Recent Blog Posts: Bakersfield.com

My view: How would you respond in non physically violent way

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 08:09:43 PDT

I got this from BILLIONAIREBARTLEY on Jul 3, 2009 at 01:50 PM

Casooner90 - We're here, we're queer and we ain't going anywhere! That doesn't really rhyme does it? You're right - I need to find another gay blogger. OR, someone curious about gay blogging! Let's you and I hang out! We'll go to Basque dinner together - my treat! After a few bottles of cheap red wine I'll lean across the table, but my lips up to your ear and whisper, "slip me some tongue, bro". Mmm, cow tongue, my favorite.

How would you respond to this in a non violent manner. Should this be tolerated on b.com? What's the difference between this and any other sexual harassment? This is very offensive to me and the first thought that came to my mind after reading this is to inflict serious pain on this guy/gal or what ever BB is? I'm posting this so that every one can see how inflamatory this person is.

Comments:
Wayfarer commented:

That is why you have a block option. So if you are being harassed by a confused person, you can say simply "No thank you." Of course if he is stalking in real life you might have to get a restraining order or even physically defend yourself. There have been a few cases in my life that a homosexual man didn't comprehend when I said "Leave me alone" or "Go away" and tried grabbing me. They did understand karate.

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." St. Matt 22:37 : He mocks proud mockers but gives grace to the humble. Proverbs 3:34

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 07:17:45 PDT

"The proud man thinks he can comprehend everything with his mind. The Lord does not grant this ... The Lord does not manifest Himself to the proud soul. Pride is difficult to detect in oneself, but the Lord leaves the proud to be tormented by their impotence until they humble themselves." -- St. Silouan of Mount Athos

Bakersfieldbubble: Bright House is a joke!

Sat, 04 Jul 2009 06:41:18 PDT

Day 1 of the Tour de France and their new HD channel does not work!!!!

Brighthouse please fix this mess!!!

Comments:
catpaw commented:

I haven't been keeping tick marks on a list but I do believe Brighthouse gets more complaints than any other cable service. The service with the highest regard among bloggers is Dish Network, along with Direct TV.

Certainly has made an impression with me. I subscribed to the Dish and been happy with it ever since. (Knock on wood; I hope I haven't just jinxed myself.)

Bakersfieldbubble commented:

catpaw - Do they have versus HD? If so, maybe I need to switch.

Don't Believe Me, Do Your Own Research: Flashback: MSNBC Report - Bayer Sells AIDS-Infected Drug Banned in U.S

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:07:36 PDT

www.youtube.com/watch

I'm over it...

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:04:17 PDT

Alright you guys. I have gotten to the point where b.com has become too much of a battleground. It used to be fun. Not so much anymore. Maybe I am just dealing with too much crap in my life. Everything is a fight. I'm tired and I am over it. I'm sure most of you don't care, but I have lost interest. It just seems like everything that is said is taken as a personal attack. Maybe I have had too much July 3rd libation but seriously. Not fun anymore.

Comments:
vanityfair commented:

mrs ... People like you make these blogs a better place. Please reconsider.

BTW I still crack up at the bug avatar, LOL : )

Observer commented:

I understand completely what you mean.

I sort of look at things in terms of : a cafe for breakfast where you quietly shoot the breeze with people... everyone is polite and exchanging information ... lunch... where your sit down and discuss business... everyone is polite. But this stuff is more like a bar fight at night... where ... watch out for where the tables and chairs are flying.

I think I am about two days away from where you are going.

And I am going to try and clean up the trail I left behind me before I leave.

Shwaine commented:

I can totally understand where you're coming from MrsE. I just got attacked by someone, not even an hour after I'd given that blogger advice that the blogger asked for, over a typo.... A typo of all things. This blogger thinks I'm an arrogant, "actually" is a fighting word, rub knowledge in our noses sort of blogger and has made no attempts to hide the contempt. I guess a typo seemed like a shiny little bauble, the perfect thing to snark me over, to this blogger because "oh my, the know-it-all made a mistake! Aha! I've got her now!". How utterly pathetic.

I don't blame you for wanting to get away from people who constantly stoop low and take offense at being told they're stooping low (and attack you more in the future for attempting to bring a level of decorum to the site). There are many times I'm left thinking "no wonder the rest of the state holds such low opinions of this town" after seeing the words of the bloggers on this site.

catpaw commented:

Take a break and come back.

drilnliftcrude commented:

Take a short break. Then come back as mrsgordon24 and everything will be rainbows.

NancyII commented:

Msearnhardt, Gotcha. As I've stated to a few people, my tolerance for stupidity, arrogance, and know it all posting along with the you're stupid because you don't think the way I do attitude has reached it's limit. I remember a time when I was the calm voice of reason. Tried to get people to agree to disagree. I'm afraid those days are are in the past and none of us are the better for it.

I can handle "wrong". I can handle "mistaken". I can handle "disagreement" I can certainly handle a difference of opinion. What I have no tolerance for these days is arrogance and condescension. I can't handle the mocking of religion (you don't believe..fine but don't insult me or my faith) or the mocking of a different political party just because you disagree with me. I can't handle the sly, snide comments about a political candidates children (and we saw plenty of it prior to and after the election.) I've written blogs about it. I've complained loud and long about how we're all entitled to our opinion.

I don't need to "prove" anything to anyone..as I've said many times, there are no links to opinion. I'm not going to sit for hours digging through mountains of google info to make a case. This is a blog and I don't get paid for my time here.

Ahhhh..there I go again. Smack me on the forehead and hand me a V-8...I'm trying to reason again. Silly me.

I hope you don't go, we need more people like you around here. I can hardly blame you though, I've made myself pretty scarce around here as well. I sat here yesterday and argued and tried to discuss the breaking news item and so many used personal snipey remarks rather than actually discussing. I wondered again why I got caught up in it. As an old friend used to say "dummy dummy dumb chit" I have no one to blame but myself. I wonder sometimes if some of us aren't just a tad masochistic in our determination to have everything we believe in insulted.

What I REALLY don't like, is seeing myself becoming a part of it. Even so, I'm not leaving. I'm not quitting. I'm just not here as much. And a healthy thing that is. Hang in there gal, maybe when the weather cools, so will the bloggers.

I'm off to try to find Shwains reply to my plea about the converter box. She's mad at me for ignoring her. (snipe..lol)

adampayne commented:

I have found Facebook to be a much better social network and discussion site. You don't berate friends, or friends of friends on Facebook. Here, the line in the sand was drawn for most people a long time ago about whatever issue riled them up and they never forgave someone for differing with their opinions. Facts don't matter, and links to facts, or differing takes, don't matter. The disintegration of this blogsite is a lot like the disintegration of our state government. Reason and compromise can never be attained when the opposing sides never listen to the other. Fear and distrust reign supreme.

I thought that issues like food, health, education, pets and the environment would be nonpartisan issues for most people. That is not the case. They are all partisan issues which are manipulated for political effect by entrenched stakeholders who prefer the way it is.

I know what people are going to type before they type it on most posts here at b.com. When so few surprises happen here it just gets to be a bore.

Don't Believe Me, Do Your Own Research: Flashback: Mercury is good for you! - US Mainstream Media Report

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 23:04:08 PDT

www.youtube.com/watch

ToppStories: Is Bakersfield a "City of Righteousness?"

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 22:26:36 PDT

Graphic printer Ken Hart, the owner of Master Graphics in Bakersfield, has come up with a bumper sticker he's giving away that proclaims, "Bakersfield: City of Righteousness."

Hart said the San Joaquin Valley's southernmost big city has long suffered the slings and arrows of outrageously bad press.

It's time to change that image, he said, by changing the mindset of those who live in B-town. Yes, he knows about the crime, the toxic air, the high rates of teen pregnancy and teen dropouts.

But Hart also says Bako people are some of the kindest humans in the universe.

Read the story here, then come back and tell us what you think.

Comments:
vanityfair commented:

Sorry, but I quit reading when the Bible came up.

Vote out the self-interested BoS and CC, or at least MAKE THEM IMPLEMENT the recommendations of their respective planning commissions. Recommendations they have ignored for years ....

randomfactor commented:

We *DO* have us some righteous atheists in this town...

Observer commented:

I absolutely love your story... this is the neatest thing since clumping kitty litter (used to be sliced bread but I have change my priorities). I would love to see the Board of Trade, the City, the economic development folks, and the Chamber adopt this rather than the current couple of dead leaves they are using now....

adampayne commented:

No slogans!!!!!!!! This is yet another piece of marketing drivel that means nothing. Let the actions of Bakersfield residents and their city officials speak for themselves. I am all about promoting the things this city has done well, or the attractions that are nearby in the surrounding areas, but "City of Righteousness" smacks of Biblical arrogance mingled with mighty Bakersfield ignorance.

gr8scott commented:

No such thing as negative publicity...I guess.

The definition of righteousness alone argues against it as a slogan for a city. It's ridiculous.

elinem commented:

"Now, it is evident that no one is good but the triune God, that no one is righteous but God alone." -- Dietrich Bonhoeffer.

"No one is good but God alone." -- Jesus of Nazareth.

I think it's incredibly arrogant.

It is already the 4th of July in Baghdad

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 21:20:55 PDT

It is already the 4th of July in Baghdad. I think this post from a public affairs unit in Iraq pretty much sums up my feelings. blogsoverbaghdad.com/soldiers/2009/07/dont-be-a-spectator-to-freedom/

Regardless of what you think of the war and our government, past and present, I hope you have the grace to support the people that go where they are told and do what the national policy is at the time.

Comments:
Observer commented:

And I am sure they are not worrying about fireworks except to hope they have none.

siouxcityranch commented:

they have had more than their share for quit some time....and burnin down the house is nonegotiable..its a fact

Why not have a public own state Bank?

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 19:45:54 PDT

Something needs to be done.....

http://www.webofdebt.com/articles/but_governor.php

Comments:
adampayne commented:

Makes sense (cents) to me.

ghostriter commented:

We already have public-owned "banks". They are called Credit Unions. They are member-owned. We plan on switching our accounts, and many of our friends are doing so as well.

: Happy 4th of July

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 18:29:03 PDT

OK heres your chance..Post some of your personal July 4th mishaps so we can all laugh cry whatever together as the *REAL* Patriotic Americans we are

Comments:
paxchristi3 commented:

As a kid, I had the stupidity to set aside hundreds of pop bottle rockets next to a pipe. You can imagine what happened when I lit the first one. After that it was everyone for himself as the skies were filled with the projectiles and I tripped over some bushes while trying to get away.

Another incident involved my father lighting up a big one. But nothing exploded in the air. Then we heard a loud thump, which was the ball landing on the car. He propped it up on a pipe and lit a roman candle against it. As soon as he started running back ... BOOM! Flaming balls shot everywhere.

Fortunately nobody got hurt in either incident.

There's another story involving myself and some fellow high school classmates bringing fireworks to our work at the ice plant while the boss was away on vacation, but it's too crazy of a tale that no one will believe me.

Oh, and my folks once ran a fireworks stand as a way to raise money for my old man's college baseball team. It wasn't the most comfortable feeling sleeping in a bedroom above the garage where all that stuff was stored for a time.

siouxcityranch commented:

15 alcohol and fireworks. I was the designated igniter for the evening for a large party of teens that came over to our house (since the parents werent home for the evening *grin*) to get the face of doo doo and inhale large amounts of smoke..(gunpowder virgil)

I grabbed a volcano from the pile of pyromania and walked it to the center of the group. When I lit it instead of the usual shower of colorful sparks everyone expected.. it exploded in my face and a large piece of flaming residue landed on my inside left forearm..

Had the fact it was dark out and I had been heavily indulging in whatever was being passed around freely during the celebration come into play ... I might have been more concerned...I couldnt actually feel or even cared about the damage to my extremety during the rest of the evenings festivitys

however when I woke up in the afternoon of the following day.. ..it was to a throbbing pain..thats when I discovered that darkened flesh that had been annoying me the previous night was infact a 3rd degree burn..the 4 inch area was melted down to the muscle....I can still see where it scarred me so many years ago..

My group of friends response at the time of the accident.(after the laughter subsided) was *WOW MAN THAT WAS COOL DO IT AGAIN*

I have since learned to use lengthier igntion devices..other than a Zippo lighter..

paxchristi3 commented:

I'm sure all our liberal friends are going to read this and say, "See? These knuckleheads are exactly why we need a nanny state!"

I should add that these incidents preceded the safe-and-sane era.

siouxcityranch commented:

hahah california is light weight in comparison to the rest of the country....look at what the rest of the world are playiing with while the majority of the local objectors run for cover after lighting a picolo pete or a smoke bomb

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qHwEd1dLLmE&NR=1

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YH1T0aH8ekQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tOFSuPw-xmw&feature=related

siouxcityranch commented:

pax I should add that these incidents preceded the safe-and-sane era.

yup good point..this was back when we had steel rods for sparklers..not wood..

paxchristi3 commented:

Then who is the heavyweight? Looks like these Alaskan fishermen are finding out just who delivers the biggest bangs for the buck -- the North Koreans. Perhaps that explains Gov. Palin's sudden resignation and wanting to get out of Dodge while the going's good:

siouxcityranch commented:

you sure thats alaska..looks more like lake tahoe..isnt NK supposed to shoot off a missle or two towards hawaii on the 4th?? did they renegotiate that??

paxchristi3 commented:

I haven't heard whether North Korea has backed down from its threat, but we can be sure there will be some real fireworks if it follows through with it. As for the picture, I found it on the Net and it didn't give a clue where it was taken. Pretty scenic though. Reminds me of the Ozarks.

: Help save your pet owner rights

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:03:16 PDT

Beware the CA government will be taking away your right to own an intact pet in if SB 250 passes. July 15th and sent to governor to sign.

Help fight SB 250 by going to http://www.assembly.ca.gov/acs/acsframeset8text.asp

And email AND SEND LETTERS TO the appropiations committee and tell them you are opposed to SB 250 as amended. If you do not do this you right as an pet owner will be forced to spay and neuter your pets in CA.. Don't let Sen Florez take your rights away. Go to the PetPac site and sign the petition at

http://petpac.net/action/petitions/oppose_the_california_senate_bill_250/

for more info visit CDOC site at http://www.cdoca.org/legislation/statelegislation.html

Comments:
adampayne commented:

No, the state is not taking away your right to own an intact pet. A pet owner who wants to keep an unaltered Fido or Fluffy simply has to pay for an unaltered dog license when you license your pooch in whatever California jurisdiction you reside.

Your comment is not the truth. Further, Californians now spend more than 250 million dollars per year housing and euthanizing unwanted and discarded pets. For those keeping animals that breed its time to pay for the problem you have greatly contributed to.

siouxcityranch commented:

adam For those keeping animals that breed its time to pay for the problem you have greatly contributed to.

shallow thinking on your part adam..goes deeper than that..youve been here long enough to know what im talking about so I wont go into the details again..short side is these laws wont change the Irresponsible breeders and you and I both know it..this could drive people into abandoing animals or being afraid of takin them to a vet if they get injured or sick..wake up and think about it before you post..

NancyII commented:

911 for cat lovers, I have a serious problem.

siouxcityranch commented:

kinda stuck on all of the critters nancy..whats up

NancyII commented:

I found a tiny kitten crawling in the neighbors yard and no ones home. I left a note on the door but seriously doubt this kitten belongs to anyone. We have probably 6 cats running loose around here.

The little guys eyes were swollen shut so I used a saline eye clenser I'd bought for my dog and wiped his eyes with a cotton pad. Both eyes erupted with pus and dripped while draining. I kept wiping til they stopped draining. I managed to get water down him since I knew he had to be dehydrated. I saw the mama cat peeking around the corner but I couldn't leave that poor kitten in the yard that close to the street...and ill.

Any ideas out there? I put him in my small dog crate since any of my dogs (inside or out) would eat him alive...I CANNOT keep him.

NancyII commented:

The odd thing is the little guy came running toward me when he heard me but couldn't see at all. He's not feral obviously.

CatherineBaker commented:

We just inherited an orphan kitten a couple of days ago, too. It wasn't sick, but it couldn't have been more than 6 weeks old. We've been feeding it. If your kitten has a Mama then there's probably more where he came from.

The only thing you can do is set a cat trap and take them to the SPCA or pound.

Poor little guy. I would take him for you, Nancy, but my husband is already fed up with the Mama Kitty we've already got, plus her two babies, and now this new kitten.

siouxcityranch commented:

does he have a fever..is his paws and tummy hotter than they should be aside from the ambient temp outside..he might have distemper..is he boney..when you pull a piece of hide does it remailn standing or does it go back down when you release it....up would indicate dehydration and that will kill him quic,..you need to get some pediolite and dilute it with water..dont overdue it if they are sick they will usually get worse before they get better..if he has a temp it need to come down quick..high temps for just a couple hours can cause brain damage and death..do you have a plastic botl you can freeze or try a ziplock baggie with ice cubes..let him lay on it to help bring it down..

use an eye dropper and put it in his cheek slowly so it doesnt go itno his lungs,,let him swallow..if hes bad you might have to do it every couple hours..if he gets real bad you might need to call mark over and take him out back..letting one suffer aint what the good lord intended when he made us watchers over the other species.....

see if he will eat some tuna or drink some body temp milk..if hes not hungry its not a good sign..

has he gone to the bathroom?? was his poop watery or normal?? im assuming all this since your not posting so ill stop..

NancyII commented:

I think he's too young to eat on his own. I tried that. Best I can do is dilute some propel...don't have pediolyte. I could make up a little sugar water..we used to do that with kids. Criminy...why always on a weekend? A holiday weekend at that. I'd take him to SPCA but that wont happen for a few days now prolly. And as for Mark...lol..I doubt he could do it.

There may be more, the run loose and breed yowling all the time.

spam code....GIRPS...that's the way I feel doctoring the little guy. And I havne't had any dinner.

siouxcityranch commented:

yup if you have karo syrup you can use that too wit the water..see you got it you just havent had to use it for awhile..just take deep breaths and do what comes natural..if hes that young and hes worse by morning?? well you will know if its time..natures way of culling out the weak..sometimes its better..its sad but its better for the kitten if hes ill and his temp hits him hard..honest it doesnt take long if hey ge that bad..and you need to think about exposure to your other pets..since you dont konw whats wrong..once hes gone you should probably bleach or toss things to get it out of your house..some diseases can hang up to 6 months later..

use anti bacterial soap after you handle him every time just in case

witterpitters commented:

Pet smart has a vet Nancy - possibly you could get him over there on Sat. Pet smart also has kitten milk and bottles for feeding if he is too little to eat.

NancyII commented:

The little guy is very active...meowing, crawling all over. He's not hot but is very skinny. I'd say he had a hard time nursing and may not have been fed for a while. I doubt he's more and a couple of weeks old.

NancyII commented:

His back legs seem deformed too. He walks on what would be his knees. My guess is that's what got him in trouble and the flies did the rest to his eyes. They're open a little now that I've cleaned them and they're drained.

I doubt there'll be a vet at petsmart tomorrow..it's a holiday. I may be stuck til Monday or Tuesday. I'll keep him in the crate except to water him and clean his eyes.

I can't deal with any more crises with animals. I already have to keep the big dog and little dog completely seperately and on top of that am dog sitting the grandkids lab as well. pfffftttt.... the dogs hate cats. Allie already killed one that got in the yard right after I moved in here. Got the little guy in a crate, dog gates up to keep Zack away from the kitten just in case he's contagious. Sally on a cable running the entire lawn because she's an escape artist, Zack in the liv room and dining area, Allie on the back porch.

Happy 4th everyone.......

siouxcityranch commented:

yup pet smart has a good vet ..and takes walk ins..hopefully its something like an eye infection..they also have prescripton feed at his age i would use an eye dropper though some babys wont know how to suck off a bottle and he needs the nouirshment..the karo and water can get him through until the AM...for weight baby food is a cheap alternative to the script foods though..no spices etc..bland made for youngins

If he has any sores you can apply plain sugar to the wound..clean it first..some will use honey so it sticks..has a natural antibiotic in it..we had a female border ripp herself open on a fence and she kept rippin out her stitches so the vet had us use sugar and wrap it..healed up perfectly..like Martha says.."its a good thing"

siouxcityranch commented:

nancy..His back legs seem deformed too. He walks on what would be his knees.

quality of life nancy..you know what im talkin about sis..if you dont have someone who can help you ..they used to have a drop box at the pound..somethings you cant fix..if you need a healthy one we have a couple ferrils out back that need a home *grin*

NancyII commented:

LOL...no cats allowed here Sioux. Zack the house dog gets hysterical and almost jerk my arm oout of the socket when he sees a cat and Allie already killed one. My lot is a no cat kill zone. Even the strays know better than to go near the back yard. They walk in the fronnt yard and torment Zack all the time.

dreamifucan commented:

Awwwhhhhh MOM! You know what a sucker I am for strays and babies. <wondering as I type how well babygirl would like a little kitty around...I can just see her now, "oooohhh! a new toy!">

NancyII commented:

You come by it honestly..I have a soft spot for strays too. The little guy is in the ebay room mewing his head off and I feel so bad for him.

Shwaine commented:

Here's two homemade kitten formula to use in a pinch. You should get kitten formula in the morning, because cow's milk is not well-suited for kittens. It has too much fat, too much carbs and not enough protein.

Formula 1: 1 part boiled water, 5 parts evaporated milk.

Formula 2: 8 ounces whole milk, 2 egg yolks.

Mix well and make sure it's warm but not too hot. Use a dropper and slowly (very slowly) drop it on the tongue. Aim to feed at least a tablespoon (preferably two tablespoons) every 3-4 hours. After feeding, put the kittne somewhere you won't mind getting messy. Then wipe its rear with a warm cotton ball to stimulate "elimination" (as the vets like to call it). Young kittens can't poo or pee on their own, so you get the joy of doing that.

The swollen eyes are likely due to one of two upper respiratory viruses that are common in ferals. Usually this requires veterinary treatment to clear up and even then, not all kittens can be saved from it. Clean the eyes and nose regularly with warm water right now, but it probably needs to see a vet if it makes it until morning. Oral antibiotics and antibiotic eye ointment are the normal course of treatment. Three of my cats had to be hand-raised through this sort of infection. One was only half a pound at about 6 weeks and still pulled through. The big thing is quick veterinary treatment and lots of feedings.

witterpitters commented:

Hey Nancy.............how is the kitty today? I just read your last post and am wondering if the mom knew this one was not right and pushed it away. They do that. Or, he just hasn't got the hang of the back leg thing!

We have been "adopted" by two adult cats and 3 kittens. We are thinking the adult cats maybe were with a family as the male & female stick together and both protect the kittens. Usually if both are feral the male takes off and the mom keeps the male away from the kittens.

Hey SCR......................want some cats to catch the mice in the barn?????!!!!!!

NancyII commented:

The kitten is still alive and about the same as last night. The eyes are still oozing and matted shut but with the saline cleanser I get them open a little. I remembered I have antibiotic drops from when Allie had allergy discharge so started using them last night. This little guy is a fighter...he bucks up and tries to pull his head away when I put the drops in. He doesn't like the dropper routine either but I'm trying to keep him hydrated til I can get something solid.

I'll try Shwains formula and vets are not an option on a holiday weekend. I don't have $300 bucks to hand to the ER vet on a stray only to have the little fella die. Especially when there's no chance of me keeping it.

Either way it goes, on Monday there will be a resolution.

(Shwaine..for you...I hadn't gotten around to reading this blog this morning. You wound me with your impatience but thanks for the recipe.)

The Naked Truth: Its Not About the Fireworks...

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 16:41:37 PDT

Declaration of Independence

Here is the complete text of the Declaration of Independence.
The original spelling and capitalization have been retained.

(Adopted by Congress on July 4, 1776)

The Unanimous Declaration
of the Thirteen United States of America

When, in the course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bonds which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the laws of nature and of nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. That to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed. That whenever any form of government becomes destructive to these ends, it is the right of the people to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their safety and happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shown that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such government, and to provide new guards for their future security. --Such has been the patient sufferance of these colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former systems of government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over these states. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his assent to laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his governors to pass laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of representation in the legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved representative houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the legislative powers, incapable of annihilation, have returned to the people at large for their exercise; the state remaining in the meantime exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavored to prevent the population of these states; for that purpose obstructing the laws for naturalization of foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migration hither, and raising the conditions of new appropriations of lands.

He has obstructed the administration of justice, by refusing his assent to laws for establishing judiciary powers.

He has made judges dependent on his will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of new offices, and sent hither swarms of officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, standing armies without the consent of our legislature.

He has affected to render the military independent of and superior to civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his assent to their acts of pretended legislation:

For quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by mock trial, from punishment for any murders which they should commit on the inhabitants of these states:

For cutting off our trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing taxes on us without our consent:

For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of trial by jury:

For transporting us beyond seas to be tried for pretended offenses:

For abolishing the free system of English laws in a neighboring province, establishing therein an arbitrary government, and enlarging its boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule in these colonies:

For taking away our charters, abolishing our most valuable laws, and altering fundamentally the forms of our governments:

For suspending our own legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated government here, by declaring us out of his protection and waging war against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burned our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large armies of foreign mercenaries to complete the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow citizens taken captive on the high seas to bear arms against their country, to become the executioners of their friends and brethren, or to fall themselves by their hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavored to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian savages, whose known rule of warfare, is undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these oppressions we have petitioned for redress in the most humble terms: our repeated petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A prince, whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have we been wanting in attention to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, enemies in war, in peace friends.

We, therefore, the representatives of the United States of America, in General Congress, assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the name, and by the authority of the good people of these colonies, solemnly publish and declare, that these united colonies are, and of right ought to be free and independent states; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the state of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as free and independent states, they have full power to levy war, conclude peace, contract alliances, establish commerce, and to do all other acts and things which independent states may of right do. And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.

New Hampshire: Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton

Massachusetts: John Hancock, Samual Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry

Rhode Island: Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery

Connecticut: Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott

New York: William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris

New Jersey: Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark

Pennsylvania: Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross

Delaware: Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean

Maryland: Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton

Virginia: George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton

North Carolina: William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn

South Carolina: Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton

Georgia: Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Source: The Pennsylvania Packet, July 8, 1776

Comments:
ALICEN commented:

H8: I was struck, as I read, by the numerous "He has refused ...." expressions. In my mind, the name of our current pres. came to mind as a substitution for "he."

I know. Quite irreverent of me. I apologize for my mind playing such perverse little tricks on me.

I do take the Declaration seriously. The bravery it took to do such a thing! Unthinkable!

Shwaine commented:

Do you really want to go down that road Alicen? Because you know people can turn the tables right around and substitute "He" with a variety of Republicans too. Sad to try to turn this into a partisan thread when it started as a patriotic thread. Patriotism knows no party lines (despite what some may think).

Infowar commented:

Great point Shwaine.

catpaw commented:

Maybe it's my advanced age of crabbiness, but I'm staying home, clad in the minimum clothes to keep me from being arrested, staying out of the heat, watching the tube (can't wait to see the next exciting tidbit about Michael Jackson), and barbequing my secret-recipe catpaw burgers.

History Channel is broadcasting The Revolution seris, which I plan to record. Also, a seris of the presidents.

School House Zach: Year in review: Boys cross country

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 15:48:37 PDT

First off, Happy Fourth of July weekend to everybody, and please be safe if and when you're traveling. Make sure this stays a happy holiday for everybody.

Moving deeper into the summer means moving deeper into our series of high school season reviews. Today we move into boys cross country — but before you turn up your nose, think of this as a great, quick way to catch up on some sports you might not have paid a whole lot of attention to during the school year. There are lots of great athletes around the county playing other sports, and they've all got good stories.

One of the year's (decade's? century's?) best stories comes from cross country, so let's quickly move on.

2008-09 Kern County BOYS CROSS COUNTRY

Overview: It was a disappointing state meet for a couple of local hopefuls, Foothill’s Chris Schwartz and the McFarland boys. I’ll be honest; I thought Schwartz would take the Division III state race easily. He had won Division I as a junior, so when Foothill got moved down, you’d figure it was a lock. But Schwartz looked in pain throughout the race, and though he had the lead with a mile to go, he fell to seventh place. San Diego-University City’s Mac Fleet won it, and he’s a great athlete, but Schwartz wanted more. He admitted after the race to not getting enough sleep and probably not eating right. McFarland, meanwhile, just didn’t have the race it needed to top Big Bear, which dominated the Division IV race. Second place in state is great for most teams, but the Cougars have a recent history of becoming bridesmaids, and it happened again.

Best team: It’s truly amazing what McFarland is able to do with such a small school. The Cougars were by far the area’s best boys team again, with Ridgeview and Highland running neck-and-neck for the next best. McFarland was led by four runners who would have been the top guy on any other team in the county except Foothill: Alfonso Cisneros, Eddie Garcia, Marco Perez and Francisco Nava. Of course, McFarland also had three other runners capable of breaking into that group — the school went 2-3-4-5-7-8-9 in the Central Section Division IV race. Needless to say, whenever locals all got together, McFarland’s group chased Schwartz, kept its point total way down and won easily.
Honorable mention: Ridgeview, Highland, Wasco, Shafter

Best runner: Funny how you can call a seventh-in-state finish disappointing. That’s how good Schwartz was in the final two years of his career. I got a call the other day from sports writer Josh Scroggin at the San Luis Obispo Tribune; he wanted to know some details on Schwartz, who’s headed to Cal Poly next year. I told Josh that given a disciplined environment — think about that state race and his sleeping and eating habits — he could be one of the best in the nation. He proved it in track season with his 3,200 time, and he proved it at the cross country Western regionals, which he won, and at the Foot Locker national race, where he was in the top 10. This guy is special — and don't forget his mind-boggling background.
Honorable mention: Alfonso Cisneros, McFarland; Francisco Nava, McFarland; Eddie Garcia, McFarland; Ascension Mendoza, Wasco; Curtis Kelly, Stockdale; Robby Baker, Ridgeview; Marco Perez, McFarland

Best race: The state meet was dramatic, but with McFarland’s and Schwartz’s corresponding duds, it really wasn’t much fun for Kern County. If you’re looking for something more uplifting, how about the Kern County Championships, which told the story of the season well. Schwartz dominated with a personal-record time of 14:59.76 (a high schooler going under 15 minutes is pretty rare), and then the next nine runners came in within 20 seconds of each other. McFarland ran in a pack and had enough to outlast everyone else.
Honorable mention: State meet, section meet

A look ahead: The Schwartz Era of Kern cross country was far too short. What now? McFarland loses Cisneros and Eddie Garcia but will be just fine with a nucleus of Marco Perez, Marco Camargo and Francisco Nava coming back. Whether the Cougars can win their 10th state title — one that’s eluded them for amost a decade now — with that group remains to be seen. They’ve always got some up-and-comers who score plenty of points, too. As for others, Ridgeview returns a team that was led by juniors, so Robby Baker, Alex Garcia and Brian Solis ought to have the Wolf Pack in top form. On an individual level, look out for a big jump by sophomore-to-be Curtis Kelly of Stockdale or senior-to-be Jake Van Zandt at Highland.

Year in Review Index
July 1: Football
July 2: Volleyball

Tomorrow: Girls cross country

Dr BLT's Blog n Roll Studio : What? A fresh serving of Jerry's Trout Pizza?

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 14:19:46 PDT

You guessed it. Punk meets Kern County Country Rock (K.c.c.r.o.c.k). And if you're wondering what this series is all about, I cut this from BSU for your convenience:

Welcome to a brand new Bakersfield Sound Underground blog storybook adventure, where you, the blog visitor, get to add to every episode. You can make it turn out bad, good, neutral, or any old way you'd like the story to turn out. This series is called Jerry's Trout Pizza. This is serving, or episode 2. Whether you're a Buck Owens or a Buzzcocks fan, whether you are a Hank Ray, or an Operation Ivy fan, whether you are a Black Flag fan or a Merle Haggard fan, you'll fan fun hanging out in the imaginary punky-tonk territory known as Jerry's Trout Pizza, where they serve fresh fish on dry, buttery, hard crust as experimental bands, duos and solo artists come in to serve up the best fusion of post-korn-k.c.c.r.o.c.k. (Kern County Country Rock), mixing up the old and new, the borrowed and the blue, just for you. And without further ado, this is Jerry's Trout Pizza, Serving 2.

To taste this, you'll have to go underground, but that's okay. If you ain't goin' underground, you ain't gettin' anywhere!

BSU

Bakersfield Sound Underground

http://www.bakersfieldsoundunderground.com

Comments:
blognroll commented:

How does it taste? Is it as good as the first one? Better? Worse?

The View From Here: Here's How They Sell Leather On The East Coast

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 13:53:17 PDT

I guess it is one of those late night infomercials in the New York/Conneticut area.

Comments:
Wayfarer commented:

Some people blog and some people sell leather;P

BILLIONAIREBARTLEY commented:

LOL I love it!

paxchristi3 commented:

And here's how they sell leather on the Left Coast: http://www.calcatholic.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?id=7917b3a9-84ec-432c-a67a-6f9c45d9d91a

gsisola commented:

LOVE IT !!!

This guy is real lucky he doesn't live in Minnesota... those poor SOB's... oh, wait what am I saying, we have Barbara Boxer and Diane Feinstein... maybe Minnesota doesn't have it so bad after all !!

BILLIONAIREBARTLEY commented:

Don't forget Pelosi, the little witch.

I like Feinstein, and knew I was on the right track when one of my liberal friends said she was "getting too conservative."

Stranger in a Strange Land: Sarah Palin Just Announced That She Will Be Stepping Down As Governor of Alaska

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:52:48 PDT

Say what?

Edit: Here's a link:

www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31726640/ns/politics-more_politics/

Re-edit: added a Youtube video.

Comments:
FloridaStateGrad commented:

Good lord, that speech she just gave was horrible.

I've been reading speculation.. some say this'll open up her time to run for POTUS in 2012, others say she must have gotten a media deal - maybe FOX news?

ghostriter commented:

My hubby just texted me regarding this. I think he heard it on NPR. He doesn't know why she's quitting, though.

paxchristi3 commented:

Maybe she's a closet liberal and just can hold it in anymore. Watch them libs suddenly come flocking to her. Lordy, Lordy, she's free at last! No more mooseburgers ... just tofuburgers!

FloridaStateGrad commented:

excuse me Pax, but have you been hitting the bong harder than usual?

jfrancais commented:

? what?

CatherineBaker commented:

Would like to watch the speech but Spongebob's on, and I have priorities.

AudreyB commented:

She's entitled to run for President just like any one else, but she's going to have to explain Todd Palin's membership to the AIP at some point. An explanation without lies would be best.

FloridaStateGrad commented:

Part of me wants her to run, just so that she can lose; but another part of me really fears the possibility of America being stupid...

I think I'd literally move to Canada the moment she sat down in the Oval Office.

sagefever commented:

Over at CNN they are saying she was unsure about seeking reelection~ if she needed to focus on her family or her state.

Putting politics completely aside~ as a mother who knows the toll ( and the joys) of having a differently-abled child...I hope it is her family she focuses on.

jfrancais commented:

Nothing wrong with focusing on the family.

NancyII commented:

We'd help you pack FSG..lol

CatherineBaker commented:

I've been wanting to move to Canada for several years, FSG. Probably British Columbia. I wonder what you have to do to get a visa.

FloridaStateGrad commented:

I'm sure you would, Nancy.. and then I'd be able to watch the eventual destruction of my country from safety, instead of being instantaneously vaporized from the nuclear warfare that would ensue.

NancyII commented:

FSG, what was wrong with her speech? Because she didn't read it from a teleprompter? That she spoke from her heart? Goodness, we can't have politicians doing THAT.

Saying we'd be vaporized if she became president is overreacting a tad isn't it?

NancyII commented:

I don't recall ANY politician who was ever so villified, brutally attacked, lied about, family SMEARED the way it's been with her.

Now, you Dems might become even more afwaid..vewwy afwaid. ROFL. I love it!

You may have unleashed the dragon.

sagefever commented:

Ted Kennedy.

drilnliftcrude commented:

Sarah Palin never murdered her mistress.

CatherineBaker commented:

That we KNOW of.

zapped commented:

I'm sure you would, Nancy.. and then I'd be able to watch the eventual destruction of my country from safety, instead of being instantaneously vaporized from the nuclear warfare that would ensue.

Holy fearmongering batman!

jfrancais commented:

I've been wanting to move to Canada for several years, FSG. Probably British Columbia. I wonder what you have to do to get a visa.

Unless you're a businessperson, doctor, lawyer, or have a Ph.D, it's very difficult to immigrate to Canada from the US.

FloridaStateGrad commented:

FSG, what was wrong with her speech? Because she didn't read it from a teleprompter? That she spoke from her heart? Goodness, we can't have politicians doing THAT.

For being such an important speech, I was a bit curious as to why it was unrehersed. I don't mind if a politician speaks from the heart, and I realize that she was probably emotional when speaking. However, she also seemed very nervous and edgy - much moreso than someone who's an experienced public speaker should.

Her words tripped over themselves, and it felt almost as if she was a bit manic in her delivery. It was jumpy - with no real connection between thoughts or ideas - much of what she said made little sense. To me, it seems as if this decision was not as well thought out or planned as she indicated - it seems more to me that the decision was more last-minute, which leads me to wonder what she's not telling the public.

Saying we'd be vaporized if she became president is overreacting a tad isn't it?

Based upon my knowledge and understanding of international affairs, I believe Palin as commander and chief would make George W. Bush look like a saint. Whereas I thought Bush made a lot of stupid decisions and comments, he never scared me the way Palin has.

Do I really believe we'd be vaporized? Probably not, but I think she would destroy what credibility we have left with the rest of the world. Someone with her ideology is just as dangerous as a terrorist organization, IMO.

drilnliftcrude commented:

But we *DO KNOW* that Kennedy did.

sagefever commented:

I believe the "dig up some dirt and toss it at them to see what sticks" started when Adams ran for President. An opinion piece called his sexuality "androgynous" I believe...or maybe it was hermaphrodite?

Anyway it is a time honored tradition...that stinks no matter who does it.

FloridaStateGrad commented:

Holy fearmongering batman!

Happens on all sides of the fence - your side isn't immune to fearmongering.

CatherineBaker commented:

Figures, jfrancais. Oh well. Montana's ALMOST as good.

Shwaine commented:

The primary thought I had on hearing this news is that she wouldn't need to resign at this point in the game to run for President in 2012 and she could just opt not to run for reelection if she wanted to focus on her family, so there must be something else in the works. I still don't have audio working on this machine, so I can't listen to the speach. But based on past political resignations, I would suspect there's a media deal, a deal with the GOP to get some sort of position within the RNC, an illness in the family (and I hope not this one because I don't wish her or her family any harm) or a scandal that's being shushed. I'm leaning towards the RNC idea based on the quotes given from her speach in the MSNBC article. Affecting political change outside of an elected position could be done from a position within the RNC.

Bakersfieldbubble commented:

"Sarah Palin never murdered her mistress."

Did she kil her b/f the way Laura Bush did???

tuttsted commented:

Good speech. It reinforced my original perceptions of Ms. Palin. She's a good person.

Bakersfieldbubble commented:

She is an idiot...if she was not extremely attractive, no one would care what she thinks!

drilnliftcrude commented:

You're wrong BakBub. I care what hillary thinks. I care what Sotomayor thinks. I care what Michele Obama thinks.

NancyII commented:

She stated that too much time is spent by her staff, and herself defending herself against the ethics issuess. She said basically that it isn't fair to the Alaskans to continue to have to fund the defenses. She said she feels the time should be sent on Alaskans and not on her personally.

Almost all the attacks have been on a pesonally level since no one could fault what she said she wanted for this country.

On a personal level, we on the right were told to "get over it" when the left stumbled. We were told the presidents personal life should have no bearing on his ability to be president..but when it came to Palin, the left, and the media, went after her on a personal level with a vengence.

Hypocrisy? Nahhhh..not the left. OR the media.

NancyII commented:

Bakersfield Bubble...[edit.]. Laura Bush never ran for president, vice president or any other public office. And she never KILLED her boyfriend in any manner you are implying. Try Ted Kennedy if you want to bring that sort of thing into play. Watch out for glass houses, they'll get you every time.

Bakersfieldbubble commented:

Nancy - your personal attacks against fellow blogger let me know that you are True CONservative and someone who probably attends church on a regular basis...

FloridaStateGrad commented:

I highly doubt that's her main reason. The majority of the $300,000 spent defending herself against ethics issues went to troopergate:

www.mcclatchydc.com/homepage/story/71151.html

I'm sure she could ebay her $150,000 worth of clothing from the VP stump, if she really felt like her investigations were a significant cost to the State.

Almost all the attacks have been on a pesonally level since no one could fault what she said she wanted for this country.

I find plenty at fault for what she wants for this country. I think she would make a horrible commander in chief, and I disagree with her desire to shove her interpretation of Christianity down the throats of the citizenry. I also think that "drill baby drill" is the wrong direction.

I could go on..

It's not all personal.

I'll agree that there's been a media obsession with her, but at the same time, it seems rather ironic that every time the spotlight falls off of her (I haven't heard a thing about Palin in weeks), and then she puts herself back in national attention. If you look back over the past 6 months, this has happened multiple times - she's an attention hog.

Bakersfieldbubble commented:

Reich-wing pundit Krauthammer thinks she is a joke...

She has to stop speaking in cliches and platitudes. It won't work. It could work for eight weeks if you're the No. 2 candidate, as she was last year. But even so, she got singed a lot in that campaign. You cannot sustain a campaign of platitudes and clichés over a year and a half if you’re running for the presidency.

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/krauthammer-voices-beltway-view-pali

drilnliftcrude commented:

As of April, she had spent $500,000.00 of her own money on frivolous lawsuits.

FloridaStateGrad commented:

Note the words her own money.

NancyII commented:

BB, if you'd bothered to read the blogs that FSG put up for us to get to know each other you'd know you don't have a clue about me. Whether or not I attend church has nothing to do with you making a totally non related statement.

Dril..true that. Not to mention she doesn't even have the clothes the Republicaan party bought.

FSG..SHE'S an attention hog???? ROFL. We have a president who constantly puts himself on TV ..not only that but he BOUGHT that time during the campaign. Ooooh...that wasn't a good thing to try to use..HEH

NancyII commented:

Still chucklling here.

tuttsted commented:

I think she has a pretty good handle on things. I believe your (or whoever first thought it up) arm chair pseudo psychoanalysis that she is an attention hog is ludicrous. As for "drill baby drill", drilling in ANWR makes perfect sense. I've been there, and many other places on the North Slope where oil is already in production. Here, I'll do a little analysis myself: The animals don't mind sharing. Just as valid.

FloridaStateGrad commented:

Nancy - I like the fact that Obama's willing to be on TV so much. I don't always agree with how he goes about it, but I think it's a good idea, as the figurehead and leader of the country, to be in the spotlight. Is Palin either of those? No.

As an aside, I read the whole link you posted dril, and I think it's sad that people are willingly trying to bankrupt Palin. It sickens me that politics can go so low.

I still don't think that's the reason she's stepping down.

SwallowThatGum commented:

Said it before, will say it agin. The way that some of you people think Palin's going to swoop down like Superchick and destroy them evil Democrats makes it obvious that YOU have found a "messiah" in her. That's what messiah's do, swoop down and wipe out "evil".

siouxcityranch commented:

BB She is an idiot...if she was not extremely attractive, no one would care what she thinks!

so whatta you look like BB?? hahahaahahah you must think your pretty dang *UGLY* if your using this type of analogy..

Her speech was all about Alaska.not the USA...maybe she will be involved with Alaska finally leaving our bankrupt sicko country..i mean what better timing or reason do they need?? After all the American public did treat her and her family like (edit) and continue to do so..I wouldnt blame her a bit..

IF I was an Alaskan and a HUGE movement was started..Id seriously consider the pros and cons of that action..after all look at all they could have in comparson to what they have now..

FloridaStateGrad commented:

Sioux - here's the problem with any State trying to break away from the Union - the 14th Amendment.

SwallowThatGum commented:

I've wondered about that. What if a state WANTS to break away? Will we pull a Soviet Union on them like Chechnya and hold them prisoner?

NancyII commented:

Silly wabbit, no one thinks Palin is going to swoop down and destroy anything. You guys just can't handle anyone who speaks well without a telepromptor.

I guess I missed the people mocking Trig lately, that's beyond dispicible. I have no problem with anyone attacking a persons poliics but again, for the thousandth time, the family and the kids should be off limits. I don't judge people like you folks here by the actions of your family...why should public office be any different?

FloridaStateGrad commented:

All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the State wherein they reside. No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any State deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws.

- Section I. of the 14th Amendment to the United States Constitution.

To answer your question, Swallow - I highly doubt any State would ever be able to break away, and if they tried, I don't see why the Federal Government wouldn't take swift action to supress such rebellion.

Bakersfieldbubble commented:

Looks like its Romney V. Obama in 2012...

Actually, I am a very good looking man. If Sarah was single I would hit it!

FloridaStateGrad commented:

You guys just can't handle anyone who speaks well without a telepromptor.

If you think Palin speaks well without a telepromptor, you're obviously not keen on public speaking. If I went to a Toastmasters meeting (and I haven't been in some time.. need to get back into it) and made a speech like she made today, I'd have pages of notes to review on how to improve myself. Once again, for how often she's been in public making speeches, she should be much more polished by now, even when speaking off-the-cuff.

I agree with you on this.. though I admit that I did chuckle at Letterman's joke. That doesn't mean I thought it was good form, nor does it mean that I support such a joke.

If anything, I wonder where they got the name "Trig" from?

SwallowThatGum commented:

What swift action would they take? Would we hold them against their will like the Soviets? Would we invade them? Would it be like Israel and the Palestinians, and all the terrorism that goes on both sides of THAT divide?

FloridaStateGrad commented:

Once again, I don't think it would ever get to that point - no body of State politicians would be stupid enough to try it.

However, if it ever did happen, I don't see why we wouldn't move forces in and impose martial law... it's happened before in our history..

Bakersfieldbubble commented:

How dare these CONservatives want to break up this great country AT A Time of War! That is an act of Treason! What do they hate America so much?

paxchristi3 commented:

Chairman Maobama could take a cue from her in putting country (or state, for that matter) first -- rather than spending at $800,000-1.1 million of his "own" money defending himself against legitimate lawsuits.

How fortunate of him to have some friends to help him out like the founder of eBay, which keeps shooting down one guy's effort to sell his Kenyan birth certificate: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=102950

At least some of good lawmakers are seeing to it that he doesn't pull off this shenanigan the next time around, to Sarah's benefit: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=102837

Ready to raise your Biden instead?

adampayne commented:

Saw the speech at the hospital waiting for my dad to come out of surgery for his broken hip. It was another pathetic piece of nonsense, just like her V.P. run and her abbreviated stint as governor.

catpaw commented:

I caught the news on CNN--between Michael Jackson's funeral and Michael Jackson's children and Michael Jackson's Never Land Ranch and Michael Jackson's doctor and Michael Jackson's drugs.

What I did see of Sarah's speech I got the impression that she improvised, rambled, and is probably not telling the truth. Her family probably did something dysfunctional or there is some sort of crisis. She did get the tongue in cheek "Sitting Duck" award from a press organization for being the most targeted personality.

Oh, and next Tuesday CNN will have a no-news day. They are making a special all day broadcast of Michael Jackson's memorial service.

NancyII commented:

I just heard a clip of Obama saying "we need to move forward in a different direction." Is he trying to take away Yogi Berra's title?

Now THAT was funny.

Neverleft commented:

FSG. Funny, I listened to her complete speech and understood every word. She always speaks from the heart. I like that so I guess that makes me a lowbrow in your estimation. Have you ever listened to Obama try to talk without a teleprompter? Talk about a disaster.

Incidentally, she did not get to keep the clothes the RNC bought for her. You are slipping, you usually keep your facts straight.

Hang in there Nancy. You make more sense than 99.5% of the bloggers here.

NancyII commented:

All their children have names relating to their lifestyle or Alaska. No different than Foremans sons all having the same names.

Think how I must feel in that the middle names in my family all rhyme. There was Mae, Clay, Rae and Joyce. Wait! What happened there? That has traumatized me all my life. Sigh.

NancyII commented:

When she spoke I got the feeling she was talking to a room full of friends, explaining her reasons and reinforcing her love of Alaska and the weariness of seeing state money going down a rathole of frivilous accusations. As she said, it costs nothing to be an accuser but it costs a fortune to defend yourself against those accusations.

VirgilAnderson commented:

I'll miss Sarah Palin ...

--virgil

VirgilAnderson commented:

Waah ... !

--virgil

paxchristi3 commented:

At least you gotta hand it to Sarah for taking a page out of Chairman Maobama's playbook by dropping the bombshell on a Friday to minimize the flak -- particularly with all the focus on Independence Day and the groupies swarming to Jacko's funeral as if expecting him to arise on the third day or something.

VirgilAnderson commented:

Waaah ... !

--virgil

siouxcityranch commented:

I would think if the whole state wanted to go through due processs they could eventually leave these united states..and like I said ...once they realize their chances of survival are alot greater in a life raft than tied to the Titanic..jumpin ship would be part of their survival mode..and Alaskans by nature are survivors..and to go in with martialk law shooting at people for trying to express their rights as free men..the bad press would be a bit more than O should wanna deal with in the eyes of the world..forcing people to remain under his rule that have voiced unity as a whole state??..well talk about Change..

witterpitters commented:

possibility of America being stupid...

FSG: America already did stupid when they elected "O".

gopherbro commented:

Maybe all those long plane flights to her girlfriend in Argentina became too much. Oops......wrong whacko Republican governor.

FloridaStateGrad commented:

I don't think you're a lowbrow.. maybe I'm still getting used to her style of speech.

Incidentally, she did not get to keep the clothes the RNC bought for her. You are slipping, you usually keep your facts straight.

I stand corrected.

America already did stupid when they elected "O".

Since you went down that road, I'll raise you one and say America did it when they elected W.

Twice.

CurtDalton commented:

You mused...

"...I've wondered about that. What if a state WANTS to break away? Will we pull a Soviet Union on them like Chechnya and hold them prisoner?"

"What swift action would they take? Would we hold them against their will like the Soviets? Would we invade them? Would it be like Israel and the Palestinians, and all the terrorism that goes on both sides of THAT divide?"

My reasoned response...

Should a state decide to secede from the union of The United States of America, federal action would be swift. The first action would be to seize financial assets and "bankrupt" the citizens (like they are far from that already).

Next, Federal troops would attempt to seize all privately owned and state owned (National Guard) weapons (remember those 4473 forms you filled out when you purchased the firearm? They KNOW who you are, WHAT you have, and WHERE you live). The state controlled assets would go first - probably in air strikes to preclude their use in urban warfare.

If it progressed to the point where there actually was armed resistance, the federal response would be necessarily bloody (to set an example for any other state foolish enough to contemplate such action:

Tanks in the street, machine-gun toting troops and even a Tiananmen Square-style massacre is certainly not only possible - it is probable. Again, to teach us a lesson and to discourage any other rogue state from considering such action.

Kinda gives new meaning to the phrase "I'm from the government and I'm here to help you!"

Sorry about the formatting... TBC won't let me format tis the way I want!

NancyII commented:

Powell is starting to criticize the big "O" now. Maybe he's positioning HIMself to run against him in '12.

heh...Powell and Palin. ..or Palin and Powell.

NancyII commented:

AND while I'm at it. What Palins own supposed backers did to her was unconscionable. She didn't approach THEM, they approached her and used her for traction under the bus when it fell apart. It's something I personally won't forget. Having supported McCain only because he was better than the opposition, now I wouldn't vote for him for dog catcher.

It really has less to do with Palin herself, it has more to do with the total lack of integrity among SOME of McCain's entourage Including him for not backing her up. SHE didn't cost him the election, he lost it because he was mealy mouthed. (among other things.)

witterpitters commented:

Since you went down that road, I'll raise you one and say America did it when they elected W.

Twice.

FSG: I raise you two clintons........................twice! that makes four!!!

VirgilAnderson commented:

" Powell and Palin. ..or Palin and Powell."

hm... ( with a snort )

vote PP !

--virgil

VirgilAnderson commented:

"It really has less to do with Palin herself, it has more to do with the total lack of integrity among SOME of McCain's entourage Including him for not backing her up. SHE didn't cost him the election, he lost it because he was mealy mouthed. (among other things.)"

And she just can't take it anymore !

--virgil

SwallowThatGum commented:

A state wants to break away, and we send in troops and impose martial law. That would put the US on the wrong end of the next 4th of July.

VirgilAnderson commented:

Damn it ... !

I Quit ! All you people are bad people.

--virgil

FloridaStateGrad commented:

I raise you two clintons

This is getting a bit juvenile...

Neverleft commented:

Sorry, Powell is not a Republican. He is a fence sitter and more liberal than Conservative.

FloridaStateGrad commented:

A state wants to break away, and we send in troops and impose martial law. That would put the US on the wrong end of the next 4th of July.

Ever hear of the Civil War?

NHThomps commented:

I hear that it might be because there is a possibility of her being indicted for those shenanigans about favors to and from a certain building supply company. http://thepoliticalcarnival.blogspot.com/2009/07/palin-update-indictment-pending.html

Also, Powell would never run with Palin.

NancyII commented:

NH, it was a joke. sheeesch...

NHThomps commented:

I'm just indulging the fantastical nature of your joke. Sheeeesh...

VirgilAnderson commented:

That's just a damn shame, she just could not resist that new kitchen with the bay window - free, for me !

--virgil

witterpitters commented:

FSG: Just trying to lighten things up a tad.....................beside, YOU started it!!! HA!

VirgilAnderson commented:

what's the difference between a cash cow and Republicans from Alaska ?

--virgil

NancyII commented:

Like I tell groups, I think I'm funny even if you don't. And after all, I'm the only one I have to amuse.

VirgilAnderson commented:

Nancy,

She wanted to be President ... It's Lipstick ! LOL !

--virgil

siouxcityranch commented:

I think your very witty nancy.. always will

and for what its worth witters yup he started it..like Confucius used to say...he no can keepy mouth shut..

siouxcityranch commented:

FSG Ever hear of the Civil War?

exactly if push goes to shove...this could get serious not only in alaska but the rest of the country if things dont start lookin up real soon..people loosing their homes and posessions?? they will get tired of taking it and could very well start fighting back..our nation was formed out of the revolution and the civil war..where is the rule that states it cant happen again?? are you that nieve and comfortable in your home?? or does ignoring the situation until it walks through your front door make life liveable..

CatherineBaker commented:

Ever hear of the Civil War?

Yeah. The South lost. That's why we celebrate Abraham Lincoln's birthday and not Jefferson Davis' birthday.

Something tells me all this "seceding from the Union" hueing and crying will stop abruptly the minute a Republican is elected as President. Then all the complainers will feel like loving their country again, or loving it enough to remain Americans. I won't care because I'll be living in Maine (which isn't a real state anyway.)

Uh...Happy Independence Day.

FloridaStateGrad commented:

where is the rule that states it cant happen again??

Once again, it's the 14th Amendment, which was drafted after the end of the Civil War, and was ratified by all States before they could rejoin the Union. The amendment specifically states that citizens of the State are also citizens of the United States, and no rights as citizens of the USA can be taken away by the State. In other words, if a State says it wants to break away, there is no legal allowance, since the State is not considered an individual, but part of the collective.

Either way, it's not going to happen.

tkozy commented:

OMG, She is an Idiot.

Imagine. This women has a degree in communications. She was a news announcer.

I guess this speech reinforces my belief that a college education is a total waste of time for most.

There is no shame in not being able to speak in public. The shame comes from one's false belief that one actually has the ability to speak in public. When one obviously does not.
Doesn’t she have a video camera?

She has only served 2 years of a 4 year term.
Why couldn’t she have just announced that she wasn’t running for a second term. That would still give the Lt Gov 1 ½ years to run for Governor. And it would still give her a full 2 years to run for president after she ends her 1st term.

She has been a Mayor. A failed Vice Presidential nominee. And a Half of a Governor.

Food for thought.
What happens when she can’t continue to give the large oil royalties now that the crude price has dropped.
What happens to the Alaska tax base when crude drops to 30 bucks again?

Do you suppose she doesn’t want to get labeled with the sour Alaskan economy that is sure to follow her foolhardiness and failure to plan for a rainy day?

I think the odds that she is being shuttled to the back of the political bus are just as great as the odds that she will run for President in 2012.

drilnliftcrude commented:

The left can't resist their tasteless bashing of her and her family. Trying to depict them all as the spawn of hell.

What a proud bunch you all are.

NancyII commented:

I honestly don't remember ANY other candidate or politician who was more villified than Palin. The sad thing is, the left can't leave her family alone.

VirgilAnderson commented:

Nancy,

You heard what she did for her sister, too - mean lady she is.

And she wanted to be president.

--virgil

VirgilAnderson commented:

dudess' spouse couldn't resist telli'n everybody he built their house, all by himself.

But, he didn't !

Ain't so self-sufficient after all, is he? Think about all them people those two impressed.

--virgil

VirgilAnderson commented:

Half-baked gold diggers !

--virgil

NancyII commented:

What is it again that she did for her sister? That wouldn't be the sisters hubby you're talking about would it? You know, the one whothreatened her and her father. The one who tasered her son and was seen drinking on the job. That one?

Funny, people raised holy hell over the LE using tasers on people in custody but saw nothing wrong, or saw a need for that Alaskan trooper to hit the road after his tasering of a civilian...CHILD.

You guys have funny priorities. Oh..if I have the worng sister incident I'm sure you'll let me know.

NancyII commented:

We built apartments all by ourselves too. We traded labor with other contractors and didn't use a general cont. No one just upped and id it for us..but we got it done by ourselves.

VirgilAnderson commented:

"You know, the one whothreatened her and her father. The one who tasered her son ..."

And, she still did'nt know how to deal with it.

She wanted to be president.

--virgil

randomfactor commented:

Palin ain't going to run in 2012. The corruption conviction will still be too fresh then.

randomfactor commented:

No one just upped and id it for us..but we got it done by ourselves.

But I bet *YOU* paid for your own windows.

Shwaine commented:

You know, one thing this incident has provided is a clear example of why certain people hold Fox News in such low regard. I was flipping through the channels at 10pm and ran across the following on the news channels:

Fox News' headline was something akin to "Palin will not run for reelection"

CNN's headline was something akin to "Palin resigns as governor"

Both of these headlines are factually correct, but the Fox News headline does not give the full picture. One might even call it a glaring omission of pertinent facts. I call it yet another appeal to emotions, which Fox seems to ~~accel~~ excel at. Emotionally, Fox's headline comes across as just another normal thing a politician does, sort of a "nothing to be concerned about and why are all those people saying it's odd?" ploy.

randomfactor commented:

Maybe Palin's just trying to help get the heat off Mark Sanford. Did Sanford ever say anthing about "hiking the Denali Trail"?

Fox News, as the official propaganda arm for the Repubwhigan Party, is trying to spin this into a positive.

NancyII commented:

Shwaine, for one who loves to correct other people you really should proof your post before someone corrects you on "accel."

I, of course, would never do such a thing.

Shwaine commented:

Really Nancy, such nastiness after I just gave you advice on the feral kitten. Or did you ignore that because it came from me? I also gave you advice on DTV converter choices when you asked and you seemed to ignore that as well. And I suppose you took my advice on the half blackout as arrogant ramblings of an inteligentsia because you never replied there either.

As for your comment on this blog, I've never been a "spelling nazi" on this blog site or elsewhere, because I realize people make typos. And, if I wanted to be a spelling nazi, I could have a field day with some of the typos you've made Nancy. You know what they say about people in glass houses? I'm thinking it applies here. I'm also thinking someone's got an axe to grind and that someone would not be me. Because if I really disliked you as much as you seem to dislike me, I wouldn't be attempting to help you when you ask for advice and I'd be following you around nitpicking everything you posted.

Edit: And I've fixed the typo but also left it in place, just for Nancy. Call it my little reminder of her pettiness.

NancyII commented:

Ah Shwain...using the wrong word isn't a typo. Lord knows I make enough typos and certainly never claim not to. As for being a typo nazi (deliberate use of lower case there) I save that for people who are always either correcting someone (corrections by people are not always for typos) or trying to explain to others what the other person meant. Confusing huh?

As for me not responding, I don't always go back to blogs where I've posted and so I don't always see responses. As for the converter box, that one got away from me. Sorry I missed it and WILL look that one up because I'll be buying one soon. When the blog has days where the responses might run 2-3 pages and I only check in once or twice a day, I'm very likely to have missed a response. Comments or help I offer here often go without acknowledgment but then I don't keep track as you obviously do.

Now I AM going to get a little mean. You put yourself out there like an expert on every topic that comes up. Not just an opinion on every topic, we all do that, but like an expert. It gets a little tiresome. I understand that you're a bright girl, I understand you are educated, and it appears, you want everyone to know it. FSG started out the same way but has really matured in his presentations on the blog. Young, bright, new bloggers tend to post the way you do. You're posts aren't neighborly friendly hints and offered solutions, their like reading a textbook.

I've been blogging a very long time and have seen all manner of people come and go. Young ones, goofy ones, fun ones, happy ones,hateful ones, informative ones and insufferable arrogant ones. Just be careful about the category you want to fall into. Or the ones you will be perceived as being.

Now back to the response correction. You'll VERY rarely see me correct anyones grammar (that's rude) punctuation or spelling (unless they're a stone idiot and need to use spell check.) but occasionally I WILL mention something when people use a totally wrong word. One of my pet peeves is people using "mute" for "moot." Drives me nuts...but I never say anything to them. Once in a while I let fly with a correction and you my dear, are the recipient this month. Aren't you the lucky one?

Now that we have that out of the way, I hope you have a great fourth and now I'm off to hang my flag and look for, and thank you, for your suggestions or help. PS, I HAVE been nice to you before, you just forgot. :-)

gr8scott commented:

She will either:

1. Have a show on FOX (radio and/or TV)

2. Pen a book deal, or

3. Run for prez in '12

For her it's all about capping on her publicity and making money. Nothing wrong with that. As messed up as the GOP is, I just can't imagine them falling in line behind her. She will have a lot of time to study up on issues, so she won't appear as dumb as she did, but she was and will be a liability.

VirgilAnderson commented:

I think she should take some time off - to find herself and decide what she rally wants to do in life.

She should go moose hunting !

Her spouse should build his own house - I heard that can be good therapy.

--virgil

drilnliftcrude commented:

Lessons learned from this: If you attack a politician's children viciously enough, and relentlessly enough, you can get them to quit.

VirgilAnderson commented:

I bet If her children had anything to do with it, she would not have even gotten started.

--virgil

NancyII commented:

I don't believe she quit politics. To quote motopoet..."We'll see."

VirgilAnderson commented:

And she wanted to be president ...

--virgil

Bakersfieldbubble: Tea Baggers go flat!!

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 12:18:00 PDT

http://washingtonindependent.com/49616/tea-party-movement-loses-steam

Comments:
drilnliftcrude commented:

From New York City this week, *NOT* from April. If they're still at it, it can't have gone flat. It good to see so many others that are worried about the terrible turn this country has taken in the last several months. It provides hope.

Neverleft commented:

Bakersfield Bubblehead. Wait and see. The liberal media is too busy with M. Jackson coverage. They would not cover the Tea Parties regardless.

drilnliftcrude commented:

Looks like a pretty good turnout in Las Vegas.

tkozy commented:

Crude,
I looked at your link before it mysteriously disappeared. Looked like there may have been a 1000 people or so there. At most.
You do understand that the Las Vegas population is almost 2 million people.

These marches died worse today. Than they did the first time around.

casooner90 commented:

Participation numbers at the tea bag pary truly does not represent the level of frustration people are experiencing. Every political conversations I hear (and I don't always start one knowing that they can drag out sometimes) are around the stimulus and the number of government programs Obama is initiating on borrowed tax money. If you think we're heading in the right direction, your kids (and their kids) will hate you for your vote.

Things that interest ME: Glenn asks a favor this Independence Day

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 11:06:33 PDT

This is from the guy that some here said hates America.

July 3, 2009

Hello America,

Here it is, another Fourth of July. Traditionally, this is a day to gather with friends, maybe fire up the barbeque and play with kids until the sun sets and the fireworks start. But in thinking back on the meaning behind this day, we must never forget that our nation was baptized in the blaze of a very different kind of "fireworks." Yes, this is a day of rest and relaxation, as well it should be, but this year…I'd like to ask you a favor. At some point during the day, I hope you'll take time to think and reflect on what it is we're truly celebrating on the 4^th of July -- our Independence Day. Of course the Declaration of Independence was signed on July 4^th, 1776 but it's so much more than that. On this day, 233 short years ago, a small group of men dedicated themselves to a higher purpose, an ideal they believed in so greatly, they signed their name to its expression and in doing so put their very lives at risk.

Never has a simple act of signing one's name carried such weight, such a profound commitment. By signing the Declaration of Independence, 56 men stood in direct defiance of the British government. They became marked men, and willingly so. As I was doing some research on the significance of July 4^th, I came across some interesting facts about these men. Today as we all enjoy the freedom our forefathers guaranteed us, join me in honoring the extraordinary sacrifice of 56 extraordinary Americans.

Of the 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence:

Five were captured by the British as traitors, and tortured before they died. Twelve had their homes burned to the ground. Two lost sons serving in the Revolutionary Army, and two more had sons captured. Nine fought and died in the Revolutionary War.

If you ever feel like your lone voice can never be heard, that the political system isn't set up for "regular" Americans to change the course of history, remember: The signers were flesh and blood, mortal men with a divinely-inspired aim.

Twenty-four were lawyers and jurists, eleven were merchants, and nine were farmers and large plantation owners. They were well educated, smart enough to know that by signing the Declaration of Independence, they were signing their own death warrants. They did it anyway, and God bless them for it.

As we enjoy our liberty on this 4^th of July, or any day of any month, we must never take that liberty for granted. Too many have given too much. In the words of the Signers themselves, "For the support of this declaration, with firm reliance on the protection of the divine providence, we mutually pledge to each other, our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor."

Their lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor -- I think that's a price paid worth a few minutes of reflection, don't you? But let's not be solemn in that reflection. I say rejoice and share this information with your friends and family, especially your kids. The Signers asked for nothing in return for their pledge, but I say that we show our thanks with a pledge of our own: To remember, to be grateful, and to carry on in their spirit. America is the greatest country this world has ever and will ever know, and it will stay that way so long as "we the people" remember that just like in 1776.

It's US that surrounds them, and we'll never back down.

Happy Independence Day, and God bless America.

Glenn

Comments:
FloridaStateGrad commented:

I think the overall point of the "letter" makes sense and has a good message.

ALICEN commented:

Just goes to show, Nancy, that we can't put words in somebody else's mouth -- not even Glenn Beck's.

I must say I watch Beck when I can; he never once struck me as someone who would ever be accused by anybody of not loving America. To me he's as American as baseball, apple pie, all that good stuff.

Happy Independence Day!

NancyII commented:

Thank you FSG. I got a response from email asking who I thought wrote it for him. My ansers is a question ..does it matter? If I had removed Becks name would people agree with it?

I really wish I had, it would have been interesting to see how many felt the same way without the bias against right wing talk show hosts.

AudreyB commented:

I'd like to ask you a favor. At some point during the day, I hope you'll take time to think and reflect on what it is we're truly celebrating on the 4^th of July -- our Independence Day

OK I can do that. I was planning on doing it anyway before Glenn Beck mentioned it. Anyway, I'm glad it's not the favor I thought he was going to ask for......kicking an illegal alien in the keester. Whew, big relief!

FloridaStateGrad commented:

As with most things these days, the average American lacks a real sense of understanding, compassion or respect for our Nation's history.

I'll admit, Beck didn't ask anything of me that I don't already do, but it goes to show you just how sad our society has become, that someone such as he would need to write such a "letter."

sagefever commented:

What else are we celebrating but Independence from Britain? Not something I need reminding about.

I still think not questioning what that man said on his program was wrong. He is not any more un-American than I am,more importantly no more American than other American.

I pray( whatever word suits you here) each and everyday for no loss of life~ not more. Especially to prove a political "point".

ALICEN commented:

Nancy: I think Beck is fairly capable of writing the letter; a book he wrote was just published. I would go so far as to say that it's likely Beck did write the letter. But as you said, what does it matter? The words are moving.

CatherineBaker commented:

Just not feeling it this year. Not celebrating it, either. Not for any particular reason. Well, maybe 'cause it's 99 degrees outside.

jfrancais commented:

Dont feel bad, Cat. I don't celebrate it either.

I like the day off, though.

CatherineBaker commented:

Thanks, jfrancais. Coming from you, it means a lot. Don't know what's wrong with me lately. Maybe I'll celebrate twice as much next year.

NancyII commented:

I'll confess to not liking this holiday much. I just don't like the heat, I don't like flies on my food while sweat's running down my back and I can't find a cool place to sit. I don't like the smell or the loud noises of firecrackers.

I do love the arial displays and I love being with my family. I love my country and love the history of it. With those two sentiments, I will hang my flag out tomorrow and go to Marks neighborhood BBQ. And as I always have been, show that I am PROUD of my country. Warts and all.

jfrancais commented:

My grandmother was born on July 4th so it was always a festive event growing up but she's been gone for 17 years now. It's just not the same.

I also feel wierd being in large groups around fireworks. I have flashbacks to being in Tal Afar and my year (2005-06) in Mosul. I saw enough fireworks to last a lifetime. To say the least, fireworks don't impress me much.

Shwaine commented:

Let's put it this way, I love the thoughts behind the 4th, but I don't much like how most people choose to celebrate it. If more people put time into thinking about the concepts and less time into partying, I'd like the whole holiday a lot more.

sagefever commented:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7bmpFCwZbwM&feature=player_embedded

Here's a clip we can all call sweet.

catpaw commented:

Between convention business, some delegates would muse what their last words at the gallows would be. Considering the odds the founding of our country overcame, one could think Providence was on our side.

Neverleft commented:

I wish all Liberals would watch Glen Beck a few times. I think they would find him entertaining and factual. True, they would not agree with much of what he says but he backs up the majority of his statements.

arizboy6 commented:

YOU SENT THIS TO ME IN AN E-MAIL I SENT IT TO A LOT OF MY FRIENDS,I THOUGHT IT WAS GREAT

Infowar commented:

Glenn Beck is a total fraud.

gr8scott commented:

This holiday, like every other holiday has been commercialized. From sending Valentine cards to Christmas cards. There is nothing wrong with firiing up the grill and watching fireworks...just like Beck will do.

Five were tortured. But Beck supports torture of detainees, right?

My God people, Beck is an entertainer. Just a regular guy who realized that if you exploit a particular segment of society, you can GET PAID!!!

He knows no more than you do. He has a producer to feed it to him, but he's not smarter than you. He is not more patriotic than you. How many on this site alone served their country? Where was he when you were in boot camp doing push-ups all damn day? Where was he when you were deployed away from your family? Where was he when you were getting shot at, shot or seeing your Brothers shot?

Hey, do what you do, but do it because it's what you think is best to do. Not because some guy on the boob tube pens a letter. You're better than that.

Powell airs doubts on Obama agenda

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 10:31:55 PDT

Originally published 11:44 a.m., July 3, 2009, updated 11:45 a.m., July 3, 2009

Colin Powell, one of President Obama's most prominent Republican supporters, expressed concern Friday that the president's ambitious blitz of costly initiatives may be enlarging the size of government and the federal debt too much.

"I'm concerned at the number of programs that are being presented, the bills associated with these programs and the additional government that will be needed to execute them," Mr. Powell said in an excerpt of an interview with CNN's John King, released by the network Friday morning.

Mr. Powell, a retired U.S. army general who rose to political prominence after a long and accomplished military career, said that health care reform and many of Mr. Obama's other initiatives are "important" to Americans.

But, he said, "one of the cautions that has to be given to the president -- and I've talked to some of his people about this -- is that you can't have so many things on the table that you can't absorb it all."

"And we can't pay for it all," said Mr. Powell, who was the first African-American to serve as secretary of state, under former President George W. Bush. He was also national security adviser to President Reagan, and was chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George H.W. Bush from 1989 to 1993.

Mr. Powell was considered a possible Republican presidential candidate as early as 1996, and in 2007 he donated the maximum amount allowed to Sen. John McCain, the Arizona Republican who won the GOP primary. But less than a month before last fall's general election, Mr. Powell endorsed Mr. Obama over Mr. McCain.

Mr. Powell's comments represent the growing concern that began with hard-line fiscal conservatives but is now spreading to moderates about the rate of government spending and debt under President Obama, and the long-term impact on the country's fiscal sustainability and national security.

The national debt stands currently at $11.5 trillion and the deficit for the current fiscal year is projected to be close to $2 trillion.

Mr. Powell expressed alarm at "budgets that are running into the multi-trillions of dollars" and "a huge, huge national debt that, if we don't pay for in our lifetime, our kids and grandkids and great-grandchildren will have to pay for it."

"So, I think the president, as he moves forward with his initiatives, has to start really taking a very, very hard look at what the cost of all this is. And, how much additional bureaucracy [will] be needed to make all of this happen?" Mr. Powell said.

Mr. Powell said he has been in touch with Mr. Obama regularly, including recently.

"I don't insert myself. But, we stay in touch," he said.

Mr. King prompted Mr. Powell's comments by showing him video archive footage of Mr. Powell's comments at the 1996 Republican Convention in San Diego, where Mr. Powell talked about his opposition to big government.

"The federal government has become too large and too intrusive in our lives," Mr. Powell said then. "We can no longer afford solutions to our problems that result in more entitlements, higher taxes to pay for them, more bureaucracy to run them, and fewer results to show for it."

Mr. Powell said that now that he still believes what he said then, but that he would put it in different terms now.

"I don't like slogans anymore like 'limited government.' That's not the right answer. The right answer is, give me a government that works," he said. "Keep it as small as possible. Keep the tax burden on the American people as small as possible, but at the same time, have government that is solving the problems of the people."

The full interview will air on CNN's "State of the Union with John King" on Sunday, July 5.

Comments:
ALICEN commented:

WP: Who was the guy in the fable who fell asleep for a hundred years? I can't remember it. Anyhow, maybe it was Powell. 'Bout time he opened up his eyes. Smelled the coffee.

drilnliftcrude commented:

"Mr. Powell's comments represent the growing concern that began with hard-line fiscal conservatives but is now spreading to moderates about the rate of government spending and debt under President Obama, and the long-term impact on the country's fiscal sustainability and national security.

The national debt stands currently at $11.5 trillion and the deficit for the current fiscal year is projected to be close to $2 trillion."

Yeah. Those kinds of numbers are hard for even Rip Van WinkPowell to ignore

BILLIONAIREBARTLEY commented:

Can't we just print more money? Why, my friend and I recently became TRILLIONAIRES in Zimbabwe after getting out hands on some 100 trillion dollar bills. And people think becoming a mere BILLIONAIRE is unattainable! Just wait til hyperinflation hits us, we'll all be billionaires! Woohoo!

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." St. Matt 22:37 : Empty Talk.

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 09:29:57 PDT

"In general, Loquacity (rambling talk) opens the doors of the soul, and the devout warmth of the heart at once escapes. Empty talk does the same, but even more so... Empty talk is the door to criticism and slander, the spreader of false rumors and opinions, the sower of discord and strife. It stifles the taste for mental work and almost always serves as a cover for absence of sound knowledge..."

Saint Theophan the Recluse

Comments:
catpaw commented:

I give up, you'll have to tell me. Which bloggers are you thinking of?

Wayfarer commented:

No one. Most of these postings come from my morning readings from Daily Lives, Miracles, and Wisdom of the Saints and Fasting Calendar published by the Orthodox Calendar Company. That is just the quote that came up;)

Stranger in a Strange Land: Getting to Know You: Part II

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 06:57:38 PDT

Since my first batch of questions were such a success, here are the next set - a bit more in depth, but nothing over-the-top or too personal:

1) Are you spiritual? Do you follow a specific religion? If so, what sect/denomination?

2) Who is someone you would consider a hero of yours, and why?

3) What are the top five most important political or social issues to you?

4) If you had to recommend one movie to watch, which would it be, and why?

5) Here's a serious one: Dogs, or cats?

6) .. Rounding out this "round" of questions: Define an influential moment in your life that has shaped you into the person you are.

Comments:
casooner90 commented:

FSG, you ought to answer those questions first to get the ball rolling.

I thought your first round was very helpful as that helped me to understand some of the folks. However, and since this was voluntary, I do feel at a slight disadvantage by showing my hand while others held theirs back. For example, there are couple of bloggers on this site that will persistently blog against me, but I didn't see them respond to your first round of question. Should I be worried? i'm not. But, I would have liked to seen their response so that I can finally understand why their view is completely opposite of mine and why they feel compelled to respond to most of my posts. Nevertheless, I think this is a good public servcie you put on as you are absolutely right about getting to know someone will soften the attacks (kind of like that commercial where a shopper with his shopping cart tailgating another shopper in a store).

FloridaStateGrad commented:

You're right Casooner.. so here goes:

1) My Grandfather (mom's father) was a minister for a small protestant denomination called the Moravians (technically pre-date Luther's 95 Thesies by about 100 years), and I believe much of his spiritual belief is reflected in my current ideology. My father was raised Roman Catholic (like any good Italian-American). Therefore, my parents made a compromise and joined the Episcopal church - where I was raised. I would say I still identify most with that denomination.

2) I consider any person who willingly lays down their life for another to be the most heroic - whether that be a soldier in battle, a police officer, a first responder - I could not do the jobs that they do, and I respect and support them for everything they sacrifice.

Edit - as an addition, I feel that most of my family are my personal heros, but I would make special note of my Aunt who is a breast cancer survivor, who then had a brain tumor (survived that, but the later found out that the tumor ate away part of her eye socket, so now her eye moves a bit too freely, thereby making it difficult to do anything without feeling dizzy), and was recently diagnosed with Lukemia. Despite all that hardship, she still remains strong and vigilant. That strength has helped me persevere through some of my own hardships.

3) Health Care - so long as we treat the health and safety of our citizens as a profitable commodity, we will have a flawed system. Foreign Policy - we have always meddled in the affairs of sovereign nations to further our own agenda, whether it be right or wrong. I believe it's time to reflect back on how things have been in the past, and how they should be in the future. We've created a lot of our own problems in this arena.. and I'm not saying we should apologize for anything, but we should work towards righting our wrongs, and reinforcing our position of global power, using said power for positives instead of negatives. We should still have the most powerful and the best military in the world, but we should reserve use of that military for times of extreme situations. Civil Rights - I believe much of the civil rights fight currently is not about government involvement, but instead, revolves around stigmas and misperceptions that people on all sides of the fence have about each other. As we continue to diversify as a nation and society, I think civil rights issues will continue on a path of progress. Energy - I support the end of reliance on foreign energy through research, development and application of alternative, renewable energies. Education - I think education in our country is poor, at best. Our students need to learn concepts and understand how to apply them, instead of regurgitating a list of facts for standardized exams. We should also open up academia to be more free to explore fact, and not doctored fiction, as is seen in many textbooks.

4) Shindler's List is one of the most powerful movies I've ever seen. If you haven't seen it, it is essential to understand the Holocaust on a more personal setting.

5) I'm a dog person.. allergic to cats anyway.

6) I went to Honduras for 9 days when I was 16 on a Church mission trip. I saw real poverty, but I also saw real happiness. I saw a people who prioritized based upon life, and not a slavery to merchandise. I'm not perfect and oftentimes find myself dreaming about material wealth, but I'm almost always reminded of this trip, and it forces me to remember what my real priorities should be.

jfrancais commented:

1) Are you spiritual? Do you follow a specific religion? If so, what sect/denomination?

No, I'm not. I grew up in a religious home but I don't have a religion that I practice (I am an ordained minister in the Universal Life Church, though). I took a religion class in college and it opened my eyes to the similarities in religions.

2) Who is someone you would consider a hero of yours, and why?

I Don't have a hero. Everyone is human, feels pain, and fails. I am intrigued by people who go against the grain or social norms and have lasting impacts (Malcom X, Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez)

3) What are the top five most important political or social issues to you?

Health Care ( I think everyone should have it), Education (I think it should be affordable), Latin American/African politics (I think they need to be more autonomous in their affairs), International Corporate influence (They rule the world and are the modern day feudal lords), military policy (It's a parallel universe to America)

4) If you had to recommend one movie to watch, which would it be, and why? It's a tie-

Forrest Gump. It gives you faith in that hard work and trying to be a good person will result in making the world a beter place and a good life.

Color Purple- Shows how strong the mind and spirit can be in bad times.

5) Here's a serious one: Dogs, or cats?

Dogs are loyal cats are finnicky but I love them both. I name my pets after famous black people, btw. I had a dog named James Brown.

6) .. Rounding out this "round" of questions: Define an influential moment in your life that has shaped you into the person you are.

Becoming a father at 20 years old (with a girl I barely knew in a foreign country) began the process of me growing up and wanting to have a life of substance.

AudreyB commented:

1) Are you spiritual? Do you follow a specific religion? If so, what sect/denomination?

2) Who is someone you would consider a hero of yours, and why?

My husband. He's beat smoking and alcoholism, controls his bi polar disorder, and has put up with me bossing him around for 40 years.

3) What are the top five most important political or social issues to you?

Air quality, equal rights for gays, separations of church and state, preservation of our forests, prohibition of drugs, alcohol and tobacco.

4) If you had to recommend one movie to watch, which would it be, and why?

The PBS series of Pride and Prejudice. Why? Colin Firth, naturally.

5) Here's a serious one: Dogs, or cats?

Both unfortunately. 4 cats 1 dogs and 7 stray cats from next door making my life miserable

6) .. Rounding out this "round" of questions: Define an influential moment in your life that has shaped you into the person you are.

Someone told me once that I have a lot of inner strength. Once he said it, I realized it was true and started acting on that knowledge.

witterpitters commented:

MOI' - PART DUEX!

1) Are you spiritual? Do you follow a specific religion? If so, what sect/denomination?

I am spiritual in my own way. I do not follow any specific religion. I decided a long time ago – about age 15 – that God, or whoever is there, is in my daily life in my friends, family, pets, flowers, trees, grass, clouds, sun and rain.

2) Who is someone you would consider a hero of yours, and why?

My mother. She raised 3 children by herself – NO assistance from anyone – and we lacked for nothing. We had a lovely home, food, clothes, entertainment whatever we needed and many of the things we wanted. How she did it with the grace of a lady is beyond me. She was the perfect lady at all times.

3) What are the top five most important political or social issues to you?

Welfare: there should be “term limits”

Issues voted for: When the people have “spoken” via their votes (no matter the subject) that bill should be implemented immediately. There should be no law suits allowed just because the group that lost doesn’t like the outcome.

Job promotions/employment: it should not matter what race or religion you are. If you pass the test with the highest score you get the job/promotion.

Illegals: They should not get “carte blanche” for money, medical, food, education etc. just because they had a child here in the states. There are many people who were born and raised in the US and still cannot get assistance.

4) If you had to recommend one movie to watch, which would it be, and why?

The Bird Cage! Because it is funny as hell!!!

5) Here's a serious one: Dogs, or cats?

BOTH!!!!! We rescue any that show up at the door and many from the shelters over the years!

6) .. Rounding out this "round" of questions: Define an influential moment in your life that has shaped you into the person you are.

Like JF, becoming a parent at the age of 20! To me my daughter was, and still is, a miracle to me. I remember looking at her and thinking, "Oh my God - look what we just made"! Another little person! WOW!!

H8cloz commented:

1) Are you spiritual? Do you follow a specific religion? If so, what sect/denomination? No. Atheist.

2) Who is someone you would consider a hero of yours, and why? Anyone who wears a uniform and serves their country or community with honor. Why...because they do. (I'm serious about this. I hold these people up as heroes, and I treat them as such. I also show that to my kids when we meet Police, Firemen or Soldiers out in public.

3) What are the top five most important political or social issues to you? National security, domestic energy production and fair trade.

4) If you had to recommend one movie to watch, which would it be, and why? Well, a mini series actually, but HBO's John Adams. It is cool to see all those parts of history recreated, but leaves me a bit depressed over how far we have strayed from the "free country" they envisioned.

5) Here's a serious one: Dogs, or cats? Ok, seriously...DOGS. Cats can go extinct for all I care. Hate cats.

6) .. Rounding out this "round" of questions: Define an influential moment in your life that has shaped you into the person you are. I think the first time I was in a serious (10th of a second from being killed) aviation incident, in this case a near mid air collision, made me really think about things. I have had a few other incidents since, and they seem to act as a 'reset' button, and make you a better person (or worse) depending on your attitude, I suppose.

defyinggravity commented:

1) Are you spiritual? Do you follow a specific religion? If so, what sect/denomination?

I was raised Southern baptist. Went to christian schools from the pre-k to 8th. My family never really went to church but was very religious. Now, I claim to be more agnostic than anything. In other words "I don't know." I dated a guy, who wants to be an episcopal priest, who would beat me over the head if i said "spiritual." in other words, I look at the complexity of life and the universe and I can't in good conscience think it was by accident.

2) Who is someone you would consider a hero of yours, and why?

george Lucas, because that man knows how to MARKET! C.S. Lewis. My little buddy max.

3) What are the top five most important political or social issues to you?

Equal rights under tha law (aka gay marriage), Stricter guidlines for welfare, global warming, seperation of church and state, education, especially in the arts damn it!

4) If you had to recommend one movie to watch, which would it be, and why?

Oh god! Just one! I can't do just one. I am a movie junky! So you'll get 4 or 5. American Beauty, because it's my all time favorite. Shawshank Redemption. Garden State. Lars and the Real Girl. Shelter. And all of these because there is a growth of character and a desire for something more.

5) Here's a serious one: Dogs, or cats?

Very much a dog person, have two myself. but there is one cat in particular I love. My cat. She is the only cat I could ever love.

6) .. Rounding out this "round" of questions: Define an influential moment in your life that has shaped you into the person you are.

I sound like a broken record some times but, in third grade we read 'The lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe.' From that moment on I knew i wanted to be a writer.

jfrancais commented:

American Beauty is an awesome movie, gravity. I can really relate to the protaganist in that film. Shawshank Redemption is also one of my favorites.

VirgilAnderson commented:

The World According to Garp has always been an entertaining moive for me.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZC1Oyo8Vguo&feature=related

--virgil

casooner90 commented:

1) Are you spiritual? Do you follow a specific religion? If so, what sect/denomination? Yes, Christian. I'm a Christian for the following reasons.

a. Out of fear. Fear of being wrong because the price is too great for being wrong. I'm not a gambler by person and I don't want to gamble with my eternity. Think about this - what will be your last thoughts as you lie in your death bed? I bet most people hope / pray that they turn to dust if they are not believers because eternity is a very long time. I am pretty positive everyone will be thinking this though on their death beds.

b. Life. All that we see around you just can't be coincidental. How everything just fits - there has to be higher power that is watching over us. If you truly believe that things just evolve? I don't have any good argument against that. But, I am just amazed at the hand of God.

c. Message. Contrary to what non believers say, God's message is really quite simple and they are the basis of our civil laws. God says you can be who you want to be, but just don't do anything stupid. Kind of like a parent in a way. I know that most liberals don't want to hear this, but our civilization does need some rules to live by. God has set them and it is up to us to follow.

2) Who is someone you would consider a hero of yours, and why? My pastor or any clergy person. They are the only people I know that has sacrificed their personal life for the sake of others. Kind of like the military or peace officers that are willing to lay down their lives for you. Pastors do it in more personal way because they've put aside all personal selfishness (materialist that we have all become) for the sake of saving their congregation.

3) What are the top five most important political or social issues to you? Pursuit of happiness - living the American dream of working as hard as you want and getting the fruits of your hard work. Keeping government away from private matter - I've yet to see government being a successful entrepreneur in any matter they've stuck their noses in. Private section, even with all their flaws, still runs circles around any government efforts. Of course I like our military, public services (water, roads), but their inefficiencies through layers of bureaucracy is getting closer to third world regime. This includes social services. Stop the welfare state - teach them to fish instead of giving them a fish. Energy - Governments meddling in energy policy will not work. I've worked in this industry so I know a little about this (I don't have enough space to explain why this won't work under gov't control). Taxation - give me a break. What ever happened to the American dream? Why is government so quick to punish the successful and hard working while going out of the way to help the poor decisions and failed policies? Education - while we're in recession, the cost of higher education continues to escalate. If we want our next generation to be self reliant, we need higher percentage of educated work force.

4) If you had to recommend one movie to watch, which would it be, and why? Grand Canyon - the scene at the end where Kevin Klein takes Danny Golver to see the Grand Canyon.

5) Here's a serious one: Dogs, or cats? Neither

6) .. Rounding out this "round" of questions: Define an influential moment in your life that has shaped you into the person you are. First; I was sitting across the table from my Sergeant. He was a 18 year career staff Sergent. I thought to my self - there's got to be something better. That forced me to go to college. Even when I was struggling financially in college, I always remember that moment. Thanks Sgt. Donohoe. Second; The last election. I used to be a very charitable person giving money to many different causes. I gave to my church, united way, red cross, best buddies, big brother program, sheriff, police, firemen and anyone else asking for a hand out. The last election's message was that the needy were no longer asking, they were now demanding that I give. There were no more gratitude, but more anger at what I had worked hard for. Instead of asking for generosity, they wanted to punish me by making me pay more taxes than what I am already paying. The left misunderstood my kindness as weakness. As a result, I am giving / donating WAY less than I have in my past 20+ years. If you want my charity - ask Obama - he'll take my money and give you change.

randomfactor commented:

1) Are you spiritual? Do you follow a specific religion? If so, what sect/denomination?

No, but I *AM* writing my own religion. I'll get back to you.

2) Who is someone you would consider a hero of yours, and why?

My late wife. Had more reason than anyone I know to be bitter, and was the least bitter and most generous person I ever met.

3) What are the top five most important political or social issues to you?

a) Global warming
b) US economic stability, including a return to more equitable income distribution
c) Health care for everyone, including access to abortion for anyone who needs it
d) Separation of church and state, ensuring that national issues are determined by science and not superstition
e) Equal rights for everyone, including legalization of same-sex marriage

4) If you had to recommend one movie to watch, which would it be, and why?

Here's an obscure one: "The Man in the White Suit," starring a *VERY* young Alec Guinness. My dad's second-favorite movie, it's a very funny comedy with a very social message: what do we do when technological progress threatens the status quo? Plus, if you look closely, you can see (again very young) Michael Gough, the guy who played Batman's butler until recently.

For pure entertainment value it's a close race amongst "Raiders of the Lost Ark," "Love, Actually" (be sure to see the added material on the DVD) and "Blade Runner." (I was lucky enough to see the *REAL* director's cut in a theater in Santa Monica about 20 years ago. Incredible.) And DefyingGravity is right about "American Beauty." I've described that movie as "totally twisted--like origami."

5) Here's a serious one: Dogs, or cats?

I like dogs, have owned dogs, but cats rule.

6) .. Rounding out this "round" of questions: Define an influential moment in your life that has shaped you into the person you are.

June 5, 1968: RFK's assassination. Good Roman Catholic like me, killed by a nobody despite the prayers of millions, leaving my generation and my country much the poorer. Hit me much harder than his brother's death. First time I realized that there really *WASN'T* a god, there was no "divine plan," that if the world was going to get any better *WE* were going to have to do it ourselves.

CatherineBaker commented:

I wasn't going to do these for the reasons Shwaine mentioned earlier, but oh well:

1) Are you spiritual? Do you follow a specific religion? If so, what sect/denomination? Not sure. No.

2) Who is someone you would consider a hero of yours, and why? Mother Theresa. Because I think the rest of us are pikers compared to her.

3) What are the top five most important political or social issues to you? Abortion rights, Civil rights (including gay marriage,) Protection and Funding of Scientific Research (including stem cell research,) The End of the Two-Party System, and Economic Stability (of California in particular, which can only be achieved with increased taxes, IMO.)

4) If you had to recommend one movie to watch, which would it be, and why? Lonesome Dove, because everyone who's ever seen it said they loved it.

5) Here's a serious one: Dogs, or cats? Cats, natch.

6) .. Rounding out this "round" of questions: Define an influential moment in your life that has shaped you into the person you are. The nervous breakdown I had when I was 22 changed me materially as a person and significantly altered the course of my life, until I had kids 10 years later at 32, when life became beautiful again.

ghostriter commented:

1) Are you spiritual? Do you follow a specific religion? If so, what sect/denomination? I have faith in the ancient pagan beliefs of the power of nature. IMO, there is no form of organized religion that rings true at all.

2) Who is someone you would consider a hero of yours, and why? My father. He was raised by an alcoholic abusive mother in a two room flat under the el train in Chicago, left home at fourteen, supported his sister, and pulled himself up with no help from anyone (except my mom). He is a successful entrepreneur, put himself through college, and earned two master's degrees, all because he refuses to ever give in to adversity.

3) What are the top five most important political or social issues to you? Illegal immigration (reverse discrimination against citizens in favor of illegals), health care, education (I agree that our education system is far behind other nations) economy issues (gas price gouging by oil companies) and animal welfare.

4) If you had to recommend one movie to watch, which would it be, and why? There are quite a few, but I would say Legends of the Fall, because it shows the importance of family.

5) Here's a serious one: Dogs, or cats? I love both but I am most definitely spiritually connected the most with cats. I currently have one dog and six cats, not including my foster babies.

6) .. Rounding out this "round" of questions: Define an influential moment in your life that has shaped you into the person you are. After my son was killed, I became the person I am now. The woman I was before died with Jordan. That is unfortunate, because I was a much stronger, better person before.

mrsearnhardt88 commented:

1) Are you spiritual? Do you follow a specific religion? If so, what sect/denomination?

Very, but not "religious". I was on staff at my Foursquare church for many years- led the 18-25 year olds. I was on the worship team for 7 or 8 years too. Non-Denominational Christian. When the hubby left, I stepped down. Single mom with 3 little kids has a hard time balancing a personal life with ministry.

2) Who is someone you would consider a hero of yours, and why?

Without a doubt my dear deceased father. He made me who I am today. Miss him terribly. I consider any Soldier to be hero status as well.

3) What are the top five most important political or social issues to you?

Health care for sure. Unlawful immigration chaps my hide. This California State budget B.S. Actually all the budget B.S. now that I think of it. It really irritates me that we are facing letting scumbags out on the streets if the jails are downsized. Less LE on the streets? Isn't is bad enough as it is without handing out "get out of jail free" cards???

4) If you had to recommend one movie to watch, which would it be, and why?

I really can't come up with just one. Sorry.

5) Here's a serious one: Dogs, or cats?

I love me some puppies! I have two cats right now because I don't have a yard for dogs. My neighbor lets me love on her puppies though!

6) .. Rounding out this "round" of questions: Define an influential moment in your life that has shaped you into the person you are.

Birth. Geez, I don't know. So much of my path has formed me into the being that I am now. Wouldn't change any of it though. I think the abusive relationship was pivotal however. That whole experience opened my eyes to a lot of things that I wasn't seeing. Made me a better parent. My kids were so influenced by those surroundings. I knew I had to leave or they would be damaged for life. Since then I have dedicated my life to raising them properly. I could not be any prouder of my kids than I am. They are amazing young people!

ghostriter commented:

BTW, fsg...GREAT idea!

AudreyB commented:

Cat

I hate to disappoint you but Mother Theresa wasn't the "saint" she's been made out to be.

mrsearnhardt88 commented:

I agree FSG!

UncleToad commented:

1) Are you spiritual? Do you follow a specific religion? If so, what sect/denomination?

Catholic. Believe in the rite and tradition, don't much trust the American buerocracy. The Vatican's done better in the John Paul years, but the American Bishoporics... well, we all know the scandals and cover ups.

2) Who is someone you would consider a hero of yours, and why?

Chuck Yeager and Eric Clapton, both for the same reason: preserverence. Yeager suffered horrible burns when his test plane went down (as shown in the closing sequence of The Right Stuff) and endured a painful regimen of treatments to heal himself, and then went back up into planes for the next 40 odd years. Eric Clapton, on the other hand, fought an internal fight. After giving up drugs and turning his life around, he lost his child in that horrible balcony accident. It would have been *so* easy for him to crawl back into a bottle or needle.

3) What are the top five most important political or social issues to you?

A) Cooperation and compromise
B) Economy, internal to America
C) Ecomony, trade balances
D) Energy independance
E) Infrastructure

4) If you had to recommend one movie to watch, which would it be, and why?

Like many, I can't pick one, so let's top five it:
A) Blade Runner, dir. Ridley Scott; Harrison Ford, Rutger Hauer, Brion James
B) 2001: A Space Oddyssey, dir. Stanley Kubrick; Kier Duella, Gary Lockwood, William Sylvester
C) The Secret of NimH, dir. Don Bluth; Derek Jacobi, Elizabeth Hartmann, Dom Deluise
D) The Right Stuff, dir. Phillip Kaufmann; Scott Glenn, Sam Shepard, Ed Harris
E) The Quiet Man, dir. John Ford; John Wayne, Maureen O'Hara

5) Here's a serious one: Dogs, or cats?

Cats.

6) .. Rounding out this "round" of questions: Define an influential moment in your life that has shaped you into the person you are.

The first time I read the novel "Warday: And the Journey Onward" by James Kunetka and the pre-insane Whitley Strieber. It brought home to me just how insidious and nefarious nuclear weapons truely were.

jadedcynic commented:

1) Are you spiritual? Do you follow a specific religion? If so, what sect/denomination?

I am a sinner saved by grace. I believe that the Bible is the inspired Word of God. I choose to fellowship with like minded believers.

2) Who is someone you would consider a hero of yours, and why?

Not a "someone" but a collective "someones" - as many pp ~ those who fight to preserve my liberties.

3) What are the top five most important political or social issues to you?

Education, sanctity of life, ecomonic autonomy, health care, current genocides

4) If you had to recommend one movie to watch, which would it be, and why?

Hmmm 1? How about 2...The Color Purple ~ Beautifully illustrate the resiliency of the human spirit. and The Passion of the Christ ~ Emotional depiction of Jesus Christ

5) Here's a serious one: Dogs, or cats? I actually don't like either. We have a gold fish "Nemo"

6) .. Rounding out this "round" of questions: Define an influential moment in your life that has shaped you into the person you are. The week my daughter was in the hospital~ an addition to #2..she is my hero

sagefever commented:

1) Are you spiritual? Do you follow a specific religion? If so, what sect/denomination?
Yes. I am a spiritual hobo~ I try to give thanks, send out love and see the Divine in all things everyday.
2) Who is someone you would consider a hero of yours, and why?
Kelsey my son~ like RF’s wife, Kelsey had more reason than most to be sad, bitter. He taught me to look beyond the obvious, he taught me the value of my love, how to be vulnerable, how to be open to mystery. How to be brave.
3) What are the top five most important political or social issues to you?
Civil equality, environment, civil discourse, science and Peace. If we could improve all of these areas, we might just be able to really get someplace.
4) If you had to recommend one movie to watch, which would it be, and why?
Hamlet, the one with Kenneth Branagh. Shakespeare was a genius in the ways of the human condition and this play has got most of the bases covered.
5) Here's a serious one: Dogs, or cats?
Cats.
6) .. Rounding out this "round" of questions: Define an influential moment in your life that has shaped you into the person you are.
Tough question~~ I have quite a few. The lessons they have all taught me can be boiled down to you can choose to learn from anything. All you can really control is yourself and that is quite enough.

NancyII commented:

This one's a lot tougher. The other was where we've been, this one is who we are.. I'll give it a try...

1) Are you spiritual? Do you follow a specific religion? If so, what sect/denomination? I'm protestant by heritage.

Non denominational although I'd say if any of the older relatives practiced anything it would be Baptist. My Dad was self taught. Defiinitely a Christ believer so that makes me a Christian..maybe not the best example, but a Christian non the less.

2) Who is someone you would consider a hero of yours, and why?

My Mother. She battled cancer many times a battle she ultimately lost) along with all manner of females problems, lost a son, raised a brat like me and a lady like my sister. Other than my brothers loss, if she ever felt lonliness or sadness she bore it well and kept it form me. Or I was too self absorbed to see it. I wish I could be more like her in gentlness and kindness and wisdom. People who knew her said she was the finest woman they ever knew. She was like a mother to my kids dad (who had lost his as a child) and he never stopped loving her for it.

3) What are the top five most important political or social issues to you?

The ecomomy of course, NOto universal health care, non legalization of MJ and other drugs, our legal system, Big Brother government along with illegal immigration. I snuck an ectra one in. (edited)

4) If you had to recommend one movie to watch, which would it be, and why?

The new Star Trek modern (Twelve Angry Men..old)

5) Here's a serious one: Dogs, or cats?

No question...DOGS. Although right now I wouldn't give you a plugged nickle for them either.

6) .. Rounding out this "round" of questions: Define an influential moment in your life that has shaped you into the person you are.

Aside from the birth of my children and my grandchildren, a monumental moment (two actually) was the birth of my great grandsons. I was on the phone at work while Cassie was giving birth to Aidan and Mark stayed on there with me. He hung up and called right back the second the baby was born so I got to be a part of it even long distance (Las Vegas). The other was when Logan was born. I got to be one of the first to hold him and it brought tears to my eyes. These two tiny creatures, the fourth generation for me and the thread that ran through me to them. Our future.

They're one and two now and the light of my life.

Now, you have me sniveling so knock it OFF!

donmason commented:

Slow day today. The sane people took the day off. lol

1) Are you spiritual? Do you follow a specific religion? If so, what sect/denomination?

I consider myself to be somewhat spiritual, although I’m not a church member. I do some church hopping from time to time.

I find modern western society to be generally intellectually arrogant. Each age of history is convinced that the solid answers have been found, while the ultimate truth will remain out of reach. Three pounds of recently evolved gray matter is just a rudimentary beginning of discovery and intelligence. Faith fills the gap.

2) Who is someone you would consider a hero of yours, and why?

Any person that considers his fellow man to be at least as important as the self will be a hero at some point in their life.

3) What are the top five most important political or social issues to you?

Energy is top priority, while all other social issues remain secondary now, since all of the other social, economic, and political issues and institutions are tied to the outcome of the coming power down of western culture,our response to the change, and the ramifications for the world in general.

Complex social issues are soon forgotten when three meals per day become a luxury for most. It’s vitally important for society to recognize our past mode of living was historically temporary, and to embrace the coming transition to an energy scarcity future. This would prevent,(or help mitigate) disruption of social institutions, and disintegration of social norms.

If we come to understand that gross materialism does not provide long term happiness or stability, then a positive outcome can’t be ruled out.

However, history shows that complex societies tend to party to the last drop.

We are sleep walking into the future.

4) If you had to recommend one movie to watch, which would it be, and why?

Never could answer that question.

5) Here's a serious one: Dogs, or cats?

Love ‘em both.

6) .. Rounding out this "round" of questions: Define an influential moment in your life that has shaped you into the person you are.

Fathers death when I was 18.

Taught me to be self reliant far faster than I might have otherwise. He was a P-51 pilot during the war, and a very charitable man. His early death was because of war related injuries. Still miss him a great deal. Thanks Dad!

Shwaine commented:

Wow Casooner, it's great that you admitted you're a Christian out of fear, but I find there's something seriously off about following a tenet because you're afraid you might be wrong if you don't. But there are the fire and brimstone and damnation clergy who have wielded fear like a sword to sway and control the masses, so I'm not suprised it is one of your reasons.

Which leads me to my answer about #1: I don't follow any one denomination because of the influence, and dare I say the corruption, of man on religions of all types. No religion is divine enough to escape the corruption of man, because it is rare to find a continual series of humans who are above the temptation that such power brings. About the only organized religions, past or present, that have some appeal to me are ones that limit the influence of man by limiting the organizational tenets and instead provide a framework from within which a person can find their own path to the divine. But even those can be prone to corruption. I see spirituality as a personal matter, with a variety of religious sources used as a foundation, but not as a confining box. I also don't discount the possibility of a divine as some here do, but I do suspect our limited three dimensional brains keep us from truly comprehending its nature and also color our perceptions of its actions and motives in a more anthropomorphic visage than may truly exist.

#2 I've never really thought about this. To me, all people have the potential to be heroes, should the situation arise and they be around to do something. I suppose then my heroes would be those ordinary people who do the right thing even if it's difficult and dangerous, such as the construction worker who lowered himself on a crane to save a woman from flood waters earlier this week.

#3 I don't really put any one social or political issue above the other. There's a whole mess of problems, and I prefer to take a big-picture approach than just focus on a few. This isn't to say I don't have a view on hot political topics, because obviously I do. I just don't limit my focus and instead try to learn about each hot topic as it comes up to form an opinion.

#4 Movies aren't my thing. They never really have been either. I think I go to maybe one movie every other year on average at the movie theatre and view only a handful a year at home. I still have several DVDs given to me in shrink wrap (like Happy Feet) because I just haven't got around to watching them. I once dated a movie buff and he got to the point where he'd say "I bet you haven't seen this" instead of "Have you seen this?" when he'd pop a movie on.

#5 For me, cats are the thing. I just don't have the time and energy a dog would require. All that walking and exercising and yard duty.... just not my thing.

#6 There's not really any one moment that stands out. It's more like a series of little moments that have all cumulated into the person I am now.

bakoblue commented:

1) Are you spiritual? Do you follow a specific religion? If so, what sect/denomination?

Spiritual, yes. Religous, no.

2) Who is someone you would consider a hero of yours, and why?

My mother. If you ever met her, you'd never need to ask why. She is strong, brave and a rockin' cool human being --- the best of what we wish people were. If I can be half the person she is, I'd be grateful.

3) What are the top five most important political or social issues to you?

Healthcare for all. Better access to quality education for all, including the arts and vocational education. Alternative energy. Gender pay equity. Marriage equality. Abortion rights. Animal welfare. Dismantling factory farming practices to create a safer/better food supply. Sorry --- I know this is more than five, but I'm a multi-issue kind of cat.

4) If you had to recommend one movie to watch, which would it be, and why?

A movie recommendation is too hard...if you'd gone book I could have been all over that.

5) Here's a serious one: Dogs, or cats?

I'm a cat junkie who always needs a dog to help keep them in line. As it turns out, they've banded together to make us their benevolent wait-staff.

6) .. Rounding out this "round" of questions: Define an influential moment in your life that has shaped you into the person you are.

The day I stopped waiting for "someone" to do something about the wrongs I saw in the world, particularly as they related to domestic animals, and started being the person I was waiting for.

witbee commented:

1) Are you spiritual? Do you follow a specific religion? If so, what sect/denomination?

Spiritual? I don't really understand that word. I believe in God and His son Jesus. I believe the Bible to be the Word of God. I am a deacon in the Lord's church. Denominations are not Biblical.

2) Who is someone you would consider a hero of yours, and why?

Mrs. Witbee. She faced cancer at 31 and laughed. She puts up with me (17 years last week). She is an awesome mother and wife. She is Godly and feminine and feminist.

3) What are the top five most important political or social issues to you?

I don't have 5. Politics is so trivial and useless in my eyes. Guess what? I peaked at the end and the bad guys win over and over until the ast page when they get their comeuppance. I tend to vote conservatively if that helds.

4) If you had to recommend one movie to watch, which would it be, and why?

From the Earth to the Moon seriesw from a few years ago put out by HBO. A great example of what can be accomplished when people set a goal and let nothing get in their way.

5) Here's a serious one: Dogs, or cats?

The only good cat is a dead cat.

6) .. Rounding out this "round" of questions: Define an influential moment in your life that has shaped you into the person you are.

Probably when Mrs. Witbee was fighting cancer. It made me a stronger Christian, a better husband and a better father. Could there have been a REASON she got it?

adampayne commented:

1) Are you spiritual? Do you follow a specific religion? If so, what sect/denomination? -I believe in the human spirit, and the connectedness of all life here on our little planet circling the sun. All life comes from the same stardust and is destined to return to that same stardust. Do your best with the time you have.

2) Who is someone you would consider a hero of yours, and why?- My in laws. Their courage, tenacity and humor in the face of many of life's cruel turns are what heroes are made of. I aspire to their grace, which always shines best under enormous pressures.

3) What are the top five most important political or social issues to you? A. Health Care Reform in America. B. Eliminating the current American Gulag System. A system today that has turned this nation from the land of the free to the home of the imprisoned. C. Restoring competition in the marketplace by breaking up cartels that control all industry and services in the world. D. Energy transformation from fossil fuels to a variety of components that are planet friendly. E. Saving the planet from the factory processes that have caused so much ruination and misery to all forms of life.

4) If you had to recommend one movie to watch, which would it be, and why? -"McCabe and Mrs. Miller"- The story is true and the soundtrack by Leonard Cohen is the sublime reinforcement of the themes within the film.

5) Here's a serious one: Dogs, or cats? People need both. Dogs exalt you while cats humble you. They are the perfect balance in life.

6) .. Rounding out this "round" of questions: Define an influential moment in your life that has shaped you into the person you are. Forty years ago, when I grew out my hair past shoulder length, I discovered that many people were alarmed and frightened by hair. I was stopped repeatedly by police. I was refused service at many locations that I formerly had no problem with. I was threatened by guys who hurled all sorts of insults and had to fight sometimes just to get out of places that had been regular hangouts. I have never forgotten how miserable and ignorant the authorities and many of these hair bigots were. Things really haven't changed all that much over forty years, other than new scapegoats came along as people got bored with the old ones who would not cower and go away. I have always tried to stand up for people who are different, or who embrace different types of thinking. These are the people that make life special and interesting.

casooner90 commented:

Shwaine - it's great that you admitted you're a Christian

You picked my weakest reason for being a Christian. Actually, I throw that out to non believers as a thinking point. Many don't believe that there is a God and thinks that we actually evolved from a single cell. The stronger reasons of my Christianity were ignored, but should not be and those are the staples of my belief. I just wanted to clarify that.

vanityfair commented:

1) Are you spiritual? Do you follow a specific religion? If so, what sect/denomination?

Spiritual, yes. I believe in a higher power but think that organized religion is a means of controlling the masses, and I don't care WHAT religion we're talking about. I will say, however, that churches take better care of their members than the government does. I attended a private Christian school until the 8th grade ... it was a good thing.

2) Who is someone you would consider a hero of yours, and why?

My dad. He came from nothing, absolutely NOTHING. Dirt poor, born to a 16 year old mother in Oklahoma, 1940. Sheer determination, pride, and a will to succeed made him a very successful businessman. He didn't need any "fancy college degrees" (his words) to make it happen. He slept on potato sacks in the back rooms of the grocery stores where he worked for 75 cents an hour, at the age of 14. He wanted a better life, and knew he had to work for it.

3) What are the top five most important political or social issues to you?

Trade, national security, preserving our sovereign nation, illegal immigration, second amendment.

4) If you had to recommend one movie to watch, which would it be, and why?

To whom am I recommending the movie? LOL. That makes a difference. I know it's a lame chick flick, but one of my favorites will always be Terms of Endearment. I watched that as a kid and wished my own mother bugged me as much. Also, anything with Jack Nicholson is worth a look, especially in his younger days.

5) Here's a serious one: Dogs, or cats?

Dogs. I admire cats, but have a horrible allergy. I love to watch them laze around, flicking their tails, and, if they even bother to look at you it's an expression of "And your point is???"

6) .. Rounding out this "round" of questions: Define an influential moment in your life that has shaped you into the person you are.

Watching my mother completely lose it when I was a child. I had to call an ambulance. I'll spare y'all the rest of the story.

Infowar commented:

1) Are you spiritual? Do you follow a specific religion? If so, what sect/denomination?

Yes...in my own way. I don't follow a particular religion.

2) Who is someone you would consider a hero of yours, and why?

Alex Jones: I respect him for his tireless effort to expose hardcore corruption on this planet & steering folks in the right direction.

3) What are the top five most important political or social issues to you?

1.Exposing the New World Order agenda

2.Preserving the United States Constitution & Bill Of Rights

3. Exposing the modern day eugenics movement

4. Helping homeless folks

5. Helping young kids avoid a criminal life style

4) If you had to recommend one movie to watch, which would it be, and why?

Shooter would be my pick for a Hollywood production. For a doc, I would choose Endgame.

Watch both films & find out why....

I know you said choose one FSG but I couldn't help myself.

5) Here's a serious one: Dogs, or cats?

I tolerate cats because my wife is the 'official' cat lady but I prefer Dogs.

6) .. Rounding out this "round" of questions: Define an influential moment in your life that has shaped you into the person you are.

The day my daughter was born.

BILLIONAIREBARTLEY commented:

1) Are you spiritual? Do you follow a specific religion? If so, what sect/denomination?
I'm an atheist. That being said, I do believe in an "afterlife" if you want to call it at, just not some deity sitting on high judging us for who we are. I believe there is "karma" but only in the sense that it is deeply rooted in (most) of our consciousness and helps us determine the difference between right and wrong. I think that if you are a bad person who does bad things then your own actions will come around to bite you in the butt. Despite my reputation from a lack of understanding my admittedly warped sense of humor I am a nice guy - respectful to older people, assisting strangers in need and following the "live and let live" philosophy. Although I may not agree with many Christian's beliefs, I have the utmost respect for them. The sanctity of marriage (1 man / 1 woman) being one because I think that if Christian's don't swim in my toilet I have no business peeing in their pool. All of my Christian friends accord the same respect for to me and my beliefs (or lack thereof) as I give to theirs.

2) Who is someone you would consider a hero of yours, and why?
My grandmother, because she helped me out the most in my life and was always there for me through thick and thin. She not only helped my mom raise me and my siblings after Bartley Senior hit the road but she is the glue that held our family together. Despite leading a difficult life growing up she worked as a single mom and nurse to raise 11 children, 4 of whom were adopted, plus four grandchildren and countless friends of her children who were kicked out of their home. Despite suffering the loss of two husbands, four children and a two grandchildren she has never given up or become bitter, jaded or angry. She cared for her sick kids for years while in her late 60's as she took care of others as a nurse while in her early 30's. She's non-judgmental, always listens, and will speak her mind. One of my uncle's told me that there's a place in Heaven for people like her, and I'd like to think he's right.

3) What are the top five most important political or social issues to you?
3-1) The economy, because it determines the well-being for all of us. It galls me to see how politicians on both sides of the fence have turned the strongest economy in the world into shambles with their tinkering and out of control spending. Most of the social and political issues I am concerned with directly impact our economy.
3-2) Illegal immigration, because just like every home owner has a right to decide who enters their home every country has a right to establish and protect it's borders and ensure that those entering it are doing so by the rules established by the people in that country and the US is no different We also have to ensure that basic laws of the US are abided by and that US citizens are not being overrun by those entering illegally no matter how innocent their reasons. We should do this with solid determination and not give a hoot about what other countries think of our policies because we are answerable to ourselves, not them. So far our politicians done nothing but use the illegal immigration platform to get elected either by promising to do something about it or by appealing to those who don't want anything done. They bleed taxpayers through the nose, mouth and eyes to pay for services offered to illegals, and on the flip side they offer no alternative to granting a path to citizenship for those who would make valuable and contributing members to our society by putting them on the path to legal citizenship.
3-3) Healthcare is important to me, because a healthy and robust workforce is a productive workforce, and yet we have yet developed a system where affordable healthcare is not available to everyone willing to pay into it without bleeding to death those businesses and individuals who pay taxes to support those receiving healthcare who do not. We need to reign in the out-of-control cost of healthcare - things like an $8,000 doctor's bill a friend of mine paid last month for an out-patient trip to the ER for some x-rays and vicodin for a kidney stone.
3-4) Convincing our politicians that there is a "stop valve" to reduce the amount of money going out of a system and not a bigger "on valve" that just brings more taxpayer money in. It galls me to see hard working taxpayers hand over more and more of their money to these crooks in Sacramento so they can distribute it to the lazy masses who refuse to work or for various pet projects. While the working stiff struggles just to get buy there are people out there who still have the gall to want to give more to those on welfare, disability, and aid to benefit illegals. All of this economic hemmoraging needs to stop if we are to rebuild the economy which is made, driven, and sustained by a hardworking taxpayer.
3-5) Reforming the disability system so drug addicts, fat people, people with AIDS (etc.) do not qualify for disability because of a lifestyle choice and then receive more money and services than hardworking folks with legitimate disabilities who only get the minimum amount after working their entire lives because they own a house, a car, or something else of value they are afraid the state will take after their death to pay for those who often never contributed a dime to the system and are only the wards liberal groups who would sell our state's future for a few votes. I'd pull the plug on the free ride and watch these people toil in the fields for their food as the rest of society is forced to. Too fat to work? Try it out you might lose some weight. Too high? Double the dose, do us a favor and try to do it someplace where you won't stink up the joint. Bi-polar? Get on a blog and write about it with the rest of us!

4) If you had to recommend one movie to watch, which would it be, and why?
Titanic, because it's about love and change. The love of money with the 1st class, the love of freedom of being on a ship at sea heading home, and the love between two people of different social classes. It's about change on so many levels - the drive toward industrialization, the immigrants going to begin new lives in America, the belief at the time that men could in fact do the impossible "God Himself could not sink this ship!", and the change that takes place in society itself between the haves and have nots when it came down to basic survival.

5) Here's a serious one: Dogs, or cats?
Cats, because they are independent, cuddly, and need love too. I honestly like dogs just as much because they are loyal, protective, and you can take them places, but they bark way too much.

6) .. Rounding out this "round" of questions: Define an influential moment in your life that has shaped you into the person you are.
When I was in the Valley Plaza "a long time ago" some goth kid told me I looked cute and I said "thanks, so do you". It was sudden, and an epiphany. All of the conflicting feelings I had had made sense, and I can honestly say my life has never been the same ever since. For those who have disagreed with me over the years, I have quoted Shakespeare's Hamlet, Act I, Scene II: "This above all: to thine own self be true." Friends and family will come and go throughout the years, and in the end I have only myself to live with and answer to, and if I'm to burn in Hell for it (as some have suggested) then I will burn in Hell for who I am, and not for being a hypocrite.

Dr BLT's Blog n Roll Studio : "Straight" from Bakersfield Sound Underground: How Monty Byrom convinced me to record "Billie Jean"

Fri, 03 Jul 2009 01:02:07 PDT

No pun intended in the first word of the title by the way, BSU doesn't discriminate for any reason at all. All puns aside, Kern County country star, Monty Byrom, may not have had it as his intended purpose, but he did help me to realize, once and for all, that Billie Jean would work as a country song.

He did that without even speaking a word. How did he manage to do that? Well, you'll simply have to go underground to find out, Bakersfield Sound Underground (BSU) that is:

http://www.bakersfieldsoundunderground.com

Remember, if you ain't goin' underground, you ain't gettin' nowhere!

Where did your blogs go?!

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:49:08 PDT

I was commenting on the gay solider is a hero blog when it vanished. I can't find any of my comments on your blog nor see the comments you made on mine.

Did you delete your account or did Jason do it? I enjoy reading your blogs, they are very informative and inflammatory. Flaming - the kind I like.

Comments:
siouxcityranch commented:

SURPRIZE....

NancyII commented:

C'mon you guys. Enough with the pictures. This isn't Hustler.

I don't appreciate the male/female any more than the male/male.

Siuox, you're better than that.

Eric, you're just trying to get people stirred up. And YOU'RE better than that too.

vanityfair commented:

Remember this? The avatar BB is using now was the topic of this thread, which was eventually locked. I guess this avatar is more common than most would think ... people.bakersfield.com/home/Blog/mtndewrob/30540

And I would like to know what changed in the last year ... so this is okay now but not then?

joe0403 commented:

jasonsperber commented:

First, on the avatar issue. What people don't remember is that we let the discussion over the avatar in question run its course and the other user chose to change it himself--we did not. Though some may find it objectionable, it was our estimation that it did not rise to the standard of inappropriate for this site--which, however, Siouxcityranch's latest avatar did, dude to it being more explicit than that currently being used by BillionaireBartley.

Second, I remind you that when a user is suspended his or her profile and blogs become hidden from view, and I apologize that that causes comments and discussion to disappear. In recent months a permanently suspended user has reappeared using different sock puppets, and it often takes more time than we would like to make a determination on that point.

casooner90 commented:

Flaming - the kind I like.

I think you ought to find that gay blogger and go hang out - seriuosly, just go away. Continuing to incite others with your pro gay view will (hopefully) land you in the same place as absent dave.

AudreyB commented:

I agree with Nancy. Let's clean it up.

defyinggravity commented:

whats odd is they're not even kissing. They're just in the process. I agree that it is a bit much. But... eh... i don't know. I'm undecided on this issue.

middlepathII commented:

While all speech is not protected, offensive speech is. What society considers offensive changes over time. Jazz used to be a dirty four letter word that was not to be mentioned in polite society. Interracial couples used to be offensive to people raised with racial prejudice. Long hair and piercings used to be offensive too. Over time, all these things lose their shock value and become part of ordinary society. The counter-culture becomes the culture, and something new (which is also old) comes around to replace it.

Life is a circle.

BILLIONAIREBARTLEY commented:

In response to a *polite* email from a fellow blogger, I have changed my avatar for the time being to something less provocateur. Sioux's avatar was equally provocative, and sexy, and didn't bother me. I see more skin on an '08er on any given day than is evident in any picture posted here. The fact are photos were stirring some people up and prompting discussion is a good thing though, but I doubt if it were a straight couple kissing it would prompt as much (if any) outrage.

Nancy - me?! Stir people up? *feigning surprise* I wouldn't dare!

I didn't know if the other user was suspended or simply quit posting. I would be interested to know why he was suspended, and it is the cause of latent homphobia in the Californian's staff. He brought up some controversial issues but issues worth discussing and I enjoyed the discussion. Of course, the idea you can get rid of anyone on here is absurd. New accounts can be created, IP addresses changed, and comments can be left that, even if inflammatory, won't be taken down for several days.

To those of you who disagree about the subject of the blogs, I remind you that this is a blog and no one is forcing you to click on any of them, read every comment, look at every picture or comment on it! My blog is like the West Hollywood of (the) Californian - no one forces you to visit! You might as well go stand in he middle of the street and scream and yell at the billboards you don't like for all the good it will do. I enjoy the comments, both positive and negative, on my blog.

NancyII commented:

The thing is Eric, you're forcing everyone to see the photo. It's not a matter of cllicking on your blog..any time you post anything anywhere the picture appears.

sagefever commented:

A picture does not bother me.

siouxcityranch commented:

BB I had respectfully requested that you be contacted and asked to change your avatar..incase you havent a clue.. younger kids than yourself come through here ocassionally too and that my friend was soft porn in its rarest form..mine she was about to kiss his stomach..yours they were getting ready to lock tongues..which is worse..

after a number of days since there was no change nor response from those in charge I felt that since it was ok for the Gay communtiy to use semi intimate photos as an avatar then it should be equally OK for the Hetro world also..apparently it wasnt ..*BUT* I finally got my point across

your cureent avatar shows a semi masculine arm and one obviously feminine and no other sexual parts so it could possibly be male female..you see it how you like and the occasional child reader or some one finding it offensive could view it in another form..

I mean everyone else hetro/gay uses avatars that are not sexual at all so I really dont see why either side should be allowed too..why not use a penguin or a rainbow

BILLIONAIREBARTLEY commented:

No one ever contacted me Sioux and I'm sorry if you were offended by it. I liked your avatar because it looked like she was about to go down on him but I'm not the one who asked you to change it. Parents need to be mindful when they let their children get online that they may encounter objectional material. Rather than watering down the net to make it rated G for everyone, parents should use some common sense with regards to their own family values and the child's age. While I seriously doubt any kid would want to get on b.com to read the blogs, I'll keep that in mind when choosing my avatars in the future. Perhaps two young boys kissing from the NAMBLA website would be more suitable.

Your current avatar makes me raise my eyebrows because it cannotes violence and racists attitudes. A cowboy, long synonymous with the racist term "Indians", is showing firing a gun. This is a celebration of violence. Given that most cowboys were famous for drinking and massacaring native Americans I question why you would choose to use the avatar of a member of a group of mass murderers. I don't think people would like it if I showed an image of a Gestapo member shooting Jews. Have some respect Sioux!

siouxcityranch commented:

BB Your current avatar makes me raise my eyebrows because it cannotes violence and racists attitudes. A cowboy, long synonymous with the racist term "Indians", is showing firing a gun. This is a celebration of violence. Given that most cowboys were famous for drinking and massacaring native Americans I question why you would choose to use the avatar of a member of a group of mass murderers. I don't think people would like it if I showed an image of a Gestapo member shooting Jews. Have some respect Sioux!

Second Amendment BB target practice..why would I shoot at my own race..your ridiculous and make blind Assumptions without any for thought..but then we already knew that

BB No one ever contacted me Sioux

hmm somebodys fibbin

BB In response to a *polite* email from a fellow blogger, I have changed my avatar for the time being to something less provocateur.

..but then again?? nuff said..

defyinggravity commented:

Personally... I love the new picture! It's cute, sweet an innocent. Bravo, Friend! And I agree. People get angry about these blogs but... the content of the blogs is purely the choice of the viewer who decided to click on said link. Anyhoozits.

FloridaStateGrad commented:

I don't understand what all the hullaballo is..

seems to me like some people are just a tad bit too homophobic.

siouxcityranch commented:

oh thats a good one FSG..I get pounced on for the gunslinger and you defend the two guys getting ready to suck face?? a tad of favoritisum going on??

you can call it whatefver blows your skirt up..I call it (edit),,no fear just disgust at the thought of two guys doin the wild thing..I bet if you had a couple gay guys within eye shot you wouldnt be real comfy about watching them swap spit either..your just talkin smack....

on the other hand if a young male and female were entwined...thoughts of summer love and get a room would come to mind..

BILLIONAIREBARTLEY commented:

Sioux - I should have said "no one from the Californian".

Thank you defyingravity! ;-) I thought it was nice too, especially after I cropped out the nudity and tongue tango that was taking place.

And the comment about the cowboys and indians - WHOOSH - right over the head. Some people on these blogs need to lighten up and not take things so seriously! It was a joke! People misinterpret and misconstrue things all of the time, and I was wildly extrapolating from that photo to make an absurd point. Like when I told casooner I was yanking his chain - he seemed to think I was implying that I had been joking with him! I know you hate it, but all y'all keep coming back for more.

BILLIONAIREBARTLEY commented:

Second Amendment BB target practice..why would I shoot at my own race..your ridiculous and make blind Assumptions

Now he's threatening to shoot me, he hates his own kind, and he's poking fun at the visually impaired. Tsk tsk.

Political and Philosophical Commentary: de Jouvenal on Power

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 22:21:01 PDT

The following is a paper on the nature of power and its consequences that I think all Americans should read to help them better understand what is going on in America today. It is entitled “de Jouvenal on Power” by Dr. Jude P. Dougherty, Dean Emeritus, School of Philosophy, The Catholic University Of America, Washington D.C. He discusses the ideas of one of the premier political and economic thinkers of the twentieth century, French philosopher and historian Bertrand de Jouvenal on the nature and abuse of power. Dr. Dougherty’s analysis provides insight and context to many of the sweeping changes we are seeing in America today. He has graciously consented to allow me to post his paper on my blog for Bakersfield readers. -- Richard Poirier 7/02/09

de Jouvenal on Power

Jude P. Dougherty

The Catholic University of America

Some cultural historian of the future, some future Gibbon will record the decline and fall of a once great nation, how it lost contact with its founding documents and with the spiritual traditions which animated its growth and how it succumbed to the siren song of a charismatic leader who led it to its dissolution in a visionary multi-cultural, universal democracy.

As our nation faces a questionable future, we may turn to the past to determine in its light what the future portents. Yet as some wag once put it, “The only thing we learn from the past is that nobody learns from the past.” An often neglected cultural historian is Bertrand de Jouvenal. His work, On Power: Its Nature and the History of Its Growth,[i] remains timely although it was written more than 60 years ago. Penned during the dark days of the Nazi occupation of France, the book was published at first opportunity in 1945 and appeared in English translation five years later. Up against the raw power of the German occupation, de Jouvenal, the philosopher and historian, was led to reflect on the nature of power in the abstract. He set out to examine the reasons why and the way in which Power grows in society. As he uses the word, “Power” is always capitalized; it may stand for authority, the ruler, or simply the drive for dominance.

On Power can be read at different levels: as history, as prophecy, as political theory. Pierre Manent speaks of de Jouvenal’s “melancholy liberalism.” Given de Jouvenal’s sweeping command of history, he can make a case for every judgment or argument he advances in the book by citing numerous historical examples in support, yet his experience of Hitler’s rise to power in the 1930s cannot be discounted as a coloring factor. The book is a call for repeated stock taking, for an extended scrutiny of every new proposal that would extend the power of the state. Do not leap into the dark, he cautions his countrymen at war’s end; beware of letting “necessity,” the tyrant’s plea, have its way.

Politics are about Power, he tells us. “It is in the pursuit of Utopia that the aggrandizers of state power find their most effective ally. Only an immensely powerful apparatus can do all that the preachers of panacea government promise.”[ii] De Jouvenal believes that history shows that the acceptance of all-embracing state authority is largely due to the fatigue and despair brought about by war or economic disorder. The European may say that liberty is the most precious of all things, yet as the experience of France attests, it is not valued as such by people who lack bread and water. The will to be free in time of danger is easily extinguished. Liberty becomes a secondary need; the primary need is security.

One of the pitfalls of democracy is its lack of accountability. The popular will is easily manipulated. It recognizes no authority outside itself that possesses the strength to limit it excesses. The dethronement of the old faith to which the state was accountable left an aching void in the domain of beliefs and principles, allowing the state to impose its own. Without accountability, democracy because of its centralizing, pattern-making, absolutist drive, can easily become an incubator of tyranny. The kings of old, the personification of power, were possessed of personality, possessed of passions good and bad. More often than not, their sense of responsibility led them to will “the good” for their people. Power within a democracy, by contrast, resides in a faceless and impersonal bureaucracy that claims to have no existence of its own and becomes the anonymous, impersonal, passionless instrument of what is presumed to be the general will. Writing in France when the Roosevelt administration was barely 10 year old, de Jouvenal feared the long range danger posed by the many regulatory commissions created by that administration. He saw that agencies possessing at once legislative, executive, and judicial control could operate largely outside of public control and become tyrannical.

The extension of Power, which means its ability to control ever more completely a nation’s economy, is responsible for its ability to wage war. De Jouvenal asks, “Had Hitler succeeded Maria Theresa on the throne, does anyone suppose that it would have been possible to forge so many up to date weapons of tyranny?”[iii] It is alas no longer possible for us to believe that by smashing Hitler and his regime we are eradicating the root of statist evil. “Can anyone doubt that a state which binds man to itself by every tie of need will be better placed to conscript them all, and one day consign them to the dooms of war? The more departments of life that Power takes over, the greater will be its material resources for making war.”[iv] Even within a democracy the vast resources of the state are ripe for a dictator to seize. The bold, by discounting all risk, are positioned to seize all initiatives and become the rulers, while the timid run for cover and security. “The more complete the hold which the state gets on the resources of a nation, the higher, the more sudden, the more irresistible, will be the wave in which an armed community can break on a pacific one . . . . It follows that, in the very act of handing more of ourselves to the state, we may be fostering tomorrow’s war.”[v]

Aristotle in the Politics reduced the variety of governmental structures that he had studied to three: monarchy, aristocracy, and democracy, recognizing that whatever shape a government takes, the essence of governing is Power. Force may establish Power, but once established, habit alone can keep it in being. A standing center of power which is obeyed by habit has, in the case of the state, the means of physical compulsion and is kept in being partly by its perceived strength, partly by the faith that it rules by right, and partly by the hope of its beneficence. The natural tendency of Power is to grow. Power is authority, and authority enables the expansion of authority.[vi]

Power, when dedicated to egalitarian pursuits must always be at war with capitalist authorities and despoil the capitalists of their accumulated wealth.[vii] Its political objective consists in the demolition of a class that enjoys “independent means,” by seizing the assets of that class to bestow benefits on others. The result is a transfer of power from productive individuals to an unproductive bureaucracy that becomes the new ruling class, displacing that which was economically productive. The top state authorities, in alliance with the bottom (that is, the oppressed), squeeze out the middle (the Establishment) and in doing so progressively penetrate ever deeper into the personal lives of citizens. The point of course has been made by others, notably by F.A. Hayek, who called attention to the fact that an assault on property rights is not always apparent because it is carried out in the name of the common good, an appealing but elastic concept defined by those whose interest it serves. Given that all political activity is concerned with the acquisition of Power, both to seize and to maintain the organs of power, one must first gain control of public education at its early stages. A state monopoly in education has the ability to condition minds in childhood for its later years, thereby preparing popular opinion for the seizure by the state of even greater power.[viii] De Jouvenal reminds his reader that in times past Western Europe has acknowledged that there is a superior will to the collective will of man and that there is an immutable law to which even civil authority must bow. Absent that acknowledgment, Power has free reign. “Even the police regime, the most insupportable attribute of tyranny, has grown in the shadow of democracy.”[ix] France, disliking the minority rule of one person, deposed the crown and subsequently organized itself in the light of mass interests only to discover that when the majority holds power over a minority, justice within a democracy can be as elusive as it is in a despotic regime.

De Jouvenal’s translator couldn’t resist a postscript , “One of the first casualties in times of discord is, as Thucydides noted, the meaning of words, and to the Thucydidean list of inexactitudes, it is time to add the current equation of liberty with security, the possession of a vote with liberty, and justice with equality …… of democratic with whatever the user of the word happens to approve. Humpty Dumpty has succeeded to the chair of more precise thinkers.”[x]

Yves R. Simon, a French contemporary of de Jouvenal, born in 1903, the same year as de Jouvenal, (Simon in Cherbourg, de Jouvenal in the Champagne region), were both in their early thirties when they witnessed Hitler’s rise to power. At the outbreak of the war, Simon was a visiting professor in the United States. Remaining in America, he eventually became a member of the Committee on Social Thought at the University of Chicago. From this vantage point, Simon, like de Jouvenal, surveyed the ruins of Europe and in his own way addressed the conditions that brought it about.[xi]

Influenced by Pierre Joseph Proudhon, no friend of democracy, Simon was fearful that democracy, far from excluding a totalitarian regime, would in time actually give way to one. Absent appropriate checks and balances, the legal processes of the democratic state may work in such away as to allow the elimination of democracy. Of equal importance to whatever checks and balances may be prescribed by law or inscribed in a constitution, are those that are in a sense external to the political structure, namely, private property and independent management of resources. “When people acquiesce to the removal of all checks on the conquering expansion of the state, the totalitarian regime is firmly established.” Simon was convinced that an impersonal authority could not win such an irrational surrender but that a leader with charismatic talents could win approval.[xii] We know from experience, he says, that where totalitarianism prevails, democracy has no chance, yet few men dare to voice the paradoxical consideration that democracy may become totalitarian. Totalitarian democracy, of course, would not be true democracy.[xiii] Proudhon maintains that the state, whether democratic or not, remains the state and of its very nature threatens all liberties and the very life of society.

De Jouvenal has yet another concern. In a democratic regime, we are told, the general interest is represented by Power. From this postulate flows the corollary that no interest is legitimate that opposes the general interest. For this reason even local or particular interest must yield to the general interest, in de Jouvenal’s words, “bend its knee to Power.” Power, which is conceived as the incarnation of the general wish, cannot tolerate any group which embodies less general wishes and interests.[xiv]

The distinguished American historian, Richard Pipes, a former director of Harvard’s Russian Research Center and a specialist in Russian history, reinforces de Jouvenal’s judgment that democratic procedures in electing government officials do not guarantee respect for individual rights. The right to property, he holds in his book entitled, Property and Freedom,[xv] may be more important than the right to vote. Property of itself does not guarantee civil rights and liberties, but, historically speaking, it has been the most effective device for ensuring both. Property has the effect of creating an autonomous sphere on which, by mutual consent, neither the state nor society can encroach. In drawing a line between the public and the private sphere, it makes its owner, as it were, co-sovereign with the state.

Even so, once “the elimination of poverty” becomes a state objective, the state is bound to treat property not as a fundamental right that it has an obligation to protect but as an obstacle to “social justice.”[xvi] Even in the most advanced democracies, the main threat to liberty may come not from tyranny but from the pursuit of socialist objectives. Liberty by its very nature, Pipes reminds us, is inegalitarian. Men differ in strength, intelligence, ambition, courage, perseverance, and all else that makes for success. There is no method to make men both free and equal. In the pursuit of equality, property rights may be subtlety undermined through taxation and government interference with business contracts as the state pursues its egalitarian objectives. Insofar as poor voters always and everywhere outnumber rich ones, in theory there are no limits to the democratic state’s drive to promote equality and to run roughshod over the rights of private property. “The rights to ownership,”[xvii] Pipes argues, “need to be restored to their proper place instead of being sacrificed to the unattainable ideal of social equality and all embracing economic security. . . . The balance between ‘civil’ and ‘property’ rights has to be readdressed if we care about freedom.” He continues, “The Civil Rights Act of 1964 gave the government no license to set quotas for hiring personnel by private enterprise or admitting students to institutions of higher learning, and yet the federal bureaucracy acts as if it had.”[xviii] Some fear, Pipes acknowledges, that some believe that the drive for social justice will inevitably lead to the destruction of democracy, yet he is not drawn to that pessimistic conclusion. He reasons that encroachments on property cannot advance relentlessly to their logical conclusion, the abolition of private property, because the most affluent are twice as likely to vote as the weakest. If he were addressing the subject today, some 10 years later, I am not sure he would be so sanguine. The prospect of government control of all aspects of the electoral process looms as the present administration is now positioned to mobilize the vote through federally funded organizations and through redistricting by taking direct control of the census. Not to be discounted is the distorting effect of a monolithic media able to advancing its own political agenda in concert with officials who share its objectives. De Jouvenal addressed this issue when speaking of the ability of popular newspapers to awaken emotion, building or destroying concepts of right conduct. “From the day the first ha’penny paper was launched until now, the big circulation newspapers have never built up an ethic.”[xix]

In concluding paragraphs of his study, de Jouvenal writes, “It is impossible to condemn totalitarian regimes without also condemning the destructive metaphysics which made their happening a certainty.”[xx] He asks, “What would the individualists and free thinkers of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries say could they but see what idols a man must now worship, to what jackboot he must now pay homage; would not the superstition they fought seem to be the very acme of enlightenment, compared to the superstitions which have taken its place?”[xxi] No wonder Pierre Manent called him a “melancholy liberal.”

End Notes:

1 Bertrand de Jouvenal, On Power: Its Nature and the History of Its Growth, with a Preface by D. W. Brogan; trans.

2 Paraphrased by D. W. Brogan in his Preface, pp. xvi-xvii.

3 Ibid., pp. 11-12.

4 Ibid., p. 12.

5 Ibid.

6 Ibid., p. 157.

7 Ibid., p. 171

8 Ibid., p. 11.

9 Ibid.

10 Ibid., p. 380.

11 Yves R. Simon, The Community of the Free, trans. From the original French by Willard R. Trask (Lanham, MD: University Press of America, 1984).

12 Simon, op. cit., p. 149.

13 “The real question is whether democracy can lead to totalitarianism, whether a democratic regime can develop into a totalitarian regime, whether the democratic state may happen to work in such a way as to bring about the elimination of democracy and the establishment of totalitarianism,” (Simon, p. 150).

14 de Jouvenal, op. cit., p. 261.

15 Richard Pipes, Property and Freedom (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1999).

16 Pipes, op. cit., p. 229.

17 Ibid., p. 287.

18 Ibid., p. 288..

19 de Jouvenal, op. cit., p.373. Ibid.,

20 Ibid., p. 377.

21 Ibid.

Comments:
FloridaStateGrad commented:

Interesting read. I have a few questions and comments:

1) When was this paper written?

2) Since the topic at hand is in regards to "democracy," it's probably important to note that the U.S. is not a true democracy in the philosophical sense which such minds as Aristotle wrote of. Therefore, I feel that it's even easier for our current system of government to move towards a totalitarian democracy.

3) I'm glad that the author touched on the subject of gaining control of educating the young as the first step towards total control of the State. That concept not only mirrors Nazi Germany, but I believe it also mirrors our current primary and secondary educational systems. For example, if you were to pick up any American History textbooks used in High School education, upon careful evaluation, there will be inconsistencies, mis-leading information and oftentimes outright false information planted within the text. Our youth have been force-fed a watered down version of history for decades in an attempt to mold future generations into more "patriotic" citizens who are more apathetic to what our government does. Unfortunately, such distortion doesn't end in school - it can be seen in museums, on television and in movies as well, now reaching children and adults alike.

4) I'm not sure what the point of questioning the "what if Mother Theresa had been on the throne before Hitler" is about. I recognize the metaphor, but I'm unsure if such a question really incorporates the socio-economic and political climate of the early 1930's Weimar Republic. I do recognize that the author was specifically pointing to the reality that the average German preferred security and the ability to feed themselves over "freedom," - as was seen evident in Hitler's slow rise to power, but I feel that there were many other events, issues and characteristics which paved the road to the Nazi state - and the feeling of "security" under Hitler's regime is only one of them.

5) In a quasi-democracy such as America, there is a general interest which is represented by our government, and I would argue that there is no political society in which an individual wouldn't be forced to "bend one's knee" for the general interest. The reality is that government is and always will be the representative of general interest. That being said, the general interest of society oftentimes will supercede the general interest of an individual. However, if that societal general interest deviates based upon an imbalance in power, revolution will happen, and a new government will form from the ashes. However, if the balance of power is checked properly, there is still no way in which we can honor every need, desire or want. There will always be sacrifice - whether it is via taxes, conscription, etc. That is the price we pay to ensure that we have society. Anything less could be considered anarchy.

airqualityguy commented:

I wish all the time wasted comparing Obama to Hitler would be spent on fighting the local "politics of greed".

FloridaStateGrad commented:

So do I, air - it is unfortunate that people who obviously know little about Hitler, Nazi Germany, or Obama seem to make such inane arguments.

drilnliftcrude commented:

Comparing the President to Hitler? Whoever heard of such a thing.

FloridaStateGrad commented:

dril - I think anyone who tries to compare any of our Presidents with Hitler is derranged. Bush Jr. was by far one of the worst US Presidents, in my opinion, but he was no Hitler. Actually, Hitler was a much better public speaker, among other major differences which we're all aware of.

CatherineBaker commented:

Yeah, I remember when Dril and Sioux both posted back-to-back blogs during the campaign comparing Obama to Hitler. I was completely astounded and disgusted. I remember Shwaine calling it "Godwin's Theory" or something like that, and that she was so calm and cool about it. I just remember wishing I had her equanimity about it.

Now I do, because I have seen somebody do this at least twice a month ever since. Somebody is ALWAYS comparing some politician to Hitler. I call it the "Answer "C" on the High School multiple choice history test." When people look at a politician they immediately revert back to high school and see either Abraham Lincoln, FDR, Hitler, Nixon, or JFK.

I wonder how Abraham Lincoln, FDR, Hitler, Nixon and Kennedy would feel if they knew they would be trotted out, dusted off, and propped in the corner every time someone mentally writes a high school essay supporting their choice of "A" "B" or "C.

drilnliftcrude commented:

Excuse me Cat. I believe you refer to a you tube video I posted showing an actor portraying Hitler portraying Obama. Big difference. The hilarity of which was not lost on many of those who you call Friends. But maybe now that you are basking in the glory of the election victory, the humor of this parody might not be so astounding and disgusting to you.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R4mKWceq0vY

So what if the only country in the middle east that Obama is hostile towards is the one that's full of Jews. Coincidence.

AudreyB commented:

Cat

The rule is: the first person to reference Hitler, loses the argument.

CatherineBaker commented:

"The hilarity of which was not lost on many of those who you call freinds."

I would never call someone a "freind," Dril. I don't even know what that is.

FloridaStateGrad commented:

Hey Dril.. you haven't gone on my "Getting To Know You" blog posts yet.. when are we going to see you do some show and tell?

Climbing thePalace Walls: POST TRAMATIC STRESS DISORDER MUSIC VIDEO

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:30:52 PDT

With this video I wanted toshow the inner termoil of the mind during PTSD .

Comments:
Wayfarer commented:

Thanks for posting this. I understand that post traumatic stress disorder isn't limited to military veterans ,but kids who grew up in gang infested neighborhoods, rape victims, and child abuse victims. A whole lot of hurt out there;(

blognroll commented:

I can't seem to bring it up on this computer. I'll have to wait until I get home later tonight.

Climbing thePalace Walls: My High School Crush is made into In A Hollywood Movie

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:20:50 PDT

When I was in Jr High and High school I had a crush on Cherie Currie, whom was in my classes. She became a rock star and I went to Bakersfield. I was offered to play a small roll in the movie but coudn't get off work. Someone is playing me in the movie, she actually turned me down when I asked her out back then, The youtube here was written and performed by me for Cherrie, with her permission

Currie is the co-author of Neon Angel: The Cherie Currie Story, in which she tells of her trials and tribulations growing up in California in the '70s, her struggles with drugs and alcohol, and her days with The Runaways. The book is the basic material for the movie The Runaways\Neon Angels^[1] ^[2], starring Kristen Stewart. Dakota Fanning will play the role of Currie.

Currie was married to actor Robert Hays in the 1990s and they have one son. They are now divorced.^{[citation needed]}

In 2008, Currie contributed to Carrie Borzillo-Vrenna's book, Cherry Bomb.^[4][5]

Comments:
blognroll commented:

As the J. Geils song goes, "My blood runs cold, my memory has just been sold..." Actually, I think it's cool that they would use your character in a movie. In addition to the films you've been producing yourself, you're really putting Bakersfield back on the map. Keep up the great work!

For the rest of you, Hank is a character I also put into my short story. See Jerry's Trout Pizza at BSU:

http://www.bakersfieldsoundunderground.com

The Legion: Things heat up as Brigade prepare to host the Fuego

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:04:13 PDT

By Brigade Staff Writer Matthew Martz

After shutting out the Fresno Fuego 2-0 on June 10, the Bakersfield Brigade will be looking to sweep the season series when the two clubs meet again for the final time on Friday at BCHS Stadium.

The Brigade (2-7-2) are winless in their last three appearances and coming off a disappointing loss to the struggling Lancaster Rattlers in their last outing.

The Fuego (3-4-4), are coming into this weekends contest with back-to-back draws against the Orange County Blue Star and Ventura Fusion. Fresno’s last win was on June 19, when the beat the Lancaster Rattlers 2-1.

In the previous match against the Fresno, the Brigade would take an early lead when midfielder Kenneth Taylor (1G, 2 PTS) found the back of the net beating Fuego keeper Ryan “Rhino” Kenny (1.39 GAA), at the six-minute mark, giving the Brigade an 1-0 lead.

The two clubs would find themselves in a defensive battle for most of the second half of play, until defender Adan Arteaga (2 G, 4 PTS) administered the final blow, capping the scoring with a goal at the 88-minute mark, his second of the year, 2-0.

Things would heat up as the game wore on.

Artega received a yellow card at the 26-minute mark of the first half and was then ejected from the match at the 89-minute mark.
Atreaga (2 G, 4PTS) will be looking for reprisal against the Fuego in the upcoming match and will be joined by Bakersfield leading scorers Wes Feighner (2 G, 4 PTS), and forward Kyle Holland (2 G, 4 PTS).

Keeper Steve Trojanowski (1.20 GAA) who did not make the trip or the start in last Saturday’s match against Lancaster has been flawless in goal and will be expected to get the call between the posts in Friday’s contest.

As with any other Bakersfield vs. Fresno rivalry, the upcoming match is sure to produce some fireworks, including the ones that will be displayed immediately following the game in celebration of Independence Day.

The Brigade will play their final home game of the 2009 season against the Lancaster Rattlers on July 10. Kick off will be at 7:30 p.m.

For more information, including ticket information contact the Brigade Corporate office at 410 KICK (4625) or by visiting www.bakersfieldbrigade.com.

Bakersfield Blaze Blog: Tatusko takes 2-0 no-hitter into ninth inning

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 18:00:35 PDT

Ryan Tatusko pitched a no-hitter until the final inning of Wednesday's 2-0 win over the Modesto Nuts (42-35) at John Thurman Field.

Tatusko (W, 2-2) allowed just two base runners over the first two innings, issuing a walk to the lead off batter and Lars Davis reaching on a fielding error by shortstop Jacob Kaase.

Tatusko faced just three in the third before walking a single batter in the fourth.

The Blaze (37-40) would score in the fifth when Tim Rodriguez singled to center after Mauro Gomez walked earlier in the inning as Jose Felix followed with a single to right and Gomez scored the game's first run.

Leading 1-0, Bakersfield would add an insurance run in the seventh when Joey Butler reached on a walk with one out followed by an RBI single to center from Tim Rodriguez giving the Blaze a
2-0 advantage.

Tatusko continued his impressive performance on the mound, retiring the next 11 Modesto batters in order before walking Wilin Rosario in the eighth.

The no-hitter came to an end when Hector Gomez hit a one out single to center in the bottom of the ninth.

Nuts Kenny Durst (L, 2-7) pitched a season high 7.1 innings, struck out five, walked two and gave up just four hits.

Tim Rodriguez went 3-for-3 with three singles and RBI, Jonathan Greene had a single in four at-bats, and Ian Gac went 1-for-4 with a single.

The Blaze will continue the three games series tonight against the Modesto Nuts at John Thurman Field. First pitch is scheduled for 7:05 p.m.

What’s Burning: A Bakersfield Blaze pitcher has not posted a no-hitter in 15 years. This was Tatusko first career complete game.

Bakersfield Blaze Blog: Ryan Tatusko’s back field Diaries

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:53:34 PDT

Welcome back all you readers! I had an article already written, and then July 1st, 2009 happened. The most anxious, frustrating, and yet most fun and exciting game that I have ever pitched in my entire life. I have definitely never been a part of anything like this before, nor have I ever taken center stage in a drama such as this. I am going to attempt to describe you to my day from start to finish.

The 8:00am bus to Modesto was very rough. No matter what you are trying to get up and do, 8:00 am comes very early. When we got to Modesto after a 3.5-hour bus ride, we checked into our Clarion hotel room and got something to eat and just hung out for about 3-4 hours until it was time to go to the field.

The worst part about starting is that when everyone is stretching and getting ready for the game, you are kind of stuck alone in the clubhouse to get your mind right. There’s only so much you can do to keep yourself entertained for those few hours and not get yourself too hyped up or too calm for the game. Pre-game was very normal for me, as I went through my routine and I went over the lineup with pitching coach Dave Chavarria about their runners and power hitters. Warming up, I didn’t feel exceptional and I didn’t feel bad, I just felt like I have every other start and I was ready to go.

Inning 1

Leadoff walk. First pitch of the game was paint on the outside corner of the plate called for ball one. If this is what the game is going to be like for me, it’s going to be a long, drawn-out affair because I believe that first pitch was a strike. Leadoff guy decides he wants to steal and Jose “Chief” Felix throws him out on an absolute strike to second base. Lineout to Jake Kaase and fly ball to Timothy “T-Rod” Rodriguez ends the inning. I go back to the dugout thinking of where that first pitch was and how I need to get command of the corners of the plate to be successful today.

Inning 2

Strikeout swinging on a fastball, error on Kaase, strikeout swinging on a curveball, and a fly ball to right field. I have a little bit more confidence now because that previous corner that was once called a ball was now a strike and I have a good feel for my curveball. This might be an OK day after all.

Inning 3

Swinging bunt played by Felix, strikeout swinging, and groundout to Kaase make for a quick inning, and I head back to the dugout as we are dueling 0-0 going into the fourth inning. The opposing pitcher is throwing the ball well, and I know it’s going to be a battle of who is going to blink first.

Inning 4

Hector Gomez flies out to T-Rod. Chief and I go inside on him and I don’t quite get it in, and when the ball hits the bat it sounds so flush that I think it’s going to go 600 feet, but when I look up T-Rod is camped underneath it in left field. Whew! One out. A walk, a flyout to Joey Butler, and a ground ball to Matt Lawson end the inning for me with a few complications.

In between innings, pitching coach Chavy reminds me that I am “forcing the ball” too much and that I need to stay fluid through my mechanics and keep my fingers on top of the ball and let it move. Don’t try and overdo things, just let the ball work for you, he says.

Inning 5

Finally, I go out with a 1-0 lead and I know now it is my job to put up a zero anyway possible to get my team back into the dugout so they can hit again. This is frequently called the “hump inning” and for some reason it’s the toughest inning for a pitcher because it often determines if you get a win or loss and it sets you up for the latter parts of the game. A groundball to Ian Gac at first base, a groundball to Kaase, and a strikeout swinging get me through the fifth with that 1-0 lead. I’m feeling good that I still have the lead for my team going into the sixth. I look back at the scoreboard and notice that they’ve got zero hits, yet it doesn’t process completely with me.

I always like to joke in the dugout with my teammates to keep my mind off the game and relax a little bit. I find that this helps me because if I am thinking too much about the hitters and where in the lineup they are, I overstress myself and I don’t trust myself as much. Elio Sarmiento and Eric Fry are my go-to guys at this point and we are talking about the differences between Dominican, Venezuelan and Spain-based Spanish dialects.

Inning 6

The first batter hits a shot off the mound and it hits a hole that catapults the ball in the air, and in a Top 10 SportsCenter-esque play, Matt Lawson jumps and snags the ball and when he hits the ground he throws a dart to get the runner by one step. WOW!!! A fly ball to left field and a fly ball to right field end the inning for me.

Yes, I am thinking about it at this point. I mean the scoreboard is huge and in left field and when I look to see the batting average of our hitters, that 0 in the opponents’ hit column stares right back at me.

Inning 7

Now with the score 2-0, I go out. With a ground out to Kaase, a fisted pop-up to Lawson, and a groundout to Lawson, the inning ends with no hiccups. These balls weren’t hit that hard, and there was never a reason to worry about anything. The balls were hit right at my infielders, and as they always have been they were in the right place for me and made the plays look routine.

Inning 8

The inning starts with a 100 mph grounder to Kaase that he makes look so routine. He throws the runner out easily. Next batter, curve, curve, curve, strike three. Now with two quick outs in the inning, my heart is racing to get back into the dugout as fast as I can, and here comes walk number three. (Insert all four-letters words here). Next batter hits a worm-burner of a grounder on a 1-1 fastball to Kaase to get the force at second for out number 3.

Coming into the dugout my mind starts to race about what is going on, and now all of the sudden the people I was talking to to keep things light-hearted now want nothing to do with me. I try for anybody. Sarmiento? Fry? Chavy? Everyone is on the opposite end of the dugout and I am sitting, alone next to the trainer’s kit, trying not to psyche myself out, withy that 0 still staring at me in the face. I begin to think that already this is the best professional outing that I have ever thrown and how I am so blessed to even be in this position right now.

Double play turned and now it’s time for me to go out for the ninth.

Inning 9

I go through my normal pre-pitch routine: three fastballs, two curveballs, one change, and another fastball with the throw down to second, and now I’m ready.

First batter is the leadoff man, a lefty. Curve, fastball, fastball, and curve lead me to a 1-2 count. Chief calls a fastball and I rear back and give it what I have and paint the outside corner for strike three. One out.

Holy cow, this might happen.

Up steps Hector Gomez, who has hit me hard the entire game but just found my fielder’s glove every time. Three straight fastballs bring me to a 2-1 count. If he is going to beat me, it’s my best against his.

Fastball away and the ball gets a little too much of the plate. He makes a great swing on the ball and drives it right back at my face for the first hit.

The crowd stands and applauds the hit, then continues for my effort. It was only 900+ people but to me it sounds like tens of thousands.

Next batter is the three-hole. Now I’ve got a lot of work to do. The no-hitter is gone and there have been plenty of pitchers that have gone from no-hitter to no-decision because they lost focus, mad that they lost the no-hitter.

The three-hole hitter hits a pretty sharp ground ball to Lawson, who flips it to Kaase for the force and the double turn is just a tad late and the batter is safe. Two outs, runner on first, and here comes manager Steve Buechele. Here is the gist of our conversation:

Me as Boo is walking toward me: “Boo, don’t do this to me.”

Boo: “Tuskee, look me in the eyes, and tell me you got this guy.”

Me: “He hasn’t hit me all day. I got this (insert four-letter word). No one else is finishing this but me.”

Boo: “Alright kid, empty your tank. Go get ‘em.”

Me: “Ok, Chief, first pitch curve here.”

Chief: “OK, let’s go. Come on, kid. We got this.”

As everyone leaves the mound, I know this is the most important batter that I will face all night, and yet for some reason I am the most calm I have ever been the entire game. I’ve thrown this guy eight curveballs so far and he hasn’t come within three feet of one. I don’t think he could hit one tonight with a boat oar.

Back-to-back curves put me at 0-2.

A quick step-off the mound lets me gather my nerves and energy to make sure I don’t make a mistake. A curve in the dirt, and he swings for strike three.

The game is over and I feel all the pressure lifted off me. The first person to get to me is Jose Felix, followed by the bullpen. They jogged in from left field to make sure they were among the first to greet me and congratulate me. Every person from my fielders to my bullpen to the coaches not only shakes my hand but gives me a hug and a job well done.

Having a game like this, it isn’t just the pitching but the fielding and the support behind you that makes it all possible. With only seven strikeouts that means 20 balls were put in play that my defense made outs on, which is amazing!

After the game, I get to step back and look at the scoreboard and nothing but excitement and satisfaction come over me and I finally comprehend what I did. Am I mad that I gave up a hit? Honestly not a single bit, I couldn’t care less, my job is to give my team a chance to win and that’s exactly what I did. Any pitcher who gets mad at giving up one hit is crazy; I will take that all day, every day.

But now it’s done, and it’s over. Just like bad outings, you can’t dwell on it because your next opponent is going to see what you did and they are going to be gunning for me more than ever.

The true test is what I do with my next start. Anyone can have a quality outing, but can you back it up with another?

– Ryan (Ryan.Tatusko@gmail.com)

Comments:
Griffon64 commented:

Awesome. Congrats on your excellent job.

The View From Here: Hey, How's That 800 Billion Dollar Stimulis Doing? Unemployment 9.5%

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:52:00 PDT

Remember back in January when we were told by Obama that if we passed the massive stimulis spending bill unemployment would peak at 8%. But if His plan didn't pass, unemployment would reach 9%. Well, the numbers are in. And now, with the stimulis, unemployment is 9.5%!

He told us what would come if we trusted him with 800 billion dollars and it looks like we have been had. Now, just think about what he is saying he'll do for health care and what the reality will be with his record.

Comments:
MoralMinority1 commented:

Good reporting Driln.

Obama has made hundreds of promises he hasn't kept. It has all been sweet taking syrup. Nothing has come true, except for his promis of "change". He never did define that "change" during the campaign did he?

People need to stop and think of how many and the magnitude of all his broken promises.

ALICEN commented:

driln: Has anybody ever accounted for the $2.5 million in stimulus checks sent to dead people? Just curious.

One of the dead people had never even received Social Security checks, but he still got a stimulus check, ten or so years after death. Nice work if you can get it. Easy come, easy go.

siouxcityranch commented:

hahah I wish you woulda gave uus a klink Alicen..I need a good laugh..well maybe this aint so funny..wonder who the beneficiary is hmmmmm

FloridaStateGrad commented:

What would that matter, ALICEN? If they're dead, they can't cash the check.

witterpitters commented:

FSG: People have been know to forge someone's signature and also there is direct deposit. Two ways to cash the check.

NancyII commented:

Not to mention that the money is tied up and locked up until discovered when it could have been used for something productive. But, that's our government in action on a daily, yearly basis. Doesn't much matter who's in office.

I still liked my $600 check from Bush better than my $200 stimulus check from Obama. That money went straight into the state treasury for DMV fees and never made it to circulate in the marketplace. Didn't help CA much either come to think of it.

witterpitters commented:

You Nancy! Our "stimulus check" went to the DVM since Ahhhhnold doubled the fees! I think Ahhhnold knew exactly what to do with "our" money..................prop up the state!

NancyII commented:

Heh Witters, that prop is leaning a bit.

FloridaStateGrad commented:

Look, I'm not happy with all this spending either. Most of you that tend to freak out about the current state of our economy tend to be quite a bit older than I am, so in reality, it's my generation that's in real trouble here. However, I have yet to see anyone come up with a logical idea that would be any better.

I don't think anyone really foresaw what's currently happening. If I have any anger at Obama, right now it's that he should not talk in absolutes, i.e. - if we do x, y will be the result. The economy is way too complex in it's issues currently for anyone to really predict anything.

I think the biggest mistake isn't necissarily that we're spending billions, but more that we're not timing it correctly. Money isn't being injected as fast as it should be. I think that's one of the main reasons why we haven't seen any positive growth yet.

Over all, I'll continue to speak the way I have - let's give the stimulus a chance to actually work before going crazy. Once again, I'm not all that enthusiastic about the billions of dollars being spent, but I feel that if I were to become upset, enraged, etc. that it would only steer my own personal situation into a more negative place. During a time when we have so much going wrong, I'd like to see some positive attitudes.. and if I have to be one of those who continues smiling during the bad times, I will. Mood definitely drives actions.

ALICEN commented:

sioux: Check out the official U.S. Government Web site for Senator Tom Coburn (R-OK). He has a list of all the funny-business stimulus information. That's where I got the info about the $2.5 million going to dead people. And he didn't say anything about how much of it has been lost because of fraud. Do 'they" have the manpower to go after all the people to whom they sent $250? Think of the numbers of people it would take to find all the people who cashed these checks unlawfully. They'd probably have to spend another $2.5 million to go after the cheaters.

But, as I said, easy come, easy go, right?

Check out that Coburn Web site. (Oh, and I just remembered the I don't know how much money for guard rails around a dry lake. I guess they're afraid somebody could fall in.)

zapped commented:

Timing and substance. A hefty amount of that bill was simply a longstanding partisan wish list that Democrats crammed through and had nothing to do with stimulating the economy.

School House Zach: JV sports are back! and Year in Review: Volleyball

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:20:35 PDT

Here's some breaking high school sports news/economy news: JV sports are back!

I'm sure that's a positive for most followers of this blog and for a lot of people out there, but it did come at a cost. The Kern High School District has decided to hold off on cutting JV sports for at least a year — giving coaches and parents time to mobilize fundraising efforts — but the funds will be taken away next year regardless of whether enough money to save the programs have been raised.

At the same meeting, it was discussed that KHSD teachers may have to take a 5 percent pay cut. That will be decided within the coming months. Don't make the mistake, though, of thinking that that is in place of the JV cuts — the JV programs cost about $430,000 a year to maintain; cutting every teacher's salary by 5 percent would account for much, much more than that. This is not tit for tat.

In the meantime, here's today's Year in Review segment on volleyball. If you missed yesterday's, it was football.

2008-09 Kern County VOLLEYBALL

Overview: Liberty was Kern County’s best team from start to finish, nearly going unbeaten in the tough SEYL and then getting to the Division I Central Section championship behind a veteran nucleus led by junior Mariah Alvidrez. But Bakersfield also improved throughout the year, and you could make the argument the Drillers were playing just as well — or better — than the Pats by season’s end. They beat Liberty in the final game of the regular season and then went to the section semis, where they took a game off Clovis West — more than Liberty could do. Centennial won the SWYL easily but fizzled in the playoffs, getting swept at home by BHS.
Garces, also from that tough SEYL, won the Division II title. Bakersfield Christian won Division IV after moving up, but the Eagles, with a team that could have contended for the D-V state title, made it only to the second round of the D-IV playoffs.

Best team: I’ll still go with Liberty, because like I said, the Patriots were more consistent than BHS. They also took care of Centennial and Stockdale early in the season and went out of town to win a few impressive matches. All three games with Clovis West in the section final were close, but the Golden Eagles found a way to win them in their loud little gym.
Honorable mention: Bakersfield, Centennial, Garces, Bakersfield Christian, Stockdale

Best player: You could probably argue about this one for days, but during All-Area time, I went with BHS’ Lauren Holderman, and I will again. She’s an outside hitter who will become a defensive specialist at Cal State Bakersfield. That probably tells you all you need to know about Holderman’s versatility. The other obvious option is Alvidrez, who was the most powerful offensive player in the county and also a good passer. Very slight edge to Holderman here, but it’s really splitting hairs.
Honorable mention: Alvidrez, Garces MB Shelby Staab, Centennial OH Alyssa Gammel, Bakersfield Christian OH Clare Flood, Liberty S Emily Cote.

Best match: The lead to this story says it all about Liberty and Centennial’s rivalry, and this game was no exception. It was, in reality, a meaningless non-conference game, but bragging rights made it important, especially after Centennial beat Liberty last year for the Division II section title. Also, the Patriots staving off the Golden Hawks’ comeback made a pretty big announcement that they were the local team to beat.
Honorable mention: Clovis West 3, Bakersfield 1, Central Section semifinals; Bakersfield Christian comes from behind to beat Tehachapi 3-2; Garces 3, Bakersfield 2.

A look ahead: There were plenty of young teams in Bakersfield last fall, so expect quite a bit of improvement. Centennial’s best hitter, Gammel, was a sophomore, as was its starting setter. Stockdale has one of the area’s better setters in Alex Collatz, who’ll be a junior, and no seniors in last fall’s rotation. Liberty, though, should be the lion’s meow again, with Alvidrez, Cote and Kristin Halling all coming back to lead what should be a scary offense. But the Patriots need to re-create their scrappiness from last year, when Mikinzi Demarco led the back line. She’s gone. The other bad news for Bakersfield teams is that Clovis West also had a young team, and it was dominant in Division I last year. We’ll see if a Kern team can break through.
Among smaller divisions, Garces should be a factor again, though the loss of Shelby Staab to graduation will take its toll. Bakersfield Christian will always be a Division IV factor, but this might be a little bit of a rebuilding year. Tehachapi, with its key pieces all returning, just might be the favorite in the SSL.

Tomorrow: Boys cross country

Comments:
bryanjackson commented:

If the schools raise enough funds to save JV sports for the 2010-2011 school year, then how can the district legally take those funds away and cut JV sports?

zewing commented:

No, no — Of course the teams are allowed to keep the money they raised. The funding from the school district will be taken away regardless of whether coaches, parents and ADs have raised enough to pay for it on their own. This basically puts the onus on the schools to get the money raised by this time next year.

Bakersfield's Bargain Betty: What Makes a Summer Party Special?

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:19:55 PDT

When I think of Summer, barbecues and entertaining come to my mind. My other nickname besides "Bargain Betty" is "Martha Jr.," so when I do entertain, I go all out.

Looking over the classifieds, I spotted some fun things for sale that would take any summer get together from ordinary to extraordinary:

If you are having a HUGE cookout, why not get this commercial hot dog cookerwhich cooks 56 at a time? (Sounds perfect for a competitive eating contest party.)

If you are a novice cook and don't have a barbecue yet, pick up this barely used propane barbecue for $80

Dial out your backyard with a Hampton Bay patio set complete with a gazebo. Well, even though they paid $1,200, you can pick it up for $500. Plus, it's never been used.

Great bread is pretty much a must have staple at any party. (Well, at least if you want it to be fun.) Wow your guest with fresh, warm homemade bread. (I'm getting hungry just thinking about it.) You can pick up your own Welbilt bread maker for $25.

So, let me know, what are some of must-haves for your parties? How do you make summer entertaining special?

Comments:
catpaw commented:

Entertaining my family and in-laws and their friends is kind of like slopping the hogs. Those are good deals. But in my house that would be a waste. Long as it doesn't break their teeth, they'll eat it.

casooner90 commented:

I know this is a commercial, but this is in the blog site so I'll comment.

Summer BBQ is great because it is one opportunity where I can have couple of beer without my wife nagging. However, what makes my summer party special is sitting out in my back yard after a big dinner and sipping on my favorite scotch while puffing on a churchill. Of course, cool jazz sets the mood. Now, if I can just convice my neighbor to stop playing their rap...

Politics, anyone?: Rubio rocks Facebook

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:55:32 PDT

Kern County Supervisor Michael Rubio has taken his quest for the 16th District State Senate seat to the Web.

This past weekend he achieved a June campain goal by passing the more than 1,000 supporter mark on the Facebook social networking site before the month expired on Tuesday.

By Thursday afternoon he had 1,118 supporters, including local business, media, non-profit and government luminaries as well as bigger fish from out of town.

State Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg is a fan.

According to an e-mail alert sent out this week Rubio has also topped another, more traditional, campaign goal.

He's collected over $400,000 to back up his campaign for the top spot on next year's ballot.

No formal challenger, Republican or Democrat, has materialized to challenge Rubio for the seat at this time.

Rubio's campaign looks like its aimed at keeping it that way.

Breaking News: Tip leads police to man suspected in Stockdale Towers burglary

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:31:52 PDT

Bakersfield Police Department

Press release:

On 7/2/09, Burglary Detectives received information that Crook was having his car
repaired at the 24th Street Auto Service and Repair Business located at 1230 24th Street.
Detectives set up surveillance at that location and when Crook returned to pick up his
vehicle at 1332 hours, he was arrested without incident. Attached is a clip of the video
surveillance of the burglary to the Halliburton offices at the Stockdale Towers, 5060
California Avenue, Suite #300 from 4/24/09. Crook is currently being questioned by
Burglary Detectives regarding additional Burglaries he may be responsible for.

Comments:
swerd1 commented:

anyone else find his last name ironic?

More Signposts Along the Middle Path: We've adopted a pet from the shelter!

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:26:10 PDT

Today, we adopted "Adorabelle" into our family from the Animal Control Shelter on Mt. Vernon. We're excited to have a new addition to the family.

There were a lot of other wonderful pets there just waiting to be adopted, including a lovable dog named Bob Senior, who we also came very close to adopting (we had to choose a smaller pet because our home is small). I hope somebody adopts Bob!

The saddest part of the visit was when we were leaving, a woman was arriving to drop off her two dogs because she had been laid off from work and had to move; she could not take her dogs with her.

I hope everyone adopts from the shelter, what wonderful animals! A lot of Chihuahuas too--why pay hundreds when you can welcome one into your heart for pennies?

Comments:
Goofy1 commented:

Both of my pets are rescued dogs, they always seem to make great companions. Your new one looks really cute. As much as you are so excited about getting her, I bet she is 10 fold more excited about having you as her mom/dad! All of you win!

bakoblue commented:

Oh, she looks like my pup, who we emancipated from the Bakersfield SPCA. Congrats on the new addition and remember to post more photos as she gets settled in.

theColorNine commented:

Two of our three cats are from the SPCA. My two boys and I went in with the anticipation of only adopting one. After seeing all those pleading eyes and sweet faces, it took everything I had to stop at two.

Goofy1 commented:

ColorNine, that just means that you are a fine and caring person, just like bakoblue and MP, and the world is better for that!

witterpitters commented:

Three rescues here :-) 2 just showed up in my front yard (one in 2007, one just this past april) - so we took them in. The smallest one had been hit by a car and had a cracked pelvis but he is OK now and quite a hoot!! Believe it or not, they all get along! The lone lady (cindy lou who) we adopted from the shelter in Kernville.

Shwaine commented:

Congrats on the new dog. Most of my cats, except the oldest, are rescues. The oldest was born to one of my parents' cats who got outside and pregnant at 7 mths. Just goes to show why the recommendation is to spay at 6 mths even for indoor-only pets.

BILLIONAIREBARTLEY commented:

What a beautiful dog! My friend Lieng Tron adopts dogs every week but I think she ends up givng them away to friends because they always seem to disappear.

My cat Mr. Cyril II is a rescue cat - a big fat ragdoll persian who weighs about 12 kilos - well he's about as heavy as 12 sacks of dope my friend Q. cooks up. He's a great cat though - he just lays in his bed, endlessly staring off into space and never moving or eating or having a bowel movement. The only downside to having him is for the past several years he's had this foul stench about him.

Shwaine commented:

It's comments like BillionareBartley's that makes me wish bad taste and sick humor alone were reason enough to click the Report Violation button.

BILLIONAIREBARTLEY commented:

Speaking of bad taste, Lieng's cordon bleu tasted a bit weird to me! It snagged on my canine and darn near yanked it out it was so tough!

Meandering Minds: Rain, Rain, Rain!

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:02:50 PDT

It's raining here, so much, that I, now think I'm in a lake,

I'm glad for rain, we have a need, but too much takes the cake.

We have not seen a sunny sky, for more than half an hour,

It's rained so much, I think that I, am in a constant shower.

It looks like springtime's over, at least the date says so,

It's summer on the calendar, but I need a boat to row.

My front lawn feels like squishy sponge, the driveway's pools of water,

My son can't pick his things up and I haven't seen my daughter.

The rain keeps everyone at home in warm and cozy houses,

Keeping all the children in, and sharing time with spouses.

No one is in the yards to work, we cannot mow the lawns,

Because the rains are soaking them from dawn to dawn to dawn.

I'm sorry, it sounds awful, all that whining and complaining,

But really, for a while, at least, I want it to stop raining!

Bakersfield Boomers: What is it?

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:19:41 PDT

Comments:
theColorNine commented:

Looks like a cemetery.

AudreyB commented:

Not a cemetary.

joe0403 commented:

Cemetary for a McDonalds that closed :-)

Very closely related to Table Henge.

AudreyB commented:

Not even a cemetary for McDonalds.

randomfactor commented:

Picnic benches/tables, minus the tops. Where?

AudreyB commented:

Well that didn't last long! I'm impressed, Random, you're right. It's a park in Germany where a fire went through burning the wooden table tops and bench seats.

I'm going to have to find something harder next time.

paxchristi3 commented:

Some structures that were randomly created out of nothing?

randomfactor commented:

Pax, you're babbling again. Take two Bloody Marys and call us in the morning.

michele1075 commented:

Random can't play next time, lol! This would have gone on for awhile, I think.

randomfactor commented:

How 'bout if I just tie one hand behind my back? Slows the typing...

siouxcityranch commented:

fairly obvious.. there goes the chess tournament

AudreyB commented:

Sioux

I looked at it for 30 minutes and didn't have a clue. I finally had to cheat and look at the answer. I guess I not good at recognizing things which are out of place.

Breaking News: Lake Isabella July 4 car show will raise money for Sheriff's Activities League

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 15:14:31 PDT

Kern Valley Sheriff's Activities League fundraiser.

This is a news release of the Kern County Sheriff's Office.
Please do not contact the Sheriff's Communications Center.

Date: Thursday, July 02, 2009
Time: 2:48:23 PM
Department Contact: Michael Whorf

Details:This Saturday, July 4th is the Lake Isabella 1st Annual Classic Car Show, Presented by Buddy's Hot Rod Shop. All proceeds will benefit the Kern Valley Sheriff's Activities League. We have several vendors, custom pin striping by Bob Coslett, food, fifties music, and more. The car show is free to the public and starts at 9am till 4pm. The show will be located at The First Baptist Church located right off the Lake Isabella off ramp Highway 178 @ Hwy 155. If it gets too hot the church hall will be open it get out of the sun.

For more information call Buddy @ 760-549-3855

Money Talks: FTB to stop taking applications for new home tax credit

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:37:36 PDT

Here's a Franchise Tax Board press release that will be of interest to many!

Sacramento – The Franchise Tax Board (FTB) announced today that it will stop accepting applications for the new home tax credit at midnight tonight, Thursday, July 2, 2009.

New tax law allocated $100 million of tax credits made available to roughly 10,000 qualified buyers who on or after March 1, 2009, purchased a qualified principal residence that had never been occupied. This credit is equal to the lesser of five percent of the purchase price or $10,000. The buyer must reside in the new home for at least two years immediately following the purchase date.

To ensure that enough valid applications were received to properly allocate the full $100 million available for this tax credit, FTB accepted 12,000 applications. However, FTB will only issue approved credit certificates until the $100 million is exhausted. The credit is being allocated on a first-come, first-served basis.

For more information, visit FTB’s Tax Credit for New Home Purchases webpage at www.ftb.ca.gov.

Bakersfield Fishing: Bakersfield Fishing

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:15:56 PDT

Kernfishing.com is looking for locals to share there fishing stories,
photos, news and more.

If you're looking for a place to show off you lunker
or to get an update on whats really going on out there

Check out
www.kernfishing.com

Neverleft's Things to Think About: Even the Liberal Media is getting Wise to OBama

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:50:31 PDT

Helen Thomas and Chip Reid Challenge Obama Admin. On 'Controlled' Town Hall Meeting

Thursday, July 2, 2009 9:30 AM

By: Kenneth D. Williams

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs and the Obama administration found the press corps slightly less friendly than they are used to yesterday, when CBS's Chip Reid asked why the questions for Wednesday’s town hall on healthcare were being selected beforehand.

Gibbs tried to dodge the issue, and asked for it to be asked after the town hall meeting in question, but then Helen Thomas became involved, saying, “We have never had that in the White House. I’m amazed that you people … call for openness and transparency.”

Reid and Thomas didn't let up for a second, especially Thomas.

To see the video, of the full exchange, Go Here Now.

Karl Rove opined on Fox News this morning that, to some extent, Gibbs had a point in saying that, since people are free to ask whatever questions they want, the president should be allowed to answer whichever questions he wants.

But Thomas didn't see it that way. After the press conference, she told CNS News that Obama's grip on the media is even greater than that of Richard Nixon.

"Nixon didn’t try to do that. They couldn’t control [the media]. They didn’t try that. What the hell do they think we are, puppets? They’re supposed to stay out of our business. They are our public servants. We pay them. I’m not saying there has never been managed news before, but this is carried to fare-thee-well - for the town halls, for the press conferences. It’s blatant. They don’t give a damn if you know it or not. They ought to be hanging their heads in shame."

Comments:
witterpitters commented:

woooooooooooooooooo yaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa FINALLY!!!! somebody is wising up! took them long enough!!

randomfactor commented:

Wish they'd done that eight years ago. We might not be in Iraq.

If the press wants to ask tougher questions, you won't find any objections from me. Obama can handle them.

randomfactor commented:

I think you'll find that the "liberal media" (which is to say, Rachel Maddow and Keith Olberman) might well agree.

In related news, conservative media outlet Washington Post poo'ed the scrooch today:

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/ombudsman-blog/2009/07/wps_salon_plan_a_public_relati.html

proam commented:

witters, Yes FINALLY, and I hope it is contagious.

hotandfoggy commented:

I don't think there is such a thing as liberal media, especially in television. The corporate media's policies and coverage of issues are determined by what they think will make the most money. The media and both political parties gave more attention to Generals, politicians, and pro war advocates, than people who were questioning the Iraqi War. Phil Donahue got fired from MSNBC and was replaced by Michael Savage.

Currently, important events and issues are being debated and the media is feeding its audience information on Sanford and Michael Jackson. Sanford is a jerk, and South Carolina needs to examine whether he took state money for his trip to Argentina, but it doesn't warrant 20 minutes of an hour newscast. Jackson was very popular in the 80s, but it should be left to Entertainment Tonight.

I haven't been following the healthcare legislation closely, but it appears that single payer healthcare is off the table before it was even on the table. I doubt that pharmaceutical companies will lose any profits. They donate heavily to both Democrats and Republicans. People who defend pharmaceutical companies need to realize that they charge US customers higher rates for the same medicine as Canada. They also receive huge public research grants from the USA. They then use that research to patent a medicine and charge a ridiculous price.

Insurance companies are a different issue. Their function is to make money, so from a business perspective they are going to deny coverage to people with pre-existing conditions, such as diabetes, to avoid losing money. So, I believe that the government should provide people health care needs through taxes, similar to Medicare and Medi-Cal programs. Let's face it national politicians have the best health care policy in the US, and it's funded by the public. They need to allow the public to have the same options.

My favorite news shows are The Colbert Report and The Daily Show, because they provide information on important issues while making fun of how mainstream news overreports on trivial matters.

randomfactor commented:

I don't think there is such a thing as liberal media, especially in television.

Certainly not anything like what is claimed. The vast majority of the media in the country lean right.

drilnliftcrude commented:

What's the over and under for when Gibbs gets tossed under the Obama bus.

randomfactor commented:

I'll say January, 2017.

MoralMinority1 commented:

Where's old Nj....? Not the right story for his agenda? Ha!! They are wising up because we are refusing to watch them, and emailing all of them on their slobbering love affair with the fraud running this county into socialism.

They really should get on board with the rest of America, as it is, they are hanging on my a fingernail, especially the Liberal Rags out there, the Huff n Puff, Washington Post, etc.

MoralMinority1 commented:

The vast majority of the media does NOT lean to the right. MSNBC, NBC, CNN, ABC, all those chanels. Reps have 1 channel, Fox. Now tell me how media leans to the right. Hogwash!! Do you think reps are having some kind of imaginary takeover?

NancyII commented:

If I could have the exact same care that Obama and congresspeople have NOW I might go along with nationalized health care. But it would have to be the SAME with the SAME choices, doctors and hospitals and the same cost to me as it is to them.

Think there's a chance of that happening?

CurtDalton commented:

INVESTIGATIVE JOURNALISM IS DEAD!

The death of investigative journalism is directly proportional to the ability of the government to lie with impunity. To exacerbate the problem, reporting something critical of a politician will result in the news organization being denied access to political events and news conferences.

It's a vicious cycle.

The only thing that gets reported is complimentary information and the detrimental information is killed at the editors desk - as they are afraid of being denied the ability to gather more news. That's why we are spoon-fed celebrity mis-steps as if it were news - to divert our attention from newsworthy events which we may find controversial.

Don't look for anything to change soon. No one has the balls to go against the system.

witterpitters commented:

RF: Obama can handle them. But his mouthpiece, Gibbs, can't! What a yo-yo!!!

I'm with you Nancy!!!

NancyII commented:

Obama may be able to answer the tough questions but Gibb can't. He's a nothing and not up to the job.

Obama has a habit of getting snotty with reporters who insist on him answering questions he isn't preparred for. I guess transparancy was just a campaign slogan after all.

CurtDalton commented:

Established Main Stream Media...

Selling access? http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/24441.html

Contempt for Internet Bloggers (news) ? http://gawker.com/5305089/cnbc-host-driven-to-cursing-freak+out-by-bloggers

Conglomerate ownership biases? http://www.globalissues.org/article/159/media-conglomerates-mergers-concentration-of-ownership

Tell me again why I should believe the media.

ALICEN commented:

Neverleft: If Gibbs couldn't say "uh," his press conferences would be 15 minutes shorter. Every other utterance out of his mouth is "uh." He's not as glib as some press secretaries have been in the past.

And I must agree with CurtDalton that real press journalism is dead. DOA. Sad.

Dr BLT's Blog n Roll Studio : Will Penny Marie discuss her Monty-Byrom-penned song on Bakersfield SounDivas?

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:46:32 PDT

Will Penny Marie join the other two Bakersfield SounDivas (Kim and Theresa) on the newly countrified cover of Billie Jean, the Bakersfield Sound's response to the death of Michael Jackson? You'll have to wait to find out.

I feel honored and humbled as I stood on sacred Bakersfield sound ground. I was among the first to hear what will be a professional recording of the song as I sat in on the session pictured here as an invited guest. All I know is that Penny Marie's interview will be revealing, and will feed the appetites of fans for more information on her dreams, hopes and plans. You'll have to go underground for that interview, as her interview will be the first on the new series, Bakersfield SounDivas, but it should be up later this week or early next. If you ain't goin' underground, you ain't goin' anywhere:

BSU

http://www.bakersfieldsoundunderground.com

SOUND OFF!: THE LAW AND "UNIVERSAL JUSTICE"

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 13:01:36 PDT

Dr. Laina Farhat-Holzman is a lecturer, historian and author who also writes for the Santa Cruz Sentinel. A recent column of hers appeared at the following site:

http://www.familysecuritymatters.org/publications/id.3631/pub_detail.asp. If the link doesn't work, let me break it down into parts so that the Bakersfield site doesn't lop off parts of it. In sections, it's http://www.family It continues without a space "securitymatters.org/publications/id.3631/pub_detail.asp"

The title of the column is "Can We Have Universal Justice and Law"? The following are a few selected paragraphs from that column:

"We hear so much talk about 'world opinion' and 'universal values,' concepts that may deceive us into thinking these things are real. They are not real. There is no 'world opinion' other than the views of the General Assembly of the UN, an assembly that gives all member nations an equal vote. The problem is that the representatives of such nations work in a United Nations that operates under western democratic rules, although most members of the elites of countries not at all democratic....

"On December 10, 1948, the General Assembly of the UN adopted and proclaimed the 'Universal Declaration of Human Rights.' They then called upon all member countries to publicize the text of the Declaration and 'to cause it to be disseminated, displayed, read, and expounded principally in schools and other educational institutions, without distinction based on the political status of countries or territories.'

"Can you imagine such member states as Saudi Arabia or the raft of dictatorships then (and still) members of the UN preaching 'basic rights and freedoms to which all humans are entitled?' Could 'right to life and liberty; freedom of expression; equality before the law; social, cultural, and economic rights be promoted in countries that routinely enslave women, execute homosexuals, and torture and execute political or religious dissidents? They didn't then, and they do not now promote such values. Today they argue that those values are not theirs, and they have come out with a new set of 'human rights' that they prefer.

"What the UN promoted as 'entitlements and rights' are really ideals. There are no international rights. Dictatorships (political and religious) do not believe that civil and political rights are anything other than disloyalty to the state, for which there is severe punishment.

....

"What kind of entitlement is the right to education? Even such developing countries as India and Pakistan have little to no public education, and what passes for education in many countries is little more than memorized religious indoctrination (the Madrassas in Pakistan and Afghanistan). Girls do not have 'entitlement' to education in such places. (emphasis mine.)

....

"The best we can do is recognize that the Universal Declaration is an ideal, and only those countries sufficiently developed to have these values enshrined in their laws care about them. We must not pretend that these values are universal, but we certainly can use the bully pulpit of such popular media as soap operas, comic books, and free radio to promote and educate the world. These are ideals badly needed in he world, but we have a long way to go."

While people in some parts of the world struggle for basic human rights, let us please not forget that we have a Constitution, and that our own Supreme Court need not go outside that to other parts of the globe to inform it on cases it considers.

Stranger in a Strange Land: Getting to Know You

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 12:50:04 PDT

In having dialogue with rwestfall today, I've come to the realization that many of us on here don't really know who we are, what we do, or what we do well. Maybe it's time, for a few moments at least, for us to put aside our political, religious and social differences to learn a bit about each blogger on here. At the very least, this might give us all a bit more insight into who it is we're all debating with.

Here are some questions that I'd like to see all bloggers respond to on here (come on, it'll be fun!).

1) What occupations and/or jobs have you worked in?

2) Have you always lived in Kern County? If not, where have you lived or do you currently reside?

3) If you've had formal education beyond High School, what were your primary areas of study?

4) Where have you traveled? What is the favorite place you've ever been?

5) What kinds of books do you find yourself reading the most?

6) What are your hobbies , what are you good at, what are your talents?

7) If you had to pick up to 5 subjects/areas/issues that you feel the most well versed in, what are they?

So.. who's first?

Comments:
witbee commented:

I'll try and be quick as my break is almost over.

#1. High school science teacher, College Science Professor, Research Associate in Agriculture, Greenhouse Superintendent, Research Technician, Pizza Delivery Boy, Field Worker.

#2. Born and raised in Kern. Lived in Wyoming for four years as an adult.

#3. BS in Biology, concentration in Agriculture, minor in Sociology. MS in Agronomy/Plant Pathology. Teaching credential, Administrative Credential, MS in Education Leadership.

#4. Traveled to many places domestically. My favorite place in the world is Fort Collins, CO.

#5. Education and Science related although I throw in a little fun reading every now and then. The last good book was "A Husband After God's Own Heart."

#6. I am a magazine junky. Mother Earth News, Family Handyman, Wizard, and many others. My favorite right now is Scientific American:Mind. It is incredible inciteful. I also like to build stuff. Last summer I built a large shed. This summer, I'm helping my son restore a car. I don't know that I am really talented at anything. According to the Wii, I have incredible balance, though. I also like to buy full season of TV shows from iTunes. My wife and I are working on "Big Love" right now.

#7. Sheesh, 5 topics? Education Science, Barbeque, The Gospel, Old Movies, Comic Books.

TSM commented:

1) What occupations and/or jobs have you worked in?

Accounting, management and computers & networking.

2) Have you always lived in Kern County? If not, where have you lived or do you currently reside?

Alaska (Tok, Eagle River, Anchorage, Fairbanks, Nenana and Selawik), Washington state (Kent, Federal Way, Tacoma and Bellingham), Ohio (Newark, Devola and Marietta) and Mass. (Brockton and Boston). Short stint in San Diego before moving to Bakersfield.

3) If you've had formal education beyond High School, what were your primary areas of study?

Business Management (BBA), Computer Sciences (MBA), Almost every computer related certification (MSCE, CCE, etc.)

4) Where have you traveled? What is the favorite place you've ever been?

All across the U.S., Germany, Mexico, Canada, Italy and Turkey.

Favorite place: McCarthy, Alaska in the St. Elias Mountains.

5) What kinds of books do you find yourself reading the most?

Biographies and history. Just finished The Rape of Nanking, currently reading John Adams' biography.

6) What are your hobbies , what are you good at, what are your talents?

Anything to do with computers, cooking and home remodeling.

7) If you had to pick up to 5 subjects/areas/issues that you feel the most well versed in, what are they?

Politics, history, movies, music (early rock and roll) and mechanics (all flavors).

FloridaStateGrad commented:

Yay Witbee! Thanks for having the courage to go first. Now I can go.. hah.

1) Everything in the restaraunt business except bartending (but I did barback), pizza delivery guy, restaraunt management, FL Dept of State Archives Assistant, Project Manager, and now Sales Rep in the Industrial sector

2) Grew up in Orlando, FL.. went to college in Tallahasse, FL, moved to Pasadena, CA and then here to Bakersfield

3) BA in History with a minor in International affairs. Major concentrations: Europe w/ emphasis on Nazi Germany, Middle East, US Civil War, US Law & organized crime

4) I've been to about 2/3's of the continental U.S.; Britain, France, Germany, Luxemburg, Switzerland, Belgium, Honduras, British Columbia (Canada), Mexico (very brief stint of a few hours for a specific purpose). Favorite place internationally is Rothenburg, Germany - a well preserved Medieval walled city. Favorite places in the States - parts of Florida, Hudson River Valley of New York, Appalachian Mountains in Virginia, Monterey area of California

5) If I'm not reading fantasy novels, it's usually something about history, politics or philosophy

6) I'm a musician (but I don't play like I used to), so music is generally a major hobby, and I'd say I'm pretty good at it. I'm intrigued by military strategy and tactics - I think if I ever got back in shape and were to join the military, I'd make a good officer for that very reason. Chances are, that won't happen. I love to cook, and I rarely follow recipes or measurements, yet the majority of the time, things come out excellent - many friends and family think I should open up a restaurant. Then again, many also think I should go into law.. who knows what the future holds!

7) General History (though I'm weak in a number of areas.. such as east Asia, Africa and South America); general political science, philosophy and ideology; Hard Rock/Heavy Metal trivia; certain aspects of law (no expert, but I've learned quite a bit through self education); and finally, I'd say I have excellent business sense

defyinggravity commented:

Gosh, i like this. A change of pace. Alright, i'll bite.

1) For most of my career I've worked at places all starting with b. Except for kohl's which was a fluke. My current position is the grunt for an appraisal company. And i am FANTASTIC at what i do, if i say so myself. And i do.

2) I'm californian born and raised. I've lived in huntington beach, then moved to norco california because my parents wanted to own a house. most miserable place i've ever been. And then moved here with the great state farm wave (because that's where my mother worked.)

3) I took a hack at college but... like 30% of the people who attended BC I dropped out within the first couple months and haven't been back since. If i do seek higher education it will be for my own personal enlightenment and gain. I've had my eye on the creative writing and mythology classes.

4) I've been up along the west coast all the way to victoria island. Where we went to the butchart gardens and 4 years later i dated the son of the boy who's family owns it. so good times. Been to vegas about twice a year since i was 3. And my favorite place of all is lake tahoe. beautiful scenery and such a chill place. But nothing compares to san diego.

5) I find myself reading fantasy books more often than not. I love the harry potter series and C.S. Lewis is my personal hero and i LOVE the chronicles of Narnia. He's who inspired me to be a writer.

6) I love to read, write and act. I've been in quite a few local plays. Never anything that stood out. but i was there. I was fred gailey two years in a row at spotlight. I've done a couple of student films by my personal friend and hope to one day be in mainstream film.

7) I would like to think I am well versed in most mainstream religions, gay issues and I can kick butt on film and movie trivia. I played scene it with my friend and i went 7 times before he even got a turn. lol good times.

randomfactor commented:

1) What occupations and/or jobs have you worked in?

Sign painter, journalist, civil service, computer programmer/technician, sales.

2) Have you always lived in Kern County? If not, where have you lived or do you currently reside?

Air Force brat, all over the south (Texas, Georgia, Florida) then California since about 1965

3) If you've had formal education beyond High School, what were your primary areas of study?

Liberal Arts. (Now there's a surprise!) Concentration in English/Journalism

4) Where have you traveled? What is the favorite place you've ever been?

Out of country: Italy on a student tour. Favorite place inside country is Central Coast or Oregon.

5) What kinds of books do you find yourself reading the most?

Currently nonfiction, mostly re: brain function and religion (surprisingly parallel). Science Fiction. But I'm currently reading Gore Vidal's Roman Empire novel "Julian."

6) What are your hobbies , what are you good at, what are your talents?

Writing, inventing. Have gardens but mostly like to grow weird stuff. Love used booksales, thrift stores. Why do I feel I'm writing a personal ad?

7) If you had to pick up to 5 subjects/areas/issues that you feel the most well versed in, what are they?

General science

Etymology/words

Scientology (I'm against it)

Shwaine commented:

#1 Would rather not say, as I fear some people might go to my employer in response to some of my blog postings. I had that happen several years ago when I was participating in a newsgroup for a Linux distribution and a book publisher keep clogging the place. He sent messages to several of the participants employers. Only threats of legal actions got him to back off. Call me once bitten and twice shy on revealing my employment information online after that one. I'll just say I'm employed in the technology field and leave it at that.

#2 Also born and raised in Kern County. I left for many years to go to graduate school up in the Sacramento area, but came back once I graduated to help my parents. Not that my dad will accept much help, but at least I'm nearby when he does.

#3 As I've said in the past and as you may have gathered from the first two responses, my training is in Computer Science and I have a graduate degree from my time up north.

#4 So far, I've only traveled in the states and my favorite city to date is Seattle. I wouldn't want to live there since I don't care for cold weather, but it was a great place to visit in the summer. The plane flew close enough by Mt Saint Helens to get a good view of it too.

#5 I'm a SciFi/fantasy junkie. I blame my dad for that one since that's primarily what he had around the house when I was a kid. I also like the interesting case studies books like "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat". The remainder of my bookshelves are filled with reference books, magazines and items I've kept from college (text books, binders, etc).

#6 My hobbies are primarily woodworking and fishkeeping. The fish in my profile is one I used to breed up north, but I lost its mate in the move down here. It's a fish from Lake Tanganyika in Africa that you can no longer import because it's found only on the Congo coastline. It's rare enough that scientists still aren't sure what species in the Julidochromis genus it really is. There's a guy up north that specializes in them. I picked up more when I was up north for a fish convention, so it's just a matter of letting the new ones grow up and hoping there's a pair in the group. A whole shelf on my bookcase is dedicated to animal books, with the majority of those being books on fish. The woodworking actually started as a way to support the fish hobby, by building stands and "racks" (stands that hold multiple tanks) for the fish.

#7 Hmm... 5 areas? Hard question there... Technology and animals are my strong suits, but I pick up most things quickly. Like I've become adept at lawn care since I bought a house and didn't want to pay for a gardener. I'm also good at planning and researching, earning the nickname of "Office Search Engine" at one job.

Lingtaowoo commented:

I'll drink to that...

AudreyB commented:

1) What occupations and/or jobs have you worked in?

Potato sheds and car hop as a teen,

Library assistant (twice)

Account Clerk and Payroll Clerk (over and over again)

Secretary to the Assisstant Superintendent of Education in LUSD.

2) Have you always lived in Kern County? If not, where have you lived or do you currently reside?

I have lived in: Idaho, Oklahoma, Oregon, Tulare County

3) If you've had formal education beyond High School, what were your primary areas of study?

Accounting

4) Where have you traveled? What is the favorite place you've ever been?

I haven't traveled much. Sequoia national forest is my favorite place

5) What kinds of books do you find yourself reading the most?

Journals and diaries of women in history. Especially those who traveled by wagon train to California and Oregon

Agatha Christie,

Mary Chestnut's Civil War,

Carl Sferrazza Anthony's First Ladies vol 1 and 2. .

Plus any trashy horror novel (as long as it's well written) ie Bentley Little (my private, shameful wallow)

6) What are your hobbies , what are you good at, what are your talents?

1. I am probably, without exaggeration, the best crocheter in Bakersifeld. I have the awards and blue ribbons to prove it.

2. I like to garden, decorate the house and find new recipies to inflict on my family.

7) If you had to pick up to 5 subjects/areas/issues that you feel the most well versed in, what are they?

1. Women in history, especially Mary Chestnut.

2. Middling amount of knowledge about plate techtonics-paleogeology,

3. I am well versed in diseases of the human body (I'm a hypochondriac armed with a Merck Manual)

4. Which plants will grow in a Bakersfield garden

5. The classic, Pride and Prejudice.

rwestfall commented:

1) What occupations and/or jobs have you worked in? Military, PacBell (before the break up), Oilfields, currently Offshore Automation/Instrument/Electrician Technician for the last 17+ years. Total of 28 years in this job classification just not all offshore.

2) Have you always lived in Kern County? If not, where have you lived or do you currently reside? Born in Bakersfield

3) If you've had formal education beyond High School, what were your primary areas of study? 2 years of college out of the military. I took electronics and English to take advantage of my GI bill. I still continue my education going to trade school/classes that concern my job and travel all over for the classes. Last school was in Boulder, CO

4) Where have you traveled? What is the favorite place you've ever been? All over Canada and the USA. Favorite would be PEI Canada and Alaska. Both places I love. In fact I'd move to Alaska in a heart beat.

5) What kinds of books do you find yourself reading the most? Mostly self help and politics last book was Liberty and Tyranny by Mark R. Levin

6) What are your hobbies , what are you good at, what are your talents? I love working with wood and computers.

7) If you had to pick up to 5 subjects/areas/issues that you feel the most well versed in, what are they? Very good question. I'll have to sit down and think on this one. Computers, PLC programming, troubleshooting, the rest would be dabbling. I know a lot about many things and a master of none.

AudreyB commented:

Ok do I get a date now?

witbee commented:

September 3

AudreyB commented:

Witbee

That's more than I expected. Thanks for the laugh.

Lingtaowoo commented:

Be VERY careful now...this could lead into identity theft... :-))

randomfactor commented:

I was careful, for that reason and the one cited by Schwaine--which I've also experienced. No mother's maiden names, birthplace, etc.

There's a famous story about a guy logging into a computer onstage for a demo of some sort. When the first login password failed, he was heard to remark (over the microphone) "Oh--wrong daughter!"

So much for password security...

AudreyB commented:

Ling

If they steal my identity, they have to pay the bills that go with it.

Lingtaowoo commented:

Always best to meet face to face--than putting it out there to the world....that's just my opinion...

Neverleft commented:

1. Summer Field work, summer packing sheds, Wholesale and retail sales, Sales management, U.S. Navy, Construction, Crane Operator and welder. Construction Manager.

2. Lived in Tucson, Arizona, Ventura Calif., Lancaster, Calif. Now in Kern. In service visited Japan, Hawaii, China and Australia.

3. A.A. in Business Management, B.A. in Political Science.

4. Travel extensively in U.S., see #2 for out of States travel. Favorite place to visit is Australia. Beautiful country and the Out Back is fantastic.

5. Like Mystery and Detective, favorite authors are Stuart Woods and John Sandford. Right now I am reading (strange as it may seem) The Reagan Diaries, all 693 pages, and next plan on reading Liberty and Tyranny by Mark R. Levin. I got them for Father's Day.

6. Paint in acrylic, interested in W.W. 2 aircraft, Martial Arts.

6. I can do many things. You might say I am a Jack of all Trades. I guess I would be best at those things I am trained in. Crane Operator, Welder, construction and Sales.

7. I think I have already answered this one.

rwestfall commented:

5) If I'm not reading fantasy novels, it's usually something about history, politics or philosophy

politics and philosophy aren't those fantasy too? OK I'm sorry i'm kidding. I couldn't resist. :)

witterpitters commented:

1) What occupations and/or jobs have you worked in?

As a teen: babysitting

Secretarial - from age 19

2) Have you always lived in Kern County? If not, where have you lived or do you currently reside?

Born: Toronto Canada

Lived In: New York State, Arkansas, Arizona, Illinois, Calif.

3) If you've had formal education beyond High School, what were your primary areas of study?

Bakersfield College – Business Administration/accounting/theater arts

4) Where have you traveled? What is the favorite place you've ever been?

All over the US and Canada. I love the East Coast – Virginia

Have been across the US and back several times by car and RV

5) What kinds of books do you find yourself reading the most?

Stephen King, Robert Ludlum, Mysteries-funny & serious

6) What are your hobbies , what are you good at, what are your talents?

Crocheting, arts & crafts: padded baskets, flower baskets, wreaths, sewing, embroidery

7) If you had to pick up to 5 subjects/areas/issues that you feel the most well versed in, what are they?

Jackie of all trades master of none!!!

sincalryder commented:

Hmmm I havent posted in several months with life being hectic between work and personal, but this seemed like a fun topic hehehe.......

1) What occupations and/or jobs have you worked in?

Oilfields since I graduated high school for the past 12 years now, mostely on the drilling side with a few years in blow out prevention off shore. Now I work for lets jsut say one of the big boys in the oil game as the Health Safety and Environmental Coordinator for our West Coast operations, this would include California and Alaska

2) Have you always lived in Kern County? If not, where have you lived or do you currently reside?

Always lived here

3) If you've had formal education beyond High School, what were your primary areas of study?

No formal education other than taking specific course to set myself up as an instructor in Defensive Driving, CPR and First-Aid, Accident Investigation, Forklift and Bobcat Operations, Hydrocrane Operations....... So yeah I do alot of teaching as well.

4) Where have you traveled? What is the favorite place you've ever been?

I spend alot of time traveling between here, Texas and Alaska for work, infact jsut got back from Alaska last week, really enjoyed 62 degrees better than this 109 stuff.

5) What kinds of books do you find yourself reading the most?

usually if im reading a book its going to be a history/war novel suck as Flyboys or Flags of Our Fathers

6) What are your hobbies , what are you good at, what are your talents?

Well im really good at art, do some graphic design on the side. My hobbies include riding, be it around town or racing at one of our local tracks, or escorting our fallen soldiers with the Patriot Gaurd, as was todays case. I am also very muchly into my fish tanks, which I have sever large ones both fresh and Salt. And last but not least are my kids, my wonderful 4 year old son and my 4 month old princess!!!

7) If you had to pick up to 5 subjects/areas/issues that you feel the most well versed in, what are they?

Safety, Motorcycle riding, Fish, Art, and ummmm 80s music and movies =)

bakoblue commented:

1) What occupations and/or jobs have you worked in?

Boarding kennel manager, pet shop manager, veterinary hospital manager, media, nonprofit organization.

2) Have you always lived in Kern County? If not, where have you lived or do you currently reside?

Central Valley girl. Born in Virginia, moved to Modesto as a child, Sacramento, Bakersfield.

3) If you've had formal education beyond High School, what were your primary areas of study?

Psychology, English, Animal Behavior

4) Where have you traveled? What is the favorite place you've ever been?

I've never been out of the country, but have been through a number of the states. Since I'm a Cali gal, Carmel ranks high among the nicest places I'd ever want to hang out.

5) What kinds of books do you find yourself reading the most?

I'm a big nonfiction person, mostly about critters, women's issues and factory farming. I'm a huge magazine junkie and have several subscriptions.

6) What are your hobbies , what are you good at, what are your talents?

I enjoy reading, blogging, critters and cooking.

7) If you had to pick up to 5 subjects/areas/issues that you feel the most well versed in, what are they?

I can't imagine five areas I'm good at, but I know a whole lot about pets, am pretty handy around a stove, can write a decent piece when I want to and have been known to make people laugh once or twice.

theColorNine commented:

1) What occupations and/or jobs have you worked in?

B.K. (before kids) -- Technical support and wrote applications in the area of real estate and property mgmt for PC's when they first hit the market and trained people how to use them. Also did some accounting and office clerical support stuff, a couple of those jobs being with large, well-known financial institutions.

A.K. (you can figure it out) -- SAHM mainly, but used that time to beef up my volunteer work. I am an ordained Elder of a protestant church; organized youth activities in both church and school settings. Currently I have the summer off from my education job (not a teacher, though).

2) Have you always lived in Kern County? If not, where have you lived or do you currently reside?

Born and raised in the Midwest, living most of the time in Iowa and Illinois. After college, I moved out to California (SF Bay Area), and in 1985 moved to Bakersfield due to my husband's employment here. I would like to live somewhere else in my retirement years.

3) If you've had formal education beyond High School, what were your primary areas of study?

I have a B.A. in Economics/Business Admin. from a private liberal arts school in the midwest.

4) Where have you traveled? What is the favorite place you've ever been?

I have been to many places in the U.S., but not too much on the east coast. I have also been to London, Paris, and across the alpine countries of Europe (Switzerland, Austria, and Germany).

My favorite place (so far) . . . . Yosemite . . . . wait, maybe north/central AZ . . . . no, possibly Austria.

5) What kinds of books do you find yourself reading the most?

I like historical fiction, particularly from the WWII era, but lately have found myself working my way through all of Tony Hillerman's books. I've read 5 so far and have 8 more sitting by my desk.

6) What are your hobbies , what are you good at, what are your talents?

Hobbies: jigsaw puzzles. I need to learn how to start selling on Ebay or something. I have somewhere around 300 puzzles!

What am I good at? My husband and others tell me I'm very good at getting others to help with volunteer activites. I once organized the efforts of 150 people for an all-day music event at Bakersfield High School.

7) If you had to pick up to 5 subjects/areas/issues that you feel the most well versed in, what are they?

I couldn't pick areas that I feel "well versed in;" you know, that jack-of-all-trades, master-of-none thing. But I could pick some that I feel passionate about: my family and education.

jfrancais commented:

1) I worked in the Cotton fields, Oil fields, a security guard (at GM), Pizza Delivery Driver, a distribution driver (for the Californian), temp service Branch manager, Soldier, clerk in the US Attorney's Office

2) I still consider Bakersfield to be my home but I have not lived there since 1996. I've lived in Canada (Alberta), Indiana, Georgia, Texas, Fresno, Louisiana, Nebraska, Oklahoma

3) French (BA) with a minor in Canadian studies, and International Relations (MA) and certified law school flunkie. Network Switching Systems certification

4) Canada, England, Ireland, Romania, Kuwait, Qatar, Iraq (and probably Syria). I've visited 40 states in the union. Montreal Quebec is the best city in the world!!!

5) Biographies. I love stories of people making something of themselves (Sam Walton, Richard Pryor, and Colin Powell are my current favorites). I also like to read about world politics (Latin America and Africa)

6) I'm a jack of all trades but a master of none. I can play the trumpet, french horn and piano. My talent is with languages (French, English, Kurdish, Arabic, and ebono-Spanish)

7) Latin American politics, international relations, military policy, African diaspora, Code 10 of the US Code.

Observer commented:

I'll play... but only the questions that are not already answered in my profile.

2) Have you always lived in Kern County? If not, where have you lived or do you currently reside?

I have never lived in Kern County. I worked there but have never had the right to vote :) I grew up in a city in what is now south-central Los Angeles. I currently reside in Tulare County.

4) Where have you traveled? What is the favorite place you've ever been?

Contiguous US, western Europe. Favorite place depends on the season - If I had to pick one, it would be Florence, Oregon.

5) What kinds of books do you find yourself reading the most?

I enjoy reading certain types of fiction - right now I am reading John Sanford, Clive Cussler, Tony Hillerman - I am also reading Joseph Campbell's works... but I can only assimilate a small amount at a time.

6) What are your hobbies , what are you good at, what are your talents?

Photography

7) If you had to pick up to 5 subjects/areas/issues that you feel the most well versed in, what are they?

The older I get the less I know. Sorry.

jadedcynic commented:

1) What occupations and/or jobs have you worked in?

Kenny Shoes - Valley Plaza - anyone remember?, Group home counselor , 6th grade teacher

2) Have you always lived in Kern County? If not, where have you lived or do you currently reside?

Born & raised in Wa --> Bakersfield --> Fresno -->Anaheim --> Orange --> Bakersfield

3) If you've had formal education beyond High School, what were your primary areas of study?

BA Sociology w/ a minor in Ethnic Studies & Multiple Subject teaching credential

4) Where have you traveled? What is the favorite place you've ever been?

All over US - loved Flagstaff

5) What kinds of books do you find yourself reading the most?

Historical fiction

6) What are your hobbies , what are you good at, what are your talents?

Love to read. I play piano & clarinet. I love to cook.

7) If you had to pick up to 5 subjects/areas/issues that you feel the most well versed in, what are they?

Education (the act, not the politics), child rearing (up to 12), High School Musical, taming curly hair, Scrabble

jadedcynic commented:

Witbee - Big Love is my "secret" guilty pleasure! Where are you in watching the show? I won't give anything away but I'll say just one word....ALBIE!!!

hotandfoggy commented:

1) What occupations and/or jobs have you worked in?

Teen years--Sno-Shack and McDonalds

Adulthood--telephone surveys, instructional assistant, substitute teacher

2) Have you always lived in Kern County? If not, where have you lived or do you currently reside?

Born and bred in Bakersfield. I lived in San Francisco for a semester in college.

3) If you've had formal education beyond High School, what were your primary areas of study?

BA Psychology, minor in Poli-Sci

4) Where have you traveled? What is the favorite place you've ever been?

China with a CSUB professor and a group of students. Carribean Cruise. Several states, mainly to see family, I haven't seen too many sites. I did see Independence Hall in Philadelphia where the Declaration of Independence was approved and the Constitution was written. It was very informative, but my stomach was really upset so I didn't enjoy it as much as I should have.

5) What kinds of books do you find yourself reading the most?

I usually just read articles, or start a book that I don't finish. The last book I read was Alice in Wonderland and Alice Through the Looking Glass, since films use several elements from those books in their films--the white rabbit, curiosity, down the rabbit hole, reality, conformity etc....

6) What are your hobbies , what are you good at, what are your talents?

Internet and blogging, but I spend too much on it.

7) ou had to pick up to 5 subjects/areas/issues that you feel the most well versed in, what are they?

Don't know.

casooner90 commented:

I'll play - maybe you'll understand my strong conservative view after this game.

1) What occupations and/or jobs have you worked in? Mechanic (cars and military air planes), Military (10 years), Engineer, Manager. Of course I also had my share of burger flipping, car washing, lawn cutting, dish washing and many others since I've been working since I was 14. I also did 2 years of Medi Evac.

2) Have you always lived in Kern County? If not, where have you lived or do you currently reside? Born and raised in Asia, grew up in Wyoming, lived in England, Portland (OR) and OKC. Been here last 20 years.

3) If you've had formal education beyond High School, what were your primary areas of study? Engineering with 3.5 GPA (not bragging, just emphasizing working my butt off in college - that's what you do when you self fund education and you don't have parent's money to fall back on)

4) Where have you traveled? What is the favorite place you've ever been? Most of Midwest, lived in UK for 2 years, visited few Asian countries as well as European countries and middle east during my military days. Living and traveling abroad was my favorite because I've learned to appreciate good old US of A a lot more. Everyone needs to visit / live in another country to see what we are taking taking for granted.

5) What kinds of books do you find yourself reading the most? Some action novels, but lately more tech journals and an occasional golf magazine.

6) What are your hobbies , what are you good at, what are your talents? I love to play golf (wish I could be better). I should say my hobby is work since I spend most of my time doing that, but I still consider my hobbies to be travel. My talents, if you can call it a talent, is my ability to organize.

7) If you had to pick up to 5 subjects/areas/issues that you feel the most well versed in, what are they? Raising my family based on our religious value (two kids in HS maintaining A's with all their extra curricular activities and actively involved in our church - must be the Asian thing), my work ethics (12 hours / day is no sweat), family planning (now and later), and... can only think of 3. I don't think I answered this question, but it felt a bit loose and subject to my interpretation.

casooner90 commented:

By the way, I now understand you all a lot more on why some of you lean certain way. For example, I guessed RF to have studied liberal arts (graduated?) from his views. I wonder where pp is? Thanks FSG, this was educational.

jfrancais commented:

Casooner, you're bad ass. I love aviation mechanics! I've been on two militry planes that have caught on fire so I make it a point to befriend the guys behind the scenes. They have thankless job but it's important, nonetheless. Thanks for the service, bro. I appreciate it.

casooner90 commented:

Jfrancais, in my honesty, my military career stands out the most in my life. I'm still friends with the guys I served with and there is a unique bond that is stronger than the ones I have with my HS or college buds. I've worked as a jet engine mech for 8 of 10 years and have worked on almost every fighter to few of the heavys. To this day, I tend to gravitate towards fellow veterans (no matter on branch) because of certain trust I have with them. I see that you also served. Thank you also for your service.

MoralMinority1 commented:

START WITH YOURSELF!!

Shwaine commented:

Hey sincal, another fish freak, cool. If you're interested, I have a ton of Pelvichromis pulcher ("Daffodil Brichardi") overrunning my house... I swear these are the rabbits of the cichlid fish world. They're also mean little buggers, so definately for a species-only tank. But throw a bunch of rocks into a 29g and one pair will quickly form a colony with their offspring and fill up the tank. Just don't move the babies to a new tank or you'll end up like me, with three tanks full of them.

jfrancais commented:

I've got 9 years (actually 11) casooner. I'm trying to get 20 or 30 but the day I hate this job is the day I start making moves to leave and do something else. The army has been good to me. It's the best job I've ever had. It allows me to be an idealist and still get paid. I love feeling like professional and doing something honorable. I'll keep doing this until I figure what want to do when I "grow up". It's been a fun ride. I can relate to you still being friends with your buddies. I had got out for a while but I felt like the best thing to do was re-enlist when the war popped off. I felt like the best thing I could do was to be in the fight with my buddies.

casooner90 commented:

Jfrancais, good luck to your military career and I hope you do get your retirement. Couple of my friends retired from AF and the last one was a bit a tear jerker - lots of pride. I wanted to wrapup my career too, but Vandenberg or Riverside were too far for a weekend jaunt and my career was really taxing my time here. Dude, what you're doing is honorable. Thanks. If you don't mind, I now have a friend on this liberal infested blog site. Thanks for your service.

jfrancais commented:

Even though you no longer don't wear the uniform, you're still my brother in arms. I feel we can learn a lot from the veterans as they can give a lot of insight on todays mission. I wish we would do more outreach stuff to pick the brains of vets. We could use it right now with such a high optempo. We're all learning on the fly and losing a little bit each time a vet goes back to civilian life.

I'm in Oklahoma right now, btw (Fort Sill).

Observer commented:

Good luck jfrancis. Ft. Sill is interesting... from a former member of the 5/1 Msl... and if you ever need a history of the 1st Artillery, I have one :) Well I wrote it so it is not as good as the green books... but a nice summary. And may your fourth be wonderful.

mrsearnhardt88 commented:

I'll bite...

1) What occupations and/or jobs have you worked in?

Manicurist for 15 years, radio sales, salon consultant for a major manufacturer beauty supply, radio again. I now work for a marketing and advertising agency.

2) Have you always lived in Kern County? If not, where have you lived or do you currently reside?

Born in Washington, lived in Spokane, Seattle, Salem and Corvallis Oregon ( Go Beavers!) moved here in 1981.

3) If you've had formal education beyond High School, what were your primary areas of study?

Bakersfield College- I do all their advertising BTW. Lyle's College of Beauty.

4) Where have you traveled? What is the favorite place you've ever been?

Maui & Kauai Hawaii, up and down the West Coast. Cabo San Lucas is by far my favorite place to visit.

5) What kinds of books do you find yourself reading the most?

If I only had the time...

6) What are your hobbies , what are you good at, what are your talents?

I am a Marketing Guru!!! Love to help businesses prosper. NASCAR, racing, Condor games, hanging with my kids. I am a pretty decent singer- not just karaoke.

7) If you had to pick up to 5 subjects/areas/issues that you feel the most well versed in, what are they?

Refer to #6. Marketing, sports fanatic, doing hair, being opinionated and speaking my mind :)

witbee commented:

Witbee - Big Love is my "secret" guilty pleasure! Where are you in watching the show? I won't give anything away but I'll say just one word....ALBIE!!!

I'm almost done with Season 2. I just finished the one where Albie becomes the profit (by reading from a hat). It is certainly not a show me and the Mrs. would normally watch, but I was intrigued by the premise. Now I am hooked. iTunes only has 1st and 2nd season so I have to wait for the 3rd.

My other "strange" TV obsession was "Dexter." It is just so weird, I can't help but watch it (also thru iTunes).

bakonative commented:

I'll bite too! It's been a while since I've posted, but I try to view the blogs a couple of times a week!

1) What occupations and/or jobs have you worked in? In the old days, waitress, secretary, retail banking. Switched to lending and now mortgage undewriting for past 10+ years.

2) Have you always lived in Kern County? If not, where have you lived or do you currently reside? Bakonative says it all.

3) If you've had formal education beyond High School, what were your primary areas of study? Bookkeeping

4) Where have you traveled? What is the favorite place you've ever been? I've been to AZ, NV, LA, MS, AL, Mexico and China. I absolutely love the southern states and hospitality of Louisiana, Alabama, and Mississipi. People are so slow.... but so NICE!

5) What kinds of books do you find yourself reading the most? Like Neverleft, I love Stuart Woods! I just got into some great books by Greg Iles (why does my I look like an L?) also. I really like detective/mystery fiction books!

6) What are your hobbies , what are you good at, what are your talents? I'm not great at anything. I always carry a camera, but that doesn't mean I get great shots. I like to bowl, but that doesn't mean I score high. I have a lot of friends that I talk to every week and I hope I'm a good listener!

7) If you had to pick up to 5 subjects/areas/issues that you feel the most well versed in, what are they? Lending, lending, research, research, google!

msemilyh commented:

1) What occupations and/or jobs have you worked in?

go-fer (my dad was self-employed and i did many miscellaneous errands/chores), babysitter, house-cleaner, pizza-maker, tutor for several different employers, substitute teacher, teacher

2) Have you always lived in Kern County? If not, where have you lived or do you currently reside?

grew up in wasco/shafter, moved to bakersfield in 2002

3) If you've had formal education beyond High School, what were your primary areas of study?

BA in liberal studies- minor in linguistics (cum laude, i studied my butt off for my grades too), multiple subject teaching credential- supplemental English authorization, Reading/literacy specialist certificate

4) Where have you traveled? What is the favorite place you've ever been?

i've never been outside the US, i've been all over the western US, visited Florida, my favorite place i've been is pretty much anywhere in the sierras

5) What kinds of books do you find yourself reading the most?

i enjoy many different types of fiction, adult and children's books. it's a great escape from reality for a little while

6) What are your hobbies , what are you good at, what are your talents?

hobbies: reading for FUN (not textbooks or student essays), playing the piano, camping, hiking; i seem to have a talent for working with children and being able to (mostly) manage a roomful of them

7) If you had to pick up to 5 subjects/areas/issues that you feel the most well versed in, what are they?

unfortunately, i've had experience dealing with manipulative/abusive relationships and many things that go along with that. but i have been able to use that experience to help others, so some good can come of bad situations :)

besides that, see #6 i guess

FloridaStateGrad commented:

I'm very appreciative that so many of you have chosen to participate. In viewing all of these responses, I believe it proves that while we might have certain differences in thoughts and ideas, we're all still humans, and Americans. Oftentimes we probably have more in common with each other than we realize - and I feel that "experiments" such as this can help us all to lighten the mood and maybe respect each other a bit more.

I think sometimes we can all get carried away on here - it's easier to argue with someone you don't know. This isn't to say that we're all not going to continue having disagreements.. but maybe now we will all have a different perspective on what each person brings to the table.

I'll be coming up with new questions (nothing too prying).

If you haven't yet participated, I urge you to do so!

Thanks!

NancyII commented:

1) What occupations and/or jobs have you worked in? {Retail and catalog sales, finish electrician, bartender, waitress, manager of a pizza delivery business, substance abuse counselor, retired.

2) Have you always lived in Kern County? If not, where have you lived or do you currently reside? {Raised in Bakersfield, (in order of occurance) short stay at Ft. Benning GA and Ft. Hood TX (army wife), Tehachapi 15 years '70-85, Hendersonville TN 9 months 1987, Murphreesboro TN 9 months 1991, Bakersfield all the rest of my life.

3) If you've had formal education beyond High School, what were your primary areas of study? {Sociology / Drug and Alcohol Studies.

4) Where have you traveled? What is the favorite place you've ever been? {Other than moves I've traveled to Oregon to visit parents, Oregon for track invitational, (grandson), WA and Nebraska for Jr Olympics track and field, WI, FL and all the states in between. TN would be my favorite I suppose, although parts of Oregon remind me on TN.

5) What kinds of books do you find yourself reading the most? {Intrigue, mystery, policitcal, espionage but I'm a reading nut so when desperate will read most anything but HATE first person books for the most part and really HATE books written in the 2nd person present tense (?) ie, "he goes to the store.." (was that a run on sentence?)

6) What are your hobbies , what are you good at, what are your talents? {{Don't have many hobbies now unless you can call searching for treasures to sell on ebay a hobby. Years back I shot a mean game of pool and was on both bowling leagues (not so good but fun) and pool leagues (dropped out after winning the area chanpionship mini playoffs..wasn't fun any more.) Other than that, my main hobby is reading. I'm a big fan of "Make your hobby your career and never work another day in your life so my other main hobby would be my part time job as a SA counselor.

7) If you had to pick up to 5 subjects/areas/issues that you feel the most well versed in, what are they? I'm a jack of all trades and master of none. "I know a little bit about a whole lot but not a whole lot about nuthin." If pressed I'd say substance abuse, family dynamics of same and all it relates to, building construction, human nature, food/cooking terminology, how to lose your shirt in your own business in 3 easy lessons.

If people can steal my identity from this, I'll help them load it up.

AudreyB commented:

Nancy

how did you get involved in the Ebay thing? I've got 3 huge plastic bins of vintage polyester (70's) fabric I want to sell. I also have hundreds of vintage (30's 40's 50's) crochet books. I've looked on the internet and they fetch a good price. I'm trying to get rid of everything I collected over the last 40 years.

Can you tell me where I can get lessons on how to start selling on e-bay?

defyinggravity commented:

gosh... i'm such a loser compared to you guys. lol

ghostriter commented:

1) What occupations and/or jobs have you worked in? I have been in the medical field since my first volunteer job at the VA hospital when I was fifteen.

2) Have you always lived in Kern County? If not, where have you lived or do you currently reside? Nope. I was born in Georgia, grew up near Chicago, moved to Phoenix when I was 12. Got married at 19 and moved to Austin, TX, and a year later I went to Clark Air Base in the Philippines for almost four years. Got divorced, moved to Pennsylvania, and that is where my heart still lives. I have lived in Tehachapi since 1997.

3) If you've had formal education beyond High School, what were your primary areas of study? English AA; Nursing, three years, until I got stupid and quit school to get married.

4) Where have you traveled? What is the favorite place you've ever been? I have been all over the States, Hawaii, Korea, Japan, Okinawa, Guam and the Philippines. My favorite place I've been is Alaska.

5) What kinds of books do you find yourself reading the most? Mysteries, classics, history.

6) What are your hobbies , what are you good at, what are your talents? I am a very good seamstress and I do intricate artistic stitchery, for which I won First Place at the state fair in 2003. I am a great cook, also. As you know, I am a cat rescue volunteer.

7) If you had to pick up to 5 subjects/areas/issues that you feel the most well versed in, what are they? Medicine, specifically ophthalmology, cooking, animal rescue, grief and bereavement. I know, that's only four, but I can't think of anything else.

donmason commented:

Hi FSG, I didn’t notice this topic until this morning. Thanks for posting.

1) What occupations and/or jobs have you worked in?

Farm work, packing sheds, auto mechanic, waiter,taxi driver, post office temp,

color lab technician, Gaffer (movie production related),commercial/advertising photographer, color management / pre-press consultant,author (color management and digital imaging books.) technical editor for books related to same.

2) Have you always lived in Kern County? If not, where have you lived or do you currently reside?

Fresno, Los Angeles, Santa Barbara, Oxnard, Tehachapi, Lancaster, Newport News Va., Bakersfield for the last 25 years.

3) If you've had formal education beyond High School, what were your primary areas of study?

BS Graphic Arts/Photography, Physical Science

4) Where have you traveled? What is the favorite place you've ever been?

All over the USA, Canada, Mexico, Caribbean

Favorite place is Del Norte County, California.

5) What kinds of books do you find yourself reading the most?

History, science, economics, trade journals (all kinds), a little fiction. Just finished Into the Cool. Awesome read. http://www.intothecool.com/reviews.php

6) What are your hobbies , what are you good at, what are your talents?

I guess I’m pretty good at condensing complex concepts. My occupation since I’m still at it after 25 years :). No formal hobbies because I like my work a great deal. Consider myself to be very lucky in that respect. I rescue stray cats, and I’m involved with a number of charities. Does that count??

7) If you had to pick up to 5 subjects/areas/issues that you feel the most well versed in, what are they?

Imaging technology, computer graphics, physical science, western history, economics.

So much to learn, and so little time :)

theColorNine commented:

I'm with Audrey, Nancy. I need a lesson on selling things on Ebay. We could open up our own branch of the public library, we've got so many books here and in storage. And remember all those jigsaw puzzles I mentioned above . . .

....................

casooner90 -- I was glad to read your answers. You sound like a good guy. I've been trying not to hold the "sooner" part against you since I'm a Husker fan. I'm guessing we have enough similar views that a Husker and a Sooner can get along. ;-)

jfrancais commented:

Try selling your books on half.com, a subsidiary of Ebay. I sell a lot of books on there and it's easy to manage your inventory on it.

FloridaStateGrad commented:

Sooners bah.. Huskers bah.. Noles are where it's at.

In all seriousness, I've learned quite a bit from doing this, and the information provided definitely provides more insight on each of us, our background and experiences, and how they might have helped shape our opinions that we constantly debate about on this website.

NancyII commented:

RE selling on eBay. I started about 10 years ago when it was relatively new. I sold collectables of all kinds and haunted yard sales and the swap back when it was a real swap and not in import business. I was lucky to have hooked up on line with a guy who, with his wife, sold antique jewelry along with glass and pottery in a store and on ebay. He was a wealth of information. Back then people bought everything you put up but now it's different' We have those swap meet importer type people selling and it hurts the individuals like me and Debbie. They still buy from us but when you do a search it brings up a gazillion items that are from commercial "drop ship" sellers. Some never see the mdse, they are just middle men so to speak. Debbie had a store in KV some years back and I got her started selling on ebay as well. She supported herself with it and the store. I quit and then she outpaced me because she's an excellent reasearcher and very detail oriented. PLUS she has an eye for unusual things and things that will sell

Audrey, your vintage fabric should do well. Very well infact. People love vintage..retro is in right now. It's cool to look old? WEll, in clothing that is.

I don't know about puzzles..I've not looked into them. One piece of advice it reasearch. Don't look so much as current auctions but do an advanced search and click on "completed" auctions. It' s like selling a house, you can ask all you want for it but if no ones buying, what's the point.

Sorry for the hi-jack. I'll put together an email and give you guys some pointers. It's really easy once you get the hang of it.

NancyII commented:

FSG, great post. Thanks for helping us share.

I have a friend who sells books on Amazon and does pretty well with it. Trouble with them is they have a fixed shipping rate and you can lose money if you have sets or extra heavy volumes.

jfrancais commented:

You can ship books as Media mail, which ships at a fixed price.

NancyII commented:

With Amazon THEY set the shipping you can charge. You don't have an option. That's why she said she's careful what she lists and how she ships sets.

jfrancais commented:

They set it on Half.com, but you can set your own rates on Ebay.

NancyII commented:

I'm aware of that, I weren't talking about eBay..I was talking about Amazon. Just letting folks know to be careful where you sell and what it could cost you.

I sold a few books on Half.com and have a friend who used to a lot of it. She financed her own reading habit that way. Smart girl.

AudreyB commented:

Audrey, your vintage fabric should do well. Very well infact. People love vintage..retro is in right now. It's cool to look old? WEll, in clothing that is.

Nancy

Remember pants suits? I have enough material to make every man, woman and child in Bakersfield a Butt Ugly 70's style pant suit. We could become a hippie mecca!

BTW The fabric is as ugly now as it was then!!!

theColorNine commented:

Nancy, you'd be amazed what certain puzzles sell for on Ebay. Lately I have been purchasing a lot of 1000 pc Charles Wysocki puzzles, but I can't afford most of the ones I'd like. An OPENED, somewhat rare one sold recently for $59.00!! Granted, that's pretty much the exception, but most, especially if still sealed, will sell for two or three times their original retail price.

NancyII commented:

To give you an idea where I grew up, these taken on Rosedale Highway just west of Fruitvale Ave.

The building is still there across the highway from Wear Drive where you see the Palm trees (looking north)..sadly, long gone. (building picture is looking east toward town when Rosedale Hwy was two lane 178)

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa34/nancyjg/fruitvale.jpg

http://i198.photobucket.com/albums/aa34/nancyjg/WearDrivecirca1950s.jpg

FloridaStateGrad commented:

Nancy, without photos like those, people like me would never be able to realize just how much this area has grown in the past number of decades. Thank you for sharing them.

jfrancais commented:

She financed her own reading habit that way. Smart girl.

I bought and sold all my books that way while in college. I could purchase them cheaper than what they cost in the bookstore and I could resell them for much more than what they would buy them back.

I think college bookstores are a racket and they overcharge students while the universities are in cahoots with the companies.

AudreyB commented:

Nancy

Didn't we work it out that you and I attended Rosedale school at approximately the same time? When I see pictures like the one you shared, it reminds me of my dad. He used to get parts from a used appliance shop on Rosedale HWY. I used to wait for him in the car and it seemed to forever for him to locate what he needed.

NancyII commented:

My pleasure FSG, we moved there in 1947 onto an acre of land my dad and mom bought. They hand built our house using a lot of scrap lumber from the old hotel that used to be where the Penny's building at 19th and Chester now sits. You drove down palm lined asphalt road and about half way down turned east between the trees onto the dirt road we lived on. About a third of the way donw that palm lane you could turn into what was then the Norwalk Bulk plant where they loaded tankers with gasoline. We never thought a thing about it since oil derreks, tanks, and sumps were all around us. The bulk plant and tall storage tanks are still there as are the houses my uncle moved in after they came west to move next door. My home is gone and there's a trucking yard there now.

Anyway, I grew up there, went all 8 years at Fruitvale Elementary (now Vista West) and raised my kids in that neighborhood the first few years of their lives. Motopoet can tell you all the horror stories about the trouble they used to get into out in the "boonies." Myself? I was a good girl. 0:-) See the halo?

Now just look at all you know about me. LOL. A country bumpkin.

NancyII commented:

Audrey, I never went to Roasedale School. They were arch rivals of Fruitvale and mine was the only Fruitvale stop on the Rosedale bus to BHS. I was miserable..lol..they hated me and were mean. They'd spread out so I couldn't find a place to sit and made my life hell until I could drive myself to school. Weren't we all so silly with school rivalries? Like it made us all different. Gotta say though, those EB bad boys were ....well..they just were mmm mmm mmm..lol. I married one of them.

Was the appliance store the one in the picture? When I was growing up it was Griffins Market. My grandad used to send us kids there to get him a quart of beer.

AudreyB commented:

I was only at Rosedale a short time. I was at several schools between K-4 a short time. Following Crops ya know.

Anyway, we lived in a tiny, rundown place on Rosedale HWY. I pass by it sometimes and yeah, it's still there. I only have two memories from that time (both bad). So I don't think about them, if I can help it.

ronmexico commented:

1) What occupations and/or jobs have you worked in?

Lawnmower, painter, burger flipper, doodlebug, medical biller, baseball player, engineer, project manager, consultant, Assistant to the Domestic CEO.

2) Have you always lived in Kern County? If not, where have you lived or do you currently reside?

Born in OK, but not a Sooner fan, go Irish. Grew up in Montana, Utah, Wyoming and Indiana. Currently reside in my house.

3) If you've had formal education beyond High School, what were your primary areas of study?

Engineering, Business, Process Safety.

4) Where have you traveled? What is the favorite place you've ever been?

US, Canada, Mexico, French Polynesia, Sea of Tranquility. Favorite place is the Big Horn Mtns of Wy.

5) What kinds of books do you find yourself reading the most?

Home improvement, conservative politics, cooking, woodworking, aviation, space exploration, modern and WWII military, baseball.

6) What are your hobbies , what are you good at, what are your talents?

Woodworking, gardening, scale modeling, RC aircraft, hiking, camping, watching baseball, fishing, yelling at the kids, plane spotting, map reading/cruising google earth, baiting liberals on the internet.

7) If you had to pick up to 5 subjects/areas/issues that you feel the most well versed in, what are they?

Proper pitch selection, aircraft identification, project planning, route finding, baiting liberals on the internet.

casooner90 commented:

Ron, no wonder why we think like. I bet you even work in the same industry. Good to meet you.

BILLIONAIREBARTLEY commented:

1) What occupations and/or jobs have you worked in?
Finance, Management, Accounting, IT. If any of you have ever owned a business, you realize you do a little bit of just about everything!

2) Have you always lived in Kern County? If not, where have you lived or do you currently reside?
I grew up here but lived a few years in Davis, about ten years in Sacramento & about three years in West Hollywood before moving back here.

3) If you've had formal education beyond High School, what were your primary areas of study?
MBA, Bachelors degrees in Managerial Economics & English with minors in History & German

4) Where have you traveled? What is the favorite place you've ever been?
Europe (Germany was my favorite place), the UK, Mexico, Hawaii, many of the western and southern states and into the nooks and crannies of California. My favorite placeto visit - probably Hawaii because I got to live there for a year. It was beautiful and as close to a spiritual and idealic setting as I've encountered thus far. I think my favorite place overall though is right here in California, in the redwoods or on the coast. If you take the people away most of California is beautiful.

5) What kinds of books do you find yourself reading the most?
Fantasy (CS Lewis, Tolkein), old Science Fiction (Jules Verne, H.G. Wells), American literature (Twain, Hemingway, Fitzgerald).

6) What are your hobbies , what are you good at, what are your talents?
Photography, movies, computers, astronomy, gardening, reading, automotive, camping, travelling. I'd say I'm best at computers & photography (which I love), camping, books and movies are a great way to unwind, astronomy fascinates me, gardening is fun if it's not too hot and I like tinkering with automobiles because I like solving problems and getting my hands dirty.

7) If you had to pick up to 5 subjects/areas/issues that you feel the most well versed in, what are they?
Technology / Literature / Movies / Food / Travel

robinislost commented:

1) What occupations and/or jobs have you worked in?
I've never had a real job. I stay home and take care of the animals and garden for my parents when they're too busy working and doing other things. I'm working on the job thing...maybe...

2) Have you always lived in Kern County? If not, where have you lived or do you currently reside?
I'm not ashamed to admit that I've always lived here. I love Bakersfield, unlike all of my friends and kids around my age. The only thing I really don't like about Bakersfield is all of the punks who moved here from Los Angeles, etc., because it was cheaper; they trash us like we're hillbillies and act like they're better than us. I went to high school with a bunch of those punk kids.

3) If you've had formal education beyond high school, what were your primary areas of study?
I'd rather not talk about it. I was supposed to go into journalism, because apparently it's the perfect career for me, but I've decided I don't think I actually want to go down that road.

4) Where have you traveled? What is the favorite place you've ever been?
Outside the country, seriously, I've been to Canada for one day. My parents took us up to Washington to visit my grandpa, and when we got there we jumped on a ferry and spent a day in Canada. Then we went back to Washington and that was it. The year before that, they took us to Yellowstone, and I really enjoyed that trip. I've been to Philadelphia, which was an awesome city. I've been to St. Louis for a couple of days and toured a Purina Mills farm where they raise animals, test their animal feed and create it or whatever. That was really cool. In between all that, I've been here, there and everywhere around California and a few other states.

5) What kinds of books do you find yourself reading the most?
Most often, I think, I find myself reading books about English, grammar and journalism. I asked my mom for the Grammar Girl book for my birthday. I got Eats, Shoots & Leaves for my high school graduation. I also got a copy of Strunk and White from my journalism teacher. I bought a copy of the Concise Guide to Copy Editing when I was at a journalism convention junior year of high school. Oh, and when I'm bored I sometimes like to flip through my dictionary and read it...

6) What are your hobbies? What are you good at? What are your talents?
Well, I like photography; it's a hobby, but I can't say I'm a great photographer. I strive to be the best I can possibly be -- especially considering the limitations that come with my camera. I also like gardening, which is not quite normal for my age. I become giddy like a schoolgirl when I watch my plants sprout and continuously grow; the whole process is so intriguing to me that I can't help but continuously watch and think about new ways to perfect my gardening skills. I like anything that has to do with English, journalism, farming, ranching, etc. It's weird that I like two different things that completely clash; one works well in the middle of nowhere, and the other one requires running around in the city...

7) If you had to pick up to five subjects/areas/issues that you feel the most well versed in, what are they?
I'd have to say my strongest subject is probably English. Perhaps I could say that I know journalism pretty well, too. I think I know quite a bit about gardening for my age, and I sometimes give advice to friends and family who are also into gardening. I know a lot about buffaloes. Does that count? It's an area of expertise, right? Oh, yeah -- I'm an expert at finding ways to waste time on the Internet and screw around on different Web sites. I spend a lot of time of Facebook and Twitter, which is probably why I haven't been spending any time on here. But don't judge me, OK? I don't spend hours filling out quizzes like Cat and Bakoblue. :) (Only kidding! Don't kick me, OK?)

casooner90 commented:

Sooners bah.. Huskers bah.. Noles are where it's at.

The Noles have been out of the BCS for a while now. That other Florida school has been grabbing all the attention, but we'll get'em this year. I hope.

Reality is that thing that remains even when you stop believing in it.: God's Miracle In Albania

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:45:45 PDT

Wow! I just heard this interview with his grace, Archbishop Anastasios the head of the Orthodox Church of Albania. A little back ground. Albania was the worlds first constitutionally official atheist nation. It was mainly a muslim country when the communist dictators took over and tried to annihilate every other faith in the peoples hearts, accept for atheism. Finally after 20 years of oppression the madmen fell and left a economically and morally broken country. Archbishop Anastasios was asked to go on a fact finding mission for the Ecumenical Patriarch. The Albanian people asked him to stay and so with five helpers, $5,000 and the Grace of God; he became the leader of the then extinct Albanian Orthodox Church. Since then he has establish a completely native clergy and rebuilt the atheist destroyed church infra structure, as well as many charities for the entire Albanian people. All this supported entirely by the poor ,but faithful Albanian believers. This is a real miracle of God. Follow this link and click unto Archbishop Anastasios of Albania to hear the story fromm his graces own mouth ancientfaith.com/podcasts/hopko

Dr BLT's Blog n Roll Studio : First Kim McAbee, now Theresa Spanke: Kern's country divas on "Billie Jean" (country version)

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 11:15:17 PDT

They're lining up, one by one, to record the Bakersfield Sound's (classic and nu bako sound's) response to the loss of the King of Pop. If you haven't heard, that response is in the form of a country cover of Billie Jean.

With the divas on harmony, Jerry Rothberg doing some vocal backup of his own, Reggie Langendorfer on lead guitar and bass, Pat Frase on drums and yours truly on rhythm guitar and lead vocals, arranged by yours truly and penned by Michael Jackson, this version really captures that distinct "k.c.c.r.o.c.k.er" (Kern County country rocker) style.

I'm working on lining up one more local diva for the backup harmony tracks, then I'm going to mix the whole thing down, take care of some paper work, and start shopping the song around.

I want to thank these immensely talented singers for their eagerness to help out with the project. To find more pictures, a song I wrote that was inspired by a performance Theresa Spanke did at the Crystal Palace, and to hear a pirated, unedited sample of the song, visit:

BSU

http://www.bakersfieldsoundunderground.com

PS: I didn't use a flash to take this picture, it was her hallo that provided that extra bit of lighting.

Comments:
Hankray commented:

I love Kim and Theresa, they are goddesses of the Bakersfield sound! big fans of them and BLT.

"Air Quality" Facts and Comments: Sewage Sludge Revisited

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:52:34 PDT

How is Kern Doing with their Sludge Ban?

I haven't heard recently but no news is not necessarily good news.

Apparently the White House organic garden is contaminated with past applications of sewage sludge and the lead levels makes produce from the garden unsuitable for consumption. (see www.huffingtonpost.com/andrew-kimbrell/the-obama-organic-family_b_224398.html )

Since compost made from "biosolids" is sold commercially for home gardens, I wonder how many Bakersfield residents have this toxic sh*t in their so-called organic plots?

Here in Kern, land application continues unabated. There is also a huge land fill operation for sludge in Lost Hills which got approved after voters banned land application. I guess the wrong words were used in the ballot measure which passed with 83% of the vote.

Now, Liberty Energy wants to build an incinerator for sewage sludge out at Lost Hills. They will use more energy than produced just trucking the stuff from LA. Removing the moisture out of it so it will burn also requires more energy than produced. But, tipping fees will make the venture profitable because LA will pay anything to get the stuff out of their backyard.

The sad part is we get the continued pollution from the trucks. We will also get the air pollution from the incinerator (lots of particulates, VOC's, and NOx). On top of that, the ash will contain heavy metals and toxic substances that did not get out into the air and that will also be disposed of somewhere in Kern County. Liberty Energy will also be paid for the carbon credits they produce for using a waste product to produce energy.

Has anyone noticed the ash pile out at Famoso? That contains the ash from nearby coal burning plants and also contains toxic contaminants. It is like talcum powder and easily blows off of the sight onto the adjacent drag strip and just a few miles downwind lies Bakersfield.

Welcome to the land of local government that is not concerned with public health.

Comments:
joe0403 commented:

No wonder the watermelons were so heavy.

airqualityguy commented:

I wonder who taught Joe that racism is funny.

witbee commented:

In college at CSUB we went to one of the spreading sites outside of Arvin. They basically just spread with large sprinklers back then. We had permission to be there to collect various soil samples. You can guess what happened. I heard the pressure beginning to build in the sprinkler lines and warned everyone we had better leave. We RAN to the cars, hauling butt down the dirt road, escaping just in time.

Could have been bad (and probably a better story).

"You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind." St. Matt 22:37 : The Importance of Caring for our Souls.

Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:53:28 PDT

Just as we care for our bodies with good food and rest, so we must also care for our spiritual selves, that part of us that is connected to God. If we are spiritually ill, our bodies and minds also become sick. This is why regular prayer and times of silent contemplation are necessary parts of our daily lives. Periodically, we must also take extra measures of self-examination and learning, that we might be ever-perfected in the grace of the infinite and perfect God.

Search your hearts and minds for the spiritual wounds of unforgiveness and fear, which are atheistic and unchristian, and repent of them so that you might be healed by the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Your Father in Christ,
Bishop JOSEPH
http://www.antiochianladiocese.org