HILLARY'S FIRST NIGHT AS PRESIDENT

In January 2009 Hillary Clinton gets elected President and is spending her first night in the White House. She has waited so long....... The ghost of George Washington appears, and Hillary says, "How can I best serve my country?" Washington says, "Never tell a lie." "Ouch!" Says Hillary, "I don't know about that."

The next night, the ghost of Thomas Jefferson appears... Hillary says, "How can I best serve my country?" Jefferson says, "Listen to the people." "Ohhh! I really don't want to do that."

On the third night, the ghost of Abe Lincoln appears... Hillary says, "How can I best serve my country?"

Lincoln says, "Go to the theater ."

This Weekend at Work

Blogging has been slow lately.

Recently my father suggested to me that since he was having a “big O” birthday in 2008 he would like a once in a lifetime gift. For those of you that don’t know, a “big O” birthday is one that ends with a zero and people say “Ohhhh, he’s still alive”.

Dad wants a real honest to goodness wild-west elk hunt, complete with guide, horses and someone to pamper us in a camp we don’t make ourselves. This is a switch for my father. As a kid I can only remember getting him to take me deer hunting once or twice. As far as I know the only things he’s ever killed is a few fish and small game. Anyway he wants a hunt and I’m all for it.

The last time I looked into what these things cost, it wasn’t a lot. When I started checking them out this month I realized that this was a “big O” hunting trip. “Big O” meaning “Ohhh, they get that kind of cash for taking you hunting?”.

To make this trip happen I’ve been taking on as much consulting work as I can, in addition to my day job. So I’ve been swamped with things to do and not enough hours in the day to do them.

Starting tomorrow (Friday) afternoon after work, I’m pulling down a 1400 mile road trip though Wyoming and Montana to knock out a 15 location job. Hopefully the roads will be good and the snow will hold off. I’ll take the digital and maybe I’ll get some decent shots.

Speaking of photo’s, today at work I got within 50 yards of a bald eagle, but the zoom on the digital isn’t the greatest so the pics are so-so. If you want to see them email and I’ll send you one.

If Bush and Co Had Watched More TV…

With thanks to Luke who posted the link at Nate's.

This Week in History

January 21, 1975 Jimmy Carter pardons draft dodgers
January 22, 1973 Supreme Court legalizes abortion
January 23, 1957 Wam-o invents Frisbee
January 24, 1935 Canned beer goes on sale

On January 22, 1973 the American Supreme Court ruled that we can’t know when life begins, so a women can kill her own baby, since keeping her from doing it would invade her constitutional right to privacy.

On that day 34 years ago America declared to history, that it was no longer fit, nor did it want to be known as a Christian nation.

Is it Hunting Season Yet?

These pictures taken not too far from my favorite hunting spot. I just hope I can draw that area this next year. The last pic is a 9 X 8 by my count. Some would call him a 10 X 8. You need to click the pic and zoom in to see why. Not to make you weep but he's still not the biggest elk I've seen in the area.

Just a Thought…

School Prayer….can’t do someone might be offended.

“In God We Trust”….NO NO! Someone might be offended.

A nativity scene at city hall….AHHHHHH! The Horror!

Praying in Jesus name….Bad juju in the US Navy.

The Ten Commandments…..Offensive, especially to Jewish ACLU lawyers.

Saying “Merry Christmas”….Elfcentric oppression, whats next making a list of who’s naughty and nice?

Which is more irrational: a man who believes in a God he can’t see, or a man who is offended by mentioning the name of a God he doesn’t believe exists?

MLK Day

Did you hear the joke about the Jew, the spic, and the nigger?

If you did, did you have the courage to speak out against it?

As a general rule I’m not a fan of politically correct holidays like today. Its mostly a feel good liberal day and I doubt that more than about 50% of American public school educated blacks can give you 3 reasons that Dr. King was a great man.

But I can. First he wanted ALL PEOPLE to be afforded the same legal rights and privileges. I think he’d be ashamed to see how his movement turned out. Today’s equality of outcome isn’t the same as equality of opportunity. I wonder, would the late great Dr. King want to go to a black medical doctor that only scored half as well as a Jewish doctor on his entrance exam to Med school, and was in the lower quartile throughout his studies, and was allowed to graduate not because of ability or “the content of his character” but because of the color of his skin?

Second, He was willing to achieve his goals through non-violent means. Watch old news coverage of his marches. See the police beat the marchers or sick dogs on them. It made white folks who had nothing to do with the events ashamed of what was going on and egger to vote to change things. Compare that mind set to black Muslims or the other thugs with a gripe who use the race card as a justification for being thugs.

Third. Although he was a man and had his weaknesses, like sleeping around, he wasn’t a con man. Compare him with a Marcus Garvey, Jesse Jackson or our first black president.

King is idealized because he was made into a martyr by an assassin’s bullet. I wonder what he would be doing if he were around (and able) today. Would he be a right to life advocate, would he march to preserve nativity scenes at town hall, when Roy Moore displayed the Ten Commandments outside his court would MLK have stood and took a beating to keep them there?

The battle for American Civil Rights, it not just for aging hippies anymore.

Smoking Crack and Likes it

Roci, a career government bureaucrat sees a new way to trample human rights and personal freedom while spending tax payer money and he likes it.

“Human Papaloma virus (HPV) infects about ½ of all women and is a cause of cervical cancer that kills over 270,000 women each year. Hmmm a vaccine that prevents a deadly cancer. Seems like a good idea to me.

This story from a local DC news channel claims that the DC city counsel is going to require all girls in the DC schools system to get this vaccine in the sixth grade.

The arguments for are obvious.

The arguments against are weak at best.

(snip)

The only real arguments there should be on this are “is this vaccine effective”, “ is it safe”, “is it worth the cost given the risks”, and “what is the best way to implement it”.

Then get on with it.”

I can think of some other legitimate questions like:

“What about my right (or the parents) to chose what goes into my body?”

“Why is any of this the city governments business?”

“Since when is a bunch of liberal do gooders qualified, not to mention licensed to practice medicine?”

If you are worried about things like public health costs, std rates, etc. The logical solution would be to quit having the public pay for the services. No public service, no cost, no problem. The public school system isn’t qualified or capable of teaching kids to do things like read, write, mathematics, or think clearly. Why would anyone trust them to handle something more important when they can’t do the job they have?

While we’re on the subject of competence; can the city council do it’s job? Are the streets pot hole free, how’s parking, crime rates, HEY, do you have a drug free mayor yet?

If you want to reduce the rate of HPV transmission in the public schools, you could give the vaccine to the teachers and that would keep them from passing it on to the kids. Silly me, public school teachers are noble creatures that only serve the best interests of the kids, they would never exploit them by having sex with them.

It seems to me that when public schools started teaching sex ed STD rates were lower. Now that we have comprehensive sex ed the STD and teen pregnancy rates are higher. What’s going to happen when the kids think they are protected from one form of STD because they got a shot?

If this was such a great idea I don’t think you’d have to make it mandatory/compulsory, parents would line up for it. I wonder how much cash the city council members got from the pharmaceutical companies.

The Latest List of Vincent Van Gogh Relatives

After much careful research it has been discovered that the artist Vincent Van Gogh had many relatives. Among them were:

His obnoxious brother, Please Gogh.

His dizzy aunt, Verti Gogh.

The brother who ate prunes, Gotta Gogh.

The brother who worked at a convenience store, Stop n' Gogh.

The grandfather from Yugoslavia, U Gogh.

The brother who bleached his clothes white, Hue Gogh.

The cousin from Illinois, Chica Gogh.

His magician uncle, Wherediddy Gogh.

His Mexican cousin, Amee Gogh.

The Mexican cousin's American half brother, Grin Gogh.

The nephew who drove a stage coach, Wellsfar Gogh.

The constipated uncle, Cant Gogh.

The ballroom dancing aunt, Tan Gogh.

The bird lover uncle, Flamin Gogh.

His nephew psychoanalyst, E Gogh.

The fruit loving cousin, Man Gogh.

An aunt who taught positive thinking, Wayto Gogh.

The little bouncy nephew, Poe Gogh.

A sister who loved disco, Go Gogh.

His Italian uncle, Day Gogh.

And his niece who travels the country in a van, Winnie Bay Gogh.

Doctors and Patients

Five surgeons are discussing who makes the best patients to operate on. The first surgeon says, "I like to see accountants on my operating table, because when you open them up, everything inside is numbered."

The second responds, "Yeah, but you should try electricians! Everything inside them is color-coded."

The third surgeon says, "No, I really think file clerks are
the best; everything inside them is in alphabetical order."

The fourth surgeon chimes in: "You know, I like construction workers. Those guys always understand when you have a few parts left over at the end, and when the job takes longer than you said it would."

But the fifth surgeon shut them all up when he observed: "You're all wrong. Politicians are the easiest to operate on. There's no guts, no heart, and no spine, and the head and tail are interchangeable."

Post em if ya got em .

It’s That Time of Year Again

It’s time to start thinking of your whitewater rafting plans in Colorado for Spring Melt Down. Every year we have a blast rafting and dinning at château de Water Boy. Start thinking about it now. We’ll start planning it in more detail latter in the spring.

This will be our 3^rd annual extravaganza as always it will be good food, good fun and good drink.

Note to WaterBoy: I can get as much of the 8 year old extra sharp cheddar as you want and some pretty good blue cheese too.

Ask and You Shall receive (sometimes)

“I am writing to request a story. It is about something that you mentioned parenthetically in your recount of the funeral ceremony. I want to know more about the linebacker that is a big reason that you are still a Christian. I want to know why you were in danger of becoming something other than a Christian. I want to understand.”

My decision to put my faith in Christ and to try to live as a Christian is something I waffled on most of my early life. I was brought up in a very conservative (you could say legalistic) church environment. When I was 12 or 13 I made a decision to be baptized in obedience to the gospel. I did this for two reasons, 1. I believed the Bible to be true, 2. I didn’t want to go to hell. This was the start of me developing as a Christian.

Through out my teen years I went back and forth on my commitment. Most of the things I choose to do (like party and drink) were a result of rebelling against my parents and against the Baptist private school they sent me to.

In Baptist school I learned that there exists a great deal of B.S. (that doesn’t stand for Bible Study) among so-called Christians. Being smart and biblically knowledgeable isn’t a good thing when you’re a smart-alecky kid, surrounded by obvious contradictions in a legalistic “Christian” environment. I developed a habit of critically tearing apart the foolishness and hypocrisy of those around me as an excuse for engaging in things I knew to be wrong.

I received a 75% scholarship to attend a private Christian college. I decided to get serious about my faith and declared a major in religious education and took honors level Bible classes. That summer I worked in the missions field and for church summer camps. I became very disgruntled with church people. The longer I stayed around church people the more I despised religion.

After graduation I moved west. I lived as I saw fit. Then I moved back to my parent’s home so I could work on an MBA. Living under their roof I was required to attend church. Free rent in exchange for a couple of hours on Sunday was an easy decision to make.

That’s when Marvin (his real name) happened. One day after church he grabbed me by the shoulder and asked “how are you and the Lord doing?”. I didn’t have a good answer. A few weeks latter he cornered me again and asked what I was doing the next weekend. I ended up at an all black church hearing him put on a gospel meeting. He did stuff like that all the time until he finally had me working as a prison Chaplin.

What happened was the only black man attending a conservative white church took an interest in the spiritual well being of a morally adrift white kid and put him to work on developing and maturing as a Christian. If he hadn’t come along I doubt I’d be a Christian today. The devil had too strong a hold on me. Marvin cross checked Satan; picked me up, dusted me off and set me back on track, and then he rode my butt for the next two years to make sure I didn’t backslide again.

That Dang Commute

Back in the day when I was a big time mortgage wholesaler, I drove 800 to 1200 miles a week in mostly urban traffic to see clients. When I quit the rat race and moved back to Wyoming I thought I gave all that up. Not so. Even in Wyoming we have traffic backups that can take up the better part of a day. I don’t care where you live, congested streets, delays and sharing the road with mindless sheep that just get in the way, just plain sucks.

What the picture doesn’t show is a horse that was trying to eat the black plastic guard off my bumper. You know your job is tough when their trying to eat you alive, or at least nibble the tailgate off.

Another though thing about my new job is: I have to keep telling myself that I can’t carry a gun to work and that poaching is wrong, and company policy forbids asking landowners permission to hunt and that even though nobody would know (probably) or hear my shot with a bow, that it just isn’t worth the risk to take a shot at one of these guys. The real tough thing is, these are two that were close enough for me to get a picture, daily I see bigger bucks.

Life can be so cruel when you’re a deer hunter.

Enjoy your Monday morning commute and pity me while you’re setting in your nice warm cubical. It’s cold and windy here.

A Good Christmas

No matter if you believe Jesus was born on December 25^th or not, Christmas time is all about one thing, the gifts. This year my family finally listened to my wishes and got me something I’ve wanted for years.

That’s right I’ve got a new hobby. I’ve finally gotten into fly tying. I’ve wanted to do this for a lot of reasons. Mostly because it looked fun. I also thought it would be cheaper than buying flies. The little kit I put together for the picture set me back $200 bucks and I still don’t have enough materials to build all the flies I fish with. Who am I kidding, I don’t care if it’s less money or not. I love doing it. It’s a blast. Nothing else feeds your inner OCD like fly tying. I can’t wait for spring so I can start catching fish on a fly rod and flies that I built myself.

This little guy is a representation of an adult Chironomidae.

If your saying to yourself, “it just looks like a little black bug”, you’d be correct. It’s a size 20 Griffiths gnat and one of the first flies I tried. It didn’t photograph too well but I’m happy with it.

Resolutions

If you have a cat, these are its “New Year's Resolutions".

My human will never let me eat their pet hamster, and I am at peace with that.

I will not slurp fish food from the surface of the aquarium

I will not eat large numbers of assorted bugs, then come home and throw them up so the humans can see that I'm getting plenty of roughage.

I will not lean way over to drink out of the tub, fall in, and then pelt right for the box of clumping cat litter. (It took FOREVER to get the stuff out of my fur.)

I will not use the bathtub to store live mice for late-night snacks.

We will not play "Herd of Thundering Wildebeests Stampeding Across the Plains of the Serengeti" over any humans' bed while they're trying to sleep.

I cannot leap through closed windows to catch birds outside. If I forget this and bonk my head on the window and fall behind the couch in my attempt, I will not get up and do the same thing again.

I will not assume the patio door is open when I race outside to chase leaves.

I will not stick my paw into any container to see if there is something in it. If I do, I will not hiss and scratch when my human has to shave me to get the rubber cement out of my fur.

If I bite the cactus, it will bite back.

When it rains, it will be raining on all sides of the house.

It is not necessary to check every door.

I will not play "dead cat on the stairs" while people are trying to bring in groceries or laundry, or else one of these days, it will really come true.

When the humans play darts, I will not leap into the air and attempt to catch them.

I will not swat my human's head repeatedly when they are on the family room floor trying to do sit ups.

When my human is typing at the computer, their forearms are *not* a hammock.

Computer and TV screens do not exist to backlight my lovely tail.

I will not puff my entire body to twice its size for no reason after my human has watched a horror movie.

I will not stand on the bathroom counter, stare down the hall, and growl at NOTHING after my human has watched the X-Files.

I will not drag dirty socks onto the bed at night and then yell at the top of my lungs so that my humans can admire my "kill."

I will not perch on my human's chest in the middle of the night and stare until they wake up.

I will not walk on the key board when my human is writing important adagfsg gdjag ;ln.