Roundabouts!

Kevin at Lakeshore Laments laments the growing popularity of roundabouts.

He lists off a litany of reasons most more humourous than serious.

1. They are often a waste of real estate.
Hmmmm lots of things can be considered a waste of real estate.


2. Better attentive drivers would lead to a reduction of them. Since that isn't likely to happen; they are nothing but an extension of the nanny state.
Huh?


3. They're big in Europe and Madison - nuff said.
If a Madison or European leftist ran away from a cliff I would then not run over it.


4. Ineffective means of using eminent domain.
Ineffective? I think Kevin wants to say it is not worth the bother of employing eminent domain.


5. Often times, they are a waste of tax dollars because of their size. More materials, manpower, etc. are needed to finish them than say, a regular 4-way stop.
Admittedly there is a higher cost but I bet the speed up in traffic flow will help offset that cost (business traffic is going to speed up).


6. 3-words: Gaudy Public Art. Always a fun centerpiece.
Hmmmm, Kevin here has a point. The last thing we need is a blue shirt in the middle of our intersections or some other similar expensive boondoggle.


7. Passive Eugenics. Call me evil, but if you can't navigate a simple stop sign, you do not deserve to live. Your absence from the collective gene pool will be most appreciated.
IMO, it is not about navigating the intersection it is about improving traffic flow. There are twenty cars in back of you, there is no traffic coming from the other three ways, why must every car stop? A roundabout would quickly get everyone through the intersection and even if the traffic is evenly distributed (from all the roads entering the roundabouts I have been in roundabouts with as many as 8 roads coming and going) roundabouts are remarkably self-regulating.

There should be more roundabouts in the area not less. Now, that said not every intersection is right for a roundabout. But intersections with light to moderate traffic should be considered for roundabouts.

Sunshine in the Valley.

Good Morning,

The blogging is limited. Had a busy weekend and I have a head cold that is making life in general more difficult. Also today Claudia is home and has a whole list of items on her agenda which include me not being in front of my workstation.

So I will free-blog today instead of developing and following an agenda.

Buchra Insha'allah.

The post on the APC letter will come "buchra Insh'allah".

Also "The Last Bit" will not happen tonight either.

Sorry & Good night.

Fox News is reporting....

That the Witchita Kansas police DO have the BTK serial murderer!

Seems like the Witchita KS police are making a very big deal of the announcement.

Lets hope its true!

Sunshine in the Valley.

Good Morning,

The volume of blogs today is bound to be lower. First off I need to do some development. I want to develop a system for managing ticket sales and seating for the Lincoln Day Dinner. The public face of this was much improved over last year, but behind the scenes it was a mess. Too many separate databases of ticket purchasers and at the end we had to merge them to come up with a count. Our count was not close.

Secondly I came down with "the crud" over yesterday and last night. Just a head cold but annoying none-the-less.


Today's Agenda on Blogger Beer.

1. Two comments in today's Post Crescent need response.


2. The Final Bit

The Final Bit.

How easy to eat.
How easy to sleep.
How easy to delay.

Tick Tock

How easy to forget.
How easy to misplace.
How easy to complain.

Tick Tock.

How easy to coast.
How easy to kick back.
How easy to blame.

Tick Tock.

You hear the bang of the starting gun.
Is it the bang you hear or the echo.
Is it late must you run?
I wonder if you know?

Good night!

Fox News Is Reporting:

Police in Witchita Kansas have arrested someone in connection with the BTK serial murder case. We will see.

Referrals back.

I replace the referral tracker with a one day tracker instead of the five day tracker. Will monitor it to keep it wholesome.

Wretched is commenting on Southeast Asia

and how it fits in to the WOT. Specifically he comments today on the WOT in the Philippines. The Philippines as you may know is a nation near & dear to my heart as this is where Claudia is from. I have also visited some years ago.

Wretched notes how the Jihadist movement is working to set up base in Southeast Asia and then goes on to talk about the Philippines in particular. The theme being it is harder for America to reach the Jihadists there than in other places. He then goes on to explain why the Armed Forces of the Philippines is unable to do too much themselves.

The order is a tall one for the AFP, indeed. Unfortunately, it will take some cataclysmic event for the Philippinos in charge to be convinced the MNLF, the MILF, the NPA, and their buddies Abu Sayff mean them serious harm.

One comment Wretched made was the AFP essentially can pay the soldiers and little else. Even that is stretching it at times. The recent arrest and current trial of General Garcia of the Armed Forces of the Philippines shows that is not to be counted on either. Stories I have heard have many soldiers under his command going without pay for some amount of time. No wonder one sometimes hears of Abu Sayyf (toss in the MILF & MNLF as well here) & the NPA bragging how they got their weapons from the AFP.

Churchill's Winter Attack.

Wretched over at the Belmont Club is conveying a report that Ward Churchill took a swing at a camera crew asking him about art he is peddling as his own but is very similar to other artwork.

Check out the whole story!

Drudgies.

Interesting Drudge Report headlines and MA's quick takes.

1. 1 PM, MARCH 18
A judge apparently has issued an order allowing Terry Schiavo's husband to remove her feeding tube three weeks from now. Murder.


2. Heart Attack Victim Was Moved for Michael Jackson; Family Says Woman Died...
I hope this story does not actually to be as is currently being reported. If true add ghoul to freak.


3. WAL-MART ASSOCIATES ONCE AGAIN SAY 'NO' TO UNION...
Great! Wal-Mart is doing something right!


4. WASH POST: 'Condoleezza Rice's coat and boots speak of sex and power'...
Condeleeza Rice is turning heads! The usual take I have been seeing is that MSM is being condescending and to a certain extent it is. BUT some of the reports I have heard indicate she does turn heads! I recall hearing Ariel Sharon saying he was in a conference and had a hard time concentrating due to her legs. I also recall hearing she is a shoe nut and has a large collection of shoes. Certainly, the press obsessed with Madeline Allbright's fashion tastes, why not Condis? Michelle Malkin also a relevant take on this whole story.


5. U.S. pushes Arabic: Study of language now tops Hebrew...
First take is good but with the state of Middle Eastern studies in our universities how long before our universities are turning out suicide bombers?


6. CANADA SAYS 'NO' TO MISSILE DEFENSE SHIELD
Why should we expect Paul Martin's leftist government to say yes? After all, who is angry at Canada?

Compassionate Conservatism.

Is widely misunderstood. Leftists call it an oxymoron and those on the Right do not want anything to do with it as it smacks of leftist do-goodism. Both attitudes are sad.

Campassionate conservatism is rooted in the calling we all should hear and answer to help others in need. It is not code words for more government spending it is a call to shut off Nick At Nite and to help others on your own.

The question comes down to then what role does the government properly play in "compassionate conservatism". It should play a role, I think the government's assistance should be limited and should focus on infrastructure. For example last night an attendee at the Lincoln Day Dinner committee meeting told us about a friend who set up a clinic for folks unable to pay for their own medical care. She said the DHHS in DC threw in $600,000 for the clinic and that was to fund the facilities and equipment. The clinic is staffed by volunteers. I am guessing the clinic is now dependent on private fundraising to refresh their variable costs (heat, bandages, vaccines, and the like). That is compassionate conservatism.

Compassionate Conservatism is the realization we are not 100% self-made we depend on others and others on us.

Compassionate conservatism demands the government get out of the way of individuals who want to do something to improve their community. It demands we occasionally sacrifice for others. The strong must help the weak so the weak become stronger and more able to stand on their own. This applies locally, statewide, nationally, and internationally. Compassionate conservatism is helping with the aim of making others as self sufficient as possible. It does not aim to create dependency. The old saying "give a man a fish and he eats for a day, teach him to fish and he eats for a lifetime" applies here. The left feeds the man for the day the right aims to enable the man to eat for a lifetime.

Ralphies New Iraq Policy.

Is to leave ASAP. Wow, how is that different from his old one?

HT to Jim Geraghty
The Money Quote:
Nader wants to continue humanitarian aid to Iraq, but he said peacekeeping should be turned over to neighboring Islamic countries. (Because the Syrians, Iranians and Saudis have nothing but the best interests of the Iraqis at heart.)

Marcus in Arabia: UAE Annoyances.

To the sensitivity police I am speaking in general terms here. Take a random sampling from the two populations I compare & contrast and you will not find my statements to be true in EVERY case but in a majority of cases they will be true.

The biggest annoyance by far was the driving! Stop signs were yield signs (if that) and all too often red lights meant go through them real fast. The cause of this was "wasta" and people in high places helping their friends even if their friends were in the wrong and a too stoical attitude. If God wills I will survive this pass on a blind curve driving 100 mph.

So we have a teacher stopped at a red light awaiting the light to turn green a local rear ends her and the teacher is the one under suspicion of intoxication (in fact the University expediter reported the rear-ender looked messed up himself).

Another annoyance especially on the men's campus was the rampant "help" the students gave each other. They would tell me it was an Islamic virtue to help others in need and no amount of discussion on the subject could convince most of them there was a proper time for help and an improper time. Not being a Muslim I could not frame the argument in Islamic terms which probably would not have helped anyway. Some of these students were very good at cheating and there were a couple I watched closely but could not catch. Later on other students would confirm my suspicions.

Another annoyance was dealing with bureaucracies. Long lines (or more often mobs in front of a window) and make work jobs. I swear the car registration process had one stop where the man's job was to remove the staple from the bundle of paperwork, re-order the papers and restaple. Officiousness was also a problem here. Later on the telephone company managed to put in a automated bill paying machine which helped out with this and the University had its own post office so as long as I did not have to deal with customs I did not have to go to the central post office.

Lots of time for themselves when you need their help but little time when they need your help. Actually this manifested itself on the roadways. When they were in a hurry it would be a very bad idea to be in the way but don't expect them to hustle when you are in a hurry.

Having to watch what you say. Even though the UAE claims to allow for freedom of speech, their freedom of speech comes with a checklist. Violating the checklist did not necessarily bring the wrath of the UAE government down on you but it could.

Rules just for having rules. A set of rules might be promulgated then promptly ignored by people and the authorities that promulgated the rules. However, if you gave them a reason to be upset with you then the rules would be enforced. Actually this worked both ways and could find itself a good thing from time to time.

Next installment: UAE Niceties.

The Poor Man's Soapbox.

Below is the first draft of the article I am working on. Constructive criticisms are welcome and non-constructive criticisms are subject to publication.

The Poor Man's Soapbox.
==========================================================================
The newest item in political discussion is "the blog" and unless you are a member of the mainstream media (MSM) a "blog" is not a monster. Blog is short for weblog and in general a weblog is an online repository for publishing ones thoughts. What subjects are found on blogs? All sorts from the diaries of teenage girls to commentary on international diplomacy and war. Typically a blogger (one who writes a blog) chooses an area of interest and confines their blogging to that interest.

As you may know the blog has taken a prominent role in our media and political culture. Blogs cover stories the MSM either reports inaccurately, is unable to report properly, or does not report on at all (due to lack of interest, resources, or more malign motives). Since all that is needed to be a blogalist is a connection to the Internet nearly anyone can become a blogger. The up and coming blogger does not need a journalism degree and there are services on the Internet willing to publish blogs for free. One can setup a blogsite and blog away within ten minutes.

The blogs biggest victory to date is in catching the Ra^ther incident. By now we all know the details about the evidence and the aftermath of it. It was a blogger who unmasked and publicized the perfidy of CBS. The Blogs were also essential in forcing the resignation of Eason Jordan. You may recall Eason Jordan was the man who admitted to carrying Saddam's water in Iraq so CNN could keep their Baghdad office open. Mr. Jordan at an international UN conference accused our soldiers of deliberately targeting journalists in Iraq. The blogs broke that story and kept it alive until Eason had to resign.

Another blogger victory was forcing the MSM to back down from erroneous reporting from West Allis. You may recall President Bush's campaign stop in West Allis where he said "En route here we just received news that President Clinton has been hospitalized in New York. He is in our thoughts and prayers. We send him our best wishes for a swift and speedy recovery." [http://www.jsonline.com/news/metro/sep04/256193.asp]. You may recall the AP put out a story saying the crowd booed the President's sentiment. Bloggers quickly and successfully refuted the story and the AP removed references to the boos and the authors name from the story without retraction or apology. The blogs kept the AP honest. [http://www.rightvoices.com/archives/2004/09/03/what-liberal-media/]

In the "olden" days (2 years ago) one would have to write a letter to the editor to ask for a retraction and hope honesty and integrity would prevail. Sometimes it did (ala Tailwind) more often it did not. People now have a more powerful tool to hold the MSM accountable. The MSM curses the blogs on a regular basis and accuses them of being a bunch of amateurs writing in their pajamas very quickly the term "Pajamahadeen" was coined .

What blogs are good to read? The best known national blogs are "The Corner" (http://www.nationalreview.com/thecorner/corner.asp), "Powerline" (http://powerlineblog.com/), Instapundit (http://www.instapundit.com/), Michelle Malkin's blog (http://www.michellemalkin.com/), and Little Green Footballs (http://littlegreenfootballs.com/weblog/). A couple of excellent internationl blogs are: The Belmont Club (http://belmontclub.blogspot.com/), Iraq the Model (http://iraqthemodel.blogspot.com/), and The New Sisyphus (http://newsisyphus.blogspot.com/). My favorite Wisconsin based blogs are Blogger Beer [note: this one is local to the Fox Valley region] (http://bloggerbeer.blogspot.com/), Lakeshore Laments (http://lakeshorelaments.blogspot.com/), and Boots and Sabers (http://www.bootsandsabers.com/).

The blogs have quickly become a very important part of our democracy. They lower the cost of publishing opinions and serve as a check upon the more powerful MSM. They are the modern day soapbox.
==========================================================================

Sunshine in the Valley!

Yes, its a late one. I was at the Lincoln Day Dinner Committee meeting last night wrapping up. It turned into a much more general type of meeting and that is why I did not blog "The Last Bit" last night.

Anyway currently playing is the first movement of Brahms' Serenade No. 2 for Small Orchestra in A Major (Op 16). The performance is by The London Symphony Orchestra under Michael Tilson Thomas.


Today:

1. What is a blog? An article I am working on for The Tusk. I submit to you for review.


2. Marcus in Arabia: UAE Annoyances.


3. Voter ID in Wisconsin. Covered yesterday.


4. More on Compassionate Conservatism.


5. Time Permitting: Commentary on Wretched's blog of the day.

Banned Scientific Research.

John Derbyshire over at NRO's The Corner notes:
In Sweden, the government has *banned* scientific research into male-female differences.

I thought it was only The Church which banned scientific research.

Marcus in Arabia: Part III.

Life in the UAE was pretty good. Before I get going too far on FAQ is did you ever feel in danger. There was only two instances where I felt in danger one was early on (and in honesty the danger was only felt but not actual) the last one was later on and the danger was small.

The first incident was when I had bought a wardrobe for my bedroom. The shop keeper sent me off with the delivery guys and they were both Iranian. We jumped in the truck and off we went. We were driving and driving and very quickly I was lost (I was still fairly new) and we were in the desert. I started acting up and kept asking the two guys where we were and they would laugh a bit and tell me not to worry. Eventually we came up to a warehouse and they went in and came out with a box loaded it up and off we were again. Then shortly afterwards I started recognizing where we were. Phew! Then we reached my place and they unloaded it and put it together. Both were veterans in Iran-Iraq war and they were nice enough but the language barrier kept us from talking too much. I tried to ask them about the politics in Iran but they were not talking. A neighbor who had lived in pre-devolution Iran told me they had real reason to fear speaking out against the Mad Mullahs (see This Little Green Footballs blog).

The later event was at a public execution. The crowd was large and the UAE Police force had jeep mounted machine guns and guys with big rubber batons keeping the crowd in line. I had decided to stay away from the front and to keep my eyes on escape routes. Sure it meant I did not get a front row seat, oh-well.

Life on the whole was good. I had a good salary, housing was provided, I had a round trip back here every summer and the hours were fantastic. I worked four-1/2 days/week six hours/day. Sometimes it was more. Hiring people to do the things we would rather not do was no problem as these workers were typically from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, or the Philippines and were willing to work for much less.

Al-Ain was a provincial town where the UAEU was located. It was a nice town with a fair number of people and was green. Al-Ain sits on an oasis and in any event the leaders spend a fair amount on watering the city to make it bloom. Al-Ain bordered the nation of Oman and the more famous city of Al-Buraimi and we could cross back & forth from Al-Ain to Buraimi the checkpoint was probably about fifteen miles into Oman. Al-Ain is also home to Jebel Hafeet a lone mountain that juts out a flat gravel plain and people would picnic on top of the mountain as well as hunt for fossils in its foothills.

Al-Ain sits on an interesting geological border. When one hears of the Arabian desert one thinks of the large rolling sand dunes and one side of Al-Ain certainly had that. The other side though, was a flat gravel plain.

Al-Ain was home and there was not a whole lot to do, but when I bought myself a PC I was able to keep myself occupied with that. I ended up learning some programming and computer app.s. Also keeping me out of trouble was St. Mary's Catholic Church. Yes, you read it right, St. Mary's Catholic Church! The UAE depends on ex-patriate labor so allowing churches is one concession the UAE makes to the ex-patriate population. The churches are low key and we must not engage in activities which would be construed as proselytizing Muslims. Most of the parishioners were Indian and Filipino with some Westerners (USA, Brits, French etc) and a smattering of Pakistanis, and Arabs. I became quite involved with the Church

I could also purchase barley pops. I could either walk into one of the bars of the two international hotels and have them there or I could get a liquor license and buy for home. I was permitted to buy about $130/month but towards the end the liquor stores in town did not track the amount they just took the money. Pork too was obtainable but you had to hunt for it and usually was in its own section (which could be located in a variety store's hardware section) so as to keep the pork separate from the rest of the food.

The Capital of the UAE was Abu Dhabi which IMO was like Al-Ain just more of it and taller buildings. I only went there if I had to. Then there is Dubai. Dubai is a first rate city and the leaders of Dubai have vision. I really liked Dubai it was all there. I miss Dubai.

Other cities in the UAE are Sharjah (next to Dubai), Fujairah & Khorfakhan. Khorfakhan & Fujairah are the get away cities. They are on the Gulf of Oman and have some lovely beaches. The funny part is Khorfakhan is in the Emirate of Sharjah which completely prohibits alcohol but Fujairah was only about a fifteen minute drive from Sharjah. So when visiting Khorfakhan we would run over to Fujairah buy what we needed and return and empty our water bottles. Hey, who put water in my water?

Were their annoyances? You bet there were and they are the subject of my next installment!

Traffic Patterns.

I thought I had it nailed down fairly well. Observing the hit count over time I thought I had a pattern but apparently now. Blogger Beer sees a number of visitors in the morning up until about 9:00 am CST and then from about 3:30 pm until about 5:30 pm there is a fairly constant stream of viewers as well.

The past days have shown increased traffic from about 11:30 am until about 1:00pm. However, today there is hardly any of this traffic.

Hmmmm.

Tommy Part II.

Tommy related a visit he had made to Uganda. He talked about how him and a crew of his from the DHHS went to a village in Uganda to deliver some aid and to visit. He talked about sitting in small one room huts with dirt floors with people who have benefited from US-Aid. His message was simply do not believe the leftists when they say we are a stingy nation.

Towards the end of his talk Tommy quoted Teddy Roosevelt:
It is not the critic who counts; not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust and sweat and blood; who strives valiantly; who errs, who comes short again and again, because there is no effort without error and shortcoming; but who does actually strive to do the deeds; who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions; who spends himself in a worthy cause; who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, and who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.

Wow, what a statement! The quote is very timely as Republicans are being heavily criticized. Tommy urged us as leaders to go out and talk to others about our ideas for making our communities better places to live.

As I have said before I have been critical of his tenure as governor of Wisconsin but in the end the speech was good and gave me new enthusiasm for my work in conservative politics.

Monkey View.

www.monkeyview.com is the name of the image server I am using.

A little lesson in the technicalities of blogs. Blogspot just dishes out the text of the blog. If I want to post a photo with a blog I have to find another server on the internet that I can place the picture onto and then refer to that picture through that server.

One of the terms for using the service is if a photo is dished out to the public via that service than it stamps each photo with the www.monkeyview.com text.

My dialup ISP gives me 5 MB of storage but I am using most of that space for a personal webpage and I have been able to put about 6 photos out there before running into that 5 MB limit. So I now must resort to the monkeyview photo server.

I set up a similar system over at NEW Bayanihan and I could utilize that system to dish out photos but I have a feeling that might not be quite okay due to the nature of my activity here and the nature of NEW Bayanihan.

So don't get all worked up if you think a photo of yourself or anyone else is being likened to monkeys!

Update on "The Back Page".

From now on the "The Back Page" will be known as "The Last Bit". ;-)

The Chipmunk Hunters.

Ann Coulter's latest column is on the leftist blogger's Chipmunk Trophy.

As usual she hits all the left's talking points and knocks them down. I was looking for something in particular to quote but you have to read the whole thing! It is good!

Voter ID in Wisconsin.

Is sorely needed.

For the life of me I can not understand why the Democrats are against this? I do not buy the hardship claim. It is not an extraordinary hardship for voters. People talk about what an awesome responsibility it is to vote but some of those same people then can not demand the voter to be at least minimally prepared to vote.

I always try to avoid cynicism but I can not in this case. What does the DPW have against photo ids at the polls? Can anyone give me a reason aside from the cynical one? A sensible reason?

Why we need TABOR.

We need TABOR because it is easier to not spend than to cut spending.

One of the most common philosophical complaints against the TABOR is that WE choose our elected officials we must trust them. After all if we did not trust them then we would not elect them.

Ahhh, okay then I will from this point unhesitatingly support whatever our elected officials want to do because our election of them means we completely trust them.

Uhhh, not even close.

Let us return to Civics 101. Our government is built upon a fundamental distrust (do not confuse a healthy mistrust with a paranoid distrust) of government and those in government. Not because we think those in government are crooked but because of the tempatations that come with power. People in government are flawed individuals and the Founding Fathers realized this so they built the government with a system of checks and balances. I may trust the person I vote for but not necessarily the man that wins the office.

The Wisconsin Constitution mandates a balanced budget. The constitution does not indicate its favorite way to keep the budget in balance. Raise taxes or cut spending. The TABOR is to give the constitution a bias in favor of controlled spending.

The TABOR is a check upon government's power to spend and in Wisconsin that means a check upon government's power to tax.

A high-five for Wretched!

A high-five for Wretched at the Belmont Club blogsite.

His installment for today is Wrong But Right.

The money quote:
It was the obstinate persistence in error, the steadfast refusal to learn that was really at the root of much of the tragedy. Those who will not learn from history are condemned to repeat it.

Indeed, the left constantly is wrong but they never admit it. When one is wrong the best way to get right is to admit the mistake and learn. However, when presented with the goods on how wrong they are they summon high priest Chomsky who will explain that what they said in the past did not really mean what it said. The left is like a drunk who can not admit they have a problem.

However, there are members of the Left out there who are questioning the left's belief that Iraq is a a mess.

Governor Thompson's Speech. Part I.

Was fairly long but riveting (at least for one who aspires to political/community leadership).

The general theme of the talk was the goodness of America and how it is Republican values that drive that goodness. His talk very much focused on compassionate conservatism.

It is an honor to have witnessed that speech and to have his notes. My only regret is I left my tape recorder at home.

The early part of his speech was spent acknowledging Outagamie County and the Wisconsin GOP and on issues of concern to Wisconsin. While acknowledging the hard work of John Gard, Tommy noted John's work in defending one of the innovations that his administration led the Nation in school choice:
John [Gard speaker of the Wisconsin Assembly] doesn't stand in the schoolhouse door, like some cynical politicians who seek to deny Milwaukee children a choice while sending their children to private school (Note: Doyle's kids go to private school [emphasis in original]).
original in all caps, I changed text to regular casing

IIRC he called out a couple of other Democratic politicians who fight school choice while sending their children to private schools.

Then Tommy went to acknowledge Congressman Mark Green. Noting that Mark has been a good friend in Washington D.C. both to the people of the 8th District and the troops fighting the forces of totalitarianism in the world. He then quoted Lincoln
In the Gettysburg Address, Abraham Lincoln said: "We here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain; that this nation shall have a new birth of freedom; and that these government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." [emphasis in original]
President Lincoln was speaking of our great nation in the wake of the Civil War. But those words are equally as appropriate in Iraq today.

Tommy then reminded us of the tremendous success of the Iraqi election, that Iraq was once the "Paris of the Mideast." That Saddam tore that "Paris" down and was in fact a weapon of mass destruction. Tommy also noted that children would be turned away from the pharmacies while the warehouses were full of the medicines they needed as a ploy to discredit sanctions.

Tommy spent quite a bit of time talking about Afghanistan as well. He reminded us that during the Taliban women were not allowed to work and they were not allowed to disrobe in front of anyone but their husbands. Therefore women were denied health care and what health care was available was extremely crude and often resulted in death. This is now changed because of our actions!

More to follow...

Sunshine in the Valley!

Good Morning!

Coffee is brewed and I have Wynton Marsalis: Baroque Music for Trumpets playing in my system CD. Track 7 Johann Pachlebel's famous "Cannon for 3 Trumpets & Strings" is currently playing. You would recognize the music if not the name.

Today's agenda on Blogger Beer.

1. Why we need TABOR.


2. Marcus in Arabia: Living in the UAE.


3. Voter ID in Wisconsin.


4. Tommy Thomposon's Lincoln Day Dinner Address.


5. More on Compassionate Conservatism


6. Plus other fun things as the whim hits me!

Quite a bit!

The Back Page.

The Back Page will normally be my final blog of the day. Note though I might have to leave suddenly (for whatever reason) or whatever and not post a back page blog. However, I will make a every attempt to signal my last blog of the day/night with a "The Back Page" Blog. Yeah yeah yeah, I know "The Back Page" is awful cliche but until I can brainstorm up something better it will have to do.

Some years ago The Democratic Congressional Committee sent me a solicitation. Well, being the generous man I am I sent them a contribution. Yes, yes I did. I send them a contribution and here is that contribution.
There once was a Dem named Nancy.
Who thought her ideas were fancy.
The areas in blue.
Are way too few.
And she got kicked in the pant-seat.

HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Oh what fun!

Good Night & May GOD Bless you all!

Power Brokers!

Ralph Rice from the Calument County Republican Party and the former OCRP Chairman Brian Murray!

Local, state, national, and an international views!

Governor Thompson delivering a very moving speech.

Carrie & Senator Ellis.

DA & Newly elected OCRP Chair Carrie Schneider and Senator Michael G. Ellis.

Another LDD 05 Picture.

Mark Green speaks to the 2005 Lincoln Day Dinner Attendees!

Testing an image server. Another LDD Picture.

Representative Mark Green shaking Governor Thompson's hand after introducing the Governor.

Defending TABOR's right flank.

Not all critics of TABOR are from the left. There are those who view TABOR as a Tax Collector's Bill of Rights. They state it licenses the government to increase spending every year therefore driving the demand to raise taxes.

Nope.

The reason why this will not happen is because of inflation and population growth will naturally drive up revenues without having to increase society's tax burden. Let us say Joe Javacoder earns $50,000 in year one and is taxed at 25%, so Joe's tax payment for year one is. . . $12,500. In order to keep Mr. Javacoder happy his employer must make sure Mr. Javacoder's spending power at least stays even (yeah yeah yeah I work too, I know I prefer to get ahead, lets keep it simple though). Remember the amount of money Mr. Javacoder is irrelevant, what is important is how much stuff Mr. Javacoder can buy that he is concerned about. This is where inflation kicks in.

Our economy has a natural tendency to inflation, that is money loses its value over time. As long as the inflation is mild and steady people can plan and deal with it. Mr. Javacoder gets a raise every year to at least keep his spending power even. Economists often use the terms "real dollars" or "constant dollars". Mr. Javacoder in year two may earn $52,000 (a 4% increase) and if inflation is 4% per year than Mr. Javacoder essentially earned the same salary he did the year before. What happens to Mr. Javacoder's tax payments? Yes, they too go up so now Mr. Javacoder's tax payments are $13,000.

Correspondingly if the government wants to pay for a service it must pay an extra 4% for it but it can do so since the bulk of the taxpayers will be kicking an extra 4%.

Population will act in a similar fashion. The government must pay more for services but the government has a larger tax base to pay for those services.

So TABOR does not cut spending but it should not. What TABOR does is to make those wanting to create new spending to prioritize the new spending alongside old spending and to make real decisions. That seems to me an ideal conservative policy!

History Lesson: Marcus in Arabia.

As I said earlier I hired on with the United Arab Emirates University. The job was "Instructor of Mathematics and Computers". And that I did. I taught students leaving the secondary schools and going into a university. The problem was many of the students were NOT prepared for university level material especially in mathematics, English, and yes Arabic. Our students were 18ish years old (some much older though) and for the most part local.

Many managed to bully/fake or otherwise make their way through the primary and secondary school systems without learning the important fundamentals so the program I taught in was set up as a remedial program by the guy who hired me.

What made the program special was its use of computers to aid instruction. Each student had a workstation and as the instructor I was able to do many things with these workstations. Among them was being able to create quizes and exams via the computer and to administer them via the computer. Instant grading and feedback! I could design a lesson and utilize the programmed exercises to serve as examples or to give to the students for homework. They would then upload the results to my workstation and then I would upload those results to the administration (however this only applied during my first year there).

The students I typically taught were arts track students and so were even less well versed in math than most. English levels ranged from "not at all" to fluent Wisconsinese (I met one or two students who had spent time here in Wisconsin). None the less I quickly discovered it was easy to teach a student with some basic math abilities and no English than one with good English and no math abilities. One student Yasser stands out.

I would ask Yasser a question and all I would get back is a look that screamed "I have no understanding of what you just said" but boy he would ace the quizzes and tests. Perhaps he did so by cheating but I never got the feeling he was into that (others yes and they were good at it). OTOH I had students who were pretty good with the English but just could not get simple math.

From time to time students would complain they knew the math but not the English and hence they were in my class learning to add and subtract. Wrong, one of the placement exams was translated into Arabic and given to a sample, that sample performed no better.

More about the teaching later on, but my next installment will be life in the UAE....

Spreadsheeting TABOR.

I modeled my little exercise (see below) in a spreadsheet.

Here are the assumptions I use:
Inflation steady at 3%/year
Pop Growth steady at 2%/year
This creates a 5%/year cap on spending growth.

I assumed a recessionary year would create a 7% drop in revenues and that without any cap a budget would grow at 7%/year.

Starting at $100 in the first year with recessions in year 4 and 8 (of ten years total). The ending budgets are:
With a revenue cap: $121.70 (about a 2.1% year growth over the ten years)
With only a pop + inflation cap: $155.13 (about a 5.5%/year growth over the ten years)
Without any cap: $183.85 (8.5%/year growth over the ten years).

Now some may say well the revenue cap is the best because it has the smallest increase.

That is going to be my next TABOR blog.

State Chair Rick Graber.

State GOP Chairman Rick Graber acknowledges the crowd's applause.



Actually this is the one of the two whole pictures from LDD on my site.

More pix, no more storage.

I have plenty more pix I want to publish but have no more online storage to store those photos. Blogspot partners with an image server but one needs a client and that client is....Windoze based, forget that for now. I found a free one but they had a 100K/photo restriction nix that one as most of my photos are twice that size (and they are only 1/4 the res of the raw photos straight off of the camera). I will search for something later on but at the moment the only two shots from the LDD on my "image server" are the ones below.

Anyway

Referrals list gone!

Just removed the referrals listing because one referral from an inappropriate site came across. Don't get me wrong if you are at a naughty site and then follow a referral to Blogger Beer you are more than welcome, but I do not want the unsuspecting to click on a link and be transferred to a "naughty site".

More than less likely the site was a referral spam.

Scott Walker & A Friend!

From the Outagamie County Republican Party Lincoln Day Dinner 2005. Gubenatorial candidate Scott Walker and a friend!

TABOR's Colorado Criticism.

Many critics of TABOR say that it has devestated Colorado. My contact at the Heritage Foundation states that this is true to a certain extent due to something he referred to as the "ratcheting effect". He described the effect to myself and IMO a better term be the "sawtooth effect" but whatever!

Here is why this happens and why it will not happen in Wisconsin. The Colorado TABOR has two indices with which it looks to, to limit spending growth. The first one is revenues, the second is inflation + population growth. The index for a given budget cycle is the lower of the two and while I neglected to ask Brian I take it fairly safe to assume if the chosen index results in absolute budget cuts then absolute budget cuts happen (by "absolute budget cut" a real cut in spending, not just a lesser than expected increase, e.g. a budget goes from $100.00 to $95.00 not from $100.00 to $105.00 instead of the expected $110.00).

So when a recession occurs revenue drops and that drop dictates actual budget cuts. For example Year 1 the budget is 100.00, year 2 inflation + population growth allows for a new budget of $105.00, year 3 a recession hits. So in year 3 the revenue index dicates a new budget of $95.00 instead of a inflation + population index budget of $107.00. So in year 3 real cuts must happen, but in year 4 the economy rebounds and the populatin + inflation index dictates a new budget of $99.00 whereas without year 3 it would stand at $112.00.

Year	With Revenue Cap	Without Revenue Cap	W/O Any Cap
1	$100.00	$100.00	$100.00
2	$105.00	$105.00	$110.00
3 (recessionary economy)	$95.00	$107.00	$120.00
4	$99.00	$112.00	$125.00

I will try to find the time to model this on a spreadsheet and create a chart to illustrate what is happening. The effect is real and it does require budget cutting and program gutting. The question I have is this: Does Frank Lasee's proposal consider revenue as a cap? My understanding is that it does not. So if it is true that Lasee's TABOR does not contain a revenue cap than the Colorado cricism DOES NOT APPLY!

This is not the only criticism but a big one coming from the Left. There is a criticism from the right as well and I will address that later.

[UPDATE] 2/23/2004 3:50 pm CST
Added "W/O Any Cap" column to the table.

Cunning Doyle.

In a discussion with one of my friends at our Lincoln Day Dinner an interesting observation was made about Doyle and his maneuvers were contrasted with the Dems in DC.

President Bush presented his budget and the Dems who had up to that point had been screaming about deficit spending and how the GOP was wrecklessly spending our way into eternal debt. Well what song to the Dems now scream? They complain about the slashing and burning of social programs and the like. That is it is a loud and clear clue that the budget presented is indeed leaner and more like what we expect from a Republican.

Now what did Doyle do? If I understand it correctly Doyle's budget freezes much spending while the GOP proposal allows for modest growth. That is Doyle outflanked the Wisconsin GOP's right side on this issue! Now, I do not believe Doyle expected his budget to be passed as is and was hoping the GOP would reflexively oppose his plan. This is the essence of Senator Ellis' complaint with the budget. Senator Ellis is not looking to limit growth but he wants actual cuts to spending.

That is he wants the state budget to go from $10.00 to $9.00 not to $10.50 (where normally it would go to $11.25).

My 3rd OCRP Lincoln Day Dinner.

Was outstanding! The best I have attended so far!

Former Governor Tommy Thompson was the featured speaker and he did a very good job. Governor Thompson's speech was excellent! I asked him if he could forward me the text of his speech so I could post & comment and he pointed at his head and very graciously handed me his notes!

Thank You Tommy!

I have been critical of Tommy in the past but his speech very much hit upon my favorite themes of volunteerism, community service, and helping those in need. More on that later!

Mark Green introduced the governor and his talk was good as well. Also in attendance were Michael Ellis, Scott Walker, Paul Bucher, and (apologies, I will get the name later) the other candidate for AG.

Our assembly members were unable to attend because they were in Madison debating and voting on voter id.

It is late and I can not sleep, tonight gave me much to think about!

No no no no! McCain the imperialist.

Al-Pazeera (aka the AP) reports thusly:

KABUL, Afghanistan - The United States needs permanent military bases in Afghanistan (news - web sites) to protect its "vital national security interests" in the region, Arizona Sen. John McCain (news, bio, voting record) said Tuesday after talks with the Afghan president.

Wow, as it stands now there are way too many people in the world who paint our actions in Afghanistan as a loot and pillage mission. McCain's comment is only going to reinforce that notion.

Shame on you Senator McCain.

Four Year Old Kindergarten.

Why stop at four? Why not get them in at birth? Why not just take the babies away at birth? Think of all the teacher unionists you could bring on for your campaigns?

Nothing more than taxpayer funded daycare.

Drudgies!

1. Reagan, Clinton top Washington, Lincoln in GALLUP top prez poll...

Sad. I do not even support the notion that Reagan belongs above Washington. See President's Day Musing. This Drudgy is a damnation of public education.


2. RNC Holds 6 Times More Cash Than Dems...

I thought Terry McAuliffe's great triumph was his fundraising. Seems like they lose again.


3. Man Charged With Plot to Assassinate Bush...

Surprised we do not hear this one every day with all the incitements the left puts out there.


4. Belgian Government Touts Bush Urinal Targets...

How does this help anything? Barking dogs.


5. Strong Quake Hits Southeast Iran...

I wonder how long we will wait until we hear Mullahs tell the Iranians it was God's punishment for their wicked ways. I wonder how long it will be before we hear Pope John Paul II make a similar statement?

The History of Marcus Aurelius.

At Lakeshore Laments Kevin gets all worked up about Roundabouts. Over at The Corner (on honor killings) KJL links to a Victor Davis Hanson (hereafter referred to as VDH) piece on Middle Eastern honor killings. There is a connection between these two seemingly different stories.

From 1992 to 1998 I lived and worked in the United Arab Emirates. In 1990 I graduated from UW-Platteville with a bs degree in Mathematics and a minor in Physics. The economy at the time was less than booming and I was focused on beer drinking in college and in between keggers I thought about grad school so I was not in the best of positions to get a job in a tight economy. Well I worked some jobs for a couple of years to pay the bills and feed myself down in the Platteville area and eventually that ran out. So I returned to the lakeshore area and went to work for North East Wisconsin Technologies a Unix VAR in Manitowoc as an outside sales guy. I had to give it up since I was not making sales and not getting commissions and hence not earning and went to work in June of '92 for a buddy up in Green Bay distributing and servicing Kolbe & Kolbe Windows.

Well in January of '92 I found an job posting in the Milwaukee Journal for a mathematics teaching position at the United Arab Emirates University. The requirements were a master's degree & three years of teaching experience. I had neither but told myself I will let them be the judges of that. Well as you see above that seemingly came to nothing but late July of '92 I received a phone call from them. I went to Rosholdt WI for the interview and a week later I was running around getting ready to travel.

To be continued....

Tom Boldt Joins Terri's Team

Just recieved this press release.

=====================================================
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Rep. Terri McCormick
February 22, 2005 PHONE: 920-731-2627



McCORMICK ANNOUNCES FINANCE COMMITTEE CO-CHAIRS

Thomas J. Boldt, CEO of The Boldt Company, and John Bykowski,
President, CEO, and Chairman of SECURA Insurance Companies, will chair
the Finance Committee of McCormick's campaign for congress


Appleton- State Representative Terri McCormick (R-Appleton) today
announces the Co-Chairs of her campaign's Finance Committee. Thomas
J. Boldt, CEO of The Boldt Company, and John Bykowski, President, CEO,
and Chairman of SECURA Insurance Companies, will chair the Finance
Committee.

"I am very pleased that Tom and John have made a commitment to support
my campaign," McCormick said. "Their leadership of my finance
committee will be critical to ensuring that we have enough resources
to effectively communicate with the voters of the Eighth Congressional
District."

McCormick will soon begin working with Boldt and Bykowski to raise the
funds necessary to run a competitive campaign for Wisconsin's Eight
Congressional District should Congressman Green go ahead with his
plans to challenge Governor Doyle.

"I am eager to continue spreading my message of reform throughout
Northeast Wisconsin. As I look to build on my success in the Assembly
in the areas of health insurance reform, education reform, and
economic development, I am humbled by the very positive response I'm
receiving from the voters and grassroots activists."

- OVER -

Biographical Information



Thomas J. Boldt is the Chief Executive Officer of The Boldt Company,
an Appleton-based holding company. He is active in overseeing the
multi-million dollar holding company, The Boldt Group, and its
subsidiary companies: The Boldt Company, Oscar J. Boldt Construction,
Boldt Technical Services, Boldt Consulting Services, and Paper Valley
Corporation. Mr. Boldt serves on the boards of the Appleton Medical
Center Foundation, Wisconsin Environmental Initiative, and Appleton
Junior Achievement. In addition, Mr. Boldt sits on the Executive
Committee of Wisconsin Manufacturers and Commerce and is the President
of the Wisconsin Academy Foundation. Mr. Boldt is a graduate of St.
Olaf College in Northfield, MN, and has studied at L'Universite de
Paris III and Institut Catholique in France.



John Bykowski is the President, Chief Executive Officer, and Chairman
of Appleton-based SECURA Insurance Companies, a regional, mutual
insurance carrier. Bykowski serves on the Board of Directors for
NAMIC, United Way Fox Cities, the Fox Cities Performing Arts Center,
the YMCA, M&I Bank-Fox Cities, and is the Board President of the Fox
Cities Chamber of Commerce. Mr. Bykowski has a long history in the
insurance industry with such companies as the Wisconsin Employers
Group, and West Bend Mutual. Mr. Bykowski is a graduate of Marquette
University.
.
=====================================================

Charlie Rangel: Denial of the Enemy.

Little Green Footballs has Charlie Rangel denying the nature of the enemy.

For the life of me I wonder if Charlie Rangel has ever seen, read, or heard any of the Bin Laden statements. Sorry Charile, you are wrong wrong wrong and dangerously so. Bin Laden and many of his supporters (both within Al-Qaeda and on the outside) are working to the establishment of an international caliphate. I recall watching an interview with some spokesman or leader of Al-Mahujaroon a jihadist organization based in the United Kingdom. In it this fellow talked about a prophecy found in the The Holy Qur'ran about muslims in the Whitehouse. He did not think this was because it was a braindead prophecy because most all the villas in the Mideast are white (duuuhhhh, cooler) but instead he took it to mean 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

Charlie says we did not call Hitler & his minions Christian terrorists. Well for one Hitler despised Christianity for its "blessed are the meek" philosophy. Hitler did not come out and state it was the duty of all Christians to kill jews.

I don't know who coined the term but "The bloody fringes of Islam" are very real.

A Corner Comment on Honor Killings.

Kathryn Jean Lopez notes a story about honor killings in Saudia Arabia.

Here is my closest experience with honor killings.

A former colleague (who is still in the Mid East) tells me this story:

One of his students was very lively, very outgoing. She would lead the students in song and dance before class, once he told me he walked into the classroom and she was up on a desk using it as a stage. One day she stopped coming to class.

No big deal, most students at the college level miss a day or two but it went on and on with no explanation. Finnally he asked the other girls what happened to so & so. They all got deathly quiet and he could tell something very serious was up. He thinks she was honor killed.

FYI, I was a colleague by the fact I too was teaching in the Middle East. I need to spend a few blogs describing my life in the Middle East. Life ranged from mind numbing boredom (at first) to "We are not in Kansas anymore Toto" modes. But not now.

Lincoln Day Dinner 2005.

Tuesday Night is the night of the Lincoln Day Dinner for the Outagamie County Republican Party. Hope to have some pix & stories for you all tomorrow.

Terri McCormick is Putting Her Team Together!

A press release which I recieved:
=============================================================
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE CONTACT: Rep. Terri McCormick
February 14, 2005 920-731-2627



MCCORMICK ANNOUNCES CAMPAIGN LEADERSHIP TEAM
State Representatives Judy Krawczyk, Karl Van Roy, and former State
Representative Lorraine Seratti will serve as Campaign Co-Chairs


Appleton- State Representative Terri McCormick (R-Appleton) today
announces the leadership team of her campaign for Wisconsin's Eighth
Congressional District.

Co-Chairing her Campaign Committee will be Rep. Judy Krawczyk (R-Green
Bay), Rep. Karl Van Roy (R-Howard), and former Rep. Lorraine Seratti
(R-Florence).

"I am truly humbled to have received the support of such a
distinguished group of people," McCormick said. "I am very proud of
this team and their strong background in economic development and
reforms. I look forward to working with them to communicate my
message of reform to the voters of the eighth district."

Representative McCormick continues to travel throughout Northeast
Wisconsin, meeting with voters and community leaders discussing her
run for the 8th Congressional District seat if it is left open by
Congressman Mark Green.

"If Mark Green goes ahead with his plans to challenge Governor Doyle,
I know that these individuals will provide me a critical link to a
broad cross section of voters throughout Northeast Wisconsin,"
McCormick said.

-OVER-

Biographical Information

Representative Judy Krawczyk was first elected to the Assembly in 2000
and chairs the Assembly Committee on Workforce Development. The 88th
Assembly District includes the western half of the City of Green Bay.
Rep. Krawczyk is a member of the Tavern League of Wisconsin, the
Wisconsin Restaurant Association, the President of the Northeast
Wisconsin Zoological Society of Brown County, and a Past-President of
the American Businesswomen's Association. Rep. Krawczyk and her
husband own the Sky Top Supper Club in Green Bay.

Representative Karl Van Roy was first elected to the Assembly in 2002
and chairs the Assembly Committee on Small Business. The 90th
Assembly District includes portions of the City of Green Bay, the
Village of Howard, and the Town of Suamico. Rep. Van Roy is a veteran
of the US Army, sits on the board of directors of the Wisconsin
Restaurant Association, and is a Past-President of the Howard-Suamico
Optimist Club. Prior to serving in the Assembly, Rep. Van Roy was the
owner of the River's Bend Supper Club in Howard for over 25 years.

Representative Lorraine Seratti represented the 36th Assembly District
from 1993 to 2005 and chaired the Committee on Small Business and
Economic Development. During this time, her district included all or
part of Florence, Forest, Marinette, Oconto, Langlade, Menominee,
Shawano, Marathon, Portage, and Waupaca Counties. Rep. Seratti is a
former small business owner and is a member of the Lake States Women
in Timber, the Dunbar Sportsmen's Club, the Shawano County Farm Bureau
Federation, Wisconsin Right to Life, and the American Legion
Auxiliary.

Medical Savings Accounts.

Wisconsin has proved itself exception again. Wisconsin is 1 of 11 states that does not allow for tax free health savings accounts!

This came out tonight in the OCRP executive committee meeting. My source one of the local Assemblymen mentioned this. He then went to say he passed that tidbit onto Senator Kohl (D-Wisconsin) and Senator Kohl thought that was crazy!

Come on Doyle lets work to keep medical costs under wraps, putting more responsibility for the bill will hlep tremendously.

Tomorrow is the Big debate!

Tomorrow in Madison the Assembly is going to be debating & voting on voter id. Lets hope it passes. I hope to pass along updates from one of the good guys who will be there debating & voting!

A Federal TABOR is on the way!

Just found out tonight from a source who is working on it. A Federal TABOR law is in the works and will be introduced shortly! It will base its limits on inflation + population growth a supermajority override!

I LIKE IT!

The Tapes my quicktake.

They in no way harm the President. In fact quite the opposite, they show the President when he had every expectation of being able to be completely candid as being sincere.

The comments that are bound to stir up the most chattering are the ones related to his past use of drugs. The left seeing an oppurtunity to damage the president are probably going to say he was less than honest with us. The response of the President to the drug questions is perfectly legitimate. Are we all proud of what we did when we were young?

That is called growing up and learning. Most people in this nation (I am convinced) have used illegal drugs. The majority of those people have since quit using those drugs they grow up and cast off the habits of youth. Perhaps your cast-off is not drugs but something else. The fact is drug use is a choice that spills over into our lives and the lives of those around us.

Even though the tapes do not harm the President Mr. Weade has betrayed a trust and as such has lost a friend. Well at least it appears he is going to get a good price for that lost friendship.

Reader Reaction Forum.

The Appleton Post Crescent's Reader Reaction Forum is posed the following question: Who would you like to see run for president in 2008?

One line in particular came up way too often.

The United States is not ready for a woman president. I have heard this line often and it is quite frankly

RUBBISH!

The question comes down to which woman? Is the USA ready for Hillary Clinton? Yes, I think it probably is. One person then tacks on minority woman. Again

RUBBISH!

The nation is ready for the right minority woman and is this Condeleeza Rice? I am not certain we will see how she handles the politics of being Secretary of State. She is qualified academically and the little bit of the political rough and tumble she has been in already (Testifying before the 9/11 Commission and in front of the Senate in her Sec State confirmation) shows a good temperament for it.

One person a barking moonbat suggest Bernie Sanders. She labels him independent but he is only independent because there is no way he would win representing the Democratic Socialists of America. The Moonbat also advised Jeb Bush not to run, as if she has anything to say about it.

Among Republican suggestions the winner is John McCain with one person suggesting Alan Keyes. I actually voted for Alan Keyes in the WI 2000 Primary but given his record of late I hope he keeps his activity to pontificating and the like.

There is a definite dark current in the responses of the leftists. They insinuate a woman or a minority can not win in the United States. Let that be their self-fulfilling prophecy!

The Manitowoc Connection.

Kevin over at Lakeshore Laments states:
Yes, other WI bloggers, I was aware of it. And no, the Manitowoc Herald Times-Reporter has not done a story on it according to Google News.

One of my sources tells me:
Yeah - I knew about it/. There was an article about them in the paper a
long time ago. saying how one lived in China running a business and the
other one was here. he was a big shot at the manitowoc co. there was a big
article in the paper again when they were arrested

So the story is being reported but only very locally.

Michell Malkin states this about Google News:
Why is Democratic Underground a Google News source, but not LGF? Why is a blog that recycles gossip and drinking games a Google News source, but not this blog?

The story is alive at least in Manitowoc. I do not know why I do not see more of this story in The Green Bay Press Gazette & in the Appleton Post Crescent, one would think this front page news in every newspaper in the region. Oh well.

So just because it isn't in Google News does not mean it is not news.

Friday Night Observations.

1. Scott McCallum on O'Reilly.

Scott did well. O'Reilly was obviously trolling to make a quid-pro-quo connection between Doyle's silence on Ward Churchill and the money he received from the tribes during the '02 election. Silly, as the controversy has nothing to do with Churchill's bogus indian connections. O'Reilly can be good and he can be bad, this night he was not so good.


2. Perle vs. Dean

Did not see the whole thing, and missed the incident where the guy chucked a shoe at Mr. Perle and cussed him out. I find it ironic how quickly the "peace-nik" type resorts to violence.

The little bit I saw had Dean charging the Bush Administration with no long term plan. Which is amazing because Democrat's long term horizon seems to be about one year. It is hard for any modern day administration to have a long term plan because they are limited to eight years in office and President Bush is now under four. The plan (IIRC this was from New Sisyphus) is to democratize the Middle East. Certainly many of the governments that will take over will have an anti-American flavor to them but it is much easier for democracies to deal civillly with each other and it will be easier to convince Middle Easterners that we are not evil incarnate.

AdSense: A Bleg!

Do you have a blog? Do you have an ad service akin to Google AdSense? What is it? Please leave a comment.

I have been blogging like crazy on right-wing politics and the best Google AdSense can do with that is to put up two adverts advertising blue wristbands to support leftists and John Kerry. Other than that it has been generic blogging advertisements. Then I have a half-blog where I talk about my Friday lunch and my current experimentation with the wrap sandwhich and boom AdSense puts up cooking advertisements!

Arrrrrrgggggghhhhhhhh!

The Chipmunk Trophy.

The leftist bloggers have a trophy to mount. Jonah Goldberg calls it a trophy of chipmunk proportions:

"Of course, the lefty bloggers are determined to make Gannon into a huge story. But no matter how many times the great hunters say "Did you see the size of that chipmunk!" and no matter how much parsley you garnish the plate with, it's still a chipmunk."

The leftist blogs are beating this chipmunk to death in the mistaken belief that if they blog it long and hard enough it will turn into an Administration damning story. All it is doing is to show their desperation.

President's Day Musing.

How can anyone not believe GW (no B) George Washington was and is the greatest of presidents?

He managed to get a rag-tag army to live through a revolution against the world's greatest empire! Talk about a crisis? Then he made sure the president's role conformed to the constitution. I believe Ronald Reagen to be one of our greatest presidents but what he did was nothing in comparison to what George Washington did. Same goes for W.

My belief on President Clinton was he was an adquate president no more no less. The winds and seas were fair and he kept the ship moving. The one or two changes of direction he tried to make were snapped back by the electorate.

Congrats to my (few) readers!

Welcome back!

The weekend was good. I skied on SA at Ski Brule. Certainly not out west or out east but beggars can not be choosers. Actually I like to ski at Ski Brule and the highlight is the stop at the Homestead Lodge. An eatery on the backside of the hill cobbled together from two old (and authentic) homesteader's lodges. The only heat comes from potbelly stoves burning wood. No other on hill stop I have been to has the same atmosphere (with the possible exception of Whitecap's wine hut). Anyway.

Congratulations to you! The visits to this site dropped off dramatically over the weekend which some may take as a disappointment but it shows the people who read this site have their priorities straight. Of course some of it is also due to the fact that I was not putting out new blogs.

I miss Linux!

Up north at my Dad's cabin. I took some pictures last night and just before plugged my card reader into this system's USB port. Windoze recognized that a new device was plugged in but told me it wanted a driver. Then it tried to take me to a driver site and started taking a "mortgage application" from me! Well, I exagerate a bit but not too much.

Phooey on Windoze I say! Linux is the way to go!

Ski Ski Ski!

Off to Brule land for a ski weekend! This time blogging & photo blogging will be happening!

Signing off for now!

The imminent death of leftism or wrap sandwiches?

Wrap sandwiches it is! Insh'allah I will return to the New Republic article and comments made by Kevin over at Lakeshore Laments later on.

One of my hobbies is cooking and baking. At the cafeteria of a former client of mine they would from time to time server classic sandwiches wrap style. For example a reuben wrap. They were good so now I am making all sorts of different sandwiches wrap style. My latest was a tuna salad sandwich wrap style. Yesterday I had ham & cheese w/Lettuce & tomato. I have made my own ham & cheese, and reuben wrap.

One has to make a couple of alterations. First off, do not slice the cheese but grate it instead. Again chop vegetables and depending on the situation you may or may not cut the meat portion up. For example with my reuben wrap I smear the wrapper up with russian salad dressing, put at least one whole piece of corn beef on the wrapper then put the kraut and swiss cheese on and wrap it up in foil and pop it the toaster oven. Yummy!

My next wrap (after I exhaust my ham and tuna salad) is going to be my turkey (or chicken) and swiss sandwich. Do not get deli meat for this job, go out and get a whole chicken or whole turkey breast. Lettuce, onion, tomato, swiss cheese and 1000 island salad dressing.

Quick comment on the New Republic article and to my fellow conservatives. Please stop referring to those on the political left as liberals. They are way too often anything but liberal in fact they are often illiberal. They are leftists not liberals!

Wouldn't ya know it?

Last night somewhere Richard Perle and Howard Dean met for a debate. Powerline got a report which says the highlight of the night was some leftist tossing a shoe at Mr. Perle (Missing) and shouting obscenities at Mr. Perle as the police dragged him away.

Keep it up leftists!

Oil Traders Fight Back!

LIttle Green Footballs has the story about the oil traders fighting back against the Greenpeace activists who tried to disrupt trading.

Well Greenpeace was able to access the building and get by security but the traders did not take too kindly and pummeled the protestors! About time something like this happens!

Quick Takes.

I just pulled up The Drudge Report and I want to blog my quick takes on some of the stories.

1. AP: Iraqi Died While Hung From Wrists...
   
   I don't trust Al-Pazeera too much. Recall the Bush Rally in the Milwaukee area when it was discovered President Clinton needed heart surgery. They reported the crowd booing President Bush's warm wishes for President Clinton and then slowly and very quietly changed their story.


2. New HIV Strain Shakes Up New York Gay Community.
   
   I recently heard a show on NPR saying how this strain may finally get the gay community to act responsibly when it comes to sex. We will see, if AIDS in general hasn't done that to date then why should a new strain change anything?


3. Prosecutor: Cosby Won't Face 'Fondling' Charges...
   
   Isn't it funny when Cosby is just sticking to his comedy routine no such charge arise. When he starts telling Jesse & the NAACP that they have bad attitudes then these charges surface. Can we spell p-o-l-i-t-i-c-a-l e-x-t-o-r-t-i-o-n?


4. CHRIS ROCK VOWS TO KEEP THE CURSES OUT OF OSCARS...
   
   Well even if he can not, not to worry. My guess is there will be a large delay on the broadcast.


5. IRONIC: Canadian Singer Alanis Morissette Becomes American Citizen... & BLASTED U.S. LAST YEAR OVER 'ERA OF FEAR', 'CENSORSHIP'...
   
   Ahhhh the wonders of low taxes! Also, these complaints of censorship are actually signs of a lively and vital speech scene. It is just that leftists confuse criticism with censorship.

Good Morning!

Good morning to you all!

Currently we have Bach's Fifth Brandenburg Concerto (BMV 1050) playing (currently in second movement an affettuoso). I have a nice hot cup of coffee by my side. Two instances of the Konqueror web browswer and one instance of netscape.

Today the blogging will lighten as I have some research to perform for work, I need to call some folks to pester them into attending the Outagamie County Republican Party's Lincoln Day Dinner, I need to get ready for going "Up North", and I want to start work on an application to help the OCRP track ticket sales for the Lincoln Day Dinner.

Obviously that application is not going to be in place and ready to help with this Tuesday's affair (Feb 22 '05) but I hope to have something ready for next year so we do not have to go through what we went through last night.

Not too far off.

Owen has put up a response to my RINO post over at Boots and Sabers.

From it, I see that our definitions do not differ too greatly. I think his is a touch more general and mine is a bit more specific as far as philosophy vs. stands on issues but in the end one's philosophys often direct them to stands on issue so in the end it all boils down to the same thing.

However, I still contend Senator Ellis is NOT one of those critters. I know in the past the State GOP has expressed exasperation with the Senator Ellis and he has raised conservative hackles by not only siding with Doyle in property tax freeze debate but by calling us kool-aid drinkers.

He uses the example of Mary Panzer as a RINO and while I know not all of her issues I know she was terrible on TABOR and that is what got her the boot, but until I am informed otherwise I take Owen's word that Mary is a RINO.

And no, I do not consider McCain a RINO either. In fact with two exceptions (campaign finance reform and gun control) he is pretty good. But when he is bad he is truly terrible.

RINOs and DINOs.

My conversation over at Boots & Sabers has turned into a conversation on what is a RINO.

For the uninitiated a RINO is a Republican In Name Only. DINO is a Democrat In Name Only. With most words in this field there is no exact definition one persons DINO could be another's far left-wing-nut.

In my book a (R/D)INO is a person who is more interested in being in the winning political party than being in the political party that most closely matches their beliefs and ideals. For example I know a sheriff of a nearby county who is a member of the local [unamed] party not because his beliefs match the [unamed] Party but because in that county they dominate the political scene. In fact his wife told my mother (they are cousins) they were voting for [unnamed] candidate in the presidential election contrary to their local party membership. That is this guy is only a member of the party to get the elected job and the party that most closely matches his beliefs is not able to get him into office.

I was debating resolutions a couple years ago and one of the members of the committee opposed almost every resolution (that year IIRC all we placed in front of the Party passed). These resolutions are boilerplate GOP positions. Why this fellow is a Republican? Perhaps he figures he can get better business connections that way.

Now in terms of Senator Ellis. Why is he not a RINO in my book? Because he generally falls onto the Republican side of issues. I confess I have to look into what this current situation is all about but I am confident in stating Senator Ellis is a good Republican but not necessarily a good team player.

AdSense is finally getting sensible!!

I noticed that just today AdSense is getting closer to the the type of adverts that make sense for this site.

However, they predominantly are ads for blue bracelets to show support for Democrats and Senator Kerry! One step at a time I guess.

Funny thing is I just purchased a domain and it is currently parked with the service I bought it from and I plugged it into my web-browswer and boom! Not only did ads come up, but the exact type of ads I will seek for the site when I get around to creating content for it and getting it hosted!

I am thinking about doing a quick and dirty page and getting AdSense into it so if anyone stumbles on it and clicks on an Ad then I can get some coin! When I do that I will announce it here.

Senator Ellis Republican!

Owen at Boots & Sabers puts the RINO tag on Senator Michael Ellis. Below is a comment I left on this and share it with my audience here.


Not a good team player YES, a RINO NO!
Even though he is my state senator and I have had phone conversations, exchanged letters, and some face time with him Senator Ellis is a bit of a mystery.

First I do not consider him a RINO anymore than McCain is. I oppose the CFR on First Amendment grounds and Ellis wants it to silence the teacher’s union. Republicans up north share that sentiment, the only large and well organized force in Forest County for instance is WEAC. His campaign finance reform is based pretty much on putting a lid on the teacher’s union. Doesn't’t make it anymore palatable to myself.

Secondly in countless communications with Senator Ellis it is clear he does not want limits to spending growth he wants *REAL* cuts to the budget. That is he wants less spending overall. He was clear that the last budget that was passed in McCallums term did nothing to fix the budget problem just postponed the time of reckoning.

His position on TABOR is somewhat ambiguous to myself. At our corn roast last fall he expressed in no uncertain terms he was opposed to it. Now I do not know if his opposition was to the mangled proposal that was in front of the legislature or to TABOR in general, but if I may he likened it to a Tax Collectors Bill of Rights.

Senator Ellis is a character. In our corn roast conversation I came away with the feeling the guy has almost unlimited enthusiasm. Quite clearly Senator Ellis is a Randy Moss type of figure. Unfortunately, this kind of attitude plays well in the press and with those who go to the Packer game and cheer Brett Favre and Randy Moss (the best players on the field).

Loose cannon yes. RINO NO.

Iran is surrounded by US Allies.

Or at least by those nations showing deference to US goals.

One major complaint about the Iraq war is that Iraq was not in the terrorism business. RUBBISH! But of course it was not the main player. Which nation is pretty much the source of terrorism? There are two but the big one is Iran.

Looking at an atlas one sees Iran's neighbors of Iraq, Afghanistan, the GCC nations, Pakistan, the Old Russian Caucus nations, Turkmenistan and Turkey.

Most of those nations are at least neutral if not openly friendly and helpful to the USA. Some of the GCC nations have been abused by Iran (e.g. the Abu Mousa incident with the UAE) and have pre-positioned gear and airbases which the US can use. Iran finds itself in a bind here; their only out which they are reaching for is Syria.

Syria now finds itself more openly criticized by the USA after the recent assassination of the former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Hariri. Now mind you there have been no verbal accusations that Syria was behind the assassination but recent diplomatic activity all but does that.

There is little doubt amongst the more astute bloggers (The Belmost Club & The New Sisyphus) that Syria and Iran are essentially warring against the US in Iraq and what we are seeing now is a more visible and coordinated Iranian-Syrian axis forming. We are also witnessing the "I don't hit first" prelude to a larger fight.

First off we need to consolidate Iraq, Afghanistan is pretty much ready. But Iraq is surrounded by Iran and Syria. With the election it seems Iraq is stabilizing and should be ready soon.

If we start building up numbers of troops in Iraq again then I am confident we will see something happen. The John McCains and the various Democrats may applaud the increase in the number of troops (ala their complaints about there not being enough troops in Iraq) but it will be in prelude to something bigger.

The "I don't hit first" dance is already on. In our history our Government has been pretty good at the game (The Civil War counts here so we can not say our nation). Lincoln managed to goad and maneuver the Confederacy into the first large scale attack in the war and in WWII Roosevelt's government managed to put Japan into a situation where it had to resort to the first shot.

Hey EJ!

Yes you Eason!

How about this for targeting journalists!!

FYI the above link points to a story about the woman Italian journalist kidnapped by the terrorists in Iraq and are threatening to kill her unless Italy pull their troops out by February 7th. Yes, the deadline as reported in the BBC story has come and gone and IIRC I saw another reference to this sad situation on tonight's news.

EJ, why did you have to exaggerate and lie when you had easily provable stories of combatants targeting journalists. Ahhhh, that's right because your agenda was to bash the USA and not to report on news.

Misspelling!

I run a couple of websites in addition to this blog. Over at NEW Bayanihan I had a misspelled word and I noticed I was getting visits resulting from people misspelling the word similarly in search engines. I corrected the spelling and am really giving that a thought.

For example the Mr. Jordan formerly of CNN is featured in a blog I put out yesterday or perhaps the day before (IIRC). I misspelled Mr. Jordan's first name thusly "Easson" but the correct spelling is Eason. The thing is with the misspell (IIRC Blogs of War misspells similarly) my blog rates somewhat high on Excite. Question is do I correct and lose the good Excite rating or do I keep the misspell?

Clinton a Redneck?

Much of what has been noted about Bill Clinton seems to me sounds like something from a Jeff Foxworthy joke.

Now I hear one common take on this "charge". I am hearing it as if it is some big insult to President Clinton. Sorry it is really no big deal and if anything is an insult to true rednecks.

Screwing around with my template.

Yes,

I was screwing around with my template. I was working on making it wider so as to accomodate the Day by Day cartoon and other longer content. Previously the AdSense adverts were stepping on the Day by Day cartoon, so I adjusted the settings in my template to compensate for this.

I had to do some experimenting until I figured it out. It appears figured out. Thanks for your patience!

My first Day by Day Posting.

Yes, an attack submarine is being commissioned the USS Jimmy Carter. Rumors have it to be a spy sub to boot. There are many jokes being circulated about this event!

Faster Please.

Michael Ledeen has written an excellent piece on the state of affairs in Iraq at the moment. As is always the case he expresses exasperation with our State Department for not even offering moral support to the true revelutionaries in Iran.

One of the truisms of war is once you are on a roll is not to stop. You press your advantage and do not give the enemy time to rest and or recover. Right now the enemies of liberty are on their heels.

Here is a taste:
"But the wheel turns, as ever. Such moments are transient, and if they are not seized, they will pass, leaving the bitter aftertaste of failure in dry mouths and throttled throats. The world looks to us for more action, not just brave words, and we must understand both the quality of this moment and the revolutionary strategy we need to adopt to ensure that the revolution succeeds. Above all, we must applaud those who got it right, starting with the president, and discard the advice of those who got it wrong, including some of our 'professional experts.'"

See the full article!

In the soc.culture.filipino newsgroup I made a comment to someone posting about the apparent victory of Sistani's party. This fellow prognosticated on Nov 2 that Kerry looked to be in great position to win (based on his view of the turnout at the poll he was watching). I replied by wondering if the his article talking about Sistani's victory was going to be as accurate as his Nov 2 call. In turn someone replied to me talking about how the Iraqis rejected the American puppet. Mr. Ledeen refers to Allawi as the pet of the State Dept. & CIA career-eaucrats and how Dr. Rice & Mr. Goss should put an immediate end to it.

Many mistake Mr. Ledeen as pushing for war. My congressman expressed this concern to me as well. Most often Mr. Ledeen is not calling for war but just simple moral support of the Iranian revelutionaries. It is as if the State Department is afraid of Iran, is afraid to call Iran for what it is. That is why the President's Axis of Evil speech was so refreshing.

John Kerry flalopping again!

Just picked up on this note from Right Voices that says John Kerry is going to support the President's request for more money for Iraq & Afghanistan (and Tsunami relief).

Interesting. I think this time he is making a principled stand after all he does not have to suck up to the hard Leftists anymore. But what soundbites may come from this? I was against the 81 billion before I was for it?

The Persecution of Lt. Pantano

Most of you probably already know of this. But in the effort to make sure everyone knows about it I repeat it. Quite a bit of blogging has been done on this by Michelle Malkin & Powerline so head to their sites to see the details.

It has an Apocolypse Now ring to it. The Mad Colonel was frustrated by the half-hearted approach the US was working with in Vietnam and went renegade. The Mad Colonel was relating to Sheen's character about how they polio-immunized the children in a given village and later on discoverded the VC (or others opposed to the US) and hacked off the immunized arms of the children. The Mad Colonel then wished he had a division of warriors like that and how they could finish the war. Killing without regret was one comment I can recall from the Mad Colonel.

When those who are clearly innocent are killed or harmed we should have regret and consider what can and what should be done to lessen the impact upon non-combatants. But the two killed by Lt. Pantano were clearly non-innocents and most likely were full fledged combatants we should NOT sacrfice Lt. Pantano on account of them.

Google.

Google it seems is very selective about what it considers as news sources. Of late there is much being said about how contributions to the Democrats from Google was 98% of all giving. In additon Michelle Malkin and Little Green Footballs are noting how what they consider as news is very selective and not what one may call balanced.

Puts me in a little bit of a bind. I just implemented Google AdSense on this site. However, I want to try to make some money off of it and I am not going to get into advert sales.

Bob Beckel on Hannity & Colmes on the Jordan affair.

Bob Beckel was on Hannity and Colmes this night and was working the standard lines and Colmes was not arguing anything to convincing either.

Beckell took to slurring the blogosphere and Colmes tried to defend Jordan's comments using the EJ Backpedal maneuver and tried to say it did not happen as reported.

First the affair is on a tape somewhere and it is quite possible for them to release that tape (this is a point I have not heard being denied) release the tape and if EJ did not say what he did then it is over and blogosphere has big time egg on its face. The fact that two Democratic members of congress where there and outraged by what EJ stated is quite a point against him.

The EJ backpedal maneuver consists of lawerly parsing of the language. He says the journalists were mistaken for bad-guys and "targeted" as would be any bad guy in a battle. Certainly if I want to shoot a particular object I must "target" it. However, the reports I heard are that objections were raised and EJ did not back off or clarify. The same reports have him basking in adulation as foreign attendees praised him for his courage in confronting the US Military. It clearly sounds like EJ was accusing the US Military was deliberately and consciously targeting journalists.

The funny thing too is those on the right ask for evidence of the charges. Like in the Ra^ther scandal they state even though the evidence provided is bogus or non-existant their story is still ture. Sorry guys, if simple assertion does not work for us it will not work for you either.

Intrade & Senator Fiendgold & Tommy Thompson.

The webiste Intrade is a futures events market. Essentially it is betting on whether or not a given event will occur in a given time frame. For example they are taking bets on Osama Bin Laden's capture or incapactitation by the end of February, March, and June. They have bets on Zarqawi too.

Anyway they are setting up contracts on the 2008 Presidential Nominees. In the GOP side of it McCain leads with an bid/ask $17.20/$18.60 contract. Shrillary leads the Democratic field with a bid/ask of $36.20/37.50. Interestingly enough we have two men from Wisconsin one on each side.

Tommy Thomposon's bid/ask is $0.30/1.10 and Senator Fiendgold's is 1.0/3.2. I can not disagree with the market on this one.

Check it out it is a real interesting site. I am going to be a regular visitor and see what the markets can divine!

Easson Jordan.

Easson Jordan is gone from CNN. I do not think CNN will ever again be a respectable news organization but with more of these it might turn itself around.

The EJ syndrome is rampant in the MSM. They seem to think their only job in life is to oppose the government. As I often say if our Government would run away from a cliff the MSM would be out there talking about how nice it is to cliff jump and how mean spirited and awful our government is for not going over the cliff.

The job of a journalist is to discover the truth and way too often Journalists have come to see the truth as whatever makes the USA look bad even if it is not true.

Easson Jordan can carry Saddam's water without thinking it a problem but then goes out of his way to smear the US government. Why does the MSM think EJ was unfairly criticized?

Bill Moyers Caught in a Lie.

If you listen to Sean Hannity's show you know the sound montage he plays of Bill Moyers accusing Sean of being a political pornographer and I can not recall hearing Moyer's accusing Sean of deceit but it he doesn't mention it outright he certainly insinuates it strongly enough for most people to come away with the point.

Anyway Hat-tip to Powerline on pointing out this abuse of the truth by Moyers himself.

While we're waiting for the rum-soaked Jonathan Last to post Rocket Man's Daily Standard column, please check out Byron York's recap: "Bill Moyers'latest anti-Christian lie." As Mark Twain famously observed, a lie can travel half way around the world before the truth puts its boots on.


Byron York gets a two-point takedown and promptly pins Moyer's fabrication to the mat of truth.

I tell you the Left is going ballistic!

Instapundit Mentions Manitowoc!

I would like to hear Glenn try to say Manitowoc!

Anyway he quotes a story from Time magazine that talks about a Chinese couple arrested in Manitowoc for sending 1/2 million dollars worth of computer components to China. Components that can be used in missles.

Why did the local press not pick up on this story? I typically do not pay much attention to the local press but I see the Post Crescent headlines and IMO this is a local paper headline. What gives? I wonder if Lakeshore Laments has picked up on this or any of the other WI blogs?

off of my main topic.

I have been off topic of late. I had a real good time on the trip and wanted to share it with the few readers I do have!

Anyway starting tomorrow I will get back into my routine and start blogging on politics again.

Over at Lakeshore Laments he has Google Ads as well and they pick up on the political nature of his blog. Mine just has generic blogging ads. However, since I have been away I have been out of touch with the news so therefore nothing of political nature of late. That is about to change!

Trip Summary.

Hey, you have seen some pix and now for a little narration of our trip.

Claudia and I left Appleton and spent Sunday at my folk's place in Whitelaw (near Manitowoc) and watched the Super Bowl there, as you may note I did blog one post on the game. Anyway we woke up on Monday and finished with the packing and getting ready. We had to make at least two trips to Manitowoc to get miscellaneous items and my aunt had forgotten something she needed.

We left at about 1:00 pm and I took the first shift of driving. I put in my Winter Mix CD and it elicited comment from my father since it started off with Vivaldi's Winter Concerto. However, the CD is a mix and most songs have some connection to winter, but it seems the CD was enjoyed by all with the exception of one song which was skipped frequently. I drove to Des Moines and IIRC it was about 7:30 when I finished and we stopped in a BP, gassed up, and had bio-breaks. My father then took over again it was uneventful with an occasional bio-break stop and he drove through Nebraska. From that point my brother took over and that is when the fun driving began. Towards the western edge of Nebraska we ran into a winter mix of precipitation and throw in some fog to boot it made things hard for my brother. I was sleeping through it all and would wake up for bits of time and saw some sights but I was pretty tired and slept quite a bit when I was not driving or riding shotgun.

We arrived at our cousin's at about 7:00 am MST which translated into about 20 hours of driving. Well we chatted up a bit and then we all slept for a bit, when I woke up I got cleaned up and then we toured the Holy Cross Abbey and its winery. A good thing to as it was Fat Tuesday so we had to attend Ash Wednesday services which we were told were to be at 7:00 am. I tasted two wines and came away buying three bottles one cabernet and two rieslings. Good stuff.

So the day eventually came to an end and we all crashed. Claudia, Davidus, and I woke early and Davidus had some pancakes and coffee made. Claudia and I made it to the Ash Wednesday service on time. Then after some packing and farting around we left for the ski hill. IIRC we did not start skiing until afternoon (we checked into our lodging and spent some time farting around there as well). I tell you, the early breakfast did me no good, I became fatiqued very quickly, no doubt the altitude had something to do with that but the poor breakfast and no lunch helped with that. I went in for some beer and lunch but it was too late. I managed to get back out and ski some more runs but it was tough and my thighs were afire. If you go to a real ski hill make sure you eat a decent breakfast!

The rest of the day was resting, eating, swimming, and hot-tubbing! The hot tub was outside and the temp was about 0 (F) and the hot tub was nice and warm. Spent some time in a sauna too. It all seemed to help as the next day my legs were nowhere near as sore as I thought they would be, I had a very good breakfast and we checked out of the lodge and went skiing again. This time it was before noon and before eleven.

This time the skiing was much better. I was able to ski to the end of the day with an occasional break. I skied to the end of the day. I think even if the altitude was not a problem the longer runs would have still been causing the fatigue and need for breaks. I feel I skied well but did not venture onto challenging blues or any blacks, though there were a couple of these I probably would have attacked if I was not sooo tuckered out. The moral of the story is get in shape and eat well. The altitude is still going to get you but it is better to have one instead of three enemies.

We left Davidus' abode at about 3:00 pm MST and my brother took the first shift, my father the second, I took the fourth and my brother finished it off. No events and we took about 19.5 hours to get back to Manitowoc.

Anyway we skiied at Monarch Pass, check it out!


Anyway