War and Children this Christmas

“Be near me, Lord Jesus, I ask Thee to stay Close by me forever, and love me, I pray; Bless all the dear children in Thy tender care, And fit us for Heaven to live with Thee there.” So the lyric goes for the 3rd stanza of the Christmas Hymn, ‘Away in a Manger’. That is my prayer for this little Iraqi boy and so many, many, others who are caught up in the ugliness of war.

Please God bless all these dear children wherever they are….

Chill Music for Eddie F.

What a pleasant discovery while watching a Long Island PBS affiliate last night. For the first time I heard and saw a very talented trumpeter, Chris Botti. I now have three albums downloaded on my IPod. He is to smooth jazz and the trumpet what Andrea Bocelli is to opera and vocal music. In fact, they perform a duet together on one of the albums. One critic quoted in Wiki said, "Botti's music was a cut above much of the 'outright elevator muzak genre' of Kenny G.... Botti is capable of a lot more." I never liked Kenny G and grew weary hearing it at a local restaurant in Bntfl. I no longer frequent.

Eddie, I hope you too have discovered Botti. His music is a powerful counteractant. Load up your IPod and let go of some Mormon weltschmerz even only for a few tracks.

The Legislature and Ancient Astronauts

It is with some dread that a few of us await the start of the next legislative session. Already the artists on the hill are at the drawing boards creating new looney toons. Let’s hope none pass as law. The Tribune published a piece (Trib article) about a bill that would deny worker’s comp to the undocumented. Many of these persons work in difficult circumstances and perform the work most of us gringos would reject.

Sadly, our congress has been unable to address the matter of immigration forcing states and even communities to shoulder the role of immigration enforcement.

Critics say this bill like so many others is flawed and too broad. The only ones it will hurt are those who are injured, their families as well as add to the burden of the hospital ER’s.

I wish the legislature would just confine their activities and debates to the topics of evolution, creationism, flat earth theories, the lost 10 tribes, ancient astronauts and maybe Sasquatch. Just leave the rest of us alone to live our lives.

Sausages, Chocolate Brownies, Immigration and Mozart

Saturday previously my boys and I cleaned the church building. I had my three Latino Deacons and my grandson J. As a reward for their service I promised them breakfast following our several hours of vacuuming, emptying the trash and cleaning the glass. They chose the Golden Corral in Layton. Austin is one of the brightest boys of the group. Without any adult controls, and the only rules are just don't waste any food, he loaded a plate with breakfast sausage. I watched him down a dozen links. Maybe they were out of eggs, so I was curious to see what would be on his second plate, maybe hash browns and scrambled eggs? The second plate came and was filled with chocolate brownies, at least six of them. Desert was next and he had two kinds of soft serve ice cream.

Last night we had a court of honor for the boys as I also serve as an assistant scoutmaster. Austin was the only boy who remembered to bring his assigned cookies. He brought 30 with him. A dozen he had purchased with his own money, but 18 he had baked himself. They were his favorite -- pumpkin cookies. They were good. I asked Austin, and he is only 12, how often he made cookies and baked them. He said he makes the cookies for he and his grandmother for their family activities. Austin's mother abandoned him at birth and he never knew his father, doesn't even know his name. In addition to Austin's cooking skills he keeps a 4.0 average at Centerville Jr. High and plays Mozart piano concertos. Austin is a bright fellow and one of those whom many would want to send back to where ever they came from. At least he was born in America. My life has been enriched because of my association with Austin and his peers.

Thankful for water heaters and immigrants

After playing with the dog Taja this morning, (she belongs to K, A , and kids), I went to the sink to wash my hands before starting breakfast. I generally am the breakfast cook at our house. Besides, RA has more important things to do, namely, apple, cherry, lemon meringue, peach, pumpkin pie, as well as the turkey and stuffing.

Just a simple turn of the valve and the hot water was coming from the faucet.

I am grateful for many things. I am grateful our friend Martha is battling and surviving her cancer. I am grateful for Kelly who taught me intellectual honesty, whose influence by and large has resulted in all of our kids having the same intellectual honesty, as well as being compassionate Arepublicans. I note with anticipation that it will be only a year and some weeks until ‘W’ exits the White House stage while the props are crashing around him. Truly, as Jimmy said he is the worst president we have ever had.

I am profoundly grateful for life, for my family, my grandsons and health, also I must include Gordon B. Hinckley, who aside from my father and Grandpa Henderson is the most admired man in my life. Soy agradecido tambien para la ceremonia del velo en Español and mis Latino amigos y hijos. Thanks for good friends, for freedom, for Bridge - who can exercise her agency on any Sunday even in Cache Valley. Add immigrants to my list, also George Harrison’s music. I too ‘don’t need no wah wah’. I am entranced with the Redwood forest, love my brother George who taught me to dive for abalone. W.P. Lyon - my grandfather is a personal hero. He survived an 1844 excommunication at the hands of a small man, William Marks, in Nauvoo. I require and appreciate hot peppers, Sweet Mayans, Walla Wallas, hunting, and most significantly the love and patience of an eternal partner and companion, but as I gazed out the window seeing the frost in the field and upon the grass in the yard, I am grateful for hot water and water heaters.

My gratitude for water heaters is both immediate and iconic for the contributions of so many who have gone before and how enriched my life is in so many ways. When great Uncle Parley built this house in 1890 it had no water heater, just a stove in the kitchen that might have been one of those ‘wet backs’, meaning some copper pipe that snaked its way through the stove back, that heated water when the fire was lit. It was not until 1889 that an immigrant fellow and mechanical engineer named Edwin Rudd in Pittsburg developed the first modern water heater. Thank you Edwin Rudd for my hot water on this day of gratitude.

My animal is not going to BYU

I did my part in preserving wildlife by shooting a deer today. We had permits on land held by the owner as a Cooperative Wildlife Management Unit, (CWMU). He is allowed to sell buck tags to high rollers, mostly from out of state, and then he has to allow a few cheap guys like me to draw out on a lottery basis to hunt does. The number of doe tags issued is based upon the previous year's deer census. The game biologists determine how many deer the land can support and in that way the herds are maintained with adequate food and range. Our license fees are used to support the Division of Wildlife Resources who look after the animals and try to restrain and control the crazies out there. The hunting area is near East Canyon Reservoir.

I use a .338 Lapua. It is favored by a number of countries in the European Union as the sniper rifle of choice. It propels a 250 grain slug at 3200 FPS. It has an effective range of 1000 yards. The gun was developed for the Navy Seals in the '90's and was designed in Finland. Currently the ammunition is hard to find and not available at the local outlets. I would imagine like a lot of other things it is being used up in Iraq and Afghanistan.

My animal is at the butcher and will be processed into little white packages. The hide will be tanned for the advent of some mission style furniture making in the future. Chairs and a couch are scheduled when we have enough of them. My Peruvian friends will be cooking the heart as they have an incredible recipe for this called Antecuchos de Corazon.

Que bueno!

Nixon and Kissinger on Reagan

Many of us have known this all along, no seceret, the emperor was naked, at least mentally. I am happy to see someone on the right, including Henry Kissinger, aptly characterize Reagan's "negligible" mental abilities. From Mother Jones News:

"Nixon on Tape: Reagan Was "Shallow" and of "Limited Mental Capacity"

Richard Nixon, say what you will of this criminally minded president, was a keen observer of politics. But he seems to have underestimated fellow Republican Ronald Reagan (or the American public). On the morning of November 17, 1971, Nixon, while meeting with National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger in the Oval Office, shared a few sharp--and negative--comments about California Governor Ronald Reagan, who had recently told Kissinger that Nixon had a "real problem" with conservatives who believed Nixon was not sufficiently hawkish on foreign policy matters.

For years, the Presidential Recordings Program of the Miller Center of Public Affairs at the University of Virginia has been transcribing and analyzing the tape recordings Nixon secretly made in the White House. Even though it's been 33 years since a disgraced Nixon left office, his tapes are still being processed by the National Archives, and the Miller Center has only recently gotten to the tape of this particular conversation. According to the newly created transcript of the meeting, both Nixon and Kissinger believed Reagan was not the brightest bulb in the GOP. Here are some key excerpts:

President Nixon: What's your evaluation or Reagan after meeting him several times now.

Kissinger: Well, I think he's a--actually I think he's a pretty decent guy.

President Nixon: Oh, decent, no question, but his brains

Kissinger: Well, his brains, are negligible. I--

President Nixon: He's really pretty shallow, Henry.

Kissinger: He's shallow. He’s got no...he's an actor. He--When he gets a line he does it very well. He said, "Hell, people are remembered not for what they do, but for what they say. Can't you find a few good lines?" [Chuckles.] That's really an actor's approach to foreign policy--to substantive....

President Nixon: I've said a lot of good things, too, you know damn well.

Kissinger: Well, that too.

Later in the 24-minute-long discussion, the two discussed the possibility of Reagan running for president:

President Nixon: Can you think though, Henry, can you think, though, that Reagan with certain forces running in the direction could be sitting right here?

Kissinger: Inconceivable.

So much for Kissinger's powers of prognostication. As they were finishing up--after discussing other matters--Nixon slammed Reagan again:

President Nixon: Back to Reagan though. It shows you how a man of limited mental capacity simply doesn't know what the Christ is going on in the foreign area. He’s got to know that on defense--doesn't he know these battles we fight and fight and fight? Goddamn it, Henry, we've been at--

Kissinger: And I told him--he said, “Why don't you fire the bureaucracy?” I said, “Because there are only so many battles we can fight. We take on the bureaucracy now, they're going to leak us to death. Name me one thing that we have done that the bureaucracy made us do.”

President Nixon: The bureaucracy has had nothing to do with anything.

Kissinger: No, no. They've made our lives harder. They've driven us crazy. But that doesn't affect him.

Shallow, negligible brains, limited mental capacity? Well, Reagan did manage to get elected twice, and he served out his two terms--a feat Nixon did not accomplish. And Kissinger happily served on Reagan's Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board."

Scouting for Dollars

This guy makes $214,000.00 a year. Unless something changes I am no longer contributing to FOS, (Friends of Scouting).
The Morning News ran an article today about this leader of the Great Salt Lake Council. Take the pledge and do not give any more $$ to the BSA until there is full disclosure of salaries and steps are taken to rein this excess in.

Thanks to others who have posted on it or I would have missed it since I only read the Trib. This is the story in the News.

BTW, I am serving in my fourth Scout Troop as Scoutmaster or Assistant. I will continue because I care about boys and not scouting. It has been slowly dying for years as an organization.

No Somos Todos Mendigos?

To my Mormon friends and relatives -- This daily scene plays out in nearly every metropolitan area in these Estados Unidos of laborers crowding to get a day's work. Like the postmen, neither wind, nor rain, nor sleet, nor hail keeps these men from their every day task. The economics are brutal, either you work or you do not eat. Juxtapose, if you will, the words of King Benjamin over this image:

"19 For behold, are we not all beggars? Do we not all depend upon the same Being, even God, for all the substance which we have, for both food and raiment, and for gold, and for silver, and for all the riches which we have of every kind?
20 And behold, even at this time, ye have been calling on his name, and begging for a remission of your sins. And has he suffered that ye have begged in vain? Nay; he has poured out his Spirit upon you, and has caused that your hearts should be filled with joy, and has caused that your mouths should be stopped that ye could not find utterance, so exceedingly great was your joy.
21 And now, if God, who has created you, on whom you are dependent for your lives and for all that ye have and are, doth grant unto you whatsoever ye ask that is right, in faith, believing that ye shall receive, O then, how ye ought to impart of the substance that ye have one to another.
22 And if ye judge the man who putteth up his petition to you for your substance that he perish not, and condemn him, how much more just will be your condemnation for withholding your substance, which doth not belong to you but to God, to whom also your life belongeth; and yet ye put up no petition, nor repent of the thing which thou hast done.
23 I say unto you, wo be unto that man, for his substance shall perish with him; and now, I say these things unto those who are arich as pertaining to the things of this world."

Mosiah 4:19-23

Swords, plowshares, and sawdust...

About ready to start the staining and hand rubbed tung oil urethane finish.

Utah made guns and Hillary Clinton

This week we visited a local factory here in Utah that manufactures assault rifles. Business is very good and it may be for another couple years. Our guide said if Hillary was elected in '08 they likely would be closing. Estimates based on availability are two to four hundred weapons manufactured per week. Their latest shipment of assault rifles came to them from the Malaysian Army. The weapons come in pieces, sawed in half, and then they are stripped of useable parts such as barrels, clips and furniture. For the non familiar -- furniture means the stock and forearm rest. These stocks can be wood, metal or some high impact plastic. They can be rigid, telescoping or folding. Some weapons even come with built in wire cutters in their furniture, such as one one of these Galils pictured. That's something every homeowner needs for self defense -- the ability to cut through the barb wire of your neighbors compound before you assault his house.

Based on the comments of our guide there is great demand for these kinds of weapons and waiting lists grow longer daily. Particularly in demand are the Heckler and Koch .308 assault rife and the 9 mm Uzzis. In addition, Kalishnikov variants, Galils and Valmets are re-manufactured and highly prized.

If this is Utah and this is only one of several manufacturers here one has to wonder how many thousands of these guns are being sold each week to homeowners, sportsmen, Republicans, and Second Ammendment supporters. The recent tragic shootings in Finland underscores the high price of gun ownership. The US rates number one in the world for gun ownership, 90 weapons for every 100 citizens. Yemen is second at 61 guns per one hundred civilians. Iraq's populace ranks only 5th in the world, but they have neater stuff like RPG's and shoulder launched SAM's. Think what an RPG could mean for home defense and for sporting men everywhere.

Go Hillary!

More Oreos for the Eyres...

Wonder why Richard Eyre is making those dumb Oreo ads? Seems the Eyres should disclose the fact they are planning on openning a chain of private schools to be subsidized by Utah's new voucher law if it takes effect. More Oreos for the Eyres. All of this from an Eyre family member close enough to call him 'Rick', but who will remain anonymous.

Why am I bothered by the rich, Republican and righteous of this state? Here's to you Richard and Linda -- Consider this, all of my children are card carrying Democrats. Put that leaf between the pages of your scriptures and press it!

Weekend Plans...

Today is Friday. I like Fridays. The week is over. I will be making sawdust in the wood shop. The grandkids are coming over. Tonight is movie night. We are reprising ‘Napoleon Dynamite’ on the big screen with the digital projector. Tomorrow I cook pancakes for everyone. Grandson J wants strawberry jam, not syrup on his. Later, I birthday shop with daughter M and will have lunch at Cafe Trang. I like their new Asian fusion menu, enjoying sushi before the main course of flat noodles, scallions, ginger and tofu arrives.

Lord -- help he understand how I can do this when there is such evil in the world.

Given the trauma, blood loss, and possibility of infection I doubt this fellow survived. Do you suppose he had grandkids? What were his plans for the weekend?

The caption from the Chicago Sun Times about this photo reads: “Suicide bombing in Pakistan_An injured man is carried away from the site of a suicide bombing Thursday that killed at least 21 people in Pakistan. Islamic militants were blamed in the attack.” (AP photo by Mohammad Iqbal / October 25, 2007)

Words for this picture...

Mormons and Americans - warlike people

Once in awhile I get annoyed, even from some of my close friends who are Republicans and Mormons. Recently, I received a rather sappy collection of vignettes from one of my friends. It included a purported conversation between Collin Powell and the Archbishop of Canterbury. Supposedly our imperial interests in Iraqi geography are only for enough room to bury our dead, etc. There was something more about the French and aircraft carriers. I responded to him not in a very polite way and quoted from a 1976 Bicentennial speech by Spencer W. Kimball, then president of the LDS Church. Probably the strongest anti war statement of any Mormon General Authority in a generation. Here is a portion of it for any who have not had the pleasure of reading it recently:

"We are a warlike people, easily distracted from our assignment of preparing for the coming of the Lord. When enemies rise up, we commit vast resources to the fabrication of gods of stone and steel -- ships, planes, missiles, fortifications -- and depend on them for protection and deliverance. When threatened, we become antienemy instead of pro-kingdom of God; we train a man in the art of war and call him a patriot, thus, in the manner of Satan's counterfeit of true patriotism, perverting the Savior's teaching:
"Love your enemies, bless them that curse you, do good to them that hate you, and pray for them which despitefully use you, and persecute you;_"That ye may be the children of your Father which is in heaven" (Matthew 5:44-45).
We forget that if we are righteous the Lord will either not suffer our enemies to come upon us -- and this is the special promise to the inhabitants of the land of the Americas (see 2 Nephi 1:7) -- or he will fight our battles for us (Exodus 14:14; D&C 98:37, to name only two references of many). This he is able to do, for as he said at the time of his betrayal, "Thinkest thou that I cannot now pray to my Father, and he shall presently give me more than twelve legions of angels?" (Matthew 26:53). We can imagine what fearsome soldiers they would be. King Jehoshaphat and his people were delivered by such a troop (see 2 Chronicles 20), and when Elish's life was threatened, he comforted his servant by saying, "Fear not; for they that be with us are more than they that be with them" (2 Kings 6:16). The Lord then opened the eyes of the servant, "And he saw: and, behold, the mountain was full of horses and chariots of fire round about Elisha" (vs 17).
What are we to fear when the Lord is with us? Can we not take the Lord at his word and exercise a particle of faith in him? Our assignment is affirmative: to forsake the things of the world as ends in themselves; to leave off idolatry and press forward in faith; to carry the gospel to our enemies, that they might no longer be our enemies.
We must leave off the worship of modern-day idols and a reliance on the "arm of flesh," for the Lord has said to all the world in our day, "I will not spare any that remain in Babylon" (D&C 64:24)."

Mendocino and the Market Street Broiler

Last night we had very mediocre salmon at the Market Street Broiler in SLC. I think I would rather eat fish sticks at McDonalds than pay $120.00 for the food we did not enjoy here. Fish from the school lunch program was as good as what we did not finish last night. It was way overcooked and very salty. Maybe they were experimenting with salmon jerky recipes?

It is nice to look at the photos and I can think about planning the next trip. For the uninitiated this is the village of Mendocino CA. A few Hollywood movies and TV series have been filmed there. In 'Murder She Wrote' it was Cabot Cove Maine. Some days I wish I were in California instead of here for better restaurants and the scenery. The Mendo Cafe among a number of others has very good food whether you are a vegan or an omnivore. I like salmon that is barely cooked, juicy and not overly salted. My Boy Scouts for their Cooking Merit Badge can cook better fish than we experienced last night.

Mendocino is less than an hour drive down the coast on Highway 1 from our house in Westport.

The last image

This is the last image of the modifed deck before we packed it up and left our house in the redwoods. The fence that is starting is recycled from the deck and replaces a metal screen.

We have another 40' to replace but that will have to wait until December.

The view from the back deck

Two work in progress photos of the back deck here in the Redwoods. This first portion may be complete with one more session tomorrow. The telescope remains in the box and may have to wait. The hot tub is calling and RA says the stars are out.

So little time and so much to do...

Bush and Right Guard are killing us...

A couple of friends of mine are dealing with serious cancers. One wonders why? Is it in the genes, did parents or grandparents have any cancers, maybe siblings? Maybe it is environmental.

It seems George W. Bush and our Republican dominated Congress for the last dozen years have consistently cut funds to any agency that might protect America while approving the highest defense budgets in a generation. The Food and Drug Administration, the Department of Agriculture, the Federal Trade Commission, the Consumer Product Safety Commission have all seen serious cuts to their budgets along with being politicized by George W. Consequently e-coli is sold by my favorite store I love to hate, Wal Mart, with their Topps brand ground beef. A woman in Utah County gets a severed mouse head in her green beans and Wal Mart offers her $100.00. This woman says she is still shopping there, maybe not buying any more green beans though.

My brother in law is a doc and has seen his share of cancer patients. He told me about a web site, a cosmetics data base where you can check out all of things we rub under our arms, put on our faces and wipe our baby’s bottoms. It is an organization called the Environmental Working Group. Right Guard Sport Deodorant, for example, contains toxic chemicals linked to cancer according to this site’s research. Huggies brand baby wipes should be avoided for similar reasons. This site has had more than 30 million hits or searches in three years for consumer products such as cosmetics.

According to the experts cancer causes about 13% of all deaths here in the US. Medical science tells us nearly all cancers are caused by abnormalities in the genetic material of the transformed cells. These abnormalities may be due to the effects of carcinogens, such as tobacco smoke, radiation, chemicals, or infectious agents.

Find out what’s in the stuff you pour on, wipe, spray, rub and spread, as your government is not protecting you. The greater threat to America and its people is in the White House, not hiding in the remote mountains of Pakistan. More than 550,000 will die this year from cancer in America. That is 1500 per day.

Here in the Redwood Forest...

The view from the deck was enhanced to some degree today as we have acquired an 8" Schmidt Cassegrain telescope. It has the computer driven mount capable of locating up to 40,000 celestial objects, plus the ability to compensate for the earth's rotation making astrophotography possible.

We have two DVD's to watch, also the lumber store is delivering a truck load of deck materials as I am starting on the rehab and replacement of our back deck here in the redwoods. The hot tub is filling and I have downloaded Bruce Springsteen's latest album.

So little time and so much to do.