UAV

As in Unmanned Aerial Vehicle.

Actually, it's Christian's RC car. Chris entertained the kids by driving it around the back yard.

It spent a lot of time in the air.

Chris blogs about his RC car at Busted Rustler. Check it out.

Birthday Party

Our grandson Dutch turns one year old later this week, but yesterday was his birthday party.

Here he learns to operate his new ATV.

Skylar taught him how to pop a wheelie.

Opening another present.

Happy Birthday to Dutch!

Happy boy.

Jacob pulls Hattie and Dutch up the hill in Dutch's new Radio Flyer, with some assistance from Uncle Jared.

Jacob checks out the back yard slide, with Hattie coming up behind.

Hattie liked it too.

Here's the birthday boy in his new red wagon.


Aunt Jodi with little baby Anson.

Here's crafty Auntie Susan who's busy working on a little brother for Hattie.

Here are the kids on the neighbors' backyard merry-go-round.

Hattie really liked the merry-go-round.

She rode it for several minutes. When she got off, she was dizzy and didn't realize it. She staggered like a little drunk and fell down several times. It was hilarious. Too bad I didn't have video.

Hattie enjoyed the big wheel, too.

Farmington Funeral

On Saturday Laura and I drove up to Farmington and attended the burial service of Laura's Aunt Melita, who passed away recently at the age of 96.


We were able to find the grave marker of Laura's grandparents, George and Mamie Baird, who passed away before Laura was born.

It was good that we were there, because we had to represent Laura's mom, who wasn't able to attend. The thing about funerals is that it brings family and friends together who haven't seen each other for many years.

Here are Laura and her cousin Chris Coombs, viewing a CD memorializing his mother.






This is another cousin, Dennis Coombs.


And here are Carly and her daughter Julia, with Shelby. Carly and Shelby are Laura's nieces. We get to see them a little more often than the other extended family members.

Thanksgiving

I know it's kind of late to post about Thanksgiving, but we celebrated quietly at our home. And we had visitors. This little girl was one of them. Her name is Hattie.

She came with her mom and dad to share our Thanksgiving meal.

First she had to wake up from her nap.

And once she had a little juice, she was back to normal.

Twenty Shots, Twenty Kills.

Last week a 30 man platoon of U.S. Marines was ambushed by a 250 strong insurgent force in Farah Province, Afghanistan. The end result was that a humvee was destroyed and one Marine was knocked unconsious. But the insurgents suffered heavy losses over an 8 hour battle. When the smoke cleared, their stronghold was destroyed, fifty of their number were dead and others were wounded. The remainder had abandoned their weapons and fled the battlefield. Twenty of the dead died under the rifle of a single Marine marksman, a young corporal who has since been nominated to receive the Silver Star.

Read more.

Target: First Amendment

An article in National Review Online points out that gay-rights activists have targeted the LDS Church in a cynical effort to exploit the fact that there's still a lot of Anti-Mormon bigotry out there. They've vandalized churches, sent suspicious white powder in the mail, left a burning copy of the Book of Mormon on a Church doorstep, but their ultimate target is the First Amendment. They want to legislate total moral conformity to their view on gay rights, regardless of personal beliefs or religious views. And they're fighting imagined slights with very real bigotry and hypocrisy.

"Churches oppose same-sex marriage in part because it represents an implicit threat to freedom of conscience and belief. California already had one of the broadest civil-unions laws in the country. There was little in the way of government-sanctioned privileges that a state-issued marriage license would confer. But the drive for same-sex marriage is in practice about legislating moral conformity — demanding that everybody recognize homosexual relationships in the same way, regardless of their own beliefs. Freedom of conscience, or diversity of belief, is the last thing the homosexual lobby will tolerate..."


Where do they go from here? Gay activists are already using the legal system to try to revoke the tax-exempt status of the Mormon church. If you believe that churches and synagogues, priests and rabbis won’t eventually be sued for their statements on sexuality, you’re kidding yourself. Chai Feldblum, a Georgetown University law professor and gay activist who helps draft federal legislation related to sexual orientation, says that, when religious liberty conflicts with gay rights, “I’m having a hard time coming up with any case in which religious liberty should win.” A National Public Radio report on the conflict noted that if previous cases are any guide, “the outlook is grim for religious groups.”

"Given their cavalier disregard for the freedom of conscience, it’s little surprise that the gay lobby is equally disdainful of democracy: They began pursuing legal challenges to Proposition 8 practically before they were done tallying the votes. Lamentably, the state attorney general defending the will of the people will be former Jerry Brown, the liberal former governor who was an open opponent of the measure and tried to sabotage it. The legal challenges will be heard by the same state Supreme Court that overturned California’s previous law forbidding gay marriage back in May. There’s a real possibility the will of the people will be spurned a second time, democracy be damned. They’ve already burned the Book of Mormon. The First Amendment is next."
(Italics mine).

Read more...

11 November, Veterans Day

We are flying the flag today in honor of Veterans Day. To all who have served our country honorably, a sincere "Thank You".

10 November, Marine Corps Birthday

On 10 November, 1775, the Continental Marines began recruiting at Tun Tavern, in Philadelphia, Pa. The United States Marine Corps has honored that date as its birthday ever since.

In honor of my Marine brothers, both present and past, we're flying the flag today at blog648.

Semper Fi

More pics

Thanks for the pics, Mindy!

Happy Birthday, Cindy!

Today is Cindy's birthday. Happy Birthday, daughter!

Here's my favorite birthday picture, Cindy at age one, defending her cake from one of her older brothers.

Here she is at age 4 celebrating with her very best friend, Summer Schoenrock.

Now she's all grown up, with a baby of her own. And here he is, Elmer Kai.

For more pictures and stories about Cindy, go here.

Frogs Croak

Here are Chris and Susan at last night's game at Rice-Eccles Stadium. The Utes were very lucky to pull off a last minute victory over the Horned Frogs of TCU.

Did anyone notice how the "blackout" uniforms the Utes were wearing made them look an awful lot like the San Diego State Aztecs? Now, why would anyone want to look like the Aztecs?

Yeah!! Go Aztecs!! Beat the Utes!!

How’d this happen? And Why? And What Now?

Robert Stacey McCain wrote yesterday that Obama, the most liberal member of the U.S. Senate, was elected to the presidency by 20% of conservatives and 60% of moderates. How did he accomplish it? By hiding his liberalism behind moderate and vague platitudes. In a post McCain (the other McCain) entitled "The Triangulation of Hope", he wrote:

"What does this mean? It means that two decades of rhetorical fudging and policy incoherence have obscured the meaning of our political lexicon. George Bush the elder promised a "kinder, gentler" conservatism, raised taxes and signed onto a minimum-wage increase. Bill Clinton cleverly (and duplicitously) "triangulated," promising a middle-class tax cut he never delivered, vetoing welfare-reform twice before signing it, taking credit for a balanced budget that was mostly the result of a reduced military and Republican opposition to his spending proposals. The "compassionate conservatism" of George W. Bush has introduced still more confusion. In what sense are the No Child Left Behind Act and Medicare Part D "conservative" policies?

Considering that the Republican 2008 candidate, John McCain, had opposed tax cuts, collaborated with Russ Feingold on campaign finance regulation that helped Democrats achieve a decisive fundraising advantage, and collaborated with Ted Kennedy on an amnesty bill that infuriated conservative voters, it isn't hard to see why Obama so easily veiled his liberalism behind vague platitudes."
....

"Beginning Jan. 20, Obama must stop promising and start delivering, and with his army of online "progressive" activists demanding that he and the Democratic Congress enact liberal policies, what he aims to deliver won't be easily mistaken as "conservative." Republicans have triangulated themselves into the wilderness, and they'll stay there a long time, if they support Obama's radical agenda."

You can read the post, including the comments, here.

Britain is committing national suicide...Are we going there, too?

Melanie Philips has an article in National Review Online in which she points out how thrilled the Brits are that America will start to look like them and the rest of Europe now that Barack Obama has been elected. But Britain is well on it’s way to committing national suicide, and we need to avoid going in that same direction.

"Obama has talked about remedying what he sees as the flaws in the U.S. Constitution which promotes only "negative liberties," or freedom from something rather than positive rights to something. Well, through human-rights legislation Britain has exchanged its historic concept of "negative" liberty — everything is permitted unless it is actively prohibited — for the ‘positive’ European idea that only what is codified is to be permitted. As a result, freedom has shrunk to what ideology permits. Equality legislation has cemented a "victim culture" under which the interests of all groups deemed to be powerless (black people, women, gays ) trump those deemed to be powerful (white people, men, Christians). Since this doctrine holds that the "powerless" can do no wrong while the "powerful" can do no right, injustice is thus institutionalized, and anyone who queries the preferential treatment afforded such groups is vilified as a racist or bigot.

All this constitutes a profoundly illiberal culture in which no dissent is permitted, group is set against group and intimidation is the order of the day. And this also happens to be the culture of ACORN, of the radical groups funded by the Annenberg Challenge and Woods Fund, and the ‘educational’ or criminal justice ideas of William Ayers, endorsed by Barack Obama."

....

"Obama believes America has to expiate its sins: both its original, Founding sins of slavery and racism, and its latter-day sins against the world of Islam. Britain likes the sound of that. It wants America to be humbled. Nations, it thinks, cause wars. Arrogant, hubristic, imperial nations like Bush’s America cause big and horrible wars. By contrast transnational institutions — such as the sacred UN or EU — promote civilised "engagement" with the enemy to discuss grievances and reach compromises. So it is thrilled that Obama will get out of Iraq and talk to Iran and may even force wretched Israel (which Britain blames for Everything Bad in the World) to give away the disputed territories and half of Jerusalem to the Arabs. The fact that such actions would leave Iraq in chaos, empower Iran still further, destroy Israel’s security and imperil the free world doesn’t trouble it at all. And if Obama, under the responsibility of office, should change from an appeaser to a war leader in America’s national interest, then Britain’s new found love for America would revert once again into rage and disdain."
....

"The British Conservatives think that, to regain power, they have to show they have broken with cultural conservatism and go instead with the way society has changed — gay rights, green politics, anti-racism. What they have failed to grasp is that such change has turned values such as right and wrong, good and bad on their heads and has produced a sentimentalised, cruel, oppressive and perverse society — one where burglars go scot-free but householders are prosecuted for putting the wrong kind of garbage in the trash can, and where people are too frightened to protest at the erosion of British, Christian, or Western values because of the opprobrium that will follow."

It’s an interesting article and it’s worth reading the whole thing.
Read more...

ELECTION DAY: Tuesday, November 4, 2008

We're flying the flag here at 648 because today is Election Day, 2008. If you're an American citizen and you're registered to vote, please do so.

If you're an alien living in this country illegally, don't bother.

Halloween Update: Grandkids

Here are some pictures I borrowed from Jodi's blog.

This is Izac (the vampire) and Jake (the ninja). If you click on the picture you can see an enlarged version. Because Izac's eyes are so blue, they often turn red in the flash, and that's what happened here. It's a great Halloween effect.

I agree with Jodi; Anson is the cutest little bee ever!

According to Jodi this is after the candy. Izac looks ready for a nap, Jake looks like he's still high from all the sugar, and Anson's loving all the attention.

Check out Jodi's blog.

Happy Halloween 2008

Halloween came to our house this year in the form of neigborhood children dressed in their scariest costumes. Okay, some of them weren't all that scary.

Here are a few of the Burningham children, accompanied by their guardian angel Rachel Wilkey. Brett and Jill Burningham are in the background.

Here are Christian, Taylor (rear) and Tyler.

John Clark came by, with his children, while his wife took care of "door duty" at their house.

These are the boys from next door and across the street. As you can see, I have great neighbors.

Here's a scary monster, accompanied by not so scary Mom & Dad.

Here are some more neighbor children.

We got a few older children, too.

Here are some more, wearing their disguises.

Here is a trio of Halloween "street performers".

Kayla Larson came by with some of her friends.

Sami Meinhart came by, accompanied by her "Rehab Reject" friend.

Obviously this boy had visited a lot of houses before he got to us, judging by the level of candy in his bucket.

Here's a trio of kids I didn't recognize, but they were cute. Check out the girl on the left, taking a bubble bath.