Ninigret NWR

Widget powered by EveryTrail: Geotagging Community

With the Old Breed: At Peleliu and Okinawa by E.B. Sledge


Brutally honest description of one man's experiences during World War II in the pacific. The book is not for those with a weak stomach for the details of death.


View all my reviews >>

Birding at Hammonasset State Park at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

Wildflower Hike at Bent of the River at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

The 5000 Year Leap: The 28 Great Ideas That Changed the World by W. Cleon Skousen

My review

rating: 5 of 5 stars
A very interesting book, it starts out by briefly explaining how our constitution came about. The book then goes into 28 principals that are contained within the constitution. Besides the author's opinions, he quotes heavily from John Locke and the founding fathers.He also relates how these principals relate to what was happening in the United States at the time he wrote the book (1981, 2001).



Highly recommend this book to anyone that is concerned with our drift away from the original interpretation of the Constitution.




View all my reviews.

Day spent at Bent of the River

Bent of the River 4/24/09

Widget powered by EveryTrail: GPS Geotagging

Review of "Mark Twain A Life"

Mark Twain : A Life by Ron Powers

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
An excellent and very thorough biography of Mark Twain. At times the book was a little too scholarly and it is very long. As a fan of Mark Twain I am very glad that I read it.


View all my reviews.

Hike at Westwoods

Westwoods 4/8/09 at EveryTrail

Map created by EveryTrail:GPS Geotagging

Quick Thoughts on Gun Control

In view of the recent mass shootings we have again heard the call for gun control. I have been giving this some thought and wondering whether it would indeed work. A couple of things come to mind.

Prohibition in the 1920's did not work, it just drove the business underground and allowed it to be taken over by criminal element. It was such a disaster the prohibition was repealed.

The drug trade has followed a similar route. It is illegal, but there is a thriving underground business. A lot of this is controlled by large organizations and it is very easy to obtain. Anyone that wants illegal drugs has no problem obtaining them!

Today there is a already a thriving underground that deals in both illegal types of guns and illegally obtained guns. While I favor strict controls on who can obtain a gun and how, I certainly don't favor the outlaw of guns as was the case for many years in Washington D.C.. If we, the government, attempts to do this we will just drive the trade further underground.

I remember hearing one time that "locks on doors keep the honest person honest, but the thief can still get in and get what he is after". I feel that that is all gun control will do, it will keep the person that has a legitimate reason for having a gun from getting one, but will do nothing about keeping the criminal element or the nut cases from getting what they want. It will only give organized crime more funding as they fill the void as they always do.

Review of "Mark Twain's Letters from Hawaii"

Mark Twain's Letters from Hawaii by Mark Twain

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
A very interesting look at Hawaii in the 1860's with the whit if Mark Twain. The book is actually a compilation of letters he wrote during his trip to the Sacramento Union newspaper. Hawaii was a very different place 140ish years ago, it was not the tourist destination that we associate with Hawaii today.


View all my reviews.

Finished reading "His Excellency: George Washington"

His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph J. Ellis

My review

rating: 3 of 5 stars
The book was a little too scholarly for my taste.


View all my reviews.

Are we seeing the begining of Class Warfare??

I was alarmed at reading about the bus tour of AIG employee homes that took place on Saturday. While it is certainly upsetting when so many are in financial trouble to hear about people receiving these large bonuses, it disturbs me though that they are being treated the way we saw on Saturday. The employees had contracts with AIG that promised them these bonuses, is this really any different than the many union employees working for our state and local governments that are receiving raises this year when many of the taxpayers are struggling with unemployment and/or drastically reduced retirement portfolios? Or is it any worse than our Congress who just got automatic raises in their salaries?

What really disturbs me is some of the comments by the people on the bus tour. It is clear that what we are seeing and not just in this case but many others, is class envey. Was this bus tour the beginings of something more, it was clearly meant to intimidate the AIG folks who received the bonuses. Isn't initmadation a form of warfar? If so are we seeing the beginings of class warfare?

To me this is a big fear. We are rapidly approaching the econimic situation of the Great Depression. Only the United States is a considerably different place now. We have a great many people who have an entitlement mentality as compared to the time of the Great Depression where people were highly independent and many were too proud to except any kind of welfare. Now we have just the opposite mentality, with large numbers of people dependent on the government. What happens when government does not help these people out, who are they going to go after? I fear that they are going to go after the rich, we are already seeing this with more and more proposal to "tax the rich". The problem is that the rich are already supporting the lower 40% who don't pay taxes. The question is, is this going to lead to real class warfare, where people who are rich (whatever that is) are going to have to fear for there lives and property? The AIG folks are already being warned to not wear there ID's in public, and may have had to hire private sercurity gaurds. Where does this end?

Shep Smith on Congress and AIG

The problem with rushing legislation

I had been alarmed and dismayed at how fast our Congress passed the stimulus bill back in Feb of this year. They rushed this mammoth bill to a vote despite many legislators saying they hadn't had time to read it. They had also promised that the bill would be available on a web site for public review for at least 5 days before the vote. But for some reason Congress rushed it to a vote but ironically President Obama then went away for a long Valentine's Day weekend and didn't sign the bill for several days. Knowing this why did Congress rush the vote.

Now we find out that the very same people who rushed this bill to a vote are surprised and shocked that it allowed a group of AIG executives to receive 100 plus millions in bonus payments. Let us and them not forget that every single Democrat in the House that voted for the bill voted to approve and protect those AIG bonuses, as did everyone in the Senate that voted for that bill and the President when he signed it into law. Now all or a sudden they are against those very same bonuses that they signed into law. In my opinion to make matters even worse they want to, and the House did, pass an unconstitutional bill and illegal bill to tax those bonus retroactively.

Maybe if someone had paid attention to what was being passed we would not be here. Or was this intentionally snuck into the bill because they knew it wouldn't pass if this provision was known. And those of us in Connecticut let's not forget Senator Dodd's involvement in this mess and his initial lie about his involvement and then his somewhat truthful answer that he did know about it but it was someone else that made him change it.

This is the problem with rushing a large, complex piece of legislation through Congress. I hope the Congress and the President learn a lesson from this, but I doubt it.

Watch on Breitbart TV what Rep. Thaddeus McCotter had to say about the bonuses and pay special attention to the disgust in his voice as he yeilds the floor.

What if it had been George Bush who made the flub on Jay Leno

The mainstream media was constantly calling our attention to President Bush's gaffes, I wonder how much attention the press will give to President Obama's latist miscue and what the blogosphere's outrage will be. This gaffe and the one's in the attached link come from what we are told is the smartest man on the earth and the greatest man every to occupy the White House. And while I am talking about the great orator President Obama, why is it he can't say two words without a teleprompter and when he is using the teleprompter he NEVER takes his eyes off of them? Please read the following article from the Telegraph.co.uk http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/toby_harnden/blog/2009/03/20/top_10_gaffes_by_barack_obama_and_joe_biden_ And remember these are the men that we elected to lead us and to fix the economy. It is really sad!

Economy in the tank and President Obama finds time to pick the winners of march madness

I was rather surprised when I saw President Obama on the news last night with his picks for the NCAA basketball tounament. Our economy is a mess, and with revelations that the Obama administration may have been the ones responsible for putting an amendment in legislation that exempted the bonus payments to the AIG employes, he can find time to go on TV and talk about his picks. Where is his priorities???

In interresting article by Karl Rove

I think this article is very interesting, It says a lot about what is going on in Washington.

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123742266398778963.html

Hike at Bent of the River 3/13/09

Hike at Bent of the River 3/13/09

Widget powered by EveryTrail: GPS Geotagging

Review of "The Associate" by John Grisham

The Associate by John Grisham

My review

Both my wife and I felt this book wasn't as good as previous books by the author. That said I still enjoyed the book.


View all my reviews.

Hike at Westwoods

Hike at Westwoods

Widget powered by EveryTrail: GPS Geotagging

Review of "A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (And Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media"

A Slobbering Love Affair: The True (And Pathetic) Story of the Torrid Romance Between Barack Obama and the Mainstream Media by Bernard Goldberg

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
The book pretty well spells out how the mass media sold out to Barack Obama. It tells how the mass media failed to report the questionable aspect of Mr. Obama's past, while digging up every little bit of dirt of it could find on those opposing him. The book is a fast read.


View all my reviews.

W.E.B. Griffin's "Line of Fire"

Line of Fire by W.E.B. Griffin

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Typical W.E.B. Griffin book. In following the series I have come to know and like the main characters. It is always interesting to see what they are doing as each book progresses. The downside to reading to reading the series with only a couple of weeks between books is that the rehashing of events does get a little tiresome. Overall I like these books, they are good escapism.


View all my reviews.

Is it correct for the administration to target a private citizen??

Politico is caring a story that top Democrats are targeting Rush Limbaugh as the new GOP bogeyman. According to the story several Democrat strategists have realized what a polarizing figure Limbaugh was and came up with plans to take advantage of this. Whether you agree with Mr. Limbaugh or not, the real question is should the administration be targeting a private citizen for it's attacks. What has happened to "Freedom of Speech"? Mr Limbaugh has the right to say what he thinks. Is this any different the many Hollywood celebrities who criticized President Bush. The answer is no! It seems to me that the liberals have two sets of standards, if the criticism is of a Republican it is OK, but if the criticism is of a liberal it is not. The full story can be read at http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19596.html

Mr President, the Stock Market is not like a tracking Poll

A couple of days ago in response to criticism from CNBC's Jim Cramer President Obama said something along the lines of following the stock market go up and down is like following a tracking poll. Well Mr. President I beg to disagree, when the stock market goes down people loss money. The only similarity to a tracking poll is that the stock market is an indication of your failed economic policies.

Hike to Bear Rock in Durham

Hike to Bear Rock

Widget powered by EveryTrail: GPS Geotagging

"When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic"

I was looking for the Quote "When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic" and found this blog. Since the blog says everything that I wanted to say, I am just going to point you to the blog. Thanks go to Chuck of Biting My Tonque.

http://chuck-bitingmytongue.blogspot.com/2008/07/when-people-find-they-can-vote.html

The Real James Herriot

The Real James Herriot: A Memoir of My Father by Jim Wight

My review

rating: 4 of 5 stars
Anyone who has read James Herriot's books and loved the man and his stories should read this book. It is written by his son and follows the real James Herriot (Alfred Wight) from his birth to his death giving a great insight on the man that wrote all the great books and how similar he was to the fictional character of James Herriot.


View all my reviews.

Atlantic City Trip Report Day 3

Wednesday 2/18/09

I woke up feeling really lousy. I hadn't slept well for a couple of nights, I was tired, achy and my stomach didn't feel right so I took some drugs and we went to Bally's for some breakfast. The buffet wasn't open for breakfast so we hunted up the coffee shop. There was a line, but it moved relatively fast and we were seated after maybe 15 minutes, but no one came for order. Finally a busboy who was clearing the table told the hostess not to seat anyone else in that section, that we hadn't been waited on. We were very impressed that the busboy had noticed and took action. Shortly one of the hostesses came and took our order and everything went smoothly from that point on. On Diane's suggestion I ordered something bland, pancakes, I only eat about half. Diane had their breakfast special bacon and eggs, toast and home fries.

We went back to our room and finished packing and checked out. We headed over to the White House Sub Shop, another Roodfood recommendation. They have been in business since 1946 and serve as many as 1,000 subs a day. We ordered a large Cappacolla and Provolone to go. The gentleman that waited on us has been working there for 50 years and was very accommodating, he asked if we were traveling and therefore he cut one half in half again and marked it so we could find it and used extra wrapping paper.

Next stop the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge for some birding. We were able to see and identify some of the ducks. I have never had much luck with ducks but they were in breeding plumage and therefore more easily identified. We saw Canvasbacks, Northern Pintails, Northern Shovelers, maybe some Green-winged Teal,and a couple of Buffleheads. There was also a ton of Brants, and 2 Great Blue Herons.

Then it was time for the drive home. This was rather uneventful until we got into Connecticut and started hitting snow. We got home around 5:30.

The photos from day 3 can be found at http://bobrich.smugmug.com/Vacation

Birding At Edwin B. Forsythe NWR

Birding At Edwin B. Forsythe NWR

Widget powered by EveryTrail: GPS Geotagging

Atlantic City Trip Report Day 2

Tuesday 2/17/09

We walked up the Boardwalk to the Trump Taj Mahal for their breakfast buffet. The omelets were made to order and neither Diane nor I could believe how tender they were. Needless to say we both stuffed ourselves. On the walk back to our room I took some photos of the outside of the Trump Taj Mahal. We found that there was colony of feral cats under the boardwalk and found out from a man feeding several other cats that the colony is feed every couple of days and the cats have all been neutered.

Back at our room we got our stuff together and headed to Cape May. Diane wanted to go there to see all the victorian homes. Upon arrival in Cape May we hunted up the visitor's center and got some information on a walking tour and a suggestion as to where to park. Parking on the streets at this time of year proved to be no problem, not like in the summer. We spent a couple of hours walking around the area where the victorian houses were and I took lots of pictures. The house were just spectacular and there were so many. One of the houses was for sale, the house was 2800 sq feet on a 67X115 lot for a mere $1,275,000! And in my opinion needed work.

After we finished walking around the historic houses of Cape May we headed to the Cape May lighthouse. Unfortunately the lighthouse was closed, but I got some pictures of the outside. We walked over to the beach to see the remains of the WWII bunker, you have to see the picture to understand what is interesting with this. On the recommendation of the gentleman at the visitor center we then drove over to Sunset Beach to see the remains of a WWI ship made out of concrete. That just about finishes Cape May, on the way back to Atlantic City we drove through Ocean City, Margate and Ventnor.

When we got back to Atlantic City we headed out to get an early supper. Again we walked down to the Tropicana and found that their buffet wasn't open. We then tried Caesar's and found that we had at least an hour and half wait (I guess we weren't the only ones wanting to eat early). We decided to try the Trinity Irish Pub and Carvery in the Pier at Caesar's and had no trouble getting seated. I had a cup of Potato/Leek soup and Shepard's Pie, Diane had Fish&Chips, then we split the Irish Mist Chocolate Cake for desert. Went back to room and watched TV and read.

The photos along with day 1 can be found at http://bobrich.smugmug.com/gallery/7408918_HsKDT#P-1-16

Atlantic City Trip Report Day 1

Monday 2/16/09


We left home around 10am and arrived in Atlantic City by mid afternoon. Since it was a bit early to check into our timeshare, we headed over to the Absecon Lighthouse which would be closed during the rest of the trip. We paid our admission and proceeded to climb the 228 steps to the watch room and walkway on the outside of the lighthouse. The views were fantastic, but it was cold and windy up there. After we climbed back down we toured the keeper's house which had the gift shop and various displays. We also walked around the grounds.

Headed over to our vacation club facility to check-in even though it wasn't 4:00pm yet. Check-in went smoothly and they did have a room for us, room 609. The room was nice, the view could have been better, but at least it wasn't of the city, we could see the beach and the Pier at Caesars. Before we unpacked, I took pictures of the room. We headed out and walked the boardwalk south as far as the Tropicana Casino & Resort. On the way down we walked through Pier at Caesars. The 3rd floor of the Pier had restaurants, but they either didn't appeal to us or were too expensive. We also checked out a couple of the Fralinger stores, but didn't buy anything, did not want to carry around with us.

I had remembered that there was now an area of the hotel called The Quarter and that there was a restaurant there I thought would be interesting, but couldn't remember what the restaurant was. Once in The Quarter I recognized two names (Carmine's and P.F. Chang's). Once we realized that the meals at Carmine's were served family style and priced accordingly we crossed that off. P.F. Chang's looked more like what we were interested in. The entrance off The Quarter just leads to stairs that take you down to the first floor dining room. They had a special that night $39.95 for 2 soup or salads, 1 appetizer, 2 entries, and 2 mini deserts. The selections that went with this were pretty good. We both had the Hot and Sour soup, split an order of Spring Rolls, Diane ordered the Mongolian Beef and I ordered the Cantonese Shrimp. Diane didn't really care for the beef, so I eat most of that and Diane eat most of the Shrimp. For desert Diane had the Great Wall of Chocolate and I had the Tiramisu.

After diner we walk back up the Boardwalk and stopped in the Pier at Caesar's for their water and light show, we were a little late for that and only caught the very end of the show. We continued back up the boardwalk to our timeshare and relaxed for the rest of the evening.

Photos can be found at my smugmug site

What was the hurry?

The Senate and the House of Representatives had to rush to vote on the stimulus bill before they even had time to read it. They then send it to the President to sign, who instead of signing the bill, immediately heads to Chicago for a 3 day vacation.

Hike at Hammonassett Reservoir

Widget powered by EveryTrail: GPS Geotagging

A Treasury of Guilford Places

A Treasury of Guilford Places by Joel Eliot Helander

My review

An excellent overview of the history of Guilford Connecticut. Lots of anecdotal information, plus an excellent section on the old houses of Guilford. I would highly recommend the book to anyone interested in Guilford.


View all my reviews.

A very personal post

Let me start by explaining a little about me. When I was a young I went to Sunday School at the local Episcopal church. As I got older I was an acolyte. During this time I became friends with someone who went to another Episcopal church that was a very high church, it was very close to the old Catholic church in that part of the service was chanted, they used an incense burner, etc., I then went to church for a while. Then when I went to college I stopped going to church and became basically an agnostic.

Over New Years we took a trip to Hershey Pa, on the way we went through PA Dutch County. We made a stop at the Ephrata Cloister. This was an early religious community dating from about 1732. I won't go into the history of the Cloister, if you want more information go to their web site at http://www.ephratacloister.org/.

I don't know exactly what happened to me because of my visit there, whether it was something spiritual or just curiosity, they spent a large portion of their day studying the bible, what do they get from doing that? Whatever the reason once I got back home I started reading an old bible that we had. I also started looking around web sites for help in studying/understanding the bible. I found a site Christianity.com that seems to fit my current desires and interest. It has a section on the "Bible in a Year". I have started trying to read this every day. I am now trying to find a site and it may be on Christianity.com that explains what I am reading.

Just a few days after I started reading the Bible, the U.S.Airways plane crashed landed into the Hudson River. While I don't want to take anything away from the great crew, if there is indeed a God, he certainly had is hand in this miracle.

Let me explain the next thing that happened to help me believe in God and that I am doing the right thing in trying to understand the Bible. I went to northern Rhode Island on Tuesday to visit my nephew, his family and my late brother's widow. If you remember the day was snowy. I left Rhode Island around 3:30pm and reached I395 and found the road snow covered with what looked like clear areas where the wheels of the vehicles traveled. Well apparently the clear areas were not clear, but was icy. After several miles of travel the rear end of my SUV started fish tailing, I tried to recover, but it kept getting worse. I eventually found myself headed off the right side of the road. Fortunately there was a hill on that side of the road which I started to go up, I was able to regain control and bring the car back down onto the road. I was very fortunate that where I went off the road there were no guard rails, rock out croppings and the trees were far enough up the slope that I didn't hit anything and whatever other traffic that was on the road didn't hit me. When I got back onto the road I coasted to a stop on the shoulder and thanked GOD for saving me. I can't believe how lucky I was, just the thought of what happened still sends shivers up my spine.

That same night I couldn't sleep, probably because I was still hyper over the near disaster. My wife has the radio on all night and it is always tuned to WELI, late at night they have on a program called Coast to Coast AM. Even though I wasn't really listening but the show was about Angels. I don't know but that had to be more than coincidence.

So where is all this leading me? Maybe it is just a passing fascination, maybe it the real beginnings of understanding, only time will tell.

Create or Save Jobs

Am I the only one that is getting tired of the Democrats saying that the stimulus bill is going to "create or save" x number of jobs. How do you measure a job saved???? Is this just political speak, so that they can claim a success no matter what happens with jobs. We lose 100,000 jobs, they can say yeah but without the stimulus we would have lost 200,000 jobs. Who is going to chalange that, it just can't be proved.

How did we get into this financial crisis?

The current financial crisis started back in the 1970's when the Carter administration passed the Community Reinvestment Act, this was aimed at extending home ownership in low income communities. In the 1990's the government got the GSEs,Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, (do those names sound familiar?) to accept subprime mortgages. Once this happened the banks could increase lending to unqualified buyers. This resulted (in the name of affordable housing) in banks issuing more and more risky loans since they were backed by Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

This risky business was questioned by the Bush administration in 2001 when it warned that this could lead to financial problems if these institutions got into trouble. Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan repeatedly warned that failure of the GSEs placed the entire financial system at risk. But Senator Dodd and Senator Rangel amoung others continued to (and continue) to deny that there were any problems. Meanwhile people saw the value of their homes increasing and either bought bigger more expensive homes or took out home equity loans. These mortgages were repakaged and repakaged into all sorts of securities that were sold all over the world. The price of homes contiued to go up fueled by this easy money and eventually after reaching unrealisticcally high prices, the bubble burst and prices started to come down. When this started to happen, because of legislation that required that assets be repriced at what they could be sold for, the lending institutions had to start marking down the value of these loans, many of which were currently vertually worthless. Also because of all the repakaging no one knew what they really had, all they knew was that they had a security made up many mortgages or even portions of mortgages. This meant that the lending institutions had no money to lend and credit dried up. This is where the government stepped in at the end of last year and started all the bailouts. We have yet to see if the government bailouts will work or what the long term consequences will be.

So this problem has been brewing for many years and started all the way back in the 1970's.

How does the government want to spend the stimulus

Please read this article from National Review Online titled 50 De-Stimulating Facts.

Walk at Hammo

After Diane got home from work, we went for a walk at Hammo, it was a little chilly because of the wind, but still a nice change from the cold and snow. They have done quite a bit more clearing of invasives on Willard's Island, will have to remember to take my camera next time we go. According to the GPS we walked a total of 1.35 miles in 32 minutes.

Went for walk at Chatfield Hollow

Yesterday Diane and I went for a walk at Chatfield Hollow State Park. The parking lot was VERY icey, I almost slid into another car as I was turning into a parking space. Even though they had plowed one side of the road through the park, it was covered with ice, so we walked on the un-plowed side of the road. We went all the way to the end and back. According to my GPS we walked a total of 2.72 miles in 1 hour and 18 minutes.

Best day of winter birds in backyard

Location: Backyard N. Guilford
Observation date: 1/31/09
Notes: I think this is a record for number of species and number of individuals for the winter.
Number of species: 20

Mourning Dove:11, Red-bellied Woodpecker:2, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker:1
Downy Woodpecker:3, Hairy Woodpecker:1, Northern Flicker:1, Blue Jay:4
American Crow:5, Black-capped Chickadee:1, Tufted Titmouse:1,
White-breasted Nuthatch:1, Carolina Wren:2, European Starling:1
White-throated Sparrow:2, Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored):13
Northern Cardinal:2, House Finch:3, Pine Siskin:14, American Goldfinch:2
House Sparrow:2

This report was generated automatically by eBird v2(http://ebird.org)

Daschle tax evasion is even worse.

I now find out that in addition to the $100,000 that he didn't deduct for the use of a car and driver, that he also forgot to declare some $83,000 of consulting income and had to reduce the amount of charitable deductions by almost $15,000. These last two items were uncovered by ABC news and not revealed in the original announcement from the Obama administration. Is there more yet to be uncovered? With a Democratic President and a Democratic majority in Congress, I imagine he will get confirmed. Of course that may all be academic since President Obama has already appointed Mr. Dashcle as director of the new White House Office on Health Reform. It will be interesting to see how the liberal media handles this!

Here we go again!

First it was Timothy Geithner when he was nominated for Treasury Secretary that we find out got away with tax evasion with just an apology. Now we find out that Tom Daschle, President Obama's nominee for HHS, didn't pay over $100,000 of taxes on the use of a car and driver. Of course this comes out on Friday afternoon, a typical tactic for burying news. Does any politician actually pay what they are supposed to pay in taxes? Would the mass media ignore these problems if it was a Republican? Would you and I get by so easily if we had made a mistake on our tax returns. The answer to all 3 questions is of course a resounding NO.
See the following post on NewsBusters for more information http://newsbusters.org/blogs/tom-blumer/2009/01/30/hhs-nominee-daschle-has-100-000-geithner-problem

Note to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi

Last night on the news I heard you say something regarding the stimulus bill regarding the GOP opposition to aspects of the bill along the lines of that the American people elected the current Democratic Congress and you are doing the will of the people. I beg your pardon, but if my memory is correct the president only won a 51 or 52% majority and in the Senate 56 out of 100 seats and in the House 257 to 177. When your party was in the minority the party always spoke of the importance of minority representation, interestingly now that you are the majority you have forgotten all about minority representation. If you look at the above figures you see that there are still a lot of Americans that did not vote for the Democratic policies, we too have a right to be heard.

Is the end of free speech coming??

Yesterday the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee posted a petition online titled "Rush to Judgement Express your Outrage about Rush's Comments Today". As a listener of Rush's I heard the comments that he made and it was clear that what he said was that if President Obama wants to implement socialist policies then Rush wants him to fail. How dare Rush to criticize the President, yet when the Democrats were criticizing President Bush while the country was at war, that was their duty and right! If I remember right they said "Dissent is Patriotic"
This is the same democratic congress that has talked about re-instituting the "Fairness Doctrine". Why are they afraid of Talk Radio? Maybe because they don't like having their policy exposed for what they are.

Just finished reading The Greatest Generation Speaks

A couple of months ago I read the book The Greatest Generation. I offered the book to a neighbor of mine, but he had already read the book and had received the follow-on book The Greatest Generation Speaks as a gift, he loaned this book to me. I finished it last night. Even though I am not a member of the "The Greatest Generation" I still enjoyed both books very much. The book should be read by everyone who did not live through the depression and World War II and maybe they (we) would appreciate what we have a lot more.

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi says birth control will help economy

WHAT?!?!?
How does she figure that?? She made that comment Sunday morning on ABC's "This Week" in explanation of why there is money for birth control in the new economic "stimulus" package. The liberals are just trying to hide their funding of social programs in the "stimulus" package, what we need NOW is spending that is going to create jobs and/or save the average person money. Not money for the liberals pet social programs or pork.

Some thoughts on what I want to include on my blog!

I have been debating whether to create a separate blog for my thoughts on politics, etc or whether to include them here. I think that at least for now I am going to post everything here.

I have been very concerned about what is going on in this country for some time now, but have kept my thoughts to myself, not wanting to offend my liberal friends. But this is hiding who I am and how I feel. I still like and respect my liberal friends, I just disagree with them as to what is best for this wonderful country that we live in. I am sorry but I am very much a conservative.

So I am going to use this blog to vent about what is bugging me. If I offend anyone, please accept my apologies.

Jan 20, 2009

We went snowshoeing at the Bent of the River Audubon Sanctuary. This is the first time that we have been snowshoeing in several years. We were out for about an hour and it felt really good to be out in the snow. We were surprised by how much the trails had been used in the snow.

Pictures from our visit are located at http://bobrich.smugmug.com/gallery/7155819_2FCmA#459201425_iwVLG