Saturday, December 04, 2010

Today In History — 1

....is Sir Winston Churchill’s Birthday….

....well. Not exactly. Rather it was last Tuesday, 136 years ago, America’s best ever British friend was born. I just noticed the article.

There’s a great article about him up at The Heritage Foundation.

I had not true begun to appreciate the man until I got an iPod and then found Eucalyptus—a download[much of]-the-library-of-Congress-for-nothing-more-than-the-cost-of-the-app—application.

I recently finished his accounts, as a VERY junior officer in the Royal Army, of the war against the Jihadists in the Sudan and against the war in Afghanistan, c. 1890s. The latter was the most impressive. He took a leave of absence from his regiment to become a correspondent for a London newspaper. From the front he gives interesting and informative reports of his ‘respect’ and ‘disparagement’ of the Afghans as warriors and civilized, respectively. There’s a lot in there about Islam, too, if you read between lines well enough. [Note: That takes some getting used to in this politically correct environment.]

Reading the latter’s first chapter, I realized that EVERY officer in the US Armed Forces, especially the Army—commissioned and non-commissioned—SHOULD if not MUST read this account in order to appreciate the nature of the (1) environment and (2) enemy they are going up against.

Friday, April 30, 2010

Gladiolias

Something for the Tech Support folks at HP.

Enjoy….

Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Let your inner Cinderella out! Contra Dancing is here in Pueblo!

Oooh! There’s an announcement on Fiddletoons.com that the Nimble Fingers Stringband will be playing LIVE MUSIC for a contra dance in Pueblo on January 9, and on February 13 and on March 13. I’m so excited! Do you have any idea how much fun it is?

The floor at City Park Pavilion is a good wood floor. And, while I’m not familiar with Duffy Boyle, Chris Kermiet, who will be leading the dancing in March, is a great instructor. I’ve attended his dances since college. How long is that? Let’s just say he’s very experienced and knows as much about square dancing, round dancing and contra dancing as anyone around.

The web site is great, but I’d like to expand on the information there, based on comments I’ve gotten from friends as I’ve tried to talk this up.

What kind of dancing is contra dancing? Girls: it’s the kind of dancing you see in Jane Austen movies such as Pride & Prejudice, Sense & Sensibility, etc.  Guys: it’s the kind of dancing Wellington did when he won Waterloo. If you’re a fan of Bernard Cornwell, the author, it’s the kind of dancing Richard Sharpe would have done if Cornwell had had him attend a ball.

More...

Sunday, November 15, 2009

PCC Buffet — 091108

A Sunday feast

Last Sunday, there was a luncheon buffet at the Pueblo Community College Student Center.

Held in the ballroom, it was a veritable feast ranging from soups and salads through toothsome entrees to mouth-watering desserts. Not to forget a cash bar that actually knew what a ‘kir’ was. Indeed. They offered a ‘kir royal’.

And it was all done by the students going through the Culinary program at PCC.

Here are some shots of the event.

This NEXT Sunday, 22 November, they’re going to put the students through what is called The Grand Buffet. If you don’t think you’re going to get enough turkey over the coming holiday, THIS is going to be the place to be. However, I do understand they’ll be offering beef and pork as well.

Tuesday, November 10, 2009

The Library of Congress (Part 2)....

...again, in your hip pocket.

I’m reminded, today—as I download another wonderful app—that there’s more than just music, games and literature available on the iPod Touch/iPhone.

I’m in the process of downloading an app to help identify wild flowers. And speaking of ‘wild things’ there are apps for identifying birds as well. The latter, titled iBird Explorer Pro, includes their calls and various ways to search on something you saw.

The one for wild flowers is titled Audobon Wildflowers — A Field Guide to North American Wildflowers. They talk such things at their website where they talk about a LOT of things. But there, they don’t mention….YET….their iPod Touch/iPhone guide. But they ARE advertising their Audobon Birds for iPod Touch and iPhone.

I think I’ll get that one too….

Looking for a Few Good….

....Men....er….People.

The Pueblo Area Council Of Government (PACOG) Environmental Policy Advisory Committee (EPAC) is looking for five people to join the committee.

Here is the advertisement that appeared recently in the Pueblo Chieftain…

ENVIRONMENTAL POLICY ADVISORY COMMITTEE

PUBLIC NOTICE

The Pueblo Area Council of Governments (PACOG) is seeking applications from Pueblo County residents (i.e., City of Pueblo or the unincorporated area of Pueblo County) interested in serving on its Environmental Policy Advisory Committee (EPAC). EPAC is a twelve-member advisory group which may advise PACOG regarding environmental issues, including air quality, water quality, noise abatement, solid waste, and hazardous waste. EPAC meets on the 1st Thursday of each month at 5:15 p.m.

Members are appointed by PACOG to serve three-year terms, and reflect a balance of interests in the Pueblo area. EPAC consists of substantially equivalent proportions from the following four groups:

• Public Interest—Any member of a nonprofit organization which reflects a general, civic, social, recreational, environmental, or public health perspective in the Pueblo region, and which group does not directly reflect the economic interests of its membership. Excluded from membership in this category shall be any member eligible for the economic interest or public official category.

• Organizations with Substantial Economic Interest—Any person and/or company who is likely to incur financial gain or loss greater than that of an average homeowner, taxpayer, or consumer as a result of any action likely to be taken by PACOG. Included in, but not limited to, this group shall be: representatives of companies inspected by the City-County Health Department for possible pollution; farmers and/or representatives of ditch companies; persons involved in supplying for profit recreation programs or equipment; large water consumers; manufacturers; commercial establishments; and nongovernmental professional with substantial economic interest.

• Public Officials—Any office holder who has been selected by a vote of the residents, any commission or agency member who has been appointed by a group of elected officials, and any employee of local, State, or Federal government.

• Private Citizens—Those persons who are not eligible for any other category. In addition, no person may be included in this category that is likely to incur a financial gain or loss greater than that of an average homeowner, taxpayer, or consumer as a result of any action likely to be taken by PACOG.

At this particular time, applications are being requested for persons to serve from the Organizations with Substantial Economic Interest and Public Officials groups. If you are interested in applying for appointment, you may secure an application form from the Pueblo County Department of Planning and Development, 229 West 12th Street, Pueblo, CO 81003 or telephone 583-6100. The deadline for receipt of applications is November 20, 2009 by 5:00 p.m.

If you have a heart for Pueblo and improving the quality of life therein, seriously consider (1) applying yourself or (2) passing this information on to someone you think would serve us all well.

Here is the APPLICATION for you to download, fill out and submit by COB (5 pm) 20 November 2009, to the Pueblo County Department of Planning and Development.

Get in the game!

 

 

Monday, November 09, 2009

The Library of Congress….

....in your hip pocket

Well. Not exactly. But it gets pretty darn close to it. Save for those items that are still under copyright laws that the owners will not relinquish.

How does one do it? Get an Apple iPod Touch.

I’ve had an iPod (classic) for quite some time. I found it mildly entertaining while waiting for another ‘round’ at debate tournaments. I’d listen to my favorite music. But battery life was somewhat limited. And, recording was not as effective or lengthy as I would wish. So, when I figured I’d need some more recording capability, I finally dropped on a second-generation iPod Touch. And I have to admit that it has become the most used electronic device in the household. And not just for the pleasant music I’ve collected over the decades. Nor for the games that are available at Apple’s iTunes Store. But I will admit that playing Monopoly and Scrabble with other people using iPods IS a pleasant way to play such games. And then there are the internet based contest games too.

Rather, what prompted this missive is the discovery of an app titled Eucalyptus. This is a ‘reader’ program that has been developed as an ‘open source’ project to make as many books that are out of copyright or their copyright owners have agreed available to be read on the iPod and iPhone products from Apple.

At last Saturday’s debate tournament, I decided I’d like to have something good to read, but my selection was limited on the iPod. Yesterday, I went searching the iTunes store for good books to read and discovered Eucalyptus. They claim 20,000 titles so I dropped on the application for $10 and discovered what, for all the world, to me seemed the ancient library of Alexandria. Since then I’ve been merrily downloading things ranging from novels about Allan Quartermain to the histories of Herodotus, Xenophon, Josephus, Tacitus, Julius Caesar, Cicero and others to the works of Shakespeare, Cornell Wilde, Lewis Carroll, Edgar Rice Burroughs, Edgar Allen Poe, Jane Austin, Rudyard Kipling, the philosophies of Thomas Paine, John Locke, Marcus Aurelius, Thoreau…. The names and lists seem to be endless.

Kudos to Apple for coming out with a device that can be SO useful and entertaining at the same time. And special thanks to the people at Project Gutenberg, the creators of Eucalyptus.

Why the ‘Y’ Isn’t Serving Pueblo

Or, the chickens ARE coming home to ‘roost’.

Another item in Saturday’s Chieftain. This one about the perception that the YMCA isn’t REALLY serving all of Pueblo as it claimed it would during the run up to the decision by the City Council to subsidize their project.

I have a simple question for the Y….

Where they say….

Terry Lockwood, president and CEO of the Y, notes that the organization provides scholarships for kids who cannot afford Y membership. No requests for scholarships have been rejected, he said, and requests for them have risen by 20 percent since the new complex opened.

....I’d like to know how many such scholarships have been issued, compared to requests and to number of under-privileged children in Pueblo that would benefit from such.

Also, I seem to recall comments that the Y would be providing bus service to facilitate children on the East side getting to their new campus. I’d like to know the status on THAT service, too.

You Get What You Pay For

Or so the old adage goes.

So, when I read this item about Pueblo West considering getting a ‘computer specialist’ in Saturday’s Pueblo Chieftain....

Resident Phil Weber, who has an extensive computer background, said the district will have to pay more for someone who knows what they are doing. “For $40,000, you’re going to get a jerk,” he said. “Think $70,000.”

But Weber, a retiree, said he would do it for nothing.

....I had to ask myself, so what would Pueblo West get for paying ‘nothing’?

Not that I know Mr. Weber. And I do admire his willingness to volunteer to do for free what he thinks people should get $70K. BUT, the logic of his statement just stood out to me.

On the other hand, I’m surprised that Pueblo West doesn’t ALREADY have such a person on their payroll. But if they don’t, I highly recommend they hire someone who is familiar with Macintosh as well as Windows platforms and works to facilitate BOTH operating systems in the metro-district plans.

As for compensation….

....someone who gets NOTHING for their efforts can turn around and walk away without a second thought. Just having a ‘bad day’ with the ‘boss’ could trigger it. Whereas someone who is getting good pay and other important benefits….think the new health care legislation and the requirement, as stated last week, of having to pay $15K per year for an individual policy or face jail time….would likely think at least twice about walking away.

As for Mr. Weber?

I highly recommend the city consider him as a consultant with a decent compensation for his expertise in this important area. And put him on the committee to select the full-timer, too.

Sunday, November 08, 2009

As If….

....I hadn’t been expecting THIS!

Our good Congressperson voted FOR this Obama-PelosiCare.

NOW….maybe just….now….

....they’ll let us READ the legislation. Considering that Pelosi broke her ‘promise’ {snicker} to let US see it 72 hours before the vote and our Congressperson’s staffers were saying we’d see the verbiage….but apparently not BEFORE the vote….

...let’s see what our Congressperson voted for. I’ll provide the text once I can find it.

UPDATE: An interesting observation on what it means.

UPDATE: And THIS probably explains why they did it at night….

....men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.—John 3:19

Friday, November 06, 2009

My Congressperson’s Staff ‘At Work’

A less than satisfactory encounter with MY elected official.

It’s kind of ‘odd’ being hung up on when trying to explain to my Congressperson’s staff that they’re behaving in a manner that they acuse Fox News of behaving. To wit….

....S——- stated that Fox News was not the most reliable source of information when I mentioned Fox News had an article claiming that the Democrats were NOT going to release details of changes they were making to their proposed health care reform bill—for all of US to read—BEFORE the vote.

S——- kept telling me the information would be released. And I kept asking “When? Before or after the vote?” Or words to that effect. At which point, when we got to the third iteration of that cycle, she hung up.

This is NOT the way to run a public relations/interface-with-your-constituents, in my personal opinion.

To tell the truth….I’m getting rather tired of hearing that my Congressperson hasn’t made a decision with regards to a bill. Especially when it’s this LATE in the ‘game’.

Wednesday, November 04, 2009

Pueblo Alliance of Neighborhoods(PAN) membership meeting

The mission of PAN is to facilitate the communication among neighborhood groups and the City of Pueblo

The Pueblo Alliance of Neighborhoods(PAN) meeting will be held on Saturday November 7th starting at 9:30 a the Rawlings Library. PAN’s president, Lucretia Robinson, has appointed a special committee:  The YMCA and its continued funding by the City and County.  PAN is seeking volunteers to work on the committee.  As a new organization, PAN is asking those that are interested in becoming active in the community to join an existing neighborhood group or start a new neighborhood group and in turn join PAN. PAN asks that you come and participate and voice your concerns about issues that affect our community.  A purpose of PAN is to bring together the independent neighborhood organizations of Pueblo in a coalition to represent the interest of the neighborhoods and to collectively address issues of common interest, especially those which may have citywide impact.  One of the focal points of PAN is to promote what can be done to pro-actively curb gang violence. 
Working together——-Stronger, More Vocal, More Effective

Lucretia Robinson, President
404-1566 or 242-5125

And the Decision IS…..

....NO MAYOR!!!

People in Pueblo are slow to accept change. Cautious is probably a better word for it.

And whereas the people who advocated for a ‘strong mayor’ think that it was their being out-spent by the opposition camp, I have my doubts. Rather, I think the people of Pueblo were thinking along the lines of that old proverb….

Happier with the ‘devil’ they know than with the one they don’t know.

And, as is always said, “The ‘devil’ is in the details.” And the people of Pueblo were totally unfamiliar with the details of how either a ‘strong mayor’ or a ‘weak mayor’ would work out. In the first place. The ‘strong mayor’ camp didn’t really provide evidence enough to convince the people their plan was a good one. Nor did they do a good job of countering the arguments of the ‘no mayor’ camp.

As for the ‘weak mayor’. Nobody gave that camp much opportunity to express their arguments. Especially the Pueblo Chieftain which did not include them in the debate at PCC.

There are many more reasons to why this came down the way it did. And I invite the advocates of the ‘strong mayor’ camp to express their opinions about that in the comments section of this thread. Click on the word “Comments” in the box, below.

Tuesday, November 03, 2009

Looking Into the Future

Albeit indirectly…..

Ya gotta LOVE it….

THE YEAR was 1787. The Constitutional Convention had just wrapped up in Philadelphia. Benjamin Franklin, one of the delegates, was leaving the hall when he was asked, famously, “Sir, what kind of government have you given us?” To which the wizened Franklin replied, “A republic, if you can keep it.”—Editorial in Pueblo Chieftain

Republics of the representative form are the very best we’ve experienced in all of history. All the others, including the democracies, tend to fail for one reason or another.

The article goes on to say….

Mr. Franklin knew that the few true republics in history had their day, then sank from inattention to their core values. He was telling his interlocutor it was imperative that the citizenry be responsible to keep the new republic.—Editorial in Pueblo Chieftain

Of late….actually over the last one hundred years, we’ve been rather ‘inattentive’.

Examples of this being the 17th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States which mandated the popular election of Senators to the US Congress. Therein a huge break in the voices and powers of the states was broken.

More recently, the Supreme Court rulings of Baker v. Carr (1962) and Reynolds v. Simms (1964) destroyed the balance of legislative and judicial power at the state level that we enjoy at the federal level. How so? By making the state senate nothing more than an overpaid version of the state house of representatives.

As a result of these actions, the people of the rural regions have much less authority in political activities as they had before those decisions.

The challenge for those of US who live outside of the Denver metropolitan area, which holds 17 of the 35 seats in the Colorado State Senate, is how to reverse this slide towards ‘true democracy’.

Why is that important? 

Well, if you study history, as many military officers do, you can see this trend. And if you read the writings of the Founding Fathers, you understand the truth of THIS statement….

Democracy… while it lasts is more bloody than either aristocracy or monarchy. Remember, democracy never lasts long. It soon wastes, exhausts, and murders itself. There is never a democracy that did not commit suicide.—John Adams

I think the editorial in today’s Pueblo Chieftain speaks more than they realized.

Monday, November 02, 2009

Mail-In Voter Fraud, Anyone?

They’re anticipating it in New Jersey tomorrow.

Let US hope it’s not as bad here as we suspect it will be there.