The holiday season has arrived in Tennessee

Happy Holidays!


Later on, when the sun set........

Thoughts of peace from the Latter Day Saints

Jeremy Ashton is a wonderful writer/essayist and proponent of Constitutional law. He is fervently anti-war, pro-free market and also happens to be a devout member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.

Today he put out an essay, entitled "The Holy War", which weaves together the various strands of religious and social dogmas in his faith that confirm the view that God stands for peace and most definitely condemns involvement in aggressive war.

It is refreshing to hear this message from a contemporary Christian writer and I was elated that he used quotes from one my favorite LDS leaders Reuben Clark, who in addition to being an inspiring and dedicated church elder was politically every bit a libertarian leaning conservative of his time.

http://www.lewrockwell.com/orig8/ashton3.html

If you like this essay please check out his website: www.ldsfreemen.com

Reuben Clark (1871 - 1961)

The kitten is still cute

The kitten has been with us for 3 weeks now and is healthy and growing.

Mitch Mitchell R.I.P.

It caused a twinge of sadness when I heard the news that Mitch Mitchell had passed away at the age of 62 in Portland, Oregon on Wednesday. He was a great rock drummer who helped bring out the best in Jimi Hendrix, playing and recording with him right up until the end of his tragically short life.

One of my favorite Hendrix songs ever recorded was an instrumental piece titled "Beginnings", written by Mitch Mitchell, that is on the now long out of print record album War Heroes. (I still have the vinyl and love to turn it up and shake the walls down).

All the members of the Experience are now dead (Jimi in 1970 and Noel in 2003). I hope that they are having one helluva of a raucous reunion somewhere in the heavens above.

After all the jacks are in their boxes
And the clowns have all gone to bed
You can hear happiness staggering on down the street
Footsteps dressed in red
And the wind whispers Mary

A broom is drearily sweeping
Up the broken pieces of yesterdays life
Somewhere a queen is weeping
Somewhere a king has no wife
And the wind, it cries Mary

The traffic lights, they turn blue tomorrow
And shine their emptiness down on my bed
The tiny island sags down stream
cause the life that lived,
Is dead
And the wind screams Mary

Will the wind ever remember
The names it has blown in the past?
And with this crutch, its old age and its wisdom
It whispers no, this will be the last
And the wind cries Mary

Good night boys. Hope y'all have a good gig with lots of free drinks on the house. Say hello to Muddy and Janis for me.

Too weird to be true!

From the headlines of my local paper:

http://snipurl.com/57hf3

The real news is going to put The Onion out of business.

Go figure

For the third year in a row the Atlantic hurricane season was predicted to be "well above average" in the number of named storms and systems that would form over this quadrant of the planet. Instead it has, yet again, been a below average storm season with 2007-2008 marking a record of inactivity in the Northern Hemisphere not seen in some 30 years.

Now that's three years in a row that they've gotten it dead wrong. Go figure.

I often wonder if dire environmental predictions now serve a societal purpose? Are they just one more thing to add to the color-coded matrix of fear the government and the 24-hour media spin cycle can use to keep us frightened, alarmed and standing by for further developments?

Would anyone dare issue a prediction of a calm storm season these days? I sort of doubt it. It might be seen as an irresponsible act towards the security of the Homeland.

This year many meteorologists are predicting a cold winter, especially in the Northeast and Midwest. With virtually no sunspot activity this past year it seems a certainty, to me mind you, that the planet is entering a period of much cooler weather. I wouldn't bet the house on it ('cause it ain't paid for yet) but I suspect that those of you in places like Michigan and New Hampshire are in for some frigid butts come January. We'll just have to wait and see.