Irene still on the move up the East Coast.

Angelina!!!

Saw this cloud formation in the Arizona desert on the way home from Omaha last week.  Does anyone else see a dragon besides me??

Friday I rode my mountain bike from Anaheim Stadium to the Huntington Beach Pier and back. It was cool and breezy at the beach, but pretty clear. When I got back to the stadium it was in the high 90's.

On the ride I found what appears to be some pagan graffiti. No sign of any sacrifices though.

The drive home from the stadium took one hour and 45 minutes because of the Friday afternoon traffic. The temperature reached 103 by the time I got home.

Happy Birthday wishes go out to Sean Connery who turns 81 years old today. He is one of my wife's faves.

Packing 115 mph winds, Hurricane Irene is headed for the east coast of the United States.

Richard Dawkins, author and evolutionary biologist, on the presidential election process;

Any other organization -- a big corporation, say, or a university, or a learned society -- when seeking a new leader, will go to immense trouble over the choice. The CV's of candidates and their portfolios of relevant experience are meticulously scrutinized, their publications are read by a learned committee, references are taken up and scrupulously discussed, the candidates are subjected to rigorous interviews and vetting procedures. Mistakes are still made, but not through lack of serious effort.

The population of the United States is more than 300 million and it includes some of the best and brightest that the human species has to offer, probably more so than any other country in the world. There is surely something wrong with a system for choosing a leader when, given a pool of such talent and a process that occupies more than a year and consumes billions of dollars, what rises to the top of the heap is George W. Bush. Or when the likes of Rick Perry or Michelle Bachmann or Sarah Palin can be mentioned as even remote possibilities. 

You can read the entire article at:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/on-faith/post/attention-governor-perry-evolution-is-a-fact/2011/08/23/gIQAuIFUYJ_blog.html

It does make you stop and think.  Many of our "best and brightest" want nothing to do with politics. 

As you know atheists have been putting up billboards lately. Recently in Ohio, the Freedom From Religion Foundation put up several billboards as part of their "Out of the Closet" campaign.

Apparently the McElroy Road Church of Christ decided to put up the above billboard in response. I don't think it conveys the message they had hoped for and in fact seems to put forward the atheist's message. In bold letters across the top is says, "THERE IS NO GOD."  The atheist message.  Then on the second line, it says, "don't believe everything you hear."  A skeptics mantra. 

Thank you McElroy Road Church of Christ for promoting the atheist ideals.

In case you wondered, the 5.8 earthquake yesterday in Washington D.C. was caused by homosexuals.

In a video posted to YouTube, Rabbi Levin asserted that "one of the reasons God brings earthquakes to the world is because of the transgressions of homosexuality."

That according to Yehuda Levin, who is a Rabbi and founder of the Congregation Mevakshei Hashem (Those Who Seek the Lord) Synagogue in Brooklyn, New York. Levin is described as a vocal religious conservative who opposes gay rights and abortion.

Hmm!!! Who Knew???

Happy Birthday wishes to Barbara Jean Morehead, aka Barbara Eden, aka Jeannie, of the long running comedy series, "I Dream of Jeannie." Barbara turns 77 years young today.

I became re-acquainted with my mountain bike Sunday. I rode 20 miles in and around my neighborhood. The weather was clear and cool.

I wish I had taken my bike to Omaha as there were several cool places to ride including a park near the college and a bike path that ran along the Missouri River. 

The Pentagon confirmed that 14 American servicemen were killed in Afghanistan last week. This brings the total number of servicemen killed in America's on-going wars  to 4,792 in Iraq and 2,684 in Afghanistan.

Over 7,000 American servicemen!!  What a waste of life.  When will enough be enough??

Interestingly enough, the Puritans did in fact build their "city on a hill."  It was in the area now known as Boston, Mass.  The Puritans fled England to avoid persecution from the state run Anglican Church. The Puritans likened themselves to the Jews fleeing Egypt with Moses. 

The Puritans required that you have to be a white male member of their church (Freemen) before you could vote or hold office.  They were known to disagree vehemently with the Quakers and hung Quaker Mary Dyer who had been banned from the city several times for proselytizing. They also banned the celebration of Christmas in Boston from 1659 to 1681.

Aug. 18, 2011
Central Florida

I wrote before about Florida Governor Rick Scott wanting to test welfare recipients for drugs before granting them welfare benefits. An investigation by wftv.com9 has shown that the state of Florida is losing money on the program.

On July 1st, Florida began requiring a clean drug test before granting assistance to needy families. The law required that the applicants had to pay $30 - $35 for the test out of their own pocket, which would be refunded if the test came back clean. So far 40 applicants have taken the test with two failing the test. One of the two tests is being appealed. The state of Florida has refunded $1,140 to the applicants while saving $240 a month for the two applicants.

Derek Brett of the ACLU said, "we have a diminishing amount of returns on our tax dollars. Do we want our governor throwing our precious tax dollars into a program that already been proven not to work?"

When I googled Gov. Rick Scott for a photo, I found another article appearing in the Palm Beach Post that states that Gov. Scott owned a chain of 32 urgent care clinics throughout Florida named Solantic. One of the main things these clinics do is drug testing.   I also learned that Gov. Scott issued an executive order for mandatory drug testing for prospective state hires and random testing for current employees.

Before Gov. Scott ran for governor, he divested his interest in the company to his wife. Well that moves the money from the family now doesn't it???  Sounds like a conflict of interest to me.

I made it home from my trip to Omaha, NE, Thursday evening in one piece. I drove 753 miles, from Albuquerque, NM, to home in about 12 hours. In all I traveled a little over 3800 miles thru nine states.

I had a great trip, but as always, its good to be home and sleep in my own bed. I have a few more photos to share in the next few days.

I saw this four-story cross on the side of the freeway outside of Amarillo, Texas, on my way home this week.  I guess size does matter in Texas or everything is bigger in Texas.  Take your choice.

Why does this continue to happen??

I'm sure you've all heard about the stage collapsing at the Indiana State Fair because of high winds last weekend. Five people were killed and 40 injured.

A related story that isn't getting as much attention involves one of the fatalities. Christina Santiago, manager of programing for the Lesbian Community Care Project at Chicago's Howard Brown Health Center, was one of those killed. Her partner, Alisha Brennon, was also injured.

The Marion County coroner's office is refusing to release Santiago's body to her partner. The office cited the Defense of Marriage Act which allows states to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. Indiana state law out laws same-sex marriages.

Since Brennon is not recognized at the next-of-kin, she is working with her partner's aunt to pick up the body and make funeral arrangements. 

How sad is that!!

This is Jennifer McCreight, who describes herself as "a liberal, geeky, nerdy, scientific, perverted feminist atheist who recently escaped Indiana for Seattle."  More seriously, Jennifer is a graduate of Purdue University with a double major in genetics and evolution and a minor in psychology.  She is currently doing research in an ecological genetics lab and will be attending the University of Washington to get her PhD in genome sciences.

Jennifer was one of the speakers at the hunanist/freethinkers conference I attended in Omaha, NE. The topic for her presentation was "How Religion Treats Women." She is the author of the blog www.blaghag.com.  Her presentation was quite interesting.  Check out her blog.

Happy Birthday wishes go out to President Bill Clinton who turns 65 years old today.   Clinton was the 42nd President.

President Clinton with his wife Hillary and daughter Chelsea.

Karen and I went to President Clinton's campaign stop in Ontario when he was running for president.  It was terribly hot that day, and like most campaign stops, he was running late.  He was a good speaker.  I voted for President Clinton.

This shot is from my motel room window. Perhaps I'll see some rain this evening. I'm waiting for Charm and Rob to pick me up for dinner.  I managed to get in about an hour nap this afternoon.