JabberWocky!

I was reading this morning how 4 states, Arkansas, Indiana, Nevada and Virginia have all adopted the Neutral Facial Expression law when it comes to getting your Driver’s License these days.

Now isn’t this going to be something? EVERYONE is always saying just how horrible their Drivers License photo’s look to begin with, in fact most say it looks like a mug shot, and NOW, they aren’t even going to be allowed to Smile in their Driver’s License Mug Shot!!

Well, I suppose most people Don’t Smile anyway when they are getting a Mug Shot taken, but there will probably be a lot more terrified Police Officers out there in these states when they ask people for their ID’s from now on!!!

Needless to say I am sure that a lot more states in America are going to follow suit and adopt this law also, so I suppose we should all get ready for some Worse Driver’s License photos in the future! And remember:

Don’t Say CHEESE!!

That’s all for me today I hope to see you back again soon and I am going to try to return from Hiatus more often also, I’m sorry for the long disappearance’s, but they can not be helped!

In the future it will probably read something like:

Democrat Barack Obama won the 2008 U.S. presidential election to become the 44th President of the United States and the first African-American to hold the highest office in the nation.

Making his running mate, Joe Biden, the 44th Vice President of the United States of course.

This piece of history was over 200 years in the making and they said it could never be done but president-elect Obama and millions upon millions of voters disagreeded and said “Yes We Can”…and of course they did.

Senator McCain conceded defeat after receiving only 156 electoral votes to president-elect Obama’s 338, (270 being the magic number to win).

I just finished listening to his first address to the nation as president-elect where he congratulated Senator McCain for a very well run race and in which he told Americans, (in short), that “change has come to America” and that the road will be long and steep but if we put aside our differences and all pull together that there is nothing we can not do and we can overcome any hardship…”Yes We Can”.

‘All things are possible’ address to the nation

In closing I would just like to say congratulations to president-elect Obama, his new Vice President Joe Biden and wish you Godspeed.

That’s all for me today and hope to see you back here again soon at…

In 1842: Abraham Lincoln married Lexington-born Mary Todd.

In 1918: Austria surrendered to the Allies.

In 1922: British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun in Luxor, Egypt.

In 1952: Dwight D. Eisenhower was elected president of the United States.

In 1979: Student followers of Ruhollah Khomeini stormed the U.S. Embassy in Tehran, taking hostages.

In 1995: Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin wass assassinated and…

William III, (King of England 1650), Will Rogers, (1879), Walter Cronkite, (1916) and Robert Mapplethorpe, (1946) were born.

And then comes today.

November 4, 2008, Election Day…as of tomorrow, will be yet another one for the history books. And what a day it will be.

Personally I think in years and even centuries to come today will be remembered by many as the day that a very special history was made.

It doesn’t matter who you vote for, nor who wins, (of course we all want our favorite candidate to win), the White House will see something that it has never seen before and I dare say, in the past, it was thought could never happen!

Yes, the White House will either see a Black American President or a White American Woman Vice President walking down it’s hallowed halls regularly…who would have thought???!!! Certainly no one or not many a short century ago!

This is going to be a very special election in America’s history and I hope that each and every one of you make a special effort to be a Part of this day and not just a bystander!

I was sitting in my home a couple of days ago listening to the news and heard that over 20 million American’s had voted already. That alone tells you that people are very interested in this election, (as should be every election).

So go on, grab your coat and walk, run, bicycle, unicycle, bus, train, tram, sidecar, metro, kayak, drive or any other transportation you can think of and get to those polls before they close tonight!

I’m sure you’ll be glad you did because no matter what they say…YOUR VOTE DOES COUNT!!

I would like to thank MSN encarta for all of the helpful historical facts used in this post.

That’s all for me today, hope to see you back here again soon at…

I wonder if Super Tuesday will hold any Super Surprises this time?

In the United States, Super Tuesday commonly refers to the Tuesday in early February or March of a presidential election year when the greatest number of states hold primary elections to select delegates to national conventions at which each party’s presidential candidates are officially nominated. More delegates can be won on Super Tuesday than on any other single day of the primary calendar, and accordingly, candidates seeking the presidency traditionally must do well on this day to secure their party’s nomination.
WikipediA

And guess what today is? You guessed it…Super Tuesday!

I often wonder how many people will show up to the polls when their voting day comes along. Unfortunately, in this day and time a great many do not.

Many people feel that their vote won’t count anyway so why bother getting out of bed, running by before work, taking off work or going after work to vote?

There are millions of reasons for not voting and on the flip side of the coin there are many more millions of reason for voting.

One thought for voting is that people living in the United States have the opportunity to vote after they turn 18, it is a constitutional right for all Americans and/or Naturalized citizens to get out and let their voice be heard, (with a very few exceptions…but then again there are exceptions to every rule).

Think of all of the people living in certain other countries that have never had that privilege and never will have.

Can you imagine living under a regime or dictatorship and not being able to have a say? What a terrible waste that would be!

I’ve always voted, since I’ve turned 18 and most people that I know vote also. Sometimes we joke that we will only cancel out each others vote because we know the other person is going to vote differently than us but truth be known, we would be voting anyway…so that our voices can be heard.

I would hate to think that my candidate lost just because I didn’t vote and that I would have to live under the Presidency of someone that I didn’t believe in just because I didn’t make the effort to get up and get out to the polls when it came my turn to vote.

I don’t live in the United States any more, haven’t for many years and don’t plan on moving back to live again, but I still make it a point to go half way across the country to cast my ballot. And why? Because I’m an American by birth and it’s my birth right and I want to think that I am trying to make the best decision that I can for all of my millions of brothers and sisters that do live in America.

So in closing today, it doesn’t matter what the reason is that you get out and vote when it comes your turn, what matters is, that you do!!

That’s it for me today! Get out there and vote if it’s your turn and if it’s not, then vote when it is and if your turn has already passed, then I hope you voted when it was your turn! It will make you feel better I promise you both as an American and as a human being!

See you back tomorrow for more…

From 1934 – 1963 “The Rock”, (Alcatraz Island), was a Federal and Military prison that held some of the most infamous prisoners in the United States, Al Capone and George “Machine Gun” Kelly to name only a couple.

In the autumn of 1969, 6 years after the close of the prison, thousands of American Indians occupied the abandoned remains of Alcatraz for nearly eighteen months, reclaiming it as Indian land and demanding fairness and respect for Indian peoples.

It allures visitors all over the world, in fact there were 1.4 million visitors to Alcatraz last year alone. Alcatraz and Fisherman’s Wharf are among the top tourist attractions in San Francisco, in fact it is very difficult to get tickets to see The Rock as it is almost always sold out.

San Franciscans are voting for or against Proposition C, a measure to put on the ballot to Adopt a Policy that the City Acquire Alcatraz Island to Make it a Global Peace Center, a sort of spiritual mecca if you will.

Argument in support of Proposition C is that a Global Peace Center will attract more tourist trade than the old prison, because a Global Peace Center sends out a better message than an old, broken down, morbid prison, but others argue that San Francisco has more important priorities than worry about tearing down The Rock and one politician against demolishing it has said that it’s “crazy” because it’s not good for San Francisco, business or the citizens.

Even though it is being voted on by San Franciscans it is ultimately not their decision because it is Federally owned, the National Park Service has been responsible for it’s upkeep, and will continue to be, until “an act of Congress” changes that.

If it is torn down it’s not quite clear now where the millions of dollars needed to rebuild the center will come from…I have some ideas, don’t you?

A Visit to Alcatraz Island

That’s all for me today and hope to see you back again tomorrow for more…

Ahhhh, those politicians, you gotta love ‘em! Seems like we love to hate them, love to make fun of them and love make them the butt of all of our jokes, especially at election time, and why?

Because they are always going on about how they would do things differently, seems like they all want to “Change” things. Trouble is, will they in fact change things and more importantly will it be for the better or for the worse??

So today why don’t we see them really singing like birds about:

Cha Cha Change!

That’s it for me this today and this week! Have a great one and see you back again on Monday for some more…

Well it’s 5:12 in the morning here in Holland and although I had another post prepared for today and because I do not generally discuss politics or religion I thought that this was not actually a discussion but facts!

It seems that Senator John McCain has come out the victor for the Republicans in New Hampshire and even though it was so close until now, Senator Hillary Clinton has won for the Democrats also in New Hampshire.

It seems as though Hillary had a harder time of it. On CNN one reporter called her the “Come Back Gal”.

While I obviously won’t tell you who I am voting for lets just say it is one of tonights winners!

I Sally Annied over to USA Today and found a page full of political videos that you may find interesting:

U.S.A. Today Political Videos

That’s all for me today, hope to see you back again tomorrow with my original post from today here at…

Well I suppose if you are reading this today then you survived the ghouls and goblins of yesterday and you were also not possessed by one of the “undead”…or were you???

So what about today? Well, it’s All Saints Day aka All Hallow or Hallowmas. This is the a holy day of the Church in which many people are honored on one day, it is to honor all Saints, known and unknown.

Many Saints are honored on specific days but those are the very well known ones. Some Saints are unknown, forgotten or not given much to be honored for to begin with.

All Saints Day is tied with the concept of the Communion of Saints. Catholic and Orthodox Christians believe that the Saints of God are as alive as we are and are constantly interceding on our behalf. The Saints are not divine, omnipresent or omniscient.

There are thousands of canonized Saints, that are officially recognized by the Church as holy men and women worthy of imitation. Miracles have been associated with these people.

There are saints for Everything! For instance, did you know that St. Vitus is the patron saint against oversleeping? If you are wondering why there would be a patron saint of oversleeping it is because the Church has something meaningful for every area of our human lives.

A few of the leeser known Saints that I have found were:

• St Hilarion, Basket-Makers
• St. Hubert, Dog Bites
• St. Joseph, Happy Death
• St. Patrick, Snake Bite
• St. James, Tanners
• Thomas, Apostle, Quantity Surveyors

As you can see there truly is a Saint for any occasion!

That’s all for me today and this week! Don’t forget to stop by tomorrow when HDW will be here with his next post on his series of Art and Design only here at…

Karl Rove, George W’s longtime political adviser, resigned as White House deputy chief of staff on Aug. 31, and returned to Texas, marking a turning point for the Bush presidency. Mr. Rove was a driving force and one of the White House’s most polarizing figures.

When George W. made the formal announcement, appearing grim-faced on the White House South Lawn with Mr. Rove at his side, he said: “Karl Rove is moving on down the road, we’ve been friends for a long time and we’re still going to be friends… I’ll be on the road behind you here in a bit”.

You could tell that George W. took it hard, loosing someone that you have been close to for so long has that effect on us.

Sometimes behind closed doors we have a chance to really express our feelings, and here’s your chance to see George W. as you’ve never seen him before, giving his tribute to Mr. Rove, their relationship and how it was:

Against All Odds

Well, that’s it for me today and this week! Check back tomorrow when HDW writes is next post in his series on Art and Design only here at…