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Monday, July 15, 2013

4th of July parade draws record number of entries

Debbie Dawson and granddaughter Grace in their Fourth of July ride in the Christopher Creek parade.

Christopher Creek had itself a parade last Saturday!

First of all, the weather could not have been more perfect. Then, there were people coming out of the woodwork for the holiday weekend. And, finally, we had a record 71 entries in our little Independence Day Weekend Procession!

While there are no official judges and there are no prizes awarded, recognition must be given where it is due. The many superlative decorating efforts must be mentioned. Folks decorated their rides with flags, mylar balloons, whirlies, spirals, pom-poms, and garland, all in shiny red, blue and chrome. One had patriotic rubber duckies dangling from the canopy. Then there were those whose decorating was quite imaginative, as was the case with Sal and Kathy Mesta?s ride.

Uncle Sam was in the procession. Six-year-old John Paul rode his motorbike. But the consensus hit of the parade was Wiley Boggess and his boys riding a quad and pulling his decorated boat and trailer with his relatives aboard! Several hundred spectators witnessed the 7-week-old colt alongside his mother in the equestrian unit. Another unit featured Mimi Tidwell, along with military veterans L.R. Forman, Bob Lusson and Bobby Collins, whose ages combined for a total of 335 years!

Olive Matus was our parade marshal and during the day she confided that leading a parade in Christopher Creek was on her bucket list. She thoroughly enjoyed her day. Retired oil executive John Buchholz had his granddaughters with him. In an emotional declaration, he said that for his money this was what America is all about: great community participation, a wonderful time for children, and a small-town, patriotic event without a lot of money involved. He has my agreement on all but the money part. It appeared to me that the local dollar-stores must have done quite well!

Our hats off to Irma Armenta, who filled in for an absent CCHOA board member and organized the event, lining up entries from the edge of the Landmark property down the Loop all the way to the fire department! Thanks, also, to the fellas from CKFD, who did the traffic stops and drove an engine in the parade. Thank you Landmark folks for providing the ice cream sandwiches, afterward.

On parade eve, Bonnie Rhodes hosted one of many local weekend parties. Her soiree was attended by 25 or so folks, some from as far away as San Diego! Ribs and a buffet enough for an army, libations and an organ-piano player made for a perfectly delightful evening. Music included a roll-call of the military service songs and it was quite humorous as some of us older vets struggled to get out of those canvas chairs to render a hand salute, having already been through that chow line!

Bonnie introduced us to the new residents in the first home on the end of Up the Hill Drive. Welcome to the Creek family, Paul and Heather Callahan!

Cowboy Scottie brought by one of his numbered prints from the Homestead painting. They are all matted, framed and are very well done. There are only 50 available.

A light went out in the C-Canyon RV Park early Friday morning. Bill Hamner and his two sons will soon announce a celebration of life for their wife and mother. Good night, Debbie.

Star Valley Mayor Ronnie McDaniel stopped by over the weekend and has agreed to speak about the search and rescue effort for the 1970 Labor Day Flood. Tim Ehrhardt has joined the interview panel as well. The reunion location has been tentatively set at the Landmark back patio. Further details are forthcoming.

Back in the day ... my first visit to the Creek was 1971. Mimi let me sleep on her back porch. She lined me up with my first date. On Saturday evening we walked hand in hand, crossed the creek and made our way up Apple Lane. The way was dark and it seemed as though we were walking through a jungle. They had a lot of rain the previous September.

There wasn?t a large crowd at the Christopher Creek Bar. A fella was singing old Hank Williams, accompanied by a gal playing guitar. We sat at one of four or five large, round tables. The bar was brand new. It was heaven for this 25-year-old. OK, my date was 5-year-old Tammi, Mimi?s granddaughter and present day Mrs. Mike Milhon. The singer was Heber White and Blanche was playing the guitar ... and that?s another week in the Creek.

Much like fine steel, forged, metaphorically, in the heat of the Arizona desert, quenched in her mountain snows and honed to a keen edge, so were the Granite Mountain Hotshots, sharpened in their skills and hardened in their physical ability and commitment. Arizona has been honored by the service and sacrifice of so many fine young men.

Source: http://www.paysonroundup.com/news/2013/jul/13/4th-july-parade-draws-record-number-entries/

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College Republican Trounces College Democrat in Texas Abortion Debate

A college Republican writer recently trounced a college Democrat one in?dueling online?debates regarding the?Texas abortion legislation that has riled up the Lone Star state and the nation.

David Jennings, who writes a conservative ?Big Jolly? political observation column in the Houston Chronicle, summed it up recently.?Here?s the college Republican?s take, a senior at Texas State University-San Marcos, as he refutes allegations about the law:

It takes away a woman?s right to choose! The bill prevents abortions after five months (20 weeks). There is no doubt in my mind that a woman that electing to have an abortion is facing a tough decision, but five months is enough time to make a choice.
What if the mother?s life is in danger? The five- month ban does not apply in cases where the mother?s life is in danger.
Well, it is going to shut down clinics!? The bill raises the standard of care for women by ensuring that abortion facilities have the same regulatory standards as ambulatory surgical centers (ASCs).
What is an ASC? I?m glad you asked; no one else has. ACS?s, otherwise known as outpatient surgery centers, must meet certain regulatory standards to provide some very common procedures, including? colonoscopies, carpal tunnel surgeries, and ear tubes for children. To break it down, the bill ensures that medical staff use appropriate and sanitary procedures.
What if current abortion providers do not meet the proposed new requirements? Like any other service provider that does not meet regulatory standards, they will have to upgrade their facilities
What if current abortion providers do not upgrade their facilities? They can continue to remain open and provide women?s health services such as contraceptives, annual visits and preventative services but cease to perform abortions.
The Gosnell case is rare, abortions are safe! Plane crashes are rare, as well. Planes are safe. However there is a chance that something can go wrong. What about this hospital, doctor, admitting privilege stuff?? Requiring doctors to have hospital admitting privileges is simply improving the standard of care. Hospitals provide admitting privileges based on their own assessment of quality of care. If a doctor does not have admitting privileges to a hospital, it is a troubling sign. Run.

Here is the college Democrat?s witty prose, an undergraduate at the University of Texas:

For those of us guys who like girls ? you know, like them like them ? and want to have relationships with them that may last anywhere from a few minutes to many years, we need to think about how this bill, by curtailing the bodily autonomy and sexual freedom of women, hurts us, too. We need to stand with women in their fight to control their own bodies.

How #HB2 Hurts Straight Texas Men

Your girlfriend?s/wife?s life will be in danger. Making abortion inaccessible for millions of Texas women is going to put them in danger if they ever need to terminate a pregnancy. Black markets for unsafe abortions will emerge, and women will be pushed into potentially fatal back-alley abortions. That?s your girlfriend?s life we?re talking about.

Your freedom to choose is at stake, too. While it is ultimately a woman?s choice whether to have an abortion, many women choose to make that decision with the man involved. Do you want that decision ready-made for you by politicians in state government? Not if you value freedom, you don?t.

You want to decide when and if to have kids. This bill will force thousands of Texas men into unplanned fatherhood by making it impossible for women to access an abortion in the event of an unplanned pregnancy. Even if you want to have kids, you probably don?t want an accident to make you a father before you?re psychologically ready and able to care for a child. If you don?t want kids, you don?t want the narrow, personal views of politicians in the state government to force you to have them.

Your sex life is at stake. Can you think of anything that kills the vibe faster than a woman fearing a back-alley abortion? Making abortion essentially inaccessible in Texas will add an anxiety to sex that will drastically undercut its joys. And don?t be surprised if casual sex outside of relationships becomes far more difficult to come by.

It?s clear: if the Legislature basically takes away a Texas woman?s right to choose, having sex becomes a much, much riskier proposition for women and men.

Jennings sums it up like this:

Now let me ask the obvious question: which one of these two young men care about women? The one who wants to protect them with reasonable, commonsense regulation of the abortion industry? Or the one that is upset that his ?vibe? might be lost if he ever finds a woman that will get in the sack with him? ?People fundamentally understand that the conservative agenda is the one that truly allows freedom and liberty for all, including women, and protects them from the misogynists on the progressive left.

Abortion returns to forefront for 2014 elections

ATLANTA (AP) ? With no immediate hope of overturning the U.S. Supreme Court's decision legalizing abortion, Republicans around the country are increasingly pushing legislation to restrict the procedure, and Democrats say they'll make the GOP pay in coming elections.

From statehouses to Congress, Republicans have advanced a range of ideas: banning nearly all abortions beyond the 20th week after conception; making abortion clinics follow regulations for surgical care; mandating that clinic physicians have admitting privileges at local hospitals; requiring women to get ultrasounds before terminating a pregnancy.

The issue, which is figuring prominently in early 2016 White House race maneuvering, energizes social conservatives who influence many Republican primaries and drive GOP success in nonpresidential years when the electorate is older, whiter and more conservative. And some Republicans say more moderate voters will support their agenda in the wake of the murder conviction against Kermit Gosnell, the Philadelphia abortion doctor who jurors determined killed babies who'd survived the procedure.

But Democrats and abortion-rights advocates say Republicans already have overreached ? the noticeable uptick in restrictions began with GOP gains in 2010 elections, before Gosnell's prosecution began ? and that moderate voters have other priorities.

"Defense workers are being furloughed, student loan interest rates have doubled and these Republicans insist on a relentless pursuit of more restrictions on women's freedoms," said Rep. Steve Israel, chairman of the Democrats' national congressional campaign for 2014. "Swing voters are by their very nature moderate; they want solutions, not ideological warfare."

The House of Representatives adopted a 20-week ban in June. It has no chance of passing the Democratic-run Senate. A top anti-abortion lobbyist, National Right to Life Committee president Carol Tobias, told The Associated Press that her organization is working on a bill with the office of Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, who is a high-profile possibility for the 2016 presidential race.

North Carolina's newfound legislative supermajority wants to regulate clinics more heavily, though the Republican governor has pushed back after promising as a candidate not to sign any new restrictions. Texas Gov. Rick Perry called his GOP legislature back into session to consider a 20-week ban and sweeping regulatory changes after a Democratic filibuster derailed the measure and drew national attention last month. The legislature passed the bill Friday and it's headed to Perry's desk.

Rick Santorum, a failed 2012 presidential candidate who's considering another run, has traveled to Texas to lobby for the bill. Perry, meanwhile, is among several anti-abortion governors mulling a presidential bid. Scott Walker in Wisconsin recently signed a bill requiring ultrasounds before abortions, though a federal judge blocked the law. Louisiana's Bobby Jindal has signed several more restrictive bills, including two these year.

According to the Guttmacher Institute, which works on reproductive health issues including abortion-rights, states this year have enacted at least 43 new laws that restrict or further regulate abortion. That comes after more than 120 new laws, several held up by federal courts, the previous two years.

Ilyse Hogue, president of NARAL Pro-Choice America, said, "There's a political price for Republicans trying to roll back the clock," and some of the legislative debates have already drawn comparisons to Republican losses in 2012, when controversial or scientifically inaccurate statements from Senate candidates Todd Akin and Richard Mourdock grew into a national liability.

Israel predicated abortion would be an issue again in the 2013-14 elections that will determine who controls Congress and dozens of statehouses during the final two years of Democratic President Barack Obama's term. He mentioned 12 Republicans who represent districts that Obama won last year and four more where Republican Mitt Romney won by less than 2 percentage points. Hogue said it could matter in the North Carolina Senate race, as well, particularly if state House Speaker Tom Tillis ends up as the GOP challenger to Sen. Kay Hagan. The first-term senator took to her Twitter account recently to blast Raleigh Republicans. "Women are watching," she wrote.

Democrats need 18 more seats to run the House. Republicans must net a six-seat gain to control the Senate.

At the National Republican Congressional Committee, spokeswoman Andrea Bozek suggested the best GOP strategy would be to shift the conversation to Obama's health care law, key parts of which the president has delayed. "Let's be clear: It's the House Democrats who are extreme on women's health care," she said. "That law is something women are extremely concerned about, and that's the politically toxic issue for Democrats."

Polls on abortion have long suggested nuanced divisions in public opinion. In a May Gallup poll, 26 percent of Americans said the procedure always should be legal; 20 percent said outlaw it in all cases. Fifty-two percent, meanwhile, said it should legal under some circumstances, implying acceptance of legal restrictions. Yet fewer ? 42 percent ? feel it's morally defensible to end a pregnancy, while 49 percent said it's morally wrong.

A Pew Research Center poll in January, 41 percent said Democrats better represent their views on abortion; 36 percent opted for Republicans on the issue.

"The country is not willing yet to ban all abortions, but they do want a lot more limitations," argued Tobias, the National Right to Life chief. She said tighter clinic regulations and the "fetal-pain bills," the mid-pregnancy bans based on the presumption that a fetus can feel pain at that point, are "very reasonable ... protections for the unborn child and their mothers."

The Supreme Court holds that states can ban most abortions at the point a fetus could survive once born. The American Congress of Obstetricians and Gynecologists has opposed fetal-pain proposals. The group notes that medical professionals date pregnancy from a woman's last menstrual period, not conception or fertilization. The Congress says viability occurs about 24 weeks from the start of a pregnancy and that the most comprehensive study of fetal pain "concluded that fetal perception of pain is unlikely before the third trimester," which begins with week 28.

Alabama Republican Party Chairman Bill Armistead predicted Gosnell trial and conviction will prove a turning point. "The other side just talks about the rights of a woman to do what she wants with her body, but they never about the child within that body," Armistead said. "The middle ground will yield to the conservative side the more hard evidence we see that we're dealing with a life inside the woman's body."

Yet voters' ambiguity leaves at least a few Republicans wincing at making abortion a top issue. "Everyone already knows the Republican Party is the pro-life party," said New Hampshire's Steve Duprey, an RNC member who supports abortion rights.

The national party's analysis of the 2012 election loss, released in March with considerable fanfare, didn't mention abortion. But it acknowledged characterizations of the GOP as "narrow minded," ''out of touch" and a party of "stuffy old men" ? labels used in focus groups of former Republican voters. Abortion, Duprey said, fits into that critique: "The more strident we sound, the more difficult it becomes" to expand.

But Tobias promised the issue won't go away any time soon. If Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid does what's expected and doesn't bring an abortion bill to the floor, she said, "We'll just ask the House to vote on it again in 2014."

___

AP Polling Director Jennifer Agiesta in Washington and Associated Press writer Gary Robertson in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this report.

___

Follow Barrow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillBarrowAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/abortion-returns-forefront-2014-elections-124731106.html

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Akon suggests that blacks move to Africa following George Zimmerman acquittal

July 14th, 2013

While Lupe Fiasco was busy?sounding off on black America and shaming us for not ?valuing ourselves,??a popular African artist was offering a different perspective.?Akon?took to Instagram immediately after the ?not guilty? verdict was read in the George Zimmerman trial and suggested that blacks move back to Africa. According to the Konvict Muzik head, who is of Senegalese descent, we would receive much better treatment on the African continent.

?Every African American in the United States need to move their money, family, knowledge back to Africa were u will be treated like the royalty you are,? Akon captioned the below photo. ?You don?t deserve this treatment. This is not your country!!?

Source

Akon

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Sunday, July 14, 2013

Run Elbert Guillory against Sen. Mary Landrieu; he?s what the GOP needs

July 13, 2013 ????? By Star Parker ????? 0 Comments

Louisiana State Senator Elbert Guillory

Amid the dense fog and hot air concerning what the Republican Party should be about, which is really just a subheading of the bigger issue regarding what America should be about, a new voice of clarity has emerged.

It?s the voice of Louisiana State Sen. Elbert Guillory, who announced several weeks ago his departure from the Democratic Party, which he calls ?the party of disappointment,? to become a Republican.

I wrote about Guillory a few weeks ago after I met him at the @Large conference in Baton Rouge, where he announced his change of party.

Subsequently, Guillory explained in a video that went viral why he, a black Democrat, would become a Republican, and he continues to deliver his compelling message with such power and clarity that I cannot see how he can be ignored as a leader who should rise to national prominence.

Republicans are still in search for a candidate to run in 2014 against incumbent Democrat U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu.

Why not Guillory?

Recently Guillory tweeted out, ?It?s no longer the American dream, it?s the American nightmare of relying on a monthly government check.?

Speaking to Republicans in Arkansas, he appealed to the Republican Party to stop ?cowering behind closed doors.?

?It?s time to shout our values and ideals from the mountaintops,? he says. ?Prayer, family, free markets, limited government, lower taxes.?

I don?t think it is possible to be any clearer about what this country needs to turn around.

America is not growing. Jobs are being created at a painfully slow rate, and although the unemployment rate has dropped, the overall percentage of the population employed has barely budged from where it dropped to in the early days of the recession.

Stanford University economist Edward Lazear laid out the dismal picture in a recent Wall Street Journal column.

In 2006, 63.4 percent of the working age population was employed. By 2011, this was down to 58.2 percent and it?s still at 58.6 percent.

Usually, when the unemployment rate drops, Lazear explains, there is a corresponding increase in the percentage of the population employed. But not this time.

Now more and more able-bodied men and women are dropping out of the workforce. Today 37 percent of the unemployed are long term ? more than 26 weeks. At the peak of the last major recession in the early 1980s, Lazear notes, this never exceeded 27 percent.

pq20130712 Why? The government plantation has grown even more generous (while we run trillion-dollar deficits to pay for it) to encourage not working.

Disability roles have increased 13 percent and food stamp recipients have increased 39 percent since 2009. And, of course, unemployment insurance was increased to 99 weeks.

Meanwhile, while we take more and more of our own resources to subsidize people to not work, the growing government stranglehold over businesses ? such as the Obamacare mandate (parts of which were just delayed by one year by Obama administration) to force businesses of 50 or more employees to provide government defined health care ? makes growing businesses and hiring full-time workers harder and harder.

What is wrong with America is not a mystery. It?s the Democratic Party. People who don?t want to be free. People who don?t want to take the personal responsibility for their lives that freedom requires. A political class drunk with the power and money they get running the government plantation.

As always, blacks, with unemployment twice the national average, are hurt the most as the strangled economy doesn?t grow.

More and more blacks are realizing they need freedom, not the plantation.

And without freedom, America will not grow.

It?s why black conservatives like Elbert Guillory see it all so clearly.

It?s why America needs him. Louisianans should get behind him and run him against Mary Landrieu.

Note: Reader comments are reviewed before publishing, and only salient comments that add to the topic will be published. Profanity is absolutely not allowed and will be summarily deleted. Spam, copied statements and other material not comprised of the reader?s own opinion will also be deleted.

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Updated: Sunday July 14, 2013, 3:43 PM

For 2014 elections, abortion returns to forefront

North Carolina's newfound legislative supermajority wants to regulate clinics more heavily. Pat McCrory, the Republican governor announced late Friday he would sign an updated abortion regulation bill if it reaches his desk, saying a legislator had addressed concerns about restricting a woman's access. Texas Gov. Rick Perry called his GOP legislature back into session to consider a 20-week ban and sweeping regulatory changes after a Democratic filibuster derailed the measure and drew national attention last month. The legislature passed the bill Friday, and it's headed to Perry's desk.

Israel predicated abortion would be an issue again in the 2013-14 elections that will determine who controls Congress and dozens of statehouses during the final two years of Democratic President Barack Obama's term. He mentioned 12 Republicans who represent districts that Obama won last year and four more where Republican Mitt Romney won by less than 2 percentage points. Hogue said it could matter in the North Carolina Senate race, as well, particularly if state House Speaker Thom Tillis ends up as the GOP challenger to Sen. Kay Hagan. The first-term senator took to her Twitter account recently to blast Raleigh Republicans. "Women are watching," she wrote.

Democrats need 18 more seats to run the House. Republicans must net a six-seat gain to control the Senate.

A Pew Research Center poll in January, 41 percent said Democrats better represent their views on abortion; 36 percent opted for Republicans on the issue.

___

AP Polling Director Jennifer Agiesta in Washington and Associated Press writer Gary Robertson in Raleigh, N.C., contributed to this report.

___

Follow Barrow on Twitter: https://twitter.com/BillBarrowAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/2014-elections-abortion-returns-forefront-185705498.html

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Monday, July 15, 2013

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