Ron Paul likely to be #1 funded GOP

Not only has he been the most supported financially by the US Military now all people of the US have spoken with their donations to make Paul the most funded GOP candidate. I managed to catch my donation on the screen this time. We could seriously have a revolution on our hands. Ron Paul has raised more in 2 months than EVERY other GOP candidate did the whole 3rd quarter. I fully expect him to be the #1 GOP candidate this quarter. Especially after Tea Party Day.

Donovan and Caitlin's Big Drop

Donovan and his cousin Caitlin put these toys together after Thanksgiving dinner. They kept getting it taller and taller until they decided to build them all the way up the stairs.

Dr. No sometimes Says yes, when it's constitutional

Seeing as how an appauling recent finding that 1/4th of our homeless are Veterans the following Passage by Ron Paul shows some compelling wisdom.

by Ron Paul, Dr. March 24, 2003
Congress narrowly passed a budget last week that calls for the federal government to spend in excess of 2 trillion dollars in 2004, which is more than double what the federal government spent in 1990. Yet while Congress finds hundreds of billions to fund every conceivable unconstitutional program and special-interest pork project, it fails to provide adequately for our nation’s veterans. In fact, the budget passed by the House calls for cuts of $15.1 billion from veterans programs over the next ten years. These cuts will affect programs that provide education benefits, compensation for veterans with service-related disabilities, and pensions for disabled veterans.
We should understand that veterans programs, unlike so many federal programs, are constitutional. The Constitution specifically provides for Congress to fund armed forces and provide national defense. Congress and the nation accordingly have a constitutional obligation to keep the promises made to those who provide that defense. This is why I support increased funding for veterans, while opposing the bloated spending bills that fund corporate and social welfare, pork favoritism, and special interests at the expense of those veterans.
Unfortunately, the trust that members of our armed forces put in our government has been breached time and time again, and last week’s budget vote represents anther blow to veterans. Even as we send hundreds of thousands of soldiers into Iraq, Congress can’t get its priorities straight.
We should remember that Gulf War I and II will swell the ranks of our combat veterans, many of whom will need medical care as they grow older. Congress should immediately end the silence and formally address Gulf War Syndrome, which has had a devastating impact on veterans who served in Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and Kuwait. As a medical doctor, I believe the syndrome is very real, and likely represents several different maladies caused by exposure to conditions specific to the Gulf region at the time. Congress and the Veterans Administration should stop insulting our Gulf War veterans and recognize that the syndrome is a serious illness that needs treatment. We can only hope and pray that our soldiers in Iraq today do not suffer from similar illnesses in the future. Congress must, however, ensure adequate funding for the medical care that today’s soldiers will someday need.
Having served in the U.S. Air Force for five years, I feel an obligation to our veterans and current armed forces. Congress wastes so much money that only a small portion of that waste could make a huge difference in the lives of our veterans. Depending on what the Senate does, Congress may have a chance to revisit the 2004 budget and find the resolve to fully fund needed veterans programs.

Boy and Boosh

While Boosh has been growing bigger he has become much more gentle with Donovan. They both get along much better now. Although now we need to make sure that Donovan is not hurting Boosh. Sometimes donovan will try to stand on him while he's laying down or he might grab his fur to hard with his hands.

The Bigger Boosh

Wow what a difference 11 weeks and 150 lbs of dog food makes. Boosh is weighing in at 65lbs now. He's gotten much better with Donovan (not hurting him or playing hard). He's learned his position in the family pretty well. He was quickly house trained. He now sleeps upstairs next to our bed. He's also being a great guard dog by positioning himself between us and the entrance and warning us of any potential danger. When I pretended to burglar into the bedroom he pounced right towards me until he realized it was me.

MUSH! MUSH!

Here's Claudia and Myself squashing Tabitha our mini musher that drove us all out to the sled dog's summer camp ground.

This was a fun quick tour. The dog ride only lasted about 10 minutes but was the best part. One of the dogs defecated while pulling our sled.

BIG fish

Yep these are the two biggest fish caught in Alaskan waters in mans history. Seriously though we have to plan a Salmon Welcome Back Bake.

BIG fish

Yep, these are the two biggest fish caught in Alaskan waters ever!

GenCon 2007 (Big Man vs Segway)

So while we were at Gencon for Greg's bachelor party part II Brian and I got a chance to go against each other on a segway obstacle course. They had a 250 lb weight limit so with a 200lb verbal weight loss they allowed me on. I was impressed with the segway holding up under almost 2x it's load limit. You can see me just beating Brian by 2 seconds at the end.

Bouche the Bullmastiff (10 weeks old)

So we got our puppy on Friday night. Currently we have him sleeping in a cardboard box but a wire dog crate is in the works. We were working on a name starting with Bishop but we then started calling him Bushi and have mostly settled on calling him Bouche (Boosh) which is french for mouth. I am impressed with this Bullmastiff so far. He's picking up his house training pretty well and starting to come when called. He can eat a ton and will be growing at a super fast pace. He was 25lbs when we picked him up and will probably be over 100lbs in less than 8 months. And when he's 2yrs old he should be settling in at his adult weight of about 150lbs. Donovan likes the dog and knows his name. I can't wait till he can be the one cleaning the poo.

Ron Paul at the Debates

Great image graphically showing strengths of the Republican debaters. Found this on the Las Vegas Ron Paul Meetup.com group.

More Guns, Less Crime

Above is the conclusion from an article published in the spring issue of the Harvard Journal of Law and Public Policy, the nation's most widely distributed law review. It's a rather long PDF so I just posted the conclusion. They go into great detail pointing out the trends of gun ownership rates and violet crime rates correlations of many different countries and regions throughout time. The entire article “Would Banning Firearms Reduce Murder and Suicide?” is available here if you would like to read it.

Donovan Learns Underwater Swimming

Wow! We were very surprised to find Donovan purposely diving underwater last Sunday at the community pool. He had a couple of times where he gulped some water and coughed it up. Overall he became very good at going under and popping back up for breaths when he needed it. He refused moms help when she tried to pull him up telling her "No, don't help me!". He also kept his eyes open underwater so he was probably enjoying his aqua vision. We gotta get him back in a shallow pool before he forgets what he's learned.

Puppies!

We are seriously looking at getting one of these 3 Bull Mastiff puppies. I've looked at several breeders and for the past 3 weeks have been dealing with the one I found to be the most responsible and knowledgeable. This breeder is a extreme fanatic about the Bull Mastiff breed. When we visited his house he had something like 23 dogs (counting puppies).

Currently we are considering taking what he considers the pick of the litter as a fully registered AKC dog with the caveat that we will allow him to breed the dog and allow the breeder to show the dog.

Below is a picture of the sire (Bukas) and the dam (Bella).

Windows Mobile is Iphone

So it was with green envy I have transformed my PDA phone into an Iphone mimic. I'm happy with the results and pretty new interface. I like to call it the Iphone Deluxe Version.

Ron Paul is Maher's Hero.

Turns out that Bill Maher says Ron Paul is his hero after watching him in the June 5th Debates. My previous video posted Bill seemed hostile to Paul. Here he says "If America was a smarter country, Ron Paul would be leading in the polls".

Building Guns

I've done a lot of work on my AK from its original state. Here's what I recall doing:

1. Taken off the furniture (wood) reshaped it stained it and finished it.
2. Polished the charging handle to silver instead of black
3. Replaced pistol grip
4. Replaced folding stock (after it broke)
5. Added a blackjack recoil buffer
6. Replaced the fire control system
7. Added a piccatinny railed side scope mount
8. Added an Eotech Red dot scope

I've had a lot of fun messing around with it adding and changing things to more customize it to my wants. I'm interested in building an AR possibly from the ground up and also interested in putting together an AK pistol kit. I'd sure like to find someone interested in building such guns but who's not nutty.

Ron Paul for Pres..

I can only hope that Ron Paul can get better recognized and get the republican nomination. I'd actually vote for a big party if he got in. But really he's a libertarian taking an old Republic stance of small government.

I like bill Maher and he can usually handle himself in a debate but Ron Paul totally destroys Maher in this interview. Best he can do is keep saying "against the civil war" but Ron Paul points out that the Civil war had very little to do with slavery.

CERT Disaster Training

What you are looking at here is not BBQs gone wild. Its serious distaster training in progress at the down town fire department. Vanessa, myself and many friends are taking a disaster training course sponsered by FEMA so that we will be valuable to ourselves and our community in the aftermath of a disaster such as an Earth quake or major terrorist attack.

After we graduate from the course we will receive a Disaster pre-paredness backpack and be on some kind of reverse 911 emergency assistance list.

The Price is Right

With the recent retirement of Bob Barker I thought I would share my appearance on TPIR for those that missed the airing.

Donovan Pretends

Shortly after Donovan's Birthday we got this little gem videoed.

Donovan Turns 3!

After Filling up 300 balloons we got Donovan's 3rd birthday party started. He had a great time playing with the other kids and finally getting his "Thomas the" Train birthday cake. Several days earlier Donovan had been claiming it was his birthday. We finally had him understanding his birthday is June 1st and that he was turning 3 years old. Vanessa came up with some good games for the kids including pin the number 1 on Thomas, finding Gummy Bears in a bunch of wet pasta, finding marshmellows in flower, and a pinata. Donovan and the kids enjoyed all the bubble toys and then we let the kids release most of the balloons into the night sky. By the end of the night Donovan just conked out while trying to stay up to watch more Thomas the Train on TV.

Lake Mead

We started the Memorial day weekend on friday morning 8am renting jet skis and towing them out to lake mead. Renting and gassing them up took a long time but just after 10am we were in the water.
The skis took some getting used to and we had some early slow falls.
Then we all took turns on the 4 rented skis which were tons of fun.
The water skis were broken out and shortly thereafter Dave's Tibia got very broken by the water skis. That was the end of the water skis and did put a damper on things. We got Dave back to shore and wheeled him back to the car so Merideth could get him to the hospital.
After zipping out to Hoover damn we were all getting a bit playful on the jetskis. We caught the attention of the police and JT received a $300 reckless boating ticket. The cops were being rather overzealos almost siting another of our group for *almost* towing a water skier incorrectly.Towards the end of the day everyone was pushing their jetskis to the limit.We did have some damage to the jetskis (someone stepped on the jet breaking a bracket and we had some cracks from bad docking) which added $100 to the rental bill. Even with some of the bad luck we had, overall it was a great time and after learning some lessons I'd love to do it again.

Sis got skillz

After having a big famliy mothers day brunch at Mon Ami Gabi in Paris we went over to my sister's charicature booth over at the Aladdin and had her draw Donovan. She did one a bout a year and a half ago, so I want to keep getting them done every so often as he grows up.

Good Article

'Gun-Free Zones'
By DAVID B. KOPEL
April 18, 2007; Page A17

The bucolic campus of Virginia Tech, in Blacksburg, Va., would seem to have little in common with the Trolley Square shopping mall in Salt Lake City. Yet both share an important characteristic, common to the site of almost every other notorious mass murder in recent years: They are "gun-free zones."

Forty American states now have "shall issue" or similar laws, by which officials issue a pistol carry permit upon request to any adult who passes a background check and (in most states) a safety class. Research by Carlisle Moody of the College of William and Mary, and others, suggests that these laws provide law-abiding citizens some protection against violent crime. But in many states there are certain places, especially schools, set aside as off-limits for guns. In Virginia, universities aren't "gun-free zones" by statute, but college officials are allowed to impose anti-gun rules. The result is that mass murderers know where they can commit their crimes.

Private property owners also have the right to prohibit lawful gun possession. And some shopping malls have adopted anti-gun rules. Trolley Square was one, as announced by an unequivocal sign, "No weapons allowed on Trolley Square property."

In February of this year a young man walked past the sign prohibiting him from carrying a gun on the premises and began shooting people who moments earlier were leisurely shopping at Trolley Square. He killed five.

Fortunately, someone else -- off-duty Ogden, Utah, police officer Kenneth Hammond -- also did not comply with the mall's rules. After hearing "popping" sounds, Mr. Hammond investigated and immediately opened fire on the gunman. With his aggressive response, Mr. Hammond prevented other innocent bystanders from getting hurt. He bought time for the local police to respond, while stopping the gunman from hunting down other victims.

At Virginia Tech's sprawling campus in southwestern Va., the local police arrived at the engineering building a few minutes after the start of the murder spree, and after a few critical minutes, broke through the doors that Cho Seung-Hui had apparently chained shut. From what we know now, Cho committed suicide when he realized he'd soon be confronted by the police. But by then, 30 people had been murdered.

But let's take a step back in time. Last year the Virginia legislature defeated a bill that would have ended the "gun-free zones" in Virginia's public universities. At the time, a Virginia Tech associate vice president praised the General Assembly's action "because this will help parents, students, faculty and visitors feel safe on our campus." In an August 2006 editorial for the Roanoke Times, he declared: "Guns don't belong in classrooms. They never will. Virginia Tech has a very sound policy preventing same."

Actually, Virginia Tech's policy only made the killer safer, for it was only the law-abiding victims, and not the criminal, who were prevented from having guns. Virginia Tech's policy bans all guns on campus (except for police and the university's own security guards); even faculty members are prohibited from keeping guns in their cars.

Virginia Tech thus went out of its way to prevent what happened at a Pearl, Miss., high school in 1997, where assistant principal Joel Myrick retrieved a handgun from his car and apprehended a school shooter. Or what happened at Appalachian Law School, in Grundy, Va., in 2002, when a mass murder was stopped by two students with law-enforcement experience, one of whom retrieved his own gun from his vehicle. Or in Edinboro, Pa., a few days after the Pearl event, when a school attack ended after a nearby merchant used a shotgun to force the attacker to desist. Law-abiding citizens routinely defend themselves with firearms. Annually, Americans drive-off home invaders a half-million times, according to a 1997 study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

In Utah, there is no "gun-free schools" exception to the licensed carry law. In K-12 schools and in universities, teachers and other adults can and do legally carry concealed guns. In Utah, there has never been a Columbine-style attack on a school. Nor has there been any of the incidents predicted by self-defense opponents -- such as a teacher drawing a gun on a disrespectful student, or a student stealing a teacher's gun. Israel uses armed teachers as part of a successful program to deter terrorist attacks on schools. Buddhist teachers in southern Thailand are following the Israeli example, because of Islamist terrorism.

After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in the U.S., long-time gun control advocates, including Sen. Barbara Boxer (D., Calif.), agreed that making airplane cockpits into "gun-free zones" had made airplanes much more dangerous for everyone except hijackers. Corrective legislation, supported by large bipartisan majorities in both houses of Congress, allowed pilots to carry firearms, while imposing rigorous gun-safety training on pilots who want to carry.

In many states, "gun-free schools" legislation was enacted hastily in the late 1980s or early 1990s due to concerns about juvenile crime. Aimed at juvenile gangsters, the poorly written and overbroad statutes had the disastrous consequence of rendering teachers unable to protect their students.

Reasonable advocates of gun control can still press for a wide variety of items on their agenda, while helping to reform the "gun-free zones" that have become attractive havens for mass killers. If legislators or administrators want to require extensive additional training for armed faculty and other adults, that's fine. Better that some victims be armed than none at all.

The founder of the University of Virginia, Thomas Jefferson, understood the harms resulting from the type of policy created at Virginia Tech. In his "Commonplace Book," Jefferson copied a passage from Cesare Beccaria, the founder of criminology, which was as true on Monday as it always has been:

"Laws that forbid the carrying of arms . . . disarm only those who are neither inclined nor determined to commit crimes . . . Such laws make things worse for the assaulted and better for the assailants; they serve rather to encourage than to prevent homicides, for an unarmed man may be attacked with greater confidence than an armed man."

We Got Crabs

After Donovan picked up a little goldfish at his daycare "spring-fling" party we kept it in a vase with water. After surviving for 2 weeks and being named "Frank" by Donovan, we decided to get an aquarium. After getting Frank in the aquarium he seemed very lonely so we started picking up fish and other critters. We now have 3 crabs, 3 gost shrimp, 2 aquatic frogs, 8 neon tetras, 2 black molleys, 2 fancy guppies, 2 red wags, Frank the goldfish and 1 black moore. We did have a Green Spotted Puffer named "barack obama" but he turned out to be very aggressive and ate 2 neon tetras, some gost shrimp and 4 legs off our crabs. So we flushed Barack Obama down the toilet.

Choctaw Nation

A few weeks ago we went to a local Las Vegas meeting of the Choctaw nation. Surprisingly there were probably about 100 poeple at this vegas meeting of these Oklahoma indians. The Chief is holding Donovan in the picture.

Gunsmithing

First time replacing sights on a pistol. Here's some after pictures of TFO (Tritium Fiber Optic) night sights. they're pretty neat, they glow constantly from the radioactive tritium and have a bright glow in lighted environments because of the fiberoptic portion.

AFAN AIDS Walk

Well thanks to all your help I raised $100 wich Penn&Teller doubled to make $200 bucks donated to AFAN. My sister and mother-in-law also joined Penn&Teller team and showed up to walk.
There was quite a lot of poeple there 200 from our team. Overall Team Penn&Teller raised a total of $65,000 donated to AFAN, which was nearly 3 times what they were able to do in the past.
Donovan got to ride along in style for the entire walk. I did actually train for this walk by going to the gym treadmill for a few weeks ahead of time. Perhaps I'll aim for the half marathon next.