Ammo Up, Dudes and Dudettes ...

Just before the 2008 election, and throughout the first half of 2009, ammunition for rifles and pistols was a hot commodity. Folks were convinced that Obama and Holder were coming to get their guns and ammo. Finding .223, 9mm, 5.56NATO, or 7.62 in stores was very difficult - and shipments to the stores were generallly gone within a day. Hucksters at gun shows were charging premium prices for ammo, even if its age and parentage was questionable.

Well, gun control/confiscation hasn't been mentioned very much so far by the Obama Administration. Not that it isn't on their agenda ... it just is down the list from Obamacare, prosecuting anyone associated with George Bush, and ruining our economy for decades to come.

As a result, the run on ammunition has calmed down a bunch. Local stores, seeing the run, upped their orders. Manufacturers ramped up production to meet the demand. Now, the demand has ground to a halt. Lots of folks have more ammo stocked up than they could possibly use, and aren't in the market to buy more. Stores have lots of bullets on the shelves.

I fully expect this to change again. Obama will get around to pursuing gun control in a year or two, and folks will start trying to hoard bullets again.

If you are into shooting sports, it is a good time to go bullet shopping. They are plentiful, prices are reasonable, and if you look carefully, you can find some pretty good sales. One of my favorites is Dick's Sporting Goods - every 6-8 weeks they have a 30% off ammunition sale.

So, if you need a few hundred rounds of NATO standard to pop off at the target range, or a couple of dozen clips' worth of AK-47 rounds to go squirrel hunting with, go for it ... while it's cheap!

A Glorious Texas Day, Dedicated to Outlaw13

This has been a glorious Texas winter day - 65 degrees, sunny, with a calm southern breeze here in the North Texas area.

I took Outlaw13's black rocket out of the barn for some exercise. Nothing quite as pleasant as windows down, music up, 390 horses jamming through 6 speeds, burning premium gas for no reason at all other than to yell at the top of my proverbial lungs "F*** Y** Algore!"

A Rudy's spicy chopped beef with Fritos and a glass bottle Dr. Pepper out on the porch in the sunshine for lunch ... don't get much better than that!

Anyway, this day dedicated to Outlaw13, who continues to serve our country over in the sandbox. Just a couple more months, and he'll be back here doing all of this himself.

God Bless the United States Army

God Bless the Republic of Texas

Final Countdown for the Space Shuttle

NASA's fleet of Space Shuttles is rapidly approaching its retirement. Four missions remain - after that the United States will have no way to put a man into space. We will have to rent space on Russian rockets if we need to send anyone up.

The three remaining Shuttles are Endeavor, Atlantis, and Discovery. Atlantis will fly the next miission, STS-131, scheduled for liftoff on March 5. Discovery will fly the last mission, STS-134, later this year. With -134, there will have been 134 launches of the Shuttle (and sadly, only 132 landings).

The Shuttle is still a wonder. It is a magnificent sight to behold on liftoff, a loud, visible symbol of our country and its technical expertise. The fleet is long in the tooth. The time for retirement is right, the '70s equipment and technology they are based on need to be put out to pasture. The problem is that there is no replacement available, and the Orion replacement vehicle that was on the drawing board has been cancelled by the Obama Administration.

Retirement of the Shuttles and cancellation of Orion will mean the loss of about 23,000 jobs at and around the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, to say nothing of the contractors that were going to build Orion and its related projects.

Launch and recovery of the shuttles has become a 'non-news' event. Most Americans don't even know when they are up in orbit. If you count yourself in that category, you might want to make note of the remaining lauches. You have 4 more opportunities to view it live. Many of us will not see another US manned space mission in our lifetimes.

Photos Credit NASA

Danica Already Wearing Thin With NASCAR

Danica Patrick's stock car racing career is 3 races in length. She ran the ARCA event at Daytona, and finished 6th. She ran the Nationwide Series event at Daytona, and crashed out on lap 65 (not of her doing). She ran the Nationwide Series event at California this past Saturday, and finished 31st, two laps down. She is scheduled to run the Nationwide Series event at Las Vegas this weekend, and then will take a two month break from stock cars to get back in her Indy car.

Her public face during this has been good. She has been humble, and said all the right things. She's earned praise from all corners, particularly at Daytona, for her driving skill and attitude. The public loves Danica mania, delivering very high TV ratings for the events she has participated in.

However ...

Danica the prima-donna is apparently on the loose.

Unofficial sources have leaked out that behind the scenes, Danica has been bad mouthing Dale Jr. According to her, she's a better driver than he, she doesn't respect him, and the only reason he signed her to drive his car was the money involved. Those sources and others report that Dale Jr. isn't exactly happy with her behind his back antics.

Dale Jr. is NASCAR's golden boy. NO ONE bad mouths him, or Junior Nation goes nuts. Danica is all about the money - that is what this entire foray into NASCAR is all about. Why would she be biting the hand that has given her a lucrative ride and all the rope she needs to establish herself in the sport?

I don't know for sure, but have a couple of ideas.

First, she doesn't like NASCAR. Horsing the big stock cars around is a lot of work. The crowd she is forced to hang around with isn't the 'elite' bunch that hangs around Indy car.

Second, another team has approached her about moving to Cup racing much sooner than was planned with Dale Jr.'s plan. She may be trying to piss him off enough to cut up the contract. Danica has never been known for patience.

Third ... maybe she's just a spiteful, self-loving prima-donna who can't get along with anyone.

I don't know ... but she's killing what should have been a great thing for her, for Dale Jr., and for NASCAR.

Absolutely Ridiculous Lawsuit

Dallas Police Senior Cpl. Victor Lozada died in a motorcycle accident on Feb. 22, 2008. He was participating in a motorcade escorting then candidate Hillary Clinton to a campaign stop. He was the only one involved, his bike hit a curb and threw him into a concrete barrier. He died instantly. It was a tragedy.

Anyone who has read this blog knows I am no Clinton fan. However, her behaviour in the aftermath of the tragedy was admirable. She cancelled her campaign event, and went to the hospital to give her condolences to the family. She was genuinely shaken when interviewed that day.

Victor Lozada's family has just announced a bevy of lawsuits in response to the accident. The defendants:

Hillary Clinton, and her campaign staff - for not giving the city of Dallas adequate notice of the campaign event.

The Dallas Police Department - for knowlingly allowing Lozada to participate in the motorcade even though he had supposedly done poorly in his motorcycle training, AND for not having supervisors make certain that each and every rider had driven the motorcade route ahead of time.

SuperSeer, the officer's helmet manufacturer, because the force of Lozada hitting the concrete barrier broke the chinstrap of the helmet.

The City of Dallas, for delays in its 911 service that caused a short delay in arrival of an ambulance (even though he died on impact).

The family's lawyer insists that the lawsuits are only so that the underlying issues are brought to light and resolved. No mention has been made as to the monetary damages they are seeking, and from which defendants.

If the lawyer's statement is true, then the remedies sought by the lawsuit will be limited to correction of the situations the family feel are wrong. If the lawyer is full of crap, then the family will be looking for money from everyone. My personal opinion is that they are flinging a wide net with the lawsuits, hoping that someone will cave and try to settle before it goes to court.

It will be interesting to see if his statement is true, or if this is just an attempted money grab by Lozada's relatives.

Signs of the Times

A little more than a year ago, you'd be hard pressed to find political yard signs with Republican on them, much less Conservative. Candidates didn't want the R or C words hung around their necks during the 2008 elections, while Obama-mania was conning the country.

Times have changed.

In this season of primaries, I have seen very few yard signs that identifies their candidates as a Democrat. I've seen few that identify the candidate as a Republican. I see a lot of signs identifying the candidate as a Conservative Republican.

Most of the radio ads I have heard are the same way - the candidates are touting themselves as Conservative, especially fiscally Conservative.

The two Democrat candidates for Texas Governor are both pushing Conservative traits and ideals - creating jobs, business tax cuts, smaller government, lower taxes, cutting government waste. Not exactly an Obama script, is it?

A recent poll of Hispanics in Texas indicates that over 50% of them identify themselves as Conservative. Not Republican ... Conservative ... The same poll showed that as many as 23% of them will vote in the Republican primary for a Republican candidate.

A national poll a couple of months ago seeking to identify political ideology rather than party affiliation showed that 40% of Americans identified themselves as Conservative. 22% identified themselves as Liberal. The rest were those undefined in the middle.

Any Democrat touting his links to Obama is committing political suicide. Having Obama actually campaign for you is like hanging a dead albatross around your neck ... just ask the folks in Virginia, New Jersey, and Massachusetts. Harry Reid asked Obama to come to Nevada to campaign for him - he's so far behind the Republican challenger, he's got nothing to lose ...

Being a Conservative is becomming the 'in' thing. I can't wait until some Hollywood bigwigs start spitting out that they've really been Conservatives for all these years. I can just see Babs Striesand blabbering "I've always been a Reagan Republican, silly ... are you coming to my party?"

I only hope that the country can hold on long enough for this Conservative wave to take effect at the polling places. Come on America ... you can defeat Obama!

Defending Humanity Against the "Moob"

Women's underwear manufacturer Spanx has launched a new men's line of undergarments. The first offering is a slimming T-Shirt, said to flatten the stomach, straighten the back, and squish those man boobs (moobs).

What will be next?

Disclaimer - this picture is not of a Spanx product. This is not a picture of me, or anyone that I know. It is a picture of some idiot that posted himself on the internet. Who is he? I have no idea, but looks like he might be a good friend of Barney Frank ....

Superbowl XLV - Discrimination?

Superbowl XLV will be held at Jerry World in Arlington, TX in 347 days. Preparations are well under way. Part of that preparation has me scratching my head.

The NFL has a program it calls Emerging Business Development. It's been around since 1994. It was created to help promote minority and female owned companies' participation in Superbowl activities. This program is holding three workshops in the DFW area, to show small developing companies the rules of the game when it comes to landing contracts related to the Superbowl. OK, that sounds good ...

Except, that the workshops are limited to minority and female owned companies. Companies owned by white males are apparently not welcome. Isn't that discrimination?

Exclusion because of one's sex or race is the very definition of discrimination, isn't it?

If the NFL is concerned about being fair to all, shouldn't the workshops and program itself be open to ALL business owners, regardless of sex or race? Seems to me that would be the definition of fair ...

News coverage of these events has been heavy in the local DFW area - nothing but positive news coverage. I sure would like to see some enterprising investigative white male reporter go to this event and try to register his company - would love to see how the NFL reps react.

Now, I have absolutely nothing against business owners of any race or sex participating in the first North Texas Superbowl. I feel that the best company for the work at the best price should win the contract - regardless of the skin color or plumbing of the owner. Shouldn't these events be open to ALL small business owners?

Here is some official video promoting these events.

Tea Partier, Or Tea Bagger?

We're all familiar with the Tea Party movement sweeping across the US. You may have heard folks who are part of this movement referred to as Tea Partiers, or Tea Baggers. There is a big difference ...

Tea Partier describes, accurately, someone who participates in the Tea Party movement. It is also used by some in the mainstream media to describe anyone who is considered a conservative.

Tea Bagger is something different altogether. Shortly after the Tea Party movement started gaining steam, left wingers started referring to participants as Tea Baggers. Mainstream media has picked the term up, and you frequently hear it used in newscasts. The far left is laughing their butts off about it.

Tea Bagging is a very coarse, vile, arrogant insult. I will not describe what it is here, but if you google it, you will find plenty of references to what this insulting, degrading act is. By referring to conservatives as Tea Baggers, the far left is hurling that insult at conservatives. With the mainstream media picking it up (some innocently, others not so much), conservatives are the target of this insult over and over in public. The media have used the term so often that I've heard some conservatives refer to themselves and the movement via this term - they just don't know what the real meaning is.

Whenever you hear Tea Partiers referred to as Tea Baggers, in the media, in the blog world, in person - realize it for what it is.

The United States Constitution, Interpreted by Obama

The first words of the United States Constitution, as written by our Founding Fathers over two centuries ago ...

We, The People

The first words of the Constitution, as interpreted by Barack Hussein Obama ...

Me, The One

Do You Miss Me Yet, Part Deaux

Yeah, laugh all you want. But ... we were in a hell of a lot better shape with him in office than we are now .....

Your Olympic Curling Update

The US men and women have truly sucked so far in this year's Olympic Curling competition.

The women lost matches with the Japanese and Germans. Although the scores were close, the US strategy was questionable and shooting was far from accurate. Losing to the Germans was kind of expected, but a loss to Japan was an embarrassment. The women have six more matches to go, but advancement seems very unlikely after this start.

The men lost matches against Germany and Norway. Again, the scores were much closer than the actual matches played out. The US team was out thought, out strategized, and outshot - and frankly looked like they shouldn't have been in the same building. In last night's game against the Norwegians, the US captain choked on his last shot, sending the match into overtime, where the US lost.

In their match this afternoon against Switzerland, the US sucked in the first half of the match, repeating their mistakes form the first two matches. Then they picked it up, came storming back, and had the game won if their captain hadn't choked on his final shot, allowing the Swiss to tie it up and send it into overtime. Once again, the US captain choked on the last shot, giving the victory to the Swiss. The team needs to make sure their captain stops taking the last shot.

So, after 5 matches the US teams have been shut out.

The US team's poor strategy and shot making was too much for even the commentators, who fought hard to try and find something positive to say when you just knew they wanted to shout "WTF ARE YOU DOING?"

In other, better, news, USA Hockey is doing well so far. The women have beaten China and Russia, and have made the semi-finals. The men won their first game against Switzerland.

Friday Feb.19 Update - Have I mentioned how much curling sucks? The US men's team lost to Denmark yesterday, once again in position to win when their captain choked on a key shot and lost the match. In response, the men's team has replaced the captain with the team's alternate for today's match against France.

The women's team also lost to Denmark. They were in great postion to win it handily, and lost because of horrible shot making. Both teams have lost all 7 matches they've played so far.

In brighter news, both the US men's and women's hockey teams won, and are both undefeated in competition so far.

Saturday Feb. 20 Update - The men's and women's curling teams have won two matches each since the last update, all four games in last shot or overtime style. Guess I'll have to jump back on the bandwagon, at least until tomorrow ....

Tuesday Feb. 23 Update - Well tomorrow has come and gone, and they've been put out of their misery. Both teams won two matches each, losing 6 apiece. Neither team was considered a medal contender, but no one figured they'd finish so badly.

We Need To Learn From Greece

We all need to be paying attention to what is happening in Greece these days. Those in Washington absolutely MUST pay attention.

Greece is in financial meltdown. Many years of over spending, questionable lending practices, the world financial mess, and a complete lack of financial reform has taken the country to the brink of bankruptcy. Greece's national debt now is $413,600,000,000. This is more than the country produces in a year. By the end of 2010, the debt will be 120% of the nation's gross domestic product (GDP).

Greece has asked it's partners in the EU to help bail them out. So far, there has been no agreement to do so - the other members don't see enough changes being put into place to rectify the causes of the emergency. They don't want to dump their money into Greece, just to give them a temporary bailout. Greece's problems are spreading, with Portugal and Ireland showing signs of the same issues. The Euro (which a few months ago was being touted by many countries as the replacement for the dollar for international commerce) is at its lowest point in five years, and it will continue to drop in value.

Greece has implemented what they see as tough budgetary measures to address the situation. Retirement benefits have been pushed back in age for two years. Much higher taxes on fuel, tobacco, alcohol, and other 'sin' items have been levied. Government job pay has been cut. Tough new rules on tax evasion have been adopted. The population is in an uproar, with strikes becoming commonplace. All this MAY reduce the deficit by $10,000,000,000. All of that pain to get rid of a small fraction of the debt ......

So, why should we pay attention?

If Obama's 2010 budget is adopted, the commitments it makes will have our country sitting with debt at 200% of GDP by 2020. And that is only from the 2010 budget commitments - it does not count anything added to the budgets 2011-2020. Greece's woes come from only 120% ... The financial meltdown we are headed for makes Greece look like a banker's paradise!

Obama, Reid, Pelosi, and their minions are writing checks for hundreds of billions of dollars that we don't have, that we will never have. Do they care? Absolutely not. They know their time in power will be short, so they are trying to implement as much of their far left agenda as quickly as they can, consequences be damned.

Obama makes pretty public speeches about fiscal responsibility, about cutting budgets, about being smart with our money. ABSOLUTE BULLSHIT. The cuts he talks about are a tiny fraction of what he turns around and spends, and are just a smokescreen to divert our attention away from what they are doing.

Republicans in Congress absolutely MUST block any and every Obama spending measure they can. Our country's future is on the line, and it is as plain as day to anyone who will bother to look.

Need To Know vs. Common Decency

The majority of the world knows about the death of Georgian luge athlete Nomar Kudaritashvili during a practice run shorly before the opening of the Olympics. How could they not know?

The death was a tragic accident, and from reports I've seen was a combination of inexperience and a track that was far too fast. Officials at the venue where it happened have already made changes, moving the start location down the track to cut down ont he finishing speed, and have built a wall to prevent anyone else from being ejected from the track at the location of the accident.

In this internet age, word of the accident getting out was almost instant. Foxnews.com blurted out a piece on it shortly after it happened, identifying the athelete by name and reporting his death. It said the source of the information didn't want to be identifed because the man's family hadn't been informed yet.

????

I thought news organizations weren't supposed to identify victims before the family has been notified. TV and internet coverage identified Nomar long before his family, located half a world away, could have been informed. How would you like to find out from an internet posting that your son, your brother, had been killed?

NBC, ABC, and CBS all reported the accident and showed footage during their evening newscasts. CBS played the video 3 times, the last time in slow motion. Gotta boost those ratings with some dinner time violence ...

Later, NBC opened its coverage of the opening ceremony with video of the accident, replayed several times.

Nomar's loss is tragic. The news organizations could have handled it much better. They could have waited ... the Olympic officials could have stopped the coverage until they were assured the family had been informed privately. In their thirst to boost ratings and shock their audiences, there is no consideration of the family left behind. Very sad.

Update - The arrogance of the IOC and the Luge Federation are incredible. They've come out and blamed Nomar for his own death, rather than stand up and take any responsibility. These international sports organizations are just like the UN - they walk around with their noses up in the air, with an attitude of their crap don't stink. International sports federations and such are political entities - not sports. They are all about power and stature - crooked, corrupt, dedicated to nothing but keeping themselves in power.

Why exactly did they come out and blame the young man? I think to try and eliminate any chance they would be held liable for the death.

It certainly wasn't because they really believed he was at fault ... the changes made to the facility and competition immediately after the death make it clear that they knew there were problems.

For those of you upset about the ongoing creepfest in the reshowing of the video, contact NBC. They are in charge of TV coverage for the Olympics. They still have the video posted on their web site.

Thank God Algore Warned Us About This

God Bless Algore. I'm super serial .....

The Nobel Peace Prize winner singlehandedly saved my home town last week when we received record snowfall. Normally we get one snow event a year, with maybe 1/2 an inch on the ground. Last week's snow event, our third of the year so far, dropped 12 1/2 inches in a 24 hour period. This broke the all time one day record by a full 5 inches.

The same storm dumped snow all the way across the southern and middle states of the country. It comes right on the heels of twin storms that smashed the mid-Atlantic states with record snowfall.

If Algore hadn't warned us, many people might have been killed. Oh ... wait a minute ... Algore is actually preaching about global WARMING, isn't he?

I am amazed at the eco-nazis' reaction to this winter's events. They are coming out in droves, led by the NY Times, stating (somehow with straight faces) that global warming is actually causing the increased snowstorms and colder temperatures. How stupid do these idiots think we are?

Prof. Phil Jones, the British idiot whose emails were hacked and blatantly showed the world how he and his crew were doctoring their data, stated publicly in an interview earlier this week that global temperatures had NOT increased in any amount over the past 15 years. He also conceded that global temperatures during Medievil times were probably higher than they are now. Despite this, later in the interview he was still defending his 'work' and the Warmer movement, even though he confessed to having difficulty keeping track of his own data.

It amazes me that these are the same dunderheads who 20 years ago were screaming about the impending ice age.

By the way ... If you want a good laugh, or just feel like getting really pissed off at this lunatic, go visit his blog. I wonder who writes it for him, since he is so busy traveling the world making millions of dollars giving speeches?

blog.algore.com

If you do happen to go there, take notice of the title photo of Algore in his office. There is no wonder why he is so mixed up - no one could find anything in that pile of crap. Man-Bear-Pig is hiding under there somewhere ....

Way To Go, Cous, Part Deaux

Cousin Alex strikes again. He's playing the hero who finds the beer in this Bud Light commercial, first aired during the first quarter of the Super Bowl.

American Chopper - Crash and Burn

Thursday marked the final episode of American Chopper, ending a six year run on Discovery and TLC.

This past season has been a disaster. Sr and Jr's split in the first episode pretty much killed the series. These two idiots let their tempers and egos kill one of the most successful 'reality' franchises ever built. Since that first episode, we've been bored to tears by Jr's attempts to start a design firm on his own, Sr's attempts to convince everyone the split wasn't his fault, and Mikey's attempts to become an artist, a musician, a stand up comic, and a recovering alcoholic. Just horrendously boring. The only thing that kept any interest was waiting for the inevitable reconcilliation that would ge the three of them back together. It never came.

Orange County Choppers narrowly avoided bankruptcy last year. They had to layoff a bunch of employees and cut back on operations and expenses. I seriously doubt it will survive this. What Sr and his 'business' people don't seem to grasp is that without the series, OCC is just a collection of pretentious egos, folks who have a much larger opinion of themselves than the motorycle buying public does. The rest of the 'chopper' world doesn't think much of them and their products. Their 'production' choppers don't sell very well - too high priced. Their merchandise sales have nose dived through this past awful season.

The 'business' people who pushed their way into OCC convinced Sr that he had to expand, he had to become worldwide, he had to franchise the OCC name even more than it had been. This was a disaster ... combined with the economic downturn, a new multi-million dollar world HQ, and the on-screen split between the principle characters, OCC was put in a very bad business position. Heck, they even opened a Ducati dealership inside OCC's headquarters, a move that thoroughly alienated the American V-Twin public.

Sr sued Jr after their split, claiming his right to buy out his son's interest in OCC. The only mention of this during the series was footage of Jr at OCC signing the papers - though there was no explanation of what was really going on. OCC was sued by multiple former employees, all of whom contended they were owed a lot of money for their appearances in the show.

OCC was a garage shop operation when American Chopper started back in 2004. The dynamics of the family's relationships were the keystone of the series, against a backdrop of building outrageous cycles. The series and Teutel's popularity skyrocketed - instant celebrities, tons of money, everyone telling them how great they were, worldwide recognition and adulation. It went to their heads, and they all became primadonnas.

Sr made a ton of money on American Chopper. Without the series, he wouldn't have gotten that money. Jr made a bunch of money from his American Chopper and OCC as well. He may very well thank his lucky stars that he was forced to sell out, before the company goes under. Mikey and the other folks who appeared in the series don't appear to have benefitted from the series or OCC's popularity.

I've seen reports on the internet that TLC cancelled the program. I also heard Mikey on a radio interview last week saying that negotiations were still ongoing, and that if all three parties could agree to do the series there would be a 7th season. If he believed that, he was crazy. There is no way TLC would pony up the bucks for the three of them when there is no story to tell anymore.

The final episode didn't really have any deep meaning. It was pretty clear that the participants were not counting on it being the final show in the series.

You gotta feel sorry for the family. You've got a dad who now doesn't communicate with three sons at all (third son Danny only appeared in one episode - he runs Orange County Ironworks, the company that spun off OCC). All that fame, all of that money - what good is it if a father won't even talk to his sons?

Too bad. It was entertaining for the first few years. Later on, it was just a lesson on how egos and money can destroy a family.

Capt. Phil Harris - Very Sad News

Phil Harris, Captain of the Cornelia Marie, a crab fishing vessel immortalized on Discovery Channel's 'Deadliest Catch' series, has passed away. He was 53.

Phil suffered a massive stroke while the boat was docked at St. Paul Island in the Bering Sea, during this year's crab season. He was taken to a hospital in Anchorage, but passed away.

Phil was one of the most popular folks depicted in the series, as he fought to fill his boat with crab and to keep his two sons (crewmen on the vessel) in line. A foul mouthed straight shooter, Phil seemed to exist on a diet of cigarrettes, coffee, and Red Bull for days on end during crab season. He had experienced serious health problems during the two previous seasons. His passing at this age and in this manner shouldn't be a surprise, but it is still a shock when someone who has shared their life with millions of us through TV passes on.

God Speed Phil ... Thank you for entertaining us for the past five years.

A WTF Moment Today

It's times like these that I really wish I'd start carrying an easy to use camera with me ....

While driving during the lunch hour today, I saw something that made me do a double, then triple take. I'm driving down Arapaho Road. This is a six lane divided road, with a speed limit of 40mph. It has a lot of traffic, particularly during the lunch hour (which this was). It was 37 degress outside, raining heavily, with a lot of standing water on the road.

As I pass through the Preston Road intersection, I see a man on a unicycle riding in the traffic lanes going in the opposite direction. He was riding in the center of the rightmost lane. He had on a helmet, a high-vis vest, and is on a three foot dia. wheel unicycle with an off road tire.

A Unicycle? In a rain storm? On a heavily traveled street? Doing 4mph in a 40mph zone? How stupid can a human being be?

This looks a lot like the one this fellow was riding - three foot diameter wheel put him way above the ground.

John Murtha - RIP?

Rep. John Murtha (D-PA) passed away today at the age of 77. He died of complications from gall bladder surgery.

We are going to see all kinds of tributes from Democrats and Republicans in Washington, fawning over his long service to country. He will be called patriotic, and a credit to the Democrat Party. He will also be buried with Military Honors, due to his service in Congress and the USMC.

What a load of crap.

John Murtha was an enemy of the United States. His vicious, venomous attacks on our military and anyone who believes in conservative government were terrible. Remember, this is the man who publicly, with no evidence, called our Marines murderers and rapists - and then refused to apologize when it was proven that his statements were grossly wrong.

John Murtha was a dirty politician. He was caught red handed accepting bribes, and only survived because Pelosi prevented him from being brought up on charges. He sold his influence easily to a variety of special interest groups. He was a despised member of Congress - even many Democrats considered him and his behaviour a major headache.

I will not praise him. I will not pretend he was a great American. I am not happy about his passing - I feel no joy at the death of anyone (save a few particular examples). However, having him out of Congress is a good thing ... though I wish it had happened through the ballot box.

Danica Shows Off In Stock Car Debut

Danica Patrick made her stock car debut yesterday, in the ARCA series race at Daytona. Though not NASCAR exactly (ARCA is two steps down from Sprint Cup racing), it was her first competitive race in a full bodied, NASCAR style stock car. The car was No. 7, sponsored by Go Daddy, and was fielded by JR Motorsports (Dale Jr.'s Nationwide race team).

Danica held her own throughout the race, was competitive, and surprisingly calm. Midway through the race she was bumped, spun, and knocked off the track by a no-talent rookie (who also caused two other accidents in the race). She displayed superior car handling skills to keep the car from hitting the wall, a fact that was fawned over by the broadcast team. Instead of blowing up, she got back at it, climbing up to as high as 5th, before settling for 6th at the finish. She had a chance in the last few laps to get to the front.

I admit to believing she would not be successful in stock cars. However, after watching her getting rubbed from behind, from the side, and in the front all day long (insert your own joke here) then overcoming a spin and finishing in sixth ... I might just have to change my mind.


Images courtesy SpeedTV and GoDaddy.com

Update 2/8 - Following her success on Saturday, Danica announced today that she will run the Nationwide race at Daytona this coming Saturday. Her Nationwide debut had been scheduled for the week after at California, but she and her team added Daytona to her schedule. We'll see how well she does - the Nationwide cars handle much differently than ARCA cars, there are more of them on track, and the racers in that series are a bit more 'aggressive'.

Air America - Crash & Burn

Air America has been a little known liberal attempt at fielding a talk radio network to counter the Vast Right Wing Conspiracy's stranglehold in that media arena.

First, irregardless of content, I hated these people. They stole the name 'Air America' - the term originally, and still does, refer to CIA air operations in Southeast Asia before and during the Vietnam War. A lot of good people served that operation, and a good many of them gave their lives in doing so. Liberal's theft of the term was dispicable.

You might have seen the movie 'Air America' with Mel Gibson and Robert Downey Jr. depicting the CIA flying operations. The movie sucked, but the flying scenes were pretty darned good.

Air America's on air personality lineup has been a who's who of venomous far left hate mongers. What else can you say about a 'network' whose most illustrious talk host was the lunatic Al Franken? The vile hatred spewed out on the air by these people was incredible. One of their 'hosts' even went so far as to playing recorded gun shot sounds whenever he was mentioning President Bush.

Air America went under due to the financial troubles it had been having since its inception. Poor to non-existant ratings, poor funding, no advertising income, and very poor management equaled an enterprise that simply was not financially viable. They claimed to have a 100 station network, but in all of my business travels, I was never able to find their programming on the radio dial.

The shame of them going under is that the far left in the government is already trying to capitalize on the failure. Renewed efforts to bring up the 'fairness doctrine' under that name or another are floating around Democrat leadership.

Best Sport to Watch at the Winter Olympics

The Winter Olympics are just a few days away, to be held in Vancouver. Vancouver ... which is having a serious problem manufacturing enough snow for the events. Anyway, there are some sports that deserve a look. One in particular caught my eye a few Olympics ago.

Downhill Skiing? Nope ..... Speed Skating? Nope ..... Ski Jumping? No way .....

Figure Skating? Gag ..... Hockey? No (The USA has consistently underperformed since the Miracle on Ice) .....

My vote for the most interesting sport? Curling (and I'm not talking about women working on their hairdos) .....

Curling is a sport popular in Canada and other countries where you can step out of your house and ice skate on the front lawn for most of the year. Curling is basically shiffleboard on ice using huge stones and brooms. Laugh away ... until you watch a competitve match.

The folks who participate in this sport at this level are dead serious about what they do. It can be funny to watch the intensity, especially with the women's teams, with which they slide 'rocks' and sweep ice. I find it easy to get wrapped up in it, kind of like watching a slow motion train wreck ... you just can't turn away.

Give it a look on TV. There will be plenty of matches televised on the 'off' channels. If you don't find yourself attracted to it, then you can (and probably will) call me crazy.

Now, watch this video and tell me if you don't see the incredible skill, intensity, and drama playing out. Beats the heck out of the Superbowl!

Another Democrat Slimeball, Updated

For those of you who might be interested, I posted a note back on Dec.15 about Rep. Terry Hodge here in the Dallas area. Well, as of today, there has been an update to the story ... if interested, go back and look at my original post for the details. It's pretty amusing.

Pigs Lining Up At The Trough, Part Deaux

Nancy Pelosi uses a USAF jet to fly back and forth to San Francisco. As Speaker of the House, she is entitled to use military transportation. She has done so for trips related directly to her job (representing the San Francisco area). She has also done so for strictly personal visits and for campaign visits. Her taxi of choice is the C-37, military version of the Gulfstream G-5. This large executive class transport is designed to get corporate big wigs to their destination quickly and in style. She likes it so much that she tried to add three additional ones to the USAF fleet at Andrews, just so she could not be stopped by one not being available at her every whim (an effort that was defeated after an enraged public got wind of it).

In recently disclosed expense reports, obtained under the Freedom of Information Act, it has come to light that she has racked up over $2,000,000 in expenses flying this jet back and forth to San Francisco, in additon to $100,000 in catering bills for the flights. $100,000 in catering? What is she eating, Dom Perignon and Beluga Caviar?

While she is legally entitled to do this by her position, I think it is the height of arrogance for her to continue to abuse this priviledge. She could fly commercial - even with first class tickets, it wouldn't come anywhere close to the taxpayer money she has wasted.

America, this is what your Democrat leadership thinks of you.

BTW - when her office was contacted about these figures, their only comment was that previous Speakers of the House had done it. Yeah, that makes it OK ....

This Man is Insane

Obama the Immaculate's budget hit Washington with the impact of a nuke. This man and his cronies are absolutely delusional - they are going to bankrupt this country.

In response to critics pointing out the deficit in his budget, both now and in the future, He continues to blame Bush. During his televised meeting with Republicans last week, he stood up in front of them and flatly stated that most of the defecit spending in this year's budget is a result of the previous administration. How can he get away with lying to our faces like this?

A few nuggets I've heard about this budget so far (and this is just the tip of the iceberg) ...

Obama's budget stops manned space exploration by NASA completely. It turns NASA's primary mission into one of investigating global warming. The United States, after the Shuttle's retirement this coming year, will have no way to put a man into orbit - we'll have to contract with the Russians to let us ride along on their rockets.

Obama's budget closes the nuclear waste facility at Yucca Mountain. This facility, under development for 30 years, is supposed to house the nation's nuclear waste. Obama's budget closes it completely, and provides no alternative. He spoke of expanding nuclear energy initiatives during his State of the Union speech, yet he is closing the one key facility that would be mandatory for ANY nuclear power expansion.

Obama wants to spend $237,000,000 to buy a prison in Illinios, to house the terrorists currently housed in Gitmo. This is just the purchase price, and does not include funds to staff or operate the prison.

Obama's budget hits the middle class with multiple tax hikes beginning this year. Reuters, a 'news' agency that is constantly in the tank for Obama, exposed this in an on-line story last night. The White House called Reuters, and demanded the story be removed. Reuters complied. Like everything else, Obama wants to hide what he is doing so that we don't know ...

The 'Death Tax' is completely eliminated in 2010, but returns in full in 2011 and beyond. So, if you are planning on inheiriting anything next year or beyond, the Democrats are going to take a very large share of it for themselves.

The Bush tax cuts are being allowed to expire, except for a few that are targeted to the 'middle class'.

Deductions for charitable donations are gone from 2010 forward. Yes, gone completely.

Capital gains taxes jump from 15% to 20% for 2010 and beyond.

Budget experts close to the White House are predicting that a national VAT (sales tax) of 15-20% will be necessary to come even close to paying for all of the spending Obama is trying to commit us to over the next 10 years.

This budget, by itself, spends $3,800,000,000,000, which will increase our deficit by $1,400,000,000,000. This budget, for the next ten years, adds $1,000,000,000,000 to our deficit each and every year. This is without any additional budget items added by Obama next year, or any budget filed after that, for 10 years. So, in 2020, our deficit will have $11 Trillion dollars added to it just from what is passed in this Obama budget.

Obama's budget deficit for this year alone is more than the deficits from the last 15 years' budgets put together.

Folks, we don't have to worry about China deciding not to reup their investment in our country's debt. THERE ISN'T ENOUGH MONEY IN THE ENTIRE FREAKING WORLD TO COVER THE DEFICIT WE WILL HAVE IN 2020, courtesy of this Obama budget. What happens when the world's most powerful country declares bankruptcy?

Major news outlets, if they aren't completely in the tank for Obama, are putting up breakdowns of what is in His budget. Look them up - understand what this idiot is trying to do to us.