Children have dreamed of blasting off into space ever since the first moonwalk, and now a new generation of astronauts is looking to the stars, encouraged by President Bush's initiative to send man back up and on to Mars.
From a speech made by Capt. John S. McCain, USN, (Ret) who represents Arizona in the U.S. Senate:
As you may know, I spent five and one half years as a prisoner of war during the Vietnam War. In the early years of our imprisonment, the NVA kept us in solitary confinement or two or three to a cell. In 1971 the NVA moved us from these conditions of isolation into large rooms with as many as 30 to 40 men to a room. This was, as you can imagine, a wonderful change and was a direct result of the efforts of millions of Americans on behalf of a few hundred POWs 10,000 miles from home.
One of the men who moved into my room was a young man named Mike Christian.
Mike came from a small town near Selma, Alabama. He didn't wear a pair of shoes until he was 13 years old. At 17, he enlisted in the US Navy. He later earned a commission by going to Officer Training School. Then he became a Naval Flight Officer and was shot down and captured in 1967.
Mike had a keen and deep appreciation of the opportunities this country-and our military-provide for people who want to work and want to succeed. As part of the change in treatment, the Vietnamese allowed some prisoners to receive packages from home. In some of these packages were handkerchiefs, scarves and other items of clothing. Mike got himself a bamboo needle. Over a period of a couple of months, he created an American flag and sewed on the inside of his shirt.
Every afternoon, before we had a bowl of soup, we would hang Mike's shirt on the wall of the cell and say the Pledge of Allegiance. I know the Pledge of Allegiance may not seem the most important part of our day now, but I can assure you that in that stark cell it was indeed the most important and meaningful event.
One day the Vietnamese searched our cell, as they did periodically, and discovered Mike's shirt with the flag sewn inside, and removed it. That evening they returned, opened the door of the cell, and for the benefit of all us, beat Mike Christian severely for the next couple of hours. Then, they opened the door of the cell and threw him in. We cleaned him up as well as we could.
The cell in which we lived had a concrete slab in the middle on which we slept. Four naked light bulbs hung in each corner of the room. As I said, we tried to clean up Mike as well as we could. After the excitement died down, I looked in the corner of the room, and sitting there beneath that dim light bulb with a piece of red cloth, another shirt and his bamboo needle, was my friend, Mike Christian. He was sitting there with his eyes almost shut from the beating he had received, making another American flag.
He was not making the flag because it made Mike Christian feel better. He was making that flag because he knew how important it was to us to be able to pledge allegiance to our flag and our country.
So the next time you say the Pledge of Allegiance, you must never forget the sacrifice and courage that thousands of Americans have made to build our nation and promote freedom around the world. You must remember our duty, our honor, and our country.
"I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all."
This is the definition of irrational optimism as states actually expect Internet buyers to voluntary pay the sales tax on their purchases.
What? You didn't know you were "supposed" to pay those taxes?
Statistics of prebleny.com February 10th, 2004Thank you!
50% more daily visits to the site, over average!
40 times more bandwidth used, over average!
Biggest single day of visits since I moved to the new server, by a wide margin!
BAIT AND SWITCH WATCH:more...
"Mr. Bush said repeatedly that he went to the United Nations seeking a diplomatic alternative to war. In fact, the United States rejected all diplomatic alternatives at the time, severely damaging relations with some of its most important and loyal allies." - New York Times editorial. February 9 2004.
"Yesterday's unanimous vote at the United Nations Security Council sends the strongest possible message to Baghdad...This is a well-deserved triumph for President Bush, a tribute to eight weeks of patient but determined and coercive American diplomacy…Only if the council fails to approve the serious consequences it now invokes -- generally understood to be military measures -- should Washington consider acting alone." - New York Times editorial, November 9, 2002.
I listened to this guy on the new Dennis Miller show on CNBC, (9 PM evenings) and he was brilliant. This article is a very good read.
I was struck with the viciousness of Peter Knapp's attack on Dawn Lewis at the town board meeting. This is in stark contrast to the way he acted when I, a man, confronted him during the public comments. I stood in front of the board and as soon as I mentioned Peters name, Betty Pitman stopped me, and told me not to talk to Peter but to address my comments to her. While she was saying this Peter cowered behind her, like a little boy hiding behind his mothers skirts. It seems that Peter has no trouble attacking women but when a real man confronts him he hides behind a woman's skirts. And while Peter did not get the majority of legitimate votes and is not, in my opinion, a legitimately elected town board member. He is a legal town board member and as such, I have the right to address him during public comments and Betty Pitman has no legal right to stop me. Now she may feel the need to protect Peter from a real man but that doesn't change the law. If Peter wants to stay on the board then he will have to deal with me. If he isn't man enough to take it, then he should stop hiding behind Betty's skirts and get off the board.
WASHINGTON — The White House, facing election-year questions about President Bush's (search) military service, is releasing pay records and other information intended to support his assertion that he fulfilled his duty as a member of the Air National Guard (search) during the Vietnam war.more...
The material, to be released Tuesday, was to include pay records and annual retirement point summaries to show that Bush served.
"These records clearly document that the president fulfilled his duty," White House press secretary Scott McClellan said.
I haven't had this much fun since I discovered girls.
Last nights Town Board meeting, all 2 hours of it, was a hoot. Full of drama, emotions flared, and humor, especially for me. The issues: My recording the meeting, Rittenhouse Road, Burn Barrels, The ignorance of Peter Knapp, (Is it name calling or just the proper description) and finally... A TEN percent property tax assessment increase. I recorded it all and if you have the two hours to kill you can listen to it, but I have a better idea. First use the download link and download the audio file to your disk. Then use Quicktime to listen to it. Here's why. On the Mac and as Quicktime is a free download from Apple for the PC, I assume it's the same there too, you can select which time frame to listen too. Below you will see at what points in the audio file those events occurred so you can skip over the dull stuff and get to the real meat of the meeting. Here's a hint using Quicktime: Move the window to the far left and then drag the lower right cornet to the far right. This makes the window bigger and that makes it easier to move the pointer in small increments. Look at the time displayed on the left as you move the pointer till it matches the timeline below. Once at the right time click the start button. Remember to turn the volume up because the Town Board refused to allow me to have the recorder up front because they don't want you to know what they are saying. I tried, but you'll have to blame them when it's hard for you to hear them. Note: The recorder is hanging from a lanyard around my neck and every time I move it does too and you will hear that annoying noise. I'll make some adjustments for the next meeting to reduce or eliminate that. Of course if the town board would let me put the recorder on the table, all chewing gum pack size of it and all, this would not have been a problem.
Timeline:Why an across the board 10% increase is not evenly divided. The reason in a nutshell is that farmland has a maximum fixed taxable value of between $209 and $576 per acre. This is fixed by the state. No matter what the assessment is, it cannot be taxed more that $576 per acre. Even if it is worth $1500 per acre. If a farmer has land that has a taxable value of $10,000 and their house assessed at $100,000. The 10% increase will change his house to $110,000 but the "taxable" value of the land will stay at $10,000. If the assessment goes up then the rate per thousand goes down so the total tax collected is the same. BUT because the farmland cannot go up the farmer will pay the same for his home or slightly more, just like the rest of us, but his tax on the land will go down. In short this 10% tax assessment will cost everybody more by a small amount and cost the farmers less by a small amount. I'll try to get the exact information on that over time as I'm curious about it anyway. You will hear on the tape where Julie Ray suggests that I pay a fee to get this information. I think this is something the town board should get so they know what they are dealing with. The obvious question is just how much more will everybody else pay and how much less will the farmers pay. Sounds like information a board member should have before making a decision like this. And Peter Knapp should abstain from voting on this as he is a farmer and would benefit financially from this change.
00:00:00 Idle talk before the meeting, but interesting.
00:06:00 Start of meeting
00:06:20 Peter Knapp, Betty Pitman and Kate Edinger refuse to let me put the recorder on the front table. Note the nervous giggles from the women.
00:08:40 Phone rings. Mention is made that it's probably Dick, Betty and others laugh and no attempt is made to answer the phone. Turns out it's Julie Ray calling to say she will be late. (Board member Dick Martin was absent)
00:11:29 Rittenhouse's lawyer, Mr. Schafer addressed the board about turning their road over to the town.
00:27:06 He finishes and I ask to ask a question of Mr. Schafer before he leaves.
00:30:38 Betty calls for Dawn Lewis to make a presentation to the board about the burn barrel issue. This is worth a listen as it got hotter than a burning burn barrel in the room. I took a couple of pictures which I hope to have up soon. There were times when the board laughed at Dawn which really annoyed me as you will see later.
00:52:40 At this point Peter Knapp makes the dumbest remark I have ever heard. It prompted me to speak up. Peter claimed that a burn barrel was the same as an outdoor furnace. I said to him that his ignorance was complete and that he obviously didn't read any of the literature on the subject. Before this I considered Peter to be a smart man, but after tonight I may have to downgrade that opinion. There was ample evidence made available to him over the last three years on the subject and if he read it, and if he was reasonably intelligent, he would not have said what has to be the dumbest thing I have ever heard on the subject. Jeesh, I at least expect the board members to be familiar with a subject before they opine in such an ignorant way. Utterly amazing. You'll have to hear it for yourself to believe it.
00:57:53 Dawn sat down but the issue wasn't over.
01:01:10 John Steger was asked for his report. John is the County Legislator for Preble and Scott.
01:05:27 Public Comments. (Turn your volume down.) This is when I get to address the board. You will see that Betty lost her temper and jumped all over me at the first possible moment. She was loaded for bear, you could see it in her eyes.
01:07:20 After I tell Betty that the tapes of the meetings are public record and cannot be destroyed she tells me that they do indeed keep a copy of all of the tapes.
01:07:35 I chastise the board for laughing at Dawn when she was up at the front.
01:08:54 That ends and I sit down so turn your volume back up.
01:12:15 Betty announces a short break while we all wait for Julie Ray. I left the recorder on and some of the discussion with John Steger about burn barrels and other stuff is interesting. Plus there was some other very interesting comments about what went on. Including comments made by me that maybe I should not have recorded. But what the heck it's too hard to remove them so I left it.
01:16:40 John Steger's comments about burn barrels during the break. Saying he would outlaw burn barrels.
01:27:00 Julie Ray comes in and talks about the 10 percent property tax assessment increase.
01:41:35 (Volume down) I ask Julie a question and we have a long discussion about why a 10% increase will increase the costs to everybody but the farmers, whose taxes will go down. She agrees.
02:06:38 The end. About 10 PM.
2/9/2004 Town Board Meeting Audio - 29.1 MB ~ Play time 2 hours 6 min 39 sec
This page will play the audio.
Right click on this link to download the audio file.
SAO PAULO, Brazil (AP) - A New Jersey man fined more than $17,000 for making an obscene gesture during fingerprinting procedures for U.S. citizens in Brazil headed home Sunday, police said.more...
The Preble NY web site. News, information and opinion from and about Preble, a small town of 1500 souls halfway between Syracuse and Cortland New York.
Since June 2, 2000
by Frank Hogg
Now in our FIFTH year!
I'm in a constant state of not losing weight.
