PROJECT VOTE SMART....
Thanks to my astute older cousin, I have been introduced to Project Vote Smart via a manual titled "The Voter's Self-Defense Manual". It is a wealth of information about every Congressperson---Senators and Representatives---and contains pertinent information for voters who want to be fully informed about the voting record and other information about the candidates in this year's election. I went immediately to the two Senators---Barack Obama and John McCain---to peruse their voting records in the recent past. Sadly, both of them were absent on most of the key votes this year....too busy out selling themselves to the American Public.
This manual and the website (www.votesmart.org ) are rich sources for voters who are concerned with voting intelligently and being completely informed. I have only begun to study the manual and explore the website but it is apparent that the information is bi-partisan and not skewed in any way. The records of the Reps. and the Sens. speak for themselves... plus the website contains even more information about the individuals who are running for office. One interesting feature is the "Political Courage Test" results for each Congress person. This Political Courage test measures how willing the candidates are to share all their issue positions. Most I looked at were marked "Failed" meaning that they had not answered the questions, thus the conclusion that they were unwilling to share their positions. My cousin informed me last night that this "test" is being dropped since its results or non-results can be used in a most partisan way.
The manual is extremely well organized, going through the criteria for Senators first and then moving on to the same criteria for Representatives. There are 17 major issues from the recent past that are coded to show how the person voted on bills in the House or Senate. The issues are 1. Abortion issues 2. Agricultural issues 3. Appropriations 4.Budget, Spending and Taxes 4. Campaign Finance and Election issues 5, 6, 7,8 all deal with National Security issues 9, 10 and 11 deal with Immigration issues in separate bills 12. Energy issues 13. Family and Childrens' issues 14. Labor 15. Stem Cell Research 16. Trade issues 17. Transportation issues.
The manual is very complete in its coverage of pretty much every issue that has come before the US Congress in the recent past and gives a clear picture of the candidates' records on voting on them.
Instead of relying on the highly partisan TV and radio ads (a sure fire way to an election disaster) the Voters' Self Defense Manual gives an intelligent and fair appraisal of each candidates' votes, their biographies, their backgrounds and their education plus other factors I cannot recall at the moment....but the website is very extensive and I would highly recommend going there and doing research on your own candidates who are up for election in November 2008. The website will have a place where you can order your own paperback copy of the Voters' Self Defense Manual. It is a marvelous document and one that every voter who is concerned about casting a well informed vote should read and study.
There is also a a telephone number: 1-888- votesmart.I am sure you could order a copy of the VSD Manual there also.
Here are a few reviews of this document from leading news sources in the United States:"Project Votesmart would make the Founders weep with joy." (U.S. News and World Report. " Project Votesmart is so good that even the Federal Government recommends it." (NY Times) "At Project Votesmart you can see which candidates in your district have the guts to provide the public with a record of policy positions---and which ones bend to political consultants" (L.A. Times) "Project Votesmart jammed a wrench into the spin machine, the political and media apparatus that anoints candidates." (Atlanta Journal Constitution)
If I were you, I would investigate this valuable tool for intelligent voters.
Posted by: gsyvrud@aol.com on 8/19/2008 at 8:50 AM | Comments (0) | Permalink
OLYMPICS PUZZLE
We have been hooked on the Olympics coverage (even if it is on NBC...I have bones to pick with that particular channel) Watching Michael Phelps win his gold medals in the mens' swimming events has been a real highlight of this years' Summer Olympics. We also enjoyed the Gymnastics, especially the womens' events. Last go round of Summer Olympics the twin brothers(the Hamms) on the USA Olympic gymnastic team was kind of like watching Phelps succeed in this one. Too bad the Twins were injured and could not be on the mens' team. I just watched one of the events that is not what would be called a "high interest sport"----the team rowing in which the US won the gold medal. I really like some of the "off" sports like Fencing, Ping Pong, horse jumping, polo.... (haven't seen any yet because I cannot stay awake for the really late- at- night things) Finally saw a game of indoor court Volleyball...saw the US womens' team beat Poland earlier this afternoon.
The Olympics Puzzle is really not so hard to solve; Why are certain events shown in full on Prime Time? What I have noticed is that the mens' swimming events were always on Prime Time and so was the Womens' Beach Volleyball. That is not puzzle at all.....beach volleyball featuring bikini - clad young things is obvious....that attracts male viewers by the millions and probably not because they are entranced by the sport itself. You all know what entrances male viewers and womens' beach volleyball has the key ingredients!!! This past week Rush Limbaugh (the Lech) said he watched beach volleyball no matter who won; he did not really care WHO won!! That is probably why that sport is on Prime Time.Why for instance, do the mens' beach volleyball team not appear in skimpy Speedos? They are clad in big, long baggy shorts and tank tops...not very sexy huh??? It appears to me that the women who play beach volleyball allow themselves to be "used" for the purposes of viewers' preferences. Maybe I am wrong but I have not figured out why the women players cannot play in ordinary volleyball clothing while the mens' team does. "It is a puzzlement," as the King of Siam said in "Anna and the King of Siam".
I can see why womens' gymnasticss is a Prime Time feature too....cute shapely girls in really tight, somewhat revealing outfits(nice buns) that Gymnasts always wear. I remember the cute and bouncy Mary Lou Retton in her white gymastic outfit in 1984----white with some red stripes and some blue stars. I really liked the first outfits I saw in this Olympics...shiny red with a distinctive huge blue star outlined in white. I thought they were really classy and nicer than alot of the other gymnastic clothing on display. Shawn Johnson was this year's "cutie". But again, it appeals to male viewers more than female viewers and that must be the population that NBC goes after in their coverage.
I loved watching the womens' breastroke events in womens' swimming. It gave me an opportunity to once again revive the story about "Lena" who was the best breaststroker on the Norwegian Swim team. She had set records in Norway and had out-swum all her competition. Of course she was number 1 on the Norwegian Olympic swim team but when she got into the breaststroke events at the Olympics, she lost every race...came in last in fact. When she found out that the other girls were using their arms, she was furious but her protest was rejected and she had to go home without any medals. I told that to the two grandkids who are still with us and they "got it" immediately and laughed themselves silly. Our boy said "that would never work for the men breaststrokers"...he is no dummy at the age of 11.
I bet if the women swam the breaststroke, Lena-style, there would be a huge audience for Prime Time and most of them would be males. Am I right????? Or am I an Olde Crank??? (don't answer that one)
Posted by: gsyvrud@aol.com on 8/17/2008 at 7:34 PM | Comments (1) | Permalink
HARVEST MOON
Today I drove west on Highway 10 and saw the first harvested grainfield (for me). I know summer is getting very short. Later as I drove to I-94 on the southbound county 336, I saw three big combines in action, one following the other as they swathed and harvested the dead-ripe wheat in a big field north of I-94. The clouds of grain dust rose up into the air and I knew that allergy sufferers in the Valley are going to be sneezing, wheezing, coughing and wiping their watery eyes and noses for the next weeks to come as the harvest is completed. Of course, they are not done yet....grain harvest will be followed by the corn, soybeans and potato crops to be reaped with clouds of dust both from the soil and the crop itself. Sneeze City, for awhile yet.
Last night I looked out the window and saw a huge golden full moon and my first thought was "Harvest Moon!" Then I thought of the old song that goes like this: "Shine on, Shine on, Harvest Moon,up in the sky; I ain't had no lovin' since January, February, June or July....Snow time ain't no time to sit outdoors and spoon, so shine on, shine on Harvest Moon, for me and my gal".
The reason I say it is an OLD song is that the phrase...."sit outdoors and spoon" would not be understood by many of today's young generation...they have no idea what "spooning" is. It is the old fashioned term for holding hands, kissing, hugging and all the innocent things of young love in years long gone by. The young people of today would laugh at "spooning" outside or any place...they are far more advanced when it comes to showing affection!!!! Enough said.
Harvest time also takes me back in time to when I was very young---a preschooler in fact. Harvest did not mean combining...it meant threshing with the old threshing machines that looked like prehistoric dinosaurs spitting out golden straw from one end and spewing the grain into truck boxes on the other end. It meant teams of horses hitched up to hayracks with sturdy men driving the horses around fields picking up "shocks" of grain with their pitchforks and filling the hayrack with the bundled grain, ready to be "gobbled up" by the gaping maw of the threshing machine. It was a noisy affair, the threshing machine. Gears and cogs groaned and creaked and the well-oiled thresher would do its job during harvest, powered by a tractor with long canvas belts running between the tractor and the thresher. The threshing machine was not an independent machine at all---you had to have the tractor to run it.
My mother and I would spend harvest time out at my Mom's cousins' farm where Mom would help Agnes cook huge meals twice a day; bake bread, cakes, pies and cookies in a wood-burning range in an incredibly hot kitchen; they would prepare two lunches for morning and afternoon, and haul it out to where ever the men were working. Agnes would fire up their old Ford sedan and over the fields we'd go, bouncing over the rough ground with my Mom holding the big white enamel coffee pot, wrapped in towels, between her feet to keep it from spilling the sweet smelling egg coffee all over the floor of the Ford. In back with me, were two huge dishpans covered with white dishtowels; one was full of sandwiches...meat, egg salad or peanut butter; the other was full of fresh-baked cookies or sometimes there was a fresh-baked chocolate cake with brown sugar frosting (no cake mixes in those days) also covered with a white dish towel. Having morning and afternoon lunch in the field with the sweating men who were covered with grain dust and field dirt was a highlight of each of my Harvest Days. When the men came to the farmhouse for "Dinner" (noon) and Supper (evening) there was a wash bowl laid out for them on a table under a leafy tree with towels and soap at the ready. The water would get so dirty you could not see through it and sometimes it was replaced with warm clean water from the big reservoir in the wood stove. The men would come to the table, damp and mostly cleanon their necks, faces and hands...some of them would have washed their hair in the wash bowl so their hair would be sticking up in a spiky manner. They would pass the plates of fried chicken, mashed potatoes, gravy, corn on the cob, carrots, cole slaw or jello salad, fresh sliced bread or fresh hot buns slathered with butter and homemade jam or jelly, plates and bowls of homemade pickles...dills, sweets, watermelon or pickled beets. They would wash it all down with cold well water and more egg coffee, especially when the fresh apple pies were cut up for dessert. Sometimes the pie was pumpkin or a cherry or peach. Then the men would go outside and lie in the shade of the big tree for a noon nap. In about a half an hour, they would be up and climbing aboard their hayracks...the horses would have been fed and watered during the meal by ....someone... who took charge of the horses so they did not go hungry or thirsty either. You had to take good care of the horses or the harvest would come to a halt if they could not pull the hayracks back and forth to the threshing machine. At dusk I watched the procession of hayracks, teams and men leave the farmyard in the dusk----going home to sleep off their exhaustion of the day after feeding and watering their horses again, taking off the harnesses and giving the horses a time to sleep the night also. Morning would bring the same routine...hitch up and drive to Jack's farm to work on the harvest once again. Then later, the threshing rig would move on , with the men and the horses and hayrackcs to the next farm for more harvesting. Everyone helped each other harvest the grain in those days of fellowship and neighborliness. Good times, hard work... but good times of good food and honest work under the blazing sun of the harvest days.
I loved to stand in the grain truck and watch it fill up with oats or wheat or barley. One time one of my rubber boots came off and Cousin Jack found the boot and momentarily panicked thinking I was buried in the grain. Great relief to find me on the ground watching something else,but after that I was not allowed to stand in the grain truck and watch the golden grain pouring out of the spout on the threshing rig. I was, literally, "grounded".
Amazing what the sight of some combines rolling in a field of grain and the sight of a full Harvest Moon can bring back to memory. Soon the sunsets will be tinged with the grain dust in the air when Harvest is in full swing. The sunsets will be a brilliant red for a few days or weeks, and a member of my family will be miserable from the effects of the grain dust in the air.
Meanwhile I will be waiting for another Harvest Moon in September and later, the Hunter'sMoons in October and November. By then the fields will be stubble or chisel-plowed and the frost will shimmer on the cold nights in the white light of the full moon. It will bring memories of stories about Foxes Out On Chilly Nights baying at the Full Moon and making their way to a chicken house for Fox Mischief.
Full Moons can bring all sorts of memories and all sorts of imagination, especially if it comes on Halloween. I used to think I saw witches flying across the Full Moon then and the deliciousness of the pretense scared me silly. I still love to go out on Full Moon nights and watch the golden orb rise up above the horizon...first a red apparition that slowly changes to gold and finally to silver as the night advances. Now I am at a disadvantage...I fall asleep much too early to fully appreciate the Full Moon's glory.
Posted by: gsyvrud@aol.com on 8/16/2008 at 7:33 PM | Comments (2) | Permalink
SAYING GOODBYE TO BAILEY
Everyone who has owned and loved a dog or any other pet has gone through the grief of their dying. We, as a family, are now feeling that sadness for Beagle Bailey, our oldest son's family's beloved pet, who had to be "put down" yesterday due to kidney failure. My 3 granddaughters are devastated; the parents are feeling deep sadness for their dog and their sorrowing girls. All of us in the family are feeling it.
The three girls want Bailey to be buried on the farm beside other beloved pets already in our little pet cemetery at the bottom of one of our big hills. The graves of Freckles, Mac, Trudi, and Mikey the cat are already in place. A few springs past, some of the grandkids and I put silk flower sprays on all the graves so we can easily identify where they lie. Trudi has her own headstone, sent by her "grandmother" in Montana. Mikey and Mac have big rocks marking their graves. All of them have fading silk flowers (we have to replace those soon)
Does it sound dumb to care so much for pets that you maintain a little graveyard? Some of the more hard-hearted among us might judge it to be a form of silliness and admonish us for grieving the loss of pets. Most would not. Pets are a big part of our lives. Nursing homes would not have in-house dogs and cats if pets did not perform a valuable service. Older folks in these homes find the presence of a pet most comforting especially if they have had pets in their lives before entering their last years of life. Other public institutions have used pet dogs and cats for therapy for patients.
When I was a first grader and school rules were not so stringent, we had a classroom mascot named "Jiggs" who followed Dennis, his boy, to school each day. In the nice weather, Jiggs would wait outside all day but in the cold weather, our wonderful Miss MIckelson would let Jiggs come into the classroom where he would sleep away the school hours and wait patiently to return home with Dennis. We all loved Jiggs and he was a great classroom pet
that whole year. He surely did no harm in his role as first grade mascot. He did a lot of good.
I am not ashamed to admit that I grieved a lot when ever we lost one of our dogs or cats. Mac was a good friend for over 15 years and when his feebleness necessitated his euthanization, I cried for 6 weeks or longer every time I turned into our driveway at the end of my school day, and knew he would not be there to greet me. It took time to heal the sadness I experienced. It was pretty much the same for Freckles our first dog, gotten when our first two sons were still preschoolers. She lived to over 15 also and had to be "put down" finally when she could no longer get up on her own.
Pets are so loyal and loving to their owners. Dogs, especially, are super sensitive to their owner's feelings. I remember one time of great sadness when our dog would actually put his head on my lap knowing I was feeling deep sorrow. They attend to their people in wonderful ways. Our old dog Freckles seemed to go through her own grief when we lost "Annie" her companion. Freckles did not bark or make a sound for more than 6 months after Annie died.
Now it is our turn to feel sadness for our Bailey-Bopper, an exuberant Beagle in her good times who could stretch longer and farther than any dog I have known....especially if there was a sandwich on the edge of the kitchen counter. She stole my food more than once and somehow because she was so sweet, we could not get angry with her!!!! She was too cute. We are all going to miss Bailey but she will be with our other pets down the hill. The family is going to bring her ashes to the pet cemetery sometime in September.
Posted by: gsyvrud@aol.com on 8/14/2008 at 10:35 AM | Comments (7) | Permalink
FRED'S WEDDING
What a great day it was (yesterday). The wedding of Son # 3's long time friend, Fred, occurred and we were there to celebrate with his family and friends. The wedding was special because the couple are close to being 40 and this is Fred's first marriage. He has a ready- made family of two lovely step daughters, who love their new "Dad" in spite of their earlier resolve to "not like him at all". I think this is a typical reaction of kids who have spent many years with one parent and are totally bonded as a family. They resent any "outsider", male or female, who intrudes on their little secure family group consisting of children and a mother or a father. I have heard of kids resenting a marriage when they have only one parent; it must make them feel slightly insecure. But in this case the two daughters have grown to love Fred----and who wouldn't? He is a gentle, sincere, kind, loving, considerate mature man who we have known since he was a three- year old toddler and close friend of our three - year old toddler.
In those toddler days, a group of young moms created a play day for their little country bumpkin kids who had no neighbors and there was a group of 5 who got to know each other very well and remained friends throughout their 13 years of school together. Yesterday the five moms were reunited at a special table at the reception along with the "dads". All of us are now VERY mature grandparents but our memories of our little kids remain fresh and green in our minds. It was pure delight to be together at Fred's wedding and have a chance to talk again and catch up on our grown up families and grandkids.
Fred gave a most touching tribute to his parents; he is an "only" child and grew up in a household of adults.... parentswho gave him many things, including a love of jazz music and artistic things that many little kids never hear or see. Fred played his tenor sax with his jazz combo at the reception and told of how his Dad bought him his first saxophone at the tender age of 8 or 9... after which he began to play on the horn and tried to play along with his Dad's Glenn Miller band collection of old time big-disc records. He also described his Mom's playing piano by ear and having her accompany him in his early sax playing trials and errors. I had never had the opportunity to hear him play jazz improv. with any group and I was stunned by his talent and ease of playing. He was a real "Charley Parker". (not being a jazz afficianado myself, I hope that Charley Parker IS a sax player and not a drummer or some other instrumentalist...I know commenters would set me straight).
The outdoor wedding in a lovely gazebo on the NDSU campus was really delightful. The reception was such fun. My son had a blast meeting his good friends from el/hi years and they really caught up with each other on their current lives, their families and the fun they had when they were younger. All of them were such cute little boys and now they are all very handsome mature men turning 40 in the coming year. Granddaugher, K had a marvelous time with her Dad and enjoyed the company of his friends in a way I never thought possible. Her estimation of the friendships was that they must have had WAY more fun than she and her friends will ever have! They must have reviewed some really good stories about their pasts!!!
I have heard a few myself, and my personal favorite involves one of their teachers who could had a high-tone hearing loss. As students are wont to do---they hone in on teachers' weaknesses and one of the gang of 6 would utter high sqeaky sounds in the biology class taught by the teacher with the high-tone- hearing loss. The poor prof. could not hear the sounds and the kids in the class could... and were barely able to keep from falling out of their desks with hysterical laughter. Once... my son and the fellow who sat next to him, did NOT contain themselves and gave into helpless laughter at the high squeals emanating from the back of the classroom (they knew who was doing it which made it even funnier). The teacher turned from the black board and caught them laughing, came to the conclusion that they were laughing at HIM and immediately kicked them out of class and sent them to the Principal. The Principal asked why they were in the office and they told the truth. The Principal sent them back to class without as much as a reprimand and had a look on his face like he was trying not to laugh. The second best story I know is of the day one of the Gang set off a cherry bomb in the student commons; my son was a wall away in the library and said the explosion sounded like the Cannonade from the Overture of 1812 or else the beginning of WW 3 as it echoed off the cinder block walls of the school Commons. He suspected the one who had done it and was right... but nobody in that Commons Area ever was willing to "rat out" the Perpetrator who also would never confess to doing it. This led to total administrative overload and total frustration with the Class of 1987 who are still keeping the secret to this day. Kids!!!! They grow up and mature in spite of their former lives of crime and nonsense.
This bunch of 6 also created some early primitive videos with a huge old video camera and to this day, I swear some of those videos are better than anything you can watch on You - Tube today. They were a talented bunch of humorous kids who were sharper than tacks and possessed a humor equal to "Mad" magazine issues.
One of their teachers who retired this spring paid the Class of 1987 a high tribute when he said, in a retirement interview for the local paper, that the Class of 1987 were his most memorable class...due to their high numbers of true scholars, their abundant musical and artistic talent and their ability to think deeply about things and carry on a good discussion in class. (when they weren't shooting dumb videos or setting off cherry bombs)
I think Fred's wedding yesterday was better than a class reunion, not only for the good friends of such long standing----but it was fun for the parents who were there and watched the joyous times their maturing sons had , once again being together for just one short evening of fun and fellowship. The day will be long remembered by those who enjoyed their reunion, so much!
Posted by: gsyvrud@aol.com on 8/10/2008 at 4:15 PM | Comments (1) | Permalink