John McCain is slipping in the polls. What has happened? Or, perhaps, a better question to ask is, what did he do when he went up in the polls? That's easy. He went up in the polls when he sounded like a conservative in the Saddleback church debate moderated by Rick Warren in California. He went way up in the polls when he selected Sarah Palin as his running mate.
Lately, though, John McCain has reminded us of what we have long known about him: he is not a conservative. We need to guard ourselves against getting too emotionally involved with him, because, like President Bush, he will disappoint us time and again.
Unions are another arm of the Democratic party. Colorado's Democratic Governor, Bill Ritter, has made it possible for unions to collect dues directly from state employees' paychecks. Jon Caldera of the free market Independence Institute has offered an amendment to the state's constitution to stop this practice. Unlike the Denver Post, I usually do agree with Caldera. Like the Denver Post, I agree with Caldera's Amendment 49, which the Post says, "would stop politicians from collecting union dues that are used to elect and re-elect those very same politicians."
Did you notice that the Democrats tried to insert funding for ACORN in the bailout plan? ACORN is a radical arm of the Democratic party. They have been registering voters for Obama here in Colorado throughout 2008. I had some experience with them this summer. I was looking for a job. I heard they were registering voters. When I took the foster children into the huge Denver Social Services building at 12th and Federal, I saw them registering welfare recipients to vote. They were always there with a large table, and people were signing up. I also saw them at a grocery store in the inner city, getting signatures on petitions for labor union-sponsored petitions, from welfare recipients standing in line to cash their checks on the first of the month. They were very aggressive.
I thought, that would be a fun thing to do, register voters, and be paid for it! So, I went to their office to apply for a job. I was up front with them, and told them I wanted to sign up people in the suburbs, closer to our farm. They said no, "We are only employing people to work in the housing projects and welfare offices." Can you believe the Dems were so blatant as to try to include massive funding for ACORN in the bailout plan?
You just know the next thing ACORN will be doing is taking van-loads of people to the polls on election day. Without ACORN, I believe most of the people they have signed up will not bother to take the initiative to get themselves to the polls on election day. I wonder how many vans will be purchased with taxpayer money!
I recently met an 88-year-old man named Dave. Dave moved to Colorado from Southern California about five years ago. His nephew, a retired, single firefighter, told him he would take care of him here in Colorado, and, Dave says with grateful conviction in his voice, "he has"!
However, the story does not end there. Dave has a friend who is "only fifty" who calls him every Sunday without fail. She tells him how grateful she is that she has him for a friend, and how much he has helped her appreciate life. She tells him that he has helped her approach life much more positively, and she now has lots of friends, whereas previously she had none.
Dave was married for forty-eight years to a woman who was beautiful at every stage of her life. He showed me pictures from his wallet to prove it! One day, twenty years ago, they were out tending to yard work, when she said, "This is it!" She died right after saying those words.
Dave has other pictures in his wallet. He has several that show him standing next to the plane he flew in World War Two. He has several more of him standing next to the bread truck he proudly drove after returning from the war.
Dave does not like Colorado. The people here are too busy to talk to him. They are always hurrying around. He wants to go back to Southern California. He has a friend there who is only fifty.
Yes, I have had my camera with me to record the changing season and the miraculous sunsets.
Rush Limbaugh has made it as one of his purposes in life to study the thinking and behavioral patterns of people on the left. I believe he accurately summarizes what they are all about: power and control over the rest of us.
In the 1990s Rush first warned us about the "environmental whackos." Among other things, he warned that the SUV would be demonized. Rush was right. The news media always say "a person was hit by an SUV," not "a person was hit by a drunk driver." He saw through Al Gore's hysterical rants about man-made global warming. He showed us Gore's incredible hypocrisy, as Gore jetted around the world and lived in environmentally unfriendly mansions.
Rush was also right about the feminist movement, which was not about advancing women. It was about hating the fact that men were in positions of power and control. It was about advancing the idea that women should have the "right" to kill unborn babies. It was about debunking traditional values.
Now, Rush is warning us about how the left will use the financial crisis. He played the tape yesterday of Senator Chuck Schumer talking about how the "lowly mortgage" has brought down the financial markets. What? What about the irresponsible lending practices? What about the House and Senate banking committees, led by Barney Franks and Chris Dodd, blocking in 2003 and 2005 Republican efforts to set up a receivership corporation to handle bad debts? What about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, feathering the nests of politicians? No, it is us, the little guys, who are at fault for holding mortgages! Like SUVs, mortgages themselves will now be humanized and demonized, and be blamed for the financial failures, instead of looking at the effects of liberal government policies.
Yes, Rush says, it is the Marxist belief system that people on the left adhere to like glue. The problem, they think, is that too many of us are trying to own property. Too many of us are buying into the American dream, which the leftists thought they had banished long ago. Instead, we should all be realizing that we would be so much better off if we just let the government own all the property, and allow the leftists who control Congress and government agencies at all levels lay out for us the politically correct ways in which we are supposed to live our lives. They should own our property, not us.
As Rush often says, "Don't doubt me on this!"
Arrogance and lust for power, the drumbeat of the left. Willian Staneski writes in the American Thinker about this neverending drumbeat. The politically correct leftists are always seeking to increase their control over the rest of us.
My favorite passage: "In truth, and in direct opposition to the drumbeat, each human being must be accorded his or her natural rights, individual sovereignty, and self responsibility to be in harmony with human nature. Each of us must have the freedom to succeed or to fail."
Working outside the home now seven days a week, I have missed reading so many good posts. Michelle Malkin has written a powerful post explaining how liberals' hatred of conservative women is manifested. Malkin details here the four stages of the abuse: infantilzation, sexualization, demonization, and dehumanization.
David Harsanyi was not impressed when Joe Biden tried to convince us this week that taxation was "patriotic". David does his usual persuasive writing here, putting into perspective the differences between coercion, altruism, and patriotism.
Harsanyi also has some interesting facts about who pays what percentage of taxes. For example, did you know that in 1980, when the top income tax rate was 70 percent, the share of income taxes paid by the top 1 percent of taxpayers was less than 20 percent? Now, with their tax rate being less than 40 percent, the top one percent pay nearly 40 percent of all income taxes.
Although Biden is a multi-millionaire, he has given an average of $369 per year to charity in the last decade. I agree with Harsanyi that it is your money, through the coercion of taxation, not Biden's, through altruism, that Biden wants to be patriotically redistributed.
Biden should be especially happy to know that taxpayers are now going to be coerced into paying perhaps as much as an additonal 1 trillion dollars in the government plan being worked out this weekend to buy up financial institutions' bad debt. Patriotism abounds!
Did you see that Obama raised only $9,ooo,ooo last night in Hollywood? We must surely be living in a poor economy.
Hold Your Tube of Lipstick High for Sarah!
Monday in Golden, Colorado Sarah Palin spoke to a crowd of 5000 in a small horse arena, where we used to take our kids when we lived in Golden. On the front page of the Rocky Mountain News yesterday there was a picture of women in the audience. They were holding tubes of lipstick high above their heads and swaying their hands from side to side. I thought it was very cool.
Will the Holy Spirit Give Us The Gifts We Need?
The dominant media is all over Wasilla, Alaska, trying to find someone speaking in tongues. The pentecostal churches teach that the Holy Spirit may give a believer special gifts, and among those is speaking in tongues. If they can just find someone speaking in tongues, they believe that will discredit and ridicule Sarah Palin, who left the church five years ago!
Do you think it is working? Sarah Palin is a real threat to the elites, because she gets it. She identifies with us, because she is one of us. McCain's wisdom in choosing her has changed the polling results significantly. The Dems and their allies in the media are desperate. McCain's surge in the polls is continuing.
Sarah Palin has found a way to serve God by serving the people. The Holy Spirit will give her the gifts she needs. She believes that, and so do I.
Have you noticed how John McCain fidgets with his wedding ring finger while standing next to Sarah Palin? He did it again today at the 9-11 ceremonies, but this time he was standing next to his wife on one side and Obama on the other. Bad habit! Can't someone in his campaign explain that to him? Placing his right hand on his ring finger and moving it up and down the finger just looks bad.
I know, I probably have had way too much training on observing non-verbal cues. I find it fascinating to observe non-verbal behaviors and try to figure out if they mean anything. There is a former police chief from Rock Island, Illinois who makes a good living training law enforcement officers around the country to observe people's eyes when they are talking. If the eyes go down and to the right, it means one thing (lying?), and if they go up and to the left it means another, which I can't remember. Likewise for up and to the right and down and to the left.
One of the many things I like about Sarah Palin is that she looks an interviewer right in the eyes. Straight ahead, Sarah!
Yesterday I spoke with a cab driver who looked exhausted. He explained that it was Ramadan, and he was fasting. I asked him how long the fasting period would last. He answered, "one month." I said, "Look at me. How many people do you see?" He cracked up laughing. It was a nice moment.
With today being September 11, many of us are thinking about our enemy, the Islamic terrorists. However, I have Georgia and Iran on my mind, too. I am wondering who this Putin guy really is. I am wondering if we are about to make the same mistakes in Georgia as the democracies of the world made in the 1930s, when Adolph Hitler marched unopposed into the Rhineland, Austria, the Sudetenland, and Czechoslovakia. Is Putin similar to Hitler? If so, which of our current presidential candidates has the spine to stand up to him?
Hitler carefully studied the leaders of the world's democracies. Is Putin studying the democracies of Europe? Hitler realized their weaknesses and their inability to stop his quick, decisive actions. Then he attacked Poland from the west, while the Soviets attacked Poland from the east, and the Western press remained silent about the atrocities committed by the Nazis and the Soviet Communists. Norway was then seized almost effortlessly by Hitler; then Holland and Denmark.
Finally a man was elected in Britain who understood that negotiations with Hitler would be impossible and that Hitler was committed to total war. That man was Winston Churchill. Churchill and FDR had spines. The two men became close friends, and they both loved the people of the countries they led. They realized that evil men who were a threat to their countries must be confronted and crushed. They inspired their countrymen to fight evil, not seek to appease it.
George Bush realized that Sadaam Hussein was evil, and he crushed him. However, Bush has looked Putin in the eye and seen a friend who can be trusted. John McCain looked Putin in the eye and saw "KGB." Who is right about Putin: Bush, or McCain?
Will Americans elect the negotiator, Barack Obama, who sees "poverty" as evil, or the man who realizes that once a man is KGB, he will always be KGB? Will we elect a leader who wants America to self-flagellate, or will we have leaders like FDR and Churchill, who will stand up to and crush evil men like Putin, Bin Ladin, and Ahmahdinejad?
Do we really want a whiner as President of the United States? Have you noticed Obama's incessant whining? Maybe it is just a pet peeve of mine, because I have learned that portraying oneself as a victim only leads to self pity, which is never helpful to oneself or to those one comes into contact with. I always catch myself when I go in that direction, and I emphasize it with my children. If they can learn that lesson early, they will have much smoother sailing through life.
Sarah Palin has gotten inside Barack Obama's head. Joe Biden's, too. Less than a week after Sarah's remark about the difference between a hockey mom and a pit bull being lipstick, Barack makes a comment about "You can put lipstick on a pig, but it will still be a pig." Even if he did not mean it as an insult to Palin, it is clear to me that she is on his mind, and he is having a hard time figuring out how to deal with this woman whose popularity with voters has caused his lead over McCain to evaporate.
Dennis Miller today said, "It is not the color of his skin, it is the thinness of it."
Isn't it amusing to see the media, like a freshman anthropology class, scrambling all over Alaska to study these strange creatures who vote for Sarah Palin? Years ago Sarah attended a Pentecostal church. The media is really excited about that. Maybe there is a video they can dig up of Sarah speaking in tongues. No? Well how about a video of her killing an animal? No? Well, I guess we'll just have to interview an Assembly of God pastor where she formerly attended.
Talk about strange, this guy not only loves God, but he actually loves America! Did any one of these people ever seek to get an interview with Obama's pastor of twenty years, America-hating Jeremiah Wright?
Funny thing is, people like me will be all the more determined to stand with Mrs. Palin, the more the media attempts to ridicule her. So, keep it up, drive-by media hordes; all of us who are clinging to our guns and religion will only deepen our resolve to back the mavericks!
This freaky cloud was right above our house tonight. Who does it remind you of?
Who Gets To Define Womanhood, Blackness?
Sarah Palin is surely in for an intense barrage from the left over these next two months. QP links to a wonderful post by J. Robert Smith in the American Thinker. Here are two of my favorite paragraphs.
Palin's womanhood will also be questioned, because it is the left which is licensed to define womanhood, just as the left is permitted to define blackness. And make no mistake, feminism is a subsidiary of the left.
By the left's definition, a pro-life woman cannot be a woman. A woman who seeks a family-centered society, not a government-centered society, cannot be a woman. A woman who celebrates traditional American values, and not the secular values of Europeanized liberalism, cannot be a woman.
I lifted this video from Gayle's blog. It is less than two minutes long, but well worth our time.
Because of the media attention being given to Sarah Palin's daughter, the Rocky Mountain News reports these interesting statistics about teen pregnancy. In Colorado, on average, every 1.5 hours a teenage mother gives birth. 82 percent of teen pregnancies in the U.S. are unplanned. 29 percent end in abortion. 14 percent end in miscarriages. Only 57 percent end in live births.
One of my favorite writers about family life is Betsy Hart, a Scripps Howard columnist. She wrote a column this week about how teachers in a suburban elementary school in the midwest gathered students in each grade to warn them about the dangers of Hula-hooping. I kid you not!
Hart asks, "Might we be instilling in our youngsters a culture of fear? Deny them opportunities to handle risk appropriately - or even inappropriately - and learn from such experiences? Could we actually be putting them even at more risk by not preparing them to use good judgment in the real world?" She concludes, "Are we harming our children by trying to do the impossible - protect them from life itself?"
Right after I read that column I spoke with a colleague at work. He comes from a family that practices good, traditional family values. He was diagnosed with ADHD as an early teen, and the family doctor prescribed Ritalin for him. It helped him focus, but it also kept him from sleeping at night.
Then, at age sixteen, a "friend" introduced him to meth. For the first time in his life he felt he could be successful in socializing with people. Meth gave him "ten times the high" he had been getting from Ritalin, which his parents had taken him off of when they learned that he had been experimenting with pot.
He loves his parents, and knows that they were just trying to help, when they took him to a doctor for his ADHD. Before the doctor put him on Ritalin, he had been anti-drugs. However, for him, Ritalin turned out to be the gateway drug that opened him up to trying other drugs. He is now 31, and has been sober for one year. He feels he has wasted fifteen years of his life.
Had his parents not taken him to the doctor, he might have stayed steadfast in his opposition to drug use. He would have had a hard time focusing, but maybe he would have developed other talents, like maybe become a musician. Maybe he would have learned to manage his ADHD, or outgrow it, at least partially. Please pray for this affable, bright young man.
As parents we try to make the decisions that we hope are in the best interests of each of our children. Sometimes, though, maybe the best thing we can do is to allow our children to be who they are, so that they can learn - often the hard way - and use their special gifts from God to make their own unique contributions to our world.
"Wipe Out the National Debt!"
I just heard Dennis Miller say one of the most clever things I have heard in a long time. He pointed out that the Palin-Biden debate will be on October 2. He suggested that the debate should be on Pay T.V., and we could thereby wipe out the national debt!
Where Are Those Cotton Swabs?
You probably heard about yesterday's scientific news from researchers in Sweden. Shankar Vedantum writes in the Washington Post that the new research found that men are more likely to be devoted and loyal husbands when they lack a particular variant of a gene that influences brain activity. The gene variant, allele, is present in two of every five men. Women who live with men who do not have the variant are more likely to say their partners are emotionally close and available, rather than often being distant and disagreeable.
Our experience as foster parents taught us that biology - down to the level of individual genes - plays a huge role in who we are as human beings. We will not be surprised at much, as the young science of genetics reveals more and more about us and our fellow humans.
Of course, this is not to say that other factors are not important. Obviously, they are. However, I predict that genes are going to be increasingly acknowledged to have a prominent place among those factors that make us who we are, as more scientific research is conducted.
Meanwhile, I have a teenage daughter. Honey, where are those cotton swabs? She has a boy coming over tonight.
Did you enjoy Fred Thompson last night? I sure did.
Tonight it will be Sarah Palin's turn. She has been viciously attacked by the organs of the left, and for only one reason: she is not one of them. If she were one of them, all of their articles and pronouncements would have been glowing. I want her to mow them down.
I have plenty of manure from alpacas, a horse, and goats, but I need extra clippings for my compost pile. Let them know, Mrs. Palin, that you do not intend to be anybody's victim. Stand up for yourself, because then you will be standing up for the rest of us, who share your values. Stand up for the promise of America, which is what the left truly hates. I don't doubt for one minute that you have what it takes to look them square in the eye and let them know what is coming in a McCain-Palin administration. Here's to the Mavericks!
Our wonderful lab, Spirit, gave birth to eight labradoodles during the night. Five white, three black. How, you may ask, did she sustain her energy? My amazing wife, Colleen, got up early and milked Mia. Spirit enjoyed a half-gallon of smooth, creamy goat's milk, loaded with nutrients!
I cannot say enough about what a wonderful person I am married to. I love being with her. She is such a fabulous mom, so incredibly nurturing.
EIELSON AIR FORCE BASE, Alaska -- I learned a big lesson on service Aug. 4, 2008, when Eielson had the rare honor of hosting President Bush on a refueling stop as he traveled to Asia .
It was an event Eielson will never forget -- a hangar full of Airmen and Soldiers getting to see the Commander in Chief up close, and perhaps even shaking his hand. An incredible amount of effort goes into presidential travel because of all of the logistics, security, protocol, etc ... so it was remarkable to see Air Force One land at Eielson on time at precisely 4:30 p.m.--however, when he left less than two hours later, the President was 15 minutes behind schedule.
That's a big slip for something so tightly choreographed, but very few people know why it happened. Here's why.
On Dec. 10, 2006, our son, Shawn, was a paratrooper deployed on the outskirts of Baghdad . He was supposed to spend the night in camp, but when a fellow soldier became ill Shawn volunteered to take his place on a nighttime patrol--in the convoy's most exposed position as turret gunner in the lead Humvee. He was killed instantly with two other soldiers when an IED ripped through their vehicle.
I was thinking about that as my family and I sat in the audience listening to the President's speech, looking at the turret on the up-armored Humvee the explosive ordnance disposal flight had put at the edge of the stage as a static display.
When the speech was over and the President was working the crowd line, I felt a tap on my shoulder and turned to see a White House staff member. She asked me and my wife to come with her, because the President wanted to meet us.
The only thing we could hear was a cell phone vibrating, and noticed that it was coming from the jacket Senator Stevens left on a chair. We didn't answer.
A short time later, the Secret Service opened the door and President Bush walked in. I thought we might get to shake his hand as he went through. But instead, he walked up to my wife with his arms wide, pulled her in for a hug and a kiss, and said, "I wish I could heal the hole in your heart." He then grabbed me for a hug, as well as each of our sons. Then he turned and said, "Everybody out."
He said, "Come on, let's sit down and talk." He pulled up a chair at the side of the room, and we sat down next to him. He looked a little tired from his trip, and he noticed that his shoes were scuffed up from leaning over concrete barriers to shake hands and pose for photos. He slumped down the chair, completely relaxed, smiled, and suddenly was no longer the President - he was just a guy with a job, sitting around talking with us like a family member at a barbeque.
For the next 15 or 20 minutes, he talked with us about our son, Iraq , his family, faith, convictions, and shared his feelings about nearing the end of his presidency. He asked each of our teenaged sons what they wanted to do in life and counseled them to set goals, stick to their convictions, and not worry about being the "cool" guy.
He said that he'd taken a lot of heat during his tenure and was under a lot of pressure to do what's politically expedient, but was proud to say that he never sold his soul. Sometimes he laughed, and at others he teared up. He said that what he'll miss most after leaving office will be his role as Commander in Chief.
We couldn't believe how long he was talking to us, but he seemed to be in no hurry whatsoever. In the end, he thanked us again for the visit and for the opportunity to get off his feet for a few minutes. He then said, "Let's get some pictures." The doors flew open, Secret Service and the White House photographer came in, and suddenly he was the President again. We posed for individual pictures as he gave each of us one of his coins, and then he posed for family pictures. A few more thank yous, a few more hugs, and he was gone.
The remarkable thing about the whole event was that he didn't have to see us at all. If he wanted to do more, he could've just given a quick handshake and said, "Thanks for your sacrifice." But he didn't - he put everything and everyone in his life on hold to meet privately with the family of a Private First Class who gave his life in the service of his country.
For our Labor Day adventure, we drove 90 miles north to get a new goat today. Her name is Mia. She is full of milk, and was living with 27 other goats on a raw milk farm. Some day we plan to join the Colorado Raw Milk Association. But, for now, we will learn the basics and enjoy the milk ourselves.
I do not have any pictures of the boys, because they met a new friend, who was teaching them how to launch grasshoppers in plastic bottles. You place the grasshopper in the bottle on a plank. You then raise a twenty pound log over your head and drop it on the plank, thereby launching the grasshopper about fifty feet in the air. I tried to get a picture, but the action was too fast.
This goat knew something was up, and wanted to be included in the adoption.
Getting ready to milk Mia.
We all got lessons milking Mia. Colleen couldn't wait, and was the first to squeeze.
We tried to feed this cute baby goat, but his rude companions always took the delicacies away from him.
Maybe you should not pet this particular animal, Sara.
Mia was not thrilled to ride home in the back of the van, and she voiced her thoughts at a level equaling the joyous sounds of the children.
Safely home, Colleen takes Mia to her new digs.


According to Deadline, the title of the upcoming Man of Steel sequel has been confirmed as Batman v. Superman: Dawn of Justice. The title certainly makes sense in light of the back-to-back filming with Zack Snyder's Justice League film, as well as the slew of JLA cameos that are set to occur in the movie. What do you think of the new title? Let us know in the comments!
← Batmobile AND BATSUIT Revealed!!


A: A bakery. I didn't see this first, I smelled it. And it smelled AMAZING. When I was very little, we lived near to a bakery and it will remain my favourite smell for the rest of my life. From the outside the building looked deserted, but clearly someone was in there making up bread and the like. I wanted to go in and eat all of the bread in the world, partly because of the aroma and partly because I'm not meant to eat bread on account of me being a delicate flower.
B: A UKIP Car. I don't just mean a car with a bumper sticker on it, I mean a car parked up next to the main road with UKIP posters in every single window as an elderly couple handed out flyers from the driver and passenger seat to anyone that looked like they would be receptive to such a piece of paper. I am relieved that as I approached they both averted their gaze and left me alone. Incidentally, the car was most definitely illegally parked, which is probably the fault of immigrants somewhere along the line.
C: Bloody Half Scarves. For a WBA vs Gateshead FA Cup tie. COME ON! I didn't see anyone buy one, and rightfully so. Someone's Gran lost her thumbs knitting them so her grandson could try and turn a profit. PROPER FOOTBALL FANS HATE THESE BLOODY SCARVES!
Oh yes, it's the magic of the cup (copyright the Football Association, Budweiser, BT Sport and ITV).
If I hadn't have attended a third round FA Cup tie as my first match of 2014 then something would, of course, been incredibly wrong. But with that said, the cup doesn't have the same sheen on it as it used to – and with many a fan on phone-ins and message boards trying to figure out why attendances have dropped and the like, I think I can add my weight to these discussions. I'm 13 stone, so brace yourselves.
I chose to go to Kidderminster vs Peterborough not just because it was on my way from Manchester (where I had been a guest on Fighting Talk) to Bristol, where my first (and thankfully non Christmassy) gig of the year was in the evening, but also because it had the air of a proper cup tie. A non league team up against decent league opposition with the prospect of a shock hanging in the air, much better than choosing to see a couple of decent sized clubs put out their reserves after the busy festive season.
Aggborough was packed, but we'll come to that in a while. I'm writing this up later than normal, on Monday evening. I have, since Saturday afternoon, watched several other games on TV and seen reports and highlights of others. Stadiums half empty. Youth players blooded because the league is more important. Managers talking the competition down.
I can explain the first bit. People seem to think that fans have been turned off of the FA Cup, but that's nonsense. Of course we haven't. You try telling the Wigan fans that the Cup wasn't worth it last season. Speaking as a Leicester City fan, I follow one of the biggest clubs to never win the FA Cup. We took a fair few thousand fans to watch our game at Stoke on Saturday, even though we knew we'd put our reserves up against theirs. I remember the last time we got to the quarter finals a fair few years back, and the anticipation of the tie against Blackburn was unbelievable. Fans love the cup. That really hasn't changed. We all want a day out at Wembley, even if it is overpriced and lacking the character of the old place with its horrible wooden benches….
If you fancy reading the full version of this match report (and 25 others) then please download my ebook on Kindle for less than £2. 300 pages of my adventures during 2013-14. Thanks!
…Stourbridge occupied the South Stand directly opposite. It was reported after the game that they'd taken nearly 900 fans with them to the game, even better when you consider that their average home attendance is less than half that. They were incredibly loud and, it has to be said, pretty funny throughout the game.
As we kicked off, I could get a look at Stourbridge. Now I knew that they were the lowest ranked club left in the FA Cup, but seeing them gave you a true impression of this. Of course, no squad names or numbers. But then you looked at their club sponsor and realised that they're actually officially backed by a dental surgery. One defender didn't even have a sponsor on his shirt at all. I'm presuming this is because they ran out of kit and iron-on logos, rather than a Papiss Cisse-like aversion to the ethics of the sponsor in question.
Stourbridge started strongest. And I mean REALLY strong. They played without fear and with the rocket up the arse that the FA Cup provides a smaller team. They worked their socks off, chasing down everything and being first to every loose ball. Up front Luke Benbow impressed, quick and powerful and with an eye for goal. Veteran Stevenage keeper Chris Day had to be at his best to keep the non-league side at bay, and the Stourbridge fans grew louder with every chance.
The Stevenage fans were pretty quiet, but I'm not going to criticise here. I've been to watch Leicester play much smaller sides in the cup and it is difficult to generate an atmosphere when winning is expected. You get the feeling that Broadhall Way could be a much more lively venue if a bigger team was in town and driving the fans on to back their side; As it was, the Stourbridge fans supplied all the atmosphere – although at one point they were singing the Yaya / Kolo Toure song that I saw the Connah's Quay fans singing a few weeks back. Look, it's funny but it's not THAT funny….
Enjoy this little edited highlight? Then please download the full match report along with 25 others and tons of other stuff for just £2 as part of my season review ebook on Kindle. You'd really be helping me continue this project! Ta!


text:
Written Questions and Answers and Written Statements
Immigrants: Detainees:Written question - 141663
Written questions and answers
Written statements
Asked by Sir Desmond Swayne
(New Forest West)
Named Day
'Named day' questions only occur in the House of Commons. The MP tabling the question specifies the date on which they should receive an answer. MPs may not table more than five named day questions on a single day.
Asked on: 08 May 2018
Immigrants: Detainees
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what the (a) mean and (b) median time spent is by the current cohort of detainees at the Gatwick detention centres.
Answered by: Caroline Nokes
Answered on: 11 May 2018
Information on the length of detention of people in detention is available in table dt_11_q of the detention tables in the latest releases of 'Immigration Statistics, October to December 2017', available from the Home Office website at: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/681703/detention-oct-dec-2017-tables.ods
The available data provides the length of detention for the detention estate as a whole, and are not broken down by individual place of detention.
There are a small number of detainees who have been detained for long periods of time, which would skew the mean value. The median is therefore the most suitable average for these data.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
Sudbury and Woodbridge was a county constituency centred on the towns of Sudbury and Woodbridge in Suffolk.  It returned one Member of Parliament (MP) to the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom.

History
The constituency was created by the Representation of the People Act 1948 for the 1950 general election, replacing the majority of both of the abolished county divisions of Sudbury and Woodbridge. It included the towns of Sudbury and Hadleigh, previously in the Sudbury constituency, and Woodbridge and Felixstowe, previously in the Woodbridge constituency.

It was abolished for the 1983 general election, and split between the new county constituencies of Suffolk Coastal (Woodbridge and Felixstowe) and South Suffolk (Sudbury and Hadleigh).

Boundaries
The Borough of Sudbury, the Urban Districts of Felixstowe, Hadleigh, and Woodbridge, the Rural Districts of Cosford, Melford, and Samford, and part of the Rural District of Deben.

Members of Parliament

Elections

Elections in the 1950s

Elections in the 1960s

Elections in the 1970s

References

Parliamentary constituencies in Suffolk (historic)
Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom established in 1950
Constituencies of the Parliament of the United Kingdom disestablished in 1983
Woodbridge, Suffolk
Sudbury, Suffolk

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaWikipedia


For those who love TV shows and original programming, it's hard to beat some of the stuff which comes out fo the SHOWTIME network.Typically you would need to have a cable subscription with the SHOWTIME add-on package to get access to their shows like Dexter, Homeland and others, but as of earlier this year SHOWTIME made their own streaming app and launched it on the Play Store allowing users to cut the cord and stream shows from their Android devices, making it possible to watch shows almost anywhere so long as there is a data connection. Just like with HBO NOW though, SHOWTIME's app does require a standalone subscription fee to use the service however, the app itself is free to download and install.
The good news here is that SHOWTIME offers first-time users a 30-day free trial, so if you were unaware of the app's availability until now, you can check it out and see if you like having access to the shows without paying anything up front. Once the 30-day trial period ends, the service is just $10.99 a month which is actually a few dollars less than HBO's offering. The app can be watched on any mobile device running Android which includes smartphones and tablets, as well as Android TV devices if you're looking for the big screen experience which quite honestly might be the most enjoyable.
If you don't have an Android TV device and are still waiting to watch shows on the big screen, the good news here is that you can still do so for $35, as SHOWTIME added support for the Chromecast streaming dongle back on September 29th, meaning users have an easy way to access shows on the big screen in a completely portable and inexpensive package. The app allows for viewing of live TV airing currently on SHOWTIME as well as pre-recorded shows like old series and such, and you can resume and pick up where you left off if you need to pause the show and close out the app. There's a nice little viewer restriction set of features just in case there are shows you don't want your kids to have access to.


text:
Federal Signal Corporation to Present at Raymond James Diversified Industrials Conference
Federal Signal Corporation
OAK BROOK, Ill., Aug. 21, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- Federal Signal Corporation (NYSE: FSS) today announced that Jennifer L. Sherman, president and chief executive officer, and Ian Hudson, senior vice president and chief financial officer, will present at the Raymond James Diversified Industrials Conference in a virtual format on Tuesday, August 25, 2020 via https://kvgo.com/raymondjames/federal-signal-corporation-august-2020. The presentation will begin at 4:00 p.m. ET and will be simultaneously webcast via the company's website at www.federalsignal.com. The accompanying slide presentation is available in the Investor Relations section of the website.
About Federal Signal
Federal Signal Corporation (NYSE: FSS) builds and delivers equipment of unmatched quality that moves material, cleans infrastructure, and protects the communities where we work and live. Founded in 1901, Federal Signal is a leading global designer, manufacturer and supplier of products and total solutions that serve municipal, governmental, industrial and commercial customers. Headquartered in Oak Brook, Ill., with manufacturing facilities worldwide, the Company operates two groups: Environmental Solutions and Safety and Security Systems. For more information on Federal Signal, visit: https://www.federalsignal.com.
SOURCE Federal Signal Corporation
http://www.federalsignal.com
Federal Signal Completes Acquisition of Deist Industries, Inc....
Federal Signal Reports Third Quarter Results Including 32%...


Cover: Esquire play fast and loose in the art department with a cheeky line drawing based on the Prestige original. I think the hat was ill-advised.
RVG original US metalwork, no obvious indication of originating pressing plant.
No-one appears to know the meaning of the "9M" engraving that appears on many early Plastylite Blue Note pressings, around 1957-8, not even the Fred Cohen, author of the collectors bible, Blue Note Guide to First Pressings. My working hypothesis has been the M referred to a mother lacquer and the 9 indicated a clock position for aligning the metalwork in a press. No other variant has ever been seen, only ever 9M. That is, until now. The Prestige metalwork for this Hal McCusick recording has a "8J" etched in the run-out. So that's my theory blown straight out of the water.
Any other explanation welcome, as I sure don't have one. Not that it matters, but sometimes these thing are nice to know.
Collectors Corner: What's in a name?
It's a Schmidt! This brings to around a half-dozen or more of my records that bear the great collectors mark.
Dealers have told me the Schmidt collection was well-known in the business, circulating first in the 1990's. It takes a certain amount of courage or arrogance to write your name on all your record covers. In the Fifties and Sixties it was prudent to write your name on the cover, if you took records to parties and ever wanted to see them again. Even then, there was a casualty rate. I used to write my own name on the inner sleeves, for the same reason. Schmidt's motives are less clear, as I suspect he was a more modern collector. His taste was impeccable, that is for sure.
I wonder how many of us have a Schmidt on the record shelf, and how far around the world his records have flown. It is rise and decay: for many years records flowed from many collectors into one collection, then they flow out to many other collections, the undocumented migration of vinyl.
This entry was posted in Esquire, Hal McCusick and tagged 9M, Billy Byers, Charlie Persip, Eddie Costa, Esquire, Hal McKusick, Paul Chambers by LondonJazzCollector. Bookmark the permalink.
He was a record dealer who used to have a record stall at Wimbledon Jazz fair many years ago. I have bought many records from him. All have his name on them. He had a great collection which he built up then sold on.
Digging around in a shelf that is behind a pile of records tonight in my far too stuffed office/listening room, I found a copy of this, Work time and a Bags Groove with trident labels, which has created the evenings listen. All a delight so far, with the Bags Groove known like the back of my hand but the other two might be first listens. I like this clarinet playing on the McKusick more than Most's, the nearest equivalent in 50's modern jazz.
Just to confirm, mine has the same 8J, but that would have been almost inevitable, as one run of the presses would have probably satisfied the 1957 jazz market in the Uk for such an unknown.
Nice record – did not know this one.
Interesting stuff – don't know much about Hal McCusick at all but I like his laid back loping style here – a little Sonny Clark-ish I think.
Don't seem to have this particular 9 m marking on any of my few Esquires but there are some strange rune-like etchings on the runout in my Bags Groove Prestige Bergenfield fireworks label pressing: an arrow and an odd little 'figure' with a cross and legs. I have no idea whatsoever about those – bizarre.
Can't seem to pick the Esquires up on ebay – too expensive – but luckily my local record store – a Northern Soul specialist flogs them for about £20 when he gets them in.
Congratulations to LJC for this nice find. It has been a one off for Bob Weinstock to record McKusick who had already made a few succesful recordings for Coral and Bethlehem. I have never seen him as Desmond inspired. Paul Desmond, of course, was a class in its own, no followers. Hal appears to me to be of the Trumbauer-school, but was very much his own man. Paul Chambers and Charlie Persip, in these surroundings, do some wonderful things And dig Eddie Costa.
The 9M enigma: your hypothesis could be right, who knows? I was never sure whether we need to read 9M or 6W. But the 8J gives a clue to that.
I have several discards of Bob Blumenthal–I always check the names written on jackets, hoping to find some interesting association. I love that you have multiple records from Schmidt–I am sure I don't have any. Quite a handsomely written name I must say! Who was this fellow, Schmidt?


Bring a copy of your Advance Directive and/or Power of Attorney if you have one.
If we have not reached you a day prior to surgery to review your medical history, pre-operative instructions, and financial arrangements, please call us at (305) 792-0323 and ask to speak to the pre-op nurse. If you have any other questions about getting ready for your procedure, please feel free to call us.


text:
Station Independent Projects
Judy Blum-Reddy
Rob Carter
William Crump
Megan Cump
Katherine Daniels
Vandana Jain
Beth Krebs
Miles Ladin
Kristine Marx
Matthew Oates
Cara Phillips
Gregory Sholette
Kari Soinio
Pierre St-Jacques
March 11th Exhibition
Still a Hero
Opening March 11th, Opening Reception 6-9pm, On View through April 3rd, 2016
What is the difference between self portraiture and photographing oneself? The artist as a model or an image of the artist?
In photographing nudes, portraying the male body at times masculine and at times with more feminine traits, Kari Soinio plays with gender roles, often showing femininity in masculinity. In his long term artistic practise Soinio has addressed masculine myths through the guise or the trope of the hero. This character has served as a proxy to show the man in the wilderness or in the safety of home, being himself or trying to be something (s)he doesn't quite know. The naked hero can be, at times, seen as a caricature of self-sufficient male identity. In Soinio's series it's imperative and critical to strip the hero out of his clothing to show his vulnerability, bluster and comical nature.
Using himself as a model, Soinio positions himself somewhere between self-portrait and storytelling, into a sphere where he can direct actions and play roles and characters. It's central to the ideas in Soinio's work to exist in his images as a character and to a lesser extent as himself.
In this show Soinio has included self-portraiture and documentary by incorporating close-ups of his face, hair and eyes. By creating a fragmentary self-portrait and by adding poses printed in natural and essential colors Soinio challenges differences between these image types and between his own positions within the gender spectrum of male and female.
Kari Soinio, Biography
Kari Soinio is a Finnish artist from Helsinki. He lives and works in the Bronx, New York. He primarily works with photography and he is known for his auto-portraiture work and experimental approach to landscape.
Soinio's work concentrates on two main themes: sense and representation of landscape and place on one hand and corporeality, sexuality and male identity on the other. He has experimented extensively with problematics of perception and representation in out of focus images, both in his landscape work and in auto-portraiture-based work on male body.
He has studied photography and received his undergraduate degree from Lahti Polytechnic (1989) and his graduate degree from the University of Art and Design in Helsinki (1998). He has also studied at the International Center of Photography in New York.
His one person shows have been seen at Station Independent Projects in New York, Finlandia University Gallery in Hancock, MI, Storefront Bushwick in New York, Heino Gallery and Korjaamo Gallery in Helsinki, Northern Photography Center in Oulu, Finland, Intitut Finlandais in Paris, France, Kerava Art Museum in Finland and Ingrid Hansen Gallery in Washington DC among others. He has participated in many group shows, for instance in such institutions as TEA in Tenerife, Spain, Station Independent Projects, PointB Virtual Exhibition, The Design Museum and Lokal, both in Helsinki, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Kiasma and The Finnish Museum of Photography in Helsinki, Kerava Art Museum, Peer Gallery, New York City and Aaltonen Art Museum, Turku.
His work has been featured in The New York Times Style Magazine, Crave, Brooklyn Rail, Baxter St, Helsingin sanomat, NY Arts Magazine, Actuphoto, Connaissance des Arts, Art Actuel, Next Level and others.
Soinio's works are in several public collections including Kiasma, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Helsinki; The Finnish Museum of Photography, Helsinki; HAM, the Helsinki Art Museum, and in numerous private collections both in Finland and abroad.
138 Eldridge Street, Suite 2F | INFO@STATIONINDEPENDENT.COM | 917.698.2012


text:
1MATCH URL: https://assets.rappler.com/BEC7DCD662C745D391466E22CE49CC18/img/9A9C3728042D44E081035AEF31B48286/20160908-hong-kong-eddie-chu.jpg
Hong Kong democrats 'furious' over new election ban
Popular lawmaker Eddie Chu is barred from standing in a local election after being accused of supporting independence from China
Published 8:25 PM, December 03, 2018
Updated 8:29 PM, December 03, 2018
BARRED FROM RUNNING. File photo of Hong Kong's popular lawmaker Eddie Chu. Photo by Anthony Wallace/AFP
HONG KONG, China – A Hong Kong legislator has been barred from standing in a local election after being accused of supporting independence from China, sparking fury Monday, December 3, among the city's pro-democracy camp who warn of tightening ideological control.
The disqualification of popular lawmaker Eddie Chu is the latest blow to the democratic movement as room for opposition in semi-autonomous Hong Kong shrinks under an assertive China.
Chu is the first person to be blocked from standing in rural village elections, after poll officials decided he is pro-independence – a red line for Beijing.
While he has supported self-determination for Hong Kong, he maintains he does not advocate its separation from China.
Voices for self-determination emerged from the 2014 Umbrella Movement protests, and believe in the right of Hong Kongers to decide their own fate, including how the city should be governed.
Chu said the decision to ban him reveals a Cultural Revolution-style approach that everyone has to be "thought police".
"Not only must a person in Hong Kong not advocate independence themselves... But if you didn't oppose the right of others to advocate it, then your own political rights will be taken away," he said.
Pro-democracy lawmaker Claudia Mo told reporters Monday the decision to bar Chu from rural elections "makes a mockery of Hong Kong in the international community."
"We express our fury and our strongest condemnation."
She was one of a group of democratic legislators who accused the government of destroying the constitutionally protected right to free speech.
"Now they've literally, practically put a noose around our necks," Mo said.
Though Hong Kong democrats or self-determination activists do not themselves campaign for independence, many including Chu have defended others' rights to express their support or freely discuss the subject.
Chu earlier told an election official that "the peaceful proposition for Hong Kong independence" was "a right of the Hong Kong people as protected by the Basic Law", referring to the city's mini-constitution.
The official said in a letter to Chu late Sunday, December 2, that his views "could be understood as implicitly confirming that he supports that independence could be an option for Hong Kong people."
Chinese President Xi Jinping warned on a high-profile visit to the semi-autonomous city last year that any threat to China's sovereignty is "absolutely impermissible". Authorities have since turned the screws on pro-independence advocates.
The Hong Kong government said Sunday it supports the decision not to let Chu run and that it was not a case of political censorship.
Democracy lawmakers also warned Monday that Hong Kong's special economic status and participation in global trade as a "separate customs territory" could be undermined as the city's autonomy comes under "severe attacks". – Rappler.com
Filed under:2014 umbrella movement•pro-democracy in hong kong•Eddie Chu