As Cheyne Dougan rounded the corner at Clarksville High School, he saw three students on the floor moaning and crying.  In a split-second, two more ran out of a nearby classroom. "He's got a gun," one shouted as Dougan approached with his pistol drawn. Inside, he found one student holding another at gunpoint.  Dougan aimed and fired three rounds at the gunman. 

 

Preparing for such scenarios has become common for police after a school shooting in Connecticut last December left 20 children and six teachers dead. But Dougan is no policeman. He's the assistant principal of this school in Arkansas, and when classes resume in August, he will walk the halls with a 9 mm handgun.

Dougan is among more than 20 teachers, administrators and other school employees in this town who will carry concealed weapons throughout the school day, making use of a little-known Arkansas law that allows licensed, armed security guards on campus. After undergoing 53 hours of training, Dougan and other teachers at the school will be considered guards.

This is a very very bad idea.  I hope none of those teachers or administrators ever have to fire their weapon.

McDonald's just opened their 34,492nd restaurant in Vietnam. The McDonald's shown above is the second restaurant they built in Downey, Califorina.  It is the longest surviving McDonald's today.

In 1937, Patrick McDonald opened "The Airdrome", a food stand, on Huntington Drive (Route 66) near the Monrovia Airport in Monvrovia, California  Hamburgers were ten cents, and all-you-can-drink orange juice was five cents. In 1940, his two sons, Maurice and Richard ("Mac" and " Dick"), moved the entire building 40 miles (64 km) east, to West 14th and 1398 North E Streets in San Bernardino, California. The restaurant was renamed "McDonald's Bar-B-Q" and served twenty five barbecued items on their menu.

In October 1948, after the McDonald brothers realized that most of their profits came from selling hamburgers, they closed down their successful carhop drive-in to establish a streamlined system with a simple menu of just hamburgers, cheeseburgers, french fries, shakes, soft drinks, and apple pie. The carhops were eliminated to make McDonald's a self-serve operation. Mac and Dick McDonald had taken great care in setting up their kitchen like an assembly line to ensure maximum efficiency. The restaurant's name was again changed, this time to simply "McDonald's," and reopened its doors on December 12, 1948. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_McDonald's

 Ah.  Bench seats!!!!

 

The weather got to my mail box support again and I had to replace it.  This time I used a plastic fence post instead of wood.  I hope the plastic will last longer than the wood.  It only took me a week and 6-7 trips to Home Depot to complete this project.  Those of you who know me know I'm not much of a handyman. 

There has been lots of humidity in SoCal the last couple of weeks. Along with the humidity come the clouds that produced the sunset shown below.  This photo was taken from my front porch.
 

I decided to get in a bike ride on Friday.  I drove thru a few sprinkles on the way to Fairmont Park in Riverside where I park for my rides.  As you can see from the photo below, it was a tad damp when I got to the park.  But I thought, "soldier on!!"

The first 12 miles of my ride was accompanied by steady sprinkles and an occasional light shower.  I was getting as wet from the outside as from the inside of my clothes.  When I turned around, the rain stopped and the sun came out.  My shirt took the brunt of the spray from my tires, both front and back. It was nice and cool when it was raining and got a bit sticky when the sun came out and the temps rose. 

Saw my usual assortment of squirrels and rabbits, and a brown coyotee near the park.  I haven't seen any snakes in awhile. 

Happy Birthday to Helen Mirren, one of my favorite nudists, who turned 68 years young on Saturday.

My son Josh and I went to the Angels - Twins baseball game Wednesday.  It was a 12:30 business person's special.  There were a ton of school groups with kids in their matching  T-shirts.  It was warm, but luckily our seats were in the shade the entire game. 

The Angels scored one run in the first inning, and that was the only run of the game.  Quite a pitchers duel. 

Me either!!!

Parents who visited the North Dakota State Fair last weekend were outraged to find their children had been given squishy toy fetuses without their permission, Jezebel reported.

“I shouldn’t have to explain to five and six-year olds what abortion is at a family event. I doubt these people would be allowed to hand out condoms to little kids. But it’s okay to talk to them about abortion without my permission?” mother Amber Mendez told Jezebel.

The toy fetuses were handed out at the fairgrounds by Minot Right to Life. The toys are manufactured by Heritage House, which claims its product “is the most realistic fetal model ever developed.” The local pro-life group also handed out pamphlets that detailed each week of a fetal development along with the toys. http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2013/07/24/north-dakota-pro-life-group-hands-out-creepy-toy-fetuses-to-kids-at-state-fair/

How sad is that???

A sentiment often voiced by my sons!!!

BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A federal judge has temporarily blocked a new North Dakota law that bans abortion when a fetal heartbeat is detected — as early as six weeks into pregnancy. [...]

“There is no question that (the North Dakota law) is in direct contradiction to a litany of United States Supreme Court cases addressing restraints on abortion,” Hovland wrote. ” (It) is clearly an invalid and unconstitutional law based on the United States Supreme Court precedent in Roe v. Wade from 1973 … and the progeny of cases that have followed.”

As you may know, several republican state legislators have passed severe abortion laws in contradiction of Roe v Wade.  Let's hope this is the first of many judicial decisions that battle back against the the rights's attack on abortion specifically and women's rights overall. 

 

That remindes me, I need a new book.