Dear Abby

Dear Abby,

I understand that you are being honored by PFLAG for your open support of
'Gay Marriage'.

The Associated Press reported today that you feel homosexuality is a genetic
property, and that 'gays' should either be afforded all the rights that
'straights' have or at least be given a huge tax break.

First let me say that I understand your position, however, I am unable to
agree with it. Now let me tell you why.

In order to enter into a discussion about these matters I find that it is
impossible to communicate clearly given the state of the current popular
lexicon. Words like 'gay' and 'straight' only seem to have clear meanings,
when in fact, they don't.

For example, when we say 'gay and lesbian', are the terms gender specific?
If so, then where is the push for homosexual women's rights? Why are we
only supporting the rights of homosexual men? Clearly that isn't the case,
and hence the confusion as to the exact meaning of the term 'gay'.
Personally I prefer such good and wholesome words as gay, used in many a
Christmas
carol, not be dragged through the mud. Leave it alone. The term
'homosexual' is clear, concise, and non-gender specific.

Greater confusion exists where the term 'straight' is concerned.
Does this term include those who practice adultery as a way of life? Serial
relationships are not healthy whether they are of mixed genders or not.
When
I think of straights, I think of those people who are as straight as an
arrow, who marry once and make it for life, who never cheat on that marriage
and who did not play around even before the marriage. But the ambiguity in
the term is helpful to those who do not wish to deal with everything
clearly.

So what words do we use? All the terms that come readily to mind are
already tainted by their other uses. The only option then is to add
clarifying modifiers to the terms we all know.

Pure Homosexual:
Abbreviated PHy; means a man or woman who is only attracted to the same
gender, and one who never engages in sexual relations with persons of the
opposite gender.

Pure Straight:
Abbreviated PSy; means a man or woman who is only attracted to the opposite
gender, and one who preserves themselves for marriage as a singular event.
They do not commit either adultery nor fornication as a rule.

Now that we have a clear vocabulary we can proceed. Your first objection is
probably along the lines that no-one lives like that. These 'pure'
definitions are unrealistic. Even so, bear with me awhile and I'll deal
with that issue at the proper time.

My first dilemma is this: There are two world views as to how life itself
came to be. Either we all evolved or we were all created by God. Now if we
take the first case, and up-hold the best of their traditions, (survival of
the fittest and all that,) then when we add homosexuality into the mix of
genetic mutation we have a problem. If PHy couples were evolved by the
process of genetic mutations, then how did the mutation spread? After all,
by violating the biology and not mating with the opposite sex, there could
be no offspring, and hence no means of introducing the genetic mutation into
the human gene pool.

If we take the second case, where God created us, and claim that God himself
made some people PHy, then we have a dilemma because the same book (or
collection of books) that tells us how God created everything, also tells us
that God condemns certain behaviors, homosexuality being one of them. Is
God unjust? That same book would declare such a notion, 'non-sense'.

So lets consider that my definition of a PHy person is too strict, that
no-one acts that way. If this is true then we still have a problem. It
hales back to the question of Nature or Nurture. Is a person like 'X'
because it is their nature, or was there something in their nurturing that
bent them toward it? If homosexuality is mostly nurture, then it is a
choice, and not genetic. If it is a choice then shame on everyone who is
promoting it. If given the choice between war and peace, no one in their
right mind chooses war. But given a choice between having social acceptance
or living in the midst of social upheaval, why would anyone want to be the
canon fodder on the front of social upheaval? Shame on you Abby and to all
those who push others toward that war!
Yet we see the measure of choice that is involved. If few people in reality
are PHy, in the strictest sense, then they are exercising a great deal of
choice in their lives, as proven by their actions. These patterns of
behavior clearly mean that God is not unjust, nor is genetics absolute. The
person has and can make decisions and choices and that is what they are
responsible for.

Marriage is a practice that is found in every culture, every religion,
ancient
to modern. In every case it is the simple equation of one man plus one
woman = offspring and a healthy developmental situation for their nurturing.

The Bible says that the two shall become one flesh. We see this concept
fulfilled in biology where an egg from the female and a sperm from the male
combines and instantaneously turns into a unique mixture of their genetic
codes.

In simplistic terms, such as those used in, 'It takes a village', if every
couple in a village is PHy, then the village is doomed to die off. There is
no
possibility for offspring to be born, raised and to propagate the village
through time. Even if the chief gave everyone his blessing and a special
'marriage talisman', the fact remains that the biology does not work that
way. There is no combining off flesh into one, there are no children.
Hence, in my mind, no real marriage, just an empty talisman!

In a village where everyone is PSy, marriages mean that children will be
born and the village will grow and thrive.

Who in their right mind would encourage anyone to join a village that is
barren and dieing? And so I say shame on all those who promote
homosexuality!

At this point, need I comment on the Huge Tax-break thing? Well, okay, let
me just ask it like this; Why not give tax breaks to alcoholics? Or
rapist? Or prostitutes? Same reason!

This is my original thoughts and writing. Please address all comments to
the blog on which this was originally posted "Deep Thought" found at
http://torchseven.blogspot.com

New Diet Plan

About seventeen years ago I left the service weighing around 200 pounds and with a 38 inch waist. Through the years I put on weight and gained inches bit by bit. I started looking at all those diet planes and even tried a few. Nothing seemed to work for me. I did not want to get on the dieters roller coaster and end up worse off that I started. I did not want a starvation diet or anything that would be costly. I wanted a plan that was easy, effective and healthy. This year I finally achieved results. But I had to re-think a lot of the fundamentals. We get so wrapped up in the ideas of eating less and loosing weight. That thought process is just wrong-headed. Toss it out the window and I will show you the right approach. First, your game plan has to be customized to you and your situation. Everybody is different. What works for you (detail-wise) may not work for anybody else. That is okay. But even more to the point, is the fact that no-one else program, pre-designed menu, calorie counter or whatever is going to work either. Forget those things, they are nonsense and anyone who tells you differently is trying to sell you something. Second, the key is health. You have a health issue if you are over-weight. You probably have more than one. The best approach is to first do everything you can to promote the body's own ability to heal. It needs proper nutrition! Modify your diet not for the purpose of loosing weight, but for the purpose of eating healthy. Supplement your diet with vitamins and minerals. Try stuff. Most multi-vitamins I tried did little to nothing for me. But when I found a good combination, it reversed numerous 'chronic symptoms' I had been dealing with for years! The right diet allowed my body to make repairs, but I was still out of shape and still not loosing weight. Next step for me was to look at some of those diet pills. I even tried a couple of the them. They all ready very much alike. They claim to work if used in conjunction with diet and exercise, oh and you have to take them with a full glass of water. Perhaps it is more about the diet and exercise! Do you think you would loose the weight if you increased your level of exercise, limited your diet and drank more water? Sure you would, but it would only last while you were doing those things. As soon as you setteled back into your normal way of doing things the weight plus a few more pounds would come right back. It has to be more than that. So if you modify your eating habits, and not just go on a temporary diet, we have made an important step! This is a lifestyle adjustment, not a fad! Eat what you need. Eat what you enjoy. But eat to be healthy. Don't eat for unhealthy reasons, or unhealthy amounts. Don't be silly. It's not about the food, it's about leaning to feed the body the building materials it needs to be healthy! Listen to your body, it will tell you what is working, and what is not! Then it occurred to me that all these diets ask you to drink water. You need to drink a lot more water than most people are drinking. Drink More Water drinking more water, you will improve your health. More water can suppress those mid-night cravings, help clean out body toxins, reduce your chances for some types of cancer and so forth. And best of all, water comes out of the tap for free. This health tip costs you almost nothing! Bottled water isn't cheap, but it can be a much healthier choice than soda-pop at about the same price. There are also a lot of teas on the market and the sports drinks are also good. These are low sugar drinks and they have added health benefits that high-sugar carbonated drinks do not have. Send you money more wisely, drink healthy drinks too! And stay fully hydrated! You may find yourself running out of energy or feeling hungry because you are dehydrated, and not because you need a quick pick-me-up. Putting these several items together last year I was able to go a whole year without any weight gain. I stayed at 340 pounds all year without gaining anything more. That was a first! But I was not loosing any weight either. I still became winded on climbing a single flight of stairs! I needed something more. The third key to success came to me while watching TV. Remember that reality program called The Biggest Looser? There was a trainer on that program that worked from a simple motto. Build muscle, because muscles burn calories, fat burns nothing! That put it all together for me. This is why all those ‘diet’ products say they work. They are tested on people who are controlling their diet, increasing their exercise and drinking water. Boom! That is an important key! For me the final piece of the puzzle fell into place when I took a summer job. I went to work as an operations and maintenance man at a local water park. The park covers about five acres of ground. I did a LOT of walking. I wore out a new pair of tennis shoes in just three months time. To keep hydrated I would drink PowerAid and bottled water one right after the other. After working eight hours in the heat of summer, I’d come home and soak in the tub. My muscles would ache after all that work! I began to be able to climb stairs without becoming winded! I started to loose weight. I’m back into my size 50 pants and down to 320 pounds. It is working! In reflection about what finally made the difference for me, I thought back to what I had to change. Then it hit me. The PowerAid and water! I had stopped drinking so much soda pop and started drinking a lot of PowerAid and bottled water. Now that is ’diet’ food to me! When you are working out so much that you are able to drink (and sweat) three or four bottles a day, you’ll find that you are not hungry for a lot of food, you’re too full of fluids! This is what worked for me. I think the basic concepts will work for you too. In short, it’s not about limiting your diet to loose weight. Forget all that nonsense! It’s about improving your health. Learn to eat healthy. Improve your diet with supplemental vitamins and minerals as needed. Do some research and try what you think will help you. Then listen to your body! It will tell you if it is working or not. Cut back on soda, beer, coffee.. And any other high sugar drinks! Replace them with water, teas and sports drinks. Enjoy what you eat and drink, just don’t gorge yourself! Then start where ever you are and begin to ramp up the activity level. Walking is good! Park farther away from the grocery-stores front doors, and walk a bit farther. Take the stairs more often. Build up your muscles and keep active. This is not about a short term program. This is all about making better lifestyle choices and improving your health. Then the weight thing will take care of itself!

The Deathly Hallows

The seventh Harry Potter book.

I just finished reading Rowlings final installment in the series. I was
fearing that things would get too dark and end badly. I am elated to report
that this was not the case! The final book is perhaps not her best work.
The story line drags a bit through the middle. In the first several
chapters, Harry looses a lot of things that were comforting to him. As
He-who-must-not-be named, AKA Tom Riddle, AKA Lord Voldermort, is on the
rise, Harry finds himself going into hiding, along with everyone else who
has been resisting.

My prediction that Dumbledour would have at least one Horcrux, and would be
able to return proved false, however, the shadow that he cast still has
great impact upon this book. In other words, he may not be coming back to
life, but then again he isn't exactly gone.

If you're worried about who lives and who dies, then let me tell you this:
none of the major characters die. You can be at ease on that count,
however, the list of "former friends of Harry" grows quite long by the final
pages.

Rowlings style continues to impress me. The story is imaginative, detailed,
and intriguing. There are the bits of human interaction that always make me
laugh, there is plenty of action and some mystery. She has drawn from the
vast well of details written into the previous six books, and made sense out
of them. A lot of otherwise pointless details come floating back and impact
us in this book.

And should you be wondering about moral issues, this volume is better on
that count than all the previous ones. I have often critiqued the first
book because Harry is rewarded lavishly three times for breaking the rules,
and on the one occasion that he attempts to right a wrong, he is caught and
punished. It is not a tale for young children who have no solid sense of
right-and-wrong. This book however, makes it clear that the way you do
things (meaning that your motivation) is important. At times it is even
more important than what was done. Your motives impact your method and the
final results of your actions. That moral is perhaps a bit complex, but it
comes through rather clearly.

In all, I have to say, "Thank you J.K. Rowling for so many laughs and so
many pleasurable hours of reading. Your work has been delightful,
imaginative and so true-to-life."

I'd rate the entire series PG-13 and give'm a confident thumbs up!

Harry Potter and the Oder of the Phoenix

Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, a movie review.

My daughters and I went to the midnight movie premiere of the Harry Potter
movie. I have been a fan of the books, and have read them all to date,
(more than once). However my review of this movie is less than
enthusiastic. In one word, the movie is 'incomplete.'

Yes it was a very long book, and there are a lot of details that the movie
script writers would have to gloss over, but the film version of this book
simply cuts out way too much!

To start with are the characters which should be on screen and are not; such
as Mundungus Fletcher, Rita Skeeter, Dobby the house elf, Freinze the
Centaur, and a very noisy portrait.

Then there are the scenes that have been left out: far too numerous to
mention; but for example…

*Harry receiving a series of letters in short succession… only gets one
letter instead.

* House cleaning in the house of Black, and how the twins pocket some of the
stuff.

* Mrs. Weasley with the bogart.

* The sorting hats new song of warning.

* The visit to Mungo's Hospital, the spectar of Neviels parents and the man
who would be killed by Devils Snare.

* Harmiony's clever use of coins.

* The romantic date with Choe

* Quiddich. All of it! Nothing about Weasley twins and Potter getting
kicked off the team, Or Ron making the team. No "Weasley is our king" being
sung.. nothing!

In fact if the book had been written in the manner in which the movie
portrays it, I'd have lost interest in it altogether. These movie makers
are working at boiling down the story to it's essential plot elements, but
they miss out on the two things the J.K. Rowling has going for her in her
writing style. They miss the humor. These bits where circumstance and
personality play out in unexpected ways… are humorous! And they miss out on
the mystery. There is an element of mystery in every book, and all the
clues are in place in the details of the events. By cutting out so much
detail you loose the clues and foil the mystery element.

All that was retained was action and drama. As if, with films like Bourne
and Die Hard, the audience is staving for some action and drama.

Over all the film isn't bad, but in comparison… considering what they had to
work with… it is very very disappointing. See it if you must, but forget
what you think it should look like vis-à-vis the book version. It did not
happen.

I'm not sure what to make of this

It comes as no surprise to me. When I check my mail, I get everything sent
to me personally and my alter-ego 'Pastor Torch'. In my personal mail I
generally get various bits of spam and the assorted "you have to forward
this to every one you know.." type messages. Once in a blue moon I'll get
an actual bit of mail (that is what makes it all worth it.) But my
alter-ego is commonly sent virused messages. I know this because my web
service affords me a layer of protection against them, thus I receive a
notice in my e-mail about a potential threat that was sent.

It comes as no shock to me that some individuals out there can't see past
the word "pastor" in the name and would go to great lengths to cause such a
one harm. But I do not know what to think of this latest attack. You see
they came in the form of greeting cards... you may know the kind. There are
many web sites you can use to create and send a friend a special greeting.
The e-mail they receive provides them with a link to view the card you
created for them.. a very nice and thoughtful service, to be sure. So what
does it mean when the 'greeting cards' are blocked because they have a
virus? Did the sender infect it, or is that the web site admin's doing?
Who can you trust any more?

So if the thoughtful greeting card you sent was not responded too.. uh,
perhaps you could try using a different web-site?!

Once again I find myself wishing I had money. Several years ago I dreamed
about building an intra-net. Only back then I don't think the term had even
been coined. The idea was simplistic enough. Put a bunch of servers online
in such a way that you had to get in thru a gate way of some sort.
Everything behind the gate would be controlled. All content would be
filtered to meet three objectives. 1) Nothing would be pornographic,
fallacious or delinquent, in other words, it must be family friendly. 2)
All commercial content would be local. Chat, e-mail, the people you meet
online, if at all possible, would be local too. 3) Finally, the most
difficult part, organization. Content would be organized as in a phone
directory. Making research a lot more profitable. The key to maintaining
these characteristics is in the organization of it. Once it caught on,
other people would be allowed to connect and include their servers, and
their servers content would be added tot he service. If however any content
on that server was non-compliant, they would be given a short window of
opportunity to fix it or be literally un-plugged until it is fixed. Then if
they connect other servers to theirs...the same rules would apply. Any
non-compliant content found via their link would put them in jeopardy of
being cut off, thus they must exercise the same level of control over their
connections as the originating service does.

Alas, I never had the money to even build a server, let alone figure out how
to create a gateway.

In the mean time, I hope at least there is some truth to story that all porn
might be forced to use the extension .prn

That makes so much sense... on so many levels... for government to place
this regulatory stipulation on the internet and all of it's content. Think
of all the school's and libraries and businesses who would then only need to
block *.prn in-order to prevent porn from being accessed by their systems!
It would end the madness and errors they struggle with now days to filter
out the porn and maintain the educational web sites.

I could further dream that malicious virus ridden sights could be regulated
to *.vrs or some such, but then no one would be foolish enough to blunder
into their trap. Even when it comes in the form of a cute greeting card.

So far this summer,

Gosh! May has melted into June already!

I'm not sure if it was the heat or the rain. Idaho's weather has been all
over the map. We have seen highs in the 60's one day and 80 to 90 the next.
We even had more rain-fall in one day than we usually get for the entire
month! (Maybe that will mean that the rest of the month will be warm and
dry? But don't count on it!)

The girls had a camping trip last week-end. They went up with the church
youth group and had a good time. They pitched tents in good weather and
packed things up in the rain. Needless to say they got back in dampened
spirits. They had hoped to have more fun than it turned out to be.

Pilar and I celebrated our 18'th wedding anniversary (on the day that it
rained all day) We had a wonderful time helping a friend pack all her
belongings and move them to storage. That is like a minus ten on the
romantic scale, but it was the right thing to do, even if the timing could
have and should have been better.

I drove school bus for a couple weeks (again) because the school year for
the local school district ended three weeks latter than my college classes
did. Meanwhile, I'd gotten an e-mail about a position open at a near-by
water park called Roaring Springs. I was interviewed and hired! This is
the answer to many prayers. It is a full time job that is seasonal and I
can return to it every summer until I'm finished with school. It will also
allow me some opportunity to apply the skills I am being taught.

I guess mom & dad have had a real trying time… ask her about their water woe's!
They hired a guy to come in and install a lawn sprinkler system. They knew
there was a tap for the water somewhere, but in all these years of living
there they had never been able to find it. After cutting the power and
phone lines to the shop and house, and digging up about half the yard I hear
they finally discovered that the tap was buried under their front steps. In
the mean time, their phones and internet access was down. Mom had to have
her lap-top set-up to run off my wireless here at home so she could keep up
with her work. She isn't allowed to return to work just yet since the knee
surgery, so she has done the mobile office thing and connects via the net to
her pc at work. That way she can still get her work done even if it means
putting up with being around her grandchildren instead of cranky office
co-workers; reclining on the sofa instead of bolt upright in a flimsy task
chair; having home cooked meals instead of fast food; and listing to some
TV, radio or water fountain gurgle in the back-ground as opposed to a lot of
chatter and telephone ringing and printers whirring and clicking. Rumor has
it that she just might be ready to get the other knee done about the time
the new school years starts up… ;-)

Pilar has been able to keep her time card filled. Maybe too much?! They
are two people short in a four-man office. In order to compensate they
shifted from four ten-hour shifts per week to five 8-hour shifts. The good
news is that they can cover all the days this way, the bad news is that they
can't get ten hours worth of work done in just 8 hours. It has caused her a
lot of stress. She is a very thorough worker. Leaving a job where only the
higher priority stuff has gotten finished is not her style. She has no job
satisfaction from a job like that! That, as well as the pressure to do more
in less time, has put a tremendous load on her.

Summers are always a blur of activities. The Mercedes is up for sale at a
local car lot. They took it on a consignment basis. A neighbor might be
interested in buying the trailer dad gave me several years ago. I told him
he could make me an offer. I would be just as happy with something about
half the size right now.

Well that is about all that is going on around here… what has your family
been up too? I'd love to hear from you too!

In Memory of our Trops Today.

In Memory of our Troops!

 

Then and Now.

 

Today is Memorial Day 2007.  We are at war in Iraq.  Our troops are in harms way and many people just want to see it end, to bring them home.  They do not see the point of this war and just want to be done with it.  In keeping with this day of remembering, I thought I'd remind some of you how all this began.

 

Go back to July 1990.  Saddam Hussein is the military dictator of Iraq.  He rose to power under the Ba'th party and hates the Shi'ites.  He has been at war against Iran, but suddenly abandons that in favor of Kuwait.  He accuses Kuwait of essentially stealing their oil and on Aug 2'nd commands his troops to occupy the smaller and more vulnerable Kuwait to their south.

 

 

The UN immediately condemned these actions and a coalition was assembled against him.  Operation Desert Shield commenced which consisted mainly of economic sanctions.  These did not work, and on January 15'th 1991 the allied forces of the USA, Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Japan, and others… turned Desert Shield into Desert Storm commencing with an air campaign and precision bombing attacks.

 [ On a side note:  It is interesting that the price of gasoline in these allied nations has risen to between 3 and 7 dollars a gallon, while in Arab nations it is still under a dollar a gallon.  How did that happen?]

 

Hussein responded with big words, threats and acts of terror.  He called on all Muslims to unite in a "Holy War" against the West (US) and defined us as the satanic enemy.  He had 39 Soviet-made "Scud" missiles launched at Tel-Aviv and Jerusalem in spite of the fact the Israel was staying neutral in this war!

 

Hussein had the pipelines breached and spilled Kuwaiti oil into the sea in hopes of polluting the water for other Arab Nations.  He also had 365 out of 700 oil wells burned.

 

 

 

 

The oil wells burned for about 8 months before they could be extinguished.  It was dubbed "Ecco-Terror" and worst man-made disaster of all time.  The smoke plume was thick, dark, and stayed close to the ground fouling the air.  Kuwait got the brunt of it.  The smoke choked out the sun for up to 1500 miles away and was clearly visible from space.

 

This view up the Persian Gulf from the Qatar Peninsula into southern Iraq (25.5N, 51.0E) shows an excursion of the smoke plumes from the Kuwait oil fires set during the short Persian Gulf War. Smoke from the fires north of Kuwait City, extends across the Persian Gulf while a larger smoke plume from the southern fires heads into southern Saudi Arabia before beginning to spread out and become more diffuse

 

[ Side Note:  During the eight month period about six million barrels of crude oil and about 85 million cubic meters of natural gas were burned each day!  And yet the environmental & human health effects of these fires were MUCH less significant than expected.  In fact, numerous studies found that concentrations of most harmful airborne chemicals like VOCs, PAHs, and heavy metals were lower in Kuwait City and at American military bases just miles from the fires than in major cities in the United States!]

 

On February 23'rd the ground war started, Desert Storm was now if full force.  However the Iraq forces were decimated and fled in short order.  By February 27'th, (just four days latter) all our major objectives had been achieved.  Iraq had been kicked out of Kuwait, and our troops were halted at the boarders.

 

Hussein remained in Baghdad.  He was supposed to comply with UN inspectors and allows us the assurance that he would not attempt to collect or create weapons of mass destruction, but he did not.  He obstructed the efforts of the UN Weapons inspectors, ultimately banning them from accessing anything.  Economic sanctions were again employed with no greater success than before.  

 

Meanwhile, the best foothold our troops could enjoy, was at the hospitality of the Saudi-Arabians.  And these boys made life a little less than comfortable for our troops.  We could not enjoy the diversity of freedoms that we have come to know on our own soil,  especially those freedoms of religious expression.  One thing I know about our military, they do not care for being dictated to by anyone other than the commander and chief!

 

So why are we still fighting in Iraq?  In a word, Saddam Hussein.  He gave place to terror and to terrorist's.  Via radical Muslim doctrines, doctrines of hate and death to all Westerners (US), we find ourselves defending our freedoms, our rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, on foreign soil.

 

   

 

The question we all have to ask ourselves is this:  Is it better to fight this war over here or over there?  Should American soil be scorched like this?

 

 

And how do you fight such a war?  Do we use weapons or do we use diplomacy, words, and actions to combat the ideas born in religious doctrines?

 

 

In my opinion you have to do both.  Military action is required to deal with suicide bombers, snipers, car bombs and other terrorist activities.  (The few rotten apples in the barrel.)  But the freedoms we enjoy here are not exclusive to American soil.  They are Basic Human Rights which all people should be able to enjoy, everywhere.

 

We brought down Saddam Hussein.  We brought down a dictatorship.  The Iraqi people have held an election and are starting to enjoy both the liberty and responsibilities of freedom.  This part of the war will only be won given time and the proper use of diplomacy.  Our words and our actions have to send out a message, a message which is more powerful and better thought out than the ideas behind the Muslim doctrines of hate and death toward all Westerns.

 

And in the process we might just find a better foothold for our troops and military bases in a more American-friendly nation as a result.  It would suit our Military.  It would suit American interests (in keeping oil prices down) and would allows us to continue aid to a new budding nation.  Democracy in an Arab/Muslim nation… that has never happened before has it?

Keep our troops and their commanders in your prayers.

 

-Dan Willey.

 

 

 

 

 

This month.

-=-=-

 

What a month I've had!  It started with Pilar and her gal-bladder surgery.  Then we payed a visit to the ER when one of her 'stitches opened up.  About the time she was back on her feet, my mom had a knee replaced & came here after being released from the hospital.  We live in a nice flat house with no stairs... unless you come up here to the office.  So I've been running for meds, paying visits to the hospital and trips to the physical therapy for the last two weeks.  Today Amanda was seen by Quick Care, the ER and an Optomologist... she had bumped her head off the rock ceiling in Kuna Cave last saturday and had been experiencing periodic headaches ever since...  she may have a mild concussion!

 

-=-=-

 

I was near exhausted today after all the running around.  I went to sleep around 8 but Pilar woke me up when she came in.  After that I had trouble getting back to sleep so I came up to the office.  I always check my e-mail... and I have plenty of class work to be getting on with.  But the rain tonight is enough to keep anyone awake.  It start to drizzle a bit around noon.  That cleared off but darker clouds could be seen looming in the distance.  By evening it had tried to rain in earnest, but subsided once more.  As I lay on the bed almost asleep it started to really pour down, that was when I decided to make a hot cup of tea and try to get some studying in.

 

-=-=-

 

I have had several different ones vist my cache "Peace of Junk", it is a very easy find and not too terribly difficult to reach.  Only one logged visit to the cache "Humpty Dumpty"  which is up a hill out behind the dump.  To get there you either need a 4x4 or take a nice half-mile walk.  Go figure.

 

-=-=-

 

I still want to hook-up and do some caching sometime this summer...

 

Keep in touch...

 

Oh... one more thing... a VERY COOL LINK!

 

I don't know what kind of music you favor these days, but this "music" has just captivated me!  It is so cool.  Okay load the page and sit through a short commercial.  Then a 'music machine' will appear.  The hoax going around is that some engineers at Iowa Tech built this thing our of John Deer parts.  The truth is that it is all Computer Animated, available if you want to buy the DVD...  but you have got to see this!

http://www.atomfilms.com/film/animusic_pipedream.jsp

 

-=-=-

 

Well now that I have written this I see parts of it need wider distribution.  I'll have to post some of it on the blog.. :-)

 

God bless and take care!

 

Should guns be allowed in schools?

Guns in School. In the aftermath of the Virginia Tech. Shootings, I’ve heard some discussion about what it will take to make our schools safe. One man suggested that we arm the students; others think that is just pure foolishness. So let’s consider the alternatives. The problem is that a student or students will decide to go on a killing spree. They arm themselves and appear at their school where the daily routine and emergency protocols are known to them. Then they randomly take the lives of others, staff and students, until law enforcement has arrived in sufficient numbers to close off any available exits. But this was not a hit and run, their own lives are the ones they take last. It would appear that they were suicidal from the start, and had no planes to try and get away. The problem may be that this person has lost all hope. It may be that they feel they are incapable of dealing with the world and all of its societal pressures. Is the kamikaze mission which ends in self-destruction a last ditch effort to be noticed or to ‘in effect’ impose their will on a world, even if only for a moment? Is this perhaps an attempt at grasping their moment in the lime-light, even if it is infamy and not fame? Regardless of the source of the disturbance, the fact is that the other students and faculty are facing down the barrel of a loose canon. A canon that has pre-meditated the death of as many people as they can access, and considers their own life forfeit from the start. There is no reasoning with this person. Pleading, begging, reasoning or counseling are a waste of time. They have a gun. You do not. For the moment they have the god-like power to choose who lives and who dies. You are their subjects. How do you respond to that? Preventative measures would have to be aimed at either figuring out what has spawned this phenomenon (addressing the differences of a modern education in contrast with how things were taught in past) or at early detection and identifying probable shooters to getting them into counseling. The outcome of such directions will invariably open up the rift between the secular and the sacred or it will expose the limitations of our current psychological practices. Neither of these are going to lead to a satisfactory result any time soon. Failing preventative methods leaves us with the situation of a student throwing lead at anything that moves. There can only be one answer to that. The sooner someone can throw lead back, the fewer lives this kamikaze is going to be able to take. Cameras will not stop someone from pulling a trigger, nor will ID badges, nor will uniforms, or metal detectors or any other form of ‘physical’ security. All these devices will do is increase the resemblance between our schools and our prisons. No student in a ‘free society’ wants or needs to be treated like they are in a prison! Plus it will have the undesirable effect of insuring our would-be shooters that no one inside can possibly shoot back. But what if that were taken away? What if they had no assurance that they were going to be able reign supreme, even if only for the ten to fifteen minuets it would take for officers to arrive? What if they had to deal with the very same fear that they are using to incite terror? What if the ‘terrorist’ had a reason to be terrified? That can only happen if students who are of age and who choose to do so, are permitted to exercise their right to self-protection, and ensure their ability to fight gun-fire with gun-fire by bearing arms sufficient to the need of self-preservation. Only then will a shooter have to fear being shot at. Their ‘subjects’ would have the same power as they do, and their god-like ability to pick and choose who lives and who dies would be stripped away from them. Making schools a safe place to live is not something anyone can do for them. Whether it is a campus or a foreign country, populating it with militia is not synonymous with providing security. You’d think that Americans would have learned this lesson by now. Security will only occur when the students or residence are enabled to defend themselves. When they are secure in the knowledge that they can deal anything life throws at them, then they will feel and be secure. No ‘system’ will ever give them that. And the reason is for this is simple. No system is fool-proof. Nor is this a perfect solution, but then this isn’t a perfect world. As long as there is the threat of yet another student going berserk, the best solution is the one that minimizes the damages.

Geo Caching

This is my first attempt at creating a geocahe. I used a large plastic flower pot. Cut the bottom off about 2.5 in. up and buried the top part up-side-down. The bottom piece forms a tight lid and the cement provides camaflage... Roadkill, my raccoon icon gives you some persecive of size and I use him in a lot of my pictures to 'stamp' them as genuinely mine. The site is in the review phase. If it is passed it will be up on the website www.geocaching.com under the name "Peace of Junk", but a friend of mine isn't sure if having the cache buried like this is going to be allowed. On one hand I did have to dig a hole, but on the good side, I am not making anyone dig in order to find it. So we will have to see what the reviewer thinks about it.

The Benz

Yea, this friend-of-the-familey has been amoung us for almost 30 years. It still has its original paint and interior, which means it is due some spurcing-up but dad rebuilt the engine and restored the running gear. I cleaned it up and installed a CD/AM/FM that really kicks! Almost everything is back in working order. There is an issue with the power door locks (minor fix) nor did I bother with A/C or Cruze-Control. I got everything else working again... I put it in the paper and online asking 4,000 but that is my 'best guess' as to what it is worth. So far I've had no calls on it at all.

End Times

Durring the time that Jesus walked upon this planet, the religious leaders of the day, the people, and the various special interest groups of that time, were all very missguided about what the saviour must do. They had the prophesies, they had thier ideas, and as it turned out, not one of them was right. Not one! Now we have the prophies of his "Second Coming" and the end of life on the planet as we now know it.. the End Times. We have religious learership too, and our leadership his thier ideas on how all this will come about. I could be wrong, but history has a way of playing out again and again. It occures to me that our main-stream idea's about the second-coming of the christ are probably about as accurate as were the ideas about his first arrival. If that so the the entire collection of books in the "Left Behind" series is fiction upon fiction upon fiction. I have done some random "events" posting on here thus far... but would anyone be interested in going "topical"? -Dan.

An E-mail I got about Bill snd Hillary

----- Original Message -----

Sent: Friday, April 06, 2007 10:28 AM Subject: Fw: Fwd: Bill snd Hillary

Bill Clinton registers for the draft on September 08, 1964, accepting all contractual conditions of registering for the draft.

Selective Service Number 326 46 228.

Bill Clinton classified 2-S on November 17, 1964.

Bill Clinton reclassified 1-A on March 20, 1968.

Bill Clinton ordered to report for induction on July 28, 1969.

Bill Clinton refuses to report and is not inducted into the military.

Bill Clinton reclassified 1-D after enlisting in the United States Army Reserves on August 07, 1969, under authority of Col. E. Holmes.

Clinton signs enlistment papers and takes oath of enlistment.

Bill Clinton fails to report to his duty station at the University of Arkansas ROTC , September 1969.

Bill Clinton reclassified 1-A on October 30, 1969, as enlistment with Army Reserves is revoked by Colonel E. Holmes and Clinton now AWOL and subject to arrest under Public Law 90-40 (2)(a) registrant who has failed to report...remain liable for induction.'

Bill Clinton's birth date lottery number is 311, drawn December 1, 1969, but anyone who has already been ordered to report for induction is INELIGIBLE!

Bill Clinton runs for Congress (1974), while a fugitive from justice under Public Law 90-40.

Bill Clinton runs for Arkansas Attorney General (1976), while a fugitive from justice.

Bill Clinton receives pardon on January 21,1977, from President Carter.

Bill Clinton FIRST PARDONED FEDERAL FELON ever to serve as President of the United States .

All these facts come from Freedom of Information requests, public laws, and various books that have been published, and have not been refuted by Clinton .

After the 1993 World Trade Center bombing, President Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.

After the 1995 bombing in Saudi Arabia , which killed five U.S. military personnel; Clinton promised t hat those responsible would be hunted down and punished.

After the 1996 Khobar Towers bombing in Saudi Arabia , which killed 19 and injured 200 U.S. military personnel; Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.

After the 1998 bombing of U.S. embassies in Africa, which killed 224 and injured 5,000; Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.

After the 2000 bombing of the USS Cole, which killed 17 and injured 39 U.S. sailors; Clinton promised that those responsible would be hunted down and punished.

Maybe if Clinton had kept those promises, an estimated 3,000 people in New York and Washington , DC that are now dead would be alive today.

AN INTERESTING QUESTION: This question was raised on a Philly radio call-in show. Without casting stones, it is a legitimate question.

There are two men, both extremely wealthy. One develops relatively cheap software and gives billions of dollars to charity.

The other sponsors terrorism. That being the case, why was it that the Clinton Administration spent more money chasing down Bill Gates over the eight years in office, than Osama bin Laden?

THINK ABOUT IT! It is a strange turn of events. Hillary gets $8 Million for her forth coming memoir. Bill gets about $12 Million for his memoir yet to be written. This from two people who spent 8 years being unable to Recall anything about past events while under oath.

Sincerely,

Cdr. Hamilton McWhorter USN (ret)

P.S. Please forward this to as many people as you can! We don't want this woman to even THINK of running for President

... and, why doesn't the press ever ask any questions about these things? Do you think they would hesitate for a second to ask about it if the Clintons were Conservative Republicans?

Long Over-due

Happy Easter! Yes, this is Easter Sunday. And wouldn't you know it, the April showers have already started. The weathermen say it will rain today until sometime after noon. So much for the morning egg-hunt-plans.

Pilar got up at 5AM to go to work. (This is why I'm up and finding some time to stop and blog). She has surgery tomorrow morning, and then a few days of R & R to re-coop. I have to hand it to Pilar, she is a trooper! She came home from 8 hours of work Saturday, and found me working around the yard. I pulled the trailer out and started loading it with trash that I need to haul off to the dump, so she came out and started collecting junk from the back yard too. Saturday was such a pretty day. I started out by washing the car, (this only a scant few hours before the rain unwashed it again, if you know about Idaho dirt, you know what I mean. Washing the car lead me to washing the oil off the driveway, which lead me to cleaning up a bit in the garage, which lead me to need the trailer to collect all the trash... and so it goes. I think they call this Adult ADD. It is difficult to finish one thing before you run into something else that needs doing, and then another, and another, and so on.

Well, on Saturdays I have the liberty to address house work, the other five days of the week (excluding Sundays) are reserved for homework of the college kind. I have made good progress with the Physics class, but I am still struggling with the math. Calculus II these days. Step by small incremental step I am getting this stuff, just no where near as fast as I should be able to learn it. It is discouraging on some levels, and hearting to know that some folk never get it. I suppose slow is better than not at all, but slow is causing the cost of learning all this stuff to go up... and that is not a good thing.

Saturdays have also become a day to do a bit of recreation. These days I have discovered Geocaching. This is a bit of a sport, only it is played with a GPS and all the common-since you can muster. Basically the game works like this: other people have hidden small plastic containers in various and random places. Inside the containers are a log-book, and nick-knacks for trade. You are given the coordinates of the location and possibly a hint or two. You use your GPS to guide you to the general location, and use your common sense to figure out where someone else might have hidden a small container in that area. All this is recorded on a web-site... geocaching.com. If you locate the cache, you write your name in the log book, and log the find on the web site. I have found 17 already, and was unable to find about half that many. Occasionally these caches are discovered by people who know nothing about the game, and so the cache is "stolen"... for that reason you have to use a bit of stealth when you find and re-hide a cache, so you don't cause anyone to become suspicious. That is the nuts and bolts of the game, but the really great part about it has nothing to do with plastic boxes, GPS technology or dollar store trinkets. The really great part is that people stash these things in some of the most scenic, unusual or off-beat places. You will be guided to some of the neatest locations... places you had no idea even existed... probably places very close to where you live. I like the caches that are just out of town the best. This summer I hope to be able to put a trip together and geocache all the locations in and around Silver City Idaho. There is so much history up there, but I have never had a road-map to find it all like I will with the GPS and numerous cache sites! I want to take a tent, a camera and rent a quad for the trip. Any body else up for a bit of adventure?

Stained glass. Back in my High-school daze, I had an art teacher that showed us how to make stained glass windows. My wife and children all enjoy some handi-crafts, and often is the time we would visit a hobby craft store. I would look for any sort of stained glass supplies, but I never found any. Well I messed around with 'stained-glass-paint' and made a design for a bit of window I have here in the office, but it never looked right to me. So I got the bug and started looking online. You can find anything online. Then I got curious, and pulled open the phone book. Believe it or not, we have a specialty stained-glass shop right here in Nampa! I was amazed! I bought three sheets of glass and went right to work. I have had a bit of trouble finding the right solder and soldering iron... a 100 to 150 watt iron is a tough find these days, and so is the traditional 60/40 solder. Building supplies used to stock it, but their stock is all the silver (lead free) junk now. When I get this project installed, I will put up some pictures.. on the photo blog.

For Sale. It was a longer project than I'd figured on, but I was at long last able to get the small blue Geo back on it's wheels. Naday is finally driving it, but not very happy about it. She never wanted to drive my Geo-Tracker either, but she became accustomed to it. At least it has the automatic. The Metro is a standard, and you'd think she was being tortured by that. She has not been easily coerced into learning how to drive a stick-shift! She even dubbed the car, "The Anti-Christ" because of how it has "treated" her. Any one else can get in it and drive it smoothly.... :-) Thank God I had the foresight to install a new clutch kit in it while I had it apart! But the additional car left me with two to drive, and some bills backing up. I need cash. So I started to sell the Tracker... but it is 4-wheel drive, seats four (just), and tows a trailer, not to mention, it has a cool (removable) hard top, and I can go convertible with it). The Mercedes-Benz is almost as good on fuel, but burns Diesel (which costs more at the pump these days), it seats five, and has a great stereo (installed by yours truly). It was a tough call, but after weighing out all the pro's and con's, I decided to sell the ol' Mercedes. It has been in the family since (gosh) I can't recall, It's a 1976, and Dad would have had to have bought it before we moved up here, so he bought it around 78 or 79 at the latest. Tina learned to drive in that car, and I took my date to the high-school prom in that car. Dad finally rebuilt the engine and turned it over to me about a year ago. I've had to do a bit of work on it myself. But most everything is working like it is supposed too... with the exceptions of non-essential air-conditioning and cruse control... options the car came with. I have it listed in the local paper coming out today as well as with three online classifieds. I hope to find it a good home with an auto-enthusiast.

Google Re-Direct

If you Goggled dlwilley@photoblog.com and it sent you here.. it has misdirected you. Sort-of. Somewhere in all the text I've written, I mentioned the other blog I keep, the one WITH photo's

Where you want to go is:

http://dlwilley.photoblog.com

That's the one with pictures.

This is the one where I rant/rave or debate.

I don't think anyone reads this one, to tell you all the truth. At least no one has responded to anything here in a long,

long

long

long

long time.

This week-end

Watching the news this morning; weather man said that if our plans included travel in the area at and around McCall, we might want to change them.  That area is under a snow warning right now.  We have plans to go up Friday night.  Johanna and Anthony are planning on getting married there on Saturday, and then there is the big dinner afterwards.  Our plan is to stay over-night and travel back home on Sunday morning.  We will keep an eye on the weather & hope that mother nature is not going to modify them.  After-all, Tina has worked so hard to make this happen! 

 

Would I laugh if it all fell apart?  I would not wish that on Johanna, maybe... but I'd find it hard to not be delighted if Tina's plans were ruined.  This is adult-sibling-rivalry.   At the drop of a hat I'd not go at all.  Last week-end they were all at the house, upstairs: where Tina and Randy stay, My family and I went and payed a vist to mom & dad, dowstairs, same house.  None of them said 'Hello'.  They couldn't even bring themselves to walk down a flight of stairs to say "Hi"!  And yet I am expected to make a two or three hour drive to attend the wedding.

Yea..  right!

 

So okay, I went upstairs and payed them a visit.  I got the doe-in-the-head-lights responce.  All wide-eyed and nervious, but no genuien happiness to see thier one and only true uncle...  I get so sick of that.  I think the next time I meet Joseph I need to hit him over the head with a baseball bat.  Toss it aside and when he notices that I'm standing there, say, "Hi! How are you!" and smile real big, full of genuine affection.

 

Perhapps I'm well on my way to becoming a grummpy old man who will walk with a cane, not because he needs the support, as much as he enjoys having a big stick at the ready to whack young whipper-snappers who need to be taught some respect!  ^_^

 

He he he!  I'm venting and making a joke out of it!  Well if any famlly member happens upon this, a remote possibility of which I doubt.  Just keep in mind that...  umm... er... I'm just joking... yea that's it, this is all in fun.

 

Oh and that if I take any good pictures, I'll publish them on the photoblog.  I can never seam to get this site to show the pictures.

 

-Dan.

 

 

 

 

The day the Wii came home.

It had taken almost two months. Every chance we got we would cruse past the Game section and check to see if any Wiis' were on the shelf. We talked to the clerks and acquired all the intel. We could about when they received them and when we should be at the store to possibly find one. On Sunday morning, we received word that one store had gotten a new shipment in. Game Crazy got them on Saturday, thus it just might be possible that other retailers in the area would be stalking them over-night. Early the next morning we set out and meet three major department stores at the door as they opened up. All to no avail it seemed. None of them had gotten any in.

Just when it looked, well, like a waist of time, suddenly a clerk blurted out that Wal-Mart was supposed to have just received a shipment of Wiis'. We headed over to Wal-Mart with all the haste possible for one wishing to avoid any police type entanglements. There they were at last. 6 unopened, fresh from the factory, white and printed boxes, each containing a brand-spanking-new Wii! The girls both beamed and grinned like Cheshire cats!

It is Monday night. The girls have already plugged in about 9 hours of Zelda, and tried out every feature of Wii-Sports. Even my wife, who has never gotten on a game machine before in her life, enjoyed a round of bowling with the family. Tonight, after dinner, Grandma Pat & Grandpa Carl joined us and tried it out. They golfed, bowled and practiced their batting and pitching on the Baseball field. Grandma went away saying she just might have to buy one of these for herself.

The Wii has got to be the biggest advancement in game systems since the development of the Attari. The X-Box and the PS3's are both doomed to go down in flames. I mean come on! A bunch of over-aged "juvenile delinquents" might like net-working a bunch of systems together and gaming all night, but lets face it. Grandma, Grandpa and the kids are not going to be up all night playing Halo! The Wii has already endeared itself to an entirely new and larger market of potential gamers! EVERYONE! Yes everyone from 102 to just big enough to handle the remote.

Programmers beware! If you think you can just port over your old games, your "first-person-shooters" .. games like Halo or Resident Evil, the Mature games et. al. It won't work! They will not sell. The Wii has opened up a market for FAMILY FRIENDLY games. Multiple player games. Games that open up social interaction, require physical movement and advance gaming physics. The Wii is about people coming together and having FUN. It is not a machine for your isolated lone predator, blood and gutts, shoot everything that moves trash. Okay! I hope your getting this!

I can't wait to see some good driving/race games on our Wii. Mario-Carts or something like it might even be fun. Hunting games, Fishing games. Olympic sports like you have never seen them before! I'd love to see Spyro, Rayman, or Odd world. All with entirely new moves and utilizing the features of the new controllers of course.

Managing Growth

It is foolish to build houses over your farm land.

I know I read that somewhere, I thought it was in Proverbs, but try as I might, I can't seem to find it right now.

The truth of that statement should be self evident. More houses means more people. Less farm land means less food. More people, less food. This is not a sustainable trend. But that is what we are doing here in the Treasure Valley, and a lot of other places all over the Western States. We are selling out our small farms to developers. Once these fields produced corn, barley, or maybe hay, something people or live stock could eat.. Now they produce grass clippings which get put in the trash.

Americans everywhere need to re-think the way we use land. Land is a finite resource. There is only so much of it, and it is not all the same. Flat lands which are good for growing things and close to a water supply are rare. Some 70% of Idaho is reserved National lands. BLM or Forest Service land... and either way a lot of that is not sceanic or productive, endangered habitat anything. Most of it is too steep to hike, too dry to farm, and to remote for people to care about.

It would be a good thing if some of these area's were made availible for development rather than surrender any more productive farmable ground to housing tracts. I know there are some who fight against development of the Boise foothills, but the alternitives are worse in the long run. Homes can be built on hills, it gives them a view. Houses can be built on rock, it gives them a firm foundation. Homes can be built on hills and rock, but farms can't. I hope city planners everywhere will exercise some wisdom, and cause the growth to occure where it should. Use wisdom, fore-thought and planning. Preserve what is good and productive, loose only that wich we can afford to loose. We are building tomorrow, lets make it grand. If we don't, then the next generation will have to do it over again, and at a higher cost.