Happy New Year!!

lm currently en route to the Big Windy for my annual New Years pilgrimage.. Something that has been happening on the maternal side of my family now for over 80 years. I'm blogging off a blackberry now, but I'll post more on this later.

Meanwhile...best wishes for a blessed and peosperous New Year, to one and all!

Superman to Super Pimp?

I was motorcyclimg around St. Cloud when I passed the corner of 25th and Division, by the Dairy Queen, when I happened to spot our friend, ourlocal St. Cloud Superman; only this time he looked more like a graduate of the Velvet Jones School of Technology than he did Clark Kent

Curiosity got the better of me, so I decided to ask him, "What gives?!?"

He told me that he was pimpin' "...just to keep people guessing. A pimp is the antithesis of Superman. I'm for freedom of speech and expression"

The guy has a point.

Anyway, ya gotta give a guy credit who dares to be different. As always, Superman, a/k/a was extremely cordial when I asked him to take this photo.

More power to you, Clark Kent!

A sad day...

I just got back from the vet after putting Husky (my greyhound) down....

I was with him and held his head in my arms as he died.

He was such a good dog, ... God I loved him.

Losing him was almost as bad as losing my dad earlier this year.

When I came home from my hip surgery a few years ago, he never left my side.... he would allow himself to be used as a support when I needed to get up...it seemed he would sense when I needed him.


I'm missing him terribly already.

Obama and Rezko: Peas and Carrots?

It would appear that the Obama's Hyde Park mansion in Chicago may not be the Obama's after all.

WND reports:

An attorney for convicted fundraiser Tony Rezko is listed as the owner and taxpayer for Barack Obama's Chicago mansion, according to records obtained by WND.

William Miceli is a lawyer at the Chicago law firm Miner, Barnhill & Galland, which also formerly employed Obama.

The controversy began when a website called News and Commentary for Thinking People published a 48-page document that lists Miceli as the owner of the Obama home at 5046 S. Greenwood.

Miner, Barnhill & Galland was Obama's employer when he did extensive legal work for Rezko, who awaits sentencing after he was convicted in June of fraud, money laundering and bribery-related counts.

Yeah. I know. Obama didn't know; he was just a poor, well-meaning, unfortunate dupe in this whole mess.

Great judge of character, that Barack Obama is.

Man, he'll make a great President.

Eartha Kitt passes ad astra...

Eartha Kitt, fabled Hollywood sex-symbol and siren, is dead at 81.

She was a singer and actress who rose from South Carolina cottonfields, but I mostly remember her for her role as Catwoman in the 1960s Batman series:

To borrow a famous line from Mae West... "When I'm bad, honey....I'm good."

A glimpse of my childhood...

Anyone who grew up in 1960s Chicago remembers that every kid in the neighborhood would run home after school so that he or she could watch Garfield Goose and Friends, with Frazier Thomas. During the Christmas season, Frazier would feature these animated shorts, and us kids just ate them up-- here they are, in all their stop-action, low-tech glory! Ladies & Gentlemen, I present Hardrock, Coco & Joe, and Suzy Snowflake:





Geeze--and how could I have forgotten Frosty the Snowman:

Merry Christmas!

I heard this song on our way home from Arizona today... It's truly a classic that bridged the gap between the World War II generation and the Baby Boom generation, and its message is timeless:

A Blessed and Joyous Christmas

I'll be going out of town for nearly a week, so I'm not sure how much I'll be able to blog, if at all.

Just in case I can't, have a joyous Christmas, from The Ice Palace!

In the meantime, please notice the Salvation Army Kettle on the sidebar, and drop in a buck or two if you can to help the cause!

My First Ever Bacon Post...

(click on pic for full size)

The fix is in.

After today's recount results, Coleman's lead dropped from the initial 774 votes on election night to just five votes.

There are more to count, including the so-called "improperly rejected" ballots.

This will likely go to the Minnesota Supreme Court, where the two Supreme Court Judges that had any assemblance of sanity will need to recuse themselves, since they are participating in the current recount.

Say hello to Senator Franken.

He'll do Minnesota proud.

Wednesday Hero Blogburst, 12-17-08

This Weeks Post Was Suggested By Melinda

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Christian P. Humphreys
28 years old from Fallon, Nevada
6th Squadron, 17th Cavalry Regiment, Task Force 49
November 15, 2008


A funny, nice guy who loved to fly. That's how Christian P. Humphreys is remembered by his friends. "He was a great guy, always happy and had a joke," said Sean Whitney, a flight medic. "We used to play with our paintball guns in the cornfields behind his house."

Humphreys flew with the Fallon Naval Air Station Search and Rescue Longhorns from June 6, 2004, to May 5, 2006. He left the Navy and joined the Army as part of the "Blue to Green" program to become a helicopter pilot.

Humphreys, along with Chief Warrant Officer 3 Donald V. Clark, 37 years old from Tennessee, was killed when their OH-58 Kiowa helicopter crashed while on a mission over Mosul, Iraq. As a rescue crew chief, Humphreys was in charge of the operation behind the pilots. He made the decisions when to deploy rescue crews out of the helicopter to assist injured people, and he also took care of the equipment.

"He was a funny guy, a nice guy, a lot of character," said Petty Officer 2nd Class Justin Schmidt. "The guy was always entertaining, always had something to say, but like everyone here, he displayed the professionalism in saving lives."

Chief Warrant Officer 2 Christian P. Humphreys leaves behind a wife and parents.

All Information Was Found On And Copied From MilitaryCity.com

These brave men and women sacrifice so much in their lives so that others may enjoy the freedoms we get to enjoy everyday. For that, I am proud to call them Hero.
We Should Not Only Mourn These Men And Women Who Died, We Should Also Thank God That Such People Lived

This post is part of the Wednesday Hero Blogroll. For more information about Wednesday Hero, or if you would like to post it on your site, you can go here.

Dhimmis in the news...

And the Dhimmi of the Week Award goes to:

The Canadian "Human Rights" Commission:

The Canadian Human Rights Commission has rejected a human rights complaint filed against a radical Muslim imam who published an viciously bigoted book about gays, Jews, women, Christians, and even called for the murder of infidels.

Marc Lebuis, the publisher of the Quebec blog Point de Bascule, filed a complaint with the CHRC back in April, after reading a hateful book called "Islam or Integration?" "Islam or Fundamentalism" (thanks to reader John for the translation correction.) You can see a copy of the book in its entirety here. (It's in French.)

Of course, if it was a Christian Pastor in Canada who said a word about homosexuality being a sin, he'd be thrown in prison.

But we must, of course, strive to understand the adherents of the Islamist death cult, mustn't we? I mean, you wouldn't want to risk offending them.

(h/t Doug Bass)

Now this oughta increase the tax base of New York State...

And maybe monkeys will fly out of David Paterson's butt, as well.

In a fit of economic suicidality, the esteemed governor of New York has decided to tax everything from I-pods to massages. In the words of Paterson,

"We're going to have to take some extreme measures," Paterson said Tuesday after unveiling the slash-and-burn budget.

And just how are you going to raise revenues after you slash and burn the economic climate of New York, Governor Paterson?

In the prescient words of Ronaldus Magnus,

"If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. If it stops moving, subsidize it."

Where have we heard these before?

"I did not have sex with that woman... Ms. Lewinsky..."

"It all depends on what the meaning of "is" is...."

And, "We've...err.. I've had no contact with Governor Blagojevich."

Sneed hears rumbles President-elect Barack Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, is reportedly on 21 different taped conversations by the feds -- dealing with his boss' vacant Senate seat!

I guess it all depends on what the meaning of "contact" is.

...And I shake my head...

Bush says he had to wreck the economy, to save the economy.

US President George W. Bush said in an interview Tuesday he was forced to sacrifice free market principles to save the economy from "collapse." "I've abandoned free-market principles to save the free-market system," Bush told CNN television, saying he had made the decision "to make sure the economy doesn't collapse." Bush's comments reflect an extraordinary departure from his longtime advocacy for an unfettered free market, as his administration has orchestrated unprecedented government intervention in the face of a dire financial crisis. "I am sorry we're having to do it," Bush said. But Bush said government action was necessary to ease the effects of the crisis, offering perhaps his most dire assessment yet of the country's economy.

Correct me if I'm wrong, King, but isn't the only way to save the free market to enact and to engage in behavior consistent with those very principles that make it viable? Can one "save" the free market by enacting policies that are antithetical to same, and which by their very nature and in every other known circumstance act to thwart the growth of a free-market economy and benefits thereof? If so, then when is the correct time to right the ship back on that course of economic freedom and the prosperity (and risk) that goes along with it? Can one merely parcel a free market and expect it to then flourish?

You know, Bush has been more than gracious toward his malevolent detractors lo' these past eight years, what with the "new tone" and all. Could it be that President Bush is leaving Obama and the democrats (and, unfortunately this nation) with a poke in the eye? Somehow, that just doesn't seem to be his style, which, to this point, has been largely to go along to get along. Or, alternatively, has what has been at best a short-term pseudo-fix (if that) been enacted merely in an effort to provide the Obama administration with a set of training wheels, and to hell with our collective futures?

"I feel a sense of obligation to my successor to make sure there is not a, you know, a huge economic crisis. Look, we're in a crisis now. I mean, this is -- we're in a huge recession, but I don't want to make it even worse."

Question Mr. President: have the bailouts really made anything better? In the short or in the foreseeable long term?

I didn't think so.