Warning: Political Rants

Retired Generals
Former general and one time presidential candidate Wesley Clark better watch out. Looks like we got another half dozen or so former generals taking pot shots at Bush via attacks on Donald Rumsfeld.

Let me see if I get this:

We lost almost 60,000 soldier's lives in Viet Nam, and lost the war.

Russia was in Afghanistan for about 9 years, never won, and lost about 15,000 soldiers.

America defeated the Afghanistan Taliban in a matter of weeks and have helped the people set up a fledgeling democracy. US deaths, about 400.

America defeated the Iraqis in a matter of weeks and have also set up a fledgeling democracy where 70 percent of the country went to vote, repeatedly, knowing they might be killed. US deaths, about 2400.

Yes there is still work to be done in both places. Yes insurgents from all over the arab world pour into Iraq and Afghanistan and try to kill our troups and the new armies and police. I know this.

But Donald Rumsfeld is an incompetent who needs to be fired? Come on people. Give me a break.

Methinks Wesley Clark might have some competition setting themselves up for the next presidential race.


Illegal Aliens
Man this whole illegal alien thing in the US is getting all out of hand. I mean, now the illegal aliens don't like being called illegal aliens. But I personally still call all illegal aliens, illegal aliens.

I grew up being picked on because I was fat. I never let it bother me much because, hey, I was, and am fat. Come on, use your brain if you have one and tell me something I don't know. Besides, I was bigger than most of them, and you know that the bigger they are, the harder they hit.

Not only that, but I'm a fat, white, Christian, politically conservative, male. Just myself, I fulfill five of the last bastions of America where it's considered ok to be openly disrespectful and to call names.

Take your average liberal on DailyKos or wherever as an example. Any time they speak about Rush Limbaugh, they get to the fat, white, male insults within three or four sentences. And these knuckle-heads are the politically correct crowd, right? On the moral high ground and whatnot? And Rush Limbaugh hasn't been fat in years now, but they tear into him like a starving dog with a fresh sirloin.

So these same folks immediately call anyone who refers to illegal aliens as illegal aliens racists and bigots.

Go figure. Seriously, is that all ya got?

But I for one will stand firm and continue to call illegal aliens, illegal aliens.

Because that's what illegal aliens are, illegal aliens.


Lou Dobbs
CNN business guru Lou Dobbs is now target number one for the illegal aliens and the carpetbaggers who are using the illegal aliens to press home their socialist/communist, excuse me, 'progressive' agenda.

We ought to all watch Lou Dobbs as much as we can and inundate CNN with support letters and emails for Lou Dobbs to counter the illegal alien's attacks on him.

Why are the illegal aliens and their handlers doing this? Because Lou Dobbs has the stones to speak out bluntly about the REAL cost to America and the drag the illegal aliens put on the country's economic situation.

So the illegal aliens now have it in for Lou Dobbs because he is speaking the unvarnished truth about illegal aliens and their cost to America and Americans.

SUPPORT LOU DOBBS!


That is all. Carry on.

The Many Musings Of A Manic Monday Morning

Score!
Went to heaven, excuse me, Barnes and Noble yesterday afternoon and seriously promised myself I would not buy anything.

Of course within three minutes I had found a re-issue of a book I had wanted twelve or thirteen years ago. AND it was in the cheap, buy-this-and-get-it-out-of-our-store section.

Being from Monroe, Louisiana, and a guitar nut, I had been enthralled by a coffee table type book that came out in the early 1990's about the guitars of master luthier Daniel Ferrington.

Go see about it HERE.

Mr. Ferrington is also from Monroe and in fact graduated from Ouachita Parish High School (pronounced WASH-itaw), the same school my wife graduated from. He was there a few years before my wife though.

He moved to Nashville and made custom guitars for a lot of famous country music folks and later moved to LA and did the same there for some pop/rock icons. It is a fascinating book by one of the few truly original luthiers out there. I thought it was cool that we are from the same area.

The book is big and well-done and comes with a CD of many famous musicians/singers playing their Ferrington guitars.

Mucho cool.



Cheap Candy
With yesterday being Easter and all, today you can probably get some killer deals on left-over Easter candy.

But I'm on a pretty strict diet when it comes to sweets, so would somebody out there buy some Cadbury Cream Eggs, eat them, and think of me? Maybe even write to tell me how they were?

I love Cadbury Cream Eggs.


Notorious Bank Robbers
When I was ten or so and went to my local Baptist Church, I was in Sunday School and Galileans with two boys named Frank and Jesse James. They were really nice kids though, but why would their parents saddle (ha, ha) their sons with names like that?

I hadn't thought of those guys in probably twenty years or more. Wonder where they are now?



Don't Try This At Home
I also went to Sunday School there with another kid who held a .22 bullet over a fire with a pair of pliers to see if it would go off.

The answer is yes. The bullet went through his hand.

I've done some dumb things in my life but never anything that dumb.


I Can't Believe We Did That
At this same Baptist Church, when I was about ten or so, we created a haunted house for Halloween. At the church!

Can you believe that? Why in the heck would the adults at a Christian church have us create and act parts in a haunted house on Halloween?

Halloween is the very antithesis of what Christianity is about!

And me?


I WAS DRACULA AND WOULD POP OUT OF MY COFFIN WITH MY GLOW IN THE DARK VAMPIRE FANGS AND TRY TO SCARE PEOPLE!

Us kids didn't know any better and I now find it almost impossible to believe the adults put us up to all that.

It's a wonder we had enough sense to get out of the rain.

100 Things About Me

In 'as they came to me' Order...(Updated July 2008)

1 I'm a Christian.
2 I have now been married over half of my life.
3 I graduated from high school in 1980.
4 I earned an AA in Law Enforcement from Northeast Louisiana University (now Univ. of Louisiana at Monroe) in 1983.
5 I earned a BS in Electrical Engineering from Louisiana Tech in 1996.
6 I have a 2 year bible study diploma from Victory Bible Teaching Center, although that's just for me, and not an accredited degree.
7 I have two daughters, 19 and 22.
8 I have lived in Louisiana three times. (Monroe and Bossier City)
9 I have lived in Texas. (Bedford, Irving, and The Colony, all near Dallas)
10 I have lived in Georgia. (Powder Springs, NE of Atlanta)
11 I have lived in Florida twice. (Fort Walton Beach and Palm Bay)
12 I liked Georgia the best.
13 I (we) have 4 small poodles (Angel, Rosie, Lilly, and Spike).
14 I (we) have one cat (Sassy) who was a stray and still kinda wild.
15 My father has passed away (in 1994),
16 but my mother is still living in Louisiana.
17 I have an older sister in Louisiana,
18 and a younger brother in Louisiana,
19 but my older brother passed away in 2001.
20 I HATE talking on the telephone.
21 I have had four back surgeries, and one kidney stone.
22 I have ABSOLUTELY NO fear of any dog, regardless of size or ferocity, and I do not understand why.
23 One of my dreams is to cross America on a self-supported bicycle tour.
24 I play guitar, but I'm not that good.
25 I worked for Delta Airlines for a number of years,
26 and it breaks my heart to see Delta in danger of folding.
27 I don't like sweet tastes with my main meal. (Cranberry sauce, sweet and sour sauce, etc.)
28 My favorite foods are pizza with everything, including anchovies, and home grilled hamburgers.
29 I prefer writing by hand on paper to typing words on a computer.
30 I watch TV some, but could totally live without it.
31 I have never liked sitcoms. Not even Seinfeld, Friends, MASH, or Raymond.
32 I have never seen even one episode of The Simpsons.
33 I have never seen even one episode of Southpark.
34 My number one all-time favorite CD/album is 'Seeds of Love' by Tears For Fears from 1989;
35 but it actually might be in a tie with the 'By God' CD by the group Disciple.
36 My all-time favorite movie is Local Hero.
37 Since I had an older brother, I NEVER got to be Batman when I was a kid. I was always Robin.
38 I know what I believe about life, God, and politics; and I know WHY I believe what I do,
39 but I don't like to argue about life, God, or politics.
40 I will, however, answer with complete honesty and sincerity any question put to me about life, God, or politics.
41 I like being with people and talking for hours,
42 but I also love being by myself in silence for hours.
43 I've always wanted to live in a two story house, because as a kid I thought stairs were cool. (unfulfilled so far)
44 I would like to move back to Georgia some day.
45 I would like to go back to college for a Master's Degree, and I am working to start that effort in 2007.
46 The famous person I'd most like to have over for Bar-B-Q and talk with a while is Lance Armstrong.
47 I wear glasses all the time, but my eyesight isn't bad enough to be required for my driver's license.
48 I'm nearsighted in one eye, and farsighted in the other.
49 I grew up going to Baptist Churches,
50 but as an adult I've always gone to Charismatic Churches.
51 I realize now that I had a 'Leave It To Beaver' childhood. I had it good, and I have thanked both my parents for this.
52 One of my big regrets is that my Father sold something precious to him for me to go to the doctor as a child, and I always wanted to replace it, but he died before I could.
53 I like sunsets better than sunrises.
54 I have four electric guitars (ridiculous) and one acoustic guitar.
55 I have one electric bass.
56 I have played both guitar and bass at times for my church's services.
57 I have had tinnitus (ringing in the ears) for as long as I can remember, certainly since childhood.
58 I have only broken bones twice; once in the right wrist, and once in the left wrist.
59 I would like to write a fictional novel, and am confident I will some day. UPDATE: I wrote one whole novel for National Novel Writing Month in 2006 and about half of one for NANOWRIMO in 2007)
60 I used to be a serious amateur photographer, but now mostly just take snapshots for posterity. UPDATE: I've re-established my love of photography since starting this blog.
61 I embrace the digital revolution in music and photography.
62 I do not miss film or vinyl records. AT ALL.
63 I like to eat bananas when they are a little bit green and before they get spots.
64 My hair is so thick that every barber I've ever had remarked on it; they earn their money when they cut my hair.
65 My favorite color is blue.
66 I don't have a favorite number, none spark an emotion in me like colors or smells. I really dig prime numbers though.
67 The only sports I really like are pro cycling and college football. Well I usually watch the super bowl in the NFL, but I dislike basketball, NASCAR, and pretty much every other sport.
68 I can't speed read, but I can read a 500-600 page novel in one day. Or two smaller mysteries which tend to be about 300 pages.
69 My memory is such that I can reread books I like every few years and enjoy them again.
70 But I can still do most math I need for engineering work without having to look it up, but I generally do anyway to check accuracy because I'm getting paid for it.
71 I believe in the right to keep and bear arms, and if you break into my home one night, I'll prove it. I'll even let you pick which caliber I use.
72 Over the years I have bought newer versions of my favorite old Hotwheels die cast cars as they are re-issued.
73 My favorite Hotwheel is the Red Baron.
74 I have always LOVED riding bicycles.
75 I usually over-explain things. I stop when I see people's eyes roll back in their heads or if they start snoring.
76 I (we) have one fish. (A beta named Mr. Fish) UPDATE: R.I.P., Mr. Fish. We now have another beta named Mortimer
77 I do not like coffee in any form, hot, iced, coffee flavored candy, nothing.
78 I'm a very good cook, but I don't like cooking. I just like to eat a lot, so I cook.
79 I was born with platinum white hair, but was blond when young, that became light brown hair as an adult, but God is slowly turning my hair back to the original white.
80 I have light blue eyes.
81 I'm extremely right handed, that's why it has been slow going for me learning the guitar.
82 I sat through the full force of hurricanes Jeanne and Frances in 2004 with my family and critters.
83 I also have sat through the outer edges of other hurricanes.
84 I still have home damage yet to be repaired from the 2004 hurricanes. UPDATE: Repairs are all done.
85 I shave most days but have kept a bushy mustache all of my adult life.
86 I still have a strong enough southern accent that people pick on me about it.
87 I have a big vocabulary but I don't use it much when talking because I think $20 words sound stupid spoken in a $2 accent.
88 I have no tattoos or piercings.
89 I like the color pink even thought I'm a male.
90 I like bunches of multi-colored, twinkling lights on my Christmas tree.
91 I detest gangster movies. Detest, I say! (Godfather I, hated it. II and III, didn't bother. Goodfellas, nope.)
92 There have been very few people in my whole life that I couldn't get along with.
93 I'm not naturally a touchy, huggy type person, but I wish I hugged my family more that I do.
94 Other people's traits that bother me are almost always things I hate because I hate them in myself. (does that make sense?)
95 I love doing touristy stuff like stopping at scenic overlooks and to read historical markers.
96 Even as a kid in school I liked word problems best and never understood why people hated them. (still don't I guess)
97 I like any music with great guitar, especially heavy metal (rowdy) and smooth jazz guitar (relaxing).
98 I always read the manual first for any new purchase and always read and follow assembly instructions. It saves time and stress.
99 For pleasure I mostly read fictional adventure and mystery novels to escape for a while. Nonfiction is usually bible related, physics, travel stories, or on the craft of writing.
100 On more than one occasion in my life, I have run while holding a sharp object. I was not harmed.

Wondering How I Would Have Been Different If ...

When I was young, I lived in a small town in Louisiana called Vidalia. It's on the Louisiana side of the Mississippi River directly across from Natchez, Mississippi. I went to school from first through seventh grades there between fall of 1968 and spring of 1975.

Then one day my Dad came to me and asked me how I would like it if we moved to Monroe, Louisiana. Now you gotta understand, at age 11, and living in a town of about 4,000 souls, the prospect of moving to a city of 50,000 people was an awesome thing to contemplate. Heck, when we used to travel to visit my paternal grandparents in Bastrop, LA, we would BEG our parents to drive through Monroe so's us country mice could see the big city. People even had two story homes in Monroe! And there were many multi-story buildings too! Wow!

It was like asking me if I wanted to go visit Santa's workshop, so my answer was a big ol' YEAH!

So, after the school year ended in May 1975 (and my sister graduated from HS), we moved to Monroe. And I went from 8th grade through high school there and my first time in college. I consider Monroe to be my home town. This move changed my life so drastically.

And I wonder, what would my life have been like had I grown up in the small town of Vidalia? Not necessarily better or less so, but certainly different.


I think about this because we moved to Palm Bay, Florida when my daughters were in 2nd and 6th grades. How different would their lives be if we would have had an opportunity to stay in Monroe. They started school in Monroe because we had moved back to Louisiana from Georgia for me to attend Louisiana Tech, to finish the electrical engineering degree I'd started at Southern Tech in Marietta, Ga.

It's just strange to think about how different our lives would have been had we gone down different paths than we have. For example, my time in the Atlanta area was the genesis of me starting back to college in the first place. And what a difference my engineering degree has made.

Of the two moves I've talked about here, I would change neither.

Have there been moves or changes in your life you wish you could take back or do you ever wonder how things would have been different?

---

Terry Bradshaw

Since I talked about having gone to Louisiana Tech, I have to mention this about Terry Bradshaw, a fellow graduate of LA Tech. He just donated a bunch of his football stuff, including super bowl rings and whatnot to the school.

Very, very cool.

Stuff I Think About

I personally think that one of the most fascinating and inspiring things that man has ever accomplished was the launch, repair, and finally the use of the Hubble Space Telescope.

In this world of wars and rumors of wars, voices screaming at the top of their lungs, and plain ol' confusion, it's nice to be able to simply do something that causes my mind to expand and embrace wonder.

As a Christian, I can read my bible. Pray. Meditate on God's awesomeness and be inspired and energized. For me that's big league stuff. But on a different level, I can sometimes be blown away by a sunset, or a cute kid giggling in the grocery store. (I know. Kids are usually screaming in the grocery store. Just go with me here, ok?)

And in that vein of more earthly things that can thrill me, I really like scientific stuff. The Hubble Telescope is the pinnacle (pronounced pea-knuckle) of scientific effort in my book.

And man, the photos from Hubble have been spectacular, haven't they? Beautiful and awesome things out in the universe that we had never seen. Many of it's photos have become famous, but my favorite is one that is not visually that spectacular.

In 1995 Hubble was pointed to a 'keyhole' part of the sky that was, from our perspective, very dark. It was an attempt to see past the closer stuff out into the universe as far as it could see. These photos are called the Deep Field Images. What will amaze you, if you'll enlarge the photo below and just look at it for a couple of minutes, is that almost all of the lights in the photo are GALAXIES. There are individual stars, but what never fails to blow my mind is how this photo of a tiny part of the sky, looking almost to the edge of the visible universe, is the astounding number of galaxies. Hundreds of Milky Ways in one tiny section of sky.
How many lives are on planets out there? At what point in time were these galaxies existing when the light captured by Hubble left them? A billion years ago? Two billion for some?

The universe is so big. It's just SO much to try to take in.

---

Astronaut Joe Tanner
In the photo to the left, of one of the shuttle missions to repair the Hubble Telescope, you can see a man's arms reaching down from the end of the mechanical arm, near the center of the photo.

This is astronaut Joe Tanner. My daughters got to meet him when he came to their school a number of years ago. And five years ago I got to go watch a night launch, from the VIP area at Kennedy Space Center, of a shuttle mission with Mr. Tanner on it, and it was one of those great memories I'll take to my grave. (STS-97, Nov. 30, 2000)

It's all neato and peachy keen, but those Hubble deep field images never fail to fill me with awe and wonder at this universe.

---

There IS some justice in the world!

It's about dang time!




Just trying to keep it reah, and represent, here on the Least Significant Bits blog...

Big Headed Quaker Oats Guy and Burger King Guy

Is it just me, or do you guys think these two are pretty creepy?

I like the Burger King commercials because they're funny, like the one the guy rolls out of bed one morning, opens the window shade and there's Huge Head Burger King Guy standing there looking creepy with a sack in hand. But the oversized head and the Hannibal Lecter 'I'm gonna have you for lunch' smile is really freaky lookin'.

The Quaker Oats guy is pretty freaky too because his expression is the one people make when they try to keep their mouths closed and burp quietly. But the Quaker Oats commercials are pretty tame and rather boring.

And hey, I have a pretty big noggin my own self, but these guys...

Maybe they're big-headed brothers who have both found a way to make a living doing characters, like Michael Jackson and Elvis impersonators. (No disrespect to Elvis impersonators meant)

I'm not complainin', I'm just sayin'...
_______________________________________

Also, Happy Birthday Lydia

_______________________________________

Cheeta
When I was a kid, I loved the old black and white, Johnny Weissmuller Tarzan movies. And I loved Cheeta, his chimpanzee friend.

The original trainer for Cheeta had 4 chimps. And one of them ended up doing 10 or 12 Tarzan movies.

This Cheeta is still alive and just turned 74 years old!

And is in the Guinness Book of World Records as the oldest known primate. Still relatively healthy although it has to have insulin shots daily for diabetes.

Still has all of his teeth!

Cool.

April 11, Happy Birthday Paul

My older brother Paul, would have been 47 years old today. He died in February of 2001 of a heart attack. He was a very kind and generous person and an awesome friend to me.

I miss you bro. It's still tough getting used to a world without you in it. You were always there for me.

Paul: April 11, 1959 - February 27, 2001





We took this picture in our home two days before he died.