Religious intolerance?

The Opinion writer at the Daily Democrat seems to be very angry at Ralph Drollinger, the Capitol Chaplin for making "intolerant" remarks about another "fellowship" group at the Capitol.

If you are looking for intolerance, religious or otherwise, it seems to be found in abundance at the editorial desk of the Daily Democrat.

Evangelical chaplain Ralph Drollinger usually confines himself to Bible studies for state lawmakers and is usually out of the public eye. This past week, however, he decided to make a name for himself by saying that God is disgusted with a rival fellowship group that includes people of all faiths.

"Although they are pleasant men in their personal demeanor, their group is more than disgusting to our Lord and Savior," Drollinger wrote on the Capitol Ministries' Web site.

The comments drew immediate fire from others in the capital, including the Republican lawmaker who sponsors Drollinger's Bible study group. Drollinger said "progressive religious tolerance" is an offense against God and causes harm to its practitioners.

Ok, it seems that the "more than disgusting to our Lord and Savior" is the phrase that chaps the hide of the Democrat's editor, but let him finish.

Certainly Drollinger is entitled to his views. He's even entitled to preach them to those crazy enough to listen.

But there is no place in religion - or politics for that matter - for those those who practice intolerance. We see the effects daily of those who feel their religion is the only way. People are killing themselves and others over such foolishness.

We should all be respectful of other religions, ministers particularly so. None of us has a direct line to God to know what he is thinking. Those who claim they do - who claim they know all the answers - are zealots and have no place in a civil society founded on tolerance for differing points of view, whether they be political or religious

Really? No place in religion or politics for intolerance? What planet does the editor live on, some Utopian alternate plane of existence where everyone's views are equally valued and celebrated?

Lets say Bob over here wants to run for President, or open a temple across from your kid's school, and Bob wants to kill all the Jews, lock up every homosexual and castrate anyone who doesn't agree with him. Should we be tolerant of Bob's views? Should we celebrate his diverse thinking and values? Hell no.

Bob has a right to spout his hateful views, but Americans can tell Bob to shut his mouth before we run him out of town, without having some politically correct imbecile tell us we must be tolerant of Bob and his views. The worship of diversity seems only to be practiced at the alter of political correctness, traditional views need not apply. As for zealotry, I think that those who wish to remove every reference to God in the public square run circles around Chaplin Ralph Drollinger.

So lets get back to the 'offending chaplain' shall we. If the editorial writer actually read the Chaplain's blog post that prompted the story in the Sacramento Bee, he either doesn't understand Christianity or doesn't want to. The Chaplin is truly concerned for these people who want to serve up Jesus in a religious buffet. Take a little of Christ's compassion, a little love, a bit of wisdom, but leave out the parts about sin, Hell and Christ saying "I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." Throw in some Buddha, mix in some Mohamed and a little Oprah, and you have the perfect religious buffet.

I know many non believers who use the same line of thinking the Chaplain objected to. The premise that Jesus was just a great moral teacher is a line of thinking that is simply untrue, even if you don't believe Jesus was the Messiah. If you actually read the Bible, not just books about the Bible, but actually read the New Testament, you have to come away with one of three beliefs about Jesus. He was either crazy, he was the Devil or he was Lord and Savior.
C.S. Lewis says it best.

I am trying here to prevent anyone saying the really foolish thing that people often say about Him: "I'm ready to accept Jesus as a great moral teacher, but I don't accept His claim to be God." That is the one thing we must not say. A man who said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic--on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg--or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God: or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill Him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.

Now that might not seem to palatable to the editorial writer of the Democrat, but is central to Christianity. You can write it off as intolerance if you want to, but Jesus said what he said. If you want to take it up with Jesus, be my guest.

2008 Capay Valley Almond Festival rain delayed but back on

It seems like this year will be a bit different with the main day on Saturday this year due to last week's rain out.

Last week's rains and winds might have washed out Almond Festival plans, but they didn't damper spirits. And after a short postponement, officials are getting ready to hold the event this Saturday.

The delay of the 93rd annual holding of the festival has created more buzz about the event

I hope you folks get the word out to everyone, come Saturday for sure and Sunday just to make sure you didn't miss anything.

In a hand basket......

If we killed all the TV executives tonight, there would be a live reality show from Hell by breakfast.
And it would get a 37% Nielson share.

Sometimes the shallowness of American culture is easy to spot, if not hard to believe. Britny, Paris, O.J., Jackass, Big Brother, Survivor, you name it, there will be slacked jawed, Doritos munching Americans sitting on a couch taking it all in. The latest trip down the hill towards voluntarily mental retardation was on the television the other night in the form of "The Moment of Truth"
It seems little Miss Peroxide here was willing to ruin her marriage, and it would seem, her life for some quick TV money. If you haven't seen the clip I will spare you having to watch a woman hooked to a lie detector say she has been unfaithful, and would leave her husband for her former boyfriend, just to win a million dollars. Wow. A million dollars for your marriage, your good name and any self respect you may want to keep hold of?

I don't usually quote the Bible on my blog, especially to make a point about some one else. I don't have any room to talk in the matter because I am a sinner and fall short of the Glory of God, but I must break out the King James translation for this one. It's Mark 8:36

For what shall it profit a man, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul?

What indeed?

Start burning more fossil fuel before we freeze to death!

You know, when you take a snap shot of the earth's climate and extrapolate a cataclysmic scenario based on it, sometimes the earth makes you look foolish.

Over the past year, anecdotal evidence for a cooling planet has exploded. China has its coldest winter in 100 years. Baghdad sees its first snow in all recorded history. North America has the most snowcover in 50 years, with places like Wisconsin the highest since record-keeping began. Record levels of Antarctic sea ice, record cold in Minnesota, Texas, Florida, Mexico, Australia, Iran, Greece, South Africa, Greenland, Argentina, Chile -- the list goes on and on.

No more than anecdotal evidence, to be sure. But now, that evidence has been supplanted by hard scientific fact. All four major global temperature tracking outlets (Hadley, NASA's GISS, UAH, RSS) have released updated data. All show that over the past year, global temperatures have dropped precipitously.

A compiled list of all the sources can be seen here. The total amount of cooling ranges from 0.65C up to 0.75C -- a value large enough to wipe out nearly all the warming recorded over the past 100 years. All in one year's time. For all four sources, it's the single fastest temperature change ever recorded, either up or down.

I know, I know, its just like the movie 'The day after tomorrow', we've been such bad humans, burning all those fossil fuels that we have warmed the planet up so much, its freezing as a self defense mechanism.

So if it keeps getting cooler can I get my coal-fired wristwatch? I may have to sell my Corolla and start driving my Cummins Turbo Diesel everyday just to stay warm.

The wonder that is Craigslist

So far this month, I have found my new dog Roxie, brought home a free weight set and sold a motorcycle on Craigslist.

I'm sure there are horror stories, but it seems to working out fine for me so far.

Yolo County politics is going to be very interesting this year.

I opened the paper today to find, well actually I didn't open the paper, I just can't make myself pay folding money for a newspaper that shows up at my house around 11:00 am, I opened the homepage of the Daily Democrat, I read Woodland's Mayor Dave Flory is not going to run for City Council. That will shake things up a bit.

With Prop 93 going down to defeat in the November election, it set in motion many events as the 'office seeking two-step' kicks into high gear. Senators running for Assembly, Assemblymen and women running for Senate, mayors running for Assembly, County Supervisors running for Assembly, County Supervisors wanting judgeships, it makes my head hurt just thinking of it all.


I will keep watching the Yolo County Elections page to see who has filed papers to run for which office.

Interesting indeed.

PS, if you are so inclined, Matt Rexroad's family could use a few prayers.

OMG!

All I can say is.....wow!
Bad, bad memories, bad Bob. Bad!


Get down with BobInglis

Just when it was starting to dry out.

Oh joy, 35-45 mile an hour winds and a few inches of rain. I'm not complaining, well, I am a little, but we can still use more water in the reservoirs that hold our irrigation water for the summer months.

I am firing up the generator and filling up the gas cans just in case. The romance of not having electricity runs out in three or four hours.

Capay Valley Almond Festival postponed one week.

UPDATE!

Capay Valley Almond Festival postponed one week. That is good news because we are in for one heck of storm this weekend.

The Boy Scouts will still hold their Pancake Breakfast @ the Eagles Hall on Sunday so be sure to stop by and support Eagles Troop 464.

As Homer Simpson says, Ummm Paaaancakes........

The San Francisco Chronicle puts the boots to the Gray Lady.

You know you screwed up when the San Francisco Chronicle slams the New York Times. SF Gate is saddened by this hit piece because they love the Times, but they understand how damaging a politically motivated story can be to their profession. Unless a photo showing Senator McCain and this female lobbyist playing tonsil hockey, comes out in print this week, the journalistic reputation of the New York Times will take yet another body blow.

Can you say declining readership? I have no problem with a hit piece like this coming from MoveOn or a George Soros funded 527, this is politics and the people in it know these kinds of stories, fair or unfair are going to be published. But the New York Times, the Gray Lady? Say it ain't so.

I don't understand how the Times can claim to independent or non partisan. The Times should just come out and admit that 90% of the people in the newsroom and 100% of those in the editorial offices are liberal. We all know it, why try to keep up the facade?

If the Columbia School of journalism offered majors only in 'Progressive Journalism" and "Conservative Journalism" I would bet the ratio between the two would 95% to 5%. When you have that kind of 'group think' going on everyday, in the hallways, in the break rooms, in the editorial meetings, and in the management of a newspaper, it is almost impossible for someone inside that paper to spot their liberal bias. Too bad.

All the lip service given by the MSM to the wonderful concept of 'diversity' is just that, lip service. Please don't tell me about Bill Kristol, one opinion columnist does not make the Times diverse, it just shows that you can spot him a mile a way because he sticks out like a sore thumb.

The Times loves diversity when it comes to race, gender, and sexual orientation, but seems violently repulsed by political diversity. If your paper has every race represented equally, the correct amount of women to men and have a large portion of the GLBT community represented, but they are all liberals and progressives, they write and report with one voice.

A liberal voice.

The MSM had better figure this out, and quickly. Opinion is everywhere in our multi-media world, and its free. Why do I need to pay to read opinion dressed up as straight news? Oh, that's right, I don't.

The news business has to come to grips with the fact that people want talented writing, insight and someone who can explain a two hundred page Congressional report, or City Council meeting decision in a clear and honest manner. They really don't care about race or color or gender, they want to know if the reporter leans to the left or to the right so they can factor that into their understanding of the piece.

If Jim Rutenberg, Marilyn Thompson, Stephen Labaton, and David Kirkpatrick, the Times reporters who co wrote the McCain hit piece, had an identifier on their bylines, it would make for more informed reading.

For example;

by Marilyn Thompson
who as the Editor of the Lexington Herald-Leader once took a $37,000 grant from a liberal political group to fund a four month investigative hit piece on Republican Senator Mitch McConnell.

I know it would be hard to fit that kind of byline into a narrow news paper column, but it sure would give the reader a little insight as to the political axe the writer is sharpening. The lesson here is, in a day and age when you can Google anything or anyone, as a reporter, your axe is going to show.

My advice to the MSM.
If you want to pick up you political axe, put down your reporter's pen.

Roxie

I am a dog person, I like cats, if they are likable cats, but those are few and far between.

Growing up on a cattle ranch, with my nearest friend several miles away, I spent most of my free time outside with our dogs. I have a sister, but she is an older sister and you know what a pain they can be when you are young, or middle aged, or old. Older sister are given a very rigid job description, that role is best described as 'fun suppression officer', but I digress.

I would spend hours down at the creek with my dogs after school or in the summer months. Chasing frogs, building dams to form small ponds where we would sit in the cool water on a hot day, it really was a great way to grow up. Our family had quite a few dogs growing up, I remember my first dog Rowdie, he was a black and brown dog of questionable lineage but possessed a great heart. Then there was my Mom's black poodle Cindy, who was my hunting companion. She would follow me through the hills and streams as I would chase the coveys of quail across our ranch. We always had cowdogs around the ranch too, blue heelers, McNabs and later we had a few Kelpies who would help us get the cattle out of the brush or bring back a steer who would try to sneak away from the herd.

I finally bought my very own dog after high school. He was a yellow Labrador Retriever named Buddy. He was the best dog I have ever owned. He rode in the front seat of my pickup everywhere I went. The girls working the drive up window would always make sure Buddy received his free hamburger patty, and he would lightly step over me to reach out and get his treat. We were a team. After Buddy, I have always had a lab to keep me company, until this past year. Jake the wonder dog died two years ago, and I didn't want to rush into getting another dog. I would wait for the right time and the right dog would find me.

Enter Roxie.

Last week as I was getting ready for my small group meeting, my wife wanted to show me something on the computer, I didn't want to be late for my group but I waited for my laptop to start up and she showed me a listing for a 18 month old female lab who needed a good home. Her name was Roxie and I emailed her owner to ask if she was still available, he said there were two other people who were coming to look at her and I told him that I didn't want to cut in line and I would wait. If things didn't work out with the other people, I would like to see her.

My wife tried to surprise me by bringing her home last Saturday, but I called and found out that Roxie was in the car and on the way home. Roxie is a very nice dog, she is kind and she was quiet and polite the first day she came home.

Now that she has been here a few days and discovered that she is at home, she has found two new gears, super fast, and warp speed. She blazes around the yard in a blur of black hair followed by another black streak that belongs to my wife's Border Collie, Elle. The two have so much energy that my wife takes out the four wheeler and does a few laps around the ranch just to tire them out so you can actually see them with the naked eye.

I have shortened Roxie's name a little to Rox, as in 'dumb as a box of rocks'. Now don't go all squishy on me, I still love her, but I swear she is developmentally disabled. She attacks every sprinkler she sees, she attacks the water as it comes out of the hose and she will follow the stream of water as it hits the ground. This can be a very entertaining game for me at least, sure its a bit cruel to make fun of a dog chasing water around the yard, but the Labradors with Disabilities Act has yet to be passed and I don't think I am in eminent danger of litigation or incarceration.



So we have Rox, and she has us. I truly do think she will be a wonderful dog.

No word on free burgers at the drive up yet. We will keep you posted.

Capay Valley Almond Blossom Festival, you have to be there

The last Sunday in February is when all the small towns up and down the Capay Valley get together to hold the annual Almond Blossom Festival. The Almond Blossom Queen has been selected and everyone is getting ready for the event.

It looks to be a nice day this Sunday although the blossoms are a little late this year. Check out the list of events at the Esparto Chamber's website and make your plans to come up and spend the day. Don't eat at the local fast food place on the way either, there is great food everywhere. A drive up hamburger is no match for a tri tip sandwich at the Esparto Fire Hall, or the BBQ to raise money for MS research at the Capay Junction or grilled Oysters at the Capay Valley Fire House in Guinda, or for the BBQ ribs and the live band up in Rumsey. If you get there early there is always a local favorite, the pancake breakfast at Esparto High School right on main street. If you're coming in through Woodland there is another pancake breakfast just as you go out of town at the Eagle's Hall. Boy Scouts make good pancakes.

Bring your Harley, bring your classic car to the car show, or just drive through the valley and enjoy the beautiful scenery. But you know you are going stop for Kettle Corn, just admit it.

I may have to rethink Huckabee.... Hmm...

I bet his media guy had a stroke when Governor Huckabee admitted this.

"When I was in college, we used to take a popcorn popper . . . and we would fry squirrel."

Maybe he's on to something. I can see them now, all across the USA, every major interstate off ramp will have a sign like this one....



This photo is proof positive that I need to get back to doing my yard work. But a little photo editing never hurt anyone.

Saddle up

As one gets older (read me) you don't feel the same about potentially dangerous endeavors the way you once did.

When I was in my twenties, I was darn close to being fearless. When I went skiing with buddies, I'd try anything. A double black diamond run? Lets go. Riding a rank horse? Saddle it up.

My fearless time frame also coincided with my drinking days, and believe me when I say, when fearless meets alcohol, trouble is right around the corner. I once challenged everyone in The Palomino Room during Bull Sale weekend to see who was tougher. There must have been 200 drunken cowboys in the place that night, and thank the good Lord that no one took me up on my offer.

That seems like a very long time ago. Today I am basically a whus. I don't like riding green horses or two stroke motorcycles. My idea of danger today is drinking milk three days past its expiration date. When I think about buying a new two year old horse and breaking him, I remember my father words quite well. He said, 'you know, there are a lot of broke horses in this world, go buy one'. Words to live by.

I am heading out Sunday to do a little riding with my friend and I hope the horse I will be riding is having a good day when I swing my leg over her back. Oh, I would probably stay on board if she gave a few crow hops and bucked a few times, but if she boggs her head and really turns it on, I will end up in a pile on the ground.

I don't bounce near as well as I used to, as a matter of fact, I don't think I bounce at all. I would probably just leave a small crater.

When I was younger, I would get pitched off a horse or do six backwards, tumbling somersaults on the ski slopes, I would take a few aspirin and be back at work the next day. Either one of those events today would land me in intensive care for a month.

I still enjoy riding my horses and my ATV's . On a rare occasion, I will still do something dangerous/foolish. I guess I won't jump in my casket just yet, I think I have a few more good spills left in me. I just want to save a few for my fifties and sixties.

Mark McKinnon, what did he say?

This story seemed to get my attention this morning.

On Wednesday, a top adviser to John McCain said more definitively than he has in the past that he will step down from the Arizona senator's presidential campaign if the presumed GOP nominee faces Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., in the general election.

"I would simply be uncomfortable being in a campaign that would be inevitably attacking Barack Obama," said McCain adviser Mark McKinnon in an interview with NPR's "All Things Considered." "I think it would be uncomfortable for me, and I think it would be bad for the McCain campaign."

I have always thought McKinnon was as good as you can get in the world of media managers.
I'm not sure how you keep from firing the guy with his statement today, but you sure don' t want him on the other side come November.

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day to my wife, I bought you a white carpet rose to plant along the driveway.

To the rest of you, keep your heart shaped candy that must be made at the same factory where they manufacture Tums to yourselves.

Lincoln / Reagan Dinner 2008

The Yolo County Republican Party held it's annual Lincoln/Reagan Dinner tonight at the Hotel Woodland. The dinner was wonderful as well as the silent auction, but when you have a group of republicans get together, you had better believe that the talk will turn to politics and it will be spirited and inspiring. I had the chance to speak with Doug LaMalfa and two of the men who are running to take over his seat when Doug is termed out this fall, Charlie Schaupp and Jim Neilsen. It will be an interesting race to be sure. Greg Aghazarian was on hand as well as John W Jones and a few more I am sure I missed. Oh, and a table full of Davis College Republicans, great to have you here!

Greg Aghazarain, Doug LaMalfa and Tom Del Baccaro

While many local candidates for office spoke to the crowd of 100, the featured speaker of the evening was Tom Del Baccaro, the Vice Chair of the California Republican Party. Tom is also the man behind the Political Vanguard website and the author of The New Conservative Paradigm.

If you have not had the chance to hear him, Del Baccaro is wonderful speaker. Not only does he speak with conviction about the issues we as republicans hold dear, he speaks about the ideas all Americans care about. Having heard my share of political speeches, I always ask two question when the speaker has finished. First, did I learn anything new and important, and secondly, did I feel that the speaker was talking from his heart?

Tonight, Del Baccaro kept coming back to the 1976 election, where many republicans who were pulling for Reagan stayed home on election day because they were not all too thrilled with Gerald Ford. What did that get us? James Earl Carter, along with double digit inflation, 21% mortgage rates and a rudderless foreign policy. Tom's point hit home with me. McCain isn't my guy, he's not even my second choice, but he is far and away a better choice for President than Barack Obama. He finished with this question, what will we do, we as republicans? Will we stay at home because John McCain isn't all we want in a candidate or will we look past our differences in policies to keep a slick talking guy selling false hope out of the White House?

An honest question, and one we had better figure out quickly. If you are a Huckabee supporter, keep on believing, but be ready to throw in with McCain when your guy is out of the race. For all you Romney folks, Giuliani folks, FredHeads, and you Ron Paul supporters, who are thinking about sitting this election out, ask yourself this. Did I 'get back' at the country for not supporting my guy and staying home, or did I 'teach my party a lesson' by sitting this election out?

Let me answer that one for you. No, you didn't.

You gave us three new Supreme Court Justices nominated by Barack Obama and confirmed by Harry Reid.
(the sound of me stepping down off my soapbox)


This year's dinner was another success thanks to all of the volunteers who worked behind the scenes to make it happen. Great job, and we will see you next year.

The romantic in me

I guess by most standards, I am not very romantic. By 'most standards' I mean the ones set by the jewelry stores commercials and every other television and print advertisement. When I feel particularly romantic, I don't go to Jareds, I have learned romance comes in all kinds of different shapes and packages. Sometimes very unique shapes and packages.

I woke up this morning resigned to a full day of fence building. Today was the first nice weekend in the past month and the fields are drying out well, or so I thought. We stared on the front side of the pasture, pounding in t-posts and completed three sides. The lower part of the field still had standing water in it, so around noon we were finished.

Our daughter had gone to the ranch with my wife's mother and our son wanted to be dropped off at his friend's house so they could go see "Meet the Spartans'. My wife and I declined the invitation.

So there we were, at home, no children, no chores, and the better part of a beautiful day to spend doing what every we want.

Having purchased a new Honda Foreman 500 this past fall, I was secretly hoping she would want to visit one of her friends and I could sneak off and ride my new quad up at my friend's ranch. I was surprised when she suggested we go take a our quads and ride somewhere.

I called up my friend and asked if we could take a ride, he agreed, as long I brought a rifle in case we spotted a coyote or two on the ranch. We loaded up the truck and trailer and headed up the valley.

We road up and down the hills on the ranch, just enjoying the sun and looking at the cows and calves as the checked out their noisy visitors. When we came to a very steep hill I suggested that we trade quads. The 93' Yamaha Timberwolf is still alive and kicking at its age, but I wanted to make sure if anything went wrong climbing the steepest part, I was riding it. That was a fortunate decision. Half was up the hill, the old quad stalled and if you ride quads you know what a bad spot that is to be in. I set the hand brake and slowly slid off the side and walked it backwards down the hills. One more run at the hill in first gear and I was at the top. My wife climbed the hill with ease on the new Honda.

We rode another half mile up to the fence line and walked out onto the side of hill. I always keep a pair of binoculars on my quad and my wife and I spent two hours under an oak tree in the sunshine watching a small herd of 5 deer graze their way across the hillside. I didn't bring my camera, but I did snap these two pictures with my phone.

We talked, and watched the deer, talked a little more and just enjoyed being together. It was great afternoon.

I fell in love with my wife on an afternoon very similar to this one. We had been dating for a few weeks and I had spent all my money on dinners and movies and such. I knew if she was the one for me, she wouldn't care if I couldn't take her out on another expensive date, she would just want to spend time with me. I came out and told her I was broke until payday and I was going to head up to the hills to let my dogs run around and check the cattle. She asked if she could come along.

This year we will celebrate our 20th wedding anniversary.

There are a great many people who would rather have a small jewelry box with an expensive trinket given to them than spend an afternoon with their spouse in the hills of the Capay Valley, but those are not my kind of people.

Friday's random silliness

And by random, I mean random.
Here is your assignment, if you choose to accept it.

You are going to release an album, tonight. Here is all you need.

A name for your new band, a name for the new album, and cover art.

Go to Wikipedia random - what ever it is, that is the name of your band.
Go to Random Quotations - the last four or five words of the first quotation is the name of your album.
Go to Flickr - explore the last seven days and the third photo, no mater what, is your album cover. If you have a photo editing program, presto, you just released your album.

Here is mine.....
I am sure Maria won't mind if I name my band after her.

I know her lawyers would litigate me into oblivion so I came up with a second album. Here it is

California Republican Party Convention 2008

San Francisco here I come. The CRP will be holding its Spring Convention at the Hyatt Regency. I am working to get credentialed as member of the press. Last year in Sacramento, there were many bloggers working the convention. If I do get my press credentials, I will do a little live blogging between the presentations and workshops, both here and on the YoloGOP blog.

The workshops look great again this year, I am sure I will come home with some good ideas.

Mitt makes it official

A great speech, a good man.

"I am convinced that unless America changes course, we will become the France of the 21st Century - still a great nation, but no longer the leader of the world."

John McCain made a gracious speech as well. Its time to find common ground.

All I ask of any American, conservative, moderate, independent, or enlightened Democrat, is to judge my record as a whole, and accept that I am not in the habit of making promises to my country that I do not intend to keep.

All Right Matt, make your case for McCain.

I know when I'm licked, even if Governor Romney doesn't or at least he is still holding out hope that John McCain has a temper tantrum at a news conference as voters see the hot head his colleagues know all too much about.

Be that as it it may. I looks like McCain is our guy now. I am not close to being as short sighted as the far, far right wing of conservatives who will never vote for McCain, because given the choice between Senators Clinton and Obama, McCain is far and away a better choice for Republicans, and Americans for that matter.

PS, hope for McCain/Clinton and not McCain/Obama.

Grumpy old patriot vs. Grumpy slick politician is a fair fight.
Grumpy old patriot vs. Young dynamic dreamer is a landslide for the Democrats.

The only wild card there would be another 9/11 type attack before November. An attack on our soil might wake the electorate up to the fact that we are still in a war with people who want all of us dead.

To me it all comes down to two things, the war against radical Islam and the Justices on the Supreme Court. I can live with a moderate justice if my other option is another Ginsburg, or two or three.

So Matt, you're a McCain guy, what else can get exited about when it comes to the maverick from Arizona?

No election night blogging for this cowboy.

All eyes are on the returns tonight, my attention is focussed on music. I just changed the strings on my acoustic guitar. I don't swap string very often, mainly because I don't play as much as I should. Some guys who play all the time change strings once a month, some every two weeks. I change my strings every years or so. If the start feeling muddy or lose their brightness, I'll get a shiny new set.

Being a beginner, picking strings seems like standing in front of a wall books written in Chinese. Musician's Friend sells 422 types of acoustic strings alone. Bronze, Phosphorus, Nickel, Light,Medium, Coated, the options seem endless. That is why I usually go to a music store and ask someone what they play and why. So I dropped by Watermelon Music in Davis after work and started asking.

The set I bought were Elixir Nanoweb Light Phosphor Bronze Acoustic Guitar Strings. I paid three bucks more, but I didn't have to bother with shipping and heck, if you ask someone for their opinion about something, you should buy the product there. That is my thought anyway.

The Gore coating feels a little strange, but I'll keep tuning it tonight to let the strings settle in, and see how they sound.

California ballot propositions 2008

One word for you.
No.

I am voting no on everything.

Los Gigantes!

Holly Cow! The Giants win! What a game, and I hate the Giants.

I owe Eli an apology, not that he gives a hoot about what I say, but I was wrong, he is a winner.

Liberal Fascism, hard to find in bookstores, the book that is.

With a cover like this, its hard to imagine difficulty finding Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism in my local Borders in Davis, California. I saw a biography of Che Guevera prominently displayed at the counter, but you would think the # 4 best seller on Amazon's non fiction list would be out on the best seller tables for everyone to see, right? Nope, I had to ask for it at the front. I know I paid more for it at Borders, but that is the point. I love to buy my conservative reading there, I love to watch the clerk with the nose ring and pink hair look at me like I stepped off a spaceship when I purchase my copy of Shotgun News and a book like Liberal Fascism. Its worth the extra 8 bucks. As an added bonus, it sells another copy and makes them keep conservative books in stock, if not prominently displayed.

Maybe they don't display it because they don't like it's message?

Naw, couldn't be that, could it?

The days are long, but the years are short.

If I could find a way to live this simple message out, everyday, what a powerful way to live your life.

Its a very short movie, it still has me thinking right now.

Our children will be grown before we realize it.

8:40 AM, lets go see a movie!

Or not.

For everyone who has a pre-teen girl, you know all about Hannah Montana. She is everywhere, TV, radio, and now on the big screen, in 3D no less. Our daughter loves her and in a stroke of marketing genius, her new concert movie is being released for one week only. Just in case you are wondering, all the shows this weekend are sold out within a fifty mile radius of our house with the exception of 9:59 PM and 8:40 AM.

My wife, without the proper homework on the phenomenon that is Hannah, promised to take our daughter to see the movie. She is leaving the house right now to head down to Fairfield theater.

8:40 AM to watch a movie? My wife is not generally a pushover, she doesn't usually get caught up in fads and when Hannah went on tour she was not about to spend over fifty dollars to take our daughter. That wasn't a problem, tickets to Hannah's concert were being sold for two to three hundred dollars in the paper and on eBay. Sorry kid, Hannah isn't that important.

While my wife is in such an accommodating mood I think I will ask her about going hunting in Colorado this fall. Hey, she might just say yes.
Or not.