The Flap About Flour

I know I should really treat this seriously, but I would be really embarrassed about reporting plain baking flour as a suspicious substance.

In the end, it was plain white baking flour, leftover trail markers placed by a local group of runners. "We have determined that these were clues left by organizers of a race to help runners know they were following the correct trail," said Dick O'Connell, U.S. Marshal for western Arkansas. "In what's called a 'hash run,' runners follow markers of things like flour or shaving cream to navigate."

Maybe I'm a bit naive but I really don't think terrorists are going to hit Fayetteville. Instead of hauling out all the emergency personnel I would have gone up and figured out for myself what it was. Yeah, people are telling the officers they did a good thing by calling out hazmet, but I know that a lot of people are snickering behind their backs.

No criminal charges are likely because there was no malice or mischief involved, Gabbard said. "We did suggest that future routes avoid federal properties, and they've said that authorities will get a heads-up next time they're setting up a course," he said.

I might also suggest that people get a grip and don't over-react.

Take That Tax Man!

It's amazing to what lengths the government will go to get taxes from people.

A new department policy this year has made Halloween jack-o'-lanterns subject to the state sales tax, and many Iowa pumpkin growers are feeling tricked.

Guess they’ll next be taxing popcorn and cranberry garlands at Christmas. Then there's those gingerbread houses and sugar cookie decorations. What about that imaginary jolly man’s milk and cookies that are left out on the mantle? And the apples left on the porch for his reindeer?

Fayetteville, No Increased Property Tax

The Fayetteville City Council voted no on raising the property taxes. At the Ward 4 meeting last night we discussed the tax. Shirley Lucus and Lioneld Jordan said that most of the calls they've received were against it. A quick show of hands also indicated that most of us weren't in favor of it either. Lioneld said that they haven't even seen the budget yet and that there might be things they could eliminate. He mentioned $10,000 for a city council retreat. Yeah, that really needs to go. Also mentioned was that Fayetteville was going through an adjustment right now and the sales tax from Sam's Club and the Malco Theater could make up the difference next year. If they raised the tax and the sales taxes went up the city wouldn't reduce the property tax. The city would get use to the increased tax money and continue to spend at that level. If the city council makes some adjustments to the budget and watches it carefully next year I think they can get people to approve a tax increase if it's needed. They are just going to have to work to keep people informed on what's happening to it.

Forest Hills Development on Wedington Drive

A new development is going in on Wedington Drive. I guess the place to build developments is on Wedington. The developers presented their project at the Ward 4 meeting last night. This development will have retail stores on Wedington itself with condominiums, townhomes and single family homes south of the retail stores. Wal-Mart is planning to put in a Neighborhood Market as the major store in the development. I've been hoping for a Neighborhood Market, so that'll be really nice. Of course, most of the concerns about the development is about the traffic, or the flow of traffic in and around the development. Wedington is going to be really, really congested.

Morning Alarm

I've always wondered where I get those vicious bruises.

Diaper Donors

If there is any way to get money from people, politicians are going to find it. With all due respect to Senator McCain, it is darn near impossible to stop improper campaign contributions. People are going exploit any loophole they find effectively and enthusiastically.

Although campaign finance laws set a limit of $2,300 per donor per campaign, they do not explicitly bar donors based on age. And young donors abound in the fundraising reports filed by presidential contenders this year.

I'm waiting for these families to start using their pets as donors. Heck, if they get caught the politicians just return the money.

Under the Weather

I've been a bit swamped at work this week. There's a lot I trying to catch up with. I've been dragging some of my work home. So, instead of blogging I've been working on quality improvement reports. Tigger wasn't feeling all that well Tuesday. He didn't eat at all that day and just slept. He's usually trying to get outside or getting me to give him a treat. Anyway, he's better now, just a 24 hr bug. Wednesday morning he jump on the bed trying to get me up to get him his breakfast.

California Fires

I've gotten a e-mail from my uncle who lives in San Diego.

We are quite safe at 20 to 30 miles from any of the fire fronts and most of that is urbanized area with lots of fire hydrants along the streets. I don’t feel any potential threat at all. Our worst problem is that some of the power lines that feed the city are down and they say we are to cut back on use to prevent overloading the remaining lines.
I’m sure that the media is in the usual hyper mode of broadcasting, looking for any small bit of sensationalism to expand into headlines. But no, not all of San Diego is in flames. This is not to minimize the size of the fire and the horror for those who are living trough it. The fire of ’03 was said to be the biggest to ever hit the state and 200 homes were lost. So far, on Tuesday morning, they say that this fire has claimed 1000 homes. The 100,000 acres of fire is big, but it is less than 4% of the area of the county, and much of it is hillside brush land. Consider that some of the homes lost were on “Twisted Ranch Road”. Some people chose to live out in the ‘boonies’ hidden back in the hills. The evacuation of 300,000 people is a huge effort, although I’m not certain that all who were directed to go, have really done so. The evacuation areas comprise about 4 times the size of the actual fire areas. The concerted effort of evacuation is somewhat an over reaction to the failures during the ’03 fire where they ignored the danger in its early stages. But some of the people who stayed behind in ’03 to try and save their homes were the ones who died. 16 died in the ’03 fire, 1 has died this year.
We are safe and secure with our worst issue is the smoke in the air that they say is unhealthy for too much exercise so we rest for a few days.

I've lived in L.A. for 8 years and there were always a fire danger. One year one of the fires was close to where I lived. I watched the fire from my balcony. I've hiked those hills and canyons many times. They are very steep and covered with trees, bushes, and grass. It was almost always really dry. Even the hills I hiked by the coast were dry. When you get those Santa Ana winds whipping through those canyons it's darn near impossible to stop any fires.
Definitely need to pray for the protection for those fighting the fires and those supporting them and that those darn Santa Ana winds would subside.

Bill Clinton, Force Poor People to Contribute

President Clinton, in a speech this weekend, bemoaned the fact that people with little money in their pockets aren't giving enough of it away.

More people without deep pockets need to give to charity, former President Bill Clinton said Monday to a group of people who donated the most money in the nation last year. "I think it's important for us to keep trying to find ways to get more people involved in this kind of work in an intelligent way," Clinton said in an address to the Slate 60 conference held at the William J. Clinton Presidential Library.

Yeah, he really wants us to donate to his own charitable foundation. I wonder how much money he pays himself for running that foundation. Yup, us little people with less money really need to feel like our donations also could make a difference in the pockets of people like Clinton who run these foundations. Give us a break! We know that our money mostly ends up paying for administrative costs rather than any one that actually needs it.
Not only are we suppose to put on money in Clinton's pocket but he wants to turn schools into child labor camps. Yeah, force those kids to work on government and private projects.

Clinton suggested that middle school students be required to participate in community service projects and that each American high school form its own non-governmental organization and pick its own project, whether its in the neighborhood or across the globe.

I really think it's the parents job to teach their kids about giving and volunteering their gifts and talents for the benefit of others. The government has no business forcing kids to work on local community projects. Giving or volunteering needs to been done freely without coercion.

Harry Reid/Rush Limbaugh Smear Letter

Ok, I admit it. I've been watching Rush's letter on E-Bay for the past hour. Like everyone else I've been entranced by how high the bidding has gone. Rush's comments about how serious bidders work makes me think he's done some E-Bay shopping too.
The bidding is over! Amazing! I never thought that the bidding would go so high. This auction was an absolutely brilliant idea. Rush has taken on the Senate's abuse of power and has turn it to a positive. Harry Reid and the other 40 Senators have been thoroughly embarrassed. Heh! Reid even tried to horn in at the last hour. He still hasn't the decency to apologize to Rush!
I don't expect our own Senator Blanche Lincoln to match the bid but the least she could do is to make a donation to the The Marine Corp - Law Enforcement Foundation. I've made my donation.

Eli, Treed!

Um, could some one get me down?


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The Expanded S-CHIP, Dead

Thank God, the attempt by the Democrat Party to override the President's veto died. Hopefully this sends the message to the Democrat Party that we don't want socialized national health care. Yeah, Nancy Pelosi let the cat out of the bag on the Democrat's true intent. She argued today that we should follow every other industrialized nation in providing government coverage for all children, thus revealing the real agenda behind this S-CHIP expansion.

The Republicans are actually planning to do something about saving the children’s health care program. They are introducing an alternative to the Democrat's S-CHIP. It will be based on the on proposed by the Heritage Foundation. It calls for the re-authorization of the S-CHIP for uninsured children in families with incomes at or below 200 percent of the Federal Poverty Level. Second, it calls for child health care tax credit for families with incomes between 200 percent and 300 percent of the FPL. Lastly, adopt a "federalism" health care initiative, helping the states find more efficient ways of using existing federal and state funds to increase insurance coverage.

Hopefully the Democrats won't bring any more national health care legislation at least until the Presidential election is over. I hope the Republicans get their act together so we don't have to face Clinton in the White House again.

TB Infected Illegal

I think this may be part of the the terrorists plot. Just keep sending illegals across the border infected with a highly contagious, drug resistant disease. You can kill hundreds or thousands of Americans.
I believe I know where this guy could be hiding. He could be in one of these safe houses designed for illegals crossing the border.

Inside the small solar-powered structure migrants can find water, some food and a touch screen. Drawing upon traveler graffiti, pictograms, and the Mexican tradition of ex-voto painting, migrants are invited to use the interface and share something about themselves and their journey with the homeowner and anyone who's interested. Migrants can either draw, write messages, or make a pictogram from ready-made graphical icons.

The only thing that's missing is the vending machine for the fake drivers license, social security cards and birth certificates.

Up Again!

Somehow I didn't receive the brand new, up and running notice from these guys.

OneUps, Playing the Music of Games

One of our local bands is getting some national coverage.

On the first night of this year’s Penny Arcade Show in Seattle, scores of gamers gathered to hear the OneUps. Not many in the audience had ever heard of the seven-piece video-game cover band from Fayetteville, Ark.

Yeah, I didn't know there was such a music genre. The things you learn.

It was a particularly sweet moment for OneUps founder Mustin, who also plays bass and keyboards. He had been working a long time to get the band — and video game music — the respect he thought it deserved. But until that night, their gigs hadn’t really drawn much of a crowd.

Congratulations guys, hope you have a long run of success. Here's a sample of their music, playing at Scarpino's.

Finding the Right Shoes

I have been on a quest to find some shoes. As I'm growing older my feet are getting flatter and it's getting hard to find shoes that fit. It's also very hard to find a really nice looking professional shoe that isn't a high heel. I managed to find some Merrells that fit the bill, except they were a little tight. I took them to the College Shoe Repair and got them stretched to fit. Duane was really nice taking them back a couple of times until I was satisfied. Then, he didn't charge me for them. Thanks Duane!

President Bush, Rogers, Arkansas

I was fortunate enough to be one of the people invited to hear President Bush at the John Q. Hammons Center. He started by announcing 49 months of consecutive job growth. He spoke about putting policies in place to help small business and that running up taxes was the worse thing to do for small businesses. Congress, he said, was planning to add a $205 billion increase to the budget and in order to pay for it they would have to raise taxes. He complained that Congress has yet to send him an appropriation bill to sign. He said that there was going to be a "Fiscal Showdown" in Washington.
The rest of the time President Bush took questions from the audience. He defended his veto of the S-CHIP saying it "sounds like nationalized medicine". He said the program should provide for the poor children that the current S-CHIP isn't providing for instead of expanding free health care to the upper middle class. He believes that people should be offer a private insurance they can afford.

One question came from a dairy farmer who complained about the cost of corn and about the enforcement of illegal immigration laws. President Bush said that he agreed with people that we should enforce our immigration laws and protect the border. He sounded very angry that the comprehensive "amnesty" bill was defeated. It sounded like he was very sympathetic to the farmer because he wanted to cut costs by hiring the cheap illegals to work his farm. One of the last questions came from our very own Mayor Dan Coody. Yes! He was there! Well, you expect him to be invited but you don't actually believe that he'd show up. Anyway, he ask a question about his favorite subject, economic sustainability. President Bush said that we needed to grow our economy and still have a sound environmental policy. He said we needed to focus on new technology to help. He said we can't be a good steward of the environment if we're broke.
President Bush does really well at this type of venue. While I don't always agree with him, I did enjoy hearing him speak.

Catherine Forsythe, Prayers

My thoughts and prayers go out to Chris Muir and his family. I am so sorry that Catherine has lost her battle with cancer. May God extended an over abundance of mercy and grace to your family as you go through this difficult time.

Nobel Peace Prize, The True Winners

Oh, well said! Bravo! I couldn't have come up with a better list of people better deserving of the Noble Peace Prize instead of Al Gore. I can't think of anyone less deserving of the Prize than that man.

These men and women put their own lives and livelihoods at risk by working to rid the world of violence and oppression. Let us hope they survive the coming year so that the Nobel Prize Committee might consider them for the 2008 award.

Here! Here!

The Fall Weather is Here

At last, the Autumn temperatures are here. No more warm and muggy afternoons. Eli loves to sleep the afternoon away on the front porch. That way he can take a little snooze and still watch out for that cat across the street.

Tigger joins Eli on the front porch taking the other chair. He's a little more distracted by the traffic in the street.

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