John, Marsha, John, Marsha, John Marsha

YouTube - 1935 John Deere

Reminds me of a simpler time

High Speed Rocket

YouTube - SP 4449 4-15-07 crossing at Roberts, Oregon

"She's long and tall and handsome
and loved by one and all.
She's a modern combination called
the Wabash Cannonball."

Canoe Who

YouTube - Birch bark canoe building

Nothing to it

Congress Passed the Cap & Trade - Sock it to us

Final Vote Results for Roll Call 477

Look at the role call. See if your Congressman put the screws to you. There were a hand full of Republicans who joined the Dems to raise every facet of our energy, heating, cooling, natural gas bills, coal may be in danger and coal state's workers. We're talking about outrageous taxes to force you to stop using energy, become semi third world in living standards. If the Senate doesn't stop this Marxist bill you are screwed. We're screwed. These people presented a 1,200 page bill, then at 3:00 am. just before the vote, they threw in a 300 page amendment so almost no one would know what underhanded moves they were committing.
If the Senate passes this tree hugging bill, a lot of jobs are going to leave this country. Industry can't stand that much taxation.
By the way this bill says that every new home built in every county and village in the U.S. will abide by California building codes. Houses will have to meet code before they can be sold.

Bachmann warns America what's Ahead

RealClearPolitics - Video - Bachmann: Cap-And-Trade Is Choice Of "Liberty And Tyranny"

This Congresswoman should be considered for President. I've been watching here carefully for several months. She's the real thing.

Smack A Fly

By now everyone knows the Pres killed a fly in front of millions. I for one am outraged. Do you realize that just a few days ago that fly was a baby. Yes, he was a maggot. Horrors. A maggot is just one step on the evolutionary ladder above a Congressman.

Boxer slams a General; Prefers the name Emporer

Barbara boxer embarrassed a Brigadier General this week. He was calling her mam. That is military protocol, and the highest respect for a woman but Boxer probably wouldn't know that.
Ms Boxer interrupted the General to tell him that he should call her Senator because she worked so hard to earn it.
I've been hearing a lot of names for Boxer around that water cooler and it ain't Senator.
Can you imagine how much mud this General had to crawl through, overseas duties he endured, battles he took part in?
And this lifetime blue state Senator looks down her nose at him. Politicians are three for a dollar depending on which knobbiest you talk with. They can be picked up on any used car lot.
Watch her revert back to a female victim if the water gets too hot.
By the way, how did the Senator Boxer address Secretary of State Rice?
emperor

Clay Allison

Clay Allison

The famous gunslinger Clay Allison was born in Wayne County Tennessee. At that time my family lived a few miles away in adjoining Hardin County, a place called Pittsburgh. Yankees called it Shiloh. There are different stories on Allison's early years. Some say he had a head injury that was aggravated from time to time. It became evident during the war that he wasn't able to tolerate artillery fire.
Others say that he was just a little crazy and very dangerous when drinking

We have a saying down here "He needed killing." Although Mr. Allison may have killed 15 men, according to him he never killed anybody that didn't need killing. Personally, I'm with Allison. Anarchy is always better that totalitarianism.

Her Name Was Lola

My granddaughter May has a giraffe named Lola. She was once a "Show Girl" but that's another story. May doesn't go anywhere without Wowa.


People have asked why the tallest animal in the world doesn't have a stroke when it lowers its head to drink. Why doesn't it get dizzy when lifting the head. Well, it's not perfectly clear but the animal has a heart that weighs between 22 and 26 lbs, enough to pump blood some 15 feet to its brain. It seems that unlike all other mammals, the giraffe actually has muscles along the jugular veins that regulate the blood flow. Its good to know that Lola won't be loosing her head, well, not because of blood pressure anyway.

YouTube - James Blunt - 1973

YouTube - James Blunt - 1973

Great bass line

Confederate Cemetary Macon Mississippi

Our staff is leaning a bit and the colors are fading. The old men used to take care of these sacred places. We boomers have not taken up the cause of remembering these places like out fathers.

There are several rows of Union dead. There are probably all Midwesterners.

I had difficulty zooming in on two of the pictures.

Here is probably a local boy who attended VMI and lived to be an old man.

10th Texas Cav. buried in Miss

I stopped by Macon on the way home. There is a cemetary here for Civil War Dead. This boy was just seventeen. He was probably mortally wounded at Shiloh or Farmington.

The 10th Texas Cav. took part in many battles. This was the first of many

House Finches Are Growing

Just to let you see what three days make in the lives of baby finches. As you can see they are completely covered in down and have grown immature wing feathers. I can't get them to smile.

Taken two days ago

Route of the Phoebe Snow

YouTube - Phoebe Snow~Poetry Man

Phoebe Show was a fictional lady on advertisements for the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad. People especially ladies had grown tired of being covered with coal soot while riding trains. The DL&W owned vast interests in anthracite coal mines in Pennsylvania. Anthracite is a clean burning coal as opposed to the softer and high sulfur grades.

Says Phoebe Snow
About to go
upon a trip to Buffalo
"My gown stays white
from morn til night
Upon a road of Anthracite"



She reappeared in 1949 as a passenger train running from Hoboken to Buffalo. After a merger with the Erie in 1960 her route was extended to Chicago. She ran until passenger trains fell out of favor in 1966. (The Route of Phoebe Snow)

Steve Winwood

YouTube - Spencer Davis Group - Gimme Some Lovin'

Steve Winwood was fifteen when he dropped out of school to join his older brother in that band we know as the Spencer Davis Group.

Fast

Breaking the sound barrier is nothing remotely new. No one knows when man first broke the speed off sound. In Florida and Georgia men were known for driving cattle using bull whips to goad them along. When the tail of the whip pops in mid air it is traveling faster than sound.
You can fill in the rest of the story.

YouTube - Zombies - Tell Her No

YouTube - Zombies - Tell Her No

The Zombies were just one of many British groups invading America in the 60's. Their biggest hit was "She's Not There" in 1964 and this one in 1965. Their last was "Time of the season" in 69.
They featured a piano/organ player heavily influenced by jazz. Their cool lead singer was Colin Blunstone.

Fascism Can't Happen Here

Heinrich Himmler, Hitler's henchman, was a devout animal rights man
Nazi Germany smothered Christianity and created a State Religion
Despite what we've been taught in Universities, Hitler was 100% Socialist
He believed in the powerful rise of his race
Lots of Ari an Studies - instead of bringing all races in the country together, he drove wedges
Eugenics was rampant, that is, improving the human species by interfering with what they viewed as evolution- destroy all undesirable humans, crippled, sickly, sterilization
Holistic medicine was very popular - natural healing of all types
His government frowned on any tobacco use
Vegetarianism was encouraged
The Christian belief of having dominion over nature was discouraged - man was believed to be just a part of nature
There was a special race of people in Germany that one couldn't criticize
There was another race held up to ridicule
Hitler formed partnerships with industry
Labor shared in the profits of Capitalism
To quote a famous American Politician - children are citizens, citizens are children
He forced the population to drive the little "peoples car"
Youth and fitness was idealized - German Youth
Kindergarten was popular - the sooner Hitler could get children into the State Schools, the sooner he could indoctrinate them to his beliefs
The State was Utopian, the individual was a small gear in the machine - the hole of population was wonderful but the individual could be bullied
Whip up the masses to overcome Capitalist rulers
Aren't we glad these things don't happen here

Many points taken from J. Goldberg's "Liberal Fascism"

Fix Me Two Over Easy

Nest of the House Finch in the hanging fern outside our window

No they weren't in this weathered Blue Bird house

They hatched a couple of days ago. As some of you know, birds that are hatched in nests off the ground are termed as altricial from the Latin - alere meaning to nurse.

They are blind, naked and helpless

Birds hatched in ground nest are called precocial. Generally speaking, their eyes are open, they are fully down covered and able to run within hours and look for food. The term is from the Latin praecox - meaning early ripening. Is creation cool or what----I mean, can you believe two rocks collided and caused this?

Miranda For All

Just when you thought-----------
Enemy combatants caught in Afghanistan will now be given Miranda rights.
Heck, I'll chip in for a lawyer
Build'em a habitat for uuuhhhh house
Food stamps
Cool tennis shoes
Pack of Camels-----------------------------------Lucky Strikes
Gift certificate to Hooters
Electric car---Bamamobile with twin plug-in's and parachute
Free Tim G. tax service
Voice lessons
Pedicure
Round trips home on business
Speaking tour
Write a book

Gentlemen Start Your Golf Carts

We have a 31 year old kid running Chrysler

Chuck E's In Love

The gravel voiced Tom Waits was friends with or involved with Rickie Lee Jones. She had a friend named Chuck E. Weiss.

Lets talk southern

Four (4) in the Scottish language is = fower and it is pronounced in two syllables.
Now close your eyes and imagine cousin Nan pronouncing the number 4.

Some of the words we use down here are frighteningly close to the Scots, Middle English, Welsh, probably Irish.

The Midwesterner would say " at all"
The English would say " a-toll"
The Southerner would say " a-tall"

Load your own bullets

Roy lives down the road from me. He's never done anything except draw a monthly disability check, deer hunt, trap, cut timber, snake logs, father seven kids and make a little whiskey. Anyway, he had killed so many deer that it just wasn't a challenge. He shot them with the gun over his shoulder using a mirror, between his legs, blindfolded; he's long bowed, crossed bowed, speared, wrestled (even with his bad back), spear gunned, snared, you name it.


He began loading his own amo. He developed a bullet that sped through the air creating the venturi effect or something similar. Really. So he loaded one of those magic bullets and headed out. He caught a huge buck in the edge of a corn field, shifted his dip to the other side, slowly took aim and squeezed off. The bullet passed in front of the buck's nostrils and instantly sucked all the air from its lungs causing their total collapse. Unfortunately a doe stepped up close enough that she passed out from the lack of oxygen. Roy performed mouth to nose and brought her back. Then he took out his knife and made a slice across the buck's gonads. That old buck gasped in terror returning air to its lungs, gathered his feet and bolted, leaving Roy holding a case knife in one hand and a gonad in the other. I was having tinder-loin and eggs at his house when he told me. I told him that he was a d---- lier. He gave me that nasty little smile showing those three teeth. I ran to the door and spat out what I thought was badly prepaired loin a minute earlier and tried to keep the rest down.


Roy leaned back in his dining chair and said "I'll call this my nut and bolt story"

You know, he hunted ole "One-der-boy" for years; from time to time Roy saw his huge tracks on a muddy road crossing but that one cylinder buck never again came out in the light of day.

Railroad hand car

My mother has a toe sack full of old sayings that young people wouldn't understand. For example, a Hand Car is a rolling platform used on the railroad. A man stands on the platform and pumps the handle to move himself down the rails checking for washouts etc.

Now Shift:

Years ago country folks were able to take their jacket, bandanna, etc and wave down a passenger train, pay their fare and ride.

My mother used to talk about how few clothes she had to wear. She would say " I ain't got enough clothes to flag a hand car"

BMXRadio

BMXRadio

Have any of you checked out Steven Baldwin's new radio program. I haven't, but heard about it a couple of days ago. A six week reality show began (Major Network) in Central America this past Monday. Steven plans to donate all his winnings (if he wins) to little kids in Africa or something. Winners are voted on by viewers.

Alec Baldwin doesn't seem to be as nice as his brother Steven.
Talk about opposing views, Christmas dinner must be tough.

George Tiller

Poor George finally took one for the cause. Some unstable guy busted a cap in his ---. Of course the bible thumpers were blamed.

I'm not even thinking about taking sides. I'm wondering if out of 60,000 babies, did any one's body get too far out of the birth canal, maybe hundreds, did any open their eyes to the light, how many broke into crying before he could push the cold steel into the base of their brains. What a drag if some of these moms heard the cry and couldn't forget it. Maybe the Doctor had music playing throughout the clinic to drown out mistakes. Just stuff I ponder.

There are strong polarities in our society, those who are convinced that truth is relative or nonexistent and those who believe that truth is absolute. All human activity will gravitate toward one pole or the other.

The Unwashed

A movement gaining at least some popularity in England is called de-baptizing. It seems that Christianity just doesn't fit into modern society.

St. Peter - "Boy, where's your membership card"
Brit - "Uhhhhhh, my dog ate it"

Boeing 747, Space Shuttle Images, Photography, Stock Pictures, Archives, Fine Art Prints

Boeing 747, Space Shuttle Images, Photography, Stock Pictures, Archives, Fine Art Prints

The space shuttle dropped by for a visit at Columbus Airforce Base yesterday (6-2-09) on its way to Florida. He must have taken a wrong turn somewhere. Actually it has passed through Columbus several times. I seem to always be somewhere else when she piggy-backs into town. Friends on the north side of town tell me the 747 was roaring.