31 Sunday Aug 2008
Posted in az monsoon, Prescott_AZ, weather
Tags
AZ Monsoon Clouds in HDR
Click on image for a larger view.
This was taken from our patio. It’s 3 images, 2 EV (exposure value or f-stop) apart and then assembled into a high dynamic range (HDR) image using Photomatix software. There’s some misalignment in patio cover, other wise I really like this image.
30 Saturday Aug 2008
Tags
Chris Knox of The Fireams Coalition asked that the following be posted as widely as possible. Normally I don’t echo other people’s stuff, but I feel this is an important RKBA message.
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For months GunVoters have been frustrated by party politics as usual with an inexperienced, ultra-liberal, anti-gun, Democrat pretending to be a moderate, pro-Second Amendment, pragmatist; and a “maverick,” moderate, inconsistent on guns, Republican running hard toward the middle and doing little to reassure GunVoters.
Now that both candidates have introduced their choices for Vice-President, the picture has cleared up substantially.
Barack Obama’s choice is Joe Biden of Delaware. Biden is an old-school, party machine, liberal Democrat with a long and unvarnished record of support for virtually any legislation restricting the rights of gunowners. Biden brags that he was one of the original architects of the “assault weapons” ban, and has been on the wrong side of almost every gun vote in his extremely long career in the Senate. That lifetime membership in the most exclusive millionaires’ club in the world – the U.S.Senate – also throws a bit of a wet rag on Obama’s ‘new politics, changing Washington’ rhetoric. Biden’s foreign policy experience includes several votes and positions that are in direct conflict with Obama’s votes and positions, and that is going to become an issue before November.
On the other side of the card, John McCain went out on a limb and tapped a first-term governor from Alaska, Sarah Palin. Palin is a no-nonsense, staunch conservative with a reputation for having the courage of her convictions and for holding politicians and bureaucrats responsible for their actions regardless of their party affiliations. Palin hunts and fishes and is a strong supporter of gunowner rights. While her lack of experience raises some questions, the fact that she is running in the back seat with almost as much experience as Barack Obama, makes it tough for the Democrats to be too critical. McCain can be expected to draw a comparison between an experienced pilot commanding a plane with a rookie co-pilot, and putting a rookie in command. Ready to lead versus ready to step in if needs be is a pretty dramatic difference. Of course that’s a difference that was completely lost on New York Senator and anti-gun zealot, Chuck Schumer. Schumer immediately pounced on McCain’s pick as inexperienced and not ready to lead…
Obama’s choice of Biden should erase any doubt as to the Democrat’s position on guns and individual rights, and it should raise doubts about his commitment to change in Washington.
McCain’s choice of Palin should seriously bolster the lackluster support he’s received from the conservative base and particularly invigorate pro-gun, pro-hunting, and pro-life activists. At the same time, Palin broadens the tent simply by the fact that she is a woman.
The bottom line is that these VP candidates make the choice for President much clearer than it has been to this point and should make this a much more interesting race.
As always though, we must keep in mind that the President can only do as much harm or good as the Congress allows. It is critical that GunVoters get involved and active in the races for Senate, House, state legislatures, and Governor. As Obama and Palin both dramatically highlight, little politicians grow up to be big politicians so a candidates position on gun rights matters in every election at every level.As the political season heats up, it is more important than ever that you go to http://www.GunVoter.org and share the information you have about candidates and learn what you can about others. GunVoter.org can be an invaluable resource in this and future elections, but only with your help.
The latest edition of the Hard Corps Report is at the printer’s and should hit mailboxes in a couple of days. If you don’t subscribe yet, send us your snail-mail address and we’ll let you sample it for free. Just drop a note to info at FirearmsCoalition dot org.
Please forward and repost this alert as widely as possible.
Yours for the Second Amendment,
Jeff Knox
Director, The firearms Coalition
29 Friday Aug 2008
Posted in Dogs
Tags
Annie
Our black lab Annie is about 12 years old. We adopted her as an adult in 2001 (or got her used as Gary says) so we don’t know her exact age. Like many senior dogs, she has some arthritis. On Sunday, suddenly she was yelping and walking with a bad limp. I gave her some of the prescription meds she takes for this, but they were ineffective.
Off to the vet for an exam and x-rays. Vet x-rays are digital now, but I don’t have the imge file 😦 These showed a lot of artritis in her spine by her rib cage. So the vet changed her NSAID meds. This did not help much.
So I discussed the problem with our vet. She gave me some pain meds. These worked wonders. They are a synthetic opiod. So our dog is on dope. I wonder if she’s high …
23 Saturday Aug 2008
Posted in photography, Prescott_AZ
The photowalk was a lot of fun. And the rain did not start until a couple of hours after the walk. Great timing!
See the photos the group took on Flickr. There’s some really good work here.
It was nice to meet some folks in real life that I know online. Some people asked for the URL of the Yavapai Digital Photo Club: http://yavapaifotoclub.com/index.html There’s a link on this page to the calendar which tell of upcoming meetings.
22 Friday Aug 2008
Posted in Prescott_AZ, radio controlled airplane
Gary and Taylor were operating a radio controlled airplane today. It took off, flew, flew into a tree and became stuck, then they got it unstuck. Taylor repaired it, and it’s ready to go again. Click on images for a larger view.
rc-airplane-taking-off
rc-airplane-in-flight
observing-rc-airplane
rc-airplane-caught-in-tree
rc-airplane-freed-from-tree
Dagny's Desk 