I havent darkened your doorstep for a while but this really is troubling.

I came across a news story that reported that leftist protestors refused to let congressman and civil rights icon John Lewis talk at their little hoohaa down in Atlanta. . You can see the report here at Human Events.....

http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=46728

OK to be fair, its their party and they can be racist if they want to.
But what struck me as bizarre was the uncut version of the event over at Drudge. It appears that the news failed to report or went out of thier way to cover up the fact that this gaggle of left wing protesters are a bunch of friggng loons.



Direct action certainly aint what it used to be in fact I would probably call the event infantile if it wasnt so insulting to infants. Normal self respecting adults do not subject themsleves to a Mister Rogers character with a bullhorm chanting, "Lets all raise our hands and wiggle your little fingers and repeat after me."

If your pissed at the system, act like your pissed a the system. How bout a few chants we can all get into, rememeber the classic "hell no we wont go." Or how bout a catchy little protest song? Who can forget Country Joe MacDonalds "one, two, three what are we fighting for?" DOH, what are we fighting for? Dont ask, we dont have a clue. Next stop is Kalamazoo! Can I get a group wave for Kalamazoo? MIKE CHECK MIKE CHECK!Good Grief.

Put down the latte and show some passion and quite acting like a Borg convention whacked out on Prozac. Your giving anarchy a bad name and from the look on the face of Mr. Lewis, who was front and center during another period of social uprising, he was too much of a gentleman to point out the obvious.

"He (Obama) is not a devil, an alien, a socialist. He is a loser. And this is America, where nobody loves a loser." Peggy Noonan, WSJ

Economic Freedom & Quality of Life

Fr. Barron comments on A Nation Under God; A Nation that Keeps the Sabbath

National Anthem by 5 little girls!! amazing...

America, We Salute You.

Defence of Fort McHenry

O! say can you see by the dawn’s early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight’s last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O’er the ramparts we watched, were so gallantly streaming?
And the rockets’ red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;
O! say does that star-spangled banner yet wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
Where the foe’s haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o’er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning’s first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines in the stream:
’Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle’s confusion,
A home and a country, should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps’ pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave:
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand
Between their loved home and the war’s desolation.
Blest with vict’ry and peace, may the Heav’n rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto: “In God is our trust;”
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave
O’er the land of the free and the home of the brave!

Francis Scott Key (September 1814)

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
When our land is illumined with liberty's smile,
If a foe from within strikes a blow at her glory,
Down, down with the traitor that tries to defile
The flag of the stars, and the page of her story!
By the millions unchained,
Who their birthright have gained
We will keep her bright blazon forever unstained;
And the star-spangled banner in triumph shall wave,
While the land of the free is the home of the brave.

Oliver Wendell Holmes (1861)

Osama Is Dead

First Reactions:

So Osama is finally taking a long deserved dirt nap but I am feeling a little ambivalent at the moment. Maybe a picture of the dead dirtbag would help. Perhaps its because retribution was so long in coming. Or perhaps its because at the moment I have more questions than President Obama's speech answered.

President Obama: "A small team of Americans carried out the operation with extraordinary courage and capability. No Americans were harmed. They took care to avoid civilian casualties. After a firefight, they killed Osama bin Laden and took custody of his body."

After the firefight? That's a curious chain of events. Who pulled the trigger and why wasnt he given the deluxe suite at Camp Gitmo?

Why the rush to drop him in the deep blue sea and the need to ensure he was buried according to Muslim law?

Why do the midnight celebrations being shown on the news this morning seem a bit contrived? It resembles a pub crawl more than a spontanious outpouring of elation.

MMMM Beer... for Lent

Iowa Man On Beer-Only Diet For Lent

CORNING, Iowa - Instead of giving something up for Lent, a central Iowa man is only drinking beer.
J Wilson is from Corning. On Ash Wednesday, he pledged to live though lent only on beer and water. And with Easter just days away, he's made good on his promise.

And if you were expecting a beer belly, you won't find it. He's lost 22 and a half pounds, and is feeling good.

"My energy is high," Wilson said. "I can do anything. I can go out and chop wood right now. "

While I applaud his fortitude during Lent, his diet may be lacking some necessary vitamins that could have long term health consequences such as CIRRHOSIS. Dr. Salmon always suggest that you supplement any long term beer diet with a packet of this. in your breakfast beer because as a wise man once said, Thou shalt no live on beer.

Disclaimer: Before starting any program of weight-loss, please consult your doctor or other
health care professional.

Austin's Man Made Disaster

I heard that Austin Texas was ablaze as is several thousand acres of West Texas prairie so I wrote my little brother to see if they were homeless. His reply:

West Texas wildfires have burned over a million acres of land so far and none of them are under 50% contained. These fires are normal during this time of year but things are dryer than normal and the reason for the more than double the acres that normally burn. When these fires are in the open range they are no problem and the land bounces right back but this time they are near more populated areas.
Now the most recent fire yesterday in our area was about 30 miles south of our home.

This one was started by a homeless guy that started a camp fire to cook an egg for breakfast… an unlike your wild years in Alaska, you know that it is always good to have a beer before breakfast. Well, he leaves his fire to run down to the convenience store to by that beer and when he gets back the flames are three feet high.

How did they catch the guy? Well as an avid camper, you know how nice it is to have your beer and everyone sit around the fire, peaceful and a time to talk and reflect on life. Well as he is standing there with people watching their house burn down, one of the fireman notices this guy standing near one of the fire trucks and can see that this guys ear (really?) brows have been singed off and once approached the guys tells them what happen.

About a hundred residential acres burned along with houses... They had to bring C130 tankers in to drop water and retardant on the neighborhood. Doesn’t really matter to this homeless guy, he is now sitting in jail, hot shower and three square meals a day along with TV… bet he wishes he could have a beer right now, then he’d be set! (Steven in Texas)

Austin Texas: Terrorism or Just Another Alcohol Related Incident

Beer for Breakfast? MOI!!!
Additional Photos Here

The Life of Iowan Henry Wallace.

I am currently working on a research project about Iowan Henry Wallace and his role as a New Dealer in the Roosevelt administration. The Wallace family published the influential Wallace's Farmer magazine in Des Moines and were active in Midwest farm politics throughout the early part of the 20th century which led to his father's appointment to the Secretary of Agriculture post in the Harding administration.

After his fathers untimely death in 1924, a event that Wallace blamed on a feud with fellow Iowan Herbert Hoover, Wallace followed in his fathers footsteps, took over leadership of the family publishing business and was himself appointed to the same position in the Roosevelt administration.

In 1940 he was chosen to fill the vice presidential slot but was unceremoniously dropped from the ticket in 1944 when FRD shifted from Mr Save the Country to Mr. Win the war. As a consolation prize Wallace accepted the post of Commerce Secretary which ended in a foreign policy dispute with Truman.

By the time Roosevelt passed away and Truman took the helm the war had lessened the countries collectivist bent and the New Deal was largely dead. Hoping to keep the Progressive ideals alive however, Wallace ran a lackluster third party campaign on the Progressive ticket in 1948 backed largely by unions and communists. His effort was largely a fools errand as he was portrayed as a dupe for the communists and he garnered less than 1% of the vote.

For his tenacity he is still widely praised by the left today long after most New Dealers have long since been forgotten. For better or worse his legacy may be that many of the farm programs he promoted in the 1930s are still with us today.

In probably the most famous of the Wallace Cartoons he is pictured with fellow New Dealers and the Roosevelt Brian Trust shoveling money into the economy while Lenin and Stalin look on.

Truman is pictured here keeping a steady rein on Democracy as Wallace and fourth party candidate Strom Thurmond try to steer the country to the left or right in 1948.

Putting the New Dealer out to pasture.

Many of the programs started under Wallace while serving as Ag Secretary were portrayed by opponents as Fascist or Communist. Here he is portrayed as Feurher Wallace with the countries farmers marching in lockstep. ca 1938




A Lazy Saturday

Hmmm, the family is off to the spring cleanup at Church Camp. It is April 16th and as I gaze out across the Salmon Estate big wet fluffy flakes are again covering the lawn. Just more signs of global warming. On lazy days like these the mind naturally turns to things like Zombies.

How long could you hold out. Take the quiz, and no cheating, the only one youll be fooling is yourself.

76%
Created by OnePlusYou - Free Dating Site

So how did you do? Take the poll and no lying.God is watching you.



Speaking of Zombies- We all know what it would be like hold up in the local mall, but what would a real zombie Apocalypse be like, I suggest World War Z: an oral history of the zombie war by Max Brooks.

The Crisis" nearly wiped out humanity. Brooks (son of Mel Brooks and author of The Zombie Survival Guide, 2003) has taken it upon himself to document the "first hand" experiences and testimonies of those lucky to survive 10 years after the fictitious zombie war. Like a horror fan's version of Studs Terkel's The Good War (1984), the "historical account" format gives Brooks room to explore the zombie plague from numerous different views and characters. In a deadpan voice, Brooks exhaustively details zombie incidents from isolated attacks to full-scale military combat: "what if the enemy can't be shocked and awed? Not just won't, but biologically can't!" With the exception of a weak BAT-21 story in the second act, the "interviews" and personal accounts capture the universal fear of the collapse of society--a living nightmare in which anyone can become a mindless, insatiable predator at a moment's notice. ...Regardless, horror fans won't be disappointed: like George Romero's Dead trilogy, World War Z is another milestone in the zombie mythos. Carlos Orellan. Copyright © American Library Association.

Obama Lied, People Died

Obama Lied, People Died is not a refrain your likely to hear from  the anti-Bush anti-war crowd anytime soon, but you should. From the Boston Globe:

EVIDENCE IS now in that President Barack Obama grossly exaggerated the humanitarian threat to justify military action in Libya. The president claimed that intervention was necessary to prevent a “bloodbath’’ in Benghazi, Libya’s second-largest city and last rebel stronghold.
Obama insisted that prospects were grim without intervention. “If we waited one more day, Benghazi . . . could suffer a massacre that would have reverberated across the region and stained the conscience of the world.’’ Thus, the president concluded, “preventing genocide’’ justified US military action.
But intervention did not prevent genocide, because no such bloodbath was in the offing. To the contrary, by emboldening rebellion, US interference has prolonged Libya’s civil war and the resultant suffering of innocents.

I made the point earlier there was a certain irony in Obama's war; that he was going to prevent the killing of innocent women and children by lobbing missiles into a country and killing innocent women and children. Now it turns out he was likely duped into abeting an insurgency in need of an air force in the middle of a civil war. Isn't this like a war crime or somthing?

Nobel Prize for Hypocrisy

From the desk of Victor Davis-Hanson:

Obama VS. Obama

The president gave the sort of scare speech he not long ago warned against, and blasted the income-tax rates he not long ago agreed were necessary — in a context in which he has just presented a budget with a $1.6 trillion deficit of the sort he now says is unsustainable, and has warned about recklessly voting against raising the debt ceiling in a fashion that he himself had once done, in a larger landscape in which he had once damned attacking Middle East countries in optional wars, Guantanamo, renditions, tribunals, preventative detention, intercepts, wiretaps, Predators, and leaving troops in Iraq, and then embraced or expanded all that and more (this list is infinite and includes everything from drilling to campaign financing to earmarks).

Shut Her Down Boys.

I just love the feel of smoke being blown up my backside, don't you? Yesterday, after the world hailed the budget deal as a divine miracle pulling us back from the brink of disaster we learn the comprimise was just smoke and mirrors, it was just a fabrication, it was just plain made up. From John Podhoretz:  

The big news today is that the $38.5 billion in budget cuts announced with such fanfare on Friday night mostly aren’t real. A good deal of it involves money from previous years and previous budgets that hasn’t actually been spent. As the AP puts it, the budget deal is

financed with a lot of one-time savings and cuts that officially ‘score’ as savings to pay for spending elsewhere, but that often have little to no actual impact on the deficit…cuts to earmarks, unspent census money, leftover federal construction funding, and $2.5 billion from the most recent renewal of highway programs that can’t be spent because of restrictions set by other legislation. Another $3.5 billion comes from unused spending authority from a program providing health care to children of lower-income families.

The total amount actually cut appears to be $ somewhere between8 and $14.7 billion.

Either John Boehner was hoodwinked by Obama in which case he should be replaced for incompetence or he was complicit in which case he should be replaced and run out of town on one of Obama's high speed rails. In any event the actual vote for this Crap Sandwich is later this week and this travesty must not stand. Shut her down boys.

Now You See the Cut, Now You Don't

Krugman: A Dose of Reality

Nobel Economist Paul Krugman has gone off on the policies of Barack Obama in the past but I think this is a first in attacking him personally.  Evidently the Ones performance in last weeks budget debate rose up and smacked Krugman with a big right cross. Today he writes:

What have they done with President Obama? What happened to the inspirational figure his supporters thought they elected? Who is this bland, timid guy who doesn’t seem to stand for anything in particular?...

Damn, he doesn't seem to stand for anything? That ones going to leave a mark but in his defense I would argue that he is hardly bland and timid. In fact I saw him sprinting up the steps of the Lincoln Memorial Saturday in a display that Fox News touted as a Rocky Balboa moment. (Love the Fox babes but they got to stop reading the White House press releases on air) Krugman continues:

What’s going on here? Despite the ferocious opposition he has faced since the day he took office, Mr. Obama is clearly still clinging to his vision of himself as a figure who can transcend America’s partisan differences. 

I'll let the ferocious opposition comment slide as Krugman stubornly clinging to his delusions, but Obama clinging to his vision? He isn't clinging to a vision that's who he is. In fact Krugman et. al. found this a feature not a flaw when they anointed him the post partisan pragmatist, the blank slate where we could all pencil in our wants, needs, and desires. In that sense he is in fact just like Rocky; inspirational at times certainly, but they're both just a fabrication, just plain made up.

But if you ask me, I’d say that the nation wants — and more important, the nation needs — a president who believes in something, and is willing to take a stand. And that’s not what we’re seeing.

BAMM, if that isn't a bare knucked whallop to a cold side of beef! It's the same argument that we on the right have been making since the summer of 2008.

President Johnson once said if you lose Howard Conkrite you have lost the war. Maybe this is Obama's Conkrite moment. ADRIAN!!!!!!!

News from Kandahar.

The Salmon son just extended another six years. In a response to his friends he writes:

Even with all the talk of not getting paid 2 of us extended our contracts till 2018 today. I have already been called crazy and out of my mind amongst other things but we all know we do it for the pride, the men and women we stand beside everyday, and above all else our loved ones. I am proud to say that I am 1% of the population that will do this.

Hooah son!

Progress means not just changing, but changing for the better. -C. S. Lewis

Nobel Prize for Hypocrisy

Today we grieve for the families who have lost loved ones, the hearts that have been broken, and the young lives that could have been. America, it's time to start bringing our troops home. It's time to admit that no amount of American lives can resolve the political disagreement that lies at the heart of someone else's civil war. -Barack H. Obama

MMMMMM BEER

What took so long?

Be Prepared

I caught this on  CNN this morning and I have to wonder who has the means to build a steel Ark for 180 of their closest friends and large enough to store five years worth of food and supplies. What do these people know that you don't know? Or did they think "2012" was a documentary?

Check it out here.

Nobel Prize for Hypocrisy

The President does not have power under the Constitution to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve stopping an actual or imminent threat to the nation.” -Barrak H. Obama

Can You Afford Four More Years?

Nobel Prize for Hypocrisy

Now, let me be clear – I suffer no illusions about Saddam Hussein. He is a brutal man. A ruthless man. A man who butchers his own people to secure his own power. He has repeatedly defied U.N. resolutions, thwarted U.N. inspection teams, developed chemical and biological weapons, and coveted nuclear capacity. He's a bad guy. The world, and the Iraqi people, would be better off without him.
... After September 11th, after witnessing the carnage and destruction, the dust and the tears, I supported this administration's pledge to hunt down and root out those who would slaughter innocents in the name of intolerance, and I would willingly take up arms myself to prevent such tragedy from happening again. I don't oppose all wars. ... What I am opposed to is a dumb war. What I am opposed to is a rash war. What I am opposed to is the cynical attempt by Richard Perle and Paul Wolfowitz and other armchair, weekend warriors in this administration to shove their own ideological agendas down our throats, irrespective of the costs in lives lost and in hardships borne. - Barrack H. Obama

While giving alms may sometimes require contributing what has been earned through human labor, the gift of oneself is of greater value. After all, the debt incurred by sin wasn't paid in the currency of the world but in the flesh of Christ. ~ Fr. Gary Caster, The Little Way of Lent

Newspeak Update: War - Kinetic Military Action

My apologies to Edwin Starr but it must be tough to be an anti war song writer at the moment. (the original is on the sidebar for those too young to remember this song)

Kinetic Military Action! huh-yeah
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Uh-huh

Kinetic Military Action! huh good God
What is it good for?
Absolutely nothing
Listen to me?

Kinetic Military Action ! It ain't nothing but a heartbreaker
Kinetic Military Action ! Friend only to the undertaker
Kinetic Military Action ! It's an enemy to all mankind
The thought of Kinetic Military Action  blows my mind.

Mission Impossible Squirrel

This came across the facebook page today and I just want to pass it along to my brother and his pecan eating squirrel friends. Steven, you cant win they are just too darn smart!

On to the shores of Tripoli

It wasn't that long ago, back when there was still a semblance of reason in the world,  that John Swiftboat Kerry and Hillary Red Queen Clinton were beating the former Republican President about the head and shoulders with claims that he had put our troops smack dab in the middle of a civil war. Meanwhile Senator Present was campaigning on a platform of "No force unless US interests are directly threatened."That was evidently before we tumbled down the rabbit hole.

Now we find Kerry way out in front on the Libya no fly zone idea while the Chicky Hawks in the administration Clinton, Powers, and Rice  (the ones with the big brass ones evidently) spent the week strong arming now President Present to intervene in Libya against the better judgement of his SecDef and others.

Their argument wasn't that we had some pressing national interest, threat to national security, or even a goal to unseat Q-daffy, instead we needed to do this for strictly humanitarian reasons.

The irony of this doctrine is evidently lost on these people. We are going to kill a bunch of Libyans, quite probably women and children so that a dictator doesn't kill a bunch of Libyans, quite probably women and children

Tyrants are violently suppressing freedom in any number of places around the world so according to this new Obama Doctrine it only follows that we should be chucking a few Tomahawks at the likes of Bahrain, Ivory Coast, Darfur, Egypt, Iran or taken to the logical end,  the mother of all tyrants China.

Without a clear national interest we open the door to war on a whim which is a dangerous precedent.
.

Red Dawn 2011

Wanted Poster Courtesy: Red Dawn 2011

Review here. Beware of Spoilers

The movie was scheduled for last year but it went back to the cutting room to make it less offensive to our overlords.... errr bondholders errr. Our friends the Chicoms. Damn, my  rebel nature is why I spent every afternoon cleaning erasers in sixth grade and why I'll inevitably end up in someones re-education camp!

I'm looking forward to this release, but I see Hollywood couldn't resist the  American resistance fighter wearing a keffiyeh. Whats up with that?

Update 3/20 : Gutfeld lambasts Hollywood whimps.

How Bout We Leave the Kids Out of It...

...and let them be kids instead of pawns. During the recent Madison protests I cringed when I saw people showing up with kids in strollers considering the passions, participants, and the possibility of events spiralling out of control.

I was equally appalled that teachers encouraged their students to participate in the protests. Its one thing to be an idiot with your own kids its entirely reprehensible to be an idiot with someone else's. A teachers first priority is to ensure that the  kids are in a safe enviroment. Hangin with union thugs doesnt qualify.

Then the a few days ago we find  kids chanting union slogans in the Wisconsin Capital. I asked my liberal friend if this wasn't some form of child abuse since the kids were essentially being manipulated. His reply was they were getting a first hand look at democracy in action, like it was some sort of teachable moment. The kids were six I dont think they got it.

This morning I see that kids as young as 5 are being dressed up and paraded around the Arizona capital to make some point about immigration. From the Huffington Post:

Call it Arizona's Shock Doctrine.

And the children are the shock troops.

They dressed as firefighters, doctors, lawyers, police officers, pilots and scientists. They carried signs, including a 30-foot banner of colorful hand prints. They marched along the Arizona Capitol grounds, singing "This Little Light of Mine."

If these morons had a hint of self awareness  perhaps they could see how fascistly repugnant this tactic is. After all they are not the first to use children to meet their ends.

Japan

Our hearts and prayers are with the people of Japan in this time of tragedy.

How long before some idiot calls it divine retribution or something?

Update 3/15- Well That didnt take long, from the Church of the Everlasting Goracle

Climate Change Advocates Glom Onto Tsunami to Advance Arguments

The Salmon son heads back to Afghanistan today after two weeks of leave. Be safe Justin, we love you.

Iditarod Sunday

The run up the Yukon River has a way of sorting out the wheat from the chaff in any given year. Of the three racers to watch in my last post, only Hugh Neff is still hanging with the leaders in fourth place.

Martin Buser, as has been his m.o. for the past several years, looked strong at the start but began his fade in the middle. And as has happened to every four time winner, Lance Mackey may be witnessing the end of the Mackey dynasty, four in a row and there aint no more. He is now running with Martin around 12th position.

There looks to be four mushers out in front making a race of it as they reach the coast and of the top nine mushers none have previously won the race. Go underdogs!

How hard is to win five races? It has only been done once before, by Musher Rick Swenson and how he won is one of the legends of Iditarod history. This was back in the day when the feud between Rick and Susan Butcher was as much fun to watch as the race itself. A walk down Iditarod memory lane  From the New York Times, March 1991.

NOME, Alaska, March 15— On a day when the wind and the snow blowing off the Bering Sea Coast were so severe that he thought he might be risking his life, Rick Swenson of Two Rivers covered the final 77 miles to this historic gold-rush town and won the 19th annual Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race early this morning.


By mushing his team through temperatures of 20 degrees below zero and winds of 40 miles per hour when most of the chief competitors turned back to shelter, Swenson became the first five-time winner of the 1,163-mile race from Anchorage to Nome.

Swenson, who last won the event in 1982, finished in 12 days 16 hours 34 minutes 39 seconds to win $50,000 and a new truck. In 16 Iditarod competitions, he has never finished out of the top 10. Boldness Is Rewarded

The victory rewarded Swenson's boldness in mushing his dog team into a bitter winter storm from White Mountain, the next-to-last checkpoint, and deflecting the challenge of his chief rival, Susan Butcher of Eureka, who was seeking to become the top-winning Iditarod competitor.

Butcher, winner of four of the last five Iditarods, and the event record-holder with a time of 11 days 1 hour 53 minutes was one of three front-runners who headed into the bad weather, but then turned back early Thursday morning. Before the storm, she was viewed as the likely winner.

"If I was going to walk, I wasn't going to turn back," said Swenson. "As long as I stayed on the trail, I wasn't going to die."
Butcher finished third, five and a half hours behind Swenson.

You couldn't tell if you were going up, down or sideways," said Swenson of the worst stretches of trail. "You couldn't tell anything. I never worked so hard for anything in my life. It was a little scary and it was stressful. It was not a pleasant night."

Swenson, 40 years old, said he did not even know that the others had gone back, but he was determined to push on. "There was no prize in White Mountain," he said.

Swenson expressed surprise that Butcher didn't fight the storm. "She's gonna have to get six now if she wants to be top dog," he said.

Butcher, in a concession speech at White Mountain, said she was "very, very, very happy for Rick."

Susan quit racing after the 1994 race to concentrate on family, while Swenson has continued to race year after year. (Susan passed away from cancer in 2006). In this 1996 interview Swenson describes the single minded attention to your dogs that it takes to be competitive. That and age seems to be the determining factor in putting together multiple wins in this the "Toughest race on Earth.
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Leader John Baker of Kotzebue

The race today is led by Alaska Native John Baker who has built a two hour lead over the rest of the field.  Bio from Iditrod.com:

John Baker, 48, was born and raised in Kotzebue, Alaska. He began mushing in 1995 and was interested in the Iditarod after watching the Race in its early years. He ran his first Iditarod in 1996 and has been in every race since. He has 11 top ten Iditarod finishes, and in 2010 won both the Kusko 300 and the Kobuk 440.

Race Standings Here

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Annual Salmon Hat Tip to the Iditarod Air Force which makes the race possible.

Weight and Balance? If it fits it flies.

Fuel;  gas, kerosene, propane and gallons of Heet.

Iditarod Day Five

The Iditarod Rush Hour

At about midnight Alaska time last night the Takotna Dam finally let loose and the pack of mushers spending their 24 hour layovers there poured out onto the trail once again. Musher Trent Herbst pushed on to Iditarod to earn the halfway prize of $4000 but he is about to be deluged with the flood of mushers now bearing down on the ghost town. As the screenshot shows this is the closest this part of Alaska gets to a rush hour as about 25 teams make the trek from Ophir to Iditarod.

The racers to watch and the first three of the pack into Iditarod.

4 Time Champ Martin Buser

Been a while since Buser was the first under the Burled Arch is he back?

Hugh Neff- Placed 9th last year. Can he hang with the big dogs?

4 Time Winner Lance Mackey-

Cool Pic courtesy the Anchorage Daily News

Northern Lights over Tokatna

Iditarod Update

From the You Got To Be Tough in the North Country Department: Swenson says mushing with apparently broken collar bone is "not so bad" (Anchorage Daily News)

Rolling up plastic for his dog sled runners? That's hard. Lifting his left arm above his chest? That hurts.
But mushing with what appears to be a broken collar bone isn't as bad as five-time Iditarod champion Rick Swenson expected.
"It’s painful, but as long as I keep my arm down as low as possible below my chest and don’t try to reach out very far it’s not so bad," he said, clacking two bricks of frozen meat together beside his sled. "I’m surprised actually.”
Swenson was one of several mushers to wipe out at the notorious Happy River Valley steps before the Rainy Pass checkpoint. He heard something pop, he said, and a physicians assistant at the checkpoint said he indeed appeared to have a broken collarbone.
“I’m a little slower, because of it, but I think I’m doing a good job," he said

I was pulling for Rick to make a comeback and add to his 5 victories before Mackey or Buser tied him this year. As it looks now I don't see how he can possibly be competitive. Hang in there Rick.

The leaders look like they have decided to enjoy the next twenty four hours hanging out in beautiful downtown Takotna for the mandatory layover.

From ITC - Tokatna - Population 51 -- Situated on the banks of the Takotna River, this town has a store and a restaurant. This is one of the smallest towns with one of the biggest welcomes.

Martin Buser (15 dogs) has been setting the pace followed by Mackey (12 dogs) an hour and a half later. Four would be contenders pushed on to Ophir but the leaders will certainly blow past them just as soon as the layover is done around 8pm ADT.  Leader Board HERE

The weather is predicted to be clear and relatively balmy for the next few days so this could turn into a real sprint once the mushers hit the coast.

A few Pics stolen from courtesy the Anchorage Daily News.

Mt. Denali and Foraker in the Distance

The Checkpoint at Nicoli

Mushing Through Rainy Pass

Iditarod 2011

I couldnt drag my team away from the hydrant so I am a couple days late with the annual Salmon Iditarod Coverage. Once again the lady that lets me live with her has treated me to the Iditarod Insider Package and the racer GPS live tracker.

The race began from Willow Sunday morning with 63 mushers. Four time champ Martin Buser led the pack into Nicoli today 243 miles down the trail. One hundred seventeen miles back is the Red Lantern and musher Robert Story. As the screen shot shows, that's one long line of dog doo.

Links:
Iditarod Trail Official Site
Interactive Map Courtesy the Anchorage Daily News

The  man to beat, the winner of four consecutive races, Lance Mackey,

From the Pictures Worth a Thousand Words Department

UPDATE: Whats in a Wave?

It looks like the folks in Libya didn't hear President Obama's Cairo speech; lumping our own dear leader in with despots like  King Abdullah, Hansi Mubarak, and Colonel Q-daffy. But wait... who's that turbaned fellow back row center with the big shit eatin grin? Why, its none other than the stalwart of Lebonese democracy, Hassan Nasrallah of Hezbollah fame. What the heck is he doing there?

Hard to Tell the Fascists Without a Scorecard
(Via RedState)

The Only Chart You Need to See Why the US is Screwed ( Courtesy of Business Daily via Maggie's Farm)



Iditarod Fever

I got the fever, Iditarod fever that is. Its time to shake off those winter blues and gear up for the start of Iditarod 2011. One week from today 62 mushers including 13 rookies and 15 women will leave Anchorage for the adventure of a lifetime.

Lance Mackey of Fairbanks is back with hopes of making it five unbelievable wins in a row, and tying the record of Rick Swenson of Two Rivers.

Race coverage will begin next Saturday but in the meantime here is a Iditarod Preview courtesy the Iditarod Trail Committee

Banana Republic

Caution: This is really loud. But I guess Anarchy always is.

Koch in a Can

A teacher unionist friend of mine forwarded the above cartoon but added that it should have read "Koch (Coke)" in a can" instead of Price Albert. Now that would be a funny twist on a liberal talking point, unfortunately I don't think there are any funny liberal cartoonists (see example above.)

According to the women that lets me live with her, I am the funniest guy I know,  so I replied to him...

Randi Weingarten and Richard Trumbka run into each other in Madison and Randi says to Richard, "Hey Rich,  Is that a Democrat Politician in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?"

Now thats funny!

The Roots of Democracy

The other day I stole a quote from CK Chestertonin in a piece about the Egyptian brouhaha. CK once wrote “You can never have a revolution in order to establish a democracy, you must have a democracy in order to have a revolution.” Today Jerry Brower at Forbes expands this idea in a piece titled, Democracy: The God that Failed.

One of the tenets of classical political theory is that people get the government they want, which means they ultimately get the government they deserve. This does not just apply to democracies that are based on an explicit commitment to the “consent of the governed,” but it applies to other types of regimes as well

A monarchy, or even a dictatorship, still depends on the consent of the governed. The people can, and often have, refused to submit to an autocrat who strays too far from the zone of the people’s consent. Coups, civil wars, mass exoduses, disintegration's, and anarchies are just some of the tools that the people have used to withdraw consent from regimes to which they no longer can offer loyalty. Democracy doesn’t create a situation in which consent can be withdrawn–it simply institutionalizes the transition, creating a situation in which consent can be withdrawn without the bloodshed associated with regime change in non-democratic orders. In other words, the ballot is cheaper than the bullet.

This is why revolutions so seldom make things any better; they change governments but don’t change people. A revolution exchanges one group of rulers for another, without exchanging one group of rules for another. History is strewn with the corpses of stillborn liberal democracies starting with France in 1789, which attempted to imitate the United States experiment in self-government without supplying the spiritual, cultural and legal foundation that ensured its success.

Pity the poor disparaged French. They had all the ingredients of a successful liberal revolution right at their fingertips; they had Thomas Paine who brought along his experience in Americas revolution, they had the works of Montesquieu the philosophical backbone of the American experiment, and they had a motivated populace longing to free themselves from the tyranny of the Monarch and his snotty cake eating wife.

Yet, the whole project went off the rails because of one simple miscalculation. Instead of the triad of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness (or property)  they opted for Liberty, Equality, and Fraternity. Now two of these things belongs with the other, but one of these things just doesn't belong. Liberty and equality can co-exist harmoniously as long as equality doesn't morph into equity. Fraternity on the other hand is problematic; and people have been loosing their heads (figuratively and literally) over being communal ever since.

But this little foo pah should have come as no surprise. Unlike America who  had the English political experience and 150 years of benign neglect to build the democratic institutions necessary to sustain a republic the French had no such experience. They were drawing on their own experiences, their own ideals,  and certainly the philosophy of that other great French thinker JJ Rousseau who wrote:

The first man who, having enclosed a piece of ground, bethought himself of saying This is mine, and found people simple enough to believe him, was the real founder of civil society. From how many crimes, wars, and murders, from how many horrors and misfortunes might not any one have saved mankind, by pulling up the stakes, or filling up the ditch, and crying to his fellows: Beware of listening to this impostor; you are undone if you once forget that the fruits of the earth belong to us all, and the earth itself to nobody.  

I have no doubt that the people of the Mideast have that innate human desire to be free from tyranny but what are the experiences, ideals, and philosophies that will underpin the end result. Perhaps they will surprise us all but if the French couldn't pull it off who can?

News from Madistan

We have relatives in Madison and rumor has it that the Democratic Senators have slipped across the border into Iowa. My guess is they are hiding out at one of the casinos in Dubuque, probably playing with someone elses money.

I was wondering how long the teachers would be allowed to disrupt the little cheeseheads schooling before Governor Walker could terminate them for an illegal strike. I could use a job.

There will be a rally in support of the Governor Walker Sunday at the Capital.
I STAND WITH SCOTT WALKER RALLY

And the Nobel Prize for Hackery goes to.....

A good but annoying friend of mine who regales me with his liberal Shinola on a regular basis just to pull my chain forwarded this Paul Krugman piece recently that just proves that if there were a Nobel prize for being a HACK, Krugman would get the lifetime achievement award.

He begins, "There was a time when Republicans used to refer to themselves, proudly, as “the party of Lincoln.” But you don’t hear that line much these days. Why?"

That's one dandy Straw Man if I ever heard one, and what death defying feat of mental dexterity is Krugman going to use to knock it down? Drum roll please.......

"The main answer, presumably, lies in the G.O.P.’s decision, long ago, to seek votes from Southerners angered by the end of legal segregation."

Ta-daaaa, the Republicans all became racists in 1968. Who didn't see that one coming?

It seems that the only ones interested in racist hate are those that benefit from keeping a portion of the constituency in a state of racial hatred. They would like the useful idiots to believe that the Republicans are merely a  rag tag bunch of backward southern Klansman despite the fact  that evidence proves otherwise.

Governors - Republican 29-20-1
State Upper House Majority- Republican 27-21-1-1
State Lower House Majority- Republican 30-18-1
U.S. Senate- Democratic  51-47-2
U.S. House of Representatives Republican 242-193 

There is obviously  widespread Republican support outside the 13 States of the Confederacy. Hell, even Wisconsin has seen the light and rejected the politics of Robert LaFollette.

With the upcoiming Civil War Sesquicentennial rest assured that Krugmen et. al. will be draping Republicans in the Stars and Bars  on a regular basis.

Update: Juan Williams is sickened by the leftist racism too.

Thoughts on Egypt and Revolution.

I realize I haven’t written anything substantial for quite some time but this has been rattling around in the old melon since the start of the Egyptian kerfuffle.


When this thing so unexpected began catching everyone flatfooted I remembered a piece by GK Chesterton where he compared revolutions to the wind blowing through the trees. A child might mistakenly think that it is the tree that makes the wind but we (or most of us) know that  it is the wind that causes the tree to move.

Like the tree on a windy day what we saw on the streets of Cairo was not the revolution, but merely the outward expression of the revolution. The revolution had already taken place  before anyone, except maybe Mubarak knew it was coming. Chesterton writes, “Mobs pouring through the palaces, blood pouring down the gutters, the guillotine lifted higher than the throne, a prison in ruins, a people in arms—these things are not a revolution, but the results of the revolution.”

The Obama administration which never seems to be able to judge which way the wind is blowing was left twisting. The right, ever the realists, was sure that this could only end with a different flavor of despotism. The left media placed their bets on democracy even though an Pharaonic Thomas Jefferson was nowhere to be found. As Chesterton notes, “You can never have a revolution in order to establish a democracy, you must have a democracy in order to have a revolution.” There is little glimmer of that in the Arab world.

So despite everyones best guess, it wasn’t the supposedly reformed Brotherhood or the Egyptian huddled masses longing to be free; it was the military that saw the reign of an 82 year old dictator coming to the end and was not willing to pass the torch to the next generation of el Mubarak.

Mubarak, who has spent his life gauging and sometimes standing headstrong against these Arab winds recognized what was driving them this time and he tried to face it down once more. We will probably never know if the old despot really had a stroke or succumbed to lead poisoning but the militaries revolution looks like it has succeeded. Egypt went thought what looked like a hell of a blow but if history  is any indication it is probably safe to say that  the status quo came through it intact. Move along folks there is nothing more see here.

Obama Budget Cuts Visualization

Cinderella

Will bring a tear to the eye of everyone that has a Cinderella of their own. Enjoy.

Dennis Miller Speech

Dennis Miller is probably the most intellectual comic out there, who skillfully weaves often obscure but hilarious similes into his astute social observations. He once noted about Harry Reid that every time he sees the man he "expects CSI to run out and draw a chalk outline around him." This clip like a  fine wine starts out strong,  a little dry in the middle, but has a fine robust finish.