24 September 2007
20 September 2007
05 September 2007
04 September 2007
Fort de Chartres State Historic Site
It is amazing how much history is around you and most people don't even know it. Fort de Chartres State Historic Site is just about an hour south of here. I've seen it on the map but when I actually got around to visiting it, well it was much more than I ever expected. The oldest standing building in Illinois is within its walls. Being there reminded me of visiting a castle keep in Europe.
10 August 2007
50 Cent: I'll quit if outsold by West
We can only hope! And once word of this starts spreading it might juts happen. I'm doing my part!
:-)
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08 August 2007
06 August 2007
04 August 2007
02 August 2007
Minnesota bridge problems uncovered in 1990
Minnesota bridge problems uncovered in 1990.
My thoughts go out to the families affected by this tragedy. The infrastructure in this country is decaying and government at all levels needs to start taking a look at fixing it. I suspect we'll see a few more tragedies in the coming years because people have been negligent. It is more glamorous to build a new baseball stadium than to fix a bridge.
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29 July 2007
Cool optical illusion
Spinning Girl
28 July 2007
The Traveling Wall
25 July 2007
I'm now a Red/Black Belt
:-)
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23 July 2007
18 July 2007
Generation Chickenhawk
Generation Chickenhawk: the Unauthorized College Republican Convention Tour
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16 July 2007
12 July 2007
Christian Right Activists Disrupt Hindu Chaplain In The Senate
Guess these people don't believe in the Constitution. Not that I'm not surprised; most religious fanatics don't.
Christian Right Activists Disrupt Hindu Chaplain In The Senate
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07 July 2007
Interview with a Girl At A Rush Concert
Interview with a Girl At A Rush Concert.
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04 July 2007
In Congress, July 4, 1776 The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America
people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with
another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and
equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle
them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they
should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.
We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created
equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable
Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of
Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted
among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed,
— That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these
ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to
institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and
organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely
to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate
that Governments long established should not be changed for light and
transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that
mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to
right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed.
But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably
the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute
Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such
Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such
has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the
necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of
Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a
history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct
object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To
prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.
He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and
pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his
Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly
neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large
districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of
Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and
formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual,
uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their Public Records,
for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his
measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause
others to be elected, whereby the Legislative Powers, incapable of
Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise;
the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of
invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for
that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners;
refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and
raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary Powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people and eat out their substance.
He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil Power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign
to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent
to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial from punishment for any Murders
which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:
For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefit of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:
For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring
Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging
its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument
for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.
He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries
to compleat the works of death, desolation, and tyranny, already begun
with circumstances of Cruelty & Perfidy scarcely paralleled in the
most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized
nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high
Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of
their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.
He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has
endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless
Indian Savages whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished
destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.
In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress
in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered
only by repeated injury. A Prince, whose character is thus marked by
every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free
people.
Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We
have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to
extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of
the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have
appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured
them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations,
which would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence.
They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity.
We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our
Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in
War, in Peace Friends.
We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America,
in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the
world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by
Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and
declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free
and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to
the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and
the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and
that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War,
conclude Peace contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all
other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And
for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the
protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our
Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.
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03 July 2007
Is it real or not?
Net Authority
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28 June 2007
Jesse Matney 1920 - 2007
Jesse Matney 1920 - 1997
The graveside service will be at 11 a.m. Thursday, June 28, at West Lawn Memorial Park in Eugene for Jessie Cleveland Matney of Eugene. He died June 25 of age-related causes at age 87.
He was born Feb. 3, 1920, in Iola, Kan., to Grover and Eva Hatfield Matney. He and his wife, Georgia, were married July 5, 1941, in Galena, Mo.
He served in the Army in World War II, and worked as a general laborer in construction.
Survivors include two sons, Don of Albany and Kenneth of Springfield; a sister, Liela Daniels of Springfield, Mo.; 10 grandchildren and many great-grandchildren. His wife died Nov. 22, 2003.
Arrangements by Musgrove Family Mortuary in Eugene. Remembrances to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints mission program.
24 June 2007
23 June 2007
17 June 2007
16 June 2007
10 June 2007
Goodbye to Linux (for now)
XP for my main OS. I’ve given it a go but it never worked quite right
for me. I spent more time trying to get things to work the way I wanted
versus actually being productive. I know from reading some of the
comments to my previous posts I’ll get some flack for that but that
doesn’t matter. It is my computer and as one of my friends said who
uses Linux exclusively said: use what OS is right for you regardless of
what it is. I’ve heard many a Linux user say that your computer should
work for you, not you for it. So XP it is (not spending the money on
Vista). So goodbye Linux (for now). I still have a few live distros to
spin up once in a while…
Cross posted over at my other blog On A Storyteller's Night
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02 June 2007
Frack!
Looks like the 4th season of Battlestar Galactica is the last. But on the same hand with the storyline of finding earth having a definite end is a good thing. But still....frack!
And then to top it off the character of Dr. Carson Beckett gets killed off on Atlantis last night. What is going on with all my favourite shows?!!!
Frack frack frack!!!
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30 May 2007
28 May 2007
Memorial Day
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27 May 2007
Mussolini’s “The Political and Social Doctrine of Fascism”
Mussolini's "The Political and Social Doctrine of Facism"
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18 May 2007
Jericho cancelled - stupid frackin' CBS
Terror on Wall Street
Terror on Wall Street
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16 May 2007
Movies mirror our culture, like it or not
Movies mirror our culture, like it or not.
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06 May 2007
25 April 2007
Today is ANZAC Day
ANZAC
22 April 2007
09 April 2007
New track up at fuelweb.com
Fuel Official Site
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07 April 2007
04 April 2007
Bush outflanks Congress to name Fox ambassador
Bush outflanks Congress to name Fox ambassador
Argh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
02 April 2007
Princess Alice and the Broken Arrow Chart positions
Well done!
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/chart/rockalbums.shtml
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Crops -- and our wallets -- may get stung by bee problems - MarketWatch
It isn't just the US either. There is a problem in the UK with bees dying off too. Bees are absolutely vital to certain plants to survive. It's little things like this that add up and will cause the human race problems.
01 April 2007
30 March 2007
27 March 2007
Magnum hit the UK charts at #29
Official Magnum Website
Now scientists create a sheep that's 15% human
Bah! Nothing new here. Sheepherders have been injecting human DNA into sheep for years. It's only the method that has changed if you get my drift!
:-O
21 March 2007
Magnum - Back Street Kid "live"
18 March 2007
Magnum Fans
Magnum fans
If you are interested I run a group on Yahoo about the band also. Come on over, join and talk about the band with other fans.
Yahoo Groups - Magnum fans
12 March 2007
10 March 2007
Oregon Ducks/USC Trojans Recap Saturday March 10, 2007
NCAA Basketball - Oregon Ducks/USC Trojans Recap Saturday March 10, 2007 - Yahoo! Sports
Brad Delp, lead singer of Boston dead at 55
Brad Delp, lead singer of Boston dead at 55.
08 March 2007
John Inman dead at 71
BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Obituary: John Inman
"I'm free!"
05 March 2007
Just speechless
I love the following:
It has indeed been liberating for those of us who deservedly wield the economic, political, and social power in the US to eviscerate the Magna Carta, the Constitution, and the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. We've no need of archaic or foreign documents declaring and defining rights for all human beings. My God, man. Habeas corpus and the Bill of Rights have outlived their usefulness. You aging hippies and starry-eyed dreamers crying over their loss need to get over it! Besides, it's painfully obvious we are not all created equal. If that were the case, men wouldn't dominate women, there wouldn't be long-term psychiatric care facilities, people wouldn't choose to sleep in their own urine on the street, and schools wouldn't have to provide for "special needs" children.
And then at the end he says:
We are Americans!
We love our nation. America is number one, and we aim to keep it that way!
If you don't like that, Chalmers Johnson, then get the hell out!
How Jay Gould considers himself an American is beyond me. He seems to hate the very things that make us who we are. The Bill of Rights and Habeas Corpus have outlived their usefulness? That is his vision of what America is?
Here is the article that got him going:
Republic or Empire
03 March 2007
02 March 2007
More Magnum - Soldier Of The Line
More Magnum tonight. Another of Tony's most powerful songs.
"Soldier Of The Line"
Soldier of the line how does it feel
You're far away from home polishing steel
The sun moves in between the mountain and sky
As dawn puts out its fingers splitting them wide
Soldier of the line what do you know
About the other side, they never show
They must be well disguised biding their time
Their armour well prepared so nothing will shine
Soldier of the line would you kill me
There's something in your eyes stopping you see
They're cloudy and you turn your head away
What's that rolling down your face, are you OK?
Hold back those tears from your eye
Don't show those feelings inside
You're in a murderous playground
War games on a castle wall
You're in a murderous playground
Crossed out if you dare to fall
Soldier of the line it isn't fair
You're bleeding deep inside nobody cares
Your flag and lance stand proud splintered and red
No movement in the field, the crows will be fed
Soldier of the line you've come to the end
You'll never get to see your mother again
Some unfamiliar place you're going to stay
An unremembered name an unforgettable day
Magnum - Sacred Hour
"Sacred Hour"
All of my dreams that fell through and had tasted so sour
Take second place in my mind for this one sacred hour
Still I've been moved for so long by this strange fascination
Here as I stand all alone in complete concentration
Face through the clouds in the Gods shine with awe and splendour
Rise up and roar they approve will they always remember
I hear the voice of the crowd, it will last forever
Locked in my heart kept away like a stolen treasure
I can hear them calling
Hear the crowd applauding
If it's real I like the feeling
If I'm wrong who am I deceiving?
Night after night it repeats an exciting romance
Shared by us all though we met by a fleeting half-chance
Caught, trapped in time no escape from this powerful dreamworld
Pleased though I am to be here I am lost in the real world
Soldier, 25, dies after re-enlisting to aid ailing wife
This story bothers me on so many levels. Another soldier dead, another family ripped apart. Children growing up without their father. That this man loved his wife so much that he re-enlisted to ensure she could get the medical care she needed. That he had to do it to be able to have health insurance because of the sad state of health care in this country. That his wife had to be told of his death on the day she left the hospital. It truly is a kingdom of madness.
RIP Army Sgt. William "B.J." Beardsley. After reading this article I know I won't forget you.
27 February 2007
Rock legend Billy Thorpe dies
Another legend dies. Most Americans know "Children of the Sun" as it is a staple on classic rock radio. Thanks for the music Billy and may you RIP.
21 February 2007
Spitzer First To Crack Open Light of Faraway Worlds | Science Blog
At this rate what will we be seeing in another 20 years? Bring on the future.
20 February 2007
Planned Van Halen tour hits roadblock >> liveDaily
The train wreck never even left the station. Not that I'm surprised one bit.
19 February 2007
It is NOT Presidents Day!!!
Urban Legends Reference Pages: Presidents Day
The 2006 MelRock Awards & 2007 Preview
The 2006 MelRock Awards & 2007 Preview
Toys R Us and Hooters Sign
I've probably driven by this dozens of times in Fairview Heights but I just noticed it today. Gave me a good laugh
16 February 2007
Spice Girls to reunite
Who saw that one coming eh?
:-)
11 February 2007
The Police on the Grammy Awards
Al-Qaeda 'praying for Obama win' | NEWS.com.au
Al-Qaeda 'praying for Obama win' | NEWS.com.au: "PRIME Minister John Howard has launched a broadside against US presidential hopeful Barack Obama, warning his victory could destroy Iraq and prospects for peace in the Middle East."
Global Rich List
I'm # 49,322,169 or in the top 0.82% richest people in the world. But with my travels in the military I know I'm well off compared to some of the people I've seen.
10 February 2007
USDA may allow China to import chickens to U.S.
Why in the hell would we need to import chickens to eat here in the US? This is just nuts.
Student is given a stiff penalty
And as always, check out Page3 when visiting the Sun.
;-)
09 February 2007
Paraplegic allegedly 'dumped' on skid row - Los Angeles Times
Just plain wrong. Someone needs to be held accountable. We're the most powerful nation on earth militarily yet we do this to our own citizens. Power is nothing if this is what we are becoming, all because of money. Disgusting.
PINK CREAM 69: 'In10sity' Release Date Set
BLABBERMOUTH.NET - PINK CREAM 69: 'In10sity' Release Date Set
Doomsday' vault design unveiled
BBC NEWS | Science/Nature | 'Doomsday' vault design unveiled
Man gets breakfast tattoo on head
He should have gotten a tattoo of a brain so at least he would have one.
07 February 2007
Senator to propose surveillance of illegal images | CNET News.com
Senator to propose surveillance of illegal images | CNET News.com: "
A forthcoming bill in the U.S. Senate lays the groundwork for a national database of illegal images that Internet service providers would use to automatically flag and report suspicious content to police."
06 February 2007
Washington initiative would require married couples to have kids
While this has no chance of ever passing it does however point out the silliness of one argument some use against same sex marriage. If marriage is for the purpose of procreation and should therefore exclude homosexuals then why shouldn't it exclude those hetero couples that also don't have children?
Watching America
Watching America: "America's Public Intelligence Agency
03 February 2007
Pandora Internet Radio - Find New Music, Listen to Free Web Radio
Pandora Internet Radio - Find New Music, Listen to Free Web Radio
Murdoch: Big media has less sway on Internet
Murdoch: Big media has less sway on Internet:
"Asked if his News Corp. managed to shape the agenda on the war in Iraq, Murdoch said: 'No, I don't think so. We tried.' Asked by Rose for further comment, he said: 'We basically supported the Bush policy in the Middle East...but we have been very critical of his execution.'"
02 February 2007
Packers QB Favre to return for 17th year - Yahoo! News
Packers QB Favre to return for 17th year - Yahoo! News
Matt Groening talks about Futurama's comeback - TV Squad
Matt Groening talks about Futurama's comeback - TV Squad
Florida to Shift Voting System With Paper Trail - New York Times
Florida to Shift Voting System With Paper Trail - New York Times
01 February 2007
'Aqua Teen' Incident Begs Question: Have We Become Too Paranoid?
'Aqua Teen' Incident Begs Question: Have We Become Too Paranoid?
30 January 2007
Bush Directive Increases Sway on Regulation - New York Times
Bush Directive Increases Sway on Regulation - New York Times
I wonder if their official title will be "Political Officer"?
28 January 2007
Update to the gay bands story
Respectful Insolence: Donnie Davies "outed"?
100 Greatest Guitar Solos
100 Greatest Guitar Solos
27 January 2007
Princess Alice and the Broken Arrow release dates
Looks like Magnum's Princess Alice and the Broken Arrow will have a release date of April 3rd 2007 here in the US. It comes out in Germany on the 23rd of March and the rest of Europe on the 26th.
Magnum and Bob Catley Official Web site