Huckabee for President

See for yourself where Mike stands on the issues.

Team Hoyt

Watch the video: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YTUSB6eBoFs&feature=related

Excerpts from the full story:

Dick and Rick Hoyt are a father-and-son team from Massachusetts who together compete just about continuously in marathon races. And if they’re not in a marathon they are in a triathlon — that daunting, almost superhuman, combination of 26.2 miles of running, 112 miles of bicycling, and 2.4 miles of swimming. Together they have climbed mountains, and once trekked 3,735 miles across America.

It’s a remarkable record of exertion — all the more so when you consider that Rick can't walk or talk.

At Rick’s birth in 1962 the umbilical cord coiled around his neck and cut off oxygen to his brain. Dick and his wife, Judy, were told that there would be no hope for their child’s development.
"It’s been a story of exclusion ever since he was born," Dick told me. "When he was eight months old the doctors told us we should just put him away — he’d be a vegetable all his life, that sort of thing. Well those doctors are not alive any more, but I would like them to be able to see Rick now."

A group of Tufts University engineers came to the rescue, once they had seen some clear, empirical evidence of Rick’s comprehension skills. "They told him a joke," said Dick. "Rick just cracked up. They knew then that he could communicate!" The engineers went on to build — using $5,000 the family managed to raise in 1972 - an interactive computer that would allow Rick to write out his thoughts using the slight head-movements that he could manage. Rick came to call it "my communicator." A cursor would move across a screen filled with rows of letters, and when the cursor highlighted a letter that Rick wanted, he would click a switch with the side of his head.

When the computer was originally brought home, Rick surprised his family with his first "spoken" words. They had expected perhaps "Hi, Mom" or "Hi, Dad." But on the screen Rick wrote "Go Bruins." "So we learned then that Rick loved sports," said Dick.

In 1975, Rick was finally admitted into a public school. Two years later, he told his father he wanted to participate in a five-mile benefit run for a local lacrosse player who had been paralyzed in an accident. Dick, far from being a long-distance runner, agreed to push Rick in his wheelchair. They finished next to last, but they felt they had achieved a triumph. That night, Dick remembers, "Rick told us he just didn’t feel handicapped when we were competing."

They have been competing ever since, at home and increasingly abroad. Generally they manage to improve their finishing times. "Rick is the one who inspires and motivates me, the way he just loves sports and competing," Dick said.

And the business of inspiring evidently works as a two-way street. Rick typed out this testimony:
"Dad is one of my role models. Once he sets out to do something, Dad sticks to it whatever it is, until it is done. For example once we decided to really get into triathlons, dad worked out, up to five hours a day, five times a week, even when he was working."

Rick’s own accomplishments, quite apart from the duo’s continuing athletic success, have included his moving on from high school to Boston University, where he graduated in 1993 with a degree in special education.

http://teamhoyt.com/ for more

Bush: 'Worth it to try' on Mideast peace

WASHINGTON - Hours after opening a Mideast conference, President Bush said Tuesday he was worried about the consequences if the search for peace failed but declared, "It is worth it to try."

Bush cautioned it would take time for Israelis and Palestinians to reach an agreement. The goal is to reach an accord within 14 months by the end of Bush's presidency.


Are you fucking kidding me!!!! 14 months!!!! Excuse me I have to puke!!!





On other issues Bush said:

—Vice President Dick Cheney is "in good shape" despite a history of heart problems, including an episode of atrial fibrillation Monday that was corrected when doctors administered an electric shock to restore his normal heartbeat. Bush said his father had a similar condition and "jumped out of an airplane at age 83."

If only Cheney would do the same!!!


In opening the high-stakes Mideast peace conference, Bush read a joint agreement among Israeli and Palestinian leaders who pledged to reach a peace pact by the end of 2008. Negotiations would begin within weeks to establish a democratic Palestinian state that will live alongside Israel.

Oh thats good.....

Negotiations on the joint statement had broken down Monday night over one paragraph that the parties believed went too far into issues that are to be negotiated.

No way!! Just when you thought the negotiations were going good.


On Tuesday morning, Bush pulled Abbas and Olmert aside to impress upon them the need to issue a joint statement at the conference, and representatives from all three sides were dispatched from a larger meeting of the principals and their advisers to finish drafting it. They came to an agreement about 25 minutes later by simply taking out the disputed paragraph.

Wow that was easy!! Maybe it would only take 14 months to reach an agreement if the Israelis and Palestinians used this method to solve problems....... Ya think????

Are Smokers a Protected Class?

Shannon & Parks (980 AM) were discussing the recent attention Truman Medical Center has received regarding it's stance on employing smokers. I didn't listen long enough to get all the facts on this particular instance (not that either Shannon or Parks are a reliable source), but was able to gather the basic tenants of the discussion:

Should employers be allowed to discriminate against smokers?

At first blush, I would say "no" they can't, for a variety of reasons; but after 30 seconds of careful consideration, I now say "absolutely yes!"

Those that disagree with me are quick to throw out the slippery slope argument - "if you allow discrimination against smoking, what's next, can you discriminate against fat people too? How about ugly people, or people with bad breath? Where do you draw the line?"

To all of the above questions my answer is still yes - as an employer, you should be able to discriminate against them.

Before I go on, I must make it clear that I'm not an advocate of discriminating against the federally defined Protected Classes ... I'll save my thoughts on each of those for another time.

First, nobody is entitled to any particular job. It seems our society is becoming more and more of the mindset the it is our right as citizens to have certain things. Our right to have a job, our right to own a home, our right to have nice clothes, our right to have our butts kissed by service workers, the list goes on and on. Unfortunately though, the fact remains that none of theses things are our rights, but privileges to be earned, and then opportunities to be kept.

Each job, and each employer, has a certain set of requirements that don't always have to be pure skill sets, education, etc. These requirements can be personality attributes, physical appearances, health considerations, or whatever else that particular employers deems worthy or necessary for the position they have created - provided it meets all applicable laws.
It's widely accepted that people are associated with what they do for a living. Like it or not, that's one of the initial questions people ask each other upon first meeting and many things are assumed based on the answer. It's not unreasonable to believe that the same thing works in reverse for employers - assumptions are made and images are formed about the company based on the people that work there and how they behave or appear.

If you have ever applied for health or life insurance on your own, you know that it costs a lot more if you are a smoker, or if you are in poor health, or if you don't meet any number of other requirements the providers have. Companies who provide these benefits generally pick up some or all of the costs, which ultimately effects how each employee's wallet looks. If my employer could either pay more, or provide better benefits because they adopted a firm no smoking policy, I would be a huge supporter. For those co-workers of mine that smoke, they could either quit smoking or quit choosing to limit the benefits available to those that don't by finding a different job. If my company wanted to take it a step further and add a reasonable fitness or body weight requirement and increase my pay even more, again I would be a huge supporter. In fact, even if they didn't increase my pay or benefits, but added these policies just because they were concerned about the "image" of our organization - I would be okay with that too. (It would be unheard of them to do it for the personal health gains the employees might receive - how dare they want their employees to be healthy!) Yes, the obvious question again is - where do they draw line, what's to keep from requiring a 10% body fat maximum? And the answer is obvious as well - when people stop wanting to work there and they find themselves without productive employees, the restrictions and requirements will loosen.

Is a health club that doesn't hire fat people considered discriminatory? Should we call foul on the modeling agency that doesn't hire ugly people? How about the white-collared financial institution that has a strict policy against visible tattoos? What about a dental hygienist with yellowing teeth and miserable breath? If you owned a cigar bar, would you hire someone who didn't enjoy cigars? Unfortunately, I will probably not land a job at the new hip and fashionable store - they say bland, I say timeless. A slippery slope indeed, where do we draw the line?

Regardless of which side of the fence you sit on, it boils down to a simple question: Would you rather smoke than have a job? If you say "yes", you don't deserve to be hired. Ironically the woman who stirred this whole pot and brought about the media attention, was most upset about the whole situation because, "money is tight and I really needed the income." Hmmmm... if she can't figure out that smoking costs money and therefore contributes to the money problem, there's a strong chance that there are other reasons that she was fired.

Alice in Chains - Would? (Live Jools Holland 1993)

Captain Spaulding

Ya'll think us folk from the country's real funny-like, dontcha?

Pearl Jam

Go Eddie!!

Revisiting Quantrill's Guerilla War on Kansas Today

The New Powers In College Football Carry Old Baggage

As Showdown Looms,
Kansas and Missouri Fans
Re-Fight the Civil War
By ADAM THOMPSON
November 20, 2007; Page A1

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- As the universities of Kansas and Missouri prepare to play the most important football game in their 116-year-old rivalry, trash talking is rampant here in a metropolis that straddles both states.

Yet this isn't just the usual back-and-forth about which quarterback or defense is superior. Nor is it centered on the inevitable jokes about how many Kansas (or Missouri) students are needed to change a light bulb. Rather, this trash talking is focused on which state's residents behaved more abominably amid the Civil War.

Fans go back to the history books and start calling people names for things that started 150 years ago," says Kevin Worley, a Kansas City-based documentary filmmaker who isn't immune to that tendency himself. A die-hard Missouri fan, Mr. Worley suspects that "there's this ancestral hatred of Kansas bred in me" by a lineage traceable to soldiers who marched with Confederate general Jo Shelby.
[Kansas v. Missouri]

To most of the nation, the showdown Saturday between second-ranked Kansas and fourth-ranked Missouri will most likely determine which team will play in the national championship game. (To reach that final, the victor Saturday would need to win one subsequent game.)

But to many here on both sides of the state line, the game is merely a proxy for a war that never really ended. Perhaps no other football rivalry in the nation pits against each other states that once fought as brutally as did Kansas and Missouri. Evidence that the feud is ongoing can be seen on the back of Dave Hickerson, a Missouri fan who this weekend chomped a cigar in a Kansas City bar called the Velvet Dog.

He sported a University of Missouri football jersey that bore the name not of Chase Daniel, the team's spectacular quarterback. Rather it said Quantrill. A Missouri hero and Kansas villain, William Quantrill led a Rebel guerrilla unit that in 1863 burned and pillaged Lawrence, home of the University of Kansas, in the process slaughtering about 150 people, including children.

"I don't think there's anything redeeming to be said about [the jersey] except that it" angers Kansans, says Mr. Hickerson.

But Kansans have their own T-shirt that they hope will offend Missourians. The shirt says: "Kansas: Keeping America safe from Missouri since 1854." The shirt features a drawing of abolitionist John Brown, who before his famous raid on Harpers Ferry led murderous raids against farms and families in pro-slavery Missouri. "They're the slave state. We're the Free State. Look who won out in the end," says Heather Knox, a 25-year-old accountant and Kansas alumna who lives in Kansas City, Mo.

On the gridiron, theirs is the oldest major college rivalry west of the Mississippi River. Neither team is usually a contender for the national title; their showdown more often determines third- and fourth-place in the six-team North division of the Big 12 conference. But bitterness on the football field goes back a long ways. The two sides can't even agree on their series' all-time record. Missourians say the series is tied 53-53-9, while Kansans say they own a two-game lead. The point of contention is their 1960 meeting, which the Jayhawks won with ineligible players. That loss killed Missouri's best chance at a national title, and the Tigers have never again reached No. 1 in the polls.

The game Saturday will take place in a neutral site in the city -- Arrowhead Stadium, home of the Kansas City Chiefs professional franchise -- but nothing about it is expected to be neutral. A night-time kickoff means that fans will have plenty of time to drink beforehand. Arrowhead officials, who typically replace about 15 of the stadium's 80,000 seats following a Chiefs game, expect the Kansas-Missouri brawl to leave as many as 500 seats destroyed. Tickets with double-digit face values are selling for $300 online.

Neither school has ever won a national football championship. Indeed, neither team has finished atop their conference since 1969. To fans on both sides, it is maddening to think that the biggest obstacle toward doing so this year is their oldest nemesis. "I hate Kansas more than everything," says Mr. Hickerson. On weeks when they're not playing each other, "I hate Kansas so much, I would rather have Kansas lose than have Missouri win."

This hatred dates back to the 1850s, when the Great Plains state of Kansas became a beachhead for men around the country committed to ending slavery. Many, however, hid behind that noble cause, all the while killing, pillaging and raping their way across the culturally Southern state to the east, Missouri. These Kansas guerrillas called themselves Jayhawkers -- supposedly a combination of two birds, the jay and the hawk.

Today, it is a sore point among Missouri fans that the University of Kansas mascot is the Jayhawk. Matt Gaunt, a development officer for Missouri's agriculture college, concedes that his state's fighters committed atrocities as well, but notes that Missouri never named a team after them. Some argue that Missouri's mascot -- the Tigers -- are named after some pro-Union forces in an otherwise Confederate state.

But the hometown of the Missouri Tigers, Columbia, is still known as "Little Dixie," and many in Missouri remain proud of their Confederate past. It's enough to start former Missouri player Brandon Barnes, who is African-American, wondering whether Tiger fans are "hating the Jayhawkers for something I might celebrate." But then he remembers the time that Jayhawk fans threw ice at him and footballs at the Missouri team bus. "We hate each other for a reason," he said, as he sat in a Kansas City bar on Saturday.

On chat boards, fans of both teams are weighing in. "Definition of Jayhawk = murderer, rapist, low-life scum. Kansas fans are so stupid they think that name is something to be proud of!," said a post on a Kansas City Star message board.

A University of Kansas poster wrote on a fan board: "The Jayhawkers defended Kansas against terrorists and helped make Kansas a free state just before the start of the Civil War."

Here in a city where the line between the two states is virtually invisible, many Missouri fans won't live in Kansas, and vice versa. When Jayme Salinardi, a lawyer, proposed moving to a Kansas suburb that offered first-class public schools, his wife, Missouri-born Heather, refused. "I'm not living on the Kansas side," he recalls her saying. He finally prevailed -- by finding a house that is only one block from Missouri.

The game this Saturday will provide the perfect capper to a college football season where up has been down. Traditional powers like Notre Dame have stumbled badly while upstarts like South Florida have joined the Tigers and Jayhawks in making once-unthinkable runs for the top. Neither Kansas nor Missouri was expected to win the six-team Big 12 North division. That crown was supposed to belong to the Nebraska Cornhuskers, a team that is 5-6 and that lost to Missouri and Kansas by a combined score of 117-45.

Not everyone sees the upcoming game as bearing great historical overtones. Corby Jones, a star quarterback for the Tigers in the mid-1990s, sat in a sports bar Saturday watching with glee as Missouri beat Kansas State, setting the stage for this week's mammoth showdown with Kansas, an 11-0 team that before the season started was expected to finish fourth in the Big 12 North division.

But even if Missouri, 10-1, loses, Mr. Jones, a lawyer, won't be leading any campaigns against Kansas or its fans. "It's a football game," he said. "It's not war."

Canteen Sitdown @ Jerry's Steakhouse 11/3/07

Mr. Wilson
FistfullaSteel
General Ursus
How we roll
Sil and Jones
Sil
Sarge

My Photoshop Inspiration

Remember those Pushead drawings we loved so much on Zorlac decks?

My First Photoshop Lesson

IT'S A GODDAMN EVIL SKULL!

Thanks goes out to Sil for his stellar pedagogy.

Old Freemont and The Rat Pack

A tribute to my visit to Sparky's in Las Vegas. Nothing like betting it all on red...well almost "it all" and winning. The Pussy Cat Dolls at Caesar's will always occupy a place in my heart. Go see the Rat Pack tribute show at the Greek Isle.

Long Dark Teatime

Having lived away from true winter (at least true cold) for a decade, I really notice my mood going into winter. This is only my second since moving back to the Midwest. Last year felt novel, interesting. This year feels real. And feels quiet, slow. Sleepy. Time to hunker down.