My friends Dave and Tony; their Dad passed away yesterday. Herman Nauta was 68 when he lost his fight with Pancreatic Cancer. I met him only once, about a month ago while he was in the VA Hospital in Temple. He was a really cool dude. Retired soldier and Viet Nam vet, Herman will be buried with full military honors next week.
Please keep Dave, Tony, their Mom and the rest of their family in your prayers.
Mark 16:16-17
Things around here have finally slowed down a bit.
Yesterday I cleaned my BBQ Pit and then took my Jeep for an overdue "Sunday Drive." Along the way (which ended up right at 50 miles round trip) I stopped at Chalk Ridge Falls and took a "Sunday Hike" for about an hour and 1/2. The sun was out and it was probably in the high 40's to mid-50's. Nice day.
Once I got home Tab and the boys showed up about 20 minutes later and we pretty much sat on the back porch, enjoying the weather for the rest of the day.
I could use one more day just like that...
John 14:6
We loaded up this morning around 0810hrs and headed to Burnet. In Copperas Cove I was the lucky receipient of a speeding ticket from CC's finest (or not so finest). Yeah... 48mph in a 40mph zone. He wanted to know, "Why I was driving so fast." Putz.
Longhorn Cavern is about as plain as a cave can get. The history's cool and all but the cave is well, unspectacular. But we had a good time. I even ran into an old friend from scouts. Bruce and I attended the WoodBadge leaders course together about 6 years ago when we we still living in Clear Lake. It took me about 5 minutes to finally put the name to the face and then I walked up and said, "Bruce?" Sure enough, it was Bruce. He was there with his wife and son for a weekend excursion.
We had lunch at Storm's in Burnet and then went "downtown" to the city square. I got some pictures of the courthous and jail (all pictures from today will be uploaded to the main page tomorrow, so check back Monday).
Daniel 1:8
Except for the painting and interior design...
Numbers 6:24-26
Happy New Year
No new treehouse pictures.
I forgot to mention that I got my baby back on Friday. She cost me $3380.66 but I have my Jeep back in working order. Well, mostly working. I'm gonna have to take her back; she won't get above 60mph. Weird, huh?
Luke 3: 4-6
It's 0630hrs and 32 degrees. The wind chill factor brings it down to a frigid 21 degrees. The dogs did not want to go out this morning...
I'll have a picture of the treehouse later today.
Luke 2: 36-37
The weather is complete poop right now. It rained last night and all day today it has been misting off and on and the fog has been THICK. I'm talking Mosul sandstorm thick. You couldn't even see the top of the 4th ID water tower. Visibility was maybe 200 meters, all day.
So, I'm grilling wings tonight. Hot wings for me and Mike, Teriyaki wings for CW and Lime/Pepper wings for my bride.
My dogs have made a complete mess of the decks... Little muddy paw prints EVERYWHERE!!
Acts 19:15
So I was handing out Halloween candy to all the little kids this year. One kid came up to the door by himself, a little boy about ten or eleven years old. He had the most awesome pirate costume, with a peg leg and a talking parrot on his shoulder and everything. I asked him which pirate he was, expecting to hear Jack Sparrow, and was pleasantly surprised when he said "I'm the infamous Captain Black Beard, AAARRRGGGHHHH!" So I asked him, "Why are you all alone? Where are your Buccaneers?"
He cocked his head to the side quizzically and replied...
..."Under my Buckin' hat."
Pure awesomeness.
Ok, here's todays pic of the treehouse.
Romans 1:11
Matthew 7:24
These are among the questions that despite months of campaigning for the presidency of the United States, thousands of hours in front of reporters and cameras, and hundreds of members of a massive campaign staff, the public still doesn't have fully answered about Illinois Sen. Barack Obama.
Just four years ago, Obama essentially was an unknown state legislator who with the help of the Chicago political system took over a seat in the U.S. Senate. He stated then he was unqualified for national office, but within about two years launched his bid for the White House, knocking off one of the powerhouses of Democratic politics, Sen. Hillary Clinton, in the primaries.
The questions, then, abound as he's proposed giving the United Nations hundreds of billions of dollars, promised 95 percent of Americans a tax cut and pledged to pursue environmental campaigns even if coal companies go bankrupt because of that. He's also stated the U.S. Supreme Court should have stepped beyond the Constitution and ventured into plans for wealth redistribution, he's told a plumber his goal is just to "spread the wealth," and his wife has said people will need to give up their piece of the pie so that others can have more. All without answers to key questions.
Among those issues remaining to be explained fully are his acquaintances in his Chicago political career, who include:
Antoin "Tony" Rezko, an associate of Arab-Syrian descent who was a campaign fundraiser for Obama. Obama returned an estimated $225,000 in Rezko-generated campaign contributions since Obama first ran for Illinois state senate in 1995 but Rezko also assisted when Obama bought a $4 million dream property in Hyde Park. Currently Rezko's a convicted federal felon.
Professor Edward Said, a Muslim professor at the University of Chicago who was strongly pro-Palestinian and pro-Arab. He promoted Barack and Michelle Obama in the Chicago Arab community. He's deceased.
Rashid Khalidi, a Muslim professor at the University of Chicago and Columbia who was funded by the Woods Fund grants approved by Obama and unrepentant terrorist William Ayers. Khalidi founded the Arab-American Action Network and is the author of several strongly pro-Paliestinian, anti-Israel books.
Ali Abunimah, a Palestian-American Muslim journalist who promoted Obama in his writings and was editor of "The Electronic Intifada" of the Arab American Action Network. He claims Obama has modified his pro-Palestinian position.
Nadhmi Auchi, a Muslim Iraqi billionaire who is the cousin of Saddam Hussein. He wired more than $3 million as a "loan" to Mrs. Rezko when the Obamas purchased their dream property. He's the largest private shareholder of Bank BPH in Paris and was the reputed bagman for Saddam Huseein in the "oil for fuel" United Nations scandal. He was fined $3 million and given a 15-month prison term in France for his involvement in $100 million in illegal commissions in a scandal involving French oil giant Elf Aquitane.
Aihm Alsammarae, a Muslim Iraqi who is the former Iraqi minister of electricity. He contributed $2,500 to the Obama 2008 campaign and is a close friend of Rezko. He ran a scheme to corner the Iraqi cellular phone market and was sprung from an Iraqi prison in 2006 by a mysterious group of masked and heavily armed men who broke him out of prison. He fled to Chicago.
Jabir Herert Huhammad, son of Nation of Islam founder Elijah Muhammad, now deceased. Federal prosecutors alleged that Huhammad participated with Abdelhamid Chaib and Rezko in a scheme to use money borrowed from Mutual Bank of Harvey for allegedly fraudulent real estate deals. The bank is owned by Amrish Mahajan, an Indian and CEO of the bank, which lent $3.4 million to Rezko.
Abdelhamid "Ali" Chaib, a Muslim who is a long-time Rezko associate who ran Crucial Concessions Food Business set up by Jabir Muhammad, and allegedly was involved in a $1.32 million partner scheme to securitize loans, in part to assist Jabir Herert Huhammad purchase a pizza franchise that questionably added to the Rezko-Jabir Muhammad food concessions business. Obama returned to Chaib in 2004 a $5,000 campaign contribution made in 2003 to Obama's 2004 U.S. Senate campaign after Chaib's indictment in the alleged Crucial Concessions Food fraud scheme was announced.
Davis Miner Branhill & Galland. This was the law firm for which Obama worked starting in 1993. While here he represented "Rezmar," a community development firm owned by Tony Rezko and Dan Mahru that bilked low-income community housing projects that borrowed billions for property developments allegedly made fraudently. Eleven of the 30 alleged failed Rezmar properties were in Obama's state senate district.
Then also there are the influences on Obama's career, from the one-time writer of a sex novel, Frank Marshall Davis, to unrepentant terrorist Bill Ayers, with whom Obama served on boards.
This is significant since voters have only a few years of Obama's U.S. Senate record on which to judge him, and while a state legislator he voted dozens of times "present" in moves that would not reveal support for or opposition to an issue or position. Among the subjects of those questions are:
Frank Marshall Davis, a communist poet and journalist from Chicago who moved to Hawaii. He ghost-wrote a pornographic novel titled "Sexual Rebel: Black (Memoirs of a Gash Gourmet)." He also sold drugs from a Chicago-style hot dog stand while Obama and Obama's grandfather were present, according to allegations made by WND private investigator hired in Hawaii. According to Obama's autobiography, "Dreams from My Father," Davis was a close confident to Obama, influencing Obama's ideas on radical racial relations. He is deceased.
Malcom X, Stokely Carmichael and Frantz Fanon were three radical, anti-white black rage authors Obama tells readers influenced him as a youth. Black-rage attitudes developed by reading these authors influenced both Obama's decision to become a radical community organizer in Chicago and to join Rev. Jeremiah Wright's black liberation theology Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago.
Saul Alinksy. Obama's first job in Chicago was to head the Alinsky-influenced Developing Community Project, Inc. Obama also participated in teaching Alinsky-methods of radical income redistribution in classroom settings. Obama's current policies of "distributing wealth" stem from anti-capitalist attitudes developed in studying Alinsky's radical works, such as his seminal book entitled "Rules for Radicals."
Rev. Jeremiah Wright. Pastor for 20 years while Obama was a practicing member of black liberation theology at Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago. Obama heard anti-white, black-rage theology from Wright. First indication Obama was Christian was when he was baptized in his 30s as a member of United Church of Christ. Obama separated from congregation at Trinity United Church of Christ after Rev. Wright came under criticism, although Obama has yet to reject black liberation theology.
William Ayers and Bernardine Dorhn. Members of the SDS-affiliated radical Weather Underground in the 1960s and 1970s. Obama began his political career at Ayers' home in 1995 when running for the Illinois state senate. Obama served with Ayers on two Chicago foundations, the Annenberg Challenge and the Woods Fund, giving millions in grants to radicalized programs in Chicago's schools. Obama now claims to disavow Ayers' radical politicals.
Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga. He's a Luo tribesman affiliated with Obama's father when Odinga's communist father was Kenya's first vice president after Kenyan independence and Obama's father was a Harvard-educated economist working in the Jomo Kenyatta government. Obama campaigned openly for Odinga for president in 2006 when Obama was in Kenya on a U.S. Senate "fact-finding" mission. Kenya's president Kibaki asked Obama to stop interfering with Kenyan presidential politics. Obama raised an alleged $1 million for Odinga to run for president in Kenya in Dec. 2007, adding to the $1 million raised for Odinga's 2007 presidential campaign by Libyan dictator Moammar Gadhafi. When Odinga lost the Dec. 2007 presidential election by approximately 233,000 votes, Odinga called for protests which led his Luo tribesmen to murder approximately 1,000 Kikuyu tribesman, displace another 350,000 Kikuyu tribesmen, and destroy 800 churches, while not a single mosque was destroyed. Obama helped negotiate a settlement in which Odinga was appointed co-head-of-state and appointed prime minister to end the violence, even after it became publicly disclosed Odinga signed a letter of understanding with radical Muslims in Kenya in return for their votes.
Finally, these are the top questions about Obama that remain unanswered:
1. Why won’t Obama allow the public to see the doctor-generated, hospital releseased birth certificate?
2. Was Obama born in Kenya or Hawaii, as his campaign continues to maintain?
3. Was Obama officially adopted by his Muslim stepfather when he lived in Indonesia with his mother and stepfather, from the ages of approximately 6 to 10 years old?
4. Did Obama ever renounce his U.S. passport? Has Obama ever traveled school?
5. Why has Obama refused to discuss the clients he served when he worked for the law firm of Davis Miner Barnhill & Galland in Chicago?
6. Was Obama ever compensated by Tony Rezko on the millions Rezko borrowed to redevelop the low-income housing projects in Chicago that Rezko evidently defrauded of the improvements contracted by Obama's firm to be made in the low-income projects involved?
7. Has Obama’s campaign instituted sufficient fiscal controls to determine if any credit card contributions made to his 2008 presidential campaign have come illegally from foreign sources? Have any such foreign contributions been reported to Federal Election Commission authorities and returned, as required by federal law?
8. Has Obama ever renounced Black Liberation Theology as espoused by chief Black Liberation Theologist Dr. James Cone?
9. Has Obama ever renounced Islam?
10. Why have the detailed minutes and funding activities of the Woods Fund and the Annenberg Challenge documents in which William Ayers and Barack Obama participated never been completely released to the public?
11. While no campaign probably ever will put to rest every question voters may have, these are significant in that the next occupant of the White House will be making decisions on the security of the nation and the life and death issues of society, decisions that in all likelihood will be influenced by the beliefs and positions of the president.internationally on a passport other than a U.S. State Department-issued passport?
12. Did Obama travel to Pakistan as a student on a U.S. passport, or on an Indonesian passport? Why did Obama travel to Pakistan, who did he visit there and what was the purpose of the trip?
13. How did Obama pay his tuition at the exclusive high school preparatory Punahou Academy he attended in Hawaii, as well as his college tuition at Occidental in California and at Columbia at New York?
14. How did Obama pay his tuition at Harvard Law School?
15. Why will Obama release none of the school records at any of the schools he attended?
Obama’s school records in Indonesia show that at both the Catholic and public school he attended there he was registered as a “Muslim” and an “Indonesian Citizen.” Was Obama ever officially instructed in Islam, even in elementary school?
TAKE A LOOK AT THIS...www.theobamafile.com
I've ignored the blog for a bit so here's a quick post with some pictures.
The deck is complete (except for a bar that I thought of at the last second). Construction on the tree house started last week but I didn't get a day one pic due to dead batteries in the camera. So, you get a day 2 pic.
My Kitchen
CW's Tree House
Amos 3:7
Brady Brag is Baloney
Friday, December 05, 2008
It is a simple matter of fact, beyond dispute, that for years prior to passage of the Brady Act, the organization now known as the Brady Campaign called for a waiting period on handgun sales and vigorously opposed the establishment of the National Instant Check System (NICS). The anti-gun group, when known as Handgun Control, Inc., ranted and raved against instant check legislation proposed by Rep. Bill McCollum (R-Fla.) in the late 1980s, and by Rep. Harley O. Staggers (D-W. Va.) in 1991.
While NRA strongly opposed the Brady Act because of its five-day waiting period, when Congress passed the Brady Act in 1993, it contained a provision authorizing its waiting period on dealer handgun sales only until a NICS could be established (applicable to all dealer firearm sales). The final bill required that the NICS become operational within five years. As it turned out, Brady’s prized waiting period, which Brady claimed could reduce so-called “crimes of passion” (though by the group’s own admission no data existed to support such a theory) was abolished after only four years and nine months, having taken effect in February 1994, and having been replaced by the NICS in November 1998.
President Bill Clinton signed the Brady Act in November 1993, however, so in November 2008 the Brady Campaign released a 15-year anniversary propaganda paper praising itself and--you guessed it--calling for a federal law prohibiting private sales of firearms, not just those at gun shows, but all private sales. What they don’t say, of course, is that if private sales are prohibited, they will immediately call for the FBI to retain records on all firearm transactions run through the NICS.
The title of Brady’s anniversary propaganda? Get this: “Brady Background Checks: 15 Years of Saving Lives.” Brady checks? These are the same instant checks that Brady has opposed for 20 years, and which have been conducted for the last 10 years, instead of the waiting period that was in place for less than five years before! Barack Obama is not the only one who has “audacity.”
Adding to their lie, Brady claims “the National Rifle Association (NRA) fought long and hard to block Brady background checks.” While NRA opposes waiting periods, it supported NICS, and Brady worked hard to block it. And in the end, NRA’s proposal carried the day.
Adding further to the lie, is Brady’s pretense that the Brady Act is the reason that violent crime has declined in recent years. The Act “has been a resounding success by stopping more than 1.6 million potentially dangerous people from purchasing a gun from a licensed gun dealer,” the group claims.
The reality is something much different. First of all, as the FBI states in its annual national crime report (www.fbi.gov/ucr/cius2007/about/variables_affecting_crime.html), a variety of factors determine the type and volume of crime, and none of these factors is guns, gun ownership, or gun laws. And the Library of Congress, Congressional Research Service, National Academy of Sciences, National Institutes of Justice, and others have studied gun control and found no evidence that it reduces crime at home or abroad.
Secondly, the nation’s violent crime rate began declining in 1991, three years before the Brady Act took effect. And violent crime committed with weapons other than guns has declined, as well as violent crime with guns--the only weapons requiring a background check. This is largely due to tougher criminal justice policies imposed in the states during the 1990s, such as mandatory sentencing and reduction of probation and parole of violent criminals--precisely what NRA has advocated for years.
Thirdly, Brady incorrectly assumes that denying gun sales must necessarily decrease crime, because it believes guns are the cause of crime and it opposes the use of guns for defense against crime. However, since 1991, the number of new guns sold to private citizens has increased by 70 million, and total violent crime has decreased 38 percent, including a 43 percent decrease in murder. Let’s not forget also the deterrent factor posed against criminals by the Right-to-Carry laws now in effect in 40 states.
Brady also claims that before the Brady Act, “gun traffickers had it easy” with “new handguns bought easily over-the-counter in states with weak gun laws.” The fact is, however, that prior to the Brady Act, the 18 states and the District of Columbia that already had Brady-like laws delaying the acquisition of firearms--including waiting periods, purchase permit requirements, and license requirements--accounted for 63 percent of the nation’s violent crimes. Therefore, the Brady Act--particularly during the waiting period phase favored by the Brady Campaign--never had an effect on jurisdictions where most violent crimes occur.
Naturally, the media have reported Brady’s claims as gospel. But otherwise, the anniversary propaganda is little more than a pathetic attempt by a decreasingly significant group whose agenda has been rejected time and again, and whose views are ever further removed from the mainstream of public opinion.
Copyright 2008, National Rifle Association of America, Institute for Legislative Action.
This may be reproduced.
Over the past 2 weeks I have seen/read/heard talk of Texans wanting to secede and basing this on a very common misconception. Let me set everyone straight; Texas can NOT legally secede from the US and can NOT divide itself into five independent states.
There is nothing in the state constitution (adopted in 1876) to support Texas leaving the US. It does state however that, "Texas is a free and independent State, subject only to the Constitution of the United States..."
And as far as the "dividing into 5 states" thing goes; again it's a common misconception. According to the Joint Resolution for Annexing Texas and The Ordinance of Annexation when Texas entered the Union we were given the option to divide into 4 independent states. We chose not to. We did however sell off a large portion of our Northwestern area (to cover the Republic's debt) which has now become large parts of New Mexico and Colorado, and smaller parts of Oklahoma, Kansas, and Wyoming.
Philippians 3:21
Below is a petition to the Texas State Legislature and Texas Governor Rick Perry. Read it and if you agree with it, click the link at the bottom.
We hold that all citizens who may lawfully purchase a handgun be allowed to carry openly in public in the State of Texas except for those places prohibited by law. We also call for state preemption of all handgun laws concerning open carry in Texas.
1. Every individual has the right and responsibility to defend their self against unjustified threats of death or serious bodily injury.
2. The Constitution of the United States guarantees the right of individuals to keep and bear arms.
3. Criminals are not deterred by rules, regulations, and laws forbidding the possession of weapons. A man bent on mass murder will not be stopped by a rule forbidding him to have a gun.
4. It is well known that the requirement to conceal a handgun for the purpose of protecting self, friends, and family can be difficult especially in Texas with our extreme heat since a person will usually have to wear a jacket to properly conceal a handgun and to avoid "printing."
5. The requirement to conceal a handgun can make it difficult to draw the weapon should the life of the carrier or the life of someone else be in danger.
6. A criminal will not open carry a weapon because he does not want to draw attention to himself. We believe that a citizen openly carrying a handgun lawfully will be a deterrent for crime.
7. Ten states including Arizona, Alaska, Idaho, Kentucky, Montana, New Mexico, South Dakota, Virginia, Vermont, and Wyoming all allow open carry of handguns without a license. Twelve states including Connecticut, Indiana, Iowa, Georgia, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, New Jersey, North Dakota, Rhode Island, Utah, and Tennessee allow open carry of handguns with a license. In fact, Texas is one of only SIX states in the entire United States that completely bans open carry of handguns.
8. In these states, Open carry is very common and it does not alarm law enforcement or other citizens.
For the foregoing reasons, we residents of the State of Texas affirm and assert that all citizens who may lawfully purchase a handgun be allowed to carry openly in public in the State of Texas except for those places prohibited by law. We also call for state preemption of all handgun laws concerning open carry in Texas.
Sincerely,
It's Friday and we are back from our trip to Fredericksburg. Thanksgiving with the family was nice. MUCH better than last years at Taji. Michael shot a doe Thursday morning and I got one that evening with CW. Rachel got a 10pt buck that evening as well and JayRay got a 9pt on Wednesday. Hunter got a doe with his bow this morning before we left.
And that's about it.
Oh, and Buddy turned 50 today. Happy Birthday, old man.
Philippians 2:25
So much for "I support the Second Amendment," and so much for the notion of "change."
Media reports say President-elect Barack Obama has selected Eric Holder as his Attorney General, and that Holder may already have accepted the offer. Holder, as Deputy Attorney General under Janet Reno during the Clinton Administration, said that the Second Amendment does not protect an individual right, but instead protects the right to have a firearm when serving with a militia. After leaving office, Holder stuck to that assertion when he signed Janet Reno's brief to the Supreme Court in the Heller case, which stated, "The Second Amendment does not protect firearms possession or use that is unrelated to participation in a well-regulated militia."
At the Justice Department, Holder advocated a waiting period, limiting gun purchases to one per month, and so-called "gun show loophole" legislation--the fine print of which would have driven gun shows out of business. Holder made it clear that he, Clinton, and Reno were more interested in stopping gun sales than in regulating them. When ABC's George Will asked him about guns being used for self-defense more often than to commit crime, and Right-to-Carry states having lower crime rates than other states, Holder dismissed the facts that Mr. Will raised, with the flippant statement, "I'm not sure that we need more than the 200 million or so guns that we have on the streets."
In the same interview, Holder claimed that gun control was responsible for crime declining in the 1990s, when criminologists, law enforcement professionals, and sociologists attributed the trend to other factors entirely. We wonder what Holder would say today, since the federal ban on "assault weapons" and standard-equipment magazines holding more than 10 rounds has expired, the number of privately owned guns has risen by 35-40 million, and yet, murder and total violent crime have declined even more than before.
After leaving the Justice Department, Holder kept his anti-gun bona fides up-to-date by writing a column in the Washington Post advocating a law that would ban any gun sale without a background check--even between family members and close friends--and also "give the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms a record of every firearm sale." Holder claimed--since his column appeared just a month after the September 11, 2001 attacks--that his national gun registration scheme would help protect us from terrorists, when, in reality, this was just political opportunism at its worst.
Obama's selection of a Clinton Administration veteran with an anti-gun record as long as his own, signals that the new president is just as committed to his promise of respecting the Right to Keep and Bear Arms, as he is to his promise of change: "Yes We Can" get elected by lying to the American people.
Copyright 2008, National Rifle Association of America, Institute for Legislative Action.
This may be reproduced.
1 Corinthians 4:20
They trimmed out the edges of both decks and began work on the boardwalk. It's gonna take a little longer because they had to dig a bit more than they thought but that's ok... Because it's getting done right.
Monday will be the rest as well as the counter instead of Tuesday.
Construction on the storage shed will commence on December 1st.
1 Samuel 18:15
Tomorrow the boardwalk will be finished. Tuesday, the cabinets/sink. The roof had to be ordered so, on or about the 1st of December it goes on.
Deuteronomy 28:2
What I was refering to as the "mini-deck" has now become the "maxi-deck."
It completely surrounds the fire-pit and there is enough room to put all the chairs on it as well as still be able to walk around.
The red lines indicate where (roughly) the boardwalk will go to tie the two together.
Luke 17:15-16
