Gun Control - Round Two

Yesterday I was catching up to two weeks worth of The Daily Show, and caught this good interview with Bob Schieffer of CBS News. The conversation started with Bob recalling his personal history of covering inaugurations, and then they were talking about gun control.

It was a good interview, he was more frank with his personal opinion than I would have expected from a newsman, but they were both approaching it from a very rational angle. Jon Stewart brought up a question that I have had for the last month; which is what law enforcement feels about gun control. Based on the fact that police departments have gun buy-back programs more and more, I would assume that they would support it. It's not uncommon anymore for criminals to have automatic weapons that the police can't compete with.

Seattle just had a gun buy-back yesterday and the turnout was so huge they had to turn people away. But the really ridiculous thing I saw that came out of it is that someone brought in a bazooka! This world is insane.

I'm On My Soapbox Again

Yes, I am on my soapbox again, because once again I read something I find sickening. First there was an article about a Republican New Mexico State Representative that wants to make it a crime for a woman to abort if she ends up pregnant as the result of rape. Another article a few days later reiterates that, and then goes on to detail states where the rapist can claim custodial parental rights to have access to the child born of his rape.

It really makes me wonder if all Republican lawmakers hate their mothers. Otherwise I sure don't understand what is at the heart of all the decisions they want to force on all women concerning their bodies.

Squirrels!

 So I had added the Animal Capchunz on the left to my Cheezburger slide show a while back. Then recently they had the entire picture story below that included the shot that was used in the meme I saved. I thought this was pretty cute, and we know how much I love squirrels!

Catching Up

I've been busy trying to keep up with everything and haven't really been posting stuff in the last few weeks. I had a nice evening out last Friday with Denise, Karen and Barb. We ate at Goat Mountain Pizza downtown and then went back to Karen's for some of the home-made carrot cake she had, and the home-made coffee chocolate chip ice cream I made for the occasion.

Last night (or technically maybe tonight) is the first night above freezing since January 9th. We have had a lot of freezing fog in the last week. A few nights in a row it felt like the opening scenes from Great Expectations when young Pip runs into the convict in the church yard out on the moors. Then today we went right back in to our drenching winter rains, ugh! It seems like more and more during our winters here, we have to suffer through extreme cold, to get away with no rain.

So what do you think of the new header? I know, I know, I keep tweaking things........

I was online tonight and came across this amazing video on the website Vimeo, that is a time-lapse of the stars in Victoria Australia. Enjoy!

Gun Control

At the risk of being a broken record, here we go again. I read this article about 3 gun show accidental shootings in one day this weekend. And all I can do is shake my head and repeat the words of Wayne LaPierre from the NRA "The only thing to stop a bad guy with a gun, is a good guy with a gun". He and millions of others are living in a fantasy world.....

This n' That

The Flying McCoys - 1/14/13

 Some funnies and images from the web since the beginning of the year......

Pickles - 1/03/13

Starfall - location unknown

Northern Lights in Finland

Puppy Love

Saw this sweet video on YouTube of a adult dog helping a puppy figure out how to go down a short staircase.  I hope you enjoy this.

Silly stuff continued...

The longer ones don't work well for my slide show, so I'm posting them here. The baby is from Memebase and the other two are from LOL Cats. 

    

And Now For Some Juvenile Humor

I have been reading too much stuff that is starting to depress me, so I'm going to share some of the things that make me laugh.

Starting with a little fun that I had using this new Android app I downloaded to my phone a few weeks back. It's called Photo Grid, and I really like it. It enabled me to do a People of Wal-Mart and I Can Has Cheezburger mash-up. If you've never visited the site, POWM frequently has a "Who Wears It Better" comparison, and that is what inspired this. The dog picture, including caption, were on I Has a Hotdog; cute isn't it?

So who gets your vote? Front or back b**bs?

Post New Years

I'm glad this past week at work was a short one, because I have not been very successful at going to bed early, and was still staying up until midnight and even 1 am after having the last two weeks off.
I am looking forward to the new season of Republic of Doyle on CBC tonight, but am still bummed that they switched it to Sunday's from Wednesday, and now I have to postpone seeing Downton Abbey on PBS.

The cat's have really enjoyed the catnip mice I got from my Secret Pal at work, Eliza. I uploaded a very short video of Munchkin to my YouTube account, and hope to get one of Tom Cat loaded as well.

150th Anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation

Abraham Lincolns' 1856 visit a sign of Michigan's abolitionist current

 By Louise Knott Ahern, Lansing State Journal 

In a small park in Kalamazoo, hundreds of Michiganders gathered to hear a future president speak under a waning August sun.

He warned of the dangers of a divided nation and the scourge of partisan politics, but he also extolled the promise of American freedoms.

"We are a great empire," he told the onlookers. "We stand at once the wonder and admiration of the whole world."

But there was one great stain on the nation, he warned. A stain called slavery.

It was 1856, and the man was Abraham Lincoln.

It would be the one and only time Lincoln would step foot on Michigan soil. He came to Kalamazoo as a member of Congress to campaign for John Fremont, the presidential nominee of the new Republican party born in nearby Jackson.

Lincoln told the Kalamazoo crowd, "This is the question: Shall the government of the United States prohibit slavery in the United States?"

The nation's attention is focused once again on the 16th president with the recent release of "Lincoln," a much-anticipated movie by Steven Spielberg, starring Daniel Day-Lewis, that explores the controversial signing of the Emancipation Proclamation, a precursor to the eradication of slavery. The proclamation, freeing all slaves in the Confederate states, was issued by Lincoln 150 years ago on Jan. 1, 1863.

Being the birthplace of the party he embraced was likely one reason Lincoln made his way to Michigan. The state also had begun to embrace an abolitionist agenda by then and was a crucial stop for escaped slaves on the Underground Railroad.

Several sites in Michigan have been confirmed as places where escaped slaves hid on their paths to freedom.

Though it would be a mistake to call Michigan an early leader in the abolitionist movement, said Carol Mull, an historian and author of "The Underground Railroad in Michigan," pockets of strong anti-slavery activism kept the movement alive.

"Most people prior to 1850 were rather passive on the issue in the state of Michigan," Mull said. "Most people just hoped it would go away on its own and didn't take an active role. The people who did faced censure from their neighbors and their communities for what was essentially breaking the law at that time -- helping people escape from slavery. But that said, there were still many people who did help."

By the time Lincoln came to Kalamazoo, more Michiganders were embracing the anti-slavery movement, many of them angry over the 1854 Kansas-Nebraska Act.

The act created the territories of Kansas and Nebraska and gave voters in those new regions the ability to vote on whether to allow slavery within their borders.

Lincoln urged Michigan voters to support Fremont and to take a stand against the policies of expansion.

"Have we no interest in the free territories of the United States -- that they should be kept open for the homes of free white people?" he asked the crowd in Kalamazoo.

"As our northern states are growing more and more in wealth and population, we are continually in want of an outlet, through which it may pass out to enrich our country. In this we have an interest -- a deep and abiding interest. There is another thing, and that is the mature knowledge we have -- the greatest interest of all. It is the doctrine, that the people are to be driven from the maxims of our free government, that despises the spirit which for 80 years has celebrated the anniversary of our national independence."

I read this article in the Detroit Free Press from December 30, 2012. It caught my eye of course due to the mention of my hometown of Kalamazoo.

The (after) Christmas Cookie Party

A few pictures from our annual Christmas Cookie party for the Around the Corner Cafe gang. 

Barb, Tina, Glen, Denise and Steve

Two months after I moved to Bellingham in January 1987, I started working for Denise and her business partner Pam at the cafe, where Little Cheerful Cafe is now located. We had some great regular customers, who became friends. After the cafe closed in 1990 we had a farewell picnic, and from that we started a regular tradition of meeting every summer for a picnic.

Naomi, Dot, Tina, Steve, Glen and Denise

And then from that tradition, another gathering at Christmas started where it's all desserts. We get all sugared up and have a good time.

Don, Susan and Jo

Rebekah and Naomi

Naomi and Dot

My desk is finally done!

Woody & The Late, Great Miss Kitty

I finally finished my desk (see pictures below)! It was my goal to put this desk back together on my Christmas break this year. It took two days, and I was actually a little worried when I got started because I did not document anything as I took it apart, and that was 3 summers ago.....

The picture at the top is reference for how it was before I started. The finish was not a consistent color and the wood pulls were different sizes too. I think it's an old army desk from one of the bases here in Washington, I bought it from my friend Steve Stimson from his former antique shop.

The wood is maple, and it is a nice sturdy piece of furniture. The chair I also got from Steve, but at a different time, and it is also maple with some beautiful grain patterns here and there. I refinished the chair in 2006. 

Woody & Pauline

 

It looks like I will have to compete with Woody and Pauline for this spot when I need to set up my sewing machine...