Thursday, February 27, 2014

Rich Lowrey At NRO: Governor Brewer's Foolish Veto

WAS THIS BILL---JUST VETOED BY BREWER--- EGREGIOUSLY MISREPRESENTED AS ANTI-GAY, WHEN IN FACT IT WASN'T ANYTHING OF THE SORT?  

Was its very wording once championed by Senator Ted Kennedy? Read NRO editor Rich Lowry's compelling piece appearing today at Politico and decide for yourself.  It sounds to me a lot like its narrative was hijacked by the radical gay left which made it all about its agenda when in fact it wasn't at all.

I didn't read anything about this controversial bill until now---preferring to focus on other things.  Lowry's piece opened my  eyes.

Some highlights:

 A religious freedom statute doesn’t give anyone carte blanche to do whatever he wants in the name of religion. It simply allows him to make his case in court that a law or a lawsuit substantially burdens his religion and that there is no compelling governmental interest to justify the burden.

For critics of the Arizona bill, the substance was almost an afterthought. They recoiled at the very idea that someone might have moral objections to homosexuality or gay marriage.
The cases that have come up relevant to the Arizona debate involve small-business people declining to provide their services to gay couples at their marriage ceremonies. A New Mexico photographer won’t take pictures. A Washington state florist won’t arrange flowers. An Oregon bakery won’t bake a wedding cake.

It’s easy to see how offensive these decisions were to the gay couples involved. An entirely understandable response would be for the couple to say, “I’m sorry you’re so narrow-minded and I hope you evolve one day. In the meantime, I’ll take my business elsewhere.”

The market has a ready solution for these couples: There are other bakers, photographers and florists. The wedding business is not exactly bristling with hostility to gay people. If one baker won’t make a cake for gay weddings, the baker across town can hang a shingle welcoming all couples for all types of weddings.

This is how a pluralistic society would handle such disputes. Instead, in the cases mentioned above, the gay couples reported the businesses to the authorities for punishment.

The question isn’t whether businesses run by people opposed to gay marriage on religious grounds should provide their services for gay weddings; it is whether they should be compelled to by government. The critics of the much-maligned Arizona bill pride themselves on their live-and-let-live open-mindedness, but they are highly moralistic in their support of gay marriage, judgmental of those who oppose it and tolerant of only one point of view on the issue — their own.

For them, someone else’s conscience is only a speed bump on the road to progress. It’s get with the program, your religious beliefs be damned.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Seem To Go From Pillar To Post As Winter Grinds On


YES, THIS IS A LATE SUMMER PHOTO, yet this is where  I am this week in winter.....I seem to have a very eclectic lifestyle...first a week in Laramie at -20 below, then into the true wilds of Tennessee---much wilder than Wyoming in places---then  on to Manhattan soon to see children and grandchildren etc. Here, we're taking some big trees out of the forest which are falling down from all the rain and moisture of the past few years.  We've needed to thin this out for two decades.  Finally, we're getting it done.

The loggers/foresters are rough-and-tumble men of the land and fine conservationists.This is extremely rough country and I am deeply grateful for their wanting to work with me and my family.

This winter has been extremely harsh from many, many perspectives, and I'm ready for spring, like everyone else! I take it One Day At A Time and give thanks for sunshine today in Tennessee, though it's very cold, again.

I had a ceiling collapse----the biggest mess I've ever seen-----in one of my rental houses after a very hard freeze of pipes to a hot water heater in the attic, and am working---with a terrific contractor---to get the offending hot water heater down into a new mud room that we're building this week.  As I say, this has been a very, very hard winter here and spring will not come not a minute too soon!

With all this ,  I seem to be more needed out in the outside world than online.  Thanks for coming by nonetheless

Monday, February 24, 2014

Wonderful Electric Violin By Street Musician



BRYSON ANDRES IS THE YOUNG VIOLINIST.

Sunday, February 23, 2014

Saturday, February 22, 2014

UAW Having A Hissy Fit Over Defeat At Chattanooga VW Plant

     
WITH PRESIDENT OBAMA'S WINK-WINK, NOD-NOD APPROVAL AND VW MANAGEMENT'S TACIT OKAY IN THE UAW'S struggle to takeover workers at the Chattanooga VW plant after massive union lobbying, employees still voted  against the union.  That should be the end of it---right?

Wrong, wrong, wrong.

A week after its stinging defeat,  the union---which only accepts free elections  in its favor---is  crying foul and having a major hissy fit, whining to the NLRB that Tennessee politicians---Senator Bob Corker and Governor Bill Haslam rigged the election.

 Bottom line,  UAW thugs are not planning to go quietly into the night.  They're desperate to become relevant again in a state and region where they've never  been welcome in the first place.  Tennessee has a strong right-to-work laws. But, that doesn't matter to the carpet-bagger unions.  After wrecking Detroit, the UAW aims to come South and suck the blood and vitality out of our free workers. But it just can't seem to seal the deal in these parts.

The battle lines are drawn and it's doubtful that the vote will be reversed---ever.  It's still worth noting the  UAW is prowling around waiting to get it's claws into anything that lives,  breathes, has a pulse and a job. We'll see what happens.

Congratulations to the Billy-Bob twins----you must be doing something.....right! 

Keep calm now and stay the course.


Thursday, February 20, 2014

Happiest/Unhappiest States


TOTAL TRIVIA---NOTHING TO TAKE SERIOUSLY. Fun to look at anyway.

Source

Wednesday, February 19, 2014

Links To Two Editorials In The Casper Star-Tribune

 SEVERAL WEEKS AGO, I flew to Denver from Nashville, then drove to Laramie to attend author Stephen Jimenez's book presentation to the town of Laramie on The Book of Matt which elaborates on his 13-year investigation into the murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student  outside Laramie, Wyoming.  I had written a book review on The Book of Matt late last fall for PJMedia.

Anyway,  it was a sensational presentation which was also very well received by townspeople, though the University of Wyoming, now the bastion of political correctness and suppression of open discussions like this, washed its hands of the event (though a few students and college  professors did attend.)

The next day, the Casper Star-Tribune published a scathing, dismissive editorial---Ditch the Matthew Shepard Revisionist History--- essentially advising readers that the book was not worth anyone's time or effort.

When I got back to Boulder, I talked to Steve who was back in Denver doing a radio interview and on his way to Manhattan,. We decided I would contact the CST and let them know I would like to write a rebuttal of its extremely harsh editorial and wanted to know my options as a journalist.  Was  in transit back to Tennessee and couldn't start to work on the piece immediately. The Op/Ed editor there told me I might get a 750-word limit op/ed and that was the max I could hope for, if even that.  Casper is the hometown the Shepard family and the place where opposing opinions to the conventional Shepard hate-crime myth of the past 14 years are still scoffed at today. It's also where the hate crime myth got started through Jason Marsden, a reporter at the CST at the time of the murder, and now head of the Matthew Shepard Foundation in Denver.

Anyway,  last weekend, much to CST's credit,  my piece came out on the CST Op/Ed page.

I believe it's important for First Amendment enterprises such as the Casper Star-Tribune (and also the University of Wyoming, another politically-correct hard nut-to-crack) to have open discussions like this so people can make up their own minds.  The Mainstream Media (MSM) has gone way too far down the road of politicizing news stories and letting extreme and radical groups hijack narratives such as this---incorrectly. So I commend the CST for doing its First Amendment duty and only hope some good will come from all this. Thanks go to Jeremy Fugleberg head of Op/Ed who held his nose and published my piece.

One other thing:  I'm sure you must know there are deeper reasons for going to all the trouble to defend this book.  I'm not going to elaborate on it here, now.  But if you do read Jimenez's The Book of Matt,  which I highly recommend, you will understand.

Also,  when the radical  gay lobby attacks Jimenez, a gay journalist himself, with such nonsense as he's only trying to make a quick buck---after 13 years of investigation??!!---on Shepard's murder,  all I can do is shake my head in disbelief.  Judy Shepard also wrote a book and established a foundation which has made millions and paid her large salaries for years, in addition to juicy speaking fees. There's no telling what The Laramie Project has raked in over the years.  Such glaring hypocrisy from the extreme left is ridiculous in my opinion and needs to be stood up to and debunked.  JImenez has dared to tell the truth and now is taking the heat for it.  That's what real journalism is and what it does. And that's why we have the First Amendment.

Sunday, February 16, 2014

Economics of Sex... Price Too Low, Still Falling? A Rhetorical Question...

 MEN KNOW SEX IS CHEAP TODAY. TOO BAD FOR MARRIAGE AND FAMILY. Also, too bad for women who will do anything to get married....except what they most need to do to be successful in the relatioship sweepstakes. Women are giving away the keys to their kingdoms. In doing so they may gain in the short term----day trading, so to speak---but lose in longer term investing where men clearly have the upper hand. SOURCE

Sunday, Continuing Series On Seeking Disillusionment @ River Crossing

DRUGGING OF AMERICA IN 19 MIND-BLOWING STATISTICS @ ZH



PASTOR MIKE ATKINS @ RIVER CROSSING IN JACKSON, WY CONTINUES THIS IMPORTANT SERIES.  We usually think of disillusionment in negative terms, however,  in his series we see this concept in a very different light.

With disillusionment can come truth and---more often than not---growth towards maturity, freedom and wisdom.

Saturday, February 15, 2014

Chattanooga, Tennessee UAW Death Knell: Where the Most Important News Story Of the Year Just Happened

WSJ ON UAW DEFEAT AT VW 

FORGET THE ENDLESS, BORING  WINTER WEATHER COVERAGE AND AIRPORT CLOSINGS, if you will,  and come on down to Chattanooga where real landmark, earth-changing news is unfolding:  Workers of the new Volkswagen plant there just voted down the UAW's desperate 2-year bid to unionize and take over employee-management relations at the plant.  For the UAW to have won would have been a huge step backwards in time, a regression of historic proportions.  Watching this is like seeing the demise of the Edsel.

Truth is,  with the Internet and other paths to worker grievances and negotiation today,  big unions are a cumbersome, irrelevant  anachronism and should be disbanded without delay---without presidential bailouts, except perhaps in Third World countries.

Zero Hedge has  the full accounting.

Tuesday, February 11, 2014

Weather Reporting Goes Drama Queen For Ratings---As In 'Catastrophic' Ice Storm Bearing Down On Hotlanta--- To Hook Us---Oh Pleeeeeze!

 HISTORIC,  HISSMORIC...

WEATHER REPORTING HAS BECOME THE NEW REALITY SHOW---ANYTHING FOR  HIGHER RATINGS....like Downton Abbey....The networks got our number and will do anything to try to get us  hooked on the next ice storm, hurricane etc. so we'd better stay tuned.....and maybe stay up all night to keep up with the changeable storm track.  Sure it's nice to know a storm is coming.  However,  ice storms have been around since the beginning of time. It's when weather people call a storm 'historic' we'd better run for the hills....

Yawn...

Other than that,  I have nothing  to say but, turn off the hype-TV, get a good book, have a glass of red wine.  It's all going to be OK. It's mostly for  people have who have nothing else going on in their lives and need a major adrenaline rush...from Weather TV.

 Again,  Yawn....

Sunday, February 9, 2014

Sunday, Psalm 31

Psalm 31:19-24
New International Version (NIV)
19 How abundant are the good things
    that you have stored up for those who fear you,
that you bestow in the sight of all,
    on those who take refuge in you.
20 In the shelter of your presence you hide them
    from all human intrigues;
you keep them safe in your dwelling
    from accusing tongues.
21 Praise be to the Lord,
    for he showed me the wonders of his love
    when I was in a city under siege.
22 In my alarm I said,
    “I am cut off from your sight!”
Yet you heard my cry for mercy
    when I called to you for help.
23 Love the Lord, all his faithful people!
    The Lord preserves those who are true to him,
    but the proud he pays back in full.
24 Be strong and take heart,
    all you who hope in the Lord.

Thursday, February 6, 2014

Still In Sub-Zero Freezing Weather---Dreaming Of Summer



LORD! IT'S COLD WHERE I AM! Cold is a gross understatement!

Watching  videos like this is what fishermen like to do in freezing weeks like this....  These are big, fat New Zealand monster browns...having a feeding frenzy with  a delectable damsel fly hatch. Perfect example of the food chain at work! Terrific photography... Thanks to My Bad Influence for sending!

Am still on the road after an amazing few days in Laramie, Wyoming with Steve Jimenez of The Book of Matt and lots of other great people from the Laramie community.  Will be writing  more after I get back home and thaw out.  Thanks for coming by.

Monday, February 3, 2014

Visit To Wyoming For Special Event Tuesday Night in Laramie At the Gryphon Theater


RARE FOR ME TO GO TO MY SECOND FAVORITE STATE IN WINTER.  

I make a great exception in order to attend a special event with new friends in Laramie, Tuesday night.  Will write more soon. For now, more here. 

And here.

And here.  And here.

Flying To Denver On Super Sunday

VINTAGE TAMNY: CONGRATULATIONS TO PETE CARROLL, NFL'S GREATEST FAILURE

LET'S PUT IT THIS WAY:  WAS A VERY NICE,  CROWDED, FLIGHT filled with Bronco fans arriving into Denver late Sunday afternoon.

We landed just as the Super Bowl kicked off......By the time we got off the plane inside the gate,  score was 5-0, Seahawks.....when we arrived at baggage claim  12-0, when I picked up my rental car, score was 18-0,  as I drove onto I-70 it was 22-0....when I got to the Boulder Safeway, it was 32-8..... then 43-8 as I drove up Arapahoe.

As the new moon shone clear and bright over the eastern front of the Rockies, on the new-fallen snow,  a cold, stunned silence hung over the land here as far as the eye could see.

Sunday, February 2, 2014

Sunday, Seeking Disillusionment, Pt. 3



WHAT IS THE GREATEST ILLUSION---LIE---OF ALL? 

WHAT IS THE GRANDEST TRUTH THAT JESUS CHRIST CAME TO TESTIFY TO AND EMBODY?  Listen and learn....and be amazed....and be disillusioned if you continue under its still mighty spell.