views equal weight.

Anyway, what you have left is either to accept all views equally, or your labeled a narrow minded person. I am seeing more and more people willing to accept any and all views, as opposed to be looked at as a narrow minded person, irregardless if it's illogical.

This school of thought (accept all equally) is referred to as postmodernism.

*Truth does not exist in any objective sense.

*Truth whether in science, education, or religion-is created by a specific culture or community and is "true" only in and for that culture.

*All thinking is a "social construct". In other words, what you and I regard as "truths" are simply arbitrary "beliefs we have been conditioned to accept by our society, just as others have been conditioned to accept a completely different set of beliefs."

*Any system or statement that claims to be objectively true or unfavorably judges the values, beliefs, lifestyle, and truth claims of another culture is a power play, an effort by one culture to dominate other cultures.

With the election coming near and the Dems foaming at the mouth, I thought it would be beneficial to see who their speaker of the house is. CAn you believe she is 66?

Born on March 26, 1940 in Baltimore, Maryland she is the highest-ranking Democrat in the United States House of Representatives. She is the first woman to lead a major political party in either house of Congress.
Source

Famous Pelosi quote.."Why should we put a plan out? Our plan is to stop him. He must be stopped." ( Referring to George W. Bush, Fox News, 3/17/2005)"


"In this case, it was strictly political," Jefferson said of the caucus vote. "[Pelosi] believes that it gives her a political advantage in this set of elections. She hopes that out of this she'll be speaker of the House one day, if the Democrats can take charge." Source

She will drain the GOP swamp. What she will do the first 100 hours. Gee, what then.

On Project Vote Smart she is rated as Liberal.

Here vote record can be found here.

She declined to provide proof that the trip was paid for by Todo Puerto Rico con Vieques, rather than D.C. lobbyist Smith, Dawson & Andrews. when asked when it was shown a Washington lobbyist firm did not pay for a trip she and other Democrats took to Puerto Rico in 2001.

In May 2000, Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi, a liberal Democrat, participated in a shameless attempt to stop public interest in the CIAÕs use and protection of drug-traffickers supporting the Nicaraguan Contras. Source .

She voted five times to appoint known pedophile Gary Studds to a committe head position. However, she is screaming for Foley to resign.Source

Newt Gingrich posed these simply themes.
Source.

1)Republicans are right on defeating terrorism, and the left is wrong in wanting to run and hide...

2)Republicans are right on cutting taxes and growing a better economy, and the left is wrong in their desire to raise taxes, ...

3)Republicans are right to favor traditional American conservative social values, and the left is completely wrong to put San Francisco left-wing values third in line to be President...

Some other facts on Pelosi.

* On Sept. 14, 2006, Pelosi voted against building a fence on the border to protect America from terrorists;

* Before 9/11, Pelosi repeatedly voted to cut intelligence (in 1993 by $500 million) and after 9/11 she has still voted to cut intelligence (in 2004 she voted to withhold 25 percent of intelligence funds);

* When you ask why we were not more prepared for 9/11, remember that six months before Sept. 11, 2001, Pelosi voted to decrease proposed defense spending by $65 billion;

* The next time you think about North Korean nuclear tests and North Korean efforts to develop an intercontinental ballistic missile to reach the United States, remember that in 2002, Pelosi voted for an amendment to the FY 2003 Defense authorization that would block FY 2003 funding for space-based missile defense programs;

* Pelosi led a faction of 124 House Democrats who voted against final passage of the Patriot Act's reauthorization;

* Pelosi voted against the $87-billion Iraq/Afghanistan supplemental that included extra money for body armor for our soldiers;

* Pelosi voted against creation of Homeland Security Department;

* Pelosi was one of only 33 members to vote against prohibiting U.S. citizens and companies from conducting any financial transaction with countries that have been identified by the State Department as active sponsors of terrorism; and

* In 2004, Pelosi voted against House passage of the intelligence overhaul bill, which reorganized 15 intelligence agencies under one Director of National Intelligence.

I realize not all Democrats are liberal nutjobs, but you cannot deny the ones in power, are highly liberal. I would caution you on this election, when you vote for your local Democrat, you are putting another feather in Pelosi's hat. Look beyond your region, and see the bigger picture.

I had to check out the situation with Islam and Canada.

Not sure when this was actually taped. It shows to be uploaded June 18, 2006.
The video is 10 minutes and 50 seconds long. The last minute or so, the video is a bit poor in quality.



"The religious face of Canada is changing, and cities such as Ottawa, Toronto and Montreal are becoming hubs of Islamic culture." This came from a article I found regarding Islam and Canada. It was posted back in 2004.

According to Answers.com, as of 2001, there were 580,000 Muslims in Canaada. That is 1.8 percent of Canada's population. This is a significant increase as of 1991 with only 253,260 , .09% of the population. In 1871, there were only 13 muslims on the roster for Canada. In 1938, when the first Canadian Mosque was constructed, 700 muslims were in Canada.

According to this source, the Canadian Muslim population is very diverse being drawn from across Africa and Asia.

According to this,
Islam is the second largest religion in Canada. This was back in 2003.

Jedwab said Islam is the fastest growing religion in Canada—expected to grow to around 1.4 million followers by 2017 from 2001’s total of about 600,000. (Check out Jedwab's link. The comments are interesting)

However, Canada isn't alone regarding that aspect. In the United States, it is also reported to be the fastest growing religion. By the year 2010, the number of muslims in United States is looked to be 10 to 16 million. The conversion rate to islam in the United States is estimated to be 135,000 per year.

It would seem the Islam religion is slowly taking over, period.

Check this article out. Please note the term "asians" are actually referring to Muslims.

It was towards the end of the program on Friday that this item was brought into my studio. A girls in Manchester, England was arrested and put in jail because she didn't want to be a part of a tutoring group that spoke a language she could not understand.

First .. the source of the article. It came from The Brussels Journal which bills itself as "The Voice of Conservatism in Europe." This website deserves to be bookmarked on your computer.

OK .. here's your story.

A 14-year-old girl, Codie Stott, was assigned to a six-student group to receive tutoring in science at the Harrop Fold High School. The girl had a problem with the group because all of the other five students were Asian and only one of them spoke English. Stott told the teacher "I'm not being funny, but can i change groups because I can't understand them." The teacher then told her that she was a racist and was going to get "done" by the police. She was put in isolation at the school for the rest of the day.

The teacher filed a complaint with the police officer assigned to the school. More than a week later Codie Stott was taken to the police station and placed under arrest. Her fingerprints were taken, as was a mug shot.

According to this article in the Daily Mail, Codie was then questioned of (now get this!) committing a section five racial public order offense. She was placed in a bare cell for three-and-one-half hours. Finally she was released without any charges being brought ... but the matter is still under investigation.

Yes .. it is getting this bad. The left has unleashed the monster of political correctness on our society, and every day we learn of a new absurdity. Sure, this story is about Great Britain, but how long before this type of nonsense reaches our own schools? How long hell!! It's already here! Just look at some of the so-called "free speech" codes that exist on many college and university campuses across the nation.

You can't say anything about it, though. To dare to speak up would, of course, make you a racist right along with Codie Stott! Source

I also heard an interesting discussion this morning on Talk Radio. The discussion was describing the difference between the war on terror for America and the war on terror for Europe. Where America is truly fighting the terror in war, Europe has more of a civil war occurring with the terrorist.

In addition there seems to be a book out there pointing out the fact that muslims in Europe are having 4 times the amount of babies then Europeans. Giving the numbers, it's just a matter of time before the muslim population simply out grow the old european descendants.

A Star Tribune article describes a current issue regarding muslim taxi drivers refusing to transport anyone leaving the airport with alcohol on ther persons.

It may seem insignificant to most, but this may have more of an impact then you might expect.

About three-quarters of the 900 taxi drivers at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport are Somalis, many of them Muslim. About three times daily, would-be customers are refused taxi service when a driver sees they're carrying alcohol.

What your looking at is nearly all 3/4 of the taxi services refusing to do their jobs in the name of their religion. From the reports, a taxi driver is in line(3 hours) to pick up a would be customer from the airport. You have a line of taxi's to pick up a line of customers. Currently, if the taxi pulls up to pick up the customer and the customer has any type of alcohol on him (most from duty free stores, ect) the muslim taxi driver refuses to transport them. The taxi driver must then go to the back of the taxi line for the next opportunity to pick up a customer.

Apparently, a would be solution would be to have some marker to help identify those willing or unwilling to transport the alcohol. The public came up in arms about this one and that attempt failed.

The issue is two-fold.

1)If you work for a company, should you not comply with that companies rules and polices.
2)If you work for a company, should you not be allowed to apply your faith/religious views with your job?

In fairness to the cab drivers...

The observant drivers object only to transporting openly displayed alcohol, said Ali Culed, a Somali Muslim who's been driving an airport cab for eight years. They won't search passengers or quiz them about what's in their bags.

But on the other hand, why should the cab drivers be able to discriminate?

One side is making it a customer service issue, the other is side a religious issue.

My thoughts in Italics. I was driving the two of us to speech. My son was playing his pokemon gameboy game, when this came up.

son: Dad, what does P I S S spell?
me: uh, what was that? where did he see the word piss?
son: P I S S
me: hmm, where did you see this at?
son: (raises his gameboy up to me in the back seat)
me: why would piss be on a gameboy game?
me: Can you spell that one more time? I can't see it from here.
son: Oh wait, P I Z Z.
me: Pizz? that spells pizz, but ...
son: Argh, Sena (his petname for his sister) named a pokemon this.
me: ahh

For the life of me, I couldn't think why the word piss would be on the game. Then when I heard she named a pokemon pizz. She was probably trying to spell out pizza for the pokemons name. I was thankfull she really didn't call a pokemon piss.

Evidently a electronic poll was done to the masses. The poll asked what they felt was the top 4 things the ACLU was attacking, regarding America's moral and culture.

Now, I will say up front the poll was biased in asking what as opposed to do you believe. Never-the-less the answers provide us some information the groups response.

Reading the information, it appears ten items were given in the poll.

The top five picks were clear:
(1) erasing America's Christian heritage,
(2) attacking religious liberties,
(3) silencing the Church,
(4) redefining marriage and family, and
(5) sexualizing America's children.

The poll was a means to promote a new book from Sam Kastensmidt, entitled Indefensible: 10 Ways The ACLU Is Destroying America

Bush signs Mexico border-fence bill
By UPI Staff
United Press International
October 5, 2006

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (UPI) -- President Bush signed a bill in Arizona Thursday that provides $1.2 billion for fencing along the U.S.-Mexico border to curb illegal immigration.

The $35 billion homeland security bill also includes an overhaul of the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

The overhaul will "help our government better respond to emergencies and natural disasters by strengthening the capabilities" of FEMA, Bush said.

The bill will also "deploy nuclear detection equipment at our ports of entry, raise security standards at the nation's chemical plants, safeguard American cities against weapons of mass destruction and stop terrorists seeking to enter our country," the president said.

Standing before Camelback Mountain in Arizona, a state with much debate over border security, he also said the legislation would "give us better tools to enforce our immigration laws and to secure our southern border."

Outgoing Mexican President Vicente Fox has called the barricade "shameful," comparing it to the Berlin Wall and saying it would hurt U.S.-Mexican relations.

About damn time. Now we need to barricade the whole thing. In addition put one on our northern border as well.

This morning was the first morning I woke up actually feeling like I received some rest. Perhaps it was the benadryls I took or just the fact I was so exhausted. Either way, I am glad to feel halfway like my old self again.

I checked out some more of You Tube after watching the Save the Internet piece on it. Most of what I found was basically garbage. 45 seconds up to 8 minutes of anyone posting their ramblings or attempt of shock value. There were some interesting tidbits out there. I can see this technology actually being beneficial. If you utilize it as a means of education or news, that would be cool. The main media or cable outlets can only inform you so much, at times bias. However, if someone was at a small town or an otherwise unknown location reporting, educating on topics of interest, that would be worthwhile. There is a search bar on the site, but I haven't found it to be that useful. I guess I will continue to look through the site.

Check out this You Tube video showing a clip from Save the Internet!

I had to share the one. Below is a excerpt of NBC's universal view over chrisitian statments.

NBC anti-Christian bigotry continues. This time NBC censored Bible verses and expressions of Christian love from the children's cartoon Veggie Tales being shown Saturday mornings on NBC.

NBC says comments such as "God made you special and He loves you very much" were offensive and censored them from the show.

In response to the outrage over the allegations that NBC was ordering the removal of any references to God and the Bible from the animated series, the network first issued a flat denial. As reported in Broadcasting & Cable, NBC said they had to "clip off the beginning and ending tags, which are Bible verses, but they were also arguably the easiest cut to make."

The creator of Veggie Tales, Phil Vischer, said NBC's excuse for censoring the Bible verses was not true. Vischer said, "Well, that's kinda funny, because as the guy required to do all the editing, I know that statement is false...The show wasn't too long, it was too Christian. The show was already cut down to the proper length, so timing had nothing to do with it."

NBC then backpeddled: "NBC is committed to the positive messages and universal values of Veggie Tales. Our goal is to reach as broad an audience as possible with these positive messages while being careful not to advocate any one religious point of view." Evidently NBC considers not being truthful as one of their "universal values."

Vischer said had he known how much censorship NBC would exercise, he would not have signed on for the network deal.

Censored were comments such as: "Calm down. The Bible says we should love our enemies." And "the Bible says Samson got his strength from God. And God can give us strength, too."

NBC says using Bible verses or referring to God is offensive to some non-Christians. But NBC doesn't hesitate to offend Christians by showing Madonna mocking the crucifixion of Christ. Neither do not mind offending Christians in their new program Studio 60 with a segment called Crazy Christians.

When I was younger, I was the prodigy of fixing the computer. No. I didn't know that much about it. I just happen to know more than the 'ahem' older generation. VCR's, cable setup, whatever it was, no match to my prowess of youth knowledge. During these times, it was simply commented "the kids these days know more than the adults". Yeah buddy.

Now I am the adult and ironically I find myself thinking the same dang thing. It started with the game StarFox. First off, the game rocks. The kids and I play together at the same time. Usually we war against each other. The last couple of weeks, simply put, the kids have been kicking my butt in the game. I use to knock them out or at least maintain a feasible battle.

Alas, the games now last a whopping 3 minutes 21 seconds maximum. The last 1.5 minutes is me running my A$$ off trying to get away. LOL

Today on our trip to Devils Den, we made a stop at Target. The wife's favorite store. We found the Game Boy Advance cable to allow them to link up the GBA's together. They have Fire Red and Green Leaf Pokemon games. Anyway, I'm looking all over the net trying to figure out how this is suppose to work. Connect them, they go to some location within their games and they are suppose to be provided a means to play "together". I couldn't find the specifics online. Most of my searches were cluttered with referrals to the GameCube link not the Game Boy Advance (GBA) link.

I then referred to the Green Leaf / Fire Red magazine, no go. At the end, my soon to be 9 year old daughter found the specifics adn proceeded to inform me how to do it.

Sure enough, the process worked. Now both are trading pokemon between games, battling each other. I am sitting here with thoughts of the past, where I was the kid outsmarting the adult. The tables are turning. Sigh.

Out of curiousity, I looked up the commands for netstat. Seems you can do a "netstat -n" from your dos prompt and it will show all your current IP's and ports in use. Think of the IP's as houses (pc's) and the ports as doors (ways in and out).

Anyway, I did this on my home pc. It came up to about 11 in use showing connected. Hmm, so what are all these foriegn IP's? Most were simply our cable provider. However, one came up as a RIPE. You see, I did a whois inquiry on some IP's. I didn't recognize that one. So I went onto their little link to do the IP inquiry again. The results are below.

Query the RIPE Database
Search for


Switch to the RIPE TEST Database


% This is the RIPE Whois query server #2.
% The objects are in RPSL format.
%
% Note: the default output of the RIPE Whois server
% is changed. Your tools may need to be adjusted. See
% http://www.ripe.net/db/news/abuse-proposal-20050331.html
% for more details.
%
% Rights restricted by copyright.
% See http://www.ripe.net/db/copyright.html
% Note: This output has been filtered.
% To receive output for a database update, use the "-B" flag
% Information related to '213.93.171.0 - 213.93.171.255'
inetnum: 213.93.171.0 - 213.93.171.255
netname: ROTTERDAM-CUSTOMER-CABLE
descr: Chello Rotterdam
descr: Cablemodems DHCP
country: NL
admin-c: HMCB1-RIPE
tech-c: HMCB1-RIPE
status: ASSIGNED PA
remarks: Contact abuse@chello.nl concerning criminal
remarks: activities like spam, hacks, portscans
mnt-by: CHELLO-MNT
source: RIPE # Filtered
role: Hostmaster Chello Broadband
address: UPC Broadband
address: Internet Services
address: Erlachgasse 116
address: A-1100 Vienna
address: Austria

The connection was on a very high port. Check out the address location (I bolded it)...Austria. No clue as to the who and the why. I did a simple Telnet onto the foriegn IP and that high port number. It connected right up. I don't know any Telnet commands. I just use it to verify ports are open for work. It wasn't connected for very long. The connection ended. I did another netstat -n command and low-behold, no more connection to that IP and high port from my home pc.

I just thought it was pretty interesting.

Today and tomorrow. That's the thought I have this morning. I am knocking out two interface lives today for work. I have church team-kids tonight. I will be apologizing for not going last Wednesday to the other girls. I guess I could whine about working but in reality, I could have pushed myself to do it. It's my fault for not going and I will have to own up to it.

We plan to go to Devils Den Friday. We initially considered to camp out Thursday night. Only 17 bucks will grant you a river bank spot. However, after consideration, we will only drive up to it Friday morning and do a hike. I am psyched to get out and do some walking in the woods. I haven't been to Devil's Den in years. My brother and I went when we were barely out of high-school. Just the two of us taking a brotherly drive. So long ago.

We had 30 percent chance of showers for tomorrow. However, drops are already falling outside. Thunder is rolling around as well. I have a couple of windows and the doors open enjoying the cool breeze.

Kel and the kids are having to go to Austin in about 3 weeks. I will remain home on this trip. I'm already planning on a couple of projects to do while they are away. (smile)

Today I thought I would run to the video store and grab Sneakers. I still wanted to watch it. I am just that type, get something going and want to run with it.

I caught the end National Geographics_Hollywood Science: Spy Gadgets. This only emphasized my desire to watch both Sneakers and Enemy of the State. Both great movies and both movies I do not currently own.

Anyway, I ran to the small movie place to grab the old movie, hoping to get the 5 movies for 5 dollars. But alas, no Sneakers. No way. I asked about it. They actually sold it. I guess it was in tape format. They did however have Enemy of the State. So tonight, I am watching it in the living room as my poor sick wife is already in bed with meds.

I can't help being fascinated with the idea of spy gadgets, hacking into other systems, ect.

Watching the movie Enemy of the State can scare the crap out of you. The actual possibilty is totally plausible.

As of 2002 Great Britain has installed more than 1.5 million video cameras in public places. That's alot of freaking eyes on the public.

Great Britain isn't the only ones going with the public video cameras. Check out
Public cameras accost privacy.

What's even more interesting to me is the fact there are probably more individuals out there with their phone cameras, ect uploading pics, videos ect on the net.

Kel and I went out Friday night without the kids. What does two wild and crazy kids do after 11 years of marriage on their own? Go Christmas shopping of course.

Actually, it was really nice. A slow walk down the aisles without the feeling of being rushed is a sad, but now enjoyable task.

We went into Toys-R-Us more as a why not then a actual dedicated store to hit. I am glad we did. Not only did we learn of the new Nintendo DS Lites, but we found a coveted movie, Lucario and the mystery of Mew.

Why is this blasted thing so hard to find? It was released September 19th. Being a Pokemon new dvd movie, I was expecting it to be everywhere. Or is my kids the only ones still hooked on these things like crack?

Last Thursday, I hit Blockbuster and picked up the new Barbie movie, but no Pokemon. The two girls (they are pretty much all girls anymore), had no clue what I was talking about, upon my inquiry. Walmart didn't have them. I went to my last resource in this area. I called up Best Buy. They normally have the et-all of animation. Nada. Not only did they not find it, but stated it was on backorder. They suggested I go online. Wow. So, we planned to buy it online.

This was one of those rare times my apathy paid off. I didn't buy it online immediately. When we were walking causaually walking through Toys-R-Us, I found the blasted movie.

This was found Friday night. I made the kids wait for me to watch it together last night. Yeah, I'm hooked on them too.

Gotta Catch them all
Consider this one caught!

One of the perks working for Pepsi is to grab some soda cheap. Their best deal involves their 20oz drinks. One case for $7.01. That's including tax. Below is 3 cases.

I am able to buy up to 3 cases per week. That's 24-20oz soda's for an easy $21.04. This is the first week I bit into it. I was expecting a plastic packaged type for the purchased soda. However, they came the same way I see them in the backroom.

Let me give you an idea of how much 20 ounce drinks Walmart churns out of those coolers by their aisles. I easily put in 5-8 cases in the mornings. I then put an additional 3-4 more before I leave that evening. This is one of their slow stores containing only 4 coolers. I kid you not. The biggest commodity in the store I merchandise? Mountain Dew, Dr. Pepper, Diet Dr. Pepper, and Diet Dew.

What's more is these babies are the most profitable in their soda selling venue. In this area, a cold 20 ounce drink goes for around $1.18. I can buy from the companies vending the same cold soda for .25 cents. Considering the giant industry probably contracted it for less than a quarter a piece, that's some major profit.

I was looking to watch Sneakers tonight. I looked all over the house for it, and could not find the blasted thing.

Sneakers was based off of the illustrous hacker Ian Murphy.
I didn't know Sneakers was based on the hacker Ian Murpy. Bummer, I was looking forward to watching it tonight.

I settled for Antitrust instead. I have it in dvd as well. Another great movie.

Man, yesterday I felt like doing nothing. I mean to really do nothing. I was just blah all day. I had woke up at 3 a.m. with the wide-a-wakes. I cruised the net for awhile and tried to get back in bed and have at least a couple more hours of sleep. No-go.

So yesterday, all day, I was in a blah. I fell out last night before 10 a.m., listening to the issue with Dog the Bounty Hunter. Unreal, that one is. Parts of our Government are pissing and moaning about listening in on terrorist, but a U.S. Citizen is forced out of our country because he is willing to "get the rapist", something is just wrong with that picture.

I'm not griping about the new job, yet. I actually love it. It's not brain surgery and it's providing me some excercise, without a beating. Kel and I was talking this morning and we counted up how many days I have worked since starting. It's been 28 days minus one (took that Labor day off), I have worked in a row. Wow. Time really does fly.

This morning, I am sucking down the coffee, trying to get these silver dollars out of my eyes. I have to make a run to grab my check, and some needed grocery items later today. That's the plan anyway.

I totally changed my template out. I grew tired of the old one and was seriously cruising the net today in the hope of finding one that fits my current mood.

This came to the closest I could find. I still need to tweak it a bit, but I am currently satisfied with it.

I kept most of the blogs I read daily, due to the fact, I simply read them. LOL

I removed a bunch of my links of interest and added different ones. I never really went into the old list. I will be converting this blog to a portal for my blogging as well as a spring board of my interest. So that will probabaly mean my list of interest will change more often.

If you have any links that coincide with my current new list of interest, please let me know.

Work, eat and sleep. This is the mantra I have heard all my life. Many times, I find myself repeating this same mantra when asked "how are things going". I kick myself when I catch it afterwards. I think life should be more than the ant. But then again, perhaps I am wrong.

I'm the personality type, I need to work for someone else. Meaning, if I was not married and alone, I could pretty much live in a apartment all my life with no real goals. However, having a wife and children, I push myself to further my career, work two jobs to not only acquire the house we are living in, but working to remove excess debt. In short, making a better living for the family in whole, rather than living day by day.

I see what the t.v. ads push. 40 is the new 20, ect. To me this only tells me people are still getting older, but this generation doesn't want too. You can be 50 and feel like 30 with that new sports car. Oh well. What else do you really expect from a franchise wishing to sale you anything and everything for a profit.

I am glad I chose not to push for the boyscouts in town. I would be the one running the thing. I simply do not have the time for it. In order for me to do something, I would want it done correctly for the maximum benefit. That's just the way it should be. I realize that by not doing something half way, you essentially do not even allow it to get off the ground. However, it seems in this town, if you don't ho the row to the end, it won't get done.

The weekend went as fast as normal. It was my first solo run on my route with my new part time job. I think I did good. I wasn't late and I was told, nearly everyone's first time, they are always late. I get tired, physically, but hey that's the breaks. It's a extra 150 bucks per weekend.

I had to purchase two new Nintendo Gamecube controllers. We had four. One had broken (toggle) in the past. Since normally it's just the kids and I play it, it didn't hinder us. However, yesterday I received a call informing me another one had broke. So I grabbed 2 during my lunch. I was speaking to the gamers in the store and it seems Final Fantasy 12 is coming out. I remember playing Final Fantasy on super nintendo. Now there are movies and number 12 coming out. wow.

I have to mention this. I spoke with a Walmart supervisor this weekend and the rumour of Walmart to stop lay-a-way is true. The last day to put on a lay-a-way is around November 15-18 this year. You must have it out by end of December. They will not continue it starting next year. In addition, it appears they will begin to have their associates (everone working for walmart is considered a associate) to wear uniforms. They must start wearing slacks. I wonder why the 'new professional look' is being devised.

I recall when I was a kid, we use to always say "Jinx you owe me a coke." Of course we always had drank Pepsi when I was growing up. Regardless it was the saying.

This of course happened when two people said the exact same thing at the same time. Whoever made the Jinx statement would get a free drink.

My two kids have learned this somewhere, not sure where. For the last two months (at least) I have continued to hear "Jinx! You owe me a soda!" from the two of them.

The statement has been changed to soda, but the concept is similiarly the same.

Here is what I hear at least 3 times a day now.

Kids make a similiar statement (to them it doesn't have to be the same).
Both at the same time screams "Jinks! You owe me a soda!"
Then both very fast babbles..."jinx, jinx, jinx, jinx, jinx, jinx,"
This goes on for a full minute.

Sigh. I recall this when I was a kid, but not over and over and over.

Looking forward to Friday. The kids are going to their Nana and Papa's tomorrow night. I am still working the weekends. Yet, the fact I have some alone quality time with my wife brings me joy. Even though, we may do no more than the fact of being together. There is just something about being with her. Even after 11 years of marriage, I find her company great.

I have to put a plug in for Bluebird

Autumn is my favorite time of the year, and it's just right around the corner. To celebrate the beginning of the season, I'm having a contest for 2 lucky people to win a totally free, completely customized blog design from Bluebird Blogs.

Information on how to enter:
- Send an email with your name and blog address to bluebirdblogs@gmail.com.
- Your name will be entered into the drawing.
- Entries will be accepted from 7:00pm EST on Thursday 9/15/06 until 11:59pm EST on Friday 9/22/06.

*Bonus* - Mention this contest in a post on your blog and receive 5 extra entries into the drawing!

The winner will be announced on http://bluebirdblogs.blogspot.com on the morning of Saturday, September 23rd, 2006 . Good luck to everyone!

Thanks so much,
~Susie

Anyway, I am giving the kids a spelling test at the moment. Britt and I just finished watching E.T. I kept conveying to them, "it's a classic". So the daughter watched it with me but the son didn't want to have anything to do with it. I had to rent it, when I seen it at the video store. A cool buck for 5 day rental. Fortunately we have a 5 movie-5 day - for 5 bucks deal at a local video store.

Is it me, or is life flying? We are hitting the middle of this month already and 3 months it's Christmas again. Sigh.

Wednesday morning at 3:44 a.m. local time and I am looking at the clock. Unreal.

For the lack of sleep this week, one would think I would not be looking at the clock this blasted early.


Last night, I met the kids and wife in Fort Smith to eat. I took the kids off to the library. It provides the kids and I some time away from the house to study and also allow Kel some time alone.

I noticed this mornign my Q and A blog is back up and running. So now I have one blog with 20 posts back up and another one with 2 posts. Sigh. What to do, what to do. Maybe, I will make one a missionary site and another one retain it as the Q and A site. I don't know yet.

Kel was really impressed with Blue Bird blog templates we are looking to upgrade her blog.

I am looking into creating a Visual Basic program. Yeah, like I have time. It provides me something to put my mind on that is different and perhaps have some self satisfaction when it's complete.

Guess I better get the trash out since it's trash day and move around a bit.

As I commented in my last post, I didn't see either docu-drama. Sunday night, I took the kids to watch Cars on the big screen. It was playing at a 2.50 Mall Trio. Monday night I had a school board meeting. It lasted till nearly 9 p.m.
I guess I will have to catch it on a re-run (if they replay it) or most likely rent it on dvd when it comes out. I am sure it will hit your nearest blockbuster soon.

Regarding Cars, it was a good movie. My wife took our kids to see it shortly after it originally hit the theaters. I wasn't able to go at that time. Since it was only 2.50 and I wanted to spend some outside quality time, we went Sunday night. It comes out in November and this one will be another Pixar Animation we will own. Disney cannot make any story lines of their own, so by utilizing Pixar it appears they are keeping themselves afloat in the movie buisiness. Personally, I cannot recall any new movie Disney actually have created on their own for some time. I don't call these spinoffs of their original movies creative. If you notice most of the other movies, like Chronicles of Narnia have been adapted from other sources.

Regarding work, yesterday wasn't too bad at my primary job. I was officially certified at Pepsi last Saturday and ran my new dedicated route Sunday. There were four routes open and I quickly chose the one where Saturday and Sunday ended at 4:30 p.m. local time. It takes me into Greenwood. Next weekend I will be running it alone. I am actually glad I have a dedicated route. Now I can just get these store floorplans down, and I will be good to go. However, what will be nice is the fact Pepsi pays every Thursday. If I am looking at this right, I should be getting a bit over 100 bucks a week. This part time job should be working out. I don't have to be up till 3 a.m. and worry about getting only 3 hours of sleep at night during my weeks.

As I mentioned yesterday regarding the Path to 9-11, Clinton and his allies are really putting pressure for ABC to cut some of the movie out. Mainly showing the fallacies of the Clinton administration regarding the Terror War. He was too busy with the affairs.

On the flipside, CBS is showing a profanity show titled 9-11. It seems there are so much cursing on the show many affiliates and stations have requested the cursing to be removed.

Congress recently raised the maximum fine the FCC can impose for indecency from $32,500 to $325,000. Some complain that will lead to self-censorship, since many stations can’t afford to pay huge fines. Apparently CBS is not worried about the fines.

Piette isn't worried about getting slapped with big fines. Warnings about potentially offensive language will appear before and during the program, he said.

So we have the democrats and Clinton raising hell to remove some clippage from a film due to the fear of showing them weak on terror. Yet, no worries for another offensive language movie to air. Quite a contrast of interest.

Added comment:
Wow,I had heard the Dems and Clinton lovers were all over this, but I just now read the actual letter to Disney and ABC from the Dems. Check this out. I wasn't even going to watch this show, but after reading the letter provided by STOP THE ACLU, I will now watch it.

What's up with all the so called docu-drama's?

First we hear of the BBC docu-drama on the assassination of President Bush. In this docu-drama Bush gets assassinated by a sniper. Not hit, killed. It was created by a British film company and will be shown on BBC channel 4. The show is suppose to be set in the future and looking back on 2007 when the assassination occurred. Evidently the film maker Gabriel Range modified existing film of Bush to make it look like an assassination took place. It goes on to discuss the "polarisation of America in all the events post 9/11".

I am not sure if it will ever be viewed in the United States. But with the ability of tech such as Torrent, peer to peer, it can easily be acquired.

Meanwhile here in the United States, a docu-drama on Clinton is in play. Well it's actually called A path to 9-11. However, it's supposedly leans to Clinton as being too engrossed in his playtime with Monica Lewinsky to thwart 9-11. It plays on ABC this Sunday night without commercial interruption.

Irregardless, I wonder why now the docu-drama's?

A not so new search engine was show to us this week. The search engine is called Blingo and it's ran off of the Google engine. The difference on this one is the fact you can register to attempt to win something on it. From what I can gleam, the win is not based on the amount you search. Rather, it's setup to provide a prize on any given moment. If you happen to search on that moment, boom you win. THe prizes range from a $25 Visa up to a Apple Ipod.

It seems the key to winning would be to have as many people to register under you as possible. If someone registers under you, ie Join link and wins, you win too.

So basically, if you want to search, try out Blingo since it utilizes the same engine as google, and a possibility to win something.

The only concern, I would have is the fact you register your email. Just another means to have someone track you on the net.

And yes, I shamelessly put the join link on my blogs. (smile)

Since the elections are coming up, I thought I would post this survey I found. I also noticed Sean Hannity has now been pretty much stating, the Republicans could very well lose the house this year. Seems, the babble of both parties are increasing as we draw near to the vote. I personally wonder if the nearing of the vote is the reason for the drop in gas prices.

I spoke with a Liberterian on his thoughts regarding the Republicans losing the house or even (gast) worse, the possibility of a Demo getting the Presidency. Interesting enough, he didn't think either will be the case. This screaming from the media, democrats, ect. is just that. The far left have more outlets to be noticed. I hope he is right. I don't want to say, pick the lesser of two evils. Although, there are some things, I am truly not happy about regarding the Republican party, but realistically we cannot allow the far left to come into full power.

Churchgoing tied to November elections

By UPI Staff

United Press International

August 31, 2006

WASHINGTON (UPI) -- White U.S. voters who frequently go to church are more likely to vote Republican in November than white voters who do not, a Gallup survey said Wednesday.

Non-white voters are more likely to vote Democratic, regardless of church attendance, the survey said.

The number of white registered voters who frequently go to church -- meaning those who attend church services weekly or almost every week -- make up one-third of registered voters, the survey said. They are more likely to vote Republican by a margin of 24 percent.

The half of registered voters who are white but attend church monthly or less frequently are likely to vote Democratic by a 17-point margin.

The 16 percent of non-white registered voters, regardless of church attendance, intend to vote Democratic by a 59-point margin.

The telephone survey of more than 5,000 registered voters was conducted between June and August. It had a margin of error of 3 percent.

Since starting working part time with Pepsi, I am fascinated with the so called soda war. It appears those, in management, working for one soda company is totally against the purchase of the other soda products. How bad is it? If a Pepsi employee is caught buying or drinking Coke products, while on work, will be fired. On the other side of the coin, Coke actually informs their employees they cannot even eat lunch at a Pepsi serving food place. The first comes to my mind is Taco Bell, ect.

To me, this sounds pretty drastic. However, I can also see the implications of a employee wearing one brand and drinking the other. It sets a bad image to those viewing this spectacle.

Even if I find this drastic, I am told one long term employee will not allow his family to even bring into the house the competiter's items.

Like I said, it's interesting.

I found this to be interesting. Note the scientist are having a hard time understanding how well preserved this carcas can be, if it's really 77 million years old.

Mummified Brachylophosaurus holds secrets millions of years old
By KIM SKORNOGOSKI
Tribune Staff Writer


MALTA — The absolute latest in technology is helping solve a forensics mystery that is 77 million years old.

Five years ago in the badlands north of Malta, paleontologists uncovered a mummified duck-billed brachylophosauruses so well preserved that much of its skin and soft tissue parts remained along with its skeleton.

In the years since, scientists have wondered — if the skin was still there, what about its organs and tissues inside?

Technology has finally advanced enough to take a peek. And this week, 20 experts in various fields are X-raying and photographing Leonardo the dinosaur, even parts buried beneath thick sandstone.

"This specimen could be as important to the field of paleontology as the day Neil Armstrong set foot on the moon," said Nate Murphy, curator of paleontology at the Judith River Dinosaur Institute.

With just one of at least three days of X-raying complete, Murphy wasn't ready Tuesday to reveal the secrets Leonardo was whispering.

But the potential is amazing.

His stomach was filled with the fossilized pollen from 33 types of plants, enabling the paleontologists to recreate the world 77 million years ago.

Tuesday morning the scientists looked at the keratin forming Leonardo's beak, which, like cartilage, is usually dissolved in time.

Bob Bakker, whose theory that dinosaurs were warm-blooded revolutionized and invigorated the field, was on hand in Malta to analyze the recorded images.

He noticed that Leonardo's nose was incredibly hard and sharp, indicating that he used it like a machete to cut leafy branches off trees.

"For 130 years, we paleontologists have had a case of veggiecide," he said. "We suspected these dinosaurs were plant-eaters, but we didn't have the smoking jaws, the smoking gut."

Much of Leonardo remains covered in rock, to protect the fossilized skin, fragile tissues and bones. Until now, the technology didn't exist to look at what was beneath the sandstone.

Starting Monday, scientists and industry leaders donated their time and equipment to advance the study. Over the next 20 months, the Discovery Channel is filming the process for an extensive documentary.

Non-Destructive Testing Group shipped in more than 600 pounds of X-ray equipment for the scans.

The Michigan-based company normally uses the equipment for industrial purposes, like checking vehicles' steering controls for safety flaws.

CEO Bob Bills said this is the first time it's been used to look at dinosaurs.

The rays emit as much as 300 kilovolts on Leonardo. Each time the X-ray was used, the scientists evacuated the building, which was roped off as radiation reaches 30 feet beyond the steel walls.

Because the rays only damage living tissue, Leonardo's fragile remains will be completely unharmed.

The X-rays were combined with advanced imaging technology from Eastman Kodak that is 10 times as sensitive as film. In one shot, the plate collected the same images that would take dozens of cameras shooting different speeds of film to capture.

The computer then sifts through the layers of data, and for that matter sandstone, skin and bone, to Leonardo's insides.

"We might not have to uncover any more to see what's in there," said Kodak's Steve Mango. "Of course, Nate and Dr. Bakker were a lot more excited because they know what they're seeing."

The pair of paleontologists excitedly pointed at the black and gray blobs on the screen at what looked like an enlarged row of TicTacs lying on a mesh-like net. The images showed the top of Leonardo's vertebrae and the soft tissue that is buried under a layer of rock.

"This is really interesting," Murphy said, leaning to get a closer look at the computer screen.

"Oh! I can see it," Bakker exclaimed pointing.

"It looks so soft," Murphy said. "The images are getting clearer and clearer and we're seeing odd things."

One of the most important things discovered so far are half-inch specks that Bakker is jokingly calling blebs. Blebs are basically iron deposits left behind by bacteria.

The blebs are randomly spread throughout Leonardo's insides, and nowhere on the outside.

"This is telling us we have a hermetically sealed sarcophagus," Murphy said.

The evidence goes a long way to justify what many paleontologists are having a hard time believing — that Leonardo is as well preserved as Murphy says it is and how, after millions of years, that is even possible.

Beyond the blebs, Bakker is most interested in studying Leonardo's stomach and digestive system and his unusually long arms.

Unlike most Brachylophosauruses, his arms were long enough to touch the ground, but the joints weren't strong enough to support the dinosaur's weight.

Bakker theorizes that the arms may have been used to communicate with a wave or a dance. Or perhaps its fingers were sensitive enough to pick up sound waves from the ground, allowing the creatures to communicate with others miles away by stomping.

In October, Murphy plans to present his findings at a medical imaging conference in Houston.

Before that, other tests will be done. In September, scientists will be back to use an element scan to break down each type of atom in the bones and the dirt around them.

Art Andersen, an imaging specialist with Virtual Services Inc., said the scans could be used to examine forensic evidence that normally was removed to get to the bone.

That dirt could show the outline of flesh and muscles, helping better piece together what dinosaurs looked like.

Murphy hopes the studies will build interest and funding for more tests — particularly CT scans that could take three-dimensional images instead of the one-dimensional pictures captured in the X-rays this week.

"A long, long time after I'm pushing up daisies, scientists will be learning from this specimen," he said.

Reach Tribune Staff Writer Kim Skornogoski at 791-6574, (800) 438-6600 or kskornog@greatfal.gannett.com.


Originally published June 21, 2006

Well, it's Monday. The wife is already out of the house at work, sooooo early in the morning. I was able to read a couple of chapters in the book of James before the kids were also awake.

I went ahead and created an additional blog called Truth Sharer since my prior blog still does not allow me to get into it nor view it. Oh well. Perhaps this one will stay stable.

I managed to live through yesterday's work. I was surprised how sore my legs were by the end day at home. I am just not use to bending and lifting. All in all, it doesn't appear it will be bad. Just a matter of learning the ropes and being alert.

I hope all have a good day.

Last night I was able to go to a Men Believers group. It is a group of fathers that homeschool. A first for me as well as a first time 'men' gathering. We watched a dvd of Crown Internation regarding finances. It was only 3 segments, but it was very interesting. I was at first hesistant by not knowing what to expect. It was a pleasant surprise.

Today was the first day of my new part-time job wasn't bad today. I was there 6 a.m. through 4:30 p.m. today. Most of it was orientation, so not too much physical work today. I was able to run with the supervisor today on errands to the stores, ect. While he did his errands he also showed and informed me some stuff. I will be going into tomorrow at 6 a.m. as well. Tomorrow I will be on an actual route with a full-timer.

When I arrived home, the kids and I played some games and had some time together. So far so good.

On a side-note, my Q and A for the Christian blog is not happening. I posted a good post, in my opinion, Friday and the crazy thing now only gives me "We're sorry but we were unable to complete your request". Sigh, I only posted 11 times on it, but frustrating.

I ran across this interesting subject yesterday and had to share it.
The subject is bump keying. Personally, I hadn't heard about it till I read it at Gadgets Engadget. After reading their article, and watching the 2 minute video on the 11 year old at Defcon, I did a search on google out of curiosity.

Here is a 7 minute you tube on it that many will find surprising.


Basically, bump keying is just that. You modify the key (doorlock, padlock, ect) and place it in a similir lock. You tap the key while turning and walah, the lock opens. No picks, no hidden key code, just bumping and it opens. The 11 year old girl at Defcon opened a lock in 11 seconds flat. The 7 minute video goes into more detail on how and the seriousness of the issue. Primarily, the thief that uses it in houses an apartments leave no trace of burgarly. Insurance companies are not willing to compensate on the owners losses.


Seems England is attempting to thwart this with magnetic locks, ect. while America remains uneducated on the subject. Hence, my post today.

The bump key making does require a special machine or a steady experienced hand to file it down.

Out of further curiosity, I had to check Ebay. Sure enough people are selling them

I found this article to be of interest. Seems all demonstrations are being clamped down.

Minister Arrested at Mormon Pageant

The Daily Herald has this report of a Christian pastor being arrested for trespassing on PUBLIC property because he upset the mormons.


SALT LAKE CITY -- For the second week in a row, an evangelical Christian minister has been arrested outside a Mormon-themed pageant in northern Utah.


Daniel "Chip" Thompson, the 47-year-old director of Solid Rock Christian Fellowship, a campus ministry at Snow College in Ephraim, was arrested for investigation of criminal trespassing by the Cache County sheriff's office Friday night at the Clarkston Pageant. The pageant depicts the life of Martin Harris, an early follower of Joseph Smith, founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.


Thompson was with eight others handing out religious tracts that compare Mormonism with the beliefs of other forms of Christianity. He said the Clarkston City cemetery's amphitheater, where the pageant is performed, is public property, so he should not have been arrested.


"The Mormon officials started saying this was against the law -- 'you can't be here,' " Thompson said Monday. "We just said, 'Sir, this is public property and we're within our legal rights to express our freedom of speech and our freedom of religion. This is America.' "


On Aug. 11, Brigham City pastor Joel Kramer, 39, of Living Hope Ministries was arrested at the same pageant for investigation of disorderly conduct in a dispute over Kramer's taping of the pageant for use in Christian videos he produces.


Both Kramer and Thompson have court dates set for Sept. 13 at the Justice Court in Clarkston.

I am not sure if it was the best thing for these two pastors to do. It doesn't seem appropiate (to me) to be taping a activity in order to denounce it without some form of consent.

I posted awhile back on my kids being addicted to the world of Pokemon. That actually waned a little bit. First it was Teen Titans, recently the new craze has been Xiaolin Showdown. Low and behold, a new series comes out and boom, Poke-craze all over again.

We had our friends kids stay over last night. The other friends kids came this morning. Last night 4 kids (2 are mine) watched and played Pokemon. Today, pretty much all day, 6 kids played Pokemon. Sigh.

I guess it's partially my fault. I found a new (new to me) video store near by. The kids and I checked it out this last weekend and they had 5 Pokemon VHS tapes my kids had not seen nor own. A miracle in itself. Fortunately, the video store old movies are 5 movies, for 5 days at 5 bucks. Not a bad deal at all. Needless to say, they have been watching and re-watching the tapes before we return them.

I guess a new Pokemon Chronicles is now on tv?

This Pokemon empire is 10 years old.

I took the kids to watch BarnYard this weekend. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised.

The film was good and had a good underlining message. There were some hidden funnies the kids didn't catch, but overall it was a good movie.

I asked the kids if they enjoyed it. They both liked the movie. The only part they did not like was the scenes with the coyotes. It was a bit scary for them. I won't post any spoilers here. However, I am recommending the movie.

I will have to say the message was at some point the kids have to put away the toys and parties and grow up, taking responsibilty. There is also a message of leadership that can be found in the movie.

Personally, I liked the songs in the movie. Ben, the leader, plays Tom Petty's song "Don't back down" as he beats the coyotes off.

You can view other reviews here regarding the movie.

I am reminded of First Corinthians chapter 13 verse 11.

When I was a child, I spoke as a child, I understood as a child, I thought as a child; but when I become a man, I put away childish things.

The other night at Church, I had a thought come to me. Yes, believe it or not you do not leave your brain at the door when you enter a church. (smile)

I have noticed more and more discussion is being made on ideology and theology regarding the actions people currently take. The Middle East war is based on theology. While more and more crime is being committed, people are viewing their ideology on the 'why'.

Anyway, back in the 60's the big Civil Rights movement made waves. The fight was to stop segregration in schools (which imho is not a bad thing). This movement continued up to 1971. Take Swann v. Charlotte-Mecklenburg Board of Education case. They forced busing to be carried out in the South, where school segregation had once the force of law. So irregardless of the childs wishes, they were forced to mix.

My point is the courts and government made a point to mix the people based on skin color. The emphasis in the 60's and 70's seem to be based on physical attributes.

Fast forward to the present. It appears a similiar war in culture is being made. However, this war is based on idea's and theology.

Check out the controversy with intelligent design vs evolution. Look at the war in the Middle East. The terrorist are taking action based on their theology.

It's just a thought.

Man, is it really Wednesday already?

Yesterday evening I had a new and wonderful experience with the kids, I just have to share. In the attempt to provide a new enviroment and allow Kel some quite time, I took the kids to the local library. I am now officially in charge of the homework. This also provides a break for Kel and allows me to participate in the education of our kids. (Gee, didn't mean for it to sound like a commercial there).

Anyway, the kids were for it. We gathered our stuff up and headed to the library. We found a room not being used and were provided privacy and a big table, plenty of room to do our work. Basically, I had one read to me, while the other did their math, writing ect. I would help the other one as necessary. Then we switched. The other read to me their required reading as the sibling did their writing. It worked out well and allowed me to feel some one on one time with the kids.

I think the kids liked it and it was a different enviroment to work in. Personally, I throughly enjoyed it. I mistakenly left my cellphone, but it allowed no interruptions for us. After we did the homework, the kids picked out a book and I treated them to a ice-cream on the way home.

Some things I noted in each child that needed to be worked on. I also found out quickly, I in turn need to work on a bunch of stuff personally. I knew the teacher would need to know much more to teach the student. I was actually looking forward to that. However, I didn't realize how long it's been since I did cursive. Being on a PC all day for communication and having to only sign my name in cursive (all my written notes are done non-cursive), I found out real quick how much I suck in it.

I always believe in what you teach. So, this homeschooling is not only benefiting the kids in the one on one education, but myself as well. There is a feeling of accountabilty when the full responsibility is placed on you day to day.

Another thing, I am noticing as well. The amount of time that is wasted in public schools. We have doubled some of the kids work and they still manage to get it done earlier than a regular public school day. I found this to be an eye-opener.

The only complaint I had last night was the library chairs grew hard after an hour sitting in them. ( laugh )

I simply was not able to blog yesterday. Work was busy all the way through, compounded on having to get some things done at home. I also had a school board meeting last night till nearly 9 p.m local time. So yes, it was definitely a Monday.

I couldn't sleep (duh). So, I caught up on the reading of my blogs of interest. Yes, another two shout-outs to those still not posting to their blogs.

I am also running a script I neglected at 10 p.m. for work. We had thunderstorms that ran through for awhile. I know it rained, due to it hitting the windows, but how much, no clue. In this area of Oklahoma, we have hit above 100 every day the past 2 weeks. It was 103 yesterday, over 100 the weekend and last thursday was 106 not counting humidity. Unreal. You would think the yard would be a freaking dirt mound now.

Not much to report on. The weekend was nice and relaxing. I didn't even have one call over the weekend due to being on-call. I made up for it during Monday's support.

I actually slept in till 7 a.m. local time. Woo hooo! Plus it's a Friday to boot. So that has to be a good thing.

I was trying to mess with our cable modem this morning. For some unknown reason, it appears the modem will not work off of a cable splitter. If I do a direct connect from the wall outlet, it works fine. The nice little green light over 'cable' comes on. But if I attach a splitter (as it had been setup for over a year now), low and behold no green light. The only purpose of my splitter is to provide me the ability to watch the news on a small tv in the office during my day. Oh well. Maybe someone else has an idea. No. I really don't want to buy another modem.

I still plan on going into the Pepsi interview this morning. At least I have a better idea of what questions to ask. I guess we will see how that pans out.

It was 106 degree's in Oklahoma yesterday. That is not counting the humidity. High today (as of yesterday) is 103 and tomorrow 102. Nice eh?

I was reading the book of James the other day and another passage hit me. In James chapter 3 it goes into detail about a persons tongue. Not a Phys Ed anatomy class, rather what you do with your tongue. A quick analogy, 'even though a large ship is seen, the small rudder drives it'. It also refers to the fact the same tongue that blesses God also curses man. Man, don't I know that one. I have a bad problem of cussing at times. So, again, another stark look in the mirror and not liking what I see. Perhaps that is why people are put off reading the bible. It simply provides a clean mirror to take a good look at yourself.

I was able to take the kids to church last night. Normally, we don't hit Wednesday nights. However, one of our new things we are attempting is to go on church more often.

It was good to go. I personally needed it and the message was very good.

Interesting enough, when I returned from church, I received a call from Pepsi. They are now interested in having a interview with me for a job. The job is suppose to be part time over the weekend. But, 20-30 hours for those 2 days. According to the one setting up the interview, I would run to the stores and set out the merchandise. So, it doesn't sound like unloading trucks, but it does sound similiar to using a jack to pull the carts and stock the shelves. The job was quoted to be around 8 bucks an hour. I went ahead and setup the interview. I don't really know if logically, it will be worth it (especially with gas 3 bucks a gallon). It will depend realistically how many places I will need to go to stock, the hours (nights or days), ect. I guess we will see.

I was woke up around 4:30 a.m. locally by work this morning. Yes, I am on-call again this week.

I did my thing for work and tried to get back to sleep. But alas, I am one of those, once up-stay up. I couldn't get back to sleep. So, I caught up on my blog reading this morning. Some will note my comments on your articles.

I was saddened, but not really surprised, to read Joe Lieberman didn't win the primary. On one side of the argument, the right is saying "See, see, Democrats have out-ted their last and only moderate." On the left, they are saying "Good riddance you Bush clone." Sigh. To think the democratic party has turned so far left to ostracised their once candidate for Vice-President gives me shivers. Let's face it, people and groups will use you when they need you and dump you when they believe they don't.

While I was lying in bed this morning trying to get back to sleep. A frustration came over me. We had a discussion on my last Sunday School that really got me thinking. The discussion correlated with Angel's article on a church going to laughter. I guess after reading that, it simply re-emphasized my frustration. As most know, many churches have clicks. This can be seen inside as well as outside members. This hampers the Gospel message to the people in general. So on top of that, I am seeing more and more preachers and churches in general changing their 'good news' messages about Christ to 'good news to make the ears tickle'. They are only saying what the people want to hear.

Simply put, preachers are becoming motivational speakers, not men of God.

This is becoming ever more frustrating for me. So now we are having churches watered down, misconstruing the real message. Those that actually believe accepting Jesus as your personal Saviour are now left fighting the world and their own church's. So what's the deal? Can't anyone handle the truth anymore?

On top of it all, scripturally, we (as people) cannot save anyone. Yes, that is what I said. I, the church, the preacher, the singing choir, cannot save anyone. Only God can save someone. SO that person you are speaking to about Christ, can only be saved by 1)God actually touches them and 2)that individual accepts that gift. So what are we left to do as believers? 1)We are commissioned to spread God's word. The real word, not a laugh track, let me make you feel good about yourself message. 2)Pray.

I personally have a hard time praying. I am working on this. This is one of my greatest weapons, that I do not fully utilize. So that's my current frustration. Sorry for the diatrab.

Over the past month (3 months if asked my wife ((smile)) I have been cranky and just down-right, well down.

Speaking with other, ahem, elder gentlemen, asking on their thoughts as to the why. Interesting enough, both on separate occasions have conveyed the same message.

"Your body is getting older and you cannot do what you could do as before. Your mind is dealing with that fact."

Man, that's tough. I don't think of myself as 'old'. I mean get real, I see the shows and the actors having the 'bod' all pumped up and able to go that extra mile. I don't mean falling out of helicopters and bouncing up and sprinting along. But then again, I am not making a few million for a movie while having extra time enhancing my body either. Rather, I am stuck in front of a computer all day and unwilling to work my body in the evenings.

Oh well, so that must be the answer. I think my inability to hold up on the 10 hour work at Walmart was a crushing blow to my man-hood as well. So with the acceptance of 'my spirit may be willing, but the flesh is getting weaker' I will have to put on a new attitude. Simply put, accept it and move on.

In other news, I have decided to create an additional blog. One called Q and A for the Christian. I need to start reading my bible again. In order for me to do that, I personally enjoy finding answers to sought out questions. I spoke with Kel about it last night, and her worry was people commenting dumb stuff or going into a argument. Both will probably be true. But the purpose is not debate, rather a means to create simply a question and answer blog. It will allow me to be accountable to read and research, but hopefully more importantly provide some answers to the reader. So if you have any questions that was never answered, shoot them my way and I will research them for you.

I placed the new blog on my right panel as well.

I haven't blogged much lately, due to being busy and all. It's easier to notate on already written articles, then creating your own.

I was able to play with the kids today. Once in the pool and then some games later. We also watched two new ( new to us anyway ) VeggieTales shows. The movies were Sheerluck Holmes adn the Golden Ruler along with Larry Boy and the bad apple. I rented them for tonight. Something new to watch and VeggieTales always have a good message in their theme.

After the show the family attempted to put together a b-dazzle puzzle? Has anyone seen these? Ours was the 3 firetrucks. After about 10-15 minutes of frustration, the family quite. I messed with it for a bit longer alone. I actually put the thing together. There are no cheats that come with it. Kel said they would be a good stocking stuffer. I informed her, they would drive me crazy. I start on them and wouldn't be able to quite till I get it.

During the week I have also been listening to a new station, on the net, of all places. Christian Rock.net plays, obviously, Christian Rock 24/7. You can listen to it for free. Needless to say, I have been having it on in the background continously.

Another noted online station is 1160. From 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. eastern time, Bauer and Rose is on. Again, all free and this one is informational.

So there are two new things, free, that I found to be enjoyable.

Next week, we will plunge into HomeSchool. Kel has been getting everything ready on paper regarding organization, schedules, work-list, chores, ect. She is a God-send of such things. However, she drives herself nuts to get it just right.

Found this link on Stop the ACLU website. This is important legislation and needs to be approved by the Senate. Make the call to your Senate and Representives and have your voice heard.

There are two out there I am requesting all to call upon.

Senate Bill 3696 and the companion bill H.R. 2979.

S 3696 (PERA), sponsored by Sen. Brownback (R-Kan), a companion bill to H.R. 2979 (PERA), sponsored by Rep. Hostetter (R-Ind.), would amend all relevant federal laws to eliminate the authority of judges to award taxpayer-paid attorney fees to the ACLU, or anyone else, in lawsuits under the Establishment of Religion Clause of the First Amendment against veterans memorials, the Boy Scouts, or the public display of the Ten Commandments of other symbols of America’s history with a religious aspect.

This bill will stop the judges in awarding groups like ACLU the taxpayers money for their legal fees. Please note this is the bread and butter for groups like the ACLU.

Not only does the ACLU use this provision to fund their agenda of secular cleansing and threaten small schools and towns, they also use it as a tool of punishment for those that resist their agenda. They have accumulated literally millions of taxpayer funded attorney fees when in fact they have no actual attorney fees.

Many wonder where groups like the ACLU get their funds. Most are from frivolous lawsuits and then have the losing party pay for their legal fees. These fee's are not only atrocious, but ridiculously high.

Check out this webpage provided by Stop the ACLU showing how much ACLU alone has acquired from the taxpayers. Note it does not list them all.

Find your Representives here and Find your Senators here.

Contact them and ask them to support PERA.