It's about time

ST. PAUL, Minn. – Republican Norm Coleman conceded to Democrat Al Franken in Minnesota's contested Senate race on Tuesday, ending a nearly eight-month recount and court fight over an election decided by only a few hundred votes.

Coleman announced his decision at a news conference in St. Paul hours after a unanimous Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that Franken, a former "Saturday Night Live" comedian and liberal commentator, should be certified the winner.

"The Supreme Court has made its decision and I will abide by the results," Coleman told reporters outside his St. Paul home.

Chickenfoot

visit chickenfoot.us for more info

College World Series

OMAHA, Neb. -- LSU, which two years ago wasn't good enough to qualify for its conference tournament, is the best team in college baseball again.The Tigers won their sixth national title Wednesday night, breaking open Game 3 of the College World Series finals with a five-run sixth inning that carried them to an 11-4 victory over Texas.

Catholic bullshit

For the first thousand years of the Christian church, priests, bishops, and even popes could - and often did - marry. At least 39 popes were married men, and two were the sons of previous popes. The ideal of celibacy existed, but as a teaching from the Apostle Paul, not a church doctrine. In his first letter to the Corinthians, Paul argued simply that single men had fewer distractions from their godly work: "He that is without a wife is solicitous for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please God. But he that is with a wife, is solicitous for the things of the world, how he may please his wife: and he is divided."

Over the centuries, the Church tried to split the difference, prohibiting marriage after ordination and encouraging married priests to abstain from sex with their wives after they had joined the priesthood. (The Eastern Orthodox CHurch continues to allow married men to be ordained as priests.) But it wasn't until the Second Lateran Council in 1139 that a firm church law allowing ordination only of unmarried men was adopted. Journalist and former priest James Carroll contends in Practicing Catholic that the reasons for this celibacy requirement were not purely theological. "Celibacy had been imposed on priests mainly for the most worldly of reasons: to correct abuses tied to family inheritance of Church property," he writes. "Celibacy solved that material problem, but because of the extreme sacrifice it required, it could never be spoken of in material terms. So it was that sexual abstinence came to be justified spiritually, as a mode of drawing close to God."

-------

my 2 cents...

The Catholic Church imposed the rule of celibacy on its priests simply to avoid a wife from claiming property rights alongside the church. The church acted in the interest of greed to preserve its financial worth and gave little thought to what it did to torture the soul of the man making such an impossible vow. Even today they shuffle their pedophile priests from one church to another trying to avoid the wrath of the court system. Out of court settlements keep the scourge of their sins private. ~Rusty

Gazebo

tattoo update

tattoo update

Tattoo update

Gazebo

College World Series

OMAHA, Neb. (AP)—Two years after failing to even qualify for the Southeastern Conference postseason tournament, LSU is playing for a national championship in baseball again.

Paul Mainieri has rebuilt the Tigers in the image of Skip Bertman’s powerful teams of the 1990s, with dominant pitching and hitting carrying LSU into the best-of-three College World Series finals against No. 1 national seed Texas starting Monday.

“This team is as good as any LSU team in the 1990s,” Bertman said with emphasis Saturday.

LSU has hit nine home runs and outscored the opposition 32-11 in winning its first three CWS games, and the Tigers are unbeaten in 13 going into the finals.

Yes, it’s like old times for the purple and gold in Omaha.

Thinking out loud

I suppose I should blog more... you know, writing my thoughts. For a long time I've been cutting and pasting or posting pictures or video of news and sporting events. I've been lazy like most but truthfully I've been fighting a bout of bad health. My days have been reduced to clusters of hours that seem to shrink with every given week. I'm not accustomed to whine about the minor irritations in my life but these freakish bouts of sweat are burgeoning into more than simply an irritation. They are bordering on torture... 

The laser surgery in April on my bladder muscle was suppose to alleviate this annoyance but by 3:00 or 4:00 in the afternoon my body opens up its pours and sweat drenches me. After the sweat come the chills... sometimes I can avoid the chills by hitting the bed early. Oddly, laying down allows my bladder to void more fully and thus the sweating disappears. 

In a few weeks I'm meeting Andy and he'll try fitting me for a wheelchair that tilts back. Maybe this will allow me a way in which to void without having to retreat to the bed... my God, I hope it works. Ten years ago he fitted me for the chair I'm in now so I remain optimistic.  The alternatives are not acceptable so a lot is riding on the outcome.  The whole quad thing was hard enough without this new addition. I guess time will tell... enough blogging for now.

Southern Miss

Southern Mississippi (40-24) will make its CWS debut Sunday in a 6 p.m. game against Texas, the program that has made more trips to Omaha than any other school. The Longhorns (46-14-1) will be making their 33rd appearance in Omaha.

I'm broke - Black Joe Lewis

college World Series

SOUTHERN MISSISSIPPI (38-24) at FLORIDA (42-20)

^SITE: McKethan Stadium; Gainesville, Fla.

^HOW THEY GOT HERE: Southern Miss won Atlanta Regional: beat Elon 17-15; beat Georgia Tech 10-7; lost to Georgia Tech 10-3; beat Georgia Tech 12-8. Florida won Gainesville Regional: beat Bethune-Cookman 8-7; beat Miami 8-2; beat Miami 16-5.

^COACHES: Southern Miss, Corky Palmer (456-279, 12th season). Florida, Kevin O’Sullivan (76-44, second season).

^TOURNAMENT APPEARANCES (LAST): Southern Miss, 10 (2008). Florida, 25 (2008).

^PLAYERS TO WATCH: Southern Miss: 1B Joey Archer (.310, 10, 58), RHP J.R. Ballinger (6-3, 3.92), OF Kameron Brunty (.347, 7, 52), RHP Collin Cargill (4-3, 3.25, 11 saves), OF Bo Davis (.367, 13, 52), 2B James Ewing (.298, 3, 39), RHP Todd McInnis (9-4, 3.21), DH Corey Stevens (.330, 8, 55), 3B Taylor Walker (.306, 3, 29).

Florida: 2B Josh Adams (.343, 8, 50), OF Avery Barnes (.359, 8, 42), RHP Billy Bullock (3-2, 2.12, 11 saves), LHP Tony Davis (5-0, 2.27), RHP Anthony DeSclafani (6-3, 4.98), OF Matt den Dekker (.297, 5, 35), LHP Stephen Locke (5-2, 4.02), 3B Brandon McArthur (.337, 2, 37), 1B Preston Tucker (.357, 14, 83).

College World Series

VIRGINIA (46-12-1) at MISSISSIPPI (43-18)

^SITE: Oxford-University Stadium; Oxford, Miss.

^HOW THEY GOT HERE: Virginia won Irvine Regional: beat San Diego State 5-1; beat UC Irvine 5-0; beat UC Irvine 4-1. Mississippi won Oxford Regional: beat Monmouth, N.J., 8-1; beat Western Kentucky 7-4; lost to Western Kentucky 10-9; beat Western Kentucky 4-1.

^COACHES: Virginia, Brian O’Connor (262-101-1, sixth season). Mississippi, Mike Bianco (364-201-1, ninth season).

^TOURNAMENT APPEARANCES (LAST): Virginia, nine (2008). Mississippi, 15 (2008).

^PLAYERS TO WATCH: Virginia: RHP Kevin Arico (2-2, 2.01, 11 saves), SS Tyler Cannon (.349, 1, 35), RHP Andrew Carraway (7-1, 4.30), DH Phil Gosselin (.302, 6, 61), OF Dan Grovatt (.378, 7, 50), OF John Hicks (.313, 7, 36), 1B-LHP Danny Hultzen (.335, 3, 33; 9-1, 2.01), OF Jarrett Parker (.378, 16, 64), 3B Steven Proscia (.325, 9, 56).

Mississippi: RHP Scott Bittle (5-2, 2.17), LHP Brett Bukvich (9-3, 4.42), 2B Tim Ferguson (.361, 2, 21), OF Jordan Henry (.347, 0, 31, 35 SBs), RHP Phillip Irwin (8-3, 3.84), 3B Zach Miller (.338, 5, 38), LHP Drew Pomeranz (8-4, 3.46), OF Logan Power (.319, 6, 55), 1B Matt Smith (.342, 7, 57).

David Carradine dies

BANGKOK – Actor David Carradine, star of the 1970s TV series "Kung Fu" who also had a wide-ranging career in the movies, has been found dead in the Thai capital, Bangkok. A news report said he was found hanged in his hotel room and was believed to have committed suicide.

A spokesman for the U.S. Embassy, Michael Turner, confirmed the death of the 72-year-old actor. He said the embassy was informed by Thai authorities that Carradine died either late Wednesday or early Thursday, but he could not provide further details out of consideration for his family.

The Web site of the Thai newspaper The Nation cited unidentified police sources as saying Carradine was found Thursday hanged in hisluxury hotel room.

It said Carradine was in Bangkok to shoot a movie and had been staying at the hotel since Tuesday.

The newspaper said Carradine could not be contacted after he failed to appear for a meal with the rest of the film crew on Wednesday, and that his body was found by a hotel maid at 10 a.m. Thursday morning. The name of the movie was not immediately available.

It said a preliminary police investigation found that he had hanged himself with a cord used with the room's curtains. It cited police as saying he had been dead at least 12 hours and there was no sign that he had been assaulted.

A police officer at Bangkok's Lumpini precinct station would not confirm the identity of the dead man to The Associated Press, but said the luxury Swissotel Nai Lert Park hotel had reported that a male guest killed himself there.

Carradine was a leading member of a venerable Hollywood acting family that included his father, character actor John Carradine, and brother Keith.

In all, he appeared in more than 100 feature films with such directors as Martin Scorsese, Ingmar Bergmanand Hal Ashby.

But he was best known for his role as Kwai Chang Caine, a Shaolin priest traveling the 1800s American frontier West in the TV series "Kung Fu," which aired in 1972-75.

He reprised the role in a mid-1980s TV movie and played Caine's grandson in the 1990s syndicated series "Kung Fu: The Legend Continues."

He returned to the top in recent years as the title character in Quentin Tarantino's two-part saga "Kill Bill."

Me @49

Quote

My religion is very simple. My religion is kindness. ~Dalai Lama

Sunday afternoon

Rusty & Annie

Lauren

Sunday afternoon

A Rainbow (in our backyard)

Buddha

Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared. ` Buddha

Addition update

A small montage of work on our addition to our family's house. Enjoy the film... A house is either a mass of boards and bricks or its something more endearing to the heart and soul of it's occupants. August 10 marks our 25th year here - this house is our home... a place of solace and peace - a place where my gazebo serves as my chapel... where rain, sun and snow have marked us with the sweet passing of time. 

modern turntable

Turn your old albums into mp3s or CD's... cool USP turntable. Now you can take your old records and bring them into the digital era! This one-of-a-kind USB Turntable is able to convert all your old vinyls to CDs, iPod, MP3 or any other digital files. To record your records to CD, all you need to do is simply plug this three-speed (33 1/3, 45, and 78 RPM) turntable right into your PC.

Gold Outlook

That's right... The rout on the dollar was on (recall yesterday, Wayne and Garth playing street hockey... Game On!) and this time... Not only did the currencies rally VS the dollar, gold and silver took part in the proceedings too! It's been a long time since we've seen this happen... For the most part, whenever the currencies (minus yen) rallied, gold would back off and vice versa... Not yesterday! For the first time in a long time, the negativity toward the dollar was front and center BIG TIME!

The currency rally began early in the morning and really gained steam as the day went on, and especially after the minutes of the FOMC meeting printed. You see, the Fed Heads had discussed that the economy is in a weakened condition, and the economic projections for 2009 and 2010 were actually revised lower.