Archive for the ‘Education’ Category

Merry Christmas!

December 24, 2008

Merry Christmas to one and all! Enjoy yourselves; feast; drink, and be merry!

Others are not doing nearly so well, and I hope and pray that at some point in the festivities one and all thinks back about those people.

Think about the Soldiers, Marines, Coast guardsmen, and Air Force, and Navy people. Men, and women, that stand guard while we sleep in relative comfort. Think about those that have been imprisoned for doing so; Compean and Ramos come to my immediate mind, and, they are not the only ones.


Think about the Paramedics, the Firefighters, and the Police personnel that are standing duty away from their homes and families so that you can be safe.


Alright, that was pretty general and would suffice in a general way. At least for most people.

I am not an ordinary sort of person though. Yes, I have a special place in my heart. Although I sit in the middle of Al Gore’s promise of global warming, with a local high temperature of something in the low to mid teens I still have something deep inside to  people that are, in fact, always on my mind.

  • Saint Anthony Hospital Paramedics.
  • Broomfield Paramedic’s and EMT’s.
  • North Metro Firefighters (not firemen!)
  • Commerce City, Colorado Police.
  • Northglenn Ambulance Alumni.
  • Arvada, Colorado Jaycee’s.
  • Clear Creek County Ambulance.

Then, there are those that are, for whatever reason are more than special in my heart.

  • Those that go into harms way from the Fifth Special Forces Group; You know who you are, and why I think of you.
  • The ” Tiger Teams” of Seventh Special Forces; You also know who you are, and why.
  • Rangers, all of you. But especially two Mike’s, and a John, from Third Rangers. You know why guys. OOORAH! AIRBORNE!
  • Second Marine Division.
  • First Marine Division. (5th, my father died wearing your colors in Korea. Special thanks to you Men. Carry on…)
  • The Coast Guard along the entire western coast of the United States. I was auxiliary based out of Oceanside. Would that I could have been one of you!

The message?

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

God Bless each and every one of you!

My name is Patrick Dennis Sperry. I love all of you, and, I stand with, in front of, or behind you as the need demands.


Africa the enigma.

December 24, 2008

Africa the enigma. The seat of humanity, and the oldest cultures ever established by humans according to some is also the seat of continuing controversy. Not to mention brutality of a monumental scale on a pretty regular basis.

Of course there is always finger pointing at who did this, or caused that. Of some bogyman or other that is the root cause of bloodshed seen only on occasion in other places in the world. I am not at all dissing the Jewish Holocaust, the Armenian Outrage, the diabolical slaughter of the Red Khmer’s, or any of the other examples of mans stellar works of killing his own kind.

Africa though, never seems to get over the same sort of thing. Often it is based upon centuries old tribal conflict. Then, there is the religion of peace, and how it’s followers have civilized the parts of Africa controlled by Islam.

Most often though it is some thug. It is that simple really, and today isn’t any different than years gone by, at least when it comes to Africa. Just who is today’s  hero of the people?

Robert Mugabe of course!

The most exclusive club in the world

December 24, 2008

This years Democrat avalanche in the election comes with a few loose strings. This is unfortunate because what is at stake is no less than the American way of life. I may be no big fan of team Obama, not in the least, yet I hold that there are things that are more important than what might be termed micro-politics.

Those things that go beyond all the petty differences are the very things that set the United States apart from the rest of the world. We live in America by rule of law. Not by personality, or the will of the mob. We are a Constitutional Republic, not a democracy. We have a Bill of Rights that protects individuals from the whims of government as well as from the mob.

Now, what is all that leading too? In a single word, it is that our system, is based upon integrity. Without that single attribute all the good intentions in the world will not make for good government. The lack of integrity in elected, and appointed people causes fundamental problems that the rest of society has to live, or die, with. There are plenty of examples where the lack of integrity has caused problems. From judicial activism to corruption in elected and appointed officials the lack of personal and professional integrity has caused little but problems.

Now that the smoke has settled there remain two seats in the worlds most exclusive club that have a cloud hanging over them. Which way will the wind blow? Will it blow toward the Constitution and Bill of Rights? Or will it blow in the direction of personality worship?

The disputed U.S. Senate race in Minnesota and the politically toxic appointment of a replacement to the Illinois seat being vacated by President-elect Barack Obama have left open the possibility that the legislative body could reject two would-be lawmakers.

While the scenario seems far-fetched, Article I, Section 5 of Constitution holds that “Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns and Qualifications of its own Members.”

In other words, if Minnesota certifies either Norm Coleman or Al Franken the winner, a bloc of senators could object on the Senate floor to seating him. The same could happen if embattled Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich appoints a “tainted” successor to Obama.

The new Congress starts Jan. 6, and the potential for havoc is immense.

Either scenario could prompt special investigative committees or even floor votes on whether to seat a candidate if their election certification remain.

Full Story here

Hidden Damage

December 22, 2008

While surfing the web today, I chanced across an old story from Westword Magazine. It was about a young woman that I not only had worked with, but whose case I testified at a few years ago.

Since then, I have also had a few problems with State Farm Insurance of my own. I can’t help but wonder if my testimony isn’t related to those, and a few other things that have happened.


In any case, read, and enjoy…

Sunserea McClelland

What Is the DEA Smoking?

December 22, 2008

The Drug Enforcement Administration is in an optimistic mood. A new DEA report insists that the antidrug campaigns Washington has undertaken with Colombia and Mexico in recent years have dramatically slowed the flow of cocaine into the United States. The DEA’s principal piece of evidence is that average street prices for the drug have soared over the past twenty-one months from $96.61 per gram to $182.73, which suggests “that we are placing significant stress on the drug delivery system.” There’s just one problem with the DEA’s proclamation of success. We’ve heard it all before. Many, many times before.

For example, in November 2005, the White House Office of National Drug Control Policy asserted that a 19 percent increase in cocaine prices since February indicated a growing retail shortage, thus validating Washington’s multibillion dollar Plan Colombia, designed to stanch the torrent of drugs coming from the Andean region of South America. “These numbers confirm that the levels of interdiction, the levels of eradication, have reduced the availability of cocaine in the United States,” White House drug czar John P. Walters boasted. “The policy is working.”

And what was the sky-high street price of cocaine that justified such optimism? $170 per gram. Adjusted for inflation, that price was actually higher than the latest price spike to just under $183. Yet clearly that earlier alleged supply-side victory in the drug war was short lived. According to the DEA’s own statistics in the December 2008 report, cocaine prices had declined to a mere $96 per gram by January 2007.

The reality is that street prices for illegal drugs act like the famous observation about prices in the stock market: they will vary. Over the past fifteen years, the retail price of cocaine has moved in a range between roughly $90 and $200 per gram. The latest spike is nothing abnormal, just as the plunge in prices from November 2005 to January 2007 was not unusual. Indeed, if one examines price trends over a longer period, any cause for optimism evaporates. During the early 1980s cocaine sometimes sold for more than $500 per gram. Obviously, that did not herald a lasting victory in the drug war.

Moreover, if the DEA had issued its 2008 report just three months earlier, there would have been even less evidence of supposed progress. For the previous five quarters, the street price had hovered around $120. The agency is simply grasping at straws to “prove” that the nearly four-decades-old effort to shut off the supply of illegal drugs is finally working.

cont.

This article simply points out what I have been saying for years; If you are for the drug war, you are for making thugs into wealthy men.

DOW USING SOLAR POWER FOR WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT

December 22, 2008

HINSDALE COUNTY, Colo. – Small-scale electric solar power is providing the Colorado Division of Wildlife a unique tool for a variety of wildlife management tasks.

In southwest Colorado, two water aeration systems powered by photovoltaic panels are helping to keep trout alive at a reservoir. At other isolated locations, solar facilities are being used to operate well pumps to provide water for species of concern. By using photovoltaic solar panels the DOW can deliver power to remote areas where electricity is unavailable or very expensive.

At Road Canyon Reservoir in eastern Hinsdale County, two aeration systems powered by photovoltaic panels were installed in mid-November. The reservoir is quite shallow and can become stagnant after water stops flowing into the impoundment in the fall. When oxygen runs low, the fish in the reservoir die.

Since the 1960s the DOW has used an aeration machine powered from an electric line to stir up the water in the reservoir that’s located off U.S. Forest Service Road 520. But recently electricity costs spiked to $8,000 per year, so the DOW cast about for a less expensive solution.

Mineral County officials wanted to keep the aerator running because the reservoir is a popular spot for tourists. At the encouragement of the DOW, county officials applied for a “Fishing is Fun” grant from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. The DOW contacted a North Dakota company, SolarBee International, which builds specialized solar pump equipment.

The equipment and installation cost $80,800. The grant from the federal government totaled $57,000, and Mineral County matched it with $23,800.

The two floating solar-powered machines can move 10,000 gallons of water per minute, explained Brent Woodward, district wildlife manager in the Creede area.

“Theses pumps do a much better job of aeration than the old pump and they don’t need power from the electric grid,” Woodward said.

The floating pumps, each powered by three photovoltaic panels, pull low-oxygen water from the bottom of the reservoir to mix with water at the surface that is high in oxygen. Each pump impacts an area of about 35 surface acres on the 160-acre reservoir. Because the water is pulled from the bottom there is no surface disturbance. The machines also are equipped with batteries that enable operations to continue for 72 hours without sunshine.

During winter, ice could form near the machines but it will be thin. Ice fishers are warned to stay well away from the floats. During the summer, boaters also are asked to stay at least 50 yards from the machines.

In three other remote areas in southwest Colorado where electricity is unavailable, solar-powered water pumps are pulling water from wells and helping with the effort to bolster the populations of Gunnison Sage-grouse. DOW biologists in Gunnison, San Miguel and Dolores counties developed these small well projects where natural sources of surface water are lacking. By putting water on the ground in sage grouse habitat, small wet meadows are formed.

For the hardy sage grouse, a little water goes a long way. While grouse spend much of their time in sagebrush, they need access to moist meadows that provide rich sources of fresh vegetation and insects. These meadows, even those small in size, are especially important to young birds because they must start eating within 18 hours of hatching.

The wet meadows also are utilized by a wide variety of other wildlife species, from big game to song birds to amphibians.

On Bureau of Land Management property in western San Miguel County, the DOW is working in cooperation with a local rancher to provide water to desert bighorn sheep. After a windmill pump fell into disrepair, the DOW shared costs with the rancher to install a solar-powered pump at the location.

“These photovoltaic systems are very helpful and low cost,” said Jim Garner, a wildlife conservation biologist from Montrose. “There’s no way we could afford to get regular sources of electricity to these sites.”

#   #   #

NOTE TO EDITORS: Photographs of the solar installations can be downloaded from these links. Cutline information is below each link.

http://wildlife.state.co.us/apps/ImageDB/ImageDownload.aspx?ImageId=24372&ImageSize=Print&ImageType=jpg

This floating, solar-power aerator is located at Road Canyon Reservoir in Hinsdale County. The photovoltaic panels provide electricity to the aerators which stir up the water, keeping it oxygenated for fish. These types of solar-power panels allow electricity to be delivered to remote locations. The Division of Wildlife uses solar power at remote locations throughout the state to provide water to wildlife. This photo was taken in December 2008.

http://wildlife.state.co.us/apps/ImageDB/ImageDownload.aspx?ImageId=24373&ImageSize=Print&ImageType=jpg
This photovoltaic solar panel is located at the Dry Creek Basin State Wildlife Area in western Colorado. The panel supplies electricity to a well pump that enables Colorado Division of Wildlife to provide water in this remote area to help sustain the Gunnison Sage-grouse. This photo was taken in December 2008.

For more information about Division of Wildlife go to: http://wildlife.state.co.us.

Misandry and the Supreme Court

December 18, 2008

Misandry as expressed by in the various laws passed by people like Patricia Schroeder exhibit the pure hatred that some people have for the Constitution.

One more than significant part of that hatred was the love affair with things like ex post facto law as an inextricable portion of the notorious Lautenberg Domestic Violence Amendment to the Gun Control Act of 1968.

True to form this abomination of Anglo American Law was passed without a vote by sneaking it into a completely different budget vote without any debate.

This is poor law, it was poorly written, then  re-written by regulatory fiat via the rogue agency BATFE. It uses ex post facto penalties. It takes inalienable rights away for less than felony behaviors. It does so for life.


Finally, the Supreme Court is taking up at least part of this assault on common sense and the Constitution. The question however is not one of law, it is one of whether they will bow to political correctness.

READ HERE

This is a long read, and filled with terminology that only Lawyers could love…

Insanity, it’s not just a Boulder thing

December 15, 2008

Insanity, it’s not just a Boulder thing, and it never has been. Take a look at New York. The place is in so much trouble you would think that it’s California. The Governor in New York must have been sleeping when he was being lectured about fundamental economics. He thinks that taxing cash strapped New Yorkers is the path to fiscal stability. Read on about the coming fiasco

HERE

Africa and Obamas lesson from abroad

December 15, 2008

This piece by Larry Pratt is somewhat dated. However, with all the carnage that has been going on recently across Africa I thought it might be a good thing to remind people just what kind of President we have just elected. I myself am wondering if the United States will be sending troops to Africa in an effort to support some of the nefarious characters that are at the bottom of some of the worst bloodshed that mankind has seen in quite some time.

By Larry Pratt
October 31, 2008

NewsWithViews.com

Thanks to journalist Jerome Corsi, we now know for a fact that Democrat presidential candidate Barak Obama is joined at the hip with Kenya’s Marxist thug Raila Odinga, now the country’s Prime Minister.

Obama campaigned for Odinga in 2006 and had the foreign policy aide in his U.S. Senate office (Mark Lippert) act as intermediary during Odinga’s 2007 campaign for president which he lost last December. The campaign plan that Odinga laid out was developed in cooperation with Obama.

Odinga’s plan contained a specific provision for resorting to class (inter-tribal) warfare in the likely event that he, with his Luo tribal base, would lose to the much more numerous Kikuyus who support Kenyan president Mwai Kibaki. See the document here.

Obama’s father was a Luo, the same as Odinga, suggesting that ethnicity as well as shared philosophy has drawn Obama and Odinga together. Odinga, who was educated in communist East Germany, named his first son Fidel Castro Odinga.

Corsi was able to leave Kenya with campaign correspondence between Obama and Odinga because defectors from Odinga’s campaign turned the documents. They wanted the world to see what a bloodthirsty man had gotten into power.

Corsi is grateful that he got out of Kenya with his documentation. Odinga’s immigration police detained Corsi (with no justification) just before he was to present his evidence (highly damaging to
Odinga) to the Kenyan public at a news conference in Nairobi. After a lot of fancy maneuvering, Corsi was able to leave at the end of the day when it became clear that many international media sources were reporting what Odinga’s thugs had done.

The class warfare provision in Obama and Odinga’s campaign plans was triggered in January and February when machete-wielding mobs of Muslim Luo’s hacked to death over 1000 Kikuyus, most of whom are Christian. Over 800 churches were burned to the ground (in one case with over 30 who had been locked inside) and tens of thousands of Kikuyus had to flee their homes.

The Kikuyus were unable to shoot back because Kenya has strict gun control laws in large measure due to their time as a British colony. Even though far outnumbering the largely Muslim Luo, President Kibaki and his fellow Kikuyus put up the white flag. A new position — that of prime minister — was created for Odinga so he could share power with Kibaki after he won the election with some 250,000 votes.

Having extorted his way into Kibaki’s government, Odinga was given several portfolios, that of immigration among them. That is how Odinga was able to kidnap Corsi, but Corsi was able to text message his predicament to Joseph Farah of WorldNetDaily.com before they stole his phone from him. Farah was soon on Fox News, and Corsi’s predicament was also picked up by CNN International. Happily I was able to recently interview Corsi right here in the good old USA (archived here).

Barak Obama is a gun banner. He voted to put a homeowner in jail for having used an unregistered (“illegal”) handgun to shoot a home invader who was threatening his family. Happily Obama’s view did not prevail in the Illinois Senate.

More ominous than just supporting gun control is Obama’s history of discipleship, teaching and funding of the principals and organizations spawned by followers of Saul Alinsky. Alinsky’s Rules for Radicals could have provided the intellectual basis for the Odinga plan to win power by theft, intimidation and violence. It is not surprising that Alinsky dedicated his book to Lucifer.

One of Alinsky’s flagship organizations, established during his lifetime, is ACORN. This is the group that has been under investigation for massive vote fraud in the 2008 elections.

Obama has represented Alinsky’s ACORN, given them millions from foundations on whose boards he has served with an unrepentant terrorist, and given them $800,000 (to a subsidiary) from his presidential campaign this year.

The one hopeful difference between Obama and Odinga is that Odinga was able to foment violence and destruction in a country of unarmed victims. For Obama to pursue that part of Odinga’s plan in the event of an Obama loss in the U.S. would likely result in a very different outcome. After all, unlike Kenya, Americans are well armed ­ to the chagrin of the Ivy League elites who trained Obama.

© 2008 Larry Pratt – All Rights Reserved

Sign Up For Free E-Mail Alerts
E-Mails are used strictly for NWVs alerts, not for sale


Larry Pratt has been Executive Director of Gun Owners of America for 27 years. GOA is a national membership organization of 300,000 Americans dedicated to promoting their second amendment freedom to keep and bear arms.

He published a book, Armed People Victorious, in 1990 and was editor of a book, Safeguarding Liberty: The Constitution & Militias, 1995. His latest book, On the Firing Line: Essays in the Defense of Liberty was published in 2001.

The GOA web site is:  gunowners.org. Pratt’s weekly talk show Live Fire is archived there at: www.gunowners.org/radio.htm

E-Mail: ldpratt@gunowners.org

Either Pratt or another GOA spokesman is available for press interviews.

Cowboy Logic

December 15, 2008

> COWBOY LOGIC
>
> This was ACTUALLY proposed to the Montana Wool and Sheep
> Grower’s Association by the Sierra Club and the United States Forest
> Service.
>
> Hard to argue with this cowboy logic.
>
> A few years ago, the Sierra Club and the US Forest Service
> were presenting an alternative to Montana ranchers for
> controlling the coyote population. It seems that after years of the
> ranchers using
> the tried and true methods of shooting and/or trapping the predator,
> the tree-huggers had a ‘more humane’ solution.
>
> What the Sierra Club proposed was for the animals to be
> captured alive, the males castrated and let loose again, and the population
> would be controlled.
>
> All of the ranchers mulled over this ‘amazing’ idea for a couple of minutes.
>
> Finally, an old boy in the back stood up, tipped his hat back, and said,
>
> ‘Son, I don’t think you understand the problem. Those coyotes ain’t scewin’
> our sheep — they’re eatin’ ’em!’

A 10 year old’s love story

Little Bruce and Jenny are only 10 years old, but they know they are in love.  One day they decide that they want to get married, so Bruce goes to Jenny’s father to ask him for her hand.

Bruce bravely walks up to him and says, “Mr.  Smith, me and Jenny are in love and I want to ask you for her hand in marriage.”

Thinking that this was just the cutest thing, Mr.  Smith replies, “Well Bruce, you are only 10.  Where will you two live?”

Without even taking a moment to think about it, Bruce replies, “In Jenny’s room.  It’s bigger than mine and we can both fit there nicely.”

Still thinking this is just adorable, Mr.  Smith says with a huge grin, “Okay then how will you live?  You’re not old enough to get a job.
You’ll need to support Jenny.”

Again, Bruce instantly replies, “Our allowance.  Jenny makes five bucks a week and I make 10 bucks a week.  That’s about 60 bucks a month and that should do us just fine.”

Mr.  Smith is impressed Bruce has put so much thought into this.
‘Well Bruce, it seems like you have everything figured out.  I just have one more question.  What will you do if the two of you should have little ones of your own?”

Bruce just shrugs his shoulders and says, “Well, we’ve been lucky so far.”

Mr. Smith no longer thinks the little shit is adorable.
Who says today’s kids aren’t smart?
….Well, some of them sure are!!
At a high School in Montana, a group
of high schoolers played a prank on the
school teachers and staff. They let
three goats loose in the school …but
before they let them go, they painted
numbers on the sides of the goats: 1,2,4.

…Local school administrators, teachers,
and custodians spent most of the day
looking for #3.

source: Antique Guns Auction