ShowMeBlog

Thanksgiving 2010

  I am not much of a holiday person.  I am not sure why.  But I do like Thanksgiving. 

“Thanksgiving Day is a harvest festival celebrated primarily in the United States and Canada. Traditionally, it has been a time to give thanks for a bountiful harvest. While it may have been religious in origin, Thanksgiving is now primarily identified as a secular holiday. It is sometimes casually referred to as Turkey Day.

In Canada, Thanksgiving Day is celebrated on the second Monday in October, which is Columbus Day in the United States. In the United States, it falls on the fourth Thursday of November.

The precise historical origin of the holiday is disputed. Although Americans commonly believe that the first Thanksgiving happened in 1621 at Plymouth, Massachusetts, there is some evidence for an earlier harvest celebration by Spanish explorers in Florida during 1565. There was also a celebration two years before Plymouth (in 1619) in Virginia. There was a Thanksgiving of sorts in Newfoundland, modern-day Canada in 1578 but it was to celebrate a homecoming instead of the harvest.

Thanksgiving Day is also celebrated in Leiden, in the Netherlands. A different holiday which uses the same name is celebrated at a similar time of year in the island of Grenada…”  Wikipedia

 

 

  I love the food.  I love turkey.  This year I will have two Thanksgiving.  My ex-wife got two turkeys at Walmart.  She is making one on Thanksgiving and her “boyfriend” is coming over and after he leaves I will get turkey and dressing.  He does not know that Russell and I live here in town.  He thinks we are in FL.  She never told him we moved here.
  Then our son who just moved from FL has off Saturday and Sunday.  So my ex-wife will make another turkey and we will all have Thanksgiving dinner again.  (No her “boyfriend” does not know that our son has moved here.) 
  So I get two Thanksgivings this year. 
  
  I am going to eat to much.  It will taste so good and I will eat a lot of food and then I will feel full and sick the rest of the night.  But the next day I will have left over turkey again.

  I am at 211.8 pounds (96.27 kgs).  My blood pressure today, I took it at CVS, was 141/81 and heart rate of 80. 

Swimming Nude in America - Are the photos fake?

  I get a lot of hits to ShowMeBlog because of a blog post that I made on April 23 of 2008:  Swimming Nude in America. 
  It is about a time not very long ago when boys and men would swim nude at the YMCA and at schools.  It was common even in the late 60s and no one said anything about it.  It was no big deal. 
  Some people can not believe that it was common or that it took place.  It did.  I know if first hand. 

  In my post there were a couple of photos showing young men swimming at swimming events.  The photos came from the Yahoo Group:  YMCAnaked.
  I have had a couple of comments saying that the photos are fake because no photos were taken. 
  They have a number of photos on that site.  So I was thinking that they could not all be fake but I am starting to wonder.
  There is a neat service called TinEye.  It will search over a billion images on the Internet and find matches for the photo you want checked.  I checked the two photos that I posted and I could not find one match for them.  That make me wonder if they are fake.

  The nude swimming did take place in the United States.  I am not sure about anyone taking photos.  You got to remember there were not digital cameras and cell phones back at that time. 
  Some people today do not believe anything unless there are photos or YouTube video to prove it.

Leonid meteor shower peaks Wednesday

“Skygazers will have the best opportunity to witness the Leonid meteor shower in the two to three hours before dawn on Wednesday and Thursday, according to the editors of StarDate magazine…”  CNN

 

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

  (Redirected from Leonid meteor shower)

For other uses, see Leonid (disambiguation).

 

“A famous depiction of the 1833 meteor storm, produced in 1889 for the Seventh-day Adventist book Bible Readings for the Home Circle

The Leonids (/ˈliː.ənɪdz/ LEE-ə-nids) are a prolific meteor shower associated with the comet Tempel-Tuttle. The Leonids get their name from the location of their radiant in the constellation Leo: the meteors appear to radiate from that point in the sky.

Earth moves through the meteoroid stream of particles left from the passages of a comet. The stream comprises solid particles, known as meteoroids, ejected by the comet as its frozen gases evaporate under the heat of the Sun when it is close enough – typically closer than Jupiter's orbit. The Leonids are a fast moving stream which come close to or cross the path of the Earth and impact the Earth at 72 km/s.^[1] Leonids in particular are well known for having bright meteors or fireballs which may be 9 mmacross and have 85 g of mass and punch into the atmosphere with the kinetic energy of a car hitting at 60 mph. An annual Leonid shower may deposit 12 or 13 tons of particles across the entire planet. Sometimes these trails of meteoroids cause meteor showers and sometimes meteor storms.

The meteoroids left by the comet are organized in trails in orbits similar to though different from that of the comet. They are differentially disturbed by the planets, in particular Jupiter^[2] and to a lesser extent by radiation pressure from the sun, thePoynting–Robertson effect, and the Yarkovsky effect.^[3] Old trails are spatially not dense and compose the meteor shower with a few meteors per minute. In the case of the Leonids that tends to peak around November 17, but some are spread through several days on either side and the specific peak changing every year.^[4] Conversely, young trails are spatially very dense and the cause of meteor storms when the Earth enters one. Usual counts during a storm exceed 1000 meteors per hour,^[5] to be compared to the annual background (1 to 2 meteors per hour) and the shower background (a few per hour)…”

The Bush Memoir

  The last president’s memoirs that I read was those of U.S. Grant. (OK, I did read Harry S. Truman’s books.  We had signed copies of them.)
  My point is that I do not read books that are self serving political books. 
  But from what I am hearing President Bush is telling things from his point of view and even admitting to some of his mistakes.  I will give him credit for that.  Plus he sounds like he may be the real voice of the book and the book is not some paid ghost writer.
  On waterboarding he says, in the book, that it was was legal and that it was not torture.  It is, of course, a crime in the United States and a war crime in the world and it is torture.  His book is out today and I expect some calls for him to be tried for the crimes.  Of course, NO jury in the United States would find him guilty and we sure are not going to hand him over to an international court. 
  The book is out today.  I think it will sell well.
  I have heard some comments from some people that have seen some of the contents early.  They agree that it is an interesting read because he does open up about some issues.
  One of them is the idea that Bush did not like the idea that people had that Vice President Cheney was the power behind him and was pulling strings.  But then, from what I heard, he ask Cheney what he should do about it and it is clear that Cheney was very powerful and I feel in fact pulling the strings.
 
  I just found The New York Times book review of President Bush’s “Decision Points.” 

 

Happy 235th Birthday to the U.S. Marine Corps

“The United States Marine Corps has been America's Quick Reaction Force since 10 November 1775, when the Continental Congress authorized the formation of two battalions of Marines, in order to aid in the coming fight against the British Crown.
Marines have always answered the Nation's call, and have given their lives selflessly and valiantly for our Country, without asking for anything in return. The Army may win our Nation's wars, but we couldn't do it without the Marines, who win our Nation's battles.
I dedicate this video to every Marine who ever wore the Globe and Anchor, and to those Marines who do so today...SEMPER FI!”

The "Red Mass"

"The beautifully ornate Catholic church in the nation's capital has seen its share of history and controversy.

In 1963, the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle was the site of John F. Kennedy's funeral. After the service, on the steps outside, the slain president's young son famously saluted his father's memory.

But the church is also the site of an annual Mass that has drawn criticism for what some see as an unhealthy mix of politics, law and religion.

Washington's 57th annual "Red Mass," which celebrates the legal profession, will be held on Sunday - the day before the Supreme Court begins its new term.

Several justices traditionally attend, along with congressional leaders, diplomats, cabinet secretaries, and other dignitaries. Past presidents have also attended, though Barack Obama is not expected to appear this year.

It is a Catholic Mass, but power brokers of other faiths are asked to attend the invitation-only event. Justice Stephen Breyer, who is Jewish, is a regular…" 
  CNN Belief Blog

  I can fully understand why many Americans would object to this event each year.  I think it was a very poor idea for it to get started but it has been going on each year for 57 years now.  
  We also have freedom of religion in this nation and not just freedom from a state or government religion.  I think the Cathedral of St. Matthew the Apostle should draw up a paper/policy that should state at the mass there will be no homilies or that they should be the same each year and contain nothing that anyone could object to at the mass.  Of course it is a Catholic mass so I can understand Americans objecting to it.
  I hate to see a history of 57 years toss.  They attend the event to ask for the blessing of God.  No one is required to attend it.

  Now let me turn this around in the other direction.  (I am a Catholic.)
How would I feel if these people were meeting at a Baptist church each year?  I would not be happy about it and I would think it should not be done.
  I know..I know..  If you look at it that way… Then I guess the Red Mass should not be held.

Jimmy Carter's Diary

"(CBS)  You don't often hear a U.S. president, past or present, talking about his mistakes and shortcomings in office. But that's what you will hear now - from the 39th president of the United States, Jimmy Carter. 

It turns out that during his four year term President Carter kept a diary that he is now publishing, along with an often-harsh critique of his own performance in the White House.." 

  Sounds like that might be interesting to read.  He is honest.  He is sort of like HST in that way.  So might make for a good read.
  I guess he says that his presidency was a success.  I am a liberal left wing Democrat and sorry Jimmy it was not a success.  Yes, President Carter did some good things but if people THINK and FEEL that a presidency failed then it failed.
 It is like the presidency of JFK.  He was killed before he could do much...But people from day one felt wonderful about the United States and about him and his family.  So his presidency was a success.
  Sorry Jimmy that is the way it works.
  Now when history professors write books 50 years from now they may say that President Carter's presidency was a success but it did not feel like it to me nor to the American people.

 

 

 

Right wing preacher going to burn Qurans?

  I saw on the news "pastor" Terry Jones of the Dove World Outreach Center.  He was asked about Gen. David Petraeus' concerns for the safety of our troops and others if Jones burns Qurans on 9/11.
  Jones seemed to say they would go ahead with the burning.  But I suspect that he might change his mind but at the last minute.  He is doing all of this to get news coverage.  So he is not going to say today he is not going to burn the Quran.  He will wait until the event and do something different but something that will get him on the news.  Plus he will announce, I think, that he will burn the Qurans next September 11th.  That way he can keep on the news for another year.  Next year the news media would run to him for a story.
  All Jones cares about is news coverage and selling t-shirts.
  One reason he might not want to burn the Qurans is that he is going to get very little support.  Very little turn out … He has very little support.  His church, I think, has less than 100 members.  He is a joke.
  But as someone commented here.. Burning the Quran is NOT funny. 
  I am a Catholic and Protestants love to attack the Catholics because of the way we do not carry around the Bible and wave it.  It is true that in the Catholic faith the bible is just part of the faith and religion. 
  But the first few times, hell still, that I saw a Bible that Protestants had written in and used a magic marker on I was shocked.  I could never mark on the pages of a Bible. 
  The Quran means as much to Muslims as the Bible means to Christianity.  We should not be burning holy books.  Hell, we should not be burning any books. 
  When I was in Miami I worked with a real nice guy.  He was from Pakistan.  He worked in dispatch at the mall on the midnight shift.  He was reading the Quran all the time.  I mean all the time.  You know I think he was the nicest man I have ever met.  He would bring food often for us on the midnight shift.  He took me out to eat at a place he liked on my birthday.  Burning the Quran would hurt him a great deal.
  It should hurt us all no matter what religion.  The Quran is a holy book to Muslims.  You know something else?  The Bible is a holy book to Muslims! 

  I hope the news media will learn not to pay any attention to "men" like Terry Jones.  He is a media whore.

RIP: Jefferson Thomas – one of the Little Rock Nine

"(CNN) -- Jefferson Thomas was risking his well-being by leaving an African-American school for Little Rock's all-white Central High School with eight other students in 1957.

But a simple comparison of the schools' biology classes helped compel the then-15-year-old to go through with it, his sister Alma Hildreth recalled Monday, a day after Thomas died of cancer at age 67.

Thomas was one of the "Little Rock Nine" -- the nine African-American students who integrated Central High in Little Rock, Arkansas…" 

  One hell of a kid and he turned out to be one great American.  He served his nation during the Vietnam War.  He was the sort of American that we wish all Americans would be during their life time.
  He died of pancreatic cancer and is the first of the Little Rock Nine to pass away. 
  I remember watching on TV the events from Little Rock at that time.  I remember seeing those kids and the mobs of screaming white people being held back by 1,200 members of the  U.S. Army's 101st Airborne Division.

Who gets the biggest laugh in BBS: The Documentary?

  I went to Sonic and got some breakfast.  I got it and took it home.  I also went to a new bakery for this area.  It is Anakaren Bakery.  I got a few items.  I was there a week or longer ago and it looked like the same stuff.  The woman did not speak English.  I got a few items and it all came to $2.00 so I wonder if I got week old bakery goods.  I will find out when I eat them.

  I been having problems sleeping at night.  I need to try and stay awake during the day so I can sleep at night.  But my bed is a few feet away and it is so easy to lay down and take a little nap.

  I got some photos on ImageEvent site. I have been signed up with them for years and years but I never go there or think about them.  In fact I got an email today from them saying my pro membership fee is due.  It is $25.00 and the last time I was at the site was a year ago to pay the fee.

  Photo above was taken when I was in CA for the preview of BBS: The Documentary.  I was the star of the movie.  (OK OK..Just kidding but I was in the movie for a few seconds. Smile!  I do get the biggest laugh in the movie!)