Perseid Meteor Shower

Oh how I love anything to do with Astronomy! Not that I'm an expert of any kind, but all my life I have been drawn to any and all things that have to do with the heavens. Yes, I am a Trekkie, and no, I am not embarrassed by it in the least.
So it was with a great deal of interest that I was looking forward to the Perseid Meteor Shower this year. It was a toss up whether I would go or not, and if I did go, could I get my wife to go with me?
Well, an act of spontaneity grabbed me last night and I suggested to my wife that we go up South Fork Canyon - an offshoot of Provo Canyon - around midnight to watch the meteor shower. We would take a couple of sleeping bags, two really big blankets, four pillows, a very large tarp, and our scruffy looking, nerf-herder of a Border Collie - Evee.
Now, last time we did this (about five years ago), we were chased off by an intrusive skunk. Nevertheless, we did not allow that cherished memory to deter us from our design. The only problem was that both of us went to bed around 11 p.m. and appeared to be turned in for the night. Suddenly at 11:36 p.m. we found ourselves getting dressed and throwing all our bedding into the car, including the scruffy looking, nerf-herder of a Border Collie, and by midnight were winding out way up the canyon.
Once we passed Vivian Park, we quickly discovered our spur-of-the-moment idea was not unique in the least. A virtual train of cars were heading up and down South Fork Canyon, and as I feared, when we arrived at the park almost all parking spaces were filled. I stressed even more when I realized the park was filled with hymn singing Zoobies (BYU students on group dates) and non-Zoobie-aged young adults with foul mouths and cigarettes draping from their lips. Great, right? Now I can watch a meteor shower while renditions of "Nephi's Courage" and Lady Gaga's "Bad Romance" competed for stage time.
So, without too much hesitation, my wife and I lugged our "bedding" across the park looking for a comfy place to settle down. I soon realized the most brilliant idea we had for the evening was bringing the tarp with us as the grass was soaking wet.
We got everything situated and settled in under the blanket for a nice night of meteor watching. The sky above us was a black expanse with bright stars and the Milky Way band a stark contrast. It was gorgeous. We were warming up nicely with the blankets, cool air hovering above our faces, and a dog that felt the sudden need to shower my wife with wet, sloppy kisses. After a few minutes, Evee settled down too.
The meteors were indeed there, and each time one lit up the sky, the crowd throughout the park would 'ooh' and 'aah', or scream, in unison. It really was looking like a great night for star-meteor gazing.
But see, that's exactly the kind of moment when 'Lemon Luck' strikes. For those of you that don't know, Lemon Luck is the bad luck that strikes in a moment and at the worst times. My wife does not like it when I refer to Lemon Luck, but even she cannot deny it's existence.
So it was then when Lemon Luck decided to make an appearance and this is how it went down.
We could hear sprinklers running on the backside of the park behind us on the other side of a hill. I did experience a twinge of dread at the sound, but had hoped the city or county might have had enough foresight to turn the sprinklers off knowing that hundreds people would be at the park that night watching a meteor shower. Instead of seeing things for what there were, I rationalized in my mind that the city probably set the automatic sprinklers to run earlier in the evening and hoped that this cycle of sprinklers that was watering the park right at the moment would be the last. Am I a fool or what?
So there we were, watching the meteor shower, pillow talking and really enjoying the night, when we heard drops of water begin to hit the top edge of our tarp. We immediately knew what was happening and both of us reacted in our own way.
My reaction was to stay seated and pull the blanket over my body to protect myself from getting wet. My wife, on the other hand, chose a completely different reaction. Her's was to jump up and quickly run away from the sprinklers. Of course that meant she grabbed a handful of blanket and took them with her, which means the protection I thought I had disappeared in a flash. Mind you, these were not ordinary sprinklers. They were mega-sprinklers covering the grass with 100 foot swaths of water. So when my blanket of protection disappeared, the onslaught of water on my back and head amounted to a deluge. Of course I jumped up to get out of the way, the only result being that my butt and legs were now wet too.
First thought that went through my mind was, 'this is why I love her so much', ...NOT! It was more like, 'Oh My HELL?'!
So there we stood, looking at each other like, "What were you thinking?", both believing we did the right thing, but both standing there wet from head to toe. Our blankets, pillows, sleeping bags were wet as well. My frustration level at the inconsideration of the city/county rose a few degrees, but thankfully my wife calmed me down after a couple of minutes.
We did not want to leave so soon, so I figured the best idea was to turn the sleeping bags, blankets and pillows over on their dry sides and we would try again. We also dragged everything about 50 ft. forward from where we were so the sprinklers would not hit us.
Several other groups of people did the same thing, but they were not as affected as we were because our location was about the worst place to be for getting wet.
So, O.K. fine, we salvaged the night, settled in once again, and despite being wet, actually began to warm up and get comfortable. The meteors were awesome to watch and the crowd was still into it.
Not ten minutes went by and we again heard drops of water hitting the top edge of the tarp. This time before my wife could eject herself off the tarp and make a dash for it, I grabbed her and told her to stay under, that is UNDER, the blankets and just ride out the storm. She complied and this time we didn't suffer the indignity so much. However, our bedding was drenched and not in any condition to shelter us from the cold. It was obvious there were multiple sprinkler stations cycling and each cycle was heading from the back of the park towards the road.
WE WERE DONE!
I pulled the four corners of the tarp together to bundle up all our bedding. It made for a gigantic looking sack, which my wife commented made me look like Santa Clause traipsing through the park. Not really sure if it was the sack or the 30 lbs. I've gained over the past six months that qualified me for that comment, but nonetheless the image made sense.
I lugged it all back to the car, got my dripping family all situated inside and found myself heading back home at 1:30 a.m. having spent barely forty minutes watching the meteor shower. I grumbled all the way back home about the city/county's ignorance and planned to call them in the morning to unleash a piece of my mind upon their poor, unfortunate souls.
Well, I am calm this morning and have not made that call. I am however, a little annoyed that my wife made me type this post against my will.
The things we do to keep the boss happy!

Utah's Monsoon Season

O.K., so I'm a total nut for wild weather. Love to watch it, love to be in it, love to chase it in the car.
The variety of weather we get in Utah is one of the things that makes living here so fantastic. A day of wind, hail, rain, lightning, thunder, awesome looking cloud formations, rainbows and sunsets will put me in the best of moods.
The past 24 hours has been a lot of fun. Nighttime sleeping with lightning flashes and rolling thunder in the distance is like a bedtime lullaby for me. Light rain, then heavy rain, then wind whipping around the house is what I call "therapy".
Mind you, I am foolish at times. Last night I took Evee out for a nighttime stroll at Fort Utah Park. This is my mangy mutt right here...


She was loving it. I was loving it. Then, a white light lit up the sky, a momentary sound of fizzling, then KABOOM! I ducked like that would have made a difference between life and death, and Evee ran for the car.

I was on the phone with my wife at the time and I cursed, LOL. Didn't even get into trouble for that one.

Utah weather...Yeah!

BS Removal Kit!

Gotta love it! Even here in "Happy Valley USA" this product would make a great gift.

California's Double Standard

So, some California legislators and many communities within the state want to boycott Arizona over its passing of SB1070. Interesting to note that California passed similar legislation previously.

California Penal Code Section 834b

(a) Every law enforcement agency in California shall fully cooperate with the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service regarding any person who is arrested if he or she is suspected of being present in the United States in violation of federal immigration laws.
(b) With respect to any such person who is arrested, and suspected of being present in the United States in violation of federal immigration laws, every law enforcement agency shall do the following:
(1) Attempt to verify the legal status of such person as a citizen of the United States, an alien lawfully admitted as a permanent resident, an alien lawfully admitted for a temporary period of time or as an alien who is present in the United States in violation of immigration laws. The verification process may include, but shall not be limited to, questioning the person regarding his or her date and place of birth, and entry into the United States, and DEMANDING DOCUMENTATION to indicate his or her legal status.
(2) Notify the person of his or her apparent status as an alien who is present in the United States in violation of federal immigration laws and inform him or her that, apart from any criminal justice proceedings, he or she must either obtain legal status or leave the United States.
(3) Notify the Attorney General of California and the United States Immigration and Naturalization Service of the apparent illegal status and provide any additional information that may be requested by any other public entity.
(c) Any legislative, administrative, or other action by a city, county, or other legally authorized local governmental entity with jurisdictional boundaries, or by a law enforcement agency, to prevent or limit the cooperation required by subdivision (a) is expressly prohibited.

LDS Parents, Forget the Piano...

and buy your young children colored chalk. It's a lot less expensive and the return they get while serving a mission is worth it!

Happenings in Fresno, CA

Happened to pull this article off a blog about Fresno, CA, which used to be my home town. Scary stuff when you realize this stuff is going on right under our noses. How many of us are watchful enough to take note and interested enough to do something about it? Read on...

Happenings in Fresno, CA

Submitted by: Don Averett

Saints,
Below is a text that reminds us to pray and be on the alert. We ARE at war!!
Lt. Colonel Cotter some of you met recently. He spoke at Millbrook Church!!!

The wolves are among us!!!
I have deleted some of the names that brought this to me. The “text” I have not touched.
PJ

I received this from my ex-homicide partner who is still active in law enforcement circles in the Fresno area.

Excuse the language but don’t excuse the facts. Don’t give up your guns, and buy necessary ammunition if you can find it. Be cautious and alert.

Be ready if, God forbid, we need to protect our families and loved ones.

…You weren’t at Rotary Friday. You missed the only decent speaker we’ve had in more than a year.

LTC John Cotter is the 144th Fighter Wing’s antiterrorism officer. (Tony, you might remember him as Maj. Cotter who was the PIO the last

time we dealt with him).
Anyway, John had a two-part presentation. First part was describing his job as the unit’s antiterrorism officer. Pretty standard stuff.

The second part was “information that will curl your hair.”

Part-time air guardsman works as a checker at local Von’s. Two women in full burkas (or whatever inhell they’re called)

buy every pre-paid cellphone in the store. Clerk/airman gets to thinking about it. Goes to Cotter and reports incident.

Cotter asks store for surveillance video. It’s scary enough that he contacts Fresno FBI. FBI investigates, determines these women

have been doing this all over the Valley. Cell phones shipped through Canada to Iraq/Afghanistan where they become triggers for roadside bombs.

Shell station at Peach and Shaw. Every time a local GI goes there in fatigues they are asked specific questions.

“What is your unit?” “When are you deploying?” “How many aircraft are you taking?”

The F-16s out of Fresno fly CAP for west coast. As such they are the first line of defense so have the US’s most sophisticated

air-to-air missiles. Foreign governments would like to get their hands on those missiles or at least learn how to build them.

Also how many we have, etc. Two spy groups are working on it, one based at Fashion Fair Mall (the F-16s take-off pattern) and one

based at Sierra Vista Mall (the F-16s landing pattern).

Cotter said the ragheads (“But we don’t profile.”) are always probing the base. Two dorks in a pickup show up at the front gate wanting

to deliver a package marked “Air National Guard, Fresno.” No postage, no UPS, no FedEx, no DHL, no nothing. Just a probe.

I asked Cotter why we haven’t seen anything about this in The Bee, on KMJ, on local TV news. He said they’re not interested.

(That really pissed me off).
Since Friday I’ve learned of two other things. Tony, you remember my brother-in-law Frank, a mucky-muck from Avaya.

He had a Muslim tech who took a leave-of-absence for 6 weeks in Afghanistan. After the 6 weeks were up he called from New York

requesting an extension. Frank (who does profile) said, “ **** you, you’re fired!” and called the Fresno FBI who were very interested.

Don’t know the outcome.

A Muslim who owns a liquor store in my former hometown of Kingsburg was constantly bugging customers to buy guns for him.

Finally one of the guys I grew up with called the FBI.

We are a country at war and these **** ers are in among us. I don’t care what Janet Napolitano says, it’s a fight to the death and

we damned sure better be prepared. Brother-in-law Frank has a theory and I think it may be closer to the truth than Homeland Security wants

to admit. There are a certain number (probably a big number) of Muslims among us who are awaiting the “trigger date” and will begin randomly

killing as many of us as they can, sort of a Fort Hood on steroids. I know I’m getting prepared to shoot back.

Klare, if you can, get a hold of today’s Bee (Tony, you can look on line). Two items of interest. Sheriff Margaret Mims wants to grant

concealed carry permits to all who are qualified. Columnist Jim Boren, among the most bleeding of the bleeding heart liberals, says it’s

time for Fresno residents to arm themselves.

MSNBC: Matthews takes aim at capitalism

In just 82 seconds, Chris Matthews of MSNBC suggests that our nation's president nationalize the oil industry (ala Hugo Chavez and Venezuela), the execution of BP oil executives and indirectly claims that Capitalism is a failure. This guy is off his rocker.

How To Destroy America

A 2004 speech on the dangers of multiculturalism in the United Stated titled "I Have a Plan to Destroy America", became famous after being frequently forwarded as an email. With the immigration debate again heating up, it is time to revisit the speech.

We know Dick Lamm as the former Governor of Colorado. In that context his thoughts are particularly poignant. Recently there was an immigration overpopulation conference in Washington, DC, filled to capacity by many of American's finest minds and leaders. A brilliant college professor by the name of Victor Davis Hansen talked about his latest book, Mexifornia, explaining how immigration - both legal and illegal was destroying the entire state of California. He said it would march across the country until it destroyed all vestiges of The American Dream.

Moments later, former Colorado Governor Richard D. Lamm stood up and gave a stunning speech on how to destroy America. The audience sat spellbound as he described eight methods for the destruction of the United States. He said, "If you believe that America is too smug, too self-satisfied, too rich, then let's destroy America. It is not that hard to do. No nation in history has survived the ravages of time. Arnold Toynbee observed that all great civilizations rise and fall and that 'An autopsy of history would show that all great nations commit suicide.'"

"Here is how they do it," Lamm said:

"First, to destroy America, turn America into a bilingual or multi-lingual and bicultural country." History shows that no nation can survive the tension, conflict, and antagonism of two or more competing languages and cultures. It is a blessing for an individual to be bilingual; however, it is a curse for a society to be bilingual. The historical scholar, Seymour Lipset, put it this way: 'The histories of bilingual and bi-cultural societies that do not assimilate are histories of turmoil, tension, and tragedy.' Canada, Belgium, Malaysia, and Lebanon all face crises of national existence in which minorities press for autonomy, if not independence. Pakistan and Cyprus have divided. Nigeria suppressed an ethnic rebellion. France faces difficulties with Basques, Bretons, and Corsicans."

Lamm went on: Second, to destroy America, "Invent 'multiculturalism' and encourage immigrants to maintain their culture. I would make it an article of belief that all cultures are equal. That there are no cultural differences. I would make it an article of faith that the Black and Hispanic dropout rates are due solely to prejudice and discrimination by the majority. Every other explanation is out of bounds.

Third, "We could make the United States an 'Hispanic Quebec' without much effort. The key is to celebrate diversity rather than unity. As Benjamin Schwarz said in the Atlantic Monthly recently: 'The apparent success of our own multiethnic and multicultural experiment might have been achieved not by tolerance but by hegemony. Without the dominance that once dictated ethnocentricity and what it meant to be an American, we are left with only tolerance and pluralism to hold us together.' Lamm said, "I would encourage all immigrants to keep their own language and culture. I would replace the melting pot metaphor with the salad bowl metaphor. It is important to ensure that we have various cultural subgroups living in America enforcing their differences rather than as Americans, emphasizing their similarities."

"Fourth, I would make our fastest growing demographic group the least educated. I would add a second underclass, unassimilated, undereducated, and antagonistic to our population. I would have this second underclass have a 50% dropout rate from high. school."

"My fifth point for destroying America would be to get big foundations and business to give these efforts lots of money. I would invest in ethnic identity, and I would establish the cult of 'Victimology.' I would get all minorities to think that their lack of success was the fault of the majority. I would start a grievance industry blaming all minority failure on the majority population."

"My sixth plan for America's downfall would include dual citizenship, and promote divided loyalties. I would celebrate diversity over unity. I would stress differences rather than similarities. Diverse people worldwide are mostly engaged in hating each other - that is, when they are not killing each other. A diverse, peaceful, or stable society is against most historical precedent. People undervalue the unity it takes to keep a nation together. Look at the ancient Greeks. The Greeks believed that they belonged to the same race; they possessed a common language and literature; and they worshipped the same gods. All Greece took part in the Olympic games. A common enemy, Persia, threatened their liberty. Yet all these bonds were not strong enough to overcome two factors: local patriotism and geographical conditions that nurtured political divisions. Greece fell. E. Pluribus Unum -- From many, one. In that historical reality, if we put the emphasis on the 'pluribus'. Instead of the 'Unum,' we will balkanize America as surely as Kosovo."

"Next to last, I would place all subjects off limits; make it taboo to talk about anything against the cult of 'diversity.' I would find a word similar to 'heretic' in the 16th century - that stopped discussion and paralyzed thinking. Words like 'racist' or 'xenophobe' halt discussion and debate. Having made America a bilingual/bicultural country, having established multi-culturism, having the large foundations fund the doctrine of 'Victimology,' I would next make it impossible to enforce our immigration laws. I would develop a mantra: That because immigration has been good for America, it must always be good. I would make every individual immigrant symmetric and ignore the cumulative impact of millions of them."

In the last minute of his speech, Governor Lamm wiped his brow. Profound silence followed. Finally he said, "Lastly, I would censor Victor Davis Hanson's book, Mexifornia. His book is dangerous. It exposes the plan to destroy America. If you feel America deserves to be destroyed, don't read that book."

There was no applause. A chilling fear quietly rose like an ominous cloud above every attendee at the conference. Every American in that room knew that everything Lamm enumerated was proceeding methodically, quietly, darkly, yet pervasively across the United States today. Discussion is being suppressed. Over 100 languages are ripping the foundation of our educational system and national cohesiveness. Even barbaric cultures that practice female genital mutilation are growing as we celebrate 'diversity.' American jobs are vanishing into the Third World as corporations create a Third World in America - take note of California and other states - to date, ten million illegal aliens and growing fast. It is reminiscent of George Orwell's book, 1984. In that story, three slogans are engraved in the Ministry of Truth building: "War is peace," "Freedom is slavery," and "Ignorance is strength."

Governor Lamm walked back to his seat. It dawned on everyone at the conference that the future of our great nation is deeply in trouble and worsening fast. If we don't get this immigration monster stopped quickly, it will rage like a California wildfire and destroy everything in its path, especially The American Dream.

Gore's Useful Idiots Exposed

Video speaks for itself, as do the followers of Chicken Little, er I mean Gore. One idiot actually disses on conservative talk show hosts with an attempt at a degree of incredulity that speaks volumes to his ignorance when he asks Brian Sussman, "...do you realize the company that you keep is like, Glenn Beck, Rush Limbaugh and Shaun Hannity?..."
I am dismayed at the number of Americans who are incapable of thinking for themselves and who lack the ability to exercise a degree of judgment, intelligence and thoughtfulness that should be common to all men. Scary how the socialist machine gets into one's mind.

Some Terrorist Tidbits!