Running of the bulls

Now don't ya think the fellow with the flag would have been much wiser if he'd run onto the field with an american flag? If he loves Mexico so much, why doesn't he just go there.

A Citi Field security guard tries to tackle a young man carrying a Mexican flag who ran onto the field in the seventh inning of the New York Mets vs the Arizona Diamondbacks baseball game at Citi Field in New York, Friday, July 30, 2010. …

Here's a fun video of the harbor.

Deck's done

The deck is done !!! I scrubbed the deck.. put on a coat of Spantex...took off the chicken wire that was on the view-side railing... put on new lattice and cleaned the old. ...redid the cable ties....brought one of the plants off the front porch and now it's time to put my feet up and have a cool glass of wine.

Blind Slough

Who said you can't go swimmin in Alaska. Bergen and Ingy are certainly giving it a try in the brrrrrrr, cold water !!

Poppy

Last year I spent time marveling at the hollyhock I had planted, this year I am enjoying the poppies. I scattered a bunch of seeds in the large planter on the porch that houses the hummingbird feeder. No sooner were they scattered, they were forgotten. I asked my sis, the expert, if she knew what they were once they were out of the ground and she didn't know.

Let me tell you, I now know why they are called poppies. In the evening they were buds, come morning they had literally "popped" open and were magnificent pink blossoms with layers of tissue paper thin petals.

Hmm...let's see...what can I plant next year.

Enge Fireplace

All that is left of Bergen and Ingy's great great great grandma Enge's home in the Alaska woods is her fireplace and what an incredible fireplace it is. Built of stone, it reaches high above their heads as they stand with mama in the Alaska rainforest.

Beatniks at Skansie Park

Good thing I live close enough to walk because the park was packed and every parking spot along the way was spoken for.

Some folks were smart, they came by boat.

It was a perfect evening weatherwise..not too hot, not too cold...no wind, just the rush of great sound coming from the Beatniks.

Of all the venues, this band is everyone's favorite and what makes it even more special, one of the band members was born and raised just up the street.

Crochet

I don't think there is anything more exciting than when you learn something new. Bergen stayed over night with me and we were discussing her "blanket", the one her mom crocheted for her and which hasn't spent one night away from her since birth. I told her I can knit, but can only crochet a chain, so of course that led to chain building and here she is wearing the first one she made and holding the second one she made for her little sis. How nice is that :o)

Remodel

The "Ross" house is really coming along. Here is what it looked like a few months ago. Maybe next time I walk by I will try and get an inside shot. I think the owner loves to visit with folks and show off his projects.

I Will Survive

This video is of a family of three generations (a Holocaust survivor, his daughter and his grandchildren) who dance to Gloria Gaynor’s pop song – ‘I Will Survive’ at concentration camps and memorials throughout Europe.
Quoting one of the comments..."They're dancing...they're alive...they survived..and they're giving the ghosts of all those who wanted them dead the ultimate middle finger."
And another, "The survivors have a very good reason to celebrate, and all of us should rejoice with them. Nothing in our lives can compare with their victory."

Congratulations Amy and Leo

Well they finally did it.

Dennis Prager

A Speech Every American High School Principal Should Give
By Dennis Prager
If every school principal gave this speech at the beginning of the next school year, America would be a better place.
To the students and faculty of our high school:
I am your new principal, and honored to be so. There is no greater calling than to teach young people.
I would like to apprise you of some important changes coming to our school. I am making these changes because I am convinced that most of the ideas that have dominated public education in America have worked against you, against your teachers and against our country.
First, this school will no longer honor race or ethnicity. I could not care less if your racial makeup is black, brown, red, yellow or white. I could not care less if your origins are African, Latin American, Asian or European, or if your ancestors arrived here on the Mayflower or on slave ships.
The only identity I care about, the only one this school will recognize, is your individual identity -- your character, your scholarship, your humanity. And the only national identity this school will care about is American. This is an American public school, and American public schools were created to make better Americans.
If you wish to affirm an ethnic, racial or religious identity through school, you will have to go elsewhere. We will end all ethnicity-, race- and non-American nationality-based celebrations. They undermine the motto of America, one of its three central values -- e pluribus unum, "from many, one." And this school will be guided by America's values.
This includes all after-school clubs. I will not authorize clubs that divide students based on any identities. This includes race, language, religion, sexual orientation or whatever else may become in vogue in a society divided by political correctness.
Your clubs will be based on interests and passions, not blood, ethnic, racial or other physically defined ties. Those clubs just cultivate narcissism -- an unhealthy preoccupation with the self -- while the purpose of education is to get you to think beyond yourself. So we will have clubs that transport you to the wonders and glories of art, music, astronomy, languages you do not already speak, carpentry and more. If the only extracurricular activities you can imagine being interesting in are those based on ethnic, racial or sexual identity, that means that little outside of yourself really interests you.
Second, I am uninterested in whether English is your native language. My only interest in terms of language is that you leave this school speaking and writing English as fluently as possible. The English language has united America's citizens for over 200 years, and it will unite us at this school. It is one of the indispensable reasons this country of immigrants has always come to be one country. And if you leave this school without excellent English language skills, I would be remiss in my duty to ensure that you will be prepared to successfully compete in the American job market. We will learn other languages here -- it is deplorable that most Americans only speak English -- but if you want classes taught in your native language rather than in English, this is not your school.
Third, because I regard learning as a sacred endeavor, everything in this school will reflect learning's elevated status. This means, among other things, that you and your teachers will dress accordingly. Many people in our society dress more formally for Hollywood events than for church or school. These people have their priorities backward. Therefore, there will be a formal dress code at this school.
Fourth, no obscene language will be tolerated anywhere on this school's property -- whether in class, in the hallways or at athletic events. If you can't speak without using the f-word, you can't speak. By obscene language I mean the words banned by the Federal Communications Commission, plus epithets such as "Nigger," even when used by one black student to address another black, or "bitch," even when addressed by a girl to a girlfriend. It is my intent that by the time you leave this school, you will be among the few your age to instinctively distinguish between the elevated and the degraded, the holy and the obscene.
Fifth, we will end all self-esteem programs. In this school, self-esteem will be attained in only one way -- the way people attained it until decided otherwise a generation ago -- by earning it. One immediate consequence is that there will be one valedictorian, not eight.
Sixth, and last, I am reorienting the school toward academics and away from politics and propaganda. No more time will devoted to scaring you about smoking and caffeine, or terrifying you about sexual harassment or global warming. No more semesters will be devoted to condom wearing and teaching you to regard sexual relations as only or primarily a health issue. There will be no more attempts to convince you that you are a victim because you are not white, or not male, or not heterosexual or not Christian. We will have failed if any one of you graduates this school and does not consider him or herself inordinately lucky -- to be alive and to be an American.
Now, please stand and join me in the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag of our country. As many of you do not know the words, your teachers will hand them out to you.

Summer vacation

Summer vacation is definately off to a good start with plenty of sunshine, ocean beaches and ponies.

Lake Quinault Lodge

Talk about timing!! My friend and I took off yesterday on a trip "around the loop" in the best weather we've had so far this year. We went north through Port Angeles, out to the ocean at La Push, through Forks and all the "Twilight" stuff, then stayed the night at Lake Quinault Lodge. Neither he nor I had ever been there before so it was fun to see what it was all about. We felt as if we had gone back to the time of F. Scott Fitzgerald when we saw the folks sitting on the lawn above the lake reading in the late afternoon. We had dinner in the room with the row of windows on the lower left side of the building. It was delicious and the service was great. I would love to stay there again, but it's definately not a short drive no matter which route you take.

Room with a view

We spent the 4th at a lovely new home on the bay about a half hour from our place.There is still the finish work to be done as you can see from the saw sitting in the kitchen dining area. Imagine sitting there early in the morning with a cup of hot coffee, watching the ever changing view.

Independence Day

Happy 234th birthday, America!!!!

Danny Westneat feels what is missing in our country is that we don't have a mission.

Hopefully Afghanistan will have a country as free as we have. Here is General Petraeus' July 4th address. God bless all who serve and have served to help others enjoy the freedoms we take for granted.

Just for fun.

Assimilation and the Founding Fathers

Assimilation and the Founding Fathers
By Michelle Malkin • July 2, 2010 09:59 AM
As we head into Independence Day weekend, my column today reflects on the other “A” word missing from the immigration debate: Assimilation.
***
Assimilation and the Founding Fathersby Michelle MalkinCreators SyndicateCopyright 2010
In his immigration speech on Thursday, President Obama heralded America as a “nation of immigrants” defined not by blood or birth, but by “fidelity to the shared values that we all hold so dear.” If only it were so. Left-wing academics and activists spurned assimilation as a common goal long ago. Their fidelity lies with bilingualism (a euphemism for native language maintenance over English-first instruction), identity politics, ethnic militancy and a borderless continent.
Obama blames “politics” for the intractable immigration debate. Whose politics? The amnesty mob has taken to ambushing congressional offices this week to scream at lawmakers to choose “reform” (giving a blanket path to citizenship to millions of illegal aliens) or “racism” (their description of any and every legislative measure to stiffen sanctions for and deter the acts of border-jumping, visa-overstaying and deportation-evading).
Is there no middle ground for all sides to agree that clearing naturalization application backlogs should take priority over expanding illegal alien benefits, or that tracking and deporting violent illegal alien criminals should take precedence over handing out driver’s licenses to illegal aliens, or that streamlining the employee citizenship verification process for businesses (E-verify) and fixing outdated visa tracking databases should come before indiscriminately expanding temporary visa and guest worker programs?
Must every response to even the most modest of immigration enforcement measures be “RAAAAACIST”?
Further, as I’ve noted many times over the years when debating both Democrats and Republicans who fall back on empty phrases to justify putting the amnesty cart before the enforcement horse, we are not a “nation of immigrants.” This is both a factual error and a warm-and-fuzzy non sequitur. Eighty-five percent of the residents currently in the United States were born here. Yes, we are almost all descendants of immigrants. But we are not a “nation of immigrants.” (And the politically correct president certainly wouldn’t argue that Native American Indians, Native Alaskans, Native Hawaiians and descendants of black slaves “immigrated” here in any common sense of the word, would he?)
Even if we were a “nation of immigrants,” it does not explain why we should be against sensible immigration control. The Founding Fathers were emphatically insistent on protecting the country against indiscriminate mass immigration. They insisted on assimilation as a pre-condition, not an afterthought. Historian John Fonte assembled their wisdom, and it bears repeating this Independence Day weekend:
George Washington, in a letter to John Adams, stated that immigrants should be absorbed into American life so that “by an intermixture with our people, they, or their descendants, get assimilated to our customs, measures, laws: in a word soon become one people.”
In a 1790 speech to Congress on the naturalization of immigrants, James Madison stated that America should welcome the immigrant who could assimilate, but exclude the immigrant who could not readily “incorporate himself into our society.”
Alexander Hamilton wrote in 1802: “The safety of a republic depends essentially on the energy of a common national sentiment; on a uniformity of principles and habits; on the exemption of the citizens from foreign bias and prejudice; and on that love of country which will almost invariably be found to be closely connected with birth, education and family.”
Hamilton further warned that “The United States have already felt the evils of incorporating a large number of foreigners into their national mass; by promoting in different classes different predilections in favor of particular foreign nations, and antipathies against others, it has served very much to divide the community and to distract our councils. It has been often likely to compromise the interests of our own country in favor of another. The permanent effect of such a policy will be, that in times of great public danger there will be always a numerous body of men, of whom there may be just grounds of distrust; the suspicion alone will weaken the strength of the nation, but their force may be actually employed in assisting an invader.”
The survival of the American republic, Hamilton maintained, depends upon “the preservation of a national spirit and a national character.” “To admit foreigners indiscriminately to the rights of citizens the moment they put foot in our country would be nothing less than to admit the Grecian horse into the citadel of our liberty and sovereignty.”
As pro-amnesty extremists moan that “we didn’t cross the borders, the borders crossed us” and illegal alien marchers haul foreign flags above Old Glory, President Obama pretends that the “common national sentiment” our Founding Fathers embraced still binds us all together. Many of us still have faith in a strong, sovereign America — the unhyphenated, the law-abiding, the gratitude-filled sons and daughters and grandchildren of legal immigrants for whom such distinctions still matter. But it’s no thanks to the assimilation saboteurs who put “one world” over “one nation under God.”