Spot the ball.  Measure to figure out where you need to be.  Dispute the spot.  Re-spot.

 

First Down.

Rather than make this an event posting, I'll open for Q & A about this series of events.

Bowl for Kids Sake is a national fundraiser for Big Brothers Big Sisters.  The basics are that your team raises donations to bring to the event of which you participate (many divisions - cops/firefighters, banks, corporate, community, etc.) and we put on the bowling party, complete with pizza and soda (beer is purchased by participants, in appropriate settings).

During the event, we have times for "crazy bowl" - through your legs, lying on the floor - and usually a dance contest, as we hire a DJ to boost the fun.

If you love to bowl and want to help kids, this is a great time.  If you bowl like me, and want to help kids, volunteer to be a part of an event.  You can raise money if you'd like and practice your pizza eating skills.

Questions?

I preface this reprint of Barack Obama's victory speech in Iowa by saying, prior to hearing this speech live, I was straddling Obama/Clinton/Edwards.  Although I'm now sold on Obama, I will vote for the Democratic candidate for President in 2008.

That being said, here is the entire speech:

They said this day would never come.

They said our sights were set too high.

They said this country was too divided; too disillusioned to ever come together around a common purpose.

But on this January night – at this defining moment in history – you have done what the cynics said we couldn’t do; what the state of New Hampshire can do in five days; what America can do in this New Year. In schools and churches; small towns and big cities; you came together as Democrats, Republicans and Independents to stand up and say that we are one nation; we are one people; and our time for change has come.

You said the time has come to move beyond the bitterness and pettiness and anger that’s consumed Washington; to end the political strategy that’s been all about division and make it about addition – to build a coalition for change that stretches through Red States and Blue States. Because that’s how we’ll win in November, and that’s how we’ll finally meet the challenges we face.

The time has come to tell the lobbyists who think their money and their influence speak louder than our voices that they don’t own this government, we do; and we’re here to take it back.

The time has come for a President who’ll be honest about the choices and the challenges we face; who’ll listen to you even when we disagree; who won’t just tell you what you want to hear, but what you need to know. And New Hampshire, if you give me the same chance that Iowa did tonight, I will be that President for America.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pPnOFv2_E10

Straight from the man's mouth, no interpretation required.

All are welcome to post and discuss this issue.

The following is a list of bullet points from Mike Huckabee, GOP candidate for President of the United States of America, who recently won the Iowa caucus:

• The First Amendment requires that expressions of faith be neither prohibited nor preferred.
• My faith is my life - it defines me. I don't separate my faith from my personal and professional lives.
• Real faith makes us more humble and mindful, not of the faults of others, but of our own. It makes us less judgmental, as we see others with the same frailties we have.
• Faith gives us strength in the face of injustice and motivates us to do our best for "the least of us."
• Our nation was birthed in a spirit of faith - not a prescriptive faith telling us how or whether to believe, but acknowledging a providence that pervades our world.

I agree with Huckabee on point 1. 

On point 2, we start to disagree.  I DO separate my philosophical viewpoints from my professional life.  For me to push the influence of my secular humanist viewpoint on an Evangelical Christian in a business atmosphere would be inappropriate, in my opinion, thus I expect the same in return from an elected official.

Point 3 - Huckabee's language leaves me cold.  He appears to be telling us that he is privvy to "real faith", thus the alleged humility becomes somewhat hypocritical, as I see it.  I find anyone talking about "real faith" and "less judgemental" in the same sentence, to have not thought it through well enough.

Point 4 - Faith and injustice are great buzz words, but I don't see the Republican Party, for whom Huckabee represents, being the poster children for helping the less fortunate.  Actions, not words.

Through a reputable source, I've been advised that state agencies workstations have experienced a trojan virus attack from The Olympian's website.

Employees are being requested to not enter that website.

Woke up this morning
Put on my slippers
Walked in the kitchen and died
And oh what a feeling!
When my soul
Went thru the ceiling
And on up into heaven I did ride
When I got there they did say
John, it happened this way
You slipped upon the floor
And hit your head
And all the angels say
Just before you passed away
These were the very last words
That you said:

Chorus:
Please dont bury me
Down in that cold cold ground
No, I'd druther have em cut me up
And pass me all around

Throw my brain in a hurricane
And the blind can have my eyes
And the deaf can take both of my ears
If they dont mind the size
Give my stomach to Milwaukee
If they run out of beer
Put my socks in a cedar box
Just get em out of here
Venus de milo can have my arms
Look out! Ive got your nose
Sell my heart to the junkman
And give my love to rose

Chorus:
Please dont bury me
Down in that cold cold ground
No, I'd druther have em cut me up
And pass me all around

Give my feet to the footloose
Careless, fancy free
Give my knees to the needy
Dont pull that stuff on me
Hand me down my walking cane
Its a sin to tell a lie
Send my mouth way down south
And kiss my ass goodbye

Chorus:
Please dont bury me
Down in that cold cold ground
No, I'd druther have em cut me up
And pass me all around

Lyrics by John Prine

For those following the past month, Gary passed yesterday at about 10:00 a.m., surrounded by people that he loved. For the past two days, he had refused to medicate, allowing the battle to be over.

Rather than one by one share the stories of accidental shootings, I just googled "accidental shooting" and here were the results:

 Results 1 - 10 of about 1,650,000 for accidental shooting.

I don't think that anyone, me included, wants me to start posting these one by one to attempt to make some point.

STRATFORD, Conn. -- An off-duty New Haven police officer shot and critically wounded his 18-year-old daughter, apparently mistaking her for an intruder after she sneaked out of their Stratford home and re-entered through the basement.

Eric Scott, 41, on the New Haven force for nine years, has not been charged in the Tuesday shooting.

``Mr. Scott was under the impression his daughter had gone to bed for the night,'' Stratford Capt. Thomas Rodia said. ``He did not expect his daughter to be outside or down in the basement.''

Investigators said Tasha Scott left her home late Monday to meet a boyfriend. She triggered a backyard motion sensor light as she tried to enter through a basement door.

Awakened by the light, Eric Scott spotted someone moving in the basement bathroom, police said. He fired his department-issued pistol once, hitting the teen in the knee. The bullet traveled up her leg and lodged in her thigh area, police said.

Her father called 911, authorities said.

The teenager underwent surgery and was listed in critical but stable condition Wednesday morning.

Scott has been on leave since being struck by a truck while on duty in November. A telephone listing for him had been disconnected Wednesday morning, and a message left for him at the New Haven department was not immediately returned.

Get a picture of that glorious view of the Olympics today?

It's a beauty!