I still don’t know why the three young men were carrying it up the street, but I found it and didn’t imagine it after all.
It was at the side of a house down the street and across the cross street. A house where the kids go to jump on the trampoline…
click to embiggen
Happy Columbus Day!
In fourteen hundred ninety-two
Columbus sailed the ocean blue.
He had three ships and left from Spain;
He sailed through sunshine, wind and rain.
He sailed by night; he sailed by day;
He used the stars to find his way.
A compass also helped him know
How to find the way to go.
Ninety sailors were on board;
Some men worked while others snored.
Then the workers went to sleep;
And others watched the ocean deep.
Day after day they looked for land;
They dreamed of trees and rocks and sand.
October 12 their dream came true,
You never saw a happier crew!
“Indians! Indians!” Columbus cried;
His heart was filled with joyful pride.
But “India” the land was not;
It was the Bahamas, and it was hot.
The Arakawa natives were very nice;
They gave the sailors food and spice.
Columbus sailed on to find some gold
To bring back home, as he’d been told.
He made the trip again and again,
Trading gold to bring to Spain.
The first American? No, not quite.
But Columbus was brave, and he was bright.
Found at My Life, or Something Like It.
There are those, including some of America’s aboriginal peoples, who protest Columbus Day. These protesters feel that the land was “stolen” from the aboriginal people. I have to admit that the Europeans who came here were not always “angels” but neither were they “devils”. Manhattan was purchased. We may not think that the purchase price was fair, even the Dutch probably thought they were getting a great deal, but the purchase price was set by, or at the very least accepted by, the seller.
Europeans came to a land where the native peoples were still living a hunter/gatherer lifestyle for the most part. Their own civilizations rose and fell – the Anasazi abandoned their “city” hundreds of years before the Europeans came.
We are all Americans. Of Indian, European, African, Asian, Arab, or whatever descent. This land would have been settled by others than the aborigines at some point in time, it just so happened to happen 500 years ago, with a voyage underwritten by Queen Isabella of Spain on a search for a western route to India.
Happy Columbus Day.
It’s a beautiful afternoon, the kids were out of school early, and I had a bunch of kids in my house.
I looked out the window and there were three young men walking up the street. One was carrying a very large wooden cross. It looked like it was made of 4×4 lumber. The cross was at least 8 feet tall, and could have been 10-12 feet tall. There was one wheel, like a caster, on the bottom of the cross so it wouldn’t drag.
I wish I would have gotten a picture of them, but they went by pretty fast and I have no idea where they went from here, or where they came from in the first place.
This is what they reminded me of:
Fraudulent registrations don’t really matter because they don’t lead to voter fraud on election day.
That’s what Chris Sautter, Democratic Attorney is saying on this video from Studio B.
“But who is going to turn up? Is Terrell Owens going to turn up in Las Vegas with an ID that says that he’s Terrell Owens? That’s not gonna happen.”
Mr. Sautter, that only works where a photo ID is required when going to the voting booth on Election Day.
In Indiana, where a photo ID is required, voting under someone else’s name is indeed difficult if not impossible.
It doesn’t work when, as in Illinois, one need only give the poll workers a name that the poll worker can find a sheet in their book for.
This goes along with my post on registration deadlines. A four week deadline is perfectly acceptable and there is no need for same day registration and voting anytime, anywhere. It only leads to fraud.
And look how hard photo ID laws have been fought against by the likes of Acorn and their friends. They’ve been fought against because it makes it more difficult to actually cast a fraudulent vote on election day.
Little Guy wants to be Speed Racer this year. I’ve been looking at costumes at Amazon’s Halloween Costume Shop, but I can’t seem to find one in the right size.
Looking at the costume, however, I might be able to make one for him. It’s white pants with a white and blue jacket, and a hat or helmet.
Last year I made a costume for Raven, my Shih Tzu:
Raven as Dorothy and Toto
There’s even “ruby slippers” – although she didn’t like those at all, at all. Little guy wants me to dress up this year to give out the treats. I have to decided what it is I want to dress up as.
Today is the last day to register to vote in the State of Illinois.
If you are a citizen and will be 18 years old on or before November 4, 2008 you can register to vote now for the election on November 4th.
There is no reason that anyone anywhere should have to register any later than four weeks prior to an election.
If you’re under 18 now, but will be 18 by the election – register now.
If you’re going to move in the last four weeks before the election, either early vote in your old precinct or vote absentee there. Then register with your new address in your new precinct after Election Day and you’ll be set for the next election in your new precinct.
If you’re getting married or divorced and will be changing your name, between now and then, go ahead and vote under the old name for this cycle and make the changes just after Election Day.
Same day registration and voting is just unnecessary. It isn’t as if Elections are sprung up on people. They are planned far in advance. Even special elections are planned with enough advance notice that people can be registered in advance of the election.
Same day registration is voter fraud waiting to happen.
Kudos to Shelly Mandel the president of the LA chapter of NOW.
About Sarah Palin she said: “America, this is what a feminist looks like.”
Read the rest and see the video at Wizbang!
Congrats to my cousin Robin and her new husband Todd, newly married on Saturday! My daughter kept calling the bride “Princess” and she did look like one.
I got an email today almost identical to the one noted in this post except that it says it’s from Fox News
The sender is Moin with a subject line of Autumn savings here.
The body has a grey background and an image that I refuse to download.
This message was sent to {email address}
Unsubscribe | Manage Subscriptions | Privacy
To stop ALL email from Fox News Newsletters, click here to remove yourself from our lists.
This email was sent by: FOX News Network, LLC. 1211 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY. All Rights Reserved.
All the links in this one go to watchpurpose.com/login/process.asp?user={email addy}&token{some number}
From the CNN transcript of the debate (emphasis mine):
{Biden} Number two, with regard to bankruptcy now, Gwen, what we should be doing now — and Barack Obama and I support it — we should be allowing bankruptcy courts to be able to re-adjust not just the interest rate you’re paying on your mortgage to be able to stay in your home, but be able to adjust the principal that you owe, the principal that you owe.
That would keep people in their homes, actually help banks by keeping it from going under. But John McCain, as I understand it — I’m not sure of this, but I believe John McCain and the governor don’t support that.
I seemed to have been a little prescient with my post of a few days ago.
But Obama and Biden only want to reward those who can’t or don’t or won’t pay their bills and declare bankruptcy with a readjustment for not only the interest amounts that were contracted for, but also to reduce the amount owed! So if you bought that $300K house and you could only afford a $100K house, Obama and Biden are saying that a bankruptcy judge could arbitrarily reduce the amount the owed on the house to whatever the judge wants.
This will make it harder and harder for Joe Sixpack who pays his bills to get a mortgage. What bank will issue mortgages (secured by the value of the home and land it sits on) if said value can be reduced at any time?
When one receives a mortgage, the bank pays the seller of the home the amount that you contract for when one purchases the home. If that amount is subsequently reduced via judicial fiat, it’s a straight out loss for the bank. If the bank pays $300K to the seller and you’ve paid a little towards the principle (remembering that early in the life of the mortgage one’s payment is split with a majority of the payment going towards interest) and a judge just reduces the principle to, say, $150K, the bank has lost that $150K less the small amount of your payments that have been applied towards the principle.
The bank covers much of its overhead through the interest rates it charges to loan you money. So a reduction in the interest rate also bites into the bank’s bottom line, further reducing incentive to issue mortgages even to people with good credit.
Talk about a financial crisis. That policy would just make it worse.
Via Dafydd at Big Lizards we find an article from AP that states:
Bleak data released overnight in the U.S. added to fears for the world’s largest economy. Auto sales plummeted, and a key measure of U.S. manufacturing activity hit its lowest level since the aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2002 terrorist attacks.
Below is a screen shot including the url of the page.
The pertinent paragraph is below the Tidal TV ad (I’ve highlighted it below).
Click image for full size.
Is the AP from this planet?
