Sunflower Desert

We’re headed to Denver for a follow up doctor’s appointment. Therefore, chances are there will be no new posts over the weekend. Hope everyone has a great weekend!

In the meantime …. more of this for us:

I’m getting ready to turn in for the evening, but wanted to post this blog. I know many of the readers here are aware that my husband, Ted, had a serious work accident last August. Doctors were amazed that he lived.

From last August:

Believe it or not, but this is the external fixator that Ted had from December to March. Because of infection, which was the result of the fractures being compound in the dirt, his left elbow joint had to be removed. The external fixator serves as an elbow, but instead of being on the inside, it works on the outside. This is what Ted had when he played guitar in March at church. Talk about a blessing to get rid of!

May 2007:

Can you see the improvement?

Last August, Ted had an electrical accident which resulted in a 25 - 30 foot fall. His worst injuries were his elbows which were both compound breaks into more than 20 pieces each. Tieki and I just bought him an early Father’s Day present — the red cruiser bike. After recovering from 7 separate surgeries (the day after the accident, the first surgery was 8 hours long!) we are just blessed that life is getting back to normal. Ted still has to have physical therapy 7 days per week, and his left arm has an artificial elbow in it. He will always have a 5 lb. weight restriction with the left arm, but not with the right.

I know it’s long, but I wanted the entire thing

The Politico has the scoop:

By: Mike Allen
May 30, 2007 08:38 AM EST Fred Dalton Thompson is planning to enter the presidential race over the Fourth of July holiday, announcing that week that he has already raised several million dollars and is being backed by insiders from the past three Republican administrations, Thompson advisers told The Politico.

Thompson, the “Law and Order” star and former U.S. senator from Tennessee, has been publicly coy, even as people close to him have been furiously preparing for a late entry into the wide-open contest. But the advisers said Thompson dropped all pretenses on Tuesday afternoon during a conference call with more than 100 potential donors, each of whom was urged to raise about $50,000.

Thompson’s formal announcement is planned for Nashville. Organizers say the red pickup truck that was a hallmark of Thompson’s first Senate race will begin showing up in Iowa and New Hampshire as an emblem of what they consider his folksy, populist appeal.

A testing-the-waters committee is to be formed June 4 so Thompson can start raising money, and staffers will go on the payroll in early June, the organizers said. A policy team has been formed, but remains under wraps.

The supporters on Tuesday’s call make up a group the campaign is calling “First Day Founders.” When launched, the campaign will have offices in Nashville and Northern Virginia, the advisers say.

Campaign officials said they have every indication Thompson will declare his candidacy, but cautioned that he could still decide not to run or to postpone the announcement. Mark Corallo, the campaign spokesman, said: “He is seriously considering getting in and doing everything he has to do to come to a final decision.”

A member of Thompson’s inner circle, who insisted on anonymity, said the former senator will offer himself as a consistent conservative who can unite all elements of the Republican Party. “The public is increasingly cynical and disenchanted with government,” this adviser said. “Competence is at the heart of what people want from government, and they need to have a sense that government can do the things they care the most about. They want a reason to continue Republican governance. Thompson can be seen as the adult with a firm hand on the tiller.”

Thompson urged the supporters to muster a major show of financial force in early July, just after the June 30 deadline for second-quarter financial reports to the Federal Election Commission.

Thompson’s top rivals – Rudolph Giuliani, John McCain and Mitt Romney – will have a formidable advantage for the current quarter, so he plans to show his muscle right after that.

Similarly, several Thompson advisers are urging him to skip the Iowa Republican Straw Poll in Ames on Aug. 11, since his campaign will have such a short time to prepare. Instead, Thompson could campaign 30 miles away in Des Moines at the Iowa State Fair, which will be taking place at the same time.

Since Thompson began hinting he might get in, polls have generally showed him tied for third with Romney. In the most recent average of national polls on RealClearPolitics.com, each had 10 percent of the vote, behind Giuliani at 26 percent and McCain at 18 percent. Since those polls were taken, Romney has shown increasing strength in early-voting states.
The chief operations officer will be Thomas J. Collamore, a former aide to Vice President George H.W. Bush and former vice president of public affairs for Philip Morris Companies Inc. In the George H.W. Bush administration, Collamore was an assistant secretary of commerce under Commerce Secretary Robert Mosbacher. In the Reagan administration, he was special assistant to Commerce Secretary Malcolm Baldrige.

That reflects the pedigrees of some of the key Republicans who are likely to join the campaign, advisers say. Republicans from the grassroots level to President Bush’s inner circle have expressed frustration with the current field of candidates, and so Thompson initially will likely get a lot of fawning attention from party leaders and the news media. But it is not clear that he can turn his celebrity into a solid candidacy. Supporters realize the potential liabilities: the late start, after many endorsements, donors and activists have been locked up by other candidates; a reputation for an aversion to hard work; his non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, a form of cancer; and a bear-like physique that makes him look his 64 years.

Organizers were encouraged by a donor meeting in New York City on Thursday afternoon that was attended by some of the best-known names in state and national politics. Without disclosing his specific plans, Thompson plans to keep the momentum going with an appearance in Richmond on Saturday at the Commonwealth Gala, headed by Republican Party of Virginia Chairman Ed Gillespie.

In a preview of the campaign to come, Thompson plans to show he is a candidate acceptable to all elements of the conservative coalition. He will make it plain to the attendees and a large press corps that, as one adviser put it, “The Fred has landed.”

Thompson lives in McLean, Va. Tickets for the dinner, to be held at the Greater Richmond Convention Center, start at $125. Sponsors who pay $1,000 to $10,000 will be able to get their photo taken with Thompson at a reception an hour before the dinner.

Thompson, who plays District Attorney Arthur Branch on the NBC series, was a senator from 1994 to 2003, elected to finish Al Gore’s term when he resigned to run for vice president. Thompson then won a term of his own, and did not seek reelection in 2002. He gained national exposure in 1973 as a minority counsel to the Senate Watergate committee. He eventually became chairman of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, where his investigation of Democratic campaign-finance activities left many Republicans disappointed.

Now a senior analyst for ABC News Radio and substitute host for the legendary Paul Harvey, Thompson savaged the White House immigration proposal in a commentary last week. “A nation without secure borders will not long be a sovereign nation,” he said. “No matter how much lipstick Washington tries to slap onto this legislative pig, it’s not going to win any beauty contests.”

UPDATE: HotAir has it too.

From OneNewsNow

Allie Martin OneNewsNow.comMay 29, 2007 The president of Answers in Genesis says he’s not surprised that protesters turned out for the opening of the Creation Museum. But Ken Ham finds it ironic that one group claiming to be defending constitutional freedom wants to silence the creation story.

Thousands of people visited the Creation Museum in northern Kentucky for its opening weekend. While overflow crowds toured the apologetics museum, a handful of protesters stood outside the gates. At one point, a group called DEFCON (”DEFend the CONstitution”) flew a plane overhead, quoting the Ninth Commandment: “Thou shalt not lie.”

Ham found DEFCON’s protest ironic. “There’s an atheist group, a humanist group and a group called DEFCON, which supposedly are a group to defend the Constitution,” Ham noted. “But all they’re doing is defending their liberal agenda.”

Why would atheists be concerned about the 9th amendment?

The Creation Museum has its own uniformed security team, to keep protesters at bay.

“Here they are protesting the opening of a creation museum. In fact, they’re saying things like we shouldn’t be allowed to present the science we’re presenting. They’re scared of us,” Ham charged. “[Do you] know why they’re scared? Because for the first time we’ve built a major facility where we’re using real observational science to confirm the Bible’s history.

“They don’t like that at all,” Ham concluded. “They don’t want people to hear this information.”

See previous reports:> Museum opens to defend biblical creation account Crowds wowed by Creation Museum grand opening

All Original Content Copyright 2006-2007 American Family News Network - All Rights Reserved

From OneNewsNow:

Allie Martin OneNewsNow.comMay 29, 2007

Board members, staff, and volunteers at the new Creation Museum in northern Kentucky say skeptics who take the time to tour the 60,000-square-foot facility are impressed. And one board member with Answers in Genesis says he learned many lessons from God during the planning and construction of the recently opened museum.

The $27 million Creation Museum, a project of Answers in Genesis (AIG), opened to the public on Memorial Day. Overflow crowds visited the site over the weekend, as did a handful of protesters outside the gate to the museum. But leading up to opening day, ministry staff invited both supporters and skeptics to tour the facility.

Dan Chin, an Answers in Genesis board member from Illinois, says many of those who questioned the biblical account of creation had rave reviews when they visited the museum.

“We heard a lot of stories from staff here, where they talk about people who really are against this message that they thought they understood,” Chin says. “And as they walk through the museum and can really get a clear picture of what we’re saying, they say [it] really makes a lot of sense and their eyes are opened.”

The Creation Museum features a number of exhibits supporting the biblical account of creation. Evidently God chose the museum’s planning and construction phases to feature how he keeps his promises as well. Chin says he learned a great deal about God’s provision and timing during the past few years.

According to the AIG board member, continued construction of the facility was contingent upon certain funds being received by a certain time. But “the Lord always provided,” says Chin, “and we never hit one of those times” when construction had to stop. It was a walk of faith, he shares, to see the museum through to completion.

“And just to think back on where we started, and we were thinking … maybe it was going to be a $10 million museum,” he recalls. “And then we were asked to step out in faith and make a decision that we would support a $25 million [museum] and now it’s 27 [million dollars]. So the Lord has been so good to us and has provided in such abundance.”

Chin says the Creation Museum is overwhelming, and he believes it will be a powerful evangelistic tool to bring many people to Christ.

All Original Content Copyright 2006-2007 American Family News Network - All Rights Reserved

Yay!!!! It’s open! I can hardly wait to visit. I’m not posting this to debate the theory of evolution with anyone. I’m posting this because I am of the young earth creationist belief and I’m excited that the Creation Museum is now open. If you wonder what exactly young earth creationism is, I would suggest looking at Answers in Genesis. They are real scientists and have real answers.

By Andrea Hopkins

PETERSBURG, Ky (Reuters) - Like many modern museums, the newest U.S. tourist attraction includes some awesome exhibits — roaring dinosaurs and a life-sized ship.

But only at the Creation Museum in Kentucky do the dinosaurs sail on the ship — Noah’s Ark, to be precise.

The Christian creators of the sprawling museum, unveiled on Saturday, hope to draw as many as half a million people each year to their state-of-the-art project, which depicts the Bible’s first book, Genesis, as literal truth.

While the $27 million museum near Cincinnati has drawn snickers from media and condemnation from U.S. scientists, those who believe God created the heavens and the Earth in six days about 6,000 years ago say their views are finally being represented.

“What we’ve done here is to give people an opportunity to hear information that is not readily available … to challenge them that really you can believe the Bible’s history,” said Ken Ham, president of the group Answers in Genesis that founded the museum.

Here exhibits show the Grand Canyon took just days to form during Noah’s flood, dinosaurs coexisted with humans and had a place on Noah’s Ark, and Cain married his sister to populate people the earth, among other Biblical wonders.

Scientists, secularists and moderate Christians have pledged to protest the museum’s public opening on Monday. An airplane trailing a “Thou Shalt Not Lie” banner buzzed overhead during the museum’s opening news conference.

Opponents argue that children who see the exhibits will be confused when they learn in school that the universe is 14 billion years old rather than 6,000.
“Teachers don’t deserve a student coming into class saying ‘Gee Mrs. Brown, I went to this fancy museum and it said you’re teaching me a lie,’” Dr. Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, told reporters before the museum opened.

Actually, I think they do deserve that. Of course, intellectual debate should never be a part of the public education classroom. Just believe everything the left wing liberal teachers say.

A Gallup poll last year showed almost half of Americans believe that humans did not evolve but were created by God in their present form within the last 10,000 years.

Three of 10 Republican presidential candidates said in a recent debate that they did not believe in evolution.

By Chris Michaud NEW YORK (Reuters) -

Civil rights activist Al Sharpton on Saturday delivered the eulogy at a packed funeral service for an unarmed Honduran immigrant shot and killed by an off-duty policeman following a traffic accident a week ago.

Wow, that first paragraph is a doozy. From an unbiased media we get the idea that a funeral took place in a packed or overflowing funeral service because an unarmed Honduran (apparently legal, just kidding) immigrant who was shot and killed by an off duty police officer following a fender bender. Is it just me, or is anyone else amazed that Reuters can pack so much BS into one sentence?

Fermin Arzu “came to this country to pursue the American dream, but ended up the American nightmare,” Sharpton told more than 50 people at a small funeral home in the Bronx.

Not to be picky, but 50 people? They must have packed a small funeral home or church because I don’t think of 50 people as that terribly many. Let’s be honest here, it was only the good Reverend’s entourage that attended the service. Not to mention the poor immigrant was only pursuing the American dream. Never mind that he probably wasn’t even American.

Many more gathered outside or paid respects after the service.

Really? I somehow doubt it.

Arzu, 41, a building porter and father of six, was killed when police officer Raphael Lora fired five shots at him after Arzu’s vehicle hit a parked car on May 18.

To read the paragraph above, one might imagine that the poor immigrant simply pursuing the American dream accidentally backed into a parked car in the grocery store parking lot and the bad ol’ off duty police officer shot the H-E- double hockey sticks out of him.

The Bronx shooting recalled an incident last November in which officers fired 50 shots at three unarmed black men in the borough of Queens, killing 23-year-old Sean Bell on his wedding day and wounding two men. Two officers have been indicted for manslaughter and a third for reckless endangerment.

Of course, let’s bring that up again.

Sharpton said earlier on Saturday that Arzu’s shooting was strikingly similar to the Bell case.

“This is the same case, of police disregarding the rights of the citizens of New York,” Sharpton told a rally of about 100 people in Harlem that, like the funeral, was also attended by Bell’s fiancee.

Excuse me, was Arzu a citizen of New York? I thought he was an immigrant? And Bell’s fiancee attending the rally? Could she be shopping for another gangsta?

He called reports that Arzu had been drinking at the time of the shooting “distractions,” adding that even if he had committed a crime, such as fleeing from the scene of an accident, he “should have been arrested, not killed.”

It’s kind of hard to arrest someone if they’re fleeing. Notice that race baiter Sharpton states that it really doesn’t matter what anyone does, basically, it’s never okay to shoot someone. I disagree.

Initial police reports said Lora had stopped the Arzu’s vehicle after it hit a parked car and was confronting him when the car lurched forward. Lora opened fire, hitting Arzu. Officers are barred from firing at a vehicle unless they feel their lives are in danger. No weapon was found.

It makes you wonder if Arzu, like Bell, was trying to run over a police officer with an automobile. If I was a betting person, I’d bet that the off duty police officer killed the illegal immigrant in order to save his own life. I could be completely wrong or off base, but I guess time will tell.

Lora has been placed on desk duty while the Bronx district attorney continues his investigation.

New York’s police department has come under increased scrutiny following several high-profile cases of fatal shootings or abuse, including the 1999 killing of Amadou Diallo, an unarmed immigrant who died when police fired 41 shots at him in the Bronx.

It’s not that the author of this Reuters article is trying to influence readers about NYC police. No bias here. Move along.

Here’s the deal; I love politics and blogging about them, but I’m also a sports fan. Is that weird? I don’t want to just be a political genius, there’s more to life than that. Sports my family enjoys watching and following include:

1. NFL football
2. College football — particularly the Nebraska Cornhuskers
3. College basketball — particularly KU
4. Tennis anyone? We love tennis and actually went to the US Open tournament in Flushing Meadows, NY when we were college shopping in 2004. (If you don’t believe me, we still have the credit card debt to prove that little trip) Anyway, that trip could be it’s own blog of country folk staying in the ghetto and taking the subway and all that fun stuff. Put it this way, the next time we decide to do the US Open, well, we learned a lot from that last trip. We’d do things a little different. Still, it makes for fun memories that we will always look back and laugh about that adventure.
5. Rodeo. Yes, we are from the Midwest, particularly Dodge City, KS. Have you heard of Dodge City Days? Our last Dodge City days was probably 1995 and we still miss it greatly. We moved from Dodge City to NE in 1996. If you are looking for a great family vacation, I would highly recommend Dodge City Days.
6. Sprint Car Racing. This is another pastime from when we lived in Dodge City. We had a dirt track there, and in the summer, practically every Saturday night this is where we could be found. Are you beginning to see how redneck we are yet? I say the term redneck with much affection. Plus, don’t forget, we score a little for sophistication with the tennis listed above
7. NASCAR. Finally, this really is our latest find. The reason we picked it up is because we are so isolated here in WY and we miss Sprint Car racing. Ted’s dad is a NASCAR fan and Ted enjoys visiting with him about it when they call. If you are looking for a fun sport to pick up, I’d recommend NASCAR. Jeff Gordon is fun — and believe it or not, politics can play quite the role in this sport. You can learn about it by going here.

I said all that above to post this article:

He was right there, racing in their capital city, and they never gave him a chance. The marketable, photogenic, media-savvy, star American driver that open-wheel racing so desperately needs grew up almost in the shadow of Indianapolis Motor Speedway, and somehow they let him get away. It’s a mistake they should regret each time he slides behind the wheel of a stock car, and another chapter is added to Jeff Gordon’s indelible legacy in NASCAR.

The article goes on to say:

The open-wheelers are supposed to be the sophisticated ones, the technological savants, the motorsport elite looking down their noses at stockers toiling with carburetors and push-rod engines. But when it comes to developing American drivers, they’re idling in the Stone Age. Gordon won three U.S. Auto Club championships before he could legally drive on the street, was the youngest driver ever to win midget and silver crown titles, was a terror on Midwest short tracks before he finished high school. And he was ignored.

To be honest — I’m so glad that Jeff is racing NASCAR instead Indy cars. You can read the entire article here. I don’t want to bore you with the details.

In the meantime, I need to finish getting around for church. I hope all of you have a blessed Memorial Day, remembering our fallen heroes and other loved ones in our lives.

Linked to Woman Honor Thyself

I found this while tag surfing today. The complete article is at ESPN.com. Granted, Michael Vick can do what he wants; as long as it’s within the law. Dog fighting is disgusting. There is nothing anyone can say that will ever make me think it’s okay. This isn’t to say that I think Vick is guilty, but if he is, he is a freaking idiot. Who is entertained by dogs fighting? Ridiculous.

…

The case began April 25 when police conducting a drug investigation raided the house Vick owned in rural Surry County and found dozens of dogs. They also found items associated with dog fighting, including a “pry bar” used to pry apart a dog’s jaws.

No charges have been filed in the case, but Poindexter last week told The Associated Press as many as six to 10 people could be involved. Dog fighting is a felony in Virginia.

Vick is a registered dog breeder. … Click for the entire article

What a headline. This case is strange for so many reasons.

From USA Today :

ATLANTA — A former Coca-Cola (KO) secretary convicted of conspiring to steal trade secrets from the world’s largest beverage maker was sentenced Wednesday to 8 years in federal prison.

Joya Williams, 42, faced up to 10 years on the single conspiracy charge in a failed scheme to sell the materials to rival Pepsi for at least $1.5 million. She was convicted Feb. 2 after a jury trial in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, where the Coca-Cola Co. is based.

“This is the kind of offense that cannot be tolerated in our society,” U.S. District Judge J. Owen Forrester said in imposing sentence.

A co-defendant, Ibrahim Dimson, was sentenced to 5 years in prison.

Forrester’s sentence for Williams was more severe than the 63- to 78-month sentence recommended by federal prosecutors and federal sentencing guidelines.

He said the seriousness of the crime necessitated a departure from the guidelines, which federal judges are not bound by.

“I can’t think of another case in 25 years that there’s been so much obstruction of justice,” the judge said of Williams’ conduct.

Forrester ignored a tearful apology by Williams, which was the first time she acknowledged what she did.

“Your honor, I have expanded my consciousness through this devastating experience,” Williams said before she was sentenced. “This has been a very defining moment in my life. I have become infamous when I never wanted to become famous.”

She added, “I am sorry to Coke and I’m sorry to my boss and to you and to my family as well.”

The government said Williams stole confidential documents and samples of products that hadn’t been launched by Coca-Cola and gave them to Dimson and a third defendant, Edmund Duhaney, as part of a conspiracy to sell the items to Pepsi. Duhaney, like Dimson, pleaded guilty to conspiracy. Duhaney will be sentenced later.

The conspiracy was foiled after Pepsi warned Coca-Cola that it had received a letter in May 2006 offering Coca-Cola trade secrets to the “highest bidder.” The FBI launched an undercover investigation and identified the letter writer as Dimson.

(Apparently, Pepsi didn’t want their crappy recipe!)

Williams was fired as a secretary to Coca-Cola’s global brand director at the company’s headquarters after the allegations came to light.

Williams’ apology Wednesday lasted several minutes and she asked the judge to show mercy, though Forrester had told her previously that he planned to depart from sentencing guidelines

“Punishment is the memories and the moments that I’m going to miss,” she said. “Punishment is never having a family of my own.”

Assistant U.S. Attorney Byung J. Pak told the judge that Williams didn’t deserve leniency.

“Choices have consequences and she made those choices,” Pak said. “She chose to go to trial and she lied on the stand.”

At the hearing, prosecutors disclosed that Williams has two prior convictions, one involving making false statements related to unemployment insurance.

Williams’ lawyers had repeatedly asserted in court and out of court that Williams had no criminal past, and the government until Wednesday did not challenge that assertion.

I am shocked! Shocked I tell you — that defense attorneys would lie about their client having no criminal past!