Wacky Internet Stuff.

So...

I was at opensecrets.org and ran a bunch of searches to see who gave how much to Mitt Romney in the 1st quarter. It only lists people who gave $200 or more. One of the searches I ran was to see who, in zip code 84014, gave to Mitt. What do I see? Sharlene Hawkes gave $300.00, and listed her employer as Story Rock. I seem to remember that name . . .

I next google Sharlene Hawkes Storyrock and see a link for linkedin, click on that, see a business listing with a link to my company, click on that, see a link to about us and then our management team, click and there she is, Sharlene Hawkes, Miss America 1985, former ESPN sportscaster, and the chick my roommate Gavin Washburn went on a date with in about 1987 back at Utah State, home of the mighty Aggies.

I don't remember that much about it really. I know Sharlene Wells was speaking at some convocation, and Gavin said we should go and maybe he would ask her on a date, seeing as she was Miss America and stuff, even though as a BYU grad she was a little bit beneath us, and a little to old. He tried to talk me into asking her out, but it seemed a little far fetched to me, not to mention if I had asked her out and she had accepted, then what? no money, no car, no confidence.

I do remember getting there and the place was pretty full, and I don't know if there was some delay or something, but I remember we got up to the podium and said some retarded things, maybe like "Paging Mr. Minh, Mr. H.C. Minh, please return to lingerie" or things like that. Some people laughed at us most ignored us, but we thought it was funny.

Finally she got there gave her speech, and then left. Gavin said he was going back stage, but I had no faith in his crazy scheme so I left, probably for home. He went back stage, met her, asked her on a date and she accepted, and a couple of days later they played tennis together. Now I find she claims Centerville as her home.

The internet is wacky. What did people do without it.

Please write to Orrin Hatch and John Ensign of Nevada

If it bothers you that, soon, illegal aliens will be getting social security, medicare, and unemployment benefits, then take a moment and please write to your senator.

If you want to understand the issue better, I would recommend NRO and Steve Sailer. Here is a key graph from Steve's new column, though its worth reading the whole thing:

For instance, it’s of some relevance to crafting immigration policy to know that 5 billion people live in countries with lower average per capita GDPs than Mexico. About a fifth of the 135 million people in the world of Mexican descent now reside in America, and another 40 million Mexicans tell pollsters they’d like to immigrate here.

Sailer posted an email from a reader:

According to Krikorian and Kaus, these are the 12 Senators on the fence (there may be more). Perhaps you could post this list with the following directions. It took me all of 10 minutes to do this.

1) open up each link in a new tab in Firefox
2) prepare a message in a text editor, such as the following:

"Dear Senator,

Please vote AGAINST cloture on the upcoming immigration bill. It is a disaster and would be ruinous for this country if passed. Thank you.

Sincerely,

XXX

[Signature with affiliations, etc. may also be useful to include]"

3) paste it into each text field, update the contact info, and hit send. It's ok if you're out of state, the Senate in particular is a national organ.

-------------

Bond (R-Mo.)
http://bond.senate.gov/contact/contactme.cfm

Bingaman (D-N.M.)
senator_bingaman@bingaman.senate.gov

Burr (R-N.C.)
http://burr.senate.gov/index.cfm?FuseAction=Contact.Home

Boxer (D-Calif.)
http://boxer.senate.gov/contact/email/policy.cfm

Cochran (R-Miss.)
http://cochran.senate.gov/contact.htm

Conrad (D-N.D.)
http://conrad.senate.gov/webform.html

Ensign (R-Nev.)
http://ensign.senate.gov/forms/email_form.cfm

Levin (D-Mich.)
http://levin.senate.gov/contact/index.cfm

Gregg (R-N.H.)
http://gregg.senate.gov/sitepages/contact.cfm

Nelson (D-Neb.)
http://bennelson.senate.gov/contact/email.cfm

Hatch (R-Utah)
http://hatch.senate.gov/index.cfm?Fuseaction=Offices.Contact

Webb (D-Va.).
http://webb.senate.gov/contact/

I decided to do my part, though some of the links did not work for me. Here is my email I sent:

First of all, in the subject I had to select immigration, rather than AMNESTY. I am heartily in favor of increased immigration, provided that it is legal immigration.

I am opposed to amnesty for those who have violated our laws, snuck into the country, and show up in our emergency rooms without insurance, drive without licenses, and drive down our wages.

A vote for cloture is a vote for amnesty, and amnesty will further burden our country with people who, according to the heritage foundation, cost $3 for every dollar they contribute.

Please vote against cloture.

I know some of you guys are in Nevada and Utah, It would be important between now and Tuesday to call or write your senators.

Just tell them to keep it real, or better yet, NO WAY, Jose!

Thats what I call art.

The guy, the girl and the Paddle are real, the raft, the waterfall and the aligator are painted on a flat plaza.



In this one, the guy is standing on a plaza, not a diving board.



Read more about it here and here.

From a different perspective:



Look how little the gator head is, not much bigger than the rattle can next to it.

OK, its been a while.

Since my last post I have become unemployed. You would think, (probably from watching Sanford and Son) that as an unemployed person I would have plenty of time on my hands to be loafing around, railing against "THE MAN" and fomenting revolution. You would be wrong. The Revolution will not be televised.

Anyway, to make up for it, here's a little election analysis from a guy who I think used to drive Mitt around back in Boston, now blogs with Hugh Hewitt.

And for Joey, a video about how family councils are supposed to look. You have to wait to the end of the video, but I really thought the video was worth watching. I kind of agreed with Tagg's comments at the end. His Dad has been lucky, and sometimes I wonder if there is more to it than that.

You may wonder what it is like to be famous.

Let me tell you, its not all fun and games. The groupies can be tedious, to say the least. When people ask me if I happened to read the paper, I used to say "I only read the paper when I'm in it." Now I don't even read the paper when I'm in it. This past week I was in the Bangor Daily News not once but twice, and my face is plastered all over the phone book, inside and out.



(This is pretty handy if you are trying to cash a check and you don't have I.D.)

I've been quoted on Oxycontin abuse in the Boston Globe and the L.A. times, but until today, I never really felt famous. You know, like Paris Hilton famous.

What changed? Check it out. Do you know what this means? K-Lo reads EFM. Hugh Hewitt reads EFM. It would not surprise me if Willard Mitt Romney his own self occasionally checks out EFM. All I can say is I would make a freakin' awesome U.S. Attorney for the District of Maine. This is the best Mother's Day I could have hoped for. I'm going to go lay down now.

We'll see . . .

Welcome EFM readers, be sure to check out the follow-up to this post.

DaveG at www.race42008.com says Romney can't possibly win.

Poll Alert: McCain Ahead in South Carolina; Romney Falls Behind Two Non-Candidates

So says the latest poll out of South Carolina:

GOP Primary

John McCain: 25%
Rudy Giuliani: 20%
Fred Thompson: 16%
Newt Gingrich: 12%
Mitt Romney: 8%

Other findings of note: in a head-to-head matchup, McCain beats Rudy by a single point, while the Arizona senator defeats Thompson by 14 points. Polls like this, along with Rudy’s flirtation with the idea of abandoning the early states, make me wonder whether or not Team McCain has already taken the first few primaries off the table for the other candidates. If McCain wins the trio of Iowa, New Hampshire, and South Carolina, he will be a very difficult juggernaut to stop. And at that point, it will be a McCain/Rudy race due to the supposed Giuliani “firewall” on February 5th, with Republicans from lots of Rudy-friendly states coming to the polls. At this point, I’d have to say that Rudy and McCain are far more likely than anyone else in the field to get the nod. That includes Fred Thompson, who I once had high hopes for. Both Fred and Newt are mistaken if they think they can stay out of this thing until the fall and experience some sort of overnight groundswell of support. GOP presidential campaigns don’t work that way. Though it should be noted that the two non-candidates still trounce Mitt Romney, despite the former Bay State governor’s own efforts in South Carolina. Well, Romney can always be Secretary of Commerce or something.
by DaveG @ 6:34 pm. Filed under Poll Watch

I am saving this because I think he's wrong. He would think I am wrong if he knew of my existence. I am basing my opinion on the fact that I first saw Mitt Romney in October of 1994, when I stayed in my hotel room at the prosecutor's conference in Bar Harbor so I could watch a debate between Teddy Kennedy and some guy with a weird name who supposedly had been a bishop or something. I've watched him make the impossible look easy. Am I the only person who remembers him beating Shannon O'Brien? Check out this story from the January 31, 2002 Boston Phoenix:

HERE’S AN IMPROBABLE news story that would get the mouths of Republican stalwarts watering.

MARCH 1, 2002, SALT LAKE CITY — Fresh on the heels of a triumphant Winter Olympics, Republican multimillionaire Mitt Romney declared yesterday his candidacy for the governorship of Massachusetts.

Right now, the idea that Romney would get back into Massachusetts politics this year is still fanciful. Romney, who ran against Senator Ted Kennedy in 1994 (and gave Massachusetts’s senior senator perhaps the toughest fight of his career), is fully engaged in his role as president of the Salt Lake Organizing Committee for the Winter Olympics. And while Romney would likely commit millions of his own dollars to a gubernatorial run, he would start at a serious financial disadvantage compared to his opponents. The Democrat who has raised the most money so far, Senate president Tom Birmingham, has a war chest of $2.9 million. Governor Jane Swift herself has raised $1.7 million. Besides, the pragmatic Romney would be unlikely to break Republican Party discipline and challenge Swift.

If you want to know about Mitt and his ability to succeed where others fail, read the whole thing.

The story hints that he has the money, the looks, and the organization to make a run, but points out that it is a long shot. It was, of course, a long shot. He won anyway. Will he win again? I don't know, but what I do know is that only a fool would count him out at this point.

Greetings from Camp Bravo!

I know that probably a lot of people who might be interested in what I have to say would be the same kind of people who have trouble reading, yet I haven't posted any pictures lately. Well, thats about to change.

Two weeks ago in an effort to get out of the house I took 80% of our children to an undisclosed location less than a day's walk away, and we began to set up a secure area to ride out TEOTWAWKI, you know, just in case. The location is completely invisible to multi spectral radar and satellite surveillance, thanks to the triple canopy jungle. My goal over the summer is to set up a base from which to launch black ops against "THE MAN". To that end we will be stocking food, NBC gear, and of course, lots and lots of ammo.

Here's some pictures of our adventures on the first trip.

Boomer, armed with the M-6, on sentry duty:



The proto-mess hall. The horizontal bar was from an old lean to I had set up in the past. Yes, Sqeezie is wearing a dress. Yes, it is pink.



There was a lot of branches on the ground, and a couple of inches of pine needles to rake up.



Here's what is looks like a week later:

Here is the mess hall after being cleaned up:



Here is the kitchen:



And the kids setting up the tent. They needed some help, but are getting the hang of it:





My dad had an extra tent. I have also inherited the gene that makes it nearly impossible to buy just one of anything. My heart tells me that if it worth buying, I might as well get a bunch. Dad saw a deal on tents, and bought two, even though he probably didn't even need one. He sent it out last fall, and so this was our first chance to learn how to set it up. Pretty Sweet!



Here's the view inside. Its plenty big for us five, and seems like it would hold the whole family.




Anyway, another fun day at Camp Bravo.

A vote for Mitt is a vote for Satan

I don't think Mitt can count on this guy in the primaries. Maybe the general election, but even that is not a sure bet.

If you vote for Mitt Romney, you are voting for satan! This message today is not about Mitt Romney. Romney is an unashamed and proud member of the Mormon cult founded by a murdering polygamist pedophile named Joseph Smith nearly 200 years ago. The teachings of the Mormon cult are doctrinally and theologically in complete opposition to the Absolute Truth of God's Word. There is no common ground. If Mormonism is true, then the Christian faith is a complete lie. There has never been any question from the moment Smith's cult began that it was a work of satan and those who follow their false teachings will die and spend eternity in hell.

He's not alone. People in South Carolina, an important early primary state, are receiving helpful pamphlets explaining that Mormons are evil, and really no different from Muslims because both religions espouse war or something. Yeah, and its a hoax and stuff.

McCain-Feingold campaign finance reform has some effect on all this. The law seeks to limit candidates ability to respond to attacks like this as the election gets closer. I happen to believe that way to counter hate speech is with more speech, not trying to shut everybody up. John McCain feels differently.

RUDY GIULIANI PUSHES OXYCONTIN ON LITTLE KIDS!

Game over for Rudy? First of all he thinks all people everywhere should have abortions all the time, and now its revealed that he personally lied about Oxycontin, telling doctors it is no more addictive than carrots, when in fact it's deadly poison.

O.K., some of this post may be a slight exageration. Slight.

What now?

Also: Be sure to watch 60 Minutes on Mother's Day. That is, if you watch T.V. on the Sabbath, which we don't. So, be sure to Tivo 60 Minutes on Sunday, that is, if you have Tivo, which we don't. So, plan on checking out YouTube on Monday.

Romney takes lead in Michigan.

New poll out in Michigan. Wow. Romney leads with 36% of likely voters, McCain within the margin of error at 31%, and Giuliani at 9%. Polls mean next to nothing this early, but how is it possible that someone as well known at Rudy Giuliani gets 9%? I expected that Romney would do well in his native state, the place where his father was a popular governor (he announced his candidacy there too) but this is pretty astounding.

The Destruction of the Earth.

I have recently posted a new feature on my blog. It is a little button that shows whether or not the earth has been destroyed. It is a service of the International Earth-Destruction Advisory Board. I find it very helpful, especially with Al Gore in the news so much recently. In the event the earth is destroyed, you'll be able to tell that because the little green thing will turn red.

How could the earth be destroyed? Check here.

I personally favor being sucked into a microscopic black hole.

You will need: a microscopic black hole.

Note that black holes are not eternal, they evaporate due to Hawking radiation. For your average black hole this takes an unimaginable amount of time, but for really small ones it could happen almost instantaneously, as evaporation time is dependent on mass. Therefore your microscopic black hole must have greater than a certain threshold mass, roughly equal to the mass of Mount Everest.

Creating a microscopic black hole is tricky, since one needs a reasonable amount of neutronium, but may possibly be achievable by jamming large numbers of atomic nuclei together until they stick. This is left as an exercise to the reader.

Method: simply place your black hole on the surface of the Earth and wait. Black holes are of such high density that they pass through ordinary matter like a stone through the air. The black hole will plummet through the ground, eating its way to the centre of the Earth and all the way through to the other side: then, it'll oscillate back, over and over like a matter-absorbing pendulum. Eventually it will come to rest at the core, having absorbed enough matter to slow it down. Then you just need to wait, while it sits and consumes matter until the whole Earth is gone.

Earth's final resting place: a singularity with a radius of about nine millimetres, which will then proceed to happily orbit the Sun as normal.

Feasibility rating: 3/10. Highly, highly unlikely. But not impossible.

Really fun and informative.

Romney continues to carry out his plan.

On the heels of his debate performance, Mitt is starting to move up in the polls in the early states. His plan has been to: 1. Raise money, not that he needs it, because he could and would spend $100,000,000 of his own money. Rather because its a way to gain attention. 2. Establish an organization. McCain has been working on his organization since 2000, but Romney's organization and endorsements are at least equal to McCain's and Superior to everyone else. 3. Be in the game, as opposed to Mike Huckabee, or Duncan Hunter who have no chance of winning the nomination. Obviously he did this when he won the governor's race in Mass. Leno shows he is still in it. 4. Win or place 2nd in Iowa. To do this he needs a huge organization (see 2 above) and shake a lot of hands, and have a message that resonates. 5. Win or place 2nd in New Hampshire, which by law will always be the first primary in the nation. New Hampshire's secretary of state selects whatever day he wants, as long as it is a week before anybody else's primary. A recent poll shows him leading in New Hamshire.

If Romney pulls this off, he will be as well known as Giuliani or McCain, and he will seem invincible because of his money and his organization and his momentum. The week following the N.H. primary will determine who gets the nomination. Running in all those primaries will require organization, and momentum, and I think Romney may have both.

More on the New Hampshire Poll

MoMittum

Check out:

Video of his appearance with Jay Lenno.

Answers to lame Chris Matthews questions at the debate.

Reaction from talking heads.

A couple of months ago the people that follow presidential politics were talking about how McCain was invincible and noone could touch him. Then Giuliani got in, and suddenly was competing with McCain. McCain's support seemed to collapse. By the end of March, smart money was on Guiliani, and people were saying that McCain could never catch up, that he was over. Guiliani was invincible. Then Fred Thompson's name started coming up. After Giuliani's performance last night, he's being written off, and Fred Thompson will definitely get in, and despite having no money and no organization in place, he can be the republican nominee.

This is crazyness. The Iowa Caucus is months, (MONTHS!)away. Most people don't even know there was a debate last night. In the 2000 election, McCain didn't get serious about running until after the Iowa Caucus, and he was a realatively unknown senator from a small state in the desert southwest. He was certainly competive, for a Loser.

Romney has the money, the organization, the looks, and the vision. He will be around to the bitter end. People who write him off at this stage are engaging in wishful thinking.

Update:

From the Romney campaign, via Hugh Hewitt:

The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan: "If we view the proceedings in vulgar and reductive Who Won, Who Lost terms, and let's, Mitt Romney won…" (Peggy Noonan, "An Incomplete Field," The Wall Street Journal," 5/4/07)

· Noonan: "The statuesque Mr. Romney had a certain good-natured command, a presidential voice, and a surprising wiliness. He seemed happy to be there, and in the mysterious way that some people seem to dominate, he dominated." (Peggy Noonan, "An Incomplete Field," The Wall Street Journal," 5/4/07)

· Noonan: "He did some light-handed and audience-pleasing Clinton bashing, and was confident on stem-cell research." (Peggy Noonan, "An Incomplete Field," The Wall Street Journal," 5/4/07)

The Washington Post's Chris Cillizza: "Former Gov. Mitt Romney (Mass.) stood out with clear and crisp answers – showing flashes of humor and an ease with the important issues. He sounded authoritative when he talked about Iraq (not an easy task for a one-term governor of Massachusetts) and effectively cast himself – a Mormon – as part of the broad faith community in America." (Chris Cillizza, "Debate Wrap Up," The Washington Post's The Fix, http://blog.washingtonpost.com/thefix/, Posted 5/3/07)

Newsweek's Howard Fineman: "I think Mitt Romney came off looking presidential…" (MSNBC's "Post Debate Analysis," 5/3/07)

National Review's Kathryn Jean Lopez: "Romney showed himself to be a smart, articulate, optimistic, serious leader. If it was a first impression for anyone watching, as I imagine it might have been for anyone flipping away from The Office for a few minutes, it was a good start." (National Review Website, www.nationalreview.com, Accessed 5/4/07)

Mullings' Rich Galen: "Overall I thought Romney did the best. He had command of his positions and articulated them well." (Mullings Website, www.mullings.com/, Accessed 5/4/07)

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich: "Governor Romney was very good in talking about health care, where he knows a great deal." (Fox News' "Hannity & Colmes," 5/3/07)

New York Daily News' Michael Goodwin: "Romney was very good at turning every answer into a statement of lofty, conservative principle. He spoke of family and marriage and faith and turned a question about 'what don't you like about America?' into a poetic ode to our nation. He came across as sharp and jaunty." (Michael Goodwin, "Giuliani Is Not-So-Artful Dodger," New York Daily News, 5/4/07)

The Politico's Roger Simon: "It would be terribly irresponsible to pick a winner of Thursday night's Republican debate. So I will. I think Mitt Romney won." (Roger Simon, "Call Me Irresponsible: I Say Romney Won," The Politico, 5/3/07)

· Simon: "…Mitt Romney achieved almost everything he wanted to achieve. He looked and sounded presidential. He hit his talking points. And voters who knew nothing about him before the debate except that he was a Mormon, came away knowing a lot more." (Roger Simon, "Call Me Irresponsible: I Say Romney Won," The Politico, 5/3/07)

· Simon: "Romney was a man with a plan. He knew what points he wanted to make and he made them." (Roger Simon, "Call Me Irresponsible: I Say Romney Won," The Politico, 5/3/07)

MSNBC's Contessa Brewer: "I thought Mitt Romney came off as looking very presidential." (MSNBC's "Tucker Carlson Live," 5/4/07)

The Politico's Michael Cornfield And Alan Kelly: "Best playmaker: Mitt Romney. A fluid pace in a frenetic setting. Executive-in-charge. Avoided 'his' religion but talked about faith." (Michael Cornfield and Alan Kelly, "GOP Playmaker's Wrap-up – Our Best And Worst Awards," The Politico, 5/3/07)

MSNBC's Joe Scarborough: "I'll tell you what, it looked like Mitt Romney really had a strong introduction to the Republican Party tonight." (MSNBC's "Post Debate Analysis," 5/3/07)

· Scarborough: "I'll tell you what, I got a lot of e-mails throughout this debate from Republicans, conservative Republicans across the country, they were telling me they thought Mitt Romney was the clear winner and I got to tell you Keith, that's the view from a lot of people inside of here right now." (MSNBC's "Post Debate Analysis," 5/3/07)

· Scarborough: "And this really looked like his format. … Some people like Ronald Reagan pop at these type of debate settings. It looked like Mitt Romney pops in these type of settings." (MSNBC's "Post-Debate Analysis," 5/3/07)

· Scarborough: "You're going to find out over the next couple of days that Mitt Romney is the guy that exceeded expectations, and John McCain was a guy that didn't quite meet expectations. A lot of the Republican base may start moving to Mitt Romney. Rudy Giuliani just was a little more flat that people expected, didn't show the type of leadership that people expected him tonight. Of course this is just a debate but certain people pop in the debate, certain people don't. Tonight it was Mitt Romney who seemed to break out of the pack." (MSNBC's "Post-Debate Analysis," 3/3/07)

National Review's Jim Geraghty: "Romney had some strong answers, good humor. I'd be surprised if he didn't help himself tonight. Maybe the audience will see what attracted his fans. Clearly, this was a format he seemed at home in." (Jim Geraghty, "Jim's Summary and Wrap-Up," The Hillary Spot On National Review Online, www.nationalreview.com, Posted 5/3/07)

National Journal's Marc Ambinder: "Mitt Romney is great with first impressions… He certainly seemed presidential. He flubbed no question. His knowledge was evident." (Marc Ambinder, "The Debate: Post-Spin Analysis," National Journal's On Call, http://hotlineblog.nationaljournal.com/archives/2007/05/the_debate_post.html, Posted 5/4/07)

The Politico's Jonathan Martin: "Mitt Romney's aides and advisers were buoyant after the forum. And for some good reason. The former Massachusetts governor, ever handsome and articulate, was poised and smooth for most of the evening. For the thousands (millions?) watching at home who were getting their first taste of Mitt, they had to come away impressed." (Jonathan Martin, "My Take," The Politico, 5/3/07)

· Martin: "When even his opponents acknowledge that he performed well, you know Romney had a pretty good night." (Jonathan Martin, "My Take," The Politico, 5/3/07)

New York Sun's Ryan Sager: "If anyone stood out from the other candidates, in terms of looking polished and poised, it was clearly Mr. Romney. He got off some of the best lines of the night… But any casual observer of the debate (were there any non-junkies watching?) would probably have to view him as head-and-shoulders above the others." (Ryan Sager, "Who Won? Who Lost?" New York Sun Politics Blog, www.nysunpolitics.com/blog/2007/05/who-won-who-lost.html, 5/3/07)

Dan Riehl: "Romney may be the guy who pulled it out tonight." (Dan Riehl, "McCain Can't Catch A Break," Riehl World View, www.riehlworldview.com/, Posted 5/3/07)

John Hinderaker: "If you didn't already know how good Romney is, you would be really impressed by his performance tonight." (John Hinderaker, "Liveblogging The GOP Debate," Power Line Forum, www.plnewsforum.com, Posted 5/3/07)

Columnist Kathleen Parker: "And the winner is: Mitt the Good, the Perfect, the Gosh-Darned Smartest of Them All. He was substantive, concise, and humorous, if somewhat over-educated for those who haven't yet read the Cliff Notes on altered nuclear stem cells. His answer on stem-cell research showed that he has delved deeply into the issue…" (National Review Website, www.nationalreview.com, Accessed 5/4/07)

Captain's Quarters' Ed Morrissey: "Who won? – Mitt Romney won this debate. He looked relaxed, answered clearly, showed real warmth and a sense of humor, and actually answered the questions asked of him – even the stupid ones, to which I'll return shortly." (Ed Morrissey, "Debate Analysis: Romney Wins," Captain's Quarters Blog, www.captainsquartersblog.com/mt/archives/009874.php, Posted 5/3/07)

Townhall's Dean Barnett: "Mitt Romney – Romney was clearly the class of the field. I know, I'm biased, blah, blah, blah. But if you saw the debate, believe your own eyes. Romney has a command of the facts and an effective delivery that must be the envy of the field. As America gets to know him in forums like this (not that I'm hoping there will be other forums precisely like this hideous one – perish that thought), the country will come to understand why Romney has generated such excitement among insiders and people who know him." (Dean Barnett, "A Quickie Debate Recap," Hugh Hewitt, hughhewitt.townhall.com , Posted 5/3/07)

CBN's David Brody: "The debate is over and I thought Mitt Romney really came across well. He was comfortable, funny and somewhat free wheeling." (CBN Website, www.cbn.com/CBNnews/151174.aspx, Accessed 5/4/07)

National Review's Mark Hemmingway: "It's obvious now that in the first major Republican presidential debate Mitt Romney put in a very strong performance." (Mark Hemingway, "Mitt Romney Can Do Whatever The Heck He Wants," National Review, 5/4/07)

The downside of a wood and canvas canoe.

I have had canoe fever lately. The rivers are high and fast, the bugs aren't quite out yet, and the ice was off most local ponds by last week. Instead of going canoeing, we had a bunch of child-raising, home-teaching, and branch activity stuff going on. So instead I live vicariously through others who are getting out.

I did a google search for wood canvas canoes and found this guy's photo account of a trip he took in a beautiful wood and canvas canoe.

Here is the before picture:



Here is the after pictures:





It really shows the power of the water in even a small stream. I would not hesitate to run that stream in a wood and canvas canoe, and undoubtably the same thing would have happened. He just left the canoe, but according to Bill Mason in his book Song of the Paddle, the canoe may be salvagable enough to continue on the trip. In the old days they would have winched the canoe off the rock with a rope and some improvised pulleys, split some new gunnels out of a sapling with an axe, and screwed another sapling to the bottom to straighten that out, and paddled on the way. Not to mention the great conversation piece it would make hanging in your living room.


When I think about what kind of house I want to live in, I imagine it having a wrecked wood and canvas canoe hanging from the ceiling in the living room.

I can't say I blame the guy for being so devastated that he had to walk away. He wins in the end though, because he is building a new canoe.



I still want a wood and canvas canoe. Maybe I will restrict it to lake use only though.

In Praise of Lard

A few weeks ago I bought some lard. In part because it was there, in part because of Rob Cockerham's pioneering work with lard, and in part because of the now famous 10 point austerity plan, which lacked lard in the original version. I was toying with making pemmican, Rutstrum style, to augment our diet of squirrel.

Lard is rendered pig fat, and back in the old days was perhaps nearly as common as flour and salt. I don't know if they had corn oil, or Crisco, but they did have pigs, and pigs have lard. Lard is still regarded as the best fat with which to make flaky pie crusts and fry donuts.



Before I tried making pemmican, I thought I would try Indian Fry Bread, which, thank goodness, is not called Native American Fry Bread. Yet.

First I got the lard melted and hot. Wait, let me back up. First I waited until Joey was out of the house for the evening. She and her Mom went to enrichment meeting. Then I melted the lard and got it hot while I mixed up the flour, water, salt and baking powder.

It was about this time when I congratulated myself on waiting for Joey to leave. For a while on my mission I was in San Antonio, Texas, in America, and we taught a family that lived near a dog food processing plant. The smell was something else. The lard does not smell like that. Have you ever smelled a wet dog? The lard didn't smell like that either. In some towns people bring law suits against pig farms because of the reek of pig manure. No one, to my knowledge, has ever sued lard for stinking. And yet, as I melted that pound of lard on the stove I was reminded of all these smells. They seemed to combine in a particularly hellish way, made more maddening because the odor was simultaneously faint, yet inescapable. It stuck to everything. I had started down the path to my very own episode of Steve, don't eat it!

I had no choice, I had to follow through. Strangely, the frybread looked good, and smelled good, without the wet-dog, rendering-plant, burning-hair, pig-crap smell that the lard had. I put on a little honey, and bit in to it. It tasted good. Really good. Granted, it sat in my stomach like a 16 pound shot, but it was filling.

When Joey got home, she walked in the door and I started counting: one one-thousand, two one-thousand, etc. 16 seconds later she stopped, sniffed loudly, and looked around with a startled look on her face. But this is what is so cool. She didn't say anything. She didn't mock me, or accuse me of boiling a rat, or anything like that. She just moved on, and about a half hour later casually asked me what I had been cooking, but in a totally pleasant way. She is awesome, and so was the frybread, despite the iron stench that clung to the condemned trailer for the next three days.

Our Gaby

I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.

Flashzach:



Tinkerzach:





Finally, Zach White:

This week has been weak.

This week has been on the lame side. I have not been looking forward to it as it loomed on the horizon like a funnel cloud for the past few months. But when it arrived it became much more complicated.




I was looking towards a huge criminal trial list on Tuesday the 6th, with only very vague ideas of what my clients wanted me to try to accomplish, and I had a civil trial scheduled for today which perplexed me in that there seemed to be no dispute about the facts, and I was sure I was missing some critical piece of knowledge that would explain why we were rolling the dice on a trial rather than settling.

The new ads in the yellow pages seem to be generating a lot of calls, and that makes things hectic, and I picked up, somewhat by accident, a new federal client who is charged with a very serious crime and who speaks no English or Spanish. This added a half day with an interpreter on Wednesday and then I took a 50 minute trip to Dover to visit a client in jail, then back to Bangor to prep my client for the civil case, then came home to see if Joey needed a ride to Ellsworth for a church meeting since I had her car. (My truck has shed its mortal coil spring and so we are down to one vehicle). Then got to Ellsworth around 6:15 p.m.

I got done at church at about 10:00, back home by 11:00 and up at 4:00 to finish getting ready for the trial.

The trial went smooth. I still don't know why we bothered to do it.

A dear sister in our branch passed away earlier this week, so I have been trying to offer some assistance to the family in planning the funeral. That has taken some juggling, but Joey has been trooper and not complained about being a single mom, and my office has been very understanding about rescheduling things that weren't critical.

All this has been acompanied by -30 wind chill in a month I still think of as a "spring" month.

Tomorrow will be another busy day and night, and the funeral is set for Saturday. Sunday, my two counselors will be out of town and Monday I'm picking a jury in an Aggravated Trafficking Cocaine case, so not too much let up, though I am glad to have the civil trial behind me. Its always much easier being the defendant than the prosecutor or plaintiff too, because its perfectly acceptable to sit there with your client and criticize the other side's lack of planning or execution, seeing as they have the burden of proof and have to do all the heavy lifting.

If you are interested in a sweet 1994 Ford F-150 4WD pick-up truck with under 176,000 miles, please drop me a line. It has a current inspection sticker, and I can help you arrange shipping.

Peace, Out.

Zoe and Dentures

I'm home early after picking Emily from after-school basketball practice. Usually Joey does this, but she is at the dentist's with Zoe who broke off her tooth today. The picture came out a little blurry.



If its not one thing, its another. She was playing tag at gym and one of the boys in her class pushed her down and she bounced her face off the floor.

Update: Here's the aftermath. Its glued back together and should last for a little while while the tooth keeps growing. Then they can see what needs to be done re: cap, crown etc.

Kate Mackenzie Erickson.

Better late than never.



She is 8 lbs. 14 oz. and 21 inches long.

Born at 11:06 am, eastern standard time at the Eastern Maine Medical Center in Bangor, Maine.

Joey dealt with things much better than I did. I was o.k. until the baby was born, but after that I had a headache and just wanted to sleep. Meanwhile, Joey was bubly and cheerful and inviting people over to visit. All I could think about was how nice it would be to lay down.

Joey is a trooper.

Baby Update.

Joey is pulling the contraction stunt again. We'll see if she can stay awake this time.

Still. No. Baby.

You realize that this means I have to go to work in the morning.

Joey is not keeping it real.

Baby Pictures

I will post pictures of the baby when she is born. But that will be some time in the future because Joey dashed my hopes last night and went to bed instead of the hospital.

The wait continues.

Baby Update??

So . . . I am sick of waiting for Joey to have the baby.

Tonight I made my delicious black bean and rice festival of deliciousness as follows:

Cook a cup and a half of white rice in the rice cooker.

Brown 1 lb. of extra hot Italian sausage in a large sauce pan with a diced onion.

After the sausage and onion are browned, add one or two cans of Goya black bean soup and a diced bell pepper. Simmer about 20 minutes.

Mix the soup with rice and let sit for about 15 minutes. Eat it with lots of salt.

Fabulous!

Joey usually won't eat my cooking, but I promised her that if she tried eating the black beans and rice that the baby would bail out in no time. She is willing to try anything, so she did partake of the savory beans and rice.

Lo and behold, about 20 minutes later the baby starts freaking out, and 45 minutes later I asked Joey if she was having any contractions yet. She said "I don't know", which is a big change from the last week, when the answer has always been "No". So she can't tell if they are real contractions, or false labor, which she had a bit last time she was pregnant.

Now she is sleeping, so who knows?

BABY UPDATE!

Still no baby!

Baby Update:

Still no baby.

Baby Update

Update: No baby yet.

Joey went to the Dr. yesterday and he did another ultra-sound and a stress test. The ultrasound showed that there is a baby in there, beyond that, not too helpful.

This Christmas, in addition to flying my entire family out to the valley of the Great Salt Lake, my parents gave me some money. I spent most of it on wool pants, mukluks and snowshoes.


I bought some lampwick for bindings and tried out the snowshoes on Saturday, (after thawing pipes, fixing furnace going to the dump etc. The bindings are simple, field expedient and light. You can remove the snowshoes without untying the bindings, but it is not particulary quick or graceful, at least with the military mukluks, but with real mukluks it might be doable. That could be a nusiance, or it could be really helpful if you plunge through some thin ice and need to kick free in a hurry. I wasn't really able to put the snowshoes on without tugging them on with my hands. The snowshoes seemed to stay on fine, although you can move your foot about 45 degrees to the side before feeling any resistance from the showshoe. They are floppy in other words. When walking on the shoes, at least in sub-zero weather on less than 3" of snow, the shoes track perfectly and the bindings are very comfortable. I had no trouble with my foot moving to far forward, and there was no squeezing feeling around the foot or the ankle.

I like the set up. The mukluks are great, but I still would like to sew some traditional mukluks up some time. Before I take that on I need to finish my Duluth style pack.

New, 10 Point Austerity Plan.

Yesterday was payday, and so when I got home I was a little surprised that after Joey had paid bills she still needed another $30.00 for something out of my gasoline/ammo/crack money. The trouble is that my gasoline/ammo/crack budget is about $90.00 each week, and my gasoline expenditures average about $70.00 and my credit card bill takes about another $35.00 per week. If I want to get my hair cut or something, that comes out of the $90.00 also. All in all, its rare for me to have any money for ammo, and unheard of for me to have money for crack.

That is about to change.

I am announcing the new Erickson family 10 point austerity plan:

1. From now on, except as provided for in paragraph 6, we only eat what we can kill.

2. Yukon: out. Yugo: in.

3. Medical experiments aren't just for research, they also pay money.

4. Our condemned trailer is surrounded by woods. Lets try burning some of them. With a little Yankee ingenuity and some duct work, I believe I can convert our electric stove to wood burning, and thats what's right for America. As an added bonus,it supports Global Warming. On a day like today, I think we all agree we could sure use a little global warming.

5. Cold showers, 'nuff said.

6. I am no longer turning up my nose at the idea of roadkill. When I moved to Maine 15 years ago and people told me about how they had scored some awesome deer that was hit by a car, I felt pity. Now, I feel envy. Just this month two families in our Branch have gotten moose that were struck by cars. As Napoleon said at Kips wedding, "Jel-ousss".

7. Ebay + healthy white baby = insane profits.

8. Henceforth: Birthday presents will consist of one or two unusual rocks; Christmas presents will be ordinary sticks with small brightly colored pieces of yarn tied to one end.

9. To save bandwith, we are dispensing with point 10.

10. See 9. supra.

Here is a picture of Joey. and the new, currently nameless baby, who I will call LaFawnduh for the time being.



LaFawnduh is quiet now, but soon she will be screaming at the top of her lungs.(By all means, you owe it to yourself to click on this photo to see it life size.)



This afternoon I went to the Bangor City Republican Comittee meeting at Husson College. I had never been to anything like that before, and it was a real eye opener. Setting aside Steve Sailer's theory of affordable family formation, which, if true, dooms the BCRC to ineffectual obscurity, I was very disheartened by the tone of the meeting.

When I think of Republicans, I think of conservatism. I read The Corner on NRO, I listen to Rush and Glenn Beck when I get the chance, in my office I have a picture of me shaking hands with John Ashcroft from when he was the Attorney General. Perhaps I learned today is why Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe are how they are.

There was a gentleman at the meeting who referred to Susan Collins as a champion, and he was pinning his hopes in 2008 on the champion to electrify the republican voters and carry a bunch of the lower races along on her coat tails. I think the same person opined that somehow "we" needed to reach out to "social conservatives" and make them feel welcome.

I don't know this for a fact, but I got the distinct impression that most of the people in the room were in general agreement, but I didn't have much confidence that any of them relished the idea of rubbing elbows with those peculiar "social conservatives", and I have my suspicions that more than a few of them have NPR programed into their radio.

I have voted for Snowe and Collins every time they have run. I have never written in Mickey Mouse, or abstained, but I always think about. I don't view Susan Collins as a champion, I view her as a liberal, and I suppose I thought that if Republicans really knew how she voted on the important issues of the day, they wouldn't like it. I assumed that she was elected because she was the incumbent, and although seriously flawed, she was undoubtably better than whoever was running against her.

If the meeting I attended was any indication, the lesson Maine republican's learned from the 2006 election was apparently: let's be more like the Democrats. Let's be more moderate, let's distance ourselves from Bush, the Iraq war. Let's embrace wind power, forge a stronger alliance with Europe, and extend a helping hand to those willing to do jobs Americans won't do.

I am begining to understand why so many people in Maine are Democrats. If the Republicans are just beautiful people pretending to be democrat lite, why not vote for a genuine Democrat.

Genealogy Find of the Day

Here is a copy of a death certificate that I found online at the Utah state archives. (Click on the image to enlarge it.)



It seems to match Carl Erickson, my great-great-grandfather. You can find a familseach.org link here and then search for Carl Erickson. The question I have is that the names don't match too well on the parents. Familysearch had his dad's name as Erik Magnus Knutson, the death certificate has Eric Erickson as the dad. The archives site is pretty cool, but I had to look through the names one at a time because I seached for Carl, the archives have him as Karl. Anyway, worth a look if you have ancestors in Utah.

Paddle Primer: Hardwood v. Softwood

When I learned how to canoe as a scout back in the 1970's, in Utah, a place not well known for traditional canoeing, all the paddles I saw were softwood paddles, often laminated. I think the reason for that may have been the same reasons you still see a lot of these paddles, namely they are light, often pretty, feel good in the hand, and can be had for a reasonable price.

Old Town offers a laminated basswood paddle on their website for $45.00.



With propper care, a laminated softwood paddle will be pleasant to use. In my experience the basswood paddles weigh next to nothing. The downside is that, although all wood paddles can be damaged by abuse more easily than a plastic paddle, the basswood paddles are fairly fragile.

Last year on the Stake canoe trip a couple of youth borrowed a basswood paddle that I had borrowed from one of the brothers in our branch. They had it for about 45 minutes, and by the time I got it back so much of the varnish had been scraped off that I had to buy a new paddle to return to the person I borrowed it from. When I say scraped off, I mean that that there were big long chipped scraped, and the varnish on these paddles is very thick because the wood is so soft that the varnish is the only thing protecting the paddle from dents. Chips in the varnish quickly stain black, and because of the thickness of the varnish (polyurethane?) it is no small matter to try to sand the paddle down and revarnish.

Now I prefer to use a paddle cut from a solid plank of ash, but people to whom I loan my paddle do not share my enthusiasm for them.


The reason people don't like my ash paddles is that they are much heavier. That can be a real consideration at the end of a long day. I think the reason I am willing to overlook the weight is that I bought one when my basswood paddle got banged up, and since it was new and pretty I used it, even though it was heavy. After a while I just got used to the weight, and tend to overlook that aspect. Now I focus on the beauty of the grain, the vastly superior strength and resilience of the paddle in comparison to a softwood paddle, and connection I feel to the old school paddlers when I use an old school paddle. I weigh about 260 pounds, but I can take an ash paddle and lay it across the gunnels like a thwart and sit on it. I would not dare that with a softwood paddle. Shaw and Tenney does not recomend softwood paddles for whitewater, and I can understand that, though in my limited whitewater experience I have never seen a softwood paddle break per se.

Shaw and Tenney offers some interesting paddles (more about shapes and lengths in future posts) in a variety of woods, and after visiting their shop in Orono, I am astounded at the quality. The trade-off is price, with a sassafrass beavertail paddle coming in around $100.00. The owner gave me a tour of the place, and showed me a bunch of paddles. My quick impression on the woods is that cherry is heavy and pretty (for furniture cherry is about my favorite wood, but seemed too dark on paddle), maple is heavier and actually more pretty to me because it is lighter in color, black walnut suprising light in weight, sassafras very light, reportedly very tough and springy, but a little ugly.

A great value, in my opinion, is Porter Woodworking in Millinocket. They make some great ash paddles, though not quite a perfect as Shaw and Tenney in workmanship, I like the patterns at Porter better than the paddles at Shaw and Tenney. If you dinged a paddle from Porter's its no big deal, if you dinged a paddle from S&T, you would feel like you damaged a piece of art or scratched a piece of fine furniture.

In Mitt Romney news, I see that Peter Cianchette is on board the Romney bandwagon. Cool.

Dynamite Road Trip

Here are some sweet pictures from our nice roadtrip to Preston.

This is, of course Nappy's house. It is located outside of town on a dirt road.

My favorite scene here was Uncle Rico talking about how he would have taken State back in '82 if the coach would have just put him in. If only . . . he could be relaxin in his hot tub with his soul mate right now.




Pedro's house is even sweeter in real life than I imagined. My only disappointment was that there was no El Santo Nino de Atocha statue on the front steps.







Here is a picture of Emily and I contemplating Mitt Romney's run for the presidency in 2008 on the steps of PHS. Mitt has some sweet skills. Budget balancing skills, Olympic turnaround skills, traditional marriage skills, plus he's like the only kid in school with a mustache.