Last year, February 6th was Superbowl Sunday. It was the first time we watched the big game in our new Arizona home. At that time, we had yet to acquire much furniture and we watched the Packers defeat the Steelers while sitting on folding chairs and using a picnic cooler for a table. I grilled up a couple of tenderloin steaks on the little portable charcoal grill. We ate the meal and enjoyed football afterwards. Click on the grill to see the tenderloin steak, baked potato and asparagus meal we ate that day.
February 2012
A Scary Obituary
Compare this scholarly analysis of the fall of the Athenian Republic to our situation in America (Hat tip to my former colleague, Frank N.):
In 1887 Alexander Tyler, a Scottish history professor at the University of Edinburgh, had this to say about the fall of the Athenian Republic some 2,000 years prior:
“A democracy is always temporary in nature; it simply cannot exist as a permanent form of government. A democracy will continue to exist up until the time that voters discover that they can vote themselves generous gifts from the public treasury. From that moment on, the majority always votes for the candidates who promise the most benefits from the public treasury, with the result that every democracy will finally collapse over loose fiscal policy, (which is) always followed by a dictatorship.”
“The average age of the world’s greatest civilizations from the beginning of history, has been about 200 years. During those 200 years, these nations always progressed through the following sequence:
From bondage to spiritual faith;
From spiritual faith to great courage;
From courage to liberty;
From liberty to abundance;
From abundance to complacency;
From complacency to apathy;
From apathy to dependence;
From dependence back into bondage.”The Obituary follows:
Born 1776, Died 2012
It doesn’t hurt to read this several times.
Professor Joseph Olson of Hamline University School of Law in St. Paul , Minnesota, points out some interesting facts concerning the last Presidential election:
Number of States won by: Obama: 19 McCain: 29
Square miles of land won by: Obama: 580,000 McCain: 2,427,000
Population of counties won by: Obama: 127 million McCain: 143 million
Murder rate per 100,000 residents in counties won by: Obama: 13.2 McCain: 2.1Professor Olson adds: “In aggregate, the map of the territory McCain won was mostly the land owned by the taxpaying citizens of the country.
Obama territory mostly encompassed those citizens living in low income tenements and living off various forms of government welfare…”
Olson believes the United States is now somewhere between the “complacency and apathy” phase of Professor Tyler’s definition of democracy, with some forty percent of the nation’s population already having reached the “governmental dependency” phase.
If Congress grants amnesty and citizenship to twenty million criminal invaders called illegal’s – and they vote – then we can say good-bye to the USA in fewer than five years.
If you are in favor of this, then disregard this message.
If you are not, then pass this along to help everyone realize just how much is at stake, knowing that apathy is the greatest danger to our freedom.
This is scary.
Of course we are not a democracy, we are a Constitutional Republic.
Of course we know that Obama and many others pay little attention to The Constitution.
There couldn’t be more at stake than on November 6, 2012.
If you are as concerned as I am please pass this along.
Moon Over Saguaro
After walking the dogs this afternoon, I stepped back out to get this nice photo of the waxing gibbous moon over one of the saguaros in our yard. Click on the image to enlarge.
Rodeo Practice Session
After target practice today, we pulled over to the Everett Bowman Rodeo Grounds where a practice session was underway for an upcoming rodeo event. There are a couple of cowboys in the photo that are doing some calf roping practice. Click on the image to enlarge.
Challenging the AGW Scam – Do the Math (Again)
I’m re-posting this article from September of 2010. Yesterday, the gentleman that sponsored the billboard contacted us for permission to use the post and our remarks in connection with an upcoming book. Here is the comment that Paul left . . .
Requesting permission to use your comments and observations of our Billboard, posted on Cap’n Bob & the Damsel on September 13, 2010, in promoting our soon to be published book, “AN ALARM WENT OFF When I Heard ‘G.D. America’”. Please read IT’S REALLY SIMPLE on our website, www.psnorac.com. You are doing a great job. We thank you for it. Paul
My answer was in the affirmative, of course. Follow the link to check out his new book.
Here’s the original post . . .
During our return trip to California over the weekend, we passed this billboard on Interstate 10 near Quartzsite, AZ. The sign admonishes readers to “DO THE MATH” with regard to greenhouse gasses. I checked out the website www.psnorac.com and navigated to the Greenhouse Gasses write-up. In the lengthy treatise, the author breaks down the numbers of the composition of the atmosphere and in layman’s terms, explains the extremely small part of the atmosphere that can be considered as greenhouse gasses.
Image: billboard – click to enlarge
We did some research and found some graphics from the National Center for Policy Analysis and posted them in February of 2008. If you read the greenhouse write-up on psnorac.com, you will be able to visualize the numbers in the graphics in our post from 2008. You can download the National Center for Policy Analysis pamphlet (PDF), “A Global Warming Primer,” at this link. There is a lot of other information in the pamphlet that relate to the AGW issue.
Planning for the 2012 Annular Solar Eclipse
As Jack Horkheimer used to say (before passing) “keep Looking Up.” That’s why we’re starting to plan for a fairly short trip in May to witness an annular solar eclipse. The path of maximum eclipse extends from Asia, across the Pacific and then through the western United States. The path in Arizona will pass over Page and continue into New Mexico to Albuquerque.
Image: Path of maximum annular eclipse. Click to enlarge
Our target destination will be to go to Chinle, AZ, adjacent to the Canyon De Chelly National Park. In the image, you can see that the red path goes right over Navajo land and just along the southern part of the national park. Our plan is to tow a travel trailer to the area and find a place to camp after the eclipse that will occur on May 20, 2012.
I’m ordering some eclipse shades and a solar filter for each of our two cameras for the event. We are hoping for some excellent pictures of one of the most spectacular events to happen on Earth.